Chapter 8 Test Bank

KNOWLEDGE OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice

1. The !Kung people of southern Africa are an example what kind of society?

a) acephalous

b) segmentary lineage

c) lawless

d) structural-functional

2. Which English philosophers were concerned with the problem of disorder and argued that chaos is avoidable by creating strong government?

a) Evans-Pritchard and Radcliffe-Brown

b) Hobbes and Locke

c) Smith and Marx

d) Sahlins and Service

3. Which theory was used to explain how stateless societies maintained social order and equilibrium?

a) Marxism

b) interpretive anthropology

c) structural-functionalism

d) neo-evolutionary

4. Which of the following is not a way that societies maintain order outside of formal political institutions?

a) age-grades

b) sorcery and witchcraft

c) kinship

d) random division of labor

5. The Yanomami, who have headmen as leaders and have an egalitarian model of social stratification, are classified as having which type of political organization?

a) governed

b) tribe

c) centralized

d) chiefdom

6. For anthropologists, political power refers to how

a) elected officials use power.

b) violence is used by the nation-state to subdue dissent.

c) politics operates informally.

d) power is used to attain goals for the good of the community.

7. Power that transcends individuals, operating in settings and orchestrating settings in which social and individual actions take place, is

a) authority.

b) structural power.

c) domination.

d) violence.

8. For a big man in a nonstate society, what is the most powerful and valuable tool?

a) force

b) formal authority

c) corruption

d) persuasion

9. Which of the following is an element of violence?

a) It is the use of force to cause harm to someone or something.

b) It is an invisible assertion of power.

c) It is an inefficient way to transform a social environment.

d) It is only found in centralized political systems.

10. Violence is

a) static.

b) inherited.

c) socially constructed.

d) absolute.

11. Which branch of cultural anthropology looks at the way that people handle disputes?

a) political anthropology

b) legal anthropology

c) psychological anthropology

d) applied anthropology

12. The legal process by which an individual or council with socially recognized authority intervenes in a dispute and unilaterally makes a decision is

a) adjudication.

b) mediation.

c) laws.

d) negotiation.

Fill in the Blank

13. ____________________ encompasses the relationships and processes of cooperation, conflict, and power that are fundamental aspects of human life.

Politics

14. A society’s separate legal and constitutional domain that is the source of law, order, and legitimate force is the ____________________.

government

15. A society with no governmental head or hierarchical structure is an ____________________ society.

acephalous

16. The practice in which a third party intervenes in a dispute to aid the parties in reaching an agreement is called ____________________.

mediation

17. According to the ____________________ typology of political organization, the type of leadership practiced in a tribe is charismatic headman with some authority.

neo-evolutionary

True/False

18. To follow political action one must be familiar with society’s rules and codes about who gets to exercise power and under what conditions.

a) True

b) False

19. Big men can transfer their power and status through inheritance when they die.

a) True

b) False

20. For anthropologists, power is largely located in the hands of state institutions and political offices.

a) True

b) False

21. When people around the world have disputes, they are most concerned with winning and losing.

a) True

b) False

22. In some hunter–gatherer groups relations are egalitarian and women can become leaders of a band.

a) True

b) False

COMPREHENSION OF FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice

23. Political acts include all of the following except

a) running for election.

b) protesting against police brutality.

c) gossiping about a neighbor to shame them for not fulfilling their obligations.

d) serving as treasurer during a game of Monopoly.

24. The importance of structural functionalism is that it

a) helped anthropologists understand the evolution of political systems.

b) showed that violence and chaos are universal aspects of human affairs.

c) showed that non-Western societies have order without formal government.

d) demonstrated that symbols underlie all human processes.

25. Which of the following theories is most concerned with understanding how people maintain political power in their daily activities and decision-making processes?

a) action theory

b) Marxist theory

c) structural-functionalist theory

d) world systems theory

26. How do religious rituals function politically?

a) by legitimating community authority

b) by reducing fear

c) by fostering disputes

d) None of the above (They do not function politically.)

27. The exercise of political power in state and nonstate societies is different in all of the following respects except

a) the ways in which power is gained.

b) the uses of violence and coercion toward political ends.

c) the importance of personal connections.

d) the ways in which power is transmitted to others.

28. The exercise of political power requires

a) force.

b) violence.

c) authority.

d) legitimacy.

29. Control over symbolic, material, and human resources are important dimensions of

a) age-grades.

b) adjudication.

c) mediation.

d) political power.

30. Why is the description of conflict as “ethnic violence” misleading?

a) It implies age-old conflicts are not affected by historical or political events.

b) It assumes the peaceful interactions of groups over time.

c) It ignores that violence is biological and certain “ethnic” groups are more violent than others.

d) It is not misleading because it is the way that anthropologists describe violence.

