Q&A Hero

Q: What terms are used to convey or imply a status difference between the speaker and the person being referred to or addressed? A. formal addresses, but sociolinguists rarely pay attention to them, because their use in a social situation is always a result of linguistic exploitation B. honorifics C. style shifts D. diglossia E. linguistic relativity

Q: What is an example of what Bourdieu calls symbolic domination in the context of language use? A. in an egalitarian society, the promotion of linguistic diversity B. pride in ones linguistic heritage, regardless of what the majority thinks C. the fact that in a stratified society, even people who do not speak the prestige dialect tend to accept it as standard or superior D. focal vocabulary contrasts among groups E. Chomskys insistence that the universal grammar defines all culture

Q: When does copula deletion (absence of the verb to be) occur in BEV? A. where SE has contractions B. randomly C. in the past tense D. in the future tense E. in SE, not BEV

Q: What term refers to languages that have descended from the same ancestral language? A. F2 languages B. sibling languages C. daughter languages D. brother languages E. protolanguages

Q: What is pidgin? A. A partial language that results from primitive tribes attempts to learn the language of a modern industrialized state. B. A mixed language that develops to ease communication between members of different cultures in contact, usually in situations of trade or colonial domination. C. A rhythmic sublanguage present in any human language as the result of a universally shared mutation. D. A set of languages believed to be most like the original human language, spoken by a small population of Indian Ocean islanders. E. Metalanguage developed by computer programmers that has yielded valuable insights into the workings of the human brain.

Q: One aspect of linguistic history is language loss. When a language disappears, A. less strain is put on the educational system, because it has less language diversity to deal with. B. this is confirmation to historical linguists that language is also a victim of evolutionary forces. C. so does pride in ones heritage. D. cultural diversity is reduced as well. E. humanity is that much closer to global integration.

Q: Which of the following was studied by Sapir and Whorf? A. the interaction of thought on surface structure B. the influence of language on thought C. the influence of deep structure on surface structure D. the influence of deep structure on semantic domains E. the influence of culture on language

Q: Sapir and Whorf argued that the grammatical categories of different languages lead their speakers to think about things in particular ways. However, studies on the differences between female and male Americans in regard to the color terms they use suggest that A. changes in the U.S. economy, society, and culture have had no impact on the use of color terms, or on any other terms for that matter. B. contrary to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, it might be more reasonable to say that changes in culture produce changes in language and thought rather than the reverse. C. in support of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, different languages produce different ways of thinking. D. women and men are equally sensitive to the marketing tactics of the cosmetic industry. E. women spend more money on status goods than do men.

Q: ________ refers to the specialized set of terms and distinctions that are particularly important to certain groups. A. Syntactical vocabulary B. Spatial vocabulary C. Focal vocabulary D. Vernacular vocabulary E. Temporal vocabulary

Q: A sociolinguist studies A. the interaction of history and sociology. B. cross-cultural comparisons of phonemic distinctions. C. the universal grammar of language. D. linguistic competence. E. speech in its social context.

Q: Discuss ethical dilemmas and possible solutions with respect to the kinds of applied anthropology discussed in this chapter.

Q: HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. How does culture play a role in HIV transmission? How might applied anthropology help in finding a solution to this problem?

Q: What is the term for the ability to create new expressions by combining other expressions? A. displacement B. diglossia C. productivity D. morphemic utility E. phonemic utility

Q: Recent research on the origins of language suggests that a key mutation might have something to do with it. Comparing chimp and human genomes, it appears that A. chimps lack the tongue-rolling gene that all humans have, which might explain why they struggle to achieve clear speech. B. chimps share with humans all the genetic propensities for language but lack the language-activation mutation. C. a speech-friendly mutation occurred among Neandertals in Europe and spread to other human populations through gene flow. D. the speech-friendly form of FOXP2 took hold in humans some 150,000 years ago, thus conferring selective advantages (linguistic and cultural abilities) that allowed those who had it to spread it, at the expense of those who did not. E. the speech mutation occurred even before the hominin line split from the rest of the hominids.

