Question 1

Ethnographic research has turned up evidence of hunters and gatherers who know about but who continue to .

Accepted Answer

A)  social complexity/remain archaic 
B)  fishing/farm 
C)  agriculture/hunt and gather 
D)  hunting/fish

Question 2

A basic knowledge of plant reproduction is for an agriculturalist.

Accepted Answer

A)  sufficient 
B)  necessary 
C)  critical 
D)  nonessential

Question 3

The position held by Franz Boas, which maintained that each culture is the product of its own unique sequence of developments and in which chance plays a major role in bringing about change is called:

Accepted Answer

A)  unilineal evolution. 
B)  cultural relativism. 
C)  Social Darwinism. 
D)  historical particularism.

Question 4

While today the comparative method refers to the testing of hypotheses against a range of human societies, in the 19th century the comparative method:

Accepted Answer

A)  tested hypotheses only within the same types of societies; in other words, only egalitarian hunter-gatherers of arctic environments, or only stratified desert agriculturalists would be examined. 
B)  was a political tool used to argue against the racist idea that some living peoples had made it further up the evolutionary ladder of progress than others. 
C)  translated cultural diversity into an evolutionary sequence in which different living peoples represented different stages in humanity's march towards progress. 
D)  referred to the same thing; there has been little change in how the comparative method is used since the 19th century.

Question 5

The hypothesis, proposed by Robert Carneiro, attributes the origin of the state to a combination of population growth and limited agricultural resources which leads to increased warfare, which in turn fosters centralized political organization.

Accepted Answer

A)  irrigation hypothesis 
B)  warfare and circumscription hypothesis 
C)  hilly flanks hypothesis 
D)  density-equilibrium hypothesis

Question 6

Egalitarian societies are associated with and .

Accepted Answer

A)  intensive farming/ domestication of animals 
B)  hunting and gathering/agriculture 
C)  hunting and gathering/horticulture 
D)  horticulture/agriculture

Question 7

"Archaic" in relation to states is used to distinguish

Accepted Answer

A)  ancient social forms from modern industrial states. 
B)  ancient forms of society with elected officials and prime ministers. 
C)  outdated forms of society. 
D)  states with small, declining population numbers.

Question 8

If you live in an egalitarian foraging society with a low population density that occupies temporary camps, where everyone has equal access to resources through sharing and reciprocity, where there are no permanent positions of authority, and where membership is flexible, you live in a:

Accepted Answer

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

Question 9

The Classic period (AD250-700), when the lowland Maya took on the characteristics of the archaic state, was characterized by continuous population growth. Survey data indicate that as many as people lived in the lowland Maya area at this time.

Accepted Answer

A)  10 thousand 
B)  500 thousand 
C)  1 million 
D)  10 million

Question 10

All of the following characterize the rise of archaic states, except:

Accepted Answer

A)  monumental architecture. 
B)  warfare. 
C)  hunting and gathering. 
D)  market economies.

Question 11

Ethnocentrism means

Accepted Answer

A)  the study of ethnic ideology. 
B)  the attitude or belief that one ethnicity is shared by all. 
C)  the attitude or belief that one's own cultural ways are superior to another. 
D)  a force that ethnicity's apply to increase social complexity.

Question 12

Once archaeological data began to accumulate, archaeologists shifted their attention from of plant and animal domestication to .

Accepted Answer

A)  species/varieties 
B)  dates/places 
C)  what and when/why 
D)  biology/culture

Exam 13: Understanding Key Transitions In World Prehistory