Q&A Hero

Q: Independent invention occurs when two or more cultures independently come up with similar solutions to a common problem.

Q: Acculturation is the process by which people lose the culture that they learned as children.

Q: Indigenous cultures are at the mercy of the forces of globalization, as they can do nothing to stop threats to their cultural identity, autonomy, and livelihood.

Q: Modern means of transportation and communication have facilitated the process of globalization.

Q: While cultural abilities have a biological basis, they do not have an evolutionary basis.

Q: Although humans do employ tools much more than any other animal does, tool use also turns up among several nonhuman species, including birds, beavers, sea otters, and apes.

Q: Hunting is a distinctive human activity not shared with the apes.

Q: Practice theory recognizes that the study of anthropology takes a lot of practice before resulting in accurate descriptions of a culture.

Q: Although there are many different levels of culture, an individual can participate in only one level at a time.

Q: Only people living in the industrialized, capitalist countries of Europe and the United States are ethnocentric.

Q: Cultural relativists believe that a culture should be judged only according to the standards and traditions of that culture and not according to the standards of other cultural traditions.

Q: Anthropology is characterized by a methodological rather than moral relativism; in order to understand another culture fully, anthropologists try to understand its members beliefs and motivations.

Q: According to Leslie White, culture is dependent upon the ability to create and use symbols.

Q: Cultural particularities are unique to certain cultures, while cultural generalities are common to several (but not all) cultures.

Q: Cultures are integrated, patterned systems in which a change in one part often leads to changes in other parts.

Q: Once an individual has been enculturated, that person must adhere to the cultural rules that govern that culture.

Q: Although culture is one of the principal means humans use to adapt to their environment, some cultural traits can be harmful to a groups survival.

Q: The tendency to view ones own culture as superior and to use ones own standards and values in judging others is called A. patriotism. B. ethnocentrism. C. moral relativism. D. cultural relativism. E. illiteracy.

Q: In anthropology, cultural relativism is not a moral position but a methodological one. It states that A. because cultural values vary between cultures, they cannot be analyzed and compared. B. some cultures are relatively better than others. C. in order to understand another culture fully, we must try to understand how the people in that culture see things. D. to understand another culture, we must try to use tactics to jar people so that their true view of things is revealed. E. to bring about desired cultural change, anthropologists should act as emissaries of the most evolved cultural values.

Q: How are cultural rights different from human rights? A. Human rights are real, whereas cultural rights are just perceived. B. The United Nations protects human rights but not cultural rights. C. Cultural rights are vested in groups, not in individuals. D. Cultural rights are more clear-cut than human rights. E. The term cultural rights is a politically correct synonym for human rights.

Q: Human rights are seen as inalienable. This means that A. no one can abuse them. B. nations cannot abridge or terminate them. C. they are vested in groups and not individuals. D. anthropologists have no moral grounds to question them. E. they are universally accepted by all individuals.

Q: Although rap music originated in the United States, it is now popular all over the world. Which of the following mechanisms of cultural change is responsible for this? A. acculturation B. enculturation C. independent invention D. colonization E. diffusion

Q: What is the term for the kind of cultural change that results when two or more cultures have consistent firsthand contact? A. acculturation B. enculturation C. independent invention D. colonization E. imperialism

Q: Which of the following is an example of independent invention, the process by which people in different societies have innovated and changed in similar but independent ways? A. acculturation B. culture C. globalization D. agriculture E. language

Q: Culture helps us define the world in which we live, to express feelings and ideas, and to guide our behavior and perceptions.

Q: Culture is transmitted by both formal and informal instruction, but not by observation.

Q: Culture is transmitted in society.

Q: The Makah, a tribe that lives near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Olympic Peninsula, see themselves as whalers and continue to identify themselves spiritually with whales. Their ongoing struggle to maintain their traditional way of life, which involves whale hunting, demonstrates how A. some indigenous communities are able to isolate themselves from national and international politics despite the continuous threat from outsiders. B. indigenous communities do not understand the threat that their activities pose to endangered species. C. contemporary law is useless in solving disputes with indigenous communities. D. contemporary indigenous groups have to grapple with multiple levels of culture, contestation, and political regulation. E. animals do not have rights.

Q: Many human traits reflect the fact that our primate ancestors lived in trees. These traits include all of the following EXCEPT A. grasping ability. B. depth and color vision. C. learning ability based on a large brain. D. substantial parental investment in a limited number of offspring. E. echolocation made possible by overlapping visual fields.

