Ch.3 Human Biocultural Evolution Test Bank Answers 2e

CHAPTER 3: TEST BANK QUESTIONS

KNOWLEDGE OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice (12):

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 1

1) One of the central ideas of Darwin’s theory of evolution was the idea that

a. all organisms change over time regardless of their environment

b. organisms changed only as a result of not interacting with their environment

c. change in organisms was related to their adaptability to a particular environment

d. biblical forces were responsible for the changes we see in organisms

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 2

2) The construction of meaning, social relationships, and niches are all part of a larger theoretical framework that anthropologists refer to as the

a. epigenetic system

b. interpretive approach

c. constructivist approach

d. behavioral system

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 3

3) The Greek philosopher Aristotle proposed that all life was arranged in

a. a random order based on chance

b. the order in which each was created by the Gods

c. a great chain of being

d. order from most to least useful

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 4

4) A taxonomic structure is one that

a. both names and classifies all organisms according to a system

b. names and classifies animals according to an evolutionary logic

c. organizes all plants and animals in random fashion

d. determines the importance of an organism based on a system of classification

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 5

5) One of the key popular misunderstandings about the causes of obesity is

a. we are living in a time of excessive abundance

b. humans have a normal diet

c. we have not managed to dissuade people to stop consuming fast foods

d. that obesity is a widespread global problem when it is not

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 6

6) The refinement of Darwin’s theory has shown that

a. evolution is limited in both time and place according to creation theories

b. creation science has actually been correct all along

c. evolution cannot be measured, even across generations within a population

d. evolution can only be measured or seen across generations within a population

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 7

7) One of the more important ways that anthropology contributes to the development of evolutionary theory is that

a. it offers a moderating voice on the hard, fact-based approach of evolutionary theory

b. it challenges the biological reductionism of much evolutionary theory

c. it supports the fundamental biological reductionism in evolutionary theory

d. it clearly separates the role of culture from biology in evolution

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 8

8) One of the important ways that genetic material is moved between different populations, such as through gene flow, is

a. through the decision about when to have a child

b. through the careful use of birth control products

c. through the prevention of sexually transmitted infections

d. through the choice of a sexual partner

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 9

9) The ability of African cichlids, a popular pet fish, to develop highly similar body shapes despite coming from two different and geographically distant environments is an example of

a. random mutation

b. developmental bias

c. genetic drift

d. phenotypic variation

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 10

10) Plasticity can be understood as not being Lamarckian because

a. we now know how to evaluate the difference between an organism’s will to change and the underlying genetic code that creates that change

b. DNA sequencing has been able to clearly establish the process of modification

that precludes the possibility of a willed change by an organism

c. modification happens before genetic changes appear that keep the change in place across generations

d. genetic changes always precede phenotypic changes which is something that Lamarck was not aware of at that time

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 11

11) In terms of the extended evolutionary synthesis, large-scale agriculture, which produces massive amounts of both food and pollution, can be understood as a form of

a. environmental destruction

b. physical adaptation

c. evolutionary change

d. niche construction

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts Multiple Choice Question 12

12) Anthropologists who study human biocultural evolution believe that evolution

a. comes to a gradual halt when an organism achieves optimum fitness

b. continues, but increasingly slowly, until it ceases due to all adaptive channels being exhausted

c. continues in all organisms until they are extinct

d. stops at the moment an organism branches out into a different species

Fill in the Blank (6):

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge Of Key Terms And Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 1

1) A __________ charts the evolutionary history of a particular taxonomic branch and yields information about its ancestry.

a. phylogeny

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge Of Key Terms And Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 2

2) Comparing DNA sequences allows us to understand whether organisms are connected through common __________.

a. ancestry

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge Of Key Terms And Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 3

3) Individuals migrating from one country to another can fundamentally alter genetic variation in all members of both populations because of __________.

a. gene flow

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge Of Key Terms And Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 4

4) According to the extended evolutionary synthesis, parents who teach their young a particular behavior that aids in their evolutionary success are practicing __________.

a. extra-genetic inheritance

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge Of Key Terms And Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 5

5) __________ emerges when genetic variation within a group grows so large that its members begin exhibiting important genetic and physical differences.

a. Speciation

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge Of Key Terms And Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 6

6) All humans have the ability to become __________, but it did not come into existence until about 10,000 years ago.

a. obese

True/False (5):

