Chapter 01
What is Anthropology?

Multiple Choice Questions
 
1. What is anthropology? 
A. the art of ethnography
B. the study of long-term physiological adaptation
C. the study of the stages of social evolution
D. the humanistic investigation of myths in nonindustrial societies
E. the exploration of human diversity in time and space

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Topic: Human diversity
 
2. A holistic and comparative perspective 
A. makes general anthropology superior to sociocultural anthropology.
B. refers only to the cultural aspects of human diversity that anthropologists study.
C. makes anthropology an interesting field of study, but too broad of one to apply to real problems people face today.
D. most characterizes anthropology, when compared to other disciplines that study humans.
E. is the hallmark of all social sciences, not just anthropology.

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Topic: Human diversity

3. As humans organize their lives and adapt to different environments, our abilities to learn, think symbolically, use language, and employ tools and other products 
A. rest on certain features of human biology that make culture itself a biological phenomenon.
B. have made some human groups more cultured than others.
C. prove that only fully developed adults have the capacity for culture; children lack the capacity for culture until they mature.
D. rest on certain features of human biology that make culture, which is not itself biological, possible.
E. are shared with other animals capable of organized group life—such as baboons, wolves, and even ants.

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Topic: Human diversity
 
4. Which of the following is NOT true about culture? 
A. Culture is a key aspect of human adaptability and success.
B. Culture is passed on genetically to future generations.
C. Cultural forces consistently mold and shape human biology and behavior.
D. Culture guides the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to it.
E. Culture is passed on from generation to generation.

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Topic: Human diversity
 
5. What is the process by which children learn a particular cultural tradition? 
A. acculturation
B. ethnology
C. enculturation
D. ethnography
E. biological adaptation

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Topic: Human diversity

6. This chapter's description of how humans cope with low oxygen pressure in high altitudes illustrates 
A. human capacities for cultural and biological adaptation, the latter involving both genetic and physiological adaptations.
B. how biological adaptations are effective only when they are genetic.
C. how human plasticity has decreased ever since we embraced a sedentary lifestyle some 10,000 years ago.
D. how in matters of life or death, biology is ultimately more important than culture.
E. the need for anthropologists to pay more attention to human adaptation in extreme environments.

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Topic: Human diversity
 
7. The presence of more efficient respiratory systems to extract oxygen from the air among human populations living at high elevations is an example of which form of adaptation? 
A. short-term physiological adaptation
B. cultural adaptation
C. symbolic adaptation
D. genetic adaptation
E. long-term physiological adaptation

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Topic: Human diversity
 
8. Over time, humans have become increasingly dependent on which of the following in order to cope with the range of environments they have occupied in time and space? 
A. cultural means of adaptation
B. biological means of adaptation, mostly thanks to advanced medical research
C. a holistic and comparative approach to problem solving
D. social institutions, such as the state, that coordinate collective action
E. technological means of adaptation, such as the creation of virtual worlds that allow us to escape from day-to-day reality

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Topic: Human diversity

9. Today's global economy and communications link all contemporary people, directly or indirectly, in the modern world system. People must now cope with forces generated by progressively larger systems—the region, the nation, and the world. For anthropologists studying contemporary forms of adaptation, why might this be a challenge? 
A. Truly isolated indigenous communities, anthropology's traditional and ongoing study focus, are becoming harder to find.
B. According to Marcus and Fischer (1986), "The cultures of world peoples need to be constantly rediscovered as these people reinvent them in changing historical circumstances."
C. A more dynamic world system, with greater and faster movements of people across space, speeds up the process of evolution, making the study of genetic adaptations more difficult.
D. Anthropological research tools do not work in this new modern world system, making their contributions less valuable.
E. Since cultures are tied to place, people moving around and connecting across space means the end of culture, and thus the end of anthropology.

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Topic: Human diversity
 
10. In general, Americans tend to maintain a greater physical distance from others they interact with on a day-to-day basis, especially when compared to Brazilians or Italians, who need less personal space. However, the story of American students' attitudes toward hugging in "Give Me a Hug" reminds us that 
A. any nation usually contains diverse and even conflicting cultural values, and these cultural values are not static.
B. the key reason for the poor track-record of U.S. diplomacy begins with failures in the American school system.
C. some aspects of culture are more biologically determined than others.
D. cultural values regarding bodily touch and personal space are very difficult to change from one generation to another.
E. homosexuality is becoming more prevalent, and more accepted, among teenagers.

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Topic: Human diversity

11. What are the four subfields of anthropology? 
A. medical anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, and cultural anthropology
B. archaeology, biological anthropology, applied linguistics, and applied anthropology
C. biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology, and archaeology
D. genetic anthropology, physical anthropology, psychological anthropology, and linguistic and anthropology
E. primatology, ethnology, cultural anthropology, and paleoscatology

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Topic: General anthropology
 
12. Anthropologists' early interest in Native North Americans 
A. is unique to European anthropology.
B. was more important than interest in the relation between biology and culture in the development of U.S. four-field anthropology.
C. proved early on that culture is a function of race.
D. is an important historical reason for the development of four-field anthropology in the U.S.
E. was replaced in the 1930s by the two-field approach.

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Topic: General anthropology
 
13. How are the four subfields of U.S. anthropology unified? 
A. Each subfield studies human variation through time and space.
B. Each subfield studies the human capacity for language.
C. Each subfield studies human biological variability.
D. Each subfield studies human genetic variation through time and space.
E. The subfields really are not unified; their grouping into one discipline is a historical accident.

