Deck 1: Anthropology in a Global Age

Question 1

What do garbage dumps offer to both anthropologists and archaeologists?

A) understanding of burial practices
B) analysis of nutritional intake
C) a deeper understanding of climate change
D) understanding of cultural practices

Answer 1

understanding of cultural practices

Question 2

What is considered the most distinctive feature of being human?

A) tool use
B) an opposable thumb
C) bipedal locomotion
D) language

Answer 2

language

Question 3

Archaeology, the study of cultures in the human past, focuses on what?

A) how humans adapted biologically to their environments
B) the fossil record and genetic evidence
C) any human material remains
D) only human burial sites

Answer 3

any human material remains

Question 4

The so-called "N-word" would be most likely studied for its origins, uses, and meaning by a(n):

A) descriptive linguist.
B) historic linguist.
C) biological linguist.
D) sociolinguist.

Question 5

What type of anthropologist studies people from a perspective that considers how humans have adapted to their environments over time?

A) physical anthropologist
B) linguistic anthropologist
C) paleoanthropologist
D) cultural anthropologist

Question 6

In late nineteenth-century debates on American immigration, many scholars and government officials privileged immigrants from northern Europe over those from southern Europe, such as Italians and Greeks, because the officials felt these southern people were a separate and inferior biological race with primitive ways. This is an example of:

A) holism.
B) ethnocentrism.
C) genocide.
D) ethnocide.

Question 7

Pablo is an anthropologist studying the Japanese tea ceremony. He considers Japanese religion and history, as well as social relations, the politics of gender, and the language used to talk about the tea ceremony. Pablo's approach to studying the Japanese tea ceremony is an example of what aspect of anthropology?

A) participant observation
B) physical anthropology
C) four-field approach
D) holism

Question 8

Recently, anthropological research has begun to look at the upper segments of society, such as financial institutions, aid and development agencies, medical laboratories, and doctors. What is this process called?

A) studying up
B) marginalization
C) ethnographic fieldwork
D) flexible accumulation

Question 9

Both historic archaeologists and prehistoric archaeologists study the past through the analysis of artifacts. What do historic archeologists have access to that prehistoric archaeologists do not?

A) larger numbers of artifacts
B) written records
C) works of art
D) burial sites

Question 10

Which concept refers to anthropology's commitment to looking at the full scope of human diversity and experience, including the cultural, biological, historical, and linguistic?

A) ethnology
B) fieldwork
C) holism
D) globalization

Question 11

The sequencing of mitochondrial DNA to trace changes in human ancestors over time involves which specialization of anthropology?

A) prehistoric archaeology
B) cultural anthropology
C) paleoanthropology
D) historic archaeology

Question 12

Audrey Richards conducted a detailed ethnography of the coming-of-age rituals of the Bemba, and is often credited with opening the door to the study of health and nutrition among women and children. Which of the four fields of anthropology was Richards working in?

A) archaeology
B) physical anthropology
C) linguistic anthropology
D) cultural anthropology

Question 13

Anthropology looks at the complete diversity of human life across space and time. This kind of study requires a(n)

A) belief that other cultures are normal.
B) belief that one's own culture is superior.
C) ability to view human cultures as isolated and disconnected.
D) ability to evaluate others on the basis of one's own beliefs.

Question 14

People are biological creatures as well as rational human beings. In order to gain a complete understanding of any aspect of human behavior, the field of anthropology adopts what strategy?

A) four-field approach
B) cultural evolution
C) physical anthropology
D) ethnobiology

Question 15

Maria is a cultural anthropologist who wants to better understand the lives of women in coffee farming communities in Brazil. What primary research strategy will she likely use to gain a holistic perspective in order to answer her research questions?

A) in-depth analysis of historical texts about coffee farmers
B) interviews with other researchers who have been to Brazil
C) first-hand ethnographic fieldwork
D) controlled social experiments

Question 16

The chapter opens with a discussion about the effect that a Coca-Cola plant has had on women living in what region?

A) India
B) Peru
C) Panama
D) Malaysia

Question 17

Which kind of anthropologist might use pottery, fossilized remains, and jewelry as the primary clues in their research?

A) physical anthropologist
B) prehistoric archaeologist
C) cultural anthropologist
D) paleoanthropologist

Question 18

Which subfield of anthropology traces the history of human evolution in fossils?

A) prehistoric archaeology
B) primatology
C) cultural anthropology
D) paleoanthropology

Question 19

Material remains help prehistoric archaeologists reconstruct

A) human behavior.
B) written records.
C) garbage dumps.
D) burial sites.

Question 20

Cultural anthropologists employ the process of ethnology to

A) study the evolution of human language.
B) fight the impact of globalization.
C) ethnographically document a small group of people.
D) compare cultures.

