Deck 3: Love and the Work of Culture

Question 1

Margaret Mead and Ruth Fulton Benedict first met:

A) while Benedict was studying in Samoa.
B) as undergraduate students in the 1920s.
C) when Benedict taught Mead at Columbia University.
D) through Mead's husband Reo Fortune.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Margaret Mead wrote all of the following except _________.

A) Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
B) Coming of Age in Samoa
C) Patterns of Culture
D) Mead wrote all of the above texts.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What are the three societies Mead discusses in her book, Sex and Temperament?

A) Arapesh, Samoan, Iatmul
B) Arapesh, Mundugumor, Tchambuli
C) Samoan, Tchambuli, Iatmul
D) Mundugumor, Tchambuli, Cressman

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The Mundugumor could be said to have which gendered personality pattern in Mead's view?

A) women and men are temperamentally different, with women being dominant
B) women and men are temperamentally similar, both being nurturing and cooperative, the so-called "feminine"
C) women and men are temperamentally similar, both being aggressive and competitive, the so-called "masculine"
D) neither men nor women acted within their cultural ethos

Question 5

Deeply feeling the restrictions of American culture, Ruth Benedict __________.

A) was a radical even in her early years at college
B) refused to marry and bear children in order to protest male dominance over women
C) faced moments of serious self-doubt and suicidal thoughts
D) spent her later years traveling the globe to forget the problems she faced in the U.S.

Question 6

In 1925, Mead set off for fieldwork research in _________.

A) Manus
B) Samoa
C) the Grand Canyon
D) New Guinea

Question 7

Which of the following best characterizes how Tchambuli women nurse their children?

A) Nursing is business-like and rushed, and leads to anger and struggle by the infants.
B) Mother and child enjoy nursing; infants are focused upon, played with, breastfed slowly, and caressed.
C) Nursing is friendly, though impersonal, casual, and unobsessive, and is an accompaniment to other, unrelated activity.
D) Nursing is strictly a personal matter between mother and child.

Question 8

Ruth Benedict is most famous for her book, entitled ________.

A) Naven
B) Coming of Age in Samoa
C) Margaret and Me
D) Patterns of Culture

Question 9

Male ethnographers have tended to notice women's economic roles and autonomous activities _________.

A) about as often as female ethnographers have done
B) less often than female ethnographers have done
C) more often than female ethnographers have done
D) only when they do fieldwork with their wives

Question 10

Mead applied her experiences of other cultures to ________.

A) giving birth to her own child
B) her own rearing of her child
C) the households she formed over time
D) all of the above

Question 11

Mead's daughter Cathy grew up in her mother's large, unusual and extended households. This demonstrates that _________.

A) Cathy's father, Gregory Bateson, was unwilling to help in raising his daughter
B) there is more than one correct or right way to raise children
C) Mead didn't have to worry about balancing work and child-raising
D) Mead was determined to blend in with the natives in whatever culture she studied

Question 12

The World-War II-era project Research in Contemporary Cultures __________.

A) allowed Benedict and Mead to collaborate on innovative research
B) revealed the ways women work with each other and with men when circumstances permit
C) focused its attention on interdisciplinary and collaborative research
D) all of the above

Question 13

Which of the following statements about Margaret Mead is incorrect?

A) Gregory Bateson's jealousy and possessiveness drove Mead to divorce him.
B) Mead often had to bend gently to the wishes of her husbands or other male authority figures.
C) Mead was more concerned with the public learning of her same-sex relationship than was Benedict.
D) The intellectual exchanges between Mead, Bateson, and Fortune probably wrought profound changes in the discipline of anthropology.

Question 14

To Benedict and Mead, war _________.

A) is not a biological instinct or innate human drive
B) releases tensions brought about by continued conflict between men and women
C) through psychological intimidation is more effective than combat with firearms
D) all of the above

Question 15

Margaret Mead and Reo Fortune decided on their first field site in New Guinea _________.

A) based on advice from Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict
B) because male-female relations in New Guinea societies resembled those Mead and Fortune saw in their own marriage
C) when they became stranded in the mountains of New Guinea
D) to escape the conflicts of World War II

Question 16

Both Benedict and Mead ___________.

A) believed that they were misfits in American culture
B) challenged conventional ideas about "unnatural" love and relationships
C) wrote best-selling popular books that are still read
D) all of the above

Question 17

Experiencing pregnancy and motherhood in her middle years, Mead __________.

A) felt anxious having to stay home for long periods of time
B) was explicitly grateful to avoid the desperation and panic many younger mothers feel
C) became unable to continue with her work on cultural relativism and mothering
D) gave her husband full responsibility for their child, as a test of her sex role theories

Question 18

In her reexamination of the Tchambuli, Deborah Gewertz found that ________.

A) men were much less artistically talented than Mead indicated
B) Mead neglected to account for recent Tchambuli migration history
C) Mead's observation and ethnographic skills were rudimentary at best
D) conflict had replaced formerly-peaceful equalitarian relations between group members

Question 19

The book Patterns of Culture __________.

A) popularized the perspective of cultural relativism
B) argued that women are second-class citizens only in certain cultural contexts
C) invoked serious criticism from anthropologists who feared its humanistic approach
D) all of the above

Question 20

With which of the following statements would Margaret Mead agree?

A) Biological sex is more important than culture in determining personality.
B) Arapesh teen girls avoid distress by seeking monogamous relationships.
C) Middle age is a time when women universally experience "menopausal zest."
D) The concepts of normal and abnormal vary from one culture to another.

Question 21

Ruth Benedict's work popularized cultural relativism in anthropology. Why was this so important? Include a definition of cultural relativism in your response.

Question 22

In romantic relationships, Mead continually found herself encountering the dynamics she wished to analyze in fieldwork. What are some of those recurring themes?

Question 23

Compare and contrast the three Sepik River cultures Mead studied. Which of the three seems most familiar to you, and why?

Question 24

Why did Mead face such criticism for her book Sex and Temperament?

Question 25

What was the sexual division of labor in Mead's households and with each of her husbands? How did having a baby change her work?