Q&A Hero

Q: Although locals may create a new religion, on a global scale religious change is more commonly the result of A. a local communitys rejection of their traditional beliefs. B. the increased popularity of telenovelas. C. the diffusion of attractive intervention philosophies. D. missionaries and proselytizers representing the major world religions. E. multinational corporations that collaborate with local religions to establish markets.

Q: In 1989, a military government seized power in the Sudan. This resulted in which of the following? A. The Sudan now has no more tribal religions, because everyone has converted to either Christianity or Islam. B. The Sudan is now the largest country in Papua New Guinea. C. The Sudanese government adopted a policy of cultural imperialism. D. The Sudan has little ethnic or religious diversity. E. The Sudanese government has institutionalized cargo cults.

Q: ________ refers to the rapid spread or advance of one culture at the expense of others, or its imposition on other cultures. A. Diasporation B. Symbolic domination C. Cultural imperialism D. Conquest E. Colonialism

Q: Cases where local communities use modern technology to preserve and revise their traditions A. are examples of hidden ethnocide. B. are becoming more common. C. contradict Gramscis theory of hegemony. D. are becoming increasingly rare, due to the cost of this technology. E. suggest that modern technology is always an agent of cultural imperialism.

Q: Because of global climate change, arctic landscapes and ecosystems are changing rapidly and perceptibly, as the residents of Newtok, Alaska, can attest. With the land upon which they have built their homes slowly melting and sinking, they have appealed to the state and federal governments for assistance in helping them cover the costs of moving their town to a different location. Ironically, A. the land upon which the Alaskan state government buildings are located is also melting. B. the residents of Newtok have discovered oil on their land, making their appeal for funds less convincing. C. a senator from Alaska has a vacation home in Newtok, Alaska, and so is personally committed to the predicament of the town. D. decades ago, the U.S. government mandated that they and other Alaskan natives abandon a nomadic life based on hunting and fishing for sedentism. E. the economic activity of the town of Newtok is extremely polluting and thus a big contributor to the environmental changes that have turned its residents into the first climate change refugees in the United States.

Q: Which is the single greatest obstacle to slowing climate change? A. the growing population of the poorer nations in the world B. proper climatic changes C. having scientists decide on a definition of climate change D. meeting energy needs, particularly in energy-hungry countries such as the United States, China, and India E. a lack of data portraying the effects of climate change

Q: When indigenous peoples are incorporated into modern nation-states, they usually become part of the impoverished classes.

Q: What is the world system perspective, and why is it important in anthropology?

Q: What is the world capitalist economy? When did it originate, and what are its features? What are core, semiperiphery, and periphery? What is their relationship to world capitalism?

Q: What was the Industrial Revolution, and how did it differ from previous life in villages, towns, and cities? Why is this topic relevant to an anthropologist?

Q: How did the views of Marx and Weber on stratification differ? Relate their views to the modern global stratification system.

Q: How is the world stratification system related to the structural positions within the world capitalist economy? What about the modern stratification system within the United States?

Q: Based on the way the text defines imperialism and colonialism, do you think that they describe phenomena of the past? These terms have been used recently to describe current international affairs. Find an example of this, and compare the use of the term to its definition in the text.

Q: Hundreds of ethnic groups and so-called tribes are colonial constructs. What does this meandoes it suggest that they are only imaginary and therefore of no consequence? Provide illustrations with your answers.

Q: Ethnographic research in postsocialist societies is thriving. What are some of the common problems typical of these societies? Why would an ethnographic approach be advantageous to addressing these problems?

Q: Who are the groups known as indigenous peoples? What is their situation in the world system today?

Q: Because our planets climate is always changing, the key question becomes, how much of global warming is caused by human activities versus natural climate variability? On this issue, most scientists agree that the causes are mainly A. evolutionary. B. ecological. C. anthropogenic. D. moral. E. indigenized.

Q: The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon that keeps the earths surface warm. Without greenhouse gaseswater vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, halocarbons, and ozonelife as we know it wouldnt exist. The current problem is that A. there are more cooling than warming radiative forcings. B. the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has reached its highest level in 400,000 years, and this rise has upset the balance of radiative forcings working to warm and cool the earth. C. scientists cannot agree on a general model of how the greenhouse effect went from being a positive to a negative and a life-threatening force. D. global warming actually benefits 90 percent of the world population, so it is difficult to mobilize the will to address the anthropogenic causes of climate change. E. it is difficult to distinguish between climate change and global warming.