Question 21

What field of anthropology studies monkeys and apes, but not human beings?

A) physical anthropology
B) paleoanthropology
C) prehistoric archaeology
D) primatology

Question 22

The Latin language of ancient Rome is no longer spoken routinely. What kind of work is needed to examine how Latin changed into the Romance languages of today (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian)?

A) descriptive linguistics
B) sociolinguistics
C) archaeology
D) historic linguistics

Question 23

What type of anthropologists explore any and all aspects of living human culture-from war and violence to love, sexuality, and child rearing-and look at the meanings that people from all over the world place on these things?

A) archaeologists
B) sociolinguists
C) physical anthropologists
D) cultural anthropologists

Question 24

The scientific discipline that looks at genetics, evolution, the fossil record, and our closest relatives in the animal kingdom in order to gain a greater understanding of humans is known as:

A) prehistoric archeology.
B) physical anthropology.
C) primatology.
D) cultural anthropology.

Question 25

There is a huge inflow of refugees from the wars in the Middle East to parts of Europe and Scandinavia. What kind of anthropologist would probably offer the most useful input to the politicians making decisions about resettlement programs?

A) physical anthropologist
B) cultural anthropologist
C) paleoanthropologist
D) sociolinguist

Question 26

The theory of time-space compression suggests that the way we think about time and space has been transformed. What do anthropologists think might be the underlying reason for this?

A) decreased ethnocentrism
B) even economic growth
C) the Anthropocene
D) rapid innovation of communication and transportation

Question 27

Human beings have long been migrant, moving themselves, their material goods, and even ideas from one part of the world to another. What makes this process, which is now called globalization, seem so different today than in the past?

A) four-field approach
B) holism
C) intensification
D) ethnocentrism

Question 28

An anthropologist looking to understand the impact humans have had on the environment by studying rock formations, polar ice caps and glaciers is most likely practicing what kind of anthropology?

A) cultural anthropology
B) paleoanthropology
C) linguistic anthropology
D) archaeology

Question 29

Participant observation as a research strategy is an essential part of which subfield of anthropology?

A) ethnological analysis
B) cultural anthropology
C) primatology
D) descriptive linguistics

Question 30

Cultural anthropologists often spend a great deal of time in the communities where they conduct research and they ask lots of questions as people work, celebrate, dance, or play games. What is the term used for this process?

A) ethnology
B) participant observation
C) linguistic anthropology
D) four-field approach

Question 31

Which discipline of anthropology studies human beings in the present and from the past through the excavation and analysis of human material artifacts?

A) archaeology
B) cultural anthropology
C) physical anthropology
D) ethnology

Question 32

Marcus is studying developments in Chinese dialects over time, and how those dialects have evolved as migration has increased over the last two centuries. What kind of anthropological lens is Marcus using?

A) historic linguistics
B) descriptive linguistics
C) cultural anthropology
D) sociolinguistics

Question 33

Understanding miscommunications between men and women resulting from their differing use of language would demand a close examination of the cultural context of language. This would be the work of what type of anthropologist?

A) physical anthropologist
B) sociolinguist
C) historic linguist
D) descriptive linguist

Question 34

Anthropologists take a comprehensive approach to understanding human beings. They accomplish this task by:

A) exploring the past.
B) using the four-field approach.
C) focusing mainly on biology.
D) focusing mainly on participant observation.

Question 35

What do many scientists and experts call our current historical era, defined by the ways in which human activity is permanently reshaping our planet?

A) the Global Village
B) climate change
C) the Anthropocene
D) time-space compression

Question 36

What would we call an anthropologist working alongside a Native American group to map their spoken language into a written form?

A) descriptive linguist
B) cultural anthropologist
C) sociolinguist
D) historic linguist

Question 37

An anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork on Mormon fundamentalists and their marriage patterns wants to now compare those patterns to those of Muslim tradition. What would this require?

A) conducting ethnological analysis
B) studying how humans have evolved over time
C) carrying out new long-term ethnographic fieldwork
D) analyzing language used in religious ceremonies around the world

Question 38

Ancient rift valleys and deep caves often contain human fossils that can provide clues about human evolution and the lives of our ancestors. What do we call an anthropologist who examines just the human evolutionary aspect of fossils?

A) prehistoric archaeologist
B) cultural anthropologist
C) paleoanthropologist
D) primatologist

Question 39

What do we call the belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal and natural and the practices of other people are abnormal and unnatural?

A) holism
B) relativism
C) "walking in their shoes"
D) ethnocentrism

Question 40

What kind of researchers work to record languages that are disappearing by finding the last speakers and making recordings and dictionaries to preserve them for the future?