31. When people describe violence as meaningless they

a) are correct.

b) interpret violence as something without reason.

c) humanize the perpetrators.

d) fail to justify violence as a necessary part of society.

32. In many societies people resolve disputes by restoring harmony, although people are not always satisfied with this resolution. Why?

a) because it’s better to win a dispute

b) because most people would rather avoid the issue altogether

c) because adversarial relationships are more effective at getting to the bottom of the problem

d) because of a preference for justice, fairness, and the rule of law

33. Violence between ethnic groups is not inevitable, but the idea that it is persists. Which of the following is not a reason for its persistence?

a) It offers a tidy narrative that seems to explain the world.

b) Mass media repeat the idea regularly.

c) Ethnic leaders promote the idea to gain power.

d) Ethnic groups actually do fight with each other all the time.

34. The importance of a phenomenon like “revenge suicide” in Papua New Guinea is that it demonstrates

a) why women are irrational.

b) why men are controlling and mean toward women.

c) that the nonpowerful have ways of exercising political power.

d) the difficulty of locating structural power.

Fill in the Blank

35. The concept of ____________________ is useful because it points to the ways in which power is not simply the exercise of will over others but diffused across a social field.

structural power

36. ____________________ as a form of dispute management can involve hearings presided over by respected people in a community.

Adjudication

37. The idea that there are specific rules and codes surrounding the exercise of power is a key feature of ____________________.

action theory

38. In an ____________________ society, food-sharing, kin relations, and consensus-building are all key aspects of politics.

acephalous

39. The anthropological theory of ____________________ poses that different institutions of society, such as religion, politics, and kinship, function to maintain social order and equilibrium.

structural-functionalism

True/False

40. In some societies witchcraft accusations can work as an informal method of social control.

a) True

b) False

41. People living in noncentralized political systems have generally welcomed their integration into centralized political systems because it provides greater security and prosperity for them.

a) True

b) False

42. A key feature of political anthropologist Maxwell Owusu’s perspective on democracy in Ghana is that the state will work better if village chiefs play a role in decision-making.

a) True

b) False

43. There are some acts of violence that cannot be understood through an anthropological framework.

a) True

b) False

APPLICATION OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

Multiple Choice

44. A structural functionalist would be most likely to analyze violence as

a) a reflection of deep ethnic hatreds.

b) an innate condition of humanity.

c) the best way to create segmentary lineages.

d) a means of creating and maintaining social order.

45. The neo-evolutionary typology of political systems would classify the role of president of the city council in your hometown as

a) headman of a tribe.

b) a big man.

c) a bureaucrat in a centralized state.

d) a chief.

46. An action theorist studying political power in the US Senate would be especially interested in the

a) normative rules of conduct that senators are supposed to follow.

b) way the field of social relations structures senators’ interactions.

c) ways female senators exercise power in a male-dominated institution.

d) delegation of political power from one individual to another.

47. You and your sibling are fighting over who gets to use the family car. When your parent intervenes and seeks a solution that is agreeable to both of you, it is an example of

a) adjudication.

b) negotiation.

c) mediation.

d) avoidance.

48. Which of the following is not a research agenda that focuses on structural power?

a) an examination of the US census office and how people shape their actions when asked census questions

b) a study of children bullying each other on the playground in Brazil

c) a study about policies related to hygiene and family management and the result on reproductive practices among Italian families after World War I

d) an examination of laborers on banana plantations in Costa Rica, where workers have limited potential for wealth accumulation due to foreign ownership of plantations

49. Which of the following explanations of political relationships among the !Kung would be least likely to come from a political anthropologist?

a) The !Kung make decisions as a group.

b) The !Kung use food-sharing as a way to equalize relationships.

c) The !Kung have to navigate complex politics as ethnic minorities in states that don’t want them.

d) Politics among the !Kung serve to provide order to an otherwise chaotic and self-serving group.

Short Answer

50. How might an advocate of structural power explain the use of a census by the US government?

51. Is action theory applicable to a study of a sports team? Explain your answer.

52. What are the primary strengths of the gendered approach to political power? Give an example of a project in which you might use it.

Essays

53. How would you use structural-functionalism in a study of how order in your university is maintained?

54. What role do you think perspectives drawn from political anthropology could play in governing a country?

55. Is there structural power in the United States? If not, why? If so, give an example and use the discussion of structural power from the book to make your case.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS

Essays

56. How do societies that do not have central governments maintain order?

57. How does political power work in both state and nonstate societies?

58. How is violence culturally constructed?

59. When there is a conflict in a community or society, what are the political possibilities for dealing with it?