Social Anthropology
Question Bank
Course Introduction
Social Anthropology explores the diverse ways in which human societies organize themselves, develop cultural beliefs, and interact within various social frameworks. Through comparative analysis, students study kinship, religion, politics, economics, and language, examining how these elements shape identities, social structures, and daily life. The course emphasizes fieldwork, ethnographic methods, and theoretical approaches that help explain similarities and differences among cultures across the globe, fostering an understanding of both traditional and contemporary social issues.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology A Global Perspective 8th Edition by Raymond Scupin
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
18 Chapters
1138 Verified Questions
1138 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/3935
Chapter 1: Introduction to Anthropology
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78464
Sample Questions
Q1) A study of the garbage people throw away may reveal more about their lifestyles than surveys and interviews because:
A) Garbage is easier to analyze than survey data.
B) People will often lie about their bad habits.
C) Fieldwork in garbage dumps is less expensive.
D) Surveys and interviews are done by sociologists.
Answer: B
Q2) The study of life at plantations in the southern U.S. would be called "classical archaeology."
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) The material products of former societies are known as:
A) artifacts
B) fossils
C) legacies
D) antiquaries
Answer: A
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 3
Chapter 2: Human Evolution
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78463
Sample Questions
Q1) One factor that contributed to the demise (extinction) of the Neandertals was the fact that dinosaur hunting was extremely dangerous and many individuals were killed in the pursuit of these animals.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) On any continent, the people living nearest the equator are the most likely to have dark skin.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Upper Paleolithic people gathered plants to supplement their food resources.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) Upper Paleolithic artisans made stone tools in distinctive styles that vary from region to region.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Page 4
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 3: Culture
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
69 Verified Questions
69 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78462
Sample Questions
Q1) Trial-and-error learning, in which an organism adjusts its behavior on the basis of direct experience, is also referred to as __________.
A) conditioning
B) higher education
C) instinct
D) situational learning
Answer: D
Q2) There are a number of different ways one can learn things. Both humans and other animals learn by trial-and-error (what is called situational learning) and by social learning. The form of learning that is uniquely human and provides the basis for the capacity for culture is known as __________.
A) moment learning
B) critical learning
C) symbolic learning
D) crux learning
E) inventive learning
Answer: C
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 5
Chapter 4: The Process of Enculturation: Psychological and Cognitive Anthropology
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
76 Verified Questions
76 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78461
Sample Questions
Q1) Studies have shown that Japanese children are encouraged during childhood to lose their sense of individuality in favor of group identity.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In Malaysia, Indonesia, and parts of the Philippines there is a psychological disorder characterized by: 1) a period of brooding over a perceived insult, 2) wild, aggressive, and random acts of rage and violence, and 3) prolonged exhaustion and amnesia. This culture-specific condition is known as:
A) windigo
B) pibloktoq
C) amok
D) echolalia
Q3) Personality is affected by enculturation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Culture allows humans to adjust to a wide range of physical environments.
A)True
B)False
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 6
Chapter 5: Language
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
56 Verified Questions
56 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78460
Sample Questions
Q1) The words "boy" and "girl" are:
A) bound phonemes
B) bound morphemes
C) free morphemes
D) bound phones
E) free kinesics
Q2) Glottochronology is the study of the interrelationships among the vocal tract, glottis, larynx, and pharynx in the production of sound.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is displacement?
A) a major linguistic characteristic of all primate call systems
B) a moral precept that keeps humans from lying and making false promises
C) acculturation; when a less technologically advanced culture forces a more technologically advanced complex culture to move to a new location
D) a dialect spoken by both the Nootkan and Bantu so they can consummate trade
E) the human linguistic ability to refer to things, persons, and events removed in time and space
Q4) Would it be possible to have a culture without a language?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
57 Verified Questions
57 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78459
Sample Questions
Q1) The study of culture through interpretation of the meaning of values, beliefs, and symbols of a society is a theoretical orientation called anthropology.
A) symbolic
B) sociobiological
C) sedentary
D) systemic
E) sessile
Q2) Discuss the principal effects that the writings of Karl Marx have had on anthropological theory. Do you think that Marxist anthropology is the same as Communist anthropology? Why or why not?
Q3) Compare and contrast the perspectives of the symbolic anthropologists with the Marxists and the cultural materialists.
Q4) The opposite of cultural relativism is:
A) biological relativism
B) ethnocentrism
C) societal demagoguery
D) biological realism
E) historical particularism
Q5) How would a cultural materialist explain why Muslims don't eat pork?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 8
Chapter 7: Analyzing Sociocultural Systems
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
57 Verified Questions
57 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78458
Sample Questions
Q1) Do you think that technology is the primary and basic source of sociocultural change? Do values play any role in sociocultural change?