Q: Anthropology has always been concerned with how environmental forces influence humans, and how human activities affect the biosphere and the earth itself. The 1950s through the 1970s witnessed the emergence of an area of study known as cultural ecology or ecological anthropology. This field A. focused on how cultural beliefs and practices help human populations adapt to their environment. B. studied etic perspectives on human-environment relationships. C. is no longer relevant, because it dealt with research models that were either regional or local, but not global enough to account for the changes caused by climate change. D. has limited present value, because it is not scientifically rigorous enough to address environmental problems. E. studied human-environment relations as cultural constructions and analyzed them as texts.

Q: Ethnocide refers to the intentional destruction of an ethnic groups traditional customs, beliefs, and behaviors.

Q: Life in nations in the periphery is characterized by high percentages of poverty and frequent food shortages brought on by a high level of stratification between a small number of large landowners and landless workers.

Q: The United States originally started out as a peripheral nation, but by 1900 it had asserted itself as a member of the industrialized core.

Q: Mass production has led to critical consumption as people are forced to make careful decisions regarding what is needed and what is excess.

Q: Colonialism refers to the solicitation by peripheral countries of political and financial assistance from core nations.

Q: The British notion white mans burden is similar to the French concept mission civilisatrice in that both were racist ideologies used to justify the colonial efforts of their respective countries.

Q: French colonial strategies incorporated both direct and indirect rule.

Q: Many of the political, linguistic, religious, and economic distinctions among the countries of West Africa today are artifacts of colonialism.

Q: Belgian colonial administrators were careful to use culturally significant differences to distinguish between the Hutus and Tutsis.

Q: Neoliberalism refers to a revival of Adam Smiths classic economic liberalism, which suggests that governments should not regulate private enterprise and that free market forces should rule.

Q: The distinction between small-c communism and large-C Communism is an example of arbitrary concepts defined in the social sciences.

Q: With the spread of industrialization, the existence of indigenous economies, ecologies, and populations has become threatened all over the world.

Q: Marx argued that socioeconomic stratification was based on the sharp and simple division between the successful Protestant industrialists and the poor Catholic peasantry.

Q: According to Marx, the bourgeoisie is made up of the people who must sell their labor to survive.

Q: Weber argued that without Catholic ethic and values, capitalism and industrialism would have never spread beyond England.

Q: Weber argued that the only true capitalists were Protestants, and people who believed in any other faith could never fully mature as capitalists.

Q: Higher wages and improved benefits for workers in core nations are possible only because an added surplus from the periphery enables companies to maintain high profit margins.

Q: Who are indigenous peoples? A. people who live in autonomous, independent nation-states B. peasants who are of the same ethnicity as the ruling elite C. descendants of tribespeople who live on as culturally distinct, colonized peoples, many of whom aspire to autonomy D. any population living in a nation-state on the periphery of the world system E. people who have emigrated to a new country

Q: As this chapters Appreciating Anthropology segment notes, around the world many contemporary nations are repeatingat an accelerated ratethe process of resource depletion that started in Europe and the United States during the Industrial Revolution. Fortunately, however, A. this resource depletion is very localized, since extractive enterprises have been using new technologies that completely eliminate negative externalities. B. the money made from this resource depletion always benefits the host communities and countries. C. resource depletion now is more than 80 percent sustainable. D. todays world has some environmental watchdogsmany of them anthropologistswho did not exist during the first centuries of the Industrial Revolution. E. anthropologists are increasingly being consulted prior to the start of new resource extraction projects.

Q: This chapters Focus on Globalization discusses outsourcing jobs to countries outside the United States. What is an outcome of this outsourcing? A. decreased profits for U.S. corporations B. an increase in union membership within the U.S. C. corporations realizing the importance of workers rights D. fewer jobs in the U.S., as they are replaced by machines and outsourced jobs E. more incentives for illegal immigration

Q: The Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street and spread to other U.S. and Canadian cities, recognizes the disparity between the rich and the poor. Which of the following statements about U.S. wealth as of the year 2009 is NOT correct? A. The top 1% of American households hold over one-third the nations wealth. B. The net worth of the top 1% is 225 times greater than the typical households net worth. C. The net worth of the top 1% compared to the typical household is the highest ratio on record. D. The bottom 90% of income-earning households control half of all net worth. E. The top 1% owns more than the bottom 90% combined.

Q: The current world stratification system features a substantial contrast between capitalists and workers in the core nations, and workers on the periphery.

Q: According to Wallerstein, the nations in the world system can be classified into three types: core, periphery, and frontier.

Q: Trade and other economic relations between core and periphery disproportionately benefit capitalists in the core.

