Test Bank Docx Anthropological Explanations Ch6

Test Bank

Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following influenced early anthropological explanations of cultural change?

a. the discovery of H. neandertalensis

b. Freud’s concepts of the id, ego, and superego

c. Darwin’s theory of evolution

d. Mendel’s writings on inheritance

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Who was the first professional anthropologist, according to the text?

a. Franz Boas

b. Lewis Henry Morgan

c. Margaret Mead

d. Edward B. Tylor

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Nineteenth-Century Evolutionism

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Early anthropologists predicted that “savage” societies would eventually progress to “civilized” ones through the process of ______.

a. unilineal evolution

b. diffusion

c. materialism

d. postmodernism

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Unilineal Evolution: Tylor

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. L.H. Morgan’s concluded due to unregulated sexual behavior, Hawaiians used the same kinship term for their father and all male relatives in their father’s generation because they did not know who was the father of a child. What is this an example of?

a. cultural relativism

b. unilineal evolution

c. ethnocentrism

d. positivism

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Unilineal Evolution: Morgan

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Modern anthropologists consider unilineal evolutionary thinking to be ______.

a. ethnocentric and flawed

b. a holistic explanation for human behavior

c. problematic but useful

d. a perspective that is useful for some topics

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Unilineal Evolution: A Critique

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. What is the major difference between British and German diffusionist ideas?

a. The number of cultural centers from which cultural traits diffused

b. Their reasoning for the differences between “savage” and “civilized” groups

c. The level of ethnocentrism between the schools of thought

d. Their accounting for the innovative capacities of humanity

Learning Objective: 6.2: Describe the basic strengths and weaknesses of the diffusionist approach in understanding different cultures.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Diffusionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. According to diffusionist explanations, why do pyramids exist in both Egypt and Mexico?

a. Each society constructed pyramid-shaped buildings in their own way as a result of their own unique histories.

b. Pyramid-builders in Egypt and Mexico were at the same level of intelligence and civilization, so each developed the techniques independently.

c. A mysterious ancient source taught both ancient Egyptians and ancient Mexicans the technology to build pyramids.

d. Egyptians built pyramids first, and the technology spread over time until it reached Mexico.

Learning Objective: 6.2: Describe the basic strengths and weaknesses of the diffusionist approach in understanding different cultures.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Diffusionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Which of the following anthropological explanations was the first to oppose the ethnocentric ideas of unilineal evolutionism?

a. diffusionism

b. historical particularism

c. feminist anthropology

d. cultural materialism

Learning Objective: 6.3: Discuss historical particularism developed by Franz Boas.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Historical Particularism

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. According to historical particularist explanations, why does polygamy exist in some societies and not in others?

a. Some societies have degenerated from the original forms of marriage.

b. Some societies are more civilized than others.

c. The concept of marriage developed in different ways and for different reasons in different places.

d. Marriage is a tradition that is particularly resistant to cultural change.

Learning Objective: 6.3: Discuss historical particularism developed by Franz Boas.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Boas Versus the Unilineal Evolutionists

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. ______ explored how institutions exist to serve the needs of individuals in a society.

a. Structural functionalism

b. Psychological functionalism

c. Marxist anthropology

d. Diffusionism

Learning Objective: 6.4: Explain the differences between structural functionalism and psychological functionalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Psychological Functionalism: Malinowski

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Which of the following anthropological explanations would be more likely to frame the funding of preschools as a matter of public interest?

a. diffusionism

b. unilineal evolution

c. structural functionalism

d. psychological functionalism

Learning Objective: 6.4: Explain the differences between structural functionalism and psychological functionalism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Structural Functionalism: Radcliffe-Brown

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. According to Leslie White, the invention of the internet would ______.

a. allow culture to evolve further as more energy per capita is captured

b. reflect a new relationship with the local environment

c. fall under the category of superstructure

d. balance conflicting interests

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Twentieth-Century Evolutionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Leslie White viewed cultural evolution as the result of ______.

a. shifting environmental factors that demand different cultural adaptations

b. technologies that allow people to focus on more than just subsistence

c. innovations in techniques to address the needs of society as a whole

d. the spread of ideas from one place to another

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Twentieth-Century Evolutionism

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Cultural ecologists see cultural change as ______ evolution.

a. unilineal

b. general

c. multilineal

d. biological

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Steward and Cultural Ecology

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Which of the following activities would cultural ecologists categorize as part of the culture core?

a. performing a ritual

b. writing a song

c. choosing a leader

d. working on the farm

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Steward and Cultural Ecology

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Which of the following is an example of what cultural materialists call the superstructure?

a. Film

b. House

c. Skirt

d. Job

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Cultural Materialism

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. The ______ of society refers to any aspect of culture that deals with basic resources.

a. social facts

b. infrastructure

c. structure

d. superstructure

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Cultural Materialism

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Cultural materialists would argue that the ______ has the biggest influence on cultural change.

a. superstructure

b. structure

c. infrastructure

d. mediated knowledge

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cultural Materialism

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. Which of the neoevolutionists took a general evolutionary approach to cultural change?

a. Leslie White

b. Julian Steward

c. Marvin Harris

d. Karl Marx

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Twentieth-Century Evolutionism

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. Karl Marx would categorize an employee at a bank as a member of which group?