Q: The incest taboo is a cultural universal, but A. it applies only to groups with bilateral kinship terminologies. B. it does not count as such, since higher primates do it too. C. the definition of what constitutes incest varies widely across cultures. D. it has only recently appeared among tribal societies. E. it has disappeared among modern societies.

Q: There are two meanings of globalization: globalization as fact and process, and globalization as ideology and contested policy. What is the primary and neutral meaning of globalization as is applicable to anthropology? A. promotion of the interests of multinational corporations at the expense of farmers and workers B. the efforts by international financial powers to create a global free market for goods and services C. the impact of the world on the rest of the universe D. the spread and connectedness of production, communication, and technologies across the world E. the opposition of global free trade

Q: Which of the following is a cultural generality? A. exogamy B. the use of fire C. the incest taboo D. the use of symbols E. the nuclear family

Q: Which of the following LEAST explains the existence of cultural generalities? A. cultural borrowing B. globalization C. colonialism D. isolationism E. trade

Q: What are cultural particularities? A. traits isolated from other traits in the same culture B. traits unique to a given culture, not shared with others C. different levels of culture D. the most general aspect of culture patterns E. cultural traits of individuals rather than groups

Q: All of the following are evidence of the tendency to view culture as a process EXCEPT A. analysis that attempts to establish boundaries between cultures. B. practice theory. C. attention to agency in anthropological analysis. D. interest in public, collective, and individual dimensions of day-to-day life. E. interest in how acts of resistance can make and remake culture.

Q: What process is most responsible for the existence of international culture? A. ethnocentrism B. cultural relativism C. dendritic acculturation D. gene flow E. cultural diffusion, whether direct, indirect, or by force

Q: Which of the following statements about subcultures is NOT true? A. Subcultures exemplify levels of culture. B. Subcultures have different learning experiences. C. Subcultures have shared learning experiences. D. Subcultures may originate in ethnicity, class, region, or religion. E. Subcultures are mutually exclusive; individuals may not participate in more than one subculture.

Q: Which of the following statements about culture is NOT true? A. It has an evolutionary basis. B. It is acquired by all humans as members of society through enculturation. C. It encompasses rule-governed, shared, symbol-based, learned behavior, as well as beliefs transmitted across the generations. D. Everyone is cultured. E. It is transmitted genetically.

Q: People in the United States sometimes have trouble understanding the power of culture because of the value that American culture places on the idea of the individual. Yet in American culture A. individualism is a distinctive commercial value, a feature of capitalist culture shared only by the business elite. B. the cult of individualism is truly shared only by the countrys atheist minority. C. individualism is a distinctive shared value, a feature of culture. D. individualism is a distinctive shared value, a result of genetic enculturation. E. individualism is only something people talk about but dont practice, because it is not really part of their culture.

Q: People have to eat, but culture teaches us what, when, and how to do so. This is an example of how A. culture takes the natural biological urges we share with other animals and teaches us how to express them in particular ways. B. biology dominates culture. C. we are all just uncultured animals. D. individuals are powerless to alter the strong relationship between nature and culture. E. human nature is a cultural construction, an idea we have in our minds that has nothing to do with true nature.

Q: Since the 1970s, many anthropologists have done research among the Ariaal, a nomadic community of northern Kenya. Just as anthropologists have studied many aspects of this communitys culture, the Ariaal have formed opinions based on observation of their visitors. For example, they note how anthropologists A. always follow up on their promises of sending reports of their studies. B. slather white liquid on their very white skin to protect them from the sun, and often favor short pants that show off their legs and boots. C. focus only on the cultural aspects of their lives and ignore the biological aspects. D. will work with them only if the Ariaal exhibit no signs of the modernization that threatens to spoil their culture. E. typically are very ethnocentric, a key aspect of the anthropological approach to studying other cultures.

Q: Culture can be adaptive or maladaptive. It is maladaptive when A. it exhibits cultural traits that are not shared with the majority of the group. B. it threatens the core values of a culture that guarantee its integration. C. cultural traits diminish the survival of particular individuals but not others. D. cultural traits, patterns, and inventions disrupt the world economy, causing international discontent. E. cultural traits, patterns, and inventions threaten the groups continued survival and reproduction and thus its very existence.

Q: The human capacity for culture has an evolutionary basis that extends back at least 2.5 million years. This date corresponds to A. the earliest production of cave art found in South Africa. B. early toolmakers whose products survive in the archaeological record. C. a genetic mutation that caused the increase in brain size and complexity. D. the advent of anatomically modern primates. E. evidence of hunting and the use of fire to cook tough meats.

Q: In this chapter, John Whitings research is used to illustrate the application of the scientific method in an anthropological study. What are these steps? Recalling that complete objectivity is impossible, how did Whiting strive for objectivity and impartiality in his research on sexual custom and diet?

