Deck 1: What Is Anthropology

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT usually considered one of the four main subfields of anthropology?

A) archaeology
B) biological anthropology
C) anthropological linguistics
D) applied anthropology

Answer 1

applied anthropology

Question 2

Anthropology takes a(n) __________ approach that includes a wide geographic and historical range.

A) personal
B) cultural
C) topical
D) holistic

Answer 2

holistic

Question 3

Archaeology is a sub field of

A) cultural anthropology.
B) linguistics.
C) primatology.
D) history.

Answer 3

cultural anthropology.

Question 4

A human paleontologist would be least interested in

A) primates.
B) cultural systems.
C) fossil evidence of humans.
D) sociological relationships.

Question 5

Anthropology is literally the study of

A) human history.
B) human population patterns.
C) humans.
D) the products of human societies.

Question 6

Anthropology is a comparatively young discipline. It was only in the late _________ that anthropologists began to go live with people in faraway places.

A) 1700's
B) 1850's
C) 1900's
D) 1800's

Question 7

Anthropology includes all of the following except

A) why contemporary peoples have different cultures
B) how humans vary biologically
C) how insect colonies are organized
D) when humans first appeared on the earth

Question 8

What did Elizabeth M. Brumfield discover about the standard of living of local people after the Aztec Empire had absorbed them?

A) It got much better.
B) It got much worse.
C) There was little improvement.
D) It stayed the same.

Question 9

What explanation did American educators give when they discovered African American schoolchildren rarely drank milk?

A) milk intolerance
B) a lack of money or education
C) a dislike for the flavor of milk
D) milk was only drank at home

Question 10

The distinctive feature of cultural anthropology is its interest in how all aspects of human existence vary from

A) location to location.
B) culture to culture.
C) society to society.
D) biology to biology.

Question 11

The __________ seeks to understand how and why peoples of today, and the recent past, differ in their customary ways of thinking and acting.

A) archaeologist
B) ethnologist
C) ethnographer
D) primatologist

Question 12

The study of how language is used in social contexts is called

A) historical linguistics.
B) descriptive linguistics.
C) structural linguistics.
D) sociolinguistics.

Question 13

An ethnographer would

A) work in the field for long periods of time.
B) work with applied anthropologists in developing foreign aid projects.
C) make many cross-cultural comparisons.
D) work directly with historians on various projects.

Question 14

Which of the following may be trained in any or all of the subfields of anthropology?

A) applied or practicing anthropologist
B) biological anthropologist
C) ethnologist
D) political anthropologist

Question 15

From primate studies, biologists try to discover characteristics that are distinctly____________.

A) primate
B) human
C) physical
D) behavioral

Question 16

Applied anthropologists practice

A) in the field of cultural anthropology.
B) in the field of ethnology.
C) in the field of paleontology.
D) in all sub fields of anthropology.

Question 17

The study of how languages change through time and how they may be related is

A) structural linguistics.
B) historical linguistics.
C) sociolinguistics.
D) ethnolinguistics.

Question 18

Prosimians, monkeys, apes, and humans are all members of the order of

A) primates.
B) humans.
C) Homo sapiens.
D) primatologists.

Question 19

An ethnohistorian would

A) work in the field for long periods of time.
B) study the way in which cultures have changed over time.
C) study only past cultures, much as archaeologists do.
D) prepare lengthy reports on extinct cultures.

Question 20

Compared to anthropologists of previous years, an anthropologist today is more likely to

A) specialize in one certain topic or area.
B) investigate many different aspects of life of the people studied.
C) study a more geographically distant society.
D) do fieldwork alone.

Question 21

In anthropology, what makes the holistic approach to the study of humans so useful?

A) all the social sciences take this approach.
B) it proves many direct relationships between people.
C) it's actually not useful at all, and in fact, causes many problems.
D) it studies not only all varieties of people, but many aspects of human life as well.

Question 22

Of the five subfields of anthropology, which one arouses the most curiosity about a human population?

A) biological
B) archaeology
C) ethnology
D) all the above potentially can

Question 23

The __________ is interested in what people speak about and how they interact conversationally.

A) sociolinguist
B) anthropological linguist
C) historical linguist
D) ethnologist

Question 24

Which of the following is least likely to interest an archaeologist?

