Deck 15: Art and Media

Question 1

What do anthropologists call the assertion that human beings have an intrinsic way of perceiving art that informs what people consider to be art or not art?

A) the universal gaze
B) authenticity
C) fine art
D) universal art

Answer 1

the universal gaze

Question 2

Art in Western traditions is often associated with notions of what kind of culture?

A) popular
B) tourist
C) high
D) authentic

Answer 2

high

Question 3

Cooking and building, fashion and oratory, decorating and dressing, and sewing and play all represent ________ through which artists and audiences communicate.

A) sculpture
B) media
C) games
D) programs

Answer 3

media

Question 4

What does the anthropological approach to world art attempt to do?

A) advocate the display of art from different cultures without specifying its original context
B) understand the development and meaning of local art forms while preserving their specific cultural contexts
C) emphasize evolutionary framing and evaluation based on historical context
D) deemphasize the focus on the movement of art beyond local or national borders

Question 5

What is one of the crucial aspects of the anthropological approach to understanding art?

A) reconsidering Western art in a non-Western context
B) ignoring the "social life" of art as it moves beyond local borders
C) displaying art with detailed reference to its own indigenous, local context
D) supporting the ways in which museums display anthropological art

Question 6

Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel argued that humans' determination of beauty is determined by:

A) culture.
B) nature.
C) popularity.
D) their age and sex.

Question 7

How does the author refer to the aesthetic experience?

A) as a universal perception of what art is
B) the perceptions of art based on logic
C) scientific studies of how art is perceived
D) the perception of art through one's senses

Question 8

What is one result of the attention focused on Morrinho?

A) art students receiving scholarships to study at a university in Madrid
B) the number of Internet users in Paris increasing dramatically
C) an opportunity for the creators to install a replica of it at an arts festival in London
D) new guidelines in regulations about television broadcasts for children

Question 9

According to the archaeological record, how old is evidence of human artistic expression?

A) 10,000 years
B) 100,000 years
C) 50,000 years
D) 1 million years

Question 10

What do anthropologists emphasize in definitions of art?

A) It is solely the domain of elites.
B) It is created only by professional artists.
C) It is a product of individual rather than community production.
D) It is shaped by the viewer's perception as well as the artistic intent.

Question 11

In Steiner's research among the wood carvers of Abidjan, what characteristic is pivotal in determining the monetary value of art?

A) artists' formal training
B) buyers' perceptions of an object's authenticity
C) length of time required to produce it
D) combination of colors (e.g., black and yellow are preferred)

Question 12

Early anthropologists played an important role in the acquisition of art that came from Oceania, Africa, and Latin America. What was it referred to at that time?

A) high
B) native
C) primitive
D) ethnographic

Question 13

In Christopher Steiner's ethnography of art in Abidjan, Côte D'Ivoire, who are the primary consumers of locally produced art?

A) Arab businessmen
B) African farmers
C) Western businessmen
D) Western tourists

Question 14

Why is Morrinho important to anthropologists?

A) It exposes the intersections of class, poverty, power, and kinship through a miniature city.
B) It reveals the fascination Brazilians have for models.
C) It displays the ways that foreign powers have infiltrated Brazil's art world.
D) It acts as a channel for the local population to expose corruption.

Question 15

What is reflected in decisions about what is displayed as fine art?

A) wealth and power stratification
B) egalitarianism
C) artistic skill and prowess
D) gender equality

Question 16

What does the analysis of European Paleolithic cave art indicate?

A) These designs were painted by one individual.
B) There were no burials associated with the paintings.
C) The paintings depicted an equal number of humans and animals.
D) The paintings were modified over a 20,000-year period.

Question 17

What is the term used to describe a viewer's perception of an object's antiquity, uniqueness, and originality within a local culture?

A) aesthetics
B) popularity
C) authenticity
D) value

Question 18

What unique evidence of artistic endeavor did archaeologists discover in South Africa's Blombos Cave?

A) paintbrushes
B) carved bison bones
C) cave paintings of giraffes
D) red and yellow ochre

Question 19

Cross-cultural research leads anthropologists to argue that appreciation of art is acquired through what social vector?

A) social media
B) institutions
C) enculturation
D) schools

Question 20

Anthropologists define art as all the ideas, forms, techniques, and strategies that humans use to do what?

A) use objectively valuable materials in a beautiful way
B) communicate their cultural values to other societies
C) teach cultural norms to children in an entertaining way
D) communicate their creativity and inspiration

Question 21

What is the predominant export destination of West African art?

A) art museums
B) a French art gallery
C) a New York City warehouse
D) the Internet

Question 22

As discussed in the text, where is the art known as "wood" and "mud" primarily produced?

A) South Africa
B) West Africa
C) Eastern Africa
D) Central America

Question 23

What would ethnomusicologists be most likely to study?

A) portraits in National Geographic
B) communication through social media
C) the use of playground rhymes by U.S. rap artists
D) the marketing of oceanic arts

Question 24

According to the author, what is a critical form of media that allows Chinese immigrants and those at home to remain in contact with each other?

