Ch3 Culture Verified Test Bank

Test Bank

Chapter 3: Culture

Multiple Choice

1. Choose the term that anthropologists use to explain the differences between humans without resorting to racial or biological “explanations.”

a. nature

b. culture

c. genetics

d. humanity

Learning Objective: 3.1: Discuss the basic characteristics and components of culture as understood by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Characteristics of Culture

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Which of the following human activities would qualify as culture, according to anthropologists?

a. breathing

b. blinking

c. walking

d. singing

Learning Objective: 3.1: Discuss the basic characteristics and components of culture as understood by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Characteristics of Culture

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Which of the following is an example of a nonmaterial product of culture?

a. a ceramic pot inscribed with intricate designs

b. a woven rug with richly dyed fibers

c. a ritual in which prayers are sung to the gods

d. a house built of wattle and daub

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Aspects of Culture

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Jeremy is four years old. He discovers an unlit scented candle on a side table that smells just like chocolate. Excited, he takes a bite of the candle, and realizes it tastes terrible—nothing at all like chocolate. Jeremy doesn’t take bites of other candles he encounters. This scenario provides an example of which type of learning?

a. situational learning

b. social learning

c. symbolic learning

d. formal learning

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Culture Is Learned

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Which of the following is the best example of social learning?

a. A child touches a hot oven door, gets burned, and learns not to touch oven doors.

b. A child reads a fact about dinosaurs in a book.

c. A child hears a beloved television character cackle in a particular way, and begins to try their best to laugh that way as well.

d. A child’s parent explains that cars go when the traffic light is green, slow down when the light turns yellow, and stop when the light turns red.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Culture Is Learned

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Nonhuman animal groups are not called cultures because nonhuman animals lack the ability to ______.

a. learn

b. symbolize

c. use tools

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Culture Is Learned

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. The fact that different languages use different words for the same concept illustrates the ______ nature of symbols.

a. observable

b. concrete

c. meaningful

d. arbitrary

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Symbols and Symbolic Learning

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Reading a book that outlines the effects of colonialism on cultures around the world qualifies as which type of learning?

a. symbolic

b. social

c. situational

d. rote

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Symbols and Symbolic Learning

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Which type of learning depends on direct experience?

a. symbolic

b. cognitive

c. situational

d. social

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Culture Is Learned

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. People who share deep feelings reflected by national symbols such as flags may not know each other, but belong to the same ______.

a. imagined community

b. ethnic group

c. religious congregation

d. subculture

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Symbols and Culture

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. The concept of ______ illustrates how people integrate cultural models into their minds and actively engage with them rather than passively acquiring cultural knowledge.

a. assimilation

b. symbols

c. schemas

d. observation

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Choose the scenario that best illustrates how members of the same society may acquire different versions of culture.

a. A young girl lives in a small scale society. Her mother is a talented weaver, and the girl spends much of her time learning the art of weaving from her mother, while her brother spends much of his time learning to hunt from his father.

b. Two small siblings living in an industrialized society have a toy cash register. They often pretend they are a shopper and cashier conducting a transaction, imitating what they have seen grocery shopping with their parents each week.

c. A man in an industrialized society sits with his small daughter and reads her his favorite book from his own childhood.

d. A little boy in a small scale society chases his dog through a social gathering, and is chastised by a neighbor who disapproves of the noise he’s making.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Some Americans are very supportive of enacting stricter immigration laws, while others condemn any move toward making it more difficult for people to enter the United States. This illustrates how culture is often ______.

a. preserved

b. contested

c. acquired

d. epidemiological

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Why would it be problematic to refer to beliefs and practices from Japan as “Japanese culture”?

a. It illustrates the schematic nature of Japanese culture.

b. It might make people from Japan feel marginalized.

c. It makes it seem as though being Japanese is a bad thing.

d. It is an essentialist generalization that can lead to false assumptions.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. The epidemiological approach to understanding culture uses a ______ model to illustrate how certain aspects of culture spread rapidly.

a. schematic

b. contested

c. disease

d. homogeneous

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. Which of the following is an example of material culture?

a. freedom

b. science

c. equality

d. medicine

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Aspects of Culture

Difficulty Level: Easy

17. A parent teaches their child that when a traffic light turns yellow, it means that drivers should slow down and prepare to stop. The same parent generally speeds up instead when traffic lights turn yellow. This illustrates which concept?

a. ideal versus real culture

b. values

c. cultural hegemony

d. ideology

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Ideal Versus Real Culture

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Select the answer that provides an example of both material and nonmaterial culture.

a. freedom and equality

b. security and a comfortable house

c. individual achievement and success

d. stone tools and animal skin clothing

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Aspects of Culture

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. What is one difference between values and beliefs?

a. Values are more general and beliefs are more specific.

b. Values stay the same from society to society, but beliefs do not.

c. Values change over time, while beliefs stay the same.

d. Values seem normal and universal to members of a society, and beliefs do not.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Aspects of Culture

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Specific interest groups are more likely to promote ______ in order to preserve or justify their own power.

a. norms

b. values

c. ideologies

d. practices

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Beliefs

Difficulty Level: Easy

21. A classroom full of students is facing the professor, taking notes on the material, and responding to the professor’s questions. These students are observing ______ of classroom behavior.

a. norms

b. values

c. ideologies

d. practices

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Norms

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. A man meets his date at a restaurant and is surprised when she sits on the same side of the booth as him. It had never occurred to him that people might sit on the same side rather than across from one another. In this case, sitting across from your date at a restaurant would be considered a ______.

a. belief

b. value

c. ideology

d. folkway

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Folkways

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Westerners labeling those who eat insects as “savage” or “barbaric” are showing their ______.