Q: Language and communication involve much more than just verbal speech. The study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions is known as A. linguistic physiology. B. biosemantics. C. kinesics. D. protolinguistics. E. diglossia.

Q: Linguistic anthropologists also are interested in investigating the structure of language and how it varies across time and space. What is the study of the forms in which sounds combine to form words? A. phonology B. syntax C. morphology D. lexicon E. grammar

Q: The lexicon of a language is A. a dictionary containing all of its morphemes and their meanings. B. its degree of complexity. C. the set of rules that govern the written but not spoken language. D. its symbolic and poetic value. E. the range of speech sounds.

Q: What term refers to the arrangement and order of words into sentences? A. syntax B. lexicon C. grammar D. phonology E. morphology

Q: What are phonemes? A. the rules by which deep structure is translated into surface structure B. regional differences in dialect C. syntactical structures that distinguish passive constructions from active ones D. the minimal sound contrasts that distinguish meaning in a language E. electromagnetic signals that carry messages between speakers in a telephone conversation

Q: What is the study of the sounds used in speech? A. phones B. phonemes C. phonology D. phonetics E. phonemics

Q: Just as in other areas of anthropology, the study of language involves investigating what is or isnt shared across human populations and why these differences or similarities exist. The linguist Noam Chomsky has argued that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language, so that all languages have a common structural basis. He calls this set of rules A. the evolutionary linguistic imprint. B. linguistic structuralism. C. generalities. D. a global mental map. E. the universal grammar.

Q: How might a premedical student apply some of the knowledge learned through anthropology as a physician? What is the value of studying the curing and belief systems of patients ethnic groups?

Q: Biomedicine, which aims to link an illness to scientifically-demonstrated agents that bear no personal malice toward their victims, is an example of naturalistic medicine.

Q: Health care systems refers to the nationalized health care services that exist only in core industrial nations.

Q: Non-Western medicine does not maintain a sharp distinction between biological and psychological illnesses.

Q: Non-Western medicine treats illnesses symptomatically, seeking an immediate cure.

Q: Scientific medicine is not the same thing as Western medicine. Despite advances in technology, genomics, molecular biology, pathology, surgery, diagnostics, and applications, many Western medical procedures have little justification in logic or fact.

Q: A bachelors degree in anthropology is of little value in the corporate world.

Q: Define applied anthropology. What distinguishes the old from the new applied anthropology? Can you think of any examples in current events that question whether or not new applied anthropology has completely moved on from the dangers of the old?

Q: Discuss the relevance of the ethnographic method for modern society, contemporary problems, and applied anthropology.

Q: What is the relationship between theory and practice in anthropology? Do you agree that applied anthropology should be recognized as a separate subsection of anthropology?

Q: Identify government, international, and private organizations that concern themselves with socioeconomic change abroad and hire anthropologists to help meet their goals. Review their mission statements. Do they make reference to the dangers of underdifferentiation or overinnovation?

Q: What, if anything, is the difference between an anthropologist currently consulting on a development project in Indonesia and another one conducting research in support of the British colonial governments efforts to subdue African natives in the 1930s?

Q: There is considerable debate today over whether or not governments should require schools to provide bilingual education for students, and if so, to what extent this should be carried out. Pretend that you are an anthropologist who has been asked to provide guidance on this issue to a school board in a bilingual community. What can you suggest about the nature of ethnicity, language, and enculturation that will help educators address their challenges?

Q: Discuss the major advantages and disadvantages of scientific and traditional medicine, being careful to distinguish between scientific medicine and Western medicine.

Q: The Samoan community living in Los Angeles has successfully used the matai system to deal with modern urban problems.

Q: Strictly speaking, medical anthropology is an applied field within anthropology.

