Deck 17: The Arts

Question 1

Why do most societies not have a word for art?

A) Art is often an integral part of religious, social, and political life.
B) Art is such a broad concept, including music, visual arts, and folklore, that there is no need for a general term.
C) Most societies consider art to be in the domain of only the very elite, and therefore do not need a common word for it.
D) Art is a relatively unique phenomenon, found only in Western civilization.

Answer 1

Art is often an integral part of religious, social, and political life.

Question 2

John Fischer argues that in a stable society artists will respond to those conditions in a society that __________.

A) bring security or pleasure
B) represent cultural values
C) create fear or disgust
D) are taboo

Answer 2

bring security or pleasure

Question 3

Popular music is highly dependent on __________ for its spread and acceptance.

A) immigration
B) downloads
C) music videos
D) economics

Answer 3

immigration

Question 4

Which of the following is a common cultural idea about art in our own society?

A) Anything useful is not art.
B) Art has monetary value.
C) Only trained individuals can be artists.
D) Men are more talented artists than women.

Question 5

How did many Native American groups supplement their incomes after being placed on reservations?

A) They sold arts and crafts.
B) They became storytellers.
C) They taught their language to Westerners.
D) They sold off their land.

Question 6

Which of the following served to represent the most prestigious gods in ancient Sumer?

A) larger eyes
B) wings
C) halos
D) smaller bodies

Question 7

Traditionally,Puebloan potters __________.

A) did not sign their pots, and followed their pueblo's traditional style
B) signed their pots, and followed their pueblo's traditional style
C) did not sign their pots, and developed their own unique styles
D) signed their pots, and developed their own unique styles

Question 8

In Africa,__________ are often used in uncentralized systems,while __________ are common in kingdoms.

A) masks; headdresses
B) gowns; masks
C) headdresses; gowns
D) headdresses; masks

Question 9

The way a society __________ is sometimes apparent in its choice and use of artistic materials.

A) views its environment
B) raises its children
C) plans for the future
D) divides its labor

Question 10

Anthropologists maintain that there is more to art than an attempt to express oneself. What other feature is characteristic of art?

A) It holds cultural meaning.
B) It marks the social status of the maker.
C) It is expensive to own and display.
D) It shows mastery of a skill.

Question 11

In a cross-cultural study of 3,500 folk songs from around the world,Alan Lomax found that songs with more words and clearer enunciation were associated with __________.

A) complex societies, since they depend more on transmitting complex verbal information
B) tribal groups, because they have such intricate lineages to pass on through song
C) hunter-gatherer bands, since they have more free time and sing more songs
D) chiefdoms, since "big men" must be good oral communicators

Question 12

Who proposed that hero myths resemble initiation rituals?

A) Joseph Campbell
B) Edward Tylor
C) Claude Lévi-Strauss
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 13

What singing style involves individuals singing independently but within the group,with no single person differentiated from the others?

A) interlocked
B) connected
C) call-and-response
D) choral

Question 14

Which of the following is found by anthropologists to be a common reason for body decoration?

A) marker of social position
B) economic gain
C) to remember important items
D) camouflage

Question 15

Despite the changes in music and dance styles over the years,what trait is consistent in American dancing?

A) Couples generally dance in pairs.
B) Men and women dance in separate groups.
C) The music is variable, with no clear beat.
D) Dancing requires special clothing and shoes.

Question 16

Some psychological anthropologists suggest that art __________.

A) expresses the typical feelings, anxieties, and experiences of people in a culture
B) like economy, is tied to the possibilities and constraints in a particular environment
C) is a process of translating dreams into material forms that can be manipulated
D) is just for decoration and not related to other psychological processes

Question 17

The oldest known pieces of art to date are __________.

A) engravings from South Africa
B) statues from Germany
C) cave paintings in France
D) beads from the Indus Valley

Question 18

In her study of museum displays,Price suggested that the art pieces we consider most worthy require __________.

