Deck 7: Modern Human Diversity: Race and Racism

Question 1

The 18ᵗʰ-century Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus originally divided humans into subspecies based on:

A) immediate ancestry
B) geographic location
C) skin color
D) hair texture

Answer 1

geographic location

Question 2

For Blumenbach, the term "Malay" included:

A) Europeans and Asians
B) Pacific islanders and Sicilians
C) indigenous Australians and Pacific islanders
D) Europeans and indigenous Australians

Answer 2

indigenous Australians and Pacific islanders

Question 3

How is human variation, such as skin color, distributed across the species?

A) there is no variation across the species
B) in a homogeneous fashion
C) in a continuous fashion
D) in a punctuated fashion

Answer 3

in a continuous fashion

Question 4

The fingerprint pattern of "loops" is associated primarily with:

A) sub-Saharan Africans
B) central Europeans
C) people of Mongolia
D) Australian aborigines

Question 5

What happened to Ota Benga?

A) he was sent back to Africa
B) he died in the Bronx Zoo of a heart attack
C) he was attacked by wild animals at the Bronx Zoo
D) he committed suicide

Question 6

In what period did European scholars first begin a systematic study of human variation?

A) 19th/20th centuries
B) 16th/17th centuries
C) 15th century
D) 18th/19th centuries

Question 7

Blumenbach argued that degeneration of human types was caused by:

A) interracial marriage
B) striving to be different from one's group of origin
C) changes in skull types
D) migrating from one's place of origin

Question 8

Early American anthropologists Franz Boas and Ashley Montagu both suffered from what kind of prejudice in their European homelands?

A) anti-Quakerism
B) anti-Arabism
C) anti-Africanism
D) anti-semitism

Question 9

All of the following are true of the race concept except:

A) genetic difference between individuals are greater than those between groups
B) races are genetically closed
C) no particular group has exclusive possession of any gene or genes
D) it is a completely arbitrary category

Question 10

What scientist did measurements on skulls to attempt to demonstrate biological superiority of specific groups?

A) Johann Blumenbach
B) Ashley Montagu
C) Carolus Linnaeus
D) Samuel Morton

Question 11

All of the following are true about race except:

A) race exists as a social and political category that promotes inequality in some societies
B) biological evidence demonstrates unequivocally that separate human races do not exist
C) scientists disagree on the number of biological human races that exist
D) gene flow throughout evolutionary history has maintained humans as a single species

Question 12

Broadly defined "racial" groups differ from one another in what percent of their genes?

A) 5%
B) 11%
C) 1%
D) 7%

Question 13

The book, On the Natural Variety of Mankind, formally proposes a notion of:

A) race as a social myth
B) human racial adaptation
C) relative human equality
D) a hierarchy of human types

Question 14

Why was Ota Benga first brought to the United States?

A) to be exhibited at the New York Cultural Museum
B) to be exhibited at the Museum of Natural History
C) to be housed in the Bronx Zoo
D) to be exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair

Question 15

In which of the following areas is skin color not a determinant of social status?

A) Polynesia
B) Brazil
C) United States
D) South Africa

Question 16

Which individual, as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, did the most to combat racism in the United States?

A) Franz Boas
B) Carolus Linnaeus
C) Ashley Montagu
D) Samuel Morton

Question 17

Ota Benga was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo with a/an:

A) orangutan
B) gibbon
C) gorilla
D) chimpanzee

Question 18

Which of the following scholars worked to combat racism in his career?

A) Johann Blumenbach
B) Samuel Morton
C) Carolus Linnaeus
D) Ashley Montagu

Question 19

To understand why the racial approach to human variation has been so unproductive and damaging, we must first understand:

A) how skin color leads to real differences in people
B) how human origins led to different races
C) how biology and genetics help us understand variation
D) how culture is correct in creating categories

Question 20

All of the following are true statements except:

A) the majority of genetic variation exists within groups
B) no one group is genetically distinct for any particular trait
C) differences between individual populations is greater than that between individuals
D) racial categories tend to be devised in an arbitrary manner

Question 21

Which of the following is true about a child's intelligence?

A) it tends to be higher than that of the child's mother's
B) it tends to be higher than that of both of the child's parents'
C) it tends to be relatively the same as the child's mother's
D) it tends to be 1% lower than that of a grandparent

Question 22

The doctrine of superiority by which one group justifies the dehumanization of others based on their distinctive physical features is:

A) elitism
B) racism
C) ethnocentrism
D) superioritism

Question 23

According to the Nuremberg race laws and Nazi policy, all of the following groups were considered to be inferior except:

A) homosexuals
B) Aryans
C) Jews
D) Gypsies

Question 24

What do we call a doctrine that dehumanizes a group of people based on physical characteristics?

