Deck 11: Modern Human Diversity: Race and Racism

Question 1

All of the following are challenges associated with using mtDNA to trace ancestry except:

A)it is inherited only through the mother's line.
B)you are equally descended from all four grandparents,but mitochondrially descended from only one.
C)75% of your grandparents are invisible to an mtDNA analysis.
D)a mitochondrial non-match means nothing at all.
E)mtDNA is extremely significant in understanding one's ancestry.

Answer 1

mtDNA is extremely significant in understanding one's ancestry.

Question 2

What is the importance of ancestry research based on mitochondrial DNA?

A)It allows individual to trace disease in their family lines that could be potentially fatal.
B)It shows the importance of cultural beliefs and the symbolic power of demonstrated ancestry.
C)It allows us to reconstruct the human evolutionary tree and better understand our history.
D)It allows us to identify how our family migrated and also identify our distinct biological heritage.
E)It provides individuals with a valid way to trace inheritance and gain access to legal representation.

Answer 2

It shows the importance of cultural beliefs and the symbolic power of demonstrated ancestry.

Question 3

In 2010,the U.S.Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act to address many years of unfair sentencing carried out in regards to the use of crack cocaine.This social injustice is an example of:

A)polygenetic inheritance.
B)structural violence.
C)physical violence.
D)hypodescent.
E)geocide.

Answer 3

structural violence.

Question 4

Which business allows people to trace their mitochondrial DNA back thousands of years?

A)Genetic science
B)Recreational ancestry
C)Human growth and development science
D)Evolutionary biology
E)Forensic anthropology

Question 5

The physical extermination of one people by another is called:

A)genocide.
B)racism.
C)infanticide.
D)ratiocination.
E)discrimination.

Question 6

A doctrine by which one group justifies the dehumanization of others based on their distinctive physical characteristics is called:

A)racism.
B)discrimination.
C)hypodescent.
D)genocide.
E)ethnocide.

Question 7

Who was Ota Benga?

A)He was the last member of his race of Twa pygmies.
B)He was a Twa scientist who did research to overturn the biological basis of race.
C)He was an anthropologist who worked to make the census racial categories more accurate.
D)He was a Twa pygmy who was captured and exhibited in a New York zoo.
E)He was an African who underwent radical surgery to change his race.

Question 8

Which of the following scientists divided humans into subspecies based on geographic location?

A)Johan Blumenbach
B)Carolus Linnaeus
C)Charles Darwin
D)Franz Boas
E)Fatimah Jackson

Question 9

In a study of the differences between populations of humans,Richard Lewontin found that the total amount of genetic variation between groups is:

A)37%.
B)23%.
C)14%.
D)11%.
E)7%.

Question 10

How does the definition of race differ from biology to anthropology?

A)Anthropologists see race as a cultural category,while biologists use this term to indicate species variation.
B)Anthropologists see race as a biological category,while biologists see race simply as a genetic marker.
C)Anthropologists do not acknowledge that racial categories exist,while biologists continue to use this term for different species.
D)Anthropologists argue that race is fixed by type,while biologists see race as an arbitrary category.
E)Anthropologists use race as a way of teaching people what is wrong with human variation,while biologists use this term to divide living forms into different taxonomic categories.

Question 11

Human genetic variation generally is distributed in a continuous range,with varying clusters of frequency.The significance we give our variations,the way we perceive them-in fact,whether or not we perceive them at all-is determined by our:

A)genes.
B)origins.
C)culture.
D)physical traits.
E)intelligence.

Question 12

Approximately how many people died worldwide due to genocide in the 20th century?

A)480 million
B)162 million
C)83 million
D)43 million
E)17 million

Question 13

In Blumenbach's classification of races,light-skinned peoples from Europe and adjacent parts of western Asia and northern Africa were part of which race?

A)European
B)Guinean
C)Dravidian
D)American Indian
E)Caucasian

Question 14

Which of the following is not a significant characteristic of race?

A)It is an arbitrary designation.
B)No scientific criteria exists on how many differences it takes to make a race.
C)No one group has exclusive possession of any gene or genes in the human gene pool.
D)Populations are genetically open.
E)The genetic differences between populations,or groups,is greater than that between any two human beings.

Question 15

Who said "most of what separates me genetically from a typical African or Eskimo also separates me genetically from another average American of European ancestry"?

A)Margaret Mead
B)Franz Boas
C)Hortense Powdermaker
D)James Sheeve
E)Farook Johanas

Question 16

German physician Johan Blumenbach divided humans into racial types by:

A)intelligence.
B)height.
C)geographical origin.
D)genealogy.
E)hierarchy.