Q: An illness is a scientifically identified health threat caused by a bacterium, virus, fungus, parasite, or other pathogen.

Q: Although its roots extend further back in time, the real boom for applied anthropology in the United States began in the 1970s.

Q: Academic and applied anthropology have a symbiotic relationship, as theory aids practice and application fuels theory.

Q: Developmental anthropology is the branch of applied anthropology that focuses on social issues in, and the cultural dimensions of, moral development.

Q: A commonly stated goal of recent development policy is to promote equity; that is, to reduce poverty and promote a more even distribution of wealth.

Q: A comparative study of 68 rural development projects from all around the world found culturally compatible economic development projects to be twice as successful financially as incompatible ones.

Q: It is safe to assume that there is less cultural diversity among the poorest, less developed countries in the world.

Q: Fortunately for applied anthropologists eager to do effective international work, all governments are genuinely and realistically committed to improving the lives of their citizens.

Q: When nations become more tied to the world economy, indigenous forms of social organization inevitably break down into nuclear family organization, impersonality, and alienation.

Q: Sociolinguists and cultural anthropologists studying Puerto Rican communities in the Midwestern United States found that Puerto Rican parents valued education more than non-Hispanics.

Q: In his comparison of rural versus urban communities, Robert Redfield found that cultural innovations spread from urban areas to rural ones.

Q: What is microenculturation? A. a condition that exists in large, industrialized states, wherein most of the population has only a small amount of real culture B. the process whereby particular roles are learned within a limited social system (for example, a business) C. the process whereby enculturation is accomplished through advanced media technology D. the result of the meeting between foraging and tribal communities in less developed countries E. enculturation based on a focused interest; for example, reruns of a TV show like Star Trek

Q: An ethnographic study of the workplace A. provides evidence that economic factors are fundamental to understanding differential productivity. B. is routinely performed by employees of the U.S. federal government. C. is not very useful, because all workplaces are becoming increasingly homogeneous, compared to 20 years ago. D. provides a close observation of workers and managers in their natural setting. E. is required of all organizations that want to become not-for-profit, according to the American Anthropological Association.

Q: This chapters Appreciating Diversity account describes how McDonalds was able to succeed in the Brazilian market once it adapted to preexisting Brazilian cultural patterns. This example illustrates A. how the axiom of applied anthropology that innovation succeeds best when it is culturally appropriate applies only in Western cultures. B. applied anthropologys danger of turning itself into a tool of capitalist interest, which always disregard the culture and well-being of the consumer. C. how the axiom of applied anthropology that innovation succeeds best when it is culturally appropriate applies not just to development projects but also businesses, such as fast food. D. applied anthropologys capacity to help foreign markets adapt to a marketing strategy that must, above all costs, maintain the integrity of its brand. E. Brazilians intolerance of foreign goods, because they disregard their tastes.

Q: Anthropology has three dimensions: academic, applied, and a mix of the two.

Q: Ethnography is one of applied anthropologys most valuable research tools, because it provides a firsthand account of the lives of ordinary people.

Q: Which of the following best illustrates urban applied anthropologists ability to help social groups deal with urban institutions? A. culture at a distance studies among Japanese and Germans in an attempt to predict the behavior of the enemies of the United States B. Kottaks comparative study of development projects from around the world C. Vigils study of gang violence in the context of large-scale immigrant adaptation to U.S. cities D. anthropological analysis of the relation between Malagasy descent groups and the state E. analysis of differences between personalistic and naturalistic disease theories among rural poor of the U.S.

Q: Which of the following is true about medical anthropology? A. It is the field that has proved that people from rural areas suffer only from illnesses and not diseases. B. It applies non-Western health knowledge to a troubled industrialized medical system. C. Typically in cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, this field does market research on the use of health products around the world. D. This field applies Western medicine to solve health problems around the world. E. This growing field considers the biocultural context and implications of disease and illness.