A) letters
B) cell phones
C) festival videos
D) newspapers and magazines

Question 25

Jessica Winegar studied post-9/11 attempts by institutions to bridge cultural differences with media. What category was rarely featured at the exhibits designed to improve relations?

A) historical art
B) female artists
C) male artists
D) music and rituals of Sufism

Question 26

What term does Arjun Appadurai use to refer to the global cultural flows of media and visual images that enable linkages and communication across boundaries?

A) critical transformation
B) media worlds
C) social media
D) global mediascape

Question 27

What does Kyra Gaunt's research into kinetic orality in U.S. playgrounds demonstrate?

A) Young black girls tend to imitate the music and gestures of hip-hop performers.
B) Black male musicians created a new art form.
C) Kinetic orality is a unique rhyming pattern found in the south Bronx.
D) Young women raised in black culture learn to perform a rhythmic pattern of clapping and stomping as part of the socialization process.

Question 28

What did Lutz and Collins conclude after their investigation of National Geographic photos?

A) They depict the harsh realities of life in many different places.
B) They avoid images that might disrupt readers' views of the world.
C) They open up a broad cultural perspective that most readers would otherwise never see.
D) They help readers remember that peoples of the world are more alike than different.

Question 29

Côte d'Ivoire's art traders actively engage in the construction of:

A) political protest.
B) meaning.
C) identity.
D) authenticity.

Question 30

Which population made up the majority of the 40 million people who read National Geographic at its peak?

A) anthropologists and their students
B) people over the age of forty-five
C) students at elite high schools
D) the middle class

Question 31

The presentation of local art on the global scale may provide not only a means of economic activity but also a venue to do what?

A) assert local cultural identity in the face of rapid change
B) lead to local art being considered a new form of high art
C) have an impact on social dynamics within the producers' communities
D) help the local cultures become connected to the Internet

Question 32

What form of technology emerged in the twentieth century as a dominant form of global communication, impacting art and art production?

A) telephones
B) the Internet
C) television
D) computers

Question 33

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, many institutions felt that art might offer a way to foster understanding between different cultures. What was the surprising discovery made by anthropologist Jessica Winegar about such efforts?

A) Incidents of violence against Muslims increased.
B) Muslim artists were welcomed into the world of high art.
C) They reinforced stereotypes and existing dichotomies.
D) Incidents of violence against Muslims decreased.

Question 34

What is meant by the term photographic gaze?

A) the view in the lens of the photographer
B) the personal perspective of the photographer
C) the relationship between the photographer and the distribution channel of his or her work
D) the view of the subject being photographed

Question 35

Why did Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins apply the photographic gaze to National Geographic magazines?

A) On average, more than 100 million people worldwide read it monthly.
B) It was the only source of information available about cultures of the world prior to cable television becoming widely available.
C) They were paid more than $25,000 by the publishers to help increase subscription rates.
D) They wanted to explore the power of visual images to shape cultural perspectives and behavior.

Question 36

What did anthropologist Faye Ginsberg mean by her use of the phrase "media worlds"?

A) tensions that result from the collision of visual worlds
B) the erasure of local cultures as a result of globalized media
C) global cultural flows of media
D) tensions that result from participation in online virtual communities

Question 37

What is indigenous media?

A) videos made about indigenous peoples
B) use of the media by those who have experienced significant disruption at a local level
C) films that are unusually clever in delivering a powerful message
D) the type of media used by Native Americans

Question 38

What is the central focus of research by visual anthropologists?

A) the production, circulation, and consumption of visual images
B) understanding how social relationships are mediated by art
C) ways that Internet images reflect social hierarchies
D) examining the relationships between popular, tourist, and high art

Question 39

West African art traders often rely on a network of what?

A) relatives who are able to provide false credentials for the artists entering the country
B) fictive kin who may offer a place to stay and advice
C) tourists who have already purchased all the pieces they want
D) businesspeople traveling between West Africa and the United States who are trying to earn extra money

Question 40

The author states that immigrants he had never met recognized him on the streets of New York. Why was this possible?

A) The author had shared copies of his work with members of New York's Chinatown.
B) He was filmed in a festival video in China that was later viewed by immigrants in New York.
C) Photographs of the author were visible on book covers found in many local bookstores used by immigrants.
D) The author violated copyright laws and was featured on police bulletins.

Question 41

In order to make their art appeal to Western buyers, artists in West Africa often artificially stain, age, and dirty their creations so it fits their buyers' ideals that African art should be what?

A) primitive
B) historic
C) contemporary
D) hand-crafted

Question 42

From an anthropological perspective, who is eligible to create and experience art?

A) all groups
B) non-Western populations
C) skilled performers
D) trained artists

Question 43

The decentralized production and circulation of new digital content, facilitated by satellites, computers, and handheld devices that has challenged the state's ability to control content online and elsewhere, has led to new opportunities for activism and the challenging of existing power structures largely through what kind of media?

