Deck 4: Explaining the Past

Question 1

Which is the creation or evolution of a new idea.?

A) invention
B) diffusion
C) creation
D) reinvention

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The spread of ideas, over short or long distances, is termed

A) invention.
B) diffusion.
C) creation.
D) reinvention.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Reciprocity implies a relationship in which

A) mutual benefit is implied.
B) one party benefits more than another.
C) neither party benefits.
D) goods are exchanged.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What involves not only the movement of ideas but also a mass shift of people that results in social and cultural changes on a large scale?

A) invention
B) diffusion
C) migration
D) reinvention

Question 5

What is needed in large quantities to identify invention, diffusion, or migration in the archaeological record?

A) excavations
B) data
C) archaeologists
D) artifacts

Question 6

MtDNA is passed from mothers to offspring and is inherited through which line?

A) male
B) DNA
C) chromosomal
D) female

Question 7

Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of ancient human skeletons from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the Pacific has also shown that the ultimate origins of the Easter Islanders are in Polynesia, for this remote landmass had been colonized from which islands by A.D. 1200?

A) Marquesas
B) Tuomotos
C) Society
D) Micronesian

Question 8

Many archaeologists support an ecological/evolutionary approach to explaining the past. This approach, sometimes called _____________, is based on deductive research methodology that employs research design, formulation of explicit research hypotheses, and testing of these against basic data.

A) deductive archaeology.
B) processual archaeology.
C) non-process oriented anthropology.
D) creative archaeology.

Question 9

Which is a means of studying human culture that gives a picture of the way in which human populations adapt to, and transform, their environments?

A) environmentalism
B) cultural environmentalism
C) cultural ecology
D) creative archaeology

Question 10

Which is a branching, cumulative process that results from cultural adaptations over long periods?

A) multilinear cultural evolution
B) cultural evolution
C) unilinear evolution
D) contextual evolution

Question 11

In the 1960s and 1970s, archaeologists were talking about which sort of archaeology that promised to overcome the many limitations of the archaeological record?

A) reformed
B) new
C) transformed
D) transformational

Question 12

In archaeology, which of the following is the notion that the past was inhabited by people rather than by anonymous "cultures"?

A) theory
B) hypothesis
C) agency
D) culture

Question 13

In interacting with their culture, the major difference in approach between archaeologists using an ecological/evolutionary approach to the past and archaeologists who are concerned with symbolic meaning, structure, and the rules that once governed society argues that people act like

A) scientists.
B) actors.
C) societies.
D) other animals.

Question 14

The major contributions that the historical materialist (postprocessual) approaches have made to archaeological science include all of the following EXCEPT

A) that many perspectives on ancient society have been neglected.
B) that human societies are integrated, holistic systems.
C) that meaning is more important than materialism.
D) that archaeologists must critically examine their social responsibilities.

Question 15

What sort of archaeology covers the whole spectrum of human behavior, especially religion and belief, and also the development and expression of human consciousness?

A) processual
B) postprocessual
C) cognitive
D) heuristic

Question 16

The archaeology of today is built on

A) the study of subsistence behavior.
B) solid scientific foundations.
C) interpretive, hermeneutic approaches.
D) the "archaeology of mind."

Question 17

To be effective, cognitive archaeology depends on rigorous research methods; for that reason, it can be used only when the body of supporting data is rich. Flannery and Marcus state that the approach becomes "little more than speculation, a kind of bungee jump into the Land of

A) Make Believe."
B) Enchantment."
C) Creativity."
D) Fantasy."

Question 18

As archaeology becomes more multidisciplinary; it will likely leave behind tools and approaches such as

A) gathering ethnohistorical researches and traditional oral histories.
B) fitting discoveries into a rigid framework.
C) examining archaeological differences between men and women .
D) exploring behavioral change as social and physical environments change.

Question 19

Which constraints include knowledge, beliefs, values, and other culturally conditioned habits; all of these are different in each culture.?

A) internal
B) external
C) mediated
D) inventive

Question 20

The archaeologist Bruce Trigger noted that the best way to develop a general theoretical framework will be on the basis of

A) attention to ecological and cultural approaches to the past.
B) certain behavioral characteristics or types of society.
C) long-term, intensive research research into ancient peoples, cultures, and regions.
D) advances in biological anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience.

Question 21

Explain in what way mtDNA acts as a "clock." How is this concept used in anthropology and archaeology?

Question 22

In the 1960s and 1970s, archaeologists were talking about a "new" archaeology, a revolutionary approach to the past that promised to overcome the many limitations of the archaeological record. In fact, this "new" archaeology, processual archaeology, failed to deliver on many of its promises. Discuss how postprocessual archaeology addresses these failings.

Question 23

Cognitive archaeology covers all of the human past, but it can be divided into two broad areas of concern: (1) the study of the cognitive facilities of early hominins and archaic humans, the relationships between toolmaking and cognitive abilities, the origins of language, and the social contexts of early human behavior; and (2) the major developments of the past 40,000 years-the cognitive aspects of the origins of food production and civilization. Explain why it is important to look at the past in this way and not just from a cultural ecological approach.

Question 24

Culture historians use four descriptive models to characterize culture change: inevitable variation, invention, diffusion, and migration. Define each model, and describe how it meshes with the other three.

Question 25

The systems-ecological approach involves three basic models of cultural change: (1) systems models, which are based on general systems theory; (2) cultural ecology, which provides complicated models of the interaction between human cultures and their environment; and (3) multilinear evolution, which is a theory of the cumulative evolution of culture over long periods through complex adaptations to the environment. Discuss how the systems-ecological approach allows us to focus on relationships between different components of a cultural system and between a cultural system and its environment.