Q: Culture A. is the exclusive domain of the elite. B. is acquired by humans as members of society through the process of enculturation. C. is being destroyed by electronic media. D. developed among nonhuman primates around 10,000 years ago. E. is more developed in industrial nations than among hunters and gatherers.

Q: Which of the following statements about enculturation is NOT true? A. It occurs through a process of conscious and unconscious learning. B. It results in internalization of a cultural tradition. C. It may involve direct teaching. D. It is the exchange of cultural features that results when two or more groups come into consistent firsthand contact. E. It is the process by which culture is learned and transmitted across generations.

Q: Anthropologists agree that cultural learning is uniquely elaborated among humans and that all humans have culture. They also accept a doctrine designated in the 19th century as the psychic unity of man. What does this doctrine mean? A. Although women and men both share the emotional and intellectual capacities for culture, at a population level there is less variability in these capacities among men than among women. B. Although individuals differ in their emotional and intellectual capacities, all human populations have equivalent capacities for culture. C. Although an individuals genetic endowment does not affect that persons ability to learn cultural traditions, it does affect his or her capacity to change culture creatively. D. Although human populations differ in their emotional and intellectual capacities, all individuals have equivalent capacities for culture. E. Both mental abilities and disabilities are evenly distributed among individuals of all cultures.

Q: Anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined culture as ideas based on cultural learning and symbols. For anthropologist Leslie White, culture originated when our ancestors acquired the ability to use symbols. What is a symbol? It is A. a distinctive or unique cultural trait, pattern, or integration that can be translated into other cultures. B. any element within a culture that distinguishes it from other cultures, precisely because it is difficult to translate. C. something verbal or nonverbal, within a particular language or culture, that comes to stand for something else, with no necessary or natural connection to the thing for which it stands. D. a linguistic sign within a particular language that comes to stand for something else in another language. E. something verbal or nonverbal with a nonarbitrary association with what it symbolizes.

Q: What does it mean to say that humans use culture instrumentally? A. People use culture to fulfill their basic biological needs for food, drink, shelter, comfort, and reproduction. B. People use culture to develop artistic endeavors, including musical instruments and visual arts. C. People use culture to advance civilization. D. Culture is a human construct. E. Culture is instrumental in the creation of societies.

Q: What do anthropologists mean when they say culture is shared? A. Culture is an attribute of particular individuals. B. Culture is an attribute of individuals as members of groups. C. Culture is what ensures that all people raised in the same society have the same opinions. D. Culture is universally regarded as more important than the concept of the individual. E. Passive enculturation is accomplished by more than one person.

Q: What is culture? How do anthropologists define and study culture?

Q: What does holism refer to? Why is the concept central to anthropology? How does this concept relate to the four-field approach within the discipline? Have you encountered this concept in any other of your classes?

Q: What does biocultural perspective refer to? If you are planning to major in the biological sciences or planning a career as a medical doctor or clinical researcher, how might a minor in anthropology complement your education? If you are thinking of majoring in the humanities, how might a minor in anthropology complement your education?

Q: Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoros career illustrates the usefulness of anthropology in addressing contemporary world problems. Her role as a mother to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, and his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, also pays tribute to anthropologys relevance in the world today. How so? More generally, how do you think anthropology might be of value not just to political leaders but to all of us as active members in our society, when understanding and solving shared pressing challenges such as environmental degradation, poverty, and violence?

Q: Although science relies on the use of unbiased methods, complete objectivity is impossible. There is always an observer bias.

Q: According to this chapters Focus on Globalization, American baseball appears to be more ethnically diverse than American football or basketball.

Q: Applied anthropology encompasses any use of the knowledge and/or techniques its four subfields to identify, assess, and solve theoretical problems.

Q: Theories must be proved correct before they can be accepted.

Q: Anthropologists study only non-Western cultures.

Q: Humans can adapt to their surroundings through both biological and cultural means.

Q: Culture is not itself biological but rests on certain features of human biology.

Q: Adaptation refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses, such as those posed by climate and topography.

Q: Anthropologists agree that a comparative, cross-cultural approach is unnecessary as long as researchers are diligent in their work.

Q: Ethnography involves the collection of data that is used to create an account of a particular community, society, or culture.

Q: Ethnomusicology is one of the four main subfields of anthropology.

Q: Archaeologists study only prehistoric communities.

Q: Biological anthropologists study only human bones.

Q: As an academic discipline, anthropology falls under both the social sciences and the humanities.