Q: What is a disease? A. a health problem as it is experienced by the one affected B. an artificial product of biomedicine C. a consequence of a foraging lifestyle D. an unnatural state of health E. a scientifically identified health threat

Q: What is an illness? A. a nonexistent ailment (only diseases are real) B. an artificial product of biomedicine C. a scientifically described health threat D. a purely linguistic problem E. a condition of poor health perceived by an individual

Q: Shamans and other magico-religious specialists are effective curers with regard to what kind of disease theory? A. exotic B. ritualistic C. naturalistic D. personalistic E. scientific

Q: In a comparative study of 68 development projects, Kottak determined that A. overinnovation was the most productive development model. B. culturally compatible development projects were twice as successful as incompatible ones. C. the Soviet socialist bloc model was the most successful. D. the capitalist bloc model was the most financially successful. E. the underdifferentiated model led to the most equity.

Q: Which of the following is NOT a valid criticism of many economic development projects? A. They often pay more attention to the physical features than to the social features of the projects setting. B. Project planners have no real interest in helping communities. C. Project personnel too rarely visit and talk with the people affected by the project. D. The planners tend to overlook cultural diversity, especially in less developed countries. E. People who know little about the area affected by the project often have done most or all of its planning, execution, and evaluation.

Q: What term refers to the tendency to view less developed countries as more alike than they are? A. cultural relativism B. ethnobias C. overinnovation D. underdifferentiation E. intervention philosophy

Q: Development projects should aim to accomplish all of the following EXCEPT A. promoting change, but not overinnovation. B. preserving local systems while working to make them better. C. respecting local traditions. D. drawing models of development from indigenous practices. E. developing strategies with little input from the local communities.

Q: Which of the following is a reason that the Madagascar project to increase rice production was successful? A. Malagasy leaders were of the peasantry and were therefore prepared to follow the descent-group ethic of pooling resources for the good of the group as a whole. B. The elites and the lower class were of different origins and thus had no strong connections through kinship, descent, or marriage. C. There is a clear fit between capitalist development schemes and corporate descent-group social organization. D. The project took into account the inevitability of native forms of social organization breaking down into nuclear family organization, impersonality, and alienation. E. The educated members of Malagasy society are those who have struggled to fend for themselves and therefore brought an innovative kind of independence to the project.

Q: The Malagasy development program described in this chapter illustrates the importance ofA. the local governments ability to improve the lives of its citizens, when committed to doing so.B. replacing subsistence farming with a viable cash crop.C. replacing outdated traditional techniques of irrigation with more modern ones.D. breaking down corporate descent groups, which are too independent and interfere with development.E. the top-down strategies developed by the UN.

Q: In an example of applied anthropology s contribution to improving education, this chapter describes a study of Puerto Rican seventh graders in a Midwestern U.S. urban school (Hill-Burnett, 1978). What did anthropologists discover in this study?A. Puerto Rican students came from a background that placed less value on education than did that of white students.B. The parents of Puerto Rican students did not value achievement.C. The Puerto Rican subjects benefited from the English as a foreign language program.D. Puerto Ricans do not benefit from bilingual education.E. The Puerto Rican students education was being affected by their teachers misconceptions.

Q: Anthropology may aid in the progress of education by helping educators avoid all of the following EXCEPT A. indiscriminate assignment of nonnative English speakers to the same classrooms as children with behavior problems. B. tolerance of ethnic diversity. C. incorrect application of labels such as learning impaired." D. sociolinguistic discrimination. E. ethnic stereotyping.

Q: Robert Redfields research recognized that a city is a social context that is very different from a tribal or peasant village. What did he study? A. differences between more and less developed countries in their urban life B. differences between health care systems among foragers and agriculturalists C. differences between urban and rural communities D. differences between the consequences of overinnovation and underdifferentiation E. differences between illnesses and diseases

Q: What did Robert Redfield argue about the relations between urban and rural communities? A. Peasants are culturally isolated from cities. B. Cities are centers from which cultural innovations are spread to rural and tribal areas. C. Innovation tends to move from rural to urban areas. D. There are so many connections between rural and urban areas that it is not useful to distinguish between the two within one cultural context. E. Urban centers have more in common with each other, even across national boundaries, than they do with rural areas in the same country.