A) descriptive linguists
B) historic linguists
C) cultural anthropologists
D) sociolinguists

Question 41

The Chinese government counts nearly 230 million internal migrants floating in China's cities. What draws most of these internal migrants?

A) work opportunities
B) more affordable housing
C) higher education
D) social movements

Question 42

Bronislaw Malinowski spent two years doing participant observation among the people of the Trobriand Islands in the early 1900s, and there he learned about the islanders' beliefs and customs regarding trade, warfare, marriage, sex, and death. What kind of anthropologist was Malinowski? Explain how participant observation works and what kind of information it provides. Name another topic you could study this way and how you would do it.

Question 43

What is one possible consequence of oil spills and other forms of mass water pollution?

A) It will kill off edible sea life completely by 2048.
B) Offshore drilling will become illegal in most countries.
C) Killer whales will alter their migration routes to avoid the garbage.
D) It will kill off all fish in the Gulf of Mexico by 2030.

Question 44

Describe how changes in transportation technology in the nineteenth century led to the development of anthropology.

Question 45

Global forces are expanding rapidly and moving into local communities everywhere. According to the author, people in local communities respond to these global forces by:

A) working to reshape encounters with these forces to their own benefit.
B) strengthening and renewing traditional religious practices.
C) overturning immigration restrictions.
D) acting with violence and rebellion to destroy these forces.

Question 46

Compare and contrast how historic and prehistoric archaeologists investigate past human life and explain what insights can be gained from each perspective.

Question 47

Time-space compression is one of the key dynamics of globalization. Explain what time-space compression is, how it works, and give an example.

Question 48

The text notes that increasing migration is one of the key dynamics of globalization. Explain where people are moving and why. What effect is this having on people around the world?

Question 49

What key dynamic of globalization is characterized by the movement of people, not only between countries but also within the individual countries themselves?

A) four-field approach
B) flexible accumulation
C) increasing migration
D) uneven development

Question 50

Nepali workers building roads in India, Filipino maids in Saudi Arabia, and Turkish street repairmen in Germany are examples of which global dynamic?

A) time-space compression
B) uneven development
C) the Anthropocene
D) increasing migration

Question 51

Explain the difference between a descriptive linguist and a sociolinguist. If you knew the last living speaker of a language and wanted to preserve that language, who would you call and why?

Question 52

Which of the following primarily contributes to climate change and global warming?

A) the strategies that corporations use to accumulate profits
B) overpopulation, which leads to increased consumption
C) increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels
D) natural changes in the earth's atmosphere, soil, and oceans

Question 53

Dr. Ken Guest's research compares a community in New York's Chinatown with another community in Fuzhou, China. The two communities are linked by migration. What best describes his research?

A) ethnology
B) multi-sited ethnography
C) historic archeology
D) physical anthropology

Question 54

In 2010, the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon disaster poured 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of two months. What is the British Petroleum oil spill characteristic of?

A) holism
B) time-space compression
C) the impacts of increasing globalization
D) ethnology

Question 55

Explain why anthropologists study nonhuman primates like apes and monkeys.

Question 56

Many large corporations-Walmart, General Motors, and others- routinely operate larger numbers of factories in places like China to take advantage of very cheap wages, putting workers in their home country out of a job. This is an example of:

A) paleoanthropology
B) increasing migration
C) flexible accumulation
D) holism

Question 57

Changes in communication technology that have allowed military spouses to switch from mailing letters to their partners in Afghanistan to chatting with them on Skype are an example of what dynamic of globalization?

A) uneven development
B) technological adaptation
C) flexible accumulation
D) time-space compression

Question 58

When companies move their production facilities around the world to take advantage of cheaper labor and lower taxes, what do anthropologists call this?

A) ethnology
B) increasing migration
C) time-space compression
D) flexible accumulation

Question 59

The intensification of globalization is often attributed to what kinds of changes?

A) the accelerated movement of people within and between countries
B) the reconstruction of human behavior before written records
C) increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases
D) breakthroughs in transportation and communication technologies

Question 60

Global poverty has risen dramatically over the past twenty years, and is generally considered a sign of what by anthropologists?

A) holism
B) uneven development
C) time-space compression
D) ethnographic fieldwork

Question 61

One aspect of globalization is uneven development. Explain what this means and how it affects the world. Provide an example.

Question 62

Explain how anthropologists have had to adapt to the impact of global forces on the communities they study. What tools or new approaches have they developed to help them do their work in a globalized world?

Question 63

Explain how globalization has enabled flexible accumulation, and how it works. Provide an example from class.

Question 64

Globalization is also affecting the world's environment. What do scientists call our current historical era, marked by human influence on the planet? Identify three effects of human activity on the environment, and then choose one and discuss its consequences.

Question 65

Discuss the ways in which local communities react to the potential influence of global forces. Support your description with an example from the class.