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts True/False Question 1

1) Clyde Kluckhohn argued that both biological and cultural aspects of humanity must be seen as a continuum of small changes.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts True/False Question 2

2) Variation in genes acts as the sole source for biological change of traits in an organism.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts True/False Question 3

3) Non-random mating among the Hutterite sect in Canada is a good example of how genetic drift works.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts True/False Question 4

4) Many evolutionary processes interact to affect the organism.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Knowledge of Key Terms and Concepts True/False Question 5

5) Gene flow is the movement of genetic material across different ecosystems.

a. True

b. False

COMPREHENSION OF FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice (12):

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 1

1) The reason biocultural anthropology rejects the genetic system of inheritance as the only means of understanding human evolution is that

a. it is too broad a field to make sense of evolutionary complexities

b. in addition to genotypes, the phenotypes of human ancestry must be taken into account

c. it is too narrow to appreciate the complexity of human inheritance

d. our knowledge of genes and the genetic code is too simple to apply it to the whole of human evolutionary processes

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 2

2) The core idea of Darwin’s and Wallace’s ideas—descent with modifications via natural selection—is intimately tied to what larger force?

a. speciation

b. variation

c. environmental change

d. global warming

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 3

3) An evolutionary perspective on variations in physical traits reflects

a. genetic changes

b. cultural changes

c. adaptive changes

d. rate of changes

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 4

4) One of the useful results of a phylogeny is to show that

a. each lineage has a unique history, and thus no organism is “more evolved”

b. all lineages share a common history, and thus no organisms are “more evolved”

c. each lineage has a unique history, and thus one organism is seen as “more evolved” than another

d. all lineages share a common history, and thus some organisms are “more evolved”

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 5

5) Termites in the wild construct huge “mounds” as a habitat. From the perspective of biocultural evolutionary concepts, termites and their engineering feats are involved in a type of

a. niche construction

b. developmental construction

c. niche evolution

d. behavioral inheritance

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 6

6) Sickle-cell anemia, a blood cell mutation, takes a toll on those afflicted, but is an example of a mutation that may also be useful because it

a. helps reduce the instance of melanoma, or skin cancer, in the tropics

b. provides a way for people to resist dangerous viruses like Ebola

c. offers health researchers a way to understand genetic differences in a closed population group

d. provides resistance to malaria in the tropics

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 7

7) The peppered moth is a classic example of how environmental factors

a. created by human activity negatively affect other life forms

b. are part of the interaction between genotype and phenotype

c. can lead to unwanted genetic changes in non-human organisms

d. have nothing to do with genetic or DNA changes in a population

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 8

8) The symbolic system of inheritance works through the establishment of

a. adaptive responses to environmental changes

b. culture and language

c. changes in how we react to pathogens and diseases

d. safe foodways and what and how we consume food

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 9

9) One of the key aspects of biocultural evolution is that there is

a. no specific direction or goal as an outcome, but that it is dynamic

b. always a directional component that guides the process

c. no evidence to support it yet

d. an eventual stasis point that is in tune with the organism’s whole environment

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 10

10) The genetic dimension of obesity is related to

a. the eating habits of our parents

b. the willpower to resist unhealthy food

c. the ability to accumulate and store energy in our bodies

d. the environmental conditions that have affected our food supply

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 11

11) Even if we cannot necessarily predict the outcomes of direct genetic manipulation, we do know that it has direct social impacts, including

a. it can lead to unnecessary geneticization

b. it can cost more than the patient can afford

c. it facilitates the inflation of pharmaceutical prices for the wrong reasons

d. it can lead to unequal treatments in a given population

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts Multiple Choice Question 12

12) Why is AIDS having a more dramatic effect on populations in sub-Saharan African than in North America and Europe?

a. In sub-Saharan Africa, people have limited access to medicine that makes AIDS a manageable condition

b. European and American populations are genetically predisposed to a lesser form of the disease

c. people’s sexual behaviors are radically different across continents

d. the disease is spread via bacteria that is much more prevalent in Africa

Fill in the Blank (4):

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension Of Fundamental Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 1

1) The behavioral system of inheritance refers to the patterned behaviors that parents and adults pass onto young members of their group via __________.

a. learning and imitation.

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension Of Fundamental Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 2

2) “Survival of the fittest” is taken to mean competition for __________.

a. reproductive success.

