Deck 1: Introducing World Prehistory

Question 1

Archaeology is __________.

A) the study of ancient species like dinosaurs
B) concerned only with rulers of ancient societies
C) the study of modern societies
D) the study of ancient human societies using material remains to reconstruct human behavior

Answer 1

D

Question 2

__________ is/are the archives of the past made up of surviving finds resulting from ancient human behavior.

A) Middens
B) The archaeological record
C) Written records
D) Hieroglyphs

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Historical records can be used to date archaeological sites as far back as __________.

A) 10,000 years ago
B) about 3,000 B. C.
C) The B. C./A.D. boundary.
D) about 1,000 years ago

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following materials CANNOT be used in radiocarbon dating?

A) charcoal
B) wood
C) volcanic rock
D) human remains

Question 5

The only source of unbiased information is __________.

A) oral histories
B) written records
C) archaeological records
D) nonexistent in the archaeological context

Question 6

A concept developed by anthropologists to describe the distinctive adaptive system used by human beings is __________.

A) culture
B) invention
C) diffusion
D) prehistory

Question 7

Cultural systems don't include __________.

A) tools
B) burial customs
C) religious beliefs
D) DNA replication

Question 8

Cultural processes in the past and present include all of the following EXCEPT __________.

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

Question 9

An example of climate affecting an ancient society comes from the __________ that lived on the north coast of Peru.

A) Inca
B) Egyptians
C) Moche
D) Maya

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT true about unilinear cultural evolution?

A) it was influenced by Darwin's theory of biological and natural selection
B) it is applied to the analysis of societies today
C) it suggested that human societies evolved from simple (barbarism) to more complex (civilization)
D) it had biases regarding the superiority of one society over another

Question 11

Which of the following is true about multilinear cultural evolution?

A) it does not apply to societies today
B) cultural ecology is at the core of this theory
C) societies can't be divided into bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state-organized
D) there is controversy over the classification in multilinear cultural evolution

Question 12

An approach to studying hunter-gatherer societies that is based on the assumption that people will use the most efficient foraging strategies relative to considerations of energy and time expended is __________.

A) post-processualism
B) the contingency model
C) optimal foraging strategy
D) processualism

Question 13

Some kind of innovation, material or otherwise, produced by a person or group at one place at a single moment in time is a(n) __________.

A) discovery
B) invention
C) midden
D) diffusion

Question 14

__________ refers to the biological (male or female), whereas __________ is culturally constructed.

A) Gender; sex
B) Sex; orientation
C) Orientation; sex
D) Sex; gender

Question 15

Important aspects of ancient trade include __________.

A) obtaining raw or finished materials that are unavailable locally
B) impersonal interactions
C) transmission of writing styles
D) the types of materials used in the construction of ancient ships

Question 16

The ancient Maya elites exercised their power over the populace by __________.

A) creating economic monopolies
B) creating symbolic models of the Maya universe in the center of their cities
C) sacrificing dissenters
D) controlling the agricultural base

Question 17

A simple form of human social organization that flourished for most of prehistory and consists of a family or series of families with 20 to 50 people is a __________.

A) band
B) tribe
C) state
D) chiefdom

Question 18

A form of social organization that has evolved some form of leadership structure and some mechanisms for distributing goods and services throughout the society is a __________.

A) band
B) tribe
C) state
D) chiefdom

Question 19

A group of bands unified by age-sets or secret societies and governed by a council of representatives from the bands is a __________.

A) mega-band
B) tribe
C) state
D) chiefdom

Question 20

A socially stratified society with a strongly centralized government, social complexity, and writing is a __________.

A) band
B) tribe
C) state
D) chiefdom

Question 21

Discuss the difference between the two types of archaeology - text-aided archaeology and prehistoric archaeology.

Question 22

Discuss the characteristics of bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.

Question 23

Discuss the importance of "engendering" the past. Use the example of the role of Aztec women in different aspects of Aztec life and society from the book.