Q2) From a female perspective, you will be a daughter and possibly a mother and wife. As such, you assume what are called roles that correspond to these different status positions.
A) family
B) social
C) gender
D) temporary
E) ascribed
Q3) Let us assume that the United States has just invaded Haiti and installed a new government on the island. Will everyone in Haiti consider the new government to be a legitimate one or an illegitimate one? Why or why not?
Q4) Polyandry is the marriage of two women to two men.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are some of the research goals of demographic anthropologists as they relate to hunter-gatherer studies? Why is a demographic perspective important in anthropological research?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 9
Chapter 8: Band Societies
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78457
Sample Questions
Q1) A cross cousin is the offspring of one's father's sister or one's mother's brother.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Semang of Malaysia, who hunt with blowguns, get most of their meat from:
A) elephants and buffalo
B) kangaroos and the ostrich-like emu
C) fish and other small game
D) monkeys and crocodiles
Q3) In contrast to Paleolithic hunting-and-gathering societies, contemporary band societies exist only in:
A) marginal environments
B) rich environments
C) tropical forests
D) deserts and savannas
Q4) Infanticide is how young children, especially infants, learn about their own culture.
A)True
B)False
Q5) If you were a hunter-gatherer, where would you prefer to live and why?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 10
Chapter 9: Tribes
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
68 Verified Questions
68 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78456
Sample Questions
Q1) "Since kinship, marriage, and residence rules are ideal rules, they can never be violated or changed." Comment on this quote.
Q2) Nuer subsistence, like that of many other pastoral peoples:
A) is based primarily on the consumption of meat products
B) is based solely on cattle and pigs
C) depends heavily upon the blood and milk of their animals
D) is largely based on crops and foraging, with herding only contributing a small portion to the diet
Q3) Martin and Voorhies found that since women contribute less to cultivation activities than men, their status is always lower than the men's status.
A)True
B)False
Q4) One of the ways that "big men" in Melanesia can gain the allegiance of followers is to:
A) impress them by sponsoring a feast of pig meat from his family's herd
B) conquer them in battle, take them captive, and then provide them with freedom
C) demonstrate sacred knowledge by reciting long epic poems about ocean voyages
D) provide them with gifts of sheep, goats, and heavy wool textiles
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 11
Chapter 10: Chiefdoms
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
69 Verified Questions
69 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78455
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is most likely to be interpreted by an archaeologist as evidence for the existence of a chiefdom society?
A) remains from intensive shellfish collecting, fishing, and the hunting of sea mammals
B) agricultural implements such as grinding stones and digging sticks
C) fragments of pottery decorated with intricate designs
D) foundations of one house larger than the rest in a given community
Q2) Aside from the prestige factors associated with the potlatch among the Northwest Coast Indians, what other functions did these ceremonies have, and what were the implications?
Q3) What was the role of supernatural forces in legitimizing the power of the chief? Illustrate your answer with specific concepts from ethnographic case studies.
Q4) Unlike the political organization of tribes and bands, chiefdom political structures were well-defined, corporate entities.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What role did kinship and descent play in the social structure of a chiefdom?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 12
Chapter 11: Agricultural States
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78454
Sample Questions
Q1) Except among the elite, polygyny was rare in agricultural states.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to Morton Fried, codified laws reinforce a system of inequity by keeping peasants subordinate while allowing those in power to have access to scarce resources. Service provides a different perspective. What is Service's perspective?
Q3) Since individualistic religious practices and beliefs were deemed as threatening to the state, one of the major functions of priests was to standardize religious beliefs and practices for the society.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The extended family was the predominant form of family in most agricultural states. A)True B)False
Q5) What theories account for the structural similarities between the Egyptian pyramids and those in Mesoamerica?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 13
Chapter 12: Industrial States
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
59 Verified Questions
59 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78453
Sample Questions
Q1) Divorce rates tend to be lower in industrial societies than in preindustrial societies.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A primary feature that separates an industrial society from a preindustrial society is:
A) All kinship networks, such as kindreds, extended families, lineages, and clans, have been replaced with corporations, businesses, and schools.
B) Most productive labor in industrial societies involves factory and office work rather than agricultural or foraging activities.
C) Social stratification decreases, causing a more egalitarian society to develop within industrial states.
D) A reduction in warfare, conflict, and feuding occurs in industrial states based on territory.
Q3) In all industrial states, the increase in secularization has caused religion to disappear and be replaced by humanism.