Question 17

Which of the following best describes the hypodescent rule?

A)A law that allows minority racial groups special access to government services
B)A law that gives racial superiority to one group over another
C)Assigning an individual with mixed ethnicity to the minority group
D)Configuring an individual's ancestry to omit any minority groups from being known
E)Changing an individual's birth data,such as their age,so that they can be placed in a different social category

Question 18

All of the following statements about race and intelligence are correct except:

A)they generally involve comparisons among races,a category that is biologically false.
B)problems with defining intelligence cross-culturally exist as intelligence involves several different skills and abilities.
C)most instruments (tests)used to measure intelligence are biased toward the dominant culture of the people who created the test.
D)they generally measure genetic disposition and not performance abilities.
E)as a complex set of traits,intelligence cannot be linked simply to discrete evolutionary forces acting in a particular environment.

Question 19

The problem with the kinds of definitions of racial groups devised by 18th century Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus is that,besides being ethnocentric:

A)they confuse biological traits with cultural characteristics.
B)they do not include all of the traits by which these races are distinguished.
C)they are not scientific enough;that is,they do not include the frequencies with which these characteristics occur in the population.
D)they argue that certain groups are superior to others because of their geographical location.
E)they include too many categories to be functionally useful.

Question 20

One of the strongest scientific critics of racism in the U.S.during the early part of the 20th century was anthropologist:

A)Franz Boas.
B)Margaret Mead.
C)Clifford Geertz.
D)Bronislaw Malinowski.
E)Marvin Harris.

Question 21

Although it may be due to genetic drift,people with rounder-shaped heads are more commonly found in:

A)dusty climates.
B)wet climates.
C)dry climates.
D)warm climates.
E)cold climates.

Question 22

The epicanthic fold is common among:

A)East Asians.
B)West Asians.
C)Africans.
D)Australians.
E)South Americans.

Question 23

The fact that children adopted into privileged families can boost their IQs by 20 points is evidence that:

A)the major cause of intelligence is heredity.
B)environment has very little influence on intelligence.
C)some races are more intelligent than others.
D)environment has an enormous effect on intelligence.
E)one's race is determined by birth order and where one lives.

Question 24

What is ethnic plastic surgery?

A)Seeking plastic surgery from someone who is practiced in ethnic medicine
B)Seeking surgery to change one's phenotypic traits so that they look more like the majority culture
C)Plastic surgery that utilizes both Western and traditional methods as part of the medical approach
D)Plastic surgery from non-licensed medical doctors and practitioners
E)The production of commercial products,such as dolls,in ethnic body type and clothing

Question 25

Fava beans,a dietary staple in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea,also provide some protection against:

A)AIDS.
B)yellow fever.
C)cholera.
D)tuberculosis.
E)malaria.

Question 26

While dark skin pigmentation has enjoyed a selective advantage in the tropics,the opposite is true in northern latitudes,where skins have generally been lightly pigmented.This light pigmentation enables the weak ultraviolet radiation of northern latitudes to penetrate the skin and stimulate formation of:

A)melanin.
B)niacin.
C)vitamin B.
D)vitamin D.
E)vitamin E.

Question 27

At what point in the process of growth and development are human beings subject to distinction by environmental differences?

A)At conception
B)At 6 months old
C)When they become language ready
D)At puberty
E)After the age of 21

Question 28

Which of the following protects skin against damaging ultraviolet solar radiation?

A)Aloe
B)Coconut oil
C)Melanin
D)Vitamin D
E)Lactase

Question 29

Instead of using race as a characteristic in understanding human variation,anthropologists prefer to use:

A)grids.
B)taxa.
C)grades.
D)clones.
E)clines.

Question 30

Which of the following populations typically has a G-6-PD (glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase)deficiency?

A)East Asia
B)Mediterranean
C)North Africa
D)Northern European
E)Scandinavian

Question 31

Native Americans have a high frequency of the O allele in the ABO blood type system,whereas the B allele has its highest frequency in Asia.This is an example of humans being:

A)climatic.
B)polymorphic.
C)polytypic.
D)evolutionary.
E)faunal.

Question 32

Fingerprint patterns of loops,whorls,and arches are environmentally determined.

Question 33

We can conclude the all of the following about human diversity except:

A)it is associated with human adaptation.
B)culture can render some human variation largely irrelevant from a biological perspective.
C)as a biological concept,race is a productive way to understand the human species.
D)no discrete types of human exist.
E)the paleoanthropological record does correlate biology and culture,but this does not hold for living peoples.