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension Of Fundamental Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 3

3) Loss of genetic variation occurring when a small population creates a new, usually isolated, community is known as the __________.

a. founder effect.

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension Of Fundamental Concepts Fill in the Blank Question 4

4) We know that modern humans evolve, because we can see evidence of gene flow due to international __________.

a. migration.

True/False (4):

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts True/False Question 1

1) The rise in obesity can only be explained by “thrifty genes” and genetic predispositions.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts True/False Question 2

2) A change in DNA sequence leading to variation is known as mutation.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts True/False Question 3

3) The physical characteristics of any organism that can be seen are known as the phenotype.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Comprehension of Fundamental Concepts True/False Question 4

4) Gene flow can occur because of intentional changes in immigration policies in a particular country.

a. True

b. False

APPLICATION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice (6):

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Multiple Choice Question 1

1) Gregor Mendel’s findings about inheritance among pea plants stemmed from what key ability that he possessed?

a. his deep knowledge of genetics

b. his willingness to ignore his religious affiliation

c. the ability to observe closely

d. he had obtained the full blessing of the abbot at his monastery to conduct his work

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Multiple Choice Question 2

2) If you observed gradual changes in environmental temperature and, at the same time, observed that there were changes in the phenotype of a butterfly species over fifteen generations, which theory might best help explain what is going on?

a. plasticity

b. natural selection

c. extinction

d. essentialism

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Multiple Choice Question 3

3) If you wanted to understand the evolutionary dimensions of why human males have population-based differences in facial hair across the world, you might focus on

a. gene flow

b. rituals that promote shaving

c. cultural definitions of beauty

d. migration of ancient hominins into other regions

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Multiple Choice Question 4

4) The recent upsurge in migration due to refugees seeking safety from war zones provides biological anthropologists an easy opportunity to observe and document

a. cultural change

b. migration patterns induced by war

c. gene flow

d. phylogenetic changes caused by stress

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Multiple Choice Question 5

5) If you wanted to study genetic drift in Hutterite colonies such as those in which Michael Park studied gene flow, you would be interested in

a. non-random mating practices

b. population records that suggest a dramatic reduction in population

c. how agricultural practices are a form of niche construction

d. how natural selection winnows the population down

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Multiple Choice Question 6

6) Biocultural evolutionary theory has led to questions about the merits of reductionist thinking, and how it tends to oversimplify. One of the more productive results of this critique has been the application in anthropology of

a. a scientific approach to evolution

b. widespread use of statistical and medical data to support theory

c. the inclusion of non-Western ethnographic material

d. a holistic approach to evolution

Short Answer (3):

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Short Answer Question 1

1) If you wanted to study mother-infant contact in modern Western societies, how important would it be to understand patterns established by our earlier human ancestors?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Short Answer Question 2

2) Describe how a proponent of the extended evolutionary synthesis would explain the rise in obesity.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Short Answer Question 3

3) Describe how gene flow might have shaped the evolution of the human hand.

Essay (3):

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Essay Question 1

1) All creatures do some version of niche construction. What is so unique about how humans do it?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Essay Question 2

2) The human diet is flexible and open-ended. Using a biocultural approach, explain how and why it might have evolved in this way.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Application of Anthropological Concepts Essay Question 3

3) According to evolutionary theory, change in organisms is relational. Discuss what kinds of factors are part of that relational change for the human species.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS

Essays (4):

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Opportunities for Analysis and Synthesis Essay Question 1

1) Proponents of the extended evolutionary synthesis argue that evolutionary theory must change as new mechanisms of evolution are discovered, while critics assert that the modern synthesis is adequate. What is your thinking about this debate?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Opportunities for Analysis and Synthesis Essay Question 2

2) Many people think the word “evolution” implies progress and improvement. Yet the central idea in evolutionary theory is that evolution is non-directional and doesn’t necessarily improve a population’s prospects over time. Discuss intellectual, religious, and social reasons this gap in understanding persists.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Opportunities for Analysis and Synthesis Essay Question 3

3) Based on what you have learned about evolutionary processes in this chapter, how do you think evolutionary processes might shape human behavior and psyche?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Opportunities for Analysis and Synthesis Essay Question 4

4) Linnaeus developed what is now our taxonomic system using binomial nomenclature and grouped organisms together based on similarities in anatomy. How might you develop an alternative taxonomic structure? What would be a sound basis for grouping different types of organisms?