a. ethnocentrism

b. cultural relativism

c. ethical problems

d. symbolism

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Easy

24. Which of the following categories of animal do most Americans consider to be edible?

a. vermin

b. farm animals

c. pet animals

d. insects

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Easy

25. According to Mary Douglas’ symbolic explanation, why did the ancient Israelites have a taboo prohibiting the consumption of pork?

a. Pigs were too costly to raise.

b. Pigs competed with humans for the same resources.

c. Pigs did not fit into the categories of animals created by God in Genesis.

d. Pigs were dirty and carried disease.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. According to Marvin Harris’ adaptive explanation, why did the ancient Israelites have a taboo prohibiting the consumption of pork?

a. Pigs were too costly to raise in that environment and provided no byproducts other than meat.

b. Pigs were considered impure or polluted.

c. Pigs did not fit neatly into one category of animal, so were considered dangerous.

d. Pigs carried diseases which could be passed to humans.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. “Eating insects is disgusting, and only a savage would even consider it,” is an ethnocentric statement. Which of the following answers best applies cultural relativism to the practice of entomophagy?

a. “Disgust for insects is a natural phenomenon, so people in cultures that eat insects must be very strong to overcome that disgust.”

b. “We have enough to eat in our society, but in places where people are starving, it makes sense that they would have to resort to eating insects.”

c. “It is dangerous to consume insects, so I do not eat them—but if others want to, that is their business.”

d. “Some types of insect are nutritious, and in a culture where children aren’t taught disgust of insects, it makes sense that they would be part of the cuisine.”

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Cultural Diversity, Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Anthropologists use ______ to combat their own ethnocentrism and allow themselves to study other groups in a scientific way.

a. cultural relativism

b. diversity

c. ethnic groups

d. symbolism

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Cultural Diversity

Difficulty Level: Easy

29. The use of a German dialect and traditional manner of dressing by the Old Order Amish in the United States function as markers of their ______.

a. rituals

b. ethnicity

c. folkways

d. national symbols

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Ethnicity

Difficulty Level: Easy

30. Why do people in different cultures eat different foods?

a. All humans have to eat in order to survive, so food choice is biological rather than cultural.

b. Humans make their food choices by choosing the most nutritious option based on their available food resources, and different resources are available in different places.

c. Each culture has guidelines about which foods are to be consumed, and these rules are based on more than just safety and nutritional quality.

d. People across the world have the same food resources available, so choices about which foods to eat reflect ideas of status.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. Some cultural diversity comes from the differing ways in which various cultures address their biological needs, but the majority comes from the different ______ that human cultures create as meaning-seeking creatures.

a. artwork

b. symbols

c. taboos

d. dress codes

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Dress Codes and Symbolism

Difficulty Level: Easy

32. Clyde Kluckholn’s idea that “every human is like all other humans, some other humans, and no other human” reflects the idea that culture is both ______.

a. complex and simple

b. growing and shrinking

c. diverse and universal

d. static and dynamic

Learning Objective: 3.6: Describe how culture leads to universal similarities among people in widely separated societies.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Cultural Universals

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. The concept of cultural universals implies that ______.

a. different cultures have different ways of addressing the same basic needs

b. cultures across the world are more different than they are similar

c. some cultures are very exotic and some are neutral

d. if multiple cultures have the same belief or practice, they must have been in contact at some point

Learning Objective: 3.6: Describe how culture leads to universal similarities among people in widely separated societies.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cultural Universals

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. Why does Donald E. Brown hold early anthropologists partly responsible for the stereotypes and Otherization of diverse cultures?

a. Early anthropologists set out to prove that non-European cultures were superior

b. Early anthropologists tended to focus on the differences among cultures rather than the similarities

c. Early anthropologists wanted to demonstrate that all human cultures addressed the same basic needs

d. Early anthropologists were unable to get to the root causes of beliefs and practices they could not understand

Learning Objective: 3.6: Describe how culture leads to universal similarities among people in widely separated societies.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Cultural Universals

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. Who were the Universal People?

a. The fictional inhabitants of other planets used as an analogy to explain what it was like for early anthropologists to be the first ones to make contact with a cultural group

b. The people in the world who have no culture at all and represent a human neutral, and to whom anthropologists compare all other cultures

c. The group of early anthropologists who set out to make contact with every group in the world and record their traits and languages

d. A group of imagined people who have every cultural trait of every society in the world

Learning Objective: 3.6: Describe how culture leads to universal similarities among people in widely separated societies.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Cultural Universals

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Members of a society share a uniform culture.

Learning Objective: 3.1: Discuss the basic characteristics and components of culture as understood by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Characteristics of Culture

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Nonhuman primates intentionally teach their babies.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Culture Is Learned

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Despite the heterogeneity of culture within groups, there still remain some common cultural understandings.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Beliefs are based on objective truth or reality.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Beliefs

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Food taboos around the world are much more likely to apply to animal products than to plant products.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Food and Diversity

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. The anthropologist Victor Turner described the symbolic qualities of multivocality and condensation. Discuss how these qualities apply to flags.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Key National Symbols

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Compare and contrast symbols and signs. Give at least one example of each that illustrates the difference.

Learning Objective: 3.2: Discuss how humans acquire their culture.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Culture Is Learned

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Analyze how culture is both an internal and external phenomenon.

Learning Objective: 3.3: Discuss how anthropologists understand the sharing of culture.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Culture Is Shared

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Explore the ways in which subordinate groups in a society may either accept or resist the cultural hegemony of the ideology of the dominant group.

Learning Objective: 3.4: Discuss the components of nonmaterial culture studied by anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Beliefs

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Analyze the dreadlock hairstyle of Rastafarians as a multivocal symbol.

Learning Objective: 3.5: Describe how culture results in differences among people in various societies.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Dress Codes and Symbolism

Difficulty Level: Hard