A) racism
B) racial profiling
C) radicalism
D) radical race

Question 25

In which book do we find the argument that the various American "races" have differing degrees of intelligence based on immutable genetic factors?

A) Man's Most Dangerous Myth
B) The Bell Curve
C) On the Origin of Species
D) Race and Progress

Question 26

What did the Alpha and Beta tests ultimately prove?

A) the ability of certain individuals to respond well or poorly to questions conceived by middle-class Americans of European descent
B) that the intelligence of African Americans was higher than that of European Americans
C) that the intelligence of European Americans was higher than that of African Americans
D) that the intelligence of Southern Americans was higher than that of Northern Americans

Question 27

What do we call the practice in the United States of assigning race to the parent believed to pertain to a minority group (known also as the "one drop rule")?

A) racism
B) clinal distribution
C) partial birth
D) hypodescent

Question 28

Intelligence characteristics are:

A) inherited as a group of characteristics
B) independently inherited
C) inherited based on race
D) do not exist

Question 29

Approximately how many people died in the Nazi Holocaust?

A) 11 million
B) 26 million
C) 9 million
D) 3 million

Question 30

All of the following are problems associated with twin studies except:

A) failure to use adopted children in studies
B) failure to make sure that the twins were raised separately
C) biased subjective studies
D) inadequate sample sizes

Question 31

Because populations are genetically open:

A) there are no barriers, cultural or biological, to human reproduction
B) there is no such thing as biological variation
C) there are few fixed racial groups
D) no fixed racial groups exist

Question 32

Through genetic analysis in the 1970s, an evolutionary biologist showed that there was a very low percentage of human variation existing among groups seen as racially separate. Who was this individual?

A) Samuel Morton
B) Ashley Montagu
C) Franz Boas
D) Richard Lewontin

Question 33

Marks argues that athletic ability is based on all of the following except:

A) race
B) social factors
C) cultural factors
D) genetics

Question 34

Which of the following books has an argument similar to that of The Bell Curve?

A) On the Origin of Species
B) Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race
C) Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It
D) Race and Progress

Question 35

IQ tests typically measure:

A) performance
B) neuron activity
C) innate intelligence
D) human capacity

Question 36

Approximately what percentage of unique inborn characteristics can be attributed to any group of people based on biology alone?

A) 75%
B) 50%
C) 10%
D) 0%

Question 37

During what time period did the United States government administer the Alpha and Beta intelligence tests?

A) Vietnam War
B) Korean War
C) World War II
D) World War I

Question 38

The Nuremberg race laws of 1935 were associated with the deaths of approximately how many people?

A) 4 million people
B) 8 million people
C) 17 million people
D) 11 million people

Question 39

The category of "Ladino" is associated with:

A) Australia
B) sub-Saharan Africa
C) Eastern Europe
D) Central America

Question 40

In the article, "A Feckless Quest for the Basketball Gene," Jonathan Marks argues that:

A) associating athletics and race is based on make-believe genetics and applied to naively-conceptualized groups of individuals
B) associating athletics and race is based on a set of genetic factors that are rarely found in any group anywhere
C) blacks do not have an athletic ability at all
D) athletic ability is based solely on an individual's genetic factors

Question 41

What is the primary purpose of vitamin D in humans?

A) develop acute eyesight
B) maintain the balance of calcium in the body
C) prevent the development of respiratory illnesses
D) enhance the production of collagen for hair

Question 42

All of the following are part of a "Paleolithic prescription" for health except:

A) lower calorie consumption
B) more varied diet
C) higher consumption of processed foods
D) increased physical activity

Question 43

Which of the following is an enzyme found in the small intestine that enables the digestion of milk sugar?

A) lactose
B) lactase
C) mestase
D) lactame

Question 44

Members of the genus Homo have primarily adapted through culture over the past:

A) 50,000 years
B) 1.5 million years
C) 2.5 million years
D) 7.7 million years

Question 45

The thrifty genotype characterized humans until about:

A) 50 years ago
B) 500 years ago
C) 6,000 years ago
D) 8,000 years ago

Question 46

The distribution of a single, genetically-based characteristic related to adaptation is called a:

A) thrifty gene
B) genetic arbitrator
C) cline
D) race

Question 47

All of the following facts influence race relations in the United States except:

A) society
B) biology
C) politics
D) history

Question 48

Today, in the United States, there are skyrocketing rates of all of the following conditions due to lifestyle practices except:

A) heart disease
B) diabetes
C) obesity
D) albinism

Question 49

What percentage of the United States population is considered to get little exercise and be overweight?