A) the least labeling
B) a secure display case
C) additional explanation
D) a prominent location

Question 19

Upon contact with Europeans,aboriginal Australian rock art __________.

A) started portraying ships and men on horseback
B) developed more complex patterns
C) became used in more secret, ceremonial contexts
D) disappeared entirely

Question 20

What type of social adornment would be expected to denote a "big man"-a temporary position-in Melanesian culture?

A) body painting
B) scarification
C) tattoo
D) hairstyle

Question 21

Which of the following is an example of an American urban legend?

A) Students must wait 15 minutes for a late professor before they can leave.
B) George Washington admitted that he chopped down a cherry tree.
C) Coyote impersonates the creator and tries to make men.
D) The grasshopper plays all summer while the hardworking ant collects food.

Question 22

Which feature would you expect to be characteristic of hunter-gatherer songs?

A) relaxed enunciation
B) little repetition
C) explicit information
D) dissonant sounds

Question 23

How is folklore transmitted?

A) It is generally transmitted orally, but may also be written.
B) It is generally transmitted through writing, but may also be oral.
C) It is only transmitted orally.
D) It is only transmitted through writing.

Question 24

Which of the following artistic styles is most likely to occur in an egalitarian society?

A) repetition of simple designs
B) enclosed figures
C) greater use of varied colors
D) a relatively "crowded" design

Question 25

Which of the following is associated with a high degree of female participation in food-getting?

A) polyphonic music
B) chromatic artistic style
C) patterns of light and color
D) artistic specialization

Question 26

Which of the following body ornamentations has been borrowed from other societies but is now commonplace in Western culture?

A) tattoos
B) elongated necks
C) tooth filing
D) body painting

Question 27

Which of these is an example of body decoration for sexual provocation?

A) lipstick
B) a crown
C) an expensive handbag
D) uniforms

Question 28

Which of the following features would you be most likely to find in the art of egalitarian societies?

A) unused space
B) unlike elements
C) asymmetrical design
D) framed figures

Question 29

Preserving ancient rock art is an example of what type of anthropological work?

A) applied anthropology
B) ethnology
C) biological anthropology
D) ethnohistory

Question 30

As a prominent example of how culture contact affects artistic change,the Navajo,currently famous for their wool rugs,only began weaving when __________.

A) they migrated to the Southwest and obtained the technology from the Hopi
B) they took classes on rug-making in reservation schools
C) a prophet revealed the technology to them in a vision quest
D) the technology was introduced to them by the Spanish

Question 31

When Westerners notice the change over time in the art of less complex societies,it is usually with a concern to __________.

A) whether the art is traditional or "tourist art"
B) whether the art was produced through fair trade practices
C) where the art was created, and by whom
D) the price of the piece, and its potential future value

Question 32

What aspect of childrearing did Barbara Ayres find correlated with the type of musical rhythms a society produces?

A) how babies are carried
B) where babies sleep
C) how long babies are breast-fed
D) methods of correcting behavior

Question 33

How has the art of the Shoshone-Bannock people changed over the last 100 years?

A) It has become more complex as social stratification has increased.
B) It has changed from a male domain to one dominated by women.
C) Nearly all of the traditional patterns have been replaced with Westernized ones.
D) They have borrowed motifs from disparate Native American groups, making a wholly new style.

Question 34

Just as art from less complex cultures is treated as nameless,it also tends to be seen as __________.

A) timeless
B) faceless
C) emotionless
D) worthless

Question 35

Which of the following is a shared artistic value in American culture?

A) coordinating colors in one's home
B) dancing at the office
C) decorating one's car
D) wearing a mask to protect one's identity

Question 36

Alan Dundes thinks that Native American folktales have characteristic structures,including __________.

A) movement away from disequilibrium in society, expressing the need to rectify conditions in society causing disharmony
B) movement toward disequilibrium in order to express the randomness of the world
C) the need to have happy endings in myths
D) the need to show a character's moral development through the course of the story

Question 37

Across cultures,masks seem to portray facial expressions in the same way. Threatening faces tend to be more __________,and nonthreatening ones are more __________.