Q: One consequence of the ongoing globalization of work and migration is that skilled Western workers must now compete against well-educated workers in such low-wage countries as India, where an experienced software programmer earns one-fifth the average salary of a comparable U.S. worker.

Q: Sugar and cotton helped fuel the development of a capitalist world economy.

Q: The Industrial Revolution did not begin in France, because the French domestic manufacturing system could produce satisfactorily without innovating.

Q: The seeds of industrial society were planted well before the 18th century. For example, a knitting machine invented in England in 1589 was so far ahead of its time that it played a profitable role in factories two and three centuries later.

Q: The labels First World, Second World, and Third World represent a common, if ethnocentric, way of categorizing nations. First World refers to the democratic West, which is traditionally conceived of as being in opposition to a Second World ruled by A. folk economic and political models. B. primitive neoliberalism. C. Communism. D. dictators. E. imperialism.

Q: Communism has two meanings, distinguished by how they are written. Small-c communism describes a social system in which property is owned by the community and in which people work for the common good. Large-C Communism A. is just another version of neoliberalism but in disguise. B. is an imperial doctrine to appropriate private capital for the sake of the survival of the state. C. is Lenins political theory of small-c communism. D. refers to the social aspects of small-c communism. E. was a political movement and doctrine seeking to overthrow capitalism and establish a form of communism such as that which prevailed in the Soviet Union (the USSR) from 1917 to 1991.

Q: This chapter argues that the World Banks approach to corruption isA. effective when dealing with cases in postsocialist nations.B. wrong to assume that the state (public)-private dichotomy is universal and that it takes a similar form in all societies.C. right to assume that the fallacy of underdifferentiation applies equally to all societies.D. wrong to assume that in postsocialist nations officials dont respect business moral codes.E. ineffective, because it lacks the expertise of ethnographically informed secret agents.

Q: One effect of the spread of industrialization has been A. a decrease in global power. B. the destruction of indigenous economies, ecologies, and populations. C. the incorporation of indigenous communities into industrial projects. D. an increased awareness among industrialists and states of the need for environmental protection. E. an increase in the equitable distribution of wealth.

Q: ________ is the term for the physical destruction of ethnic groups by murder, warfare, and introduced diseases. A. Sociocide B. Ethnocide C. Biocide D. Genocide E. Patricide

Q: What is the name of the political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended time? A. apartheid B. colonialism C. alienation D. petty capitalism E. industrialization

Q: Which of the following statements about British colonialism is NOT true? A. It lacked an intervention philosophy. B. It can be divided into two stages. C. It was legitimized by the racist notion of the white mans burden. D. It began to disintegrate after World War II. E. It was partly driven by business interests.

Q: What term refers to the ideological justification for outsiders to guide native groups in specific directions? A. development ideology B. intervention philosophy C. coercive philosophy D. development philosophy E. intrusive ideology

Q: What best characterizes the intervention philosophy of the British empire? A. manifest destiny B. white mans burden C. this land is our land D. fifty-four forty or fight E. in his majestys domain

Q: What best typifies the intervention philosophy of the French empire? A. carte blanche B. savoir-faire C. coup dtat D. mission civilisatrice E. nom de plume

Q: In anthropology, history, and literature, the field of postcolonial studies has gained prominence since the 1970s. Postcolonial refers to A. the study of the interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized. B. the period succeeding the slave trade. C. a moral stance toward oppressed peoples. D. the study of social movements that, instead of rejecting colonialism, actually embraced it and transformed it for their own benefit. E. an up-and-coming subfield in sociology.

Q: All of the following are true about neoliberalism EXCEPT that it A. places more emphasis on individual responsibility than on the common good. B. characterizes the type of policies designed by powerful international financial institutions. C. has been spreading globally. D. refers to a recent revival of economic liberalism. E. is characterized by the policy that environmental protection and job safety are too important to be left unregulated.

Q: Neoliberalism is a new form of the old economic liberalism laid out in Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations (1776). To Smith, economic liberalism encouraged free enterprise and competition, with the goal of generating profits. However, this meaning of liberal A. is a Protestant ideology. B. varies depending on whether it refers to politics in a Western or non-Western context. C. has no implications for the relationship between economics and the state. D. is a more accurate use of the term than the one Americans typically hear in current talk radio. E. is different from the one typically used in current U.S. politics, in which liberal is the opposite of conservative.