Q: Which of the following is NOT a feature of urban life? A. dispersed settlements B. high population density C. social heterogeneity D. economic differentiation E. geographic mobility

Q: What is the commonly stated goal for most development projects? A. greater socioeconomic stratification B. ethnocide C. cultural assimilation D. decreased local autonomy E. increased equity

Q: What do you think is the relation between theory and methods in anthropology, if they relate at all?

Q: Applied anthropology is A. the purely academic dimension of anthropology. B. the term used for all anthropological research programs. C. the use of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary problems. D. rarely possible, as anthropological studies are not practical in the real world. E. is not guided by anthropological theory.

Q: Which of the following does NOT illustrate the kinds of work that applied anthropologists do? A. working for or with international development agencies, such as the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development B. helping the Environmental Protection Agency address environmental problems C. borrowing from fields such as history and sociology to broaden the scope of theoretical anthropology D. using the tools of medical anthropology to work as cultural interpreters in public health programs E. applying the tools of forensic anthropology to work with police, medical examiners, the courts, and international organizations to identify victims of crimes, accidents, wars, and terrorism

Q: Why is ethnography one of the most valuable and distinctive tools of the applied anthropologist? A. It is valuable insiders data that can be routinely sold to multinational corporations and state agencies without the consent of the people studied. B. It provides a firsthand account of the day-to-day issues and challenges that the members of a given community face, as well as a sense of how those people think about and react to these issues. C. It produces a statistically unbiased summary of human response to set stimuli. D. It is among the most economical and time-efficient tools that exist in the social sciences. E. It can be produced without leaving the comfort of the anthropologists office.

Q: Which of the following is a distinguishing characteristic of the work that applied anthropologists do? A. They enter the affected communities and talk with people. B. They gather government statistics. C. They consult project managers. D. They consult government officials and other experts. E. They promote development.

Q: Which of the following illustrates some of the dangers of the old applied anthropology? A. anthropologists promoting the study of their field among university undergraduates B. anthropologists practicing participant observation and taking photographs of ritualistic behavior C. Robert Redfields work on the contrasts between urban and rural communities D. anthropologists collaborating with nongovernmental organizations in the 1980s E. anthropologists aiding colonial expansion by providing ethnographic information to colonists

Q: Who was studied at a distance during the 1940s in an attempt to predict the behavior of the political enemies of the United States? A. the Koreans and English B. the Yanomami and Betsileo C. the Malagasy D. the Germans and Japanese E. the Brazilians and Indonesians

Q: What is the postwar baby boom of the late 1940s and 1950s responsible for? A. It fueled the general expansion of the U.S. educational system, including academic anthropology. B. It promoted renewed interest in applied anthropology during the 1950s and 1960s. C. It brought anthropology into most high school curricula. D. It produced a new interest in ethnic diversity. E. It worked to shrink the world system.

Q: As an aid to applied anthropology, anthropological theory A. is now read widely throughout the commercial sector of Western economies. B. is generally considered a drawback to practice, because it is mainly based on work among indigenous societies. C. promotes a systemic perspective that aids the successful implementation of development projects. D. is derivative and lacking in original ideas. E. formally forbids anthropologists from doing applied work.

Q: All of the following are proper roles for applied anthropologists EXCEPT A. identifying needs for change that local people perceive. B. working with people to design culturally appropriate and socially sensitive change. C. placing the cultural values of the local people above everybody elses cultural values. D. protecting local people from harmful policies and projects that might threaten them. E. working as participant observers, taking part in the events they study in order to understand local thought and behavior.