A) angular; rounded
B) hairy; angular
C) bumpy; hairy
D) rounded; bumpy

Question 38

What did Alex Cohen find closely associated with folk stories involving unprovoked aggression?

A) unpredictable food shortages
B) social instability
C) a system of social inequality
D) chronic food shortages

Question 39

Nomadic foragers tend to have what type of art?

A) song, dance, and small portable art
B) written literature and performed plays
C) painting and sculpture
D) rock art that can be visited each year

Question 40

Which of the following is most likely in the art of a stratified society?

A) enclosed figures
B) symmetrical design
C) repetition of similar elements in the design
D) greater use of "focal" colors

Question 41

In what type of society is the presence of specialized artists most likely to be found?

A) those with a complex, specialized division of labor
B) foraging societies with many hours of free time each day
C) chiefdoms in which leaders can patronize skilled artists
D) societies with ancestor worship, where the artist honors his or her clan

Question 42

How have scholars affected change in Native American arts over time?

A) They have helped artisans learn about styles of the past that have disappeared.
B) They became patrons to individual artists to allow them to do their craft full-time.
C) They introduced new tools and materials for use in art projects.
D) They encouraged Native Americans to work together in cooperatives.

Question 43

Explain what patterns you would examine when attempting to determine whether a piece of visual art was made by an egalitarian or a stratified society.

Question 44

Singing is most likely to involve soloists in which type of society?

A) an elaborately stratified society
B) a ranked society
C) a society with a leader who gained his position through demonstration of his abilities
D) a society where captives in war are treated differently from others in the village

Question 45

How is art often displayed in Western museums,indicating biased attitudes?

A) Artwork from Western or Asian cultures is displayed with the artist's name, while art from other cultures is often labeled "primitive."
B) Artwork from male artists is given descriptions using strong language, while female artists' write-ups use more feminine descriptions.
C) Artwork from African cultures is displayed as an ancestral style, with other cultures' art seen as a derivative of African art.
D) Artwork from wealthy nations is displayed in a more prominent location within the museum than artwork from developing nations.

Question 46

How might a historian interpret the Garden of Eden tale?

A) Men lived in blissful ignorance until women invented agriculture.
B) It reflects men's deeply hidden fears of female sexuality.
C) Literacy and other forms of knowledge brought irreversible social change.
D) It encourages men to control their wives, who are apt to make bad decisions.

Question 47

What does a prevalence of asymmetrical design suggest about a society's structure?

A) difference and social stratification
B) free access to most property
C) crowding and population pressures
D) few authority figures

Question 48

Consider the forms of body decoration and adornment common to your own culture. What purposes might an anthropologist say that this body art fulfills?

Question 49

What evidence is there for ethnocentric attitudes in our viewing of the art of other cultures? What can we learn from this about our definition of art?

Question 50

As indigenous populations were decimated,many artistic traditions were lost. Contact with Western societies may have changed art also by __________.

A) stimulating the production of art for commercial sale to the dominant population
B) outlawing the production of traditional forms of art
C) limiting the number of individuals involved in the production of artwork for sale
D) forcing changes that made the artwork clearly simpler in style and function

Question 51

What information about a society is reflected in its folklore? Give specific examples.

Question 52

Are the categories "tourist art" and "fine art" mutually exclusive? Why or why not?

Question 53

What does the empty space in an egalitarian society's design most likely represent?

A) the society's relative isolation
B) the vast, open underworld
C) the social opportunities awarded to individuals
D) the variation in social status within the group

Question 54

Which of the following is a universal theme of folklore?

A) sibling rivalry
B) getting rich
C) being lost
D) death and rebirth

Question 55

The experience of a musicologist listening for the first time to music of a different culture is analogous to __________.

A) a linguist exposed to a new foreign language
B) an ethnographer meeting a new informant
C) an artisan starting to work in the market economy
D) an archaeologist beginning a new field season