A) ancient garbage heaps
B) ancient temples
C) pieces of ancient pottery
D) dinosaur bones

Question 25

Which of the following would not be considered part of cultural anthropology?

A) archaeology
B) anthropological linguistics
C) ethnology
D) human paleontology

Question 26

To understand better the biological variations observable among contemporary human populations, biological anthropologists use the principles and techniques of at least ______ other disciplines.

A) 5
B) 4
C) 2
D) 3

Question 27

Anthropologists doing fieldwork would sometimes encounter cultures with no written language. What would they then do?

A) construct dictionaries and rules of grammar to understand the language
B) stop their work and go to work in another culture
C) force the population to write their words down
D) change the language to best suit the creation of a written form

Question 28

Unlike ethnologists, ethnographers

A) describe a given society based on their own fieldwork.
B) study societies with writing systems.
C) compare societies cross-culturally.
D) are interested in "primitive" peoples.

Question 29

What is so attractive about applied anthropology as a career choice for new anthropologists?

A) applied anthropology explicitly tries to make anthropological knowledge useful
B) they can ignore prehistory
C) there is no writing of reports required
D) only the best anthropologists would consider this field of anthropology

Question 30

Why do some people feel it is impossible to study human behavior scientifically?

A) our actions and beliefs are too individualistic
B) humans are only understandable in other worldly terms
C) some people do not believe in scientific principles
D) all the above

Question 31

Why should we bother studying prehistory?

A) it allows us to make interesting movies about the subject matter.
B) humans lived then and knowledge of their way of life can help us today.
C) the time before written records is not important, but we should try to be interested.
D) to prove that nothing of value happened before written records.

Question 32

Why do ethnographers typically spend at least a year living with the people they are studying?

A) sometime in the past an anthropologist stayed one year and this set the pattern
B) it takes that long to collect data for a detailed description of customary behavior
C) it can be done in a month, but research grants will pay for the whole year
D) actually, no one ever stays that long because of illnesses, etc.

Question 33

Describe the four fields of anthropology. How do they relate to the holistic approach taken by the field of anthropology?

Question 34

Compared to the historian, the archaeologist is

A) more likely to study how societies change over time.
B) less likely to analyze written records of ancient societies.
C) more likely to analyze written records of ancient societies.
D) more likely to study cultures older than 5000 years.

Question 35

Unlike other linguists, anthropological linguists are primarily interested in

A) unwritten languages.
B) the ways in which language is related to beliefs and behaviors.
C) the way language is used in different social contexts.
D) the historical connections of different languages to each other.

Question 36

The study of anthropology may be useful for all of the following except

A) giving us a sense of humility about our own culture's failings.
B) helping us avoid misunderstandings between people.
C) giving us a better understanding of humankind.
D) helping us determine which culture traits are the best.

Question 37

How can language have social aspects?

A) it includes what people speak about
B) it includes how people interact conversationally
C) it includes attitudes towards speakers of the language
D) all the above

Question 38

What makes anthropology relevant to life today?

A) it helps to create misunderstandings among people
B) as the world is increasingly interconnected, respect of other cultures is less important
C) if we want to understand humans, it is important to study them in all times and places
D) none of the above

Question 39

Unlike archaeologists, ethnologists

A) are not interested in past cultures.
B) draw on a database principally of observations and interviews with living people.
C) are not concerned with the ways cultures change over time but rather in the ways they function in the present.
D) are not interested in culture as a whole, but rather in its constituent parts (institutions, social groups, etc.).

Question 40

Why did specialization in anthropology develop?

A) over time, the discipline grew and expanded its knowledge base requiring well defined skills
B) there are no limits to what a person can keep track of
C) this rarely happens in academic disciplines
D) all of the above

Question 41

What is archaeology? How does it differ from ethnohistory?

Question 42

How can historical linguistics help us understand human migration patterns?

Question 43

How is anthropology relevant to modern life (perhaps your own)?

Question 44

How can an understanding of anthropology help all of us understand each other?

Question 45

Why does simplicity of technology by a particular group not necessarily imply backwardness? Use an example of a group you have read about.

Question 46

How is anthropology different from other behavioral disciplines?

Question 47

Describe applied anthropology. Give an example of it from each of the four fields of anthropology.

Question 48

As archaeology deals with the past, what can archaeological knowledge do for humanity in the present and future?