a. capitalists

b. bourgeoisie

c. proletariat

d. owners of the means of production

Learning Objective: 6.6: Describe the Marxist approach in anthropology that emerged in the 1970s.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Marxist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. Which approach to anthropology rejects the use of the scientific method for the study of human behavior?

a. cultural ecology

b. cultural materialism

c. historical particularism

d. symbolic anthropology

Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the symbolic anthropology approach as a humanist method.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Symbolic Anthropology: A Humanistic Method of Inquiry

Difficulty Level: Easy

22. Symbolic anthropologists attempt to interpret symbolic meaning ______.

a. as it relates to the ecology of a society

b. from the perspective of the people in the society

c. from an adaptive perspective

d. as compared to the symbols of Western society

Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the symbolic anthropology approach as a humanist method.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Symbolic Anthropology: A Humanistic Method of Inquiry

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. An anthropologist examines the ways in which women in childbirth are considered ritually polluted in a particular culture and how that impacts the lives of the woman, her child, and the community as a whole. They are most likely to use which approach?

a. symbolic

b. cultural ecology

c. structural functionalist

d. cultural materialist

Learning Objective: 6.7: Discuss the symbolic anthropology approach as a humanist method.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Symbolic Anthropology: A Humanistic Method of Inquiry

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. Which anthropological approach called for gender roles to be considered in ethnographic work?

a. cultural ecology

b. structural functionalism

c. feminist anthropology

d. symbolic anthropology

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Easy

25. Which anthropological approach would be most suited for studying motherhood across the world?

a. cultural materialism

b. feminist anthropology

c. Marxist anthropology

d. cultural ecology

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. Prior to the twentieth century, there was a lack of female anthropologists. What impact did this have on the discipline of anthropology?

a. Women tended to be invisible in ethnographies.

b. Male anthropologists studied all parts of society that mattered.

c. Male anthropologists neglected symbolic aspects of society.

d. Women did not care about anthropology since they could not become anthropologists.

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. Sherry Ortner drew an analogy relating women to nature and men to culture. She did this to explain which of the following?

a. why women bear children

b. why anthropological work focused mainly on men

c. the superiority of women in many societies

d. the subordination of women in many societies

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Which topic would a feminist anthropologist be most likely to explore?

a. cultural adaptations to environmental changes

b. gender-based double standards about sexual promiscuity

c. technologies utilized by gatherers in a foraging society

d. female dependence upon males for food

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. What is one flawed assumption challenged by postmodernists?

a. Ethnographers are unbiased observers of human behavior.

b. Men are capable of adequately studying women’s issues.

c. Culture is shaped by the environment.

d. Members of a particular culture are the best ones to document their culture.

Learning Objective: 6.9: Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the postmodern approach in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Postmodernism and Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. Postmodern ethnographies are more likely to include which of the following?

a. an analysis of local climatic conditions

b. the voices of many members of the group under study

c. the anthropologist as sole authority on the group under study

d. the voices of women and children

Learning Objective: 6.9: Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the postmodern approach in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Postmodernism and Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. ______ ethnographies are likely to include the ethnographer’s relationship to the people under study.

a. Feminist

b. Cultural ecological

c. Marxist

d. Postmodernist

Learning Objective: 6.9: Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the postmodern approach in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Postmodernism and Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. The dual inheritance theory refers to the interaction of culture and ______.

a. environment

b. genes

c. ritual

d. viruses

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Easy

33. Cultural Attractor Theorists would classify the tendency to make assumptions about people based on their racial or ethnic background as a/an ______.

a. intuitive belief

b. reflective belief

c. psychological belief

d. cognitive belief

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. According to epidemiological models, cultural transmission occurs through adjustments to ______ as the result of social interaction.

a. narratives

b. internal mental representations

c. behavior

d. genetic codes

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Easy

35. What does CAT refer to?

a. Cultural Attractor Theory

b. Creative Anomaly Theory

c. Cognitive Anthropological Transmission

d. Collective Action Transmission

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Early anthropologists believed that people in non-Western societies were less intelligent than those in Western societies.

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Unilineal Evolution: A Critique

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Psychological functionalism incorporates the history of a society into explanations for cultural practices.

Learning Objective: 6.4: Explain the differences between structural functionalism and psychological functionalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Limitations of Functionalism

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Karl Marx viewed capitalistic societies as the endpoint of cultural evolution.

Learning Objective: 6.6: Describe the Marxist approach in anthropology that emerged in the 1970s.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Marxist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Men cannot study women’s issues around the world adequately.

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Criticisms of Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Genes and culture can co-evolve.

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. How do unilineal evolutionist explanations reflect more about British culture than the cultures they attempted to describe?

Learning Objective: 6.1: Explain the weaknesses of the nineteenth-century unilineal evolutionary approaches in anthropology.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Unilineal Evolution: A Critique

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Compare and contrast the eighteenth-century and twentieth-century forms of evolutionism.

Learning Objective: 6.5: Discuss the twentieth-century neoevolutionary approaches, including cultural materialism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Strengths of Neoevolutionism

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Discuss the contributions of feminist anthropologists to the study of humanity.

Learning Objective: 6.8: Discuss the approach of feminist anthropologists.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Feminist Anthropology

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Discuss lactose tolerance from a dual inheritance perspective.

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Compare and contrast the twenty-first century explanations of cultural evolution.

Learning Objective: 6.10: Discuss the new theoretical approaches in cultural evolution in the twenty-first century.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Twenty-First-Century Cultural Evolution

Difficulty Level: Hard