Q: The differences between sociology and cultural anthropology are becoming increasingly more distinct.

Q: Psychologists tend to study only people living in the non-Western world, so anthropology has very little to offer this field.

Q: In science, what is the relationship among explanations, associations, and theories? A. An explanation must show how and why the thing to be understood is associated with or related to something else. Theories require covariation: when one thing (a variable) changes, the other one varies as well. Associations provide explanations for both explanations and theories. B. They mean the same thing. C. An explanation must show how and why the thing to be understood is associated with or related to something else. Associations require covariation: when one thing (a variable) changes, the other one varies as well. Theories provide explanations for associations. D. Explanations and associations are explained by theories, which are observed relationships between two or more variables. E. An explanation must show how and why the thing to be understood is associated with or related to something else. Thus, explanations and associations are the same thing. A theory is a suggested but as yet unverified explanation.

Q: The study of televisions behavioral effects in Brazil illustrates all of the following EXCEPT A. how investigators must carefully choose between a qualitative or quantitative data model. B. how the scientific method is not limited to ethnology but applies to any anthropological endeavor that formulates research questions and gathers or uses systematic data to test hypotheses. C. the value of cross-cultural research, which in this case enables the researchers to distinguish the effects of years of TV exposure and other changes associated with aging. D. how anthropological studies may deal with several research questions. E. the challenges researchers often face when determining whether they are observing effects or correlations in their findings.

Q: Archaeologists studying sunken ships off the coast of Florida or analyzing the content of modern garbage are examples of how A. archaeologists study the culture of historical and even living peoples. B. Hollywood has popularized archaeology in recent movies, making it a popular college major. C. archaeology is going through an identity crisis, with its practitioners questioning the disciplines focus on studying prehistory. D. archaeology is free from having to worry about the impact of its work on people. E. training in the use of research skills for extreme environmentssuch as landfills and the deep seaare worth the time, resources, and risk for the sake of the anthropological knowledge gained.

Q: Linguistic anthropology A. is a research strategy of biological anthropologists studying the emergence of language among nonhuman primates. B. relies heavily on the methods of phrenology. C. includes sociolinguistics, descriptive linguistics, and the study of the biological basis for speech. D. includes cultural anthropology and paleoecology. E. has securely dated the origin of hominid language.

Q: Anthropology is a science, yet it has been suggested that anthropology is among the most humanistic of all academic fields. This is because A. its main object of study are humans. B. of its fundamental respect for human diversity. C. its findings are best expressed with the tools of the humanities. D. the field, particularly in the United States, traces its origins to philosophy and literature. E. it puts so much emphasis on the study of culture that cannot be studied scientifically.

Q: Bronislaw Malinowski, an early contributor to the cross-cultural study of human psychology, is famous for his fieldwork among the Trobriand Islanders of the South Pacific. Although some of his specific findings have been questioned by more recent scholars, no contemporary anthropologist would dispute Malinowskis contention that A. Freuds work is worthless once taken out of its particular cultural context (patriarchal Austria during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). B. psychology and anthropology have little relevance to each other, since the former focuses on the individual and the latter studies cultures and societies as a whole. C. psychologists are not willing to step out of their tightly controlled laboratories, and anthropologists are too focused on finding exotic exceptions to every possible human universal. D. researchers cannot get at what is in peoples minds, only at what they say and do. E. individual psychology is molded in a specific cultural context.

Q: Anthropology may improve psychological studies of human behavior by contributing A. examples of primitive thinking from tribal societies. B. nothing, since anthropology focuses on culture and psychology concentrates on personality. C. prehistoric analysis. D. a humanistic approach to psychology. E. a cross-cultural perspective on models of human psychology.

Q: The American Anthropological Association has formally acknowledged a public service role by recognizing that anthropology has which two dimensions? A. academic anthropology and applied anthropology B. ethnology and public ethnography C. cultural resource management and medical anthropology D. private anthropology and public anthropology E. applied anthropology and practicing anthropology

Q: Applied anthropology A. originated at the same time that anthropologys four-field approach became established among early twentieth-century U.S. academics. B. has yet to be recognized by the American Anthropological Association. C. encompasses any use of the knowledge and/or techniques of its four subfields to identify, assess, and solve practical problems. D. focuses on preparing emerging academic scholars to improve their grant application skills. E. is a European phenomenon.

Q: Which of the following statements about theories is NOT true? A. Scientists evaluate theories through the method of falsification. B. A theory is an explanatory framework that helps us understand why something exists. C. Predictions from theories are disproved rather than proved. D. Theories apply only to linguistic and biological phenomena. E. Scientists accept theories that have not been disproved.