Question 34

Although culture often acts like an umbrella to protect genes from the selective pressures of the environment,it also brings about its own selective pressures.For example,in populations with cultural practices in which fresh milk is an important part of the diet,the gene for the enzyme lactase:

A)is absent.
B)has a very low frequency.
C)has a very high frequency.
D)is linked with the gene for skin color.
E)has no adaptive advantage.

Question 35

An individual seeking to remove the epicanthic fold in order to Occidentalize is seeking to do all of the following except:

A)give their eyes a rounder look.
B)remove a phenotypic trait.
C)change their genotype.
D)change their East Asian phenotype.
E)fit into a more universal standard of beauty.

Question 36

Human genetic variation generally is distributed across the globe in a continuous fashion.

Question 37

When different versions of a gene,known as alleles,mediate variation (such as blood types determined by the alleles for types A,B,and O blood),the traits are said to be:

A)polytypic.
B)polymorphic.
C)epicanthic.
D)faunal.
E)polygenetic.

Question 38

Until__________________years ago,the genus Homo exclusively inhabited the tropics,and it is likely that lightly pigmented skins are a recent development in human history.

A)1 million
B)800,000
C)200,000
D)40,000
E)10,000

Question 39

Up until 6,000 years ago,the__________________in humans permitted efficient storage of fat to draw on in times of food shortage,and in times of scarcity conserved glucose for use in brain and red blood cells,as well as nitrogen through its diminished exertion.

A)thrifty hormones
B)non-thrifty genotype
C)polytypic genotype
D)conservative genotype
E)thrifty genotype

Question 40

The distribution of the polymorphism of human blood groups is considered:

A)evolutionary.
B)faunal.
C)polygenetic.
D)polytypic.
E)random.

Question 41

Racist ideology in the United States has played a role in our treatment of Africans,Native Americans,and Asians.

Question 42

Though the distribution of human variation for a single trait reflects a polytypic description,the concept is valid as well when more than a single trait is involved.

Question 43

The epicanthic fold is common among Africans.

Question 44

Melanin is known to protect the skin against damaging ultraviolet solar radiation.

Question 45

The thrifty genotype allowed humans to stay lean,muscular,and highly mobile.

Question 46

Anthropologists have abandoned the idea of using race as a way to study human biological variation.

Question 48

Why is it important to study human diversity?

Question 49

Cultural adaptation has reduced the importance of biological adaptation in humans.

Question 50

The ever-changing racial categories in use in the U.S.Census reflect and reinforce the conflation of race as a biological and cultural category.

Question 51

Genocide began during WWII and continued afterward

Question 52

Describe the ethnocentric bias inherent in the work of Johan Blumenbach.

Question 53

Who was Ota Benga,and what does his life illustrate about the history of race?

Question 54

The social environment contributes enormously to intelligence.

Question 55

A species cannot be polymorphic.This is a term applied to individual variation.

Question 56

Pinto beans are known to provide some protection against malaria.

Question 57

Over 200,000 South Koreans were put up for adoption since the 1960s.

Question 58

No inborn behavioral characteristic can be attributed to any group of people.

Question 59

You are related to every other human being.

Question 60

True intelligence can be measured if the researcher uses the correct test.

Question 61

Given what we know about the adaptive significance of human skin color,and the fact that,until 800,000 years ago,hominids were exclusively creatures of the tropics,it is likely that lightly pigmented skins are quite an ancient development in human history.

Question 62

What is the role of melanin in human adaptation?

Question 63

How is skin color related to adaptation?

Question 64

How does the migration of human populations play a role in the development of diverse skin color?

Question 65

Why are intelligence tests increasingly becoming the subject of controversy?

Question 66

Define polymorphic.

Question 67

When defining race,what are three characteristics that cause it to lose biological meaning for the human species?

Question 68

What is ethnic plastic surgery? Provide an example of this.

Question 69

Describe the work of Richard Lewontin.

Question 70

Describe how fava beans can act as adaptive agents.

Question 71

Why are today's anthropologists actively working to get rid of race as a biological category that applies to humans?

Question 72

Outline the early history of assigning racial constructs.

Question 73

Can we connect race to behavior? Why or why not?

Question 74

What are the reasons for differences in intelligence,one population to another?

Question 75

What is the role of the "thrifty genotype" in human evolution?

Question 76

Today,it is popular to trace ancestors using mitochondrial DNA.What are some of the drawbacks of using mtDNA to understand our ancestry?

Question 77

Discuss the reasons why a racial approach to human variation is unproductive.

Question 78

How can culture act as an agent of biological selection? Give an example.

Question 79

Compare the castas in Mexico to the hierarchy imposed in the U.S.

Question 80

What is a cline,and why do anthropologists use this approach to the study of human variation?