A) social
B) cultural
C) political
D) television

Question 44

Consider the global trade of West African "wood" and "mud" artwork. Are these objects "authentic"?

Question 45

What kind of anthropologist would study the trends in boy band culture and their fans from the 1990s-today?

A) visual anthropologist
B) musical anthropologist
C) ethnomusicologist
D) historical anthropologist

Question 46

Evaluate this statement: "As people become frustrated with the lack of intimacy provided by electronic technologies, this form of communication will become less important in coming decades." Is it true or false? Use examples from the text to support your conclusion.

Question 47

You are an anthropologist studying line-dancing culture in the southern United States. You study groups of people who all move, shout, and sing in synchronized groups according to what the music is doing. What might you label this kind of music?

A) musical power
B) ethnomusic
C) kinetic music
D) kinetic orality

Question 48

As discussed in this text, globalization has meant greater economic overlap and communications between different nations. Anthropological studies of art traced the production and sale of art created in once-remote locations to galleries and shops on the other side of the world. When did so-called ethnic art become more popular? Using two specific examples discussed for Africa, explain how art produced in one part of the world is distributed and consumed in the United States or Europe. Identify the two primary types of buyers and discuss three categories of individuals most directly involved in selling the works of art abroad.

Question 49

The importance of "provenance"-or the origins of a piece of "fine art" or an antique-has long been a critical component of its value for buyers. The text discusses a similar type of evaluation that occurs depending on the perceived "authenticity" of so-called primitive art. Using the specific example of the art produced by artists in West Africa, explain how this way of producing art is marketed as authentic and what that means. How does this approach to both art and its value and authenticity help engage these artists with a global market?

Question 50

The author discusses the importance of art found in caves inhabited by humans in the Paleolithic era for understanding the lifestyles of early humans. Summarize the important finds in Africa and Europe to explain how archaeological excavations of the painters' studio found in the cave have shone new light on our knowledge and understanding of the technologies developed by early humans, including when humans created art. Use two additional examples from southern Europe to discuss ways that evidence from the Paleolithic era has expanded our understanding of the social life and religious beliefs of "cavemen" and the way that human cultures have developed, including when we see evidence of widespread production of art.

Question 51

In addition to selling art to tourists in their home countries, many West African art traders immigrate to the U.S. and sell their wares in marketplaces in New York City. How do these traveling art traders receive honor and prestige in their home countries?

A) by raising awareness about traditional West African art among art dealers around the world
B) by meeting financial obligations with remittances and start-up capital for family members
C) by bringing American art and artistic styles back to artists in West Africa
D) by creating large amounts of wealth and capital for themselves

Question 52

Summarize Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins's study of National Geographic's photographic gaze. What is the effect of National Geographic's cultural lens? Then make a short list of visual media you encounter throughout the day-social media, news, television shows, websites, and advertising, for example-and list some clues that you think intentionally or unintentionally express the worldviews of the media owners, editors, designers, videographers, or others who made that media.

Question 53

The concept of "media worlds" implies that the global flow of images and media leads to more widespread communication and linkages across geographic and cultural boundaries, but can also lead to what?

A) political and economic tensions within textured local realities
B) increased reliance on technology around the world
C) tensions between social media users and nonusers
D) a narrowing of the global mediascape

Question 54

Anthropologists Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins's study of the National Geographic is an example of the application of what kind of anthropology?

A) literature review
B) physical anthropology
C) ethnography
D) visual anthropology

Question 55

Discuss the relationship of art and the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. How did the institutions-galleries, museums, and others-come to a decision about why art might be useful as a means of bridging the cultural "gap" left by the attack? What was the result of their effort? What could have been done differently and why?

Question 56

Define the term kinetic orality and describe the circular relationship Kyra Gaunt documented between the games black girls play and commercial hip-hop culture, especially as it pertains to the construction of gender.

Question 57

Jessica Winegar's study of art exhibits displaying Middle Eastern and Islamic art after 9/11 suggests that the ability for art to serve as a "bridge builder" is severely limited by what?

A) popular opinions about what makes for good art
B) beliefs about what constitutes "high art"
C) the political context in which art is selected and funded
D) the authenticity of the art that is displayed

Question 58

Different cultures have different visions of the meaning and value of art. Provide the author's definition of "art," and use this as a starting point for explaining why Western art became the standard for galleries and museums. Distinguish between Western and so-called primitive art, and explain the role anthropologists played in raising awareness of the latter. Highlight both the positive contributions attributed to and criticisms of anthropologists relative to notions of "ethnocentrism" and the "universal gaze." Provide two examples to discuss how and why "primitive" or "ethnic" art has become a collector's item.

Question 59

Pick an example of American art (either pop or fine art) or media and subject it to an anthropological analysis. In what context does it occur? Who is the intended audience? How does it intersect with race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, politics, or economics? Consider what specific questions you would want to answer if you were to conduct an ethnographic study of this art or media form. How would you structure your research?