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Topic: General anthropology

14. What is one of the most fundamental key assumptions that anthropologists share? 
A. There are no universals, so cross-cultural research is bound to fail.
B. A degree in philosophy is the best way to produce good ethnography.
C. We can draw conclusions about human nature by studying a single society.
D. Anthropologists cannot agree on what anthropology is, much less share key assumptions.
E. A comparative, cross-cultural approach is essential to study the human condition.

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Topic: General anthropology
 
15. Cultural anthropologists carry out their fieldwork in 
A. factories.
B. the tropics.
C. the third world.
D. former colonies.
E. all kinds of societies.

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
16. Which of the following perspectives emphasizes how cultural forces constantly mold human biology? 
A. cultural genetics perspective
B. biocultural perspective
C. psychological anthropological perspective
D. holistic perspective
E. scientific-humanistic perspective

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Topic: General anthropology

17. Ethnography is the 
A. study of biological adaptability.
B. preliminary data that sociologists use to develop survey research.
C. fieldwork component of cultural anthropology.
D. cross-cultural comparative component of cultural anthropology.
E. generalizing aspect of cultural anthropology.

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
18. Based on his observation that contact between neighboring tribes had existed since humanity's beginnings and covered enormous areas, Franz Boas argued 
A. against treating cultures as isolated phenomena.
B. that even the earliest foragers engaged in warfare.
C. that language must have originated among the Neandertals.
D. that biology, not culture, was responsible for the vast majority of human diversity.
E. that general anthropologists were wrong to focus too much attention on biology.

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
19. What component of cultural anthropology is comparative and focused on building upon our understanding of how cultural systems work? 
A. ethnography
B. data collection
C. ethnology
D. fieldwork
E. data entry

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology

20. 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 discipline's 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 environments—such as landfills and the deep sea—are worth the time, resources, and risk for the sake of the anthropological knowledge gained.

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
21. 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.

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
22. 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.

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Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields

23. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Sing Lee, a Hong Kong-based psychiatrist and researcher, documented what was at that time a culturally specific and vary rare disorder in teenage females. What was the disorder? 
A. bulimia
B. anorexia
C. post traumatic stress
D. koro
E. mal de ojo

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Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields
 
24. 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.

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Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields
 
25. 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

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Topic: Applied anthropology

26. Applied anthropology 
A. originated at the same time that anthropology's 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.

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Topic: Applied anthropology
 
27. 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.

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Topic: Scientific method
 
28. 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.

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Topic: Scientific method

29. The study of television's 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.

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Topic: Scientific method

True / False Questions
 
30. Anthropologists study only non-Western cultures. 
FALSE

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Topic: Human diversity
 
31. Humans can adapt to their surroundings through both biological and cultural means. 
TRUE

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Topic: Human diversity
 
32. Culture is not itself biological but rests on certain features of human biology. 
TRUE

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Topic: Human diversity

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

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Topic: Human diversity
 
34. Anthropologists agree that a comparative, cross-cultural approach is unnecessary as long as researchers are diligent in their work. 
FALSE

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Topic: Human diversity
 
35. Ethnography involves the collection of data that is used to create an account of a particular community, society, or culture. 
TRUE

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
36. Ethnomusicology is one of the four main subfields of anthropology. 
FALSE

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Topic: General anthropology
 
37. Archaeologists study only prehistoric communities. 
FALSE

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology

38. Biological anthropologists study only human bones. 
FALSE

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology
 
39. As an academic discipline, anthropology falls under both the social sciences and the humanities. 
TRUE

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Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields
 
40. The differences between sociology and cultural anthropology are becoming increasingly more distinct. 
FALSE

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Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields
 
41. Psychologists tend to study only people living in the non-Western world, so anthropology has very little to offer this field. 
FALSE

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Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields
 
42. Applied anthropology encompasses any use of the knowledge and/or techniques of its four subfields to identify, assess, and solve theoretical problems. 
FALSE

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Topic: Applied anthropology

43. Theories must be proved correct before they can be accepted. 
FALSE

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Topic: Scientific method
 
44. In the social sciences, associations are usually probable rather than absolute. 
TRUE

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Topic: Scientific method
 
45. According to this chapter's "Focus on Globalization," American baseball appears to be more ethnically diverse than American football or basketball. 
TRUE

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Topic: Subdisciplines of anthropology

Essay Questions
 
46. This chapter begins with a bold claim: Anthropologists study human beings wherever and whenever they find them. Yet there are limits to when and where anthropologists can carry out their work. Can you think of any? How might your consideration of these limits affect how you would design an anthropological study? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Human diversity

47. What is culture? How do anthropologists define and study culture? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Human diversity
 
48. 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 of your other classes? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Human diversity
 
49. This chapter provides an example of human adaptation to high altitude to illustrate the various forms of cultural and biological adaptation. Can you think of another example that illustrates the broad capacity of humans to adapt both biologically and culturally? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Human diversity
 
50. 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? 
Answers will vary

Topic: General anthropology

51. This chapter considers differences and similarities between anthropology and other academic fields such as sociology and psychology. What about history? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Anthropology and other academic fields
 
52. Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro's 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 anthropology's 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? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Applied anthropology
 
53. In this chapter, John Whiting's 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? 
Answers will vary

Topic: Scientific method