A) 25%
B) 37%
C) 43%
D) 61%

Question 50

Where do we find an adaptive advantage associated with dark skin?

A) in wooded areas
B) in southern areas
C) in northern areas
D) in tropical areas

Question 51

Lactase retention and lactose tolerance are associated with what percent of adults of northern European descent?

A) less than 50%
B) over 80%
C) more than 90%
D) less than 20%

Question 52

Melanin has the primary function of:

A) coloring the skin to represent one's race
B) protecting the skin against solar radiation
C) providing vital oils to skin exposed to sun
D) helping skin re-grow and develop

Question 53

A high retention of lactase is found in populations with a long tradition of:

A) herding
B) fishing
C) foraging
D) hunting

Question 54

What is the thrifty genotype?

A) a genotype that is associated directly with dairying people
B) a genotype that makes all people obese
C) a genotype that allows people to work longer at food production tasks
D) a genotype that permits the efficient storage of fat for times of food scarcity

Question 55

In times of scarcity, individuals with the thrifty genotype conserve:

A) nitrogen and glucose
B) glucose and fat
C) fat and nitrogen
D) glucose only

Question 56

Which of the following is highest in naturally-occurring Vitamin D?

A) corn
B) lettuce
C) sunflower oil
D) cod liver oil

Question 57

All of the following are true regarding human skin except:

A) selection favored dark skin in human ancestry
B) lightly pigmented skin is likely a recent development in human history
C) lightly pigmented skin is more highly evolved than heavier pigmented skin
D) darker skin better suits the condition of life in the tropics

Question 58

All of the following are examples of cultural practices acting as an agent for biological selection except:

A) people diagnosed with diabetes taking a medicine prescribed by physicians become as biologically fit as anyone else
B) people of low financial status who are unable to purchase medication prescribed by physicians affecting biological fitness
C) an inherited trait that affects biological fitness
D) greater lactose tolerance in populations contributing significantly to diet

Question 59

In the United States, as in most industrial and postindustrial countries since World War II, IQ scores have risen an average of:

A) 45 points
B) 15 points
C) 10 points
D) 25 points

Question 60

In northern latitudes people have less melanin to promote the manufacture of vitamin:

A) E
B) D
C) A
D) C

Question 61

BPA (bisphenol-A) has recently been associated with higher rates of:

A) obesity
B) heart disease
C) diabetes
D) measles

Question 62

While tragic, the Nazi holocaust is not unique in human history.

Question 63

Franz Boas believed that inferior races could progress.

Question 64

Hormone-disrupting chemicals are so prevalent in the United States that sperm rates from 1938 to 1990 have declined by:

A) 50%
B) 35%
C) 25%
D) 20%

Question 65

Ota Benga was 15 when he was first brought to the United States.

Question 66

Race has no objective scientific merit.

Question 67

The United States Census Bureau uses data based on self-identification.

Question 68

Racial categories used by the United States Census Bureau change with every census.

Question 69

There is no general agreement as to what abilities or talents actually make up what we call intelligence.

Question 70

Samuel Morton argued that the skull of a woman from the Caucasus region was the most beautiful human specimen he had studied because it was a spherical shape.

Question 71

Intelligence tests are a subject of controversy.

Question 72

To date, there are very few innate behavioral characteristics that can be attributed to any group of people based on biological grounds.

Question 73

Race is a social myth that argues that humans form different subspecies groups based on phenotypic expressions.

Question 74

An IQ test measures the genetic disposition or the level of intelligence an
individual was born with.

Question 75

The dietary staple consumed in Mediterranean countries where malaria is common is:

A) the pinto bean
B) the fava bean
C) milk
D) the prickly pear

Question 76

Race does not function as a social or political category that promotes inequality
because there is no objective scientific merit for race.

Question 77

The biological race concept is not applicable to human variation.

Question 78

Fava beans provide protection against:

A) measles
B) malaria
C) mumps
D) chicken pox

Question 79

There is a genetic basis for certain abilities in different populations. For example, some populations are genetically endowed to play sports, others for specific professions like law enforcement or education.

Question 80

The only reproductive barrier that exists for humans is cultural.