Q: What does the term Columbian exchange refer to? A. the exchange of culture that occurred among Native Americans and Europeans that eventually led to the first great civilizations in the Americas and, in Europe, the first classless societies B. the general reciprocity that characterized the relationship between Europeans and Native Americans during the first 15 years after initial contact C. the spread of people, resources, products, ideas, and diseases between the Eastern and Western hemispheres after contact D. the spread of European notions and technologies of warfare to Native Americans, who never engaged in massive violent campaigns prior to the 1500s E. the peaceful exchange among Europeans and Native Americans of native edible plant species

Q: The growth of a market for sugar in Europe spurred A. a tremendous expansion in the strength of independent indigenous nations of Mexico and South America. B. the development of a transatlantic slave trade. C. the movement of sugar-producing nations from the periphery to the core of the world system. D. the movement of capitalism, once a cultural trait specific to New Guinea (where sugar was first domesticated), to the rest of the world. E. a long-term improvement in the distribution of wealth among the rural peasantry of England.

Q: According to Marx, who are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat? A. the products of gender differentiation from Europes tribal past B. groups destined to reconcile through the postcapitalist process of alienation C. distinct and opposed classes produced by the world capitalist economy D. exogamous social groups E. moiety groups that dominated Western capitalism

Q: According to Karl Marx, classes are A. complementary, in that they each do different tasks necessary for the survival of the society. B. part of the original, preindustrial social system of humans. C. powerful collective forces that could mobilize human energies to influence the course of history. D. based more on notions of prestige and morality than on actual economic differences. E. not important to his vision of social change in Western society.

Q: Who viewed the nation-state as an instrument of oppression and religion as a method of diverting and controlling the masses? A. Weber B. Freud C. Tylor D. Marx E. Morgan

Q: Which of the following statements about Karl Marx is NOT true? A. He analyzed 19th-century industrial production capitalism. B. He viewed socioeconomic stratification in terms of several classes with different but complementary interests. C. He called the owners of the means of production the bourgeoisie. D. He called the people who sold their own labor the proletariat. E. He emphasized class consciousness.

Q: Which of the following is NOT true about the modern world system? A. The distinction between bourgeoisie and proletariat has disappeared. B. The contrast between capitalists and propertyless workers is a worldwide phenomenon. C. Stratification systems are not simple and dichotomous. D. There is a growing middle class of skilled and professional workers. E. Intermediate occupations create opportunities for social mobility.

Q: According to Weber, what are the three dimensions of social stratification? A. the means of production, mode of production, and measure of production B. status, exchange, and religion C. gender, ethnicity, and race D. wealth, power, and prestige E. age, gender, and ethnicity

Q: Periphery nations A. export to the core but not the semiperiphery. B. lack industrialization. C. are isolated from the world economy. D. have economies that disproportionately benefit capitalists in the core. E. have little incentive to interact with nations of the core.

Q: Which is NOT true of core nations? A. They export their raw materials to other countries. B. They consist of the strongest and most powerful states. C. They have advanced systems of production. D. They have complex economies. E. They represent the dominant structural position in the world system.

Q: Which of the following did NOT result from Christopher Columbuss voyages? A. The rate of violence among Native Americans markedly increased. B. Europeans extracted silver and gold from the land. C. Europeans enslaved Native Americans. D. Europeans offered statehood to Peru, Mexico, and Cuba. E. Europeans colonized New World lands.

Q: Cultural values, social forces, and the media influence international sports success.

Q: Discuss why it is so difficult to come up with a universally applicable definition for art.

Q: What is the relationship between art and religion? Is all art religious? Are all religious objects art? Could an object that starts off as religious acquire the qualities of art, and vice versa?

Q: Where is art found? Is art found in the same contexts in all kinds of societies?

Q: To what extent can art be isolated from the person who created it? Be sure to include cross-cultural examples to support your answer.

Q: What factors influence the production and appreciation of art? Do artists work in a cultural vacuum of pure personal self-expression? What role does society play?

Q: This chapters Appreciating Anthropology unit shows that techniques that anthropologists have used to analyze myth and folktales can be extended to two popular American fantasy films, The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. In 2009, U.S. American movie director James Cameron, a fan of The Wizard of Oz, released the long-awaited Avatar. If you have seen the movie, compare its structure and symbolic elements in a way similar to that of how The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars have been analyzed in the text. If you have not seen Avatar, explain the connection between The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars.

Q: What role do the arts play as collective expressions of cultural identities? Is art conservative or liberal? Does art promote change or inhibit it?

Q: Consider the impact that the media have on your daily life. From what sources do you have access to popular culture? Which are your favorites, and why?