A)True
B)False
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 14
Chapter 13: Globalization, Culture, and Indigenous Societies
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
70 Verified Questions
70 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78452
Sample Questions
Q1) The deculturation of indigenous societies results in the loss of indigenous knowledge. A)True
B)False
Q2) The adoption of the shotgun by Yanomamö hunters has resulted in:
A) depletion of game animals from rainforest habitats
B) protein surpluses in the Yanomamö diet
C) reduction of hunting ranges
D) independence from a Western cash economy
Q3) U.S. plantation owners responded to the decline in native Hawaiian populations through infectious diseases by:
A) creating indigenous preserves and reservations
B) importing labor from China, Japan, and the Philippines
C) providing universal health care
D) relocating native Hawaiians to reservations in South Dakota
Q4) Given a choice between modernization theory and dependency theory, which model do you prefer to explain the existence of vast inequities between countries of the First World and the Third World? What are the strengths of the model you prefer? What are its weaknesses?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 15
Chapter 14: Globalization in Latin America, africa, and the Caribbean
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78451
Sample Questions
Q1) The principal source of labor on plantations in the Caribbean was:
A) African slaves
B) Spanish and Portuguese colonists
C) Native American wage labor
D) missionaries and their families
Q2) The most serious health problem faced by indigenous populations of the New World in the 16th century was:
A) infectious disease
B) malnutrition
C) alcoholism
D) mental illness
Q3) As a result of problems with debt repayment, the International Monetary fund required the Mexican government to cut back on:
A) social services
B) manufacturing
C) military spending
D) petroleum exports
Q4) The French were the first Europeans to engage in slave trade in West Africa.
A)True
B)False
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 16
Chapter 15: Globalization in the Middle East and Asia
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
62 Verified Questions
62 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78450
Sample Questions
Q1) In spite of industrialization, farming communities in Egypt like Kafr el-Elow have rejected Western clothing, housing styles, and manufactured goods.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Muhammad, the last prophet of Islam, was born in A.D. 570 in the city of:
A) Jerusalem
B) Babylon
C) Cairo
D) Mecca
Q3) The term purdah refers to:
A) the idea of physical attractiveness and sensuality
B) the wearing of the veil and forced seclusion of Muslim women
C) the concept of the traditional extended family
D) bridewealth paid in traditional Islamic families
Q4) In the Arab world, the hamula is:
A) an idealized, patrilineal descent group
B) a traditional village
C) a group of nomads who travel together
D) an Islamic rite of passage
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 17
Chapter 16: Race and Ethnicity
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
51 Verified Questions
51 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78449
Sample Questions
Q1) "Scientific racism" was used to:
A) implement multicultural education
B) justify the annihilation of millions of Jews
C) identify human genetic codes
D) categorize norms, values, and mores
Q2) The model of ethnicity in which boundary markers such as language, clothing, or other traits are not based on deeply-rooted, enduring connections to an ethnic identity is called the:
A) ethnogenesis model
B) biological assimilation model
C) circumstantialist model
D) primordialist model
Q3) Racist views during World War II were responsible for:
A) arrest of Communist Party members
B) renaming of towns with German names
C) deportation of Italian Americans
D) internment of Japanese Americans
Q4) Why do many Asian Americans resent being labeled the "model minority"? Do you think this stereotype is unfair? Why or why not?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 18
Chapter 17: Contemporary Global Trends
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
56 Verified Questions
56 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78448
Sample Questions
Q1) In China, the government penalizes urban couples who have more than one child.
A)True
B)False
Q2) If the world economy becomes completely integrated, will the nations of the world become similar in terms of cultural values, ideals, and mores? Will there be a world culture and world government?
Q3) Demographic-transition theory assumes a close connection between:
A) fertility/mortality rates and socioeconomic development
B) birth control methods and infant mortality
C) sustainable development and foreign investment by multinational corporations
D) advanced, industrial societies and poor, preindustrial societies
Q4) Anthropologist Marvin Harris has suggested that the entire fabric of society in the former Soviet Union was undermined by:
A) Marxist theories of social organization
B) influence from the cultures of the U.S. and Europe
C) widespread racial prejudice and ethnic conflict
D) deficiencies in economic infrastructure
Q5) Why is there concern over the loss of biodiversity?
Q6) What are perestroika and glasnost?
Page 19
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 18: Applied Anthropology
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
51 Verified Questions
51 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/78447
Sample Questions
Q1) When an archaeological site is destroyed, it can often be replaced or renewed.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Applied anthropologists can serve as consultants to government organizations, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).
A)True
B)False
Q3) An example of an applied project in which the anthropologists played the role of analyst was the Vicos Project in the Andes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Whereas most archaeologists have traditionally found employment in universities or museums, many are now working as applied archaeologists specializing in what is known as:
A) application archaeology
B) cultural resource management
C) excavation archaeology
D) exhumation regulation
Q5) Is there such a thing as universal human rights?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 20