Deck 7: Environmental Anthropology: Relating to the Natural World

Question 1

People who study the effects of global economic changes on human-nature relationships and the impact of sustainable development initiatives on certain groups are

A) medical anthropologists.
B) linguistic anthropologists.
C) naturalist anthropologists.
D) environmental anthropologists.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What relationship between nature and human does Western thought emphasize?

A) Complementary
B) Oppositional
C) Close
D) Respectful

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The concept that people have images, knowledge, and concepts of the physical landscape that affect how they will actually interact with it is called

A) a cultural landscape.
B) an ecosystem.
C) a subsistence strategy.
D) a metaphor.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Traditional ecological knowledge is

A) rarely shared in local languages.
B) not useful in the contemporary world.
C) extremely valued by Westerners.
D) not well known in the West because some species and ecological interactions exist in only one place.

Question 5

Which part of the Zapotec agricultural system does not correspond well to Western ecological understandings?

A) Planting practices
B) Harvesting practices
C) The idea that maize has a soul
D) Taxonomy

Question 6

Why do environmental anthropologists study formal nature protection?

A) Westerners are the only ones who do it.
B) It often generates social conflicts.
C) It is not working.
D) It is a human universal.

Question 7

Landscapes that are the result of human shaping are

A) cultural landscape.
B) ecosystem landscapes.
C) anthropogenic landscapes.
D) political ecology.

Question 8

The perception that the North American continent was an unpeopled wilderness during the early period of European settlement when British settlers arrived is an example of

A) an ecosystem.
B) a cultural landscape.
C) an anthropogenic landscape.
D) sustainable development.

Question 9

The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania practice

A) foraging.
B) horticulture.
C) agriculture.
D) transhumant pastoralism.

Question 10

What is "fortress conservation"?

A) The protection of old walled cities, castles, and forts
B) An approach to conservation that assumes that people are threatening to nature
C) An approach to conservation that allows for human-animal interaction
D) An approach to national parks that includes building high-security fences and walls for protection

Question 11

Thomas Malthus argued that

A) the earth can sustain a large amount of people if technology is used correctly.
B) population growth will eventually lead to famine.
C) native people do not know how to take care of farmland.
D) we should not have private property.

Question 12

To assess an ecological footprint, scientists measure

A) the amount of greenhouse gases in the air.
B) the amount of farmland that is in use versus what is lying fallow.
C) how many people are born compared with how many deaths there are.
D) how many hectares or acres of land it takes for each person to survive.

Question 13

Contemporary ecological science supports the idea that human cultural behaviors are solely shaped by the environment.

Question 14

All knowledge systems about nature, including science, are culturally based.

Question 15

It has been proven that overpopulation will inevitably lead to global famine.

Question 16

One of the primary reasons indigenous leaders criticize the dominant model for administering protected environmental areas is

A) they don't allow big-game hunting.
B) they assume nature must be uninhabited by people.
C) they don't charge enough to visitors for entering the area.
D) they focus too much on integrating animals.

Question 17

Throughout human history, humans have tended to adapt to the land in a way that is supportive of population size, a practice referred to as

A) climate change.
B) environmental determinism.
C) cultural relativism.
D) carrying capacity.

Question 18

"Mother nature" and "natural resources" are a good example of

A) cultural landscapes.
B) ecosystems.
C) metaphors of human-nature interaction.
D) idioms.

Question 19

The enclosure movement is important to understanding Western conservation approaches because

A) it generated new ideas about scenic beauty.
B) it legitimized people who lived on the land.
C) it supported the growing population of the countryside.
D) it is no longer normative in contemporary Western cultures.

Question 20

At least six Native American groups were forcibly removed to create which national park in 1872?

A) Grand Canyon National Park
B) Glacier National Park
C) Yellowstone National Park
D) Badlands National Park

Question 21

How did Americans aim to showcase their "civilization" after the Civil War?

A) Building museums and monuments
B) Starting wars with neighbors
C) Establishing formally protected areas
D) Outlawing headhunting

Question 22

Which of the following reasons explains why a collaborative approach to conservation can be so challenging?

A) Scientists and conservationists are often skeptical of indigenous knowledge claims.
B) Indigenous communities do not have scientifically rigorous knowledge which is necessary for conservation.
C) The fact that indigenous people often want to continue living on their land undermines conservation goals.
D) Collaboration is unnecessary for sustainable development.

Question 23

Why is Fairhead and Leach's study about landscape change in Guinea important?

A) It shows why overpopulation depletes forests.
B) It shows why the ignorance of local people causes environmental degradation.
C) It shows why sustainable development projects support forest growth.
D) It shows why forests can increase because of human population growth and cultivation.

Question 24

Which of the following methods allowed Fairhead and Leach to make their conclusions about landscape change in Guinea?

A) Demographic surveys and still photographs
B) Rorschach tests and videos
C) Biometric cranial measurements and blood screenings
D) Participant observation of agricultural activities and study of colonial records and aerial photographs

Question 25

Many non-Western societies have conservation traditions that are based on distinct principles of human-nature relationship.

Question 26

The ecological costs of producing beef in the United States are externalized on the landscape and water resources.

Question 27

An anthropologist who studies the cultural landscape of Zapotec farmers of southern Mexico would be primarily interested in

A) their interactions with the local ecosystem.
B) the meanings and images they have of nature that shape their farming practices.
C) the ways environmental conditions shape their actions and beliefs.
D) the ethnobiological classifications they have of their environment.

Question 28

Political ecological perspectives are applicable to all of the following except

A) the effects of traffic corridors on the air quality of an urban neighbourhood.
B) the role of peasant farmers in tropical deforestation.
C) the relationship between high birth rates and overfishing.
D) the migration of rural people to cities because of ecological crisis in the countryside.

Question 29

If you wanted to study the history of landscape change in your community and modeled your study on the approach of Fairhead and Leach in Guinea, which method would you be most likely not to use?

A) Collection of oral histories of local people
B) Examination of aerial photos
C) Examination of census records
D) Collection of data on species composition

Question 30

Which of the following research projects would an ecological anthropologist be most likely to join?

A) A study of how soil quality and landscape features affect farming practices
B) A comparative study of the use of "adult-child caring" metaphors in different societies
C) A study of the ways an indigenous society classifies plant life
D) The health impacts of village placements in vertical ecosystems

Question 31

Could you apply the concept of cultural landscape to a North American suburban community? Explain your answer.

Question 32

Have you ever encountered an anthropogenic landscape? Describe it. How do you know it was an anthropogenic landscape?

Question 33

Aside from the siting of toxic waste dumps in poor and/or minority neighborhoods, what other situations could an environmental justice perspective shed light on? Name three, and give an explanation for each.

Question 34

What role do you think perspectives drawn from environmental anthropology can play in the study of climate change?

Question 35

How would an environmental determinist and an anthropologist dedicated to studying cultural landscapes approach a research project on a foraging community?

Question 36

Do Americans have traditional ecological knowledge? Explain your answer, and use examples.

Question 37

What does it mean that all knowledge systems about the environment are culturally based?

Question 38

What forces led to the development of modern environmental conservation culture?

Question 39

According to environmental anthropologists, what factors lead to the destruction of nature itself?

Question 40

According to environmental anthropologists, under what conditions can a society have sustainable relations with the natural world?