Question 1

Discuss Horace Miner's ethnography "Body Rituals among the Nacirema." What is the content of the ethnography? What was Miner's purpose in writing it,and how did he approach that purpose?

Accepted Answer

Horace Miner's "Body Rituals among the Nacirema" is a description of typical personal care practices of Americans,presented as exotic and unfamiliar rituals.Miner's descriptions of the Nacirema are intended to make the strange seem familiar and the familiar strange,and to challenge the reader's assumptions and ethnocentrism.

Question 2

Consider an assembly of thousands of people,all screaming,yelling,and drinking,while a smaller group in the center of the assembly area fights over the remains of a dead pig.Why might this be seen as significant in anthropological terms if it were part of the research described in Horace Miner's interpretations of Nacirema culture?

Accepted Answer

A)   It illustrates mass ritual effectively.
B)   It is a powerful example of participant observation.
C)   It helps to understand how to avoid judgment about cultural beliefs and practices.
D)   It affords a window into the nature of spectacle. C

Question 3

How has the anthropological practice of sharing ethnographic information on particular communities with nonanthropological institutions such as the military been characterized in the discipline of anthropology?

Accepted Answer

A)   as a form of economic development
B)   as a form of foreign aid
C)   as a form of clinical health improvement
D)   as a directive called to do no harm D

Question 4

Anthropologists make great efforts to protect informants' anonymity

Accepted Answer

A)   when writing about sensitive topics within a community.
B)   for communities,but not when discussing lives of community members.
C)   when working in their own societies,but this is not necessary if working abroad.
D)   when referring to individuals in both research notes and publications.

Question 5

Franz Boas (1858-1942)is credited with developing the concept of cultural relativism.At that time,this approach was quite radical because it called for a perspective of culture that considered each culture

Accepted Answer

A)   as a variation of unilineal evolution.
B)   in an ethnocentric manner.
C)   on its own unique merits.
D)   exclusively through comparative ethnology.

Question 6

Making the strange seem more familiar is an overarching goal of

Accepted Answer

A)   key interviews.
B)   structured surveys.
C)   ethnographic fieldwork.
D)   experimental hypotheses.

Question 7

Two different anthropologists write about the same people at different times.The first makes detailed field notes and conducts surveys.The second also makes good notes and talks to a lot of people,but does not do any surveys.When they publish their results,the first anthropologist's book has every single detail of his or her work,and the second anthropologist's book has a lot of the raw interviews as part of the text.The second book can be said to be more

Accepted Answer

A)   polyvocal.
B)   reflexive.
C)   relative.
D)   readable.

Question 8

Because she has been a community activist and advocate for her research subjects,and founded Organs Watch as a watchdog organization,Nancy Scheper-Hughes's research could be considered a form of

Accepted Answer

A)   experimental anthropology.
B)   public anthropology.
C)   charity work.
D)   medical anthropology.

Question 9

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard's approach to anthropology has been criticized for being ahistorical,and one of the major shortcomings of his work was due to

Accepted Answer

A)   the people he studied being part of a larger preexisting colonial system.
B)   his tendency to conduct experiments on people while in the field.
C)   his failure to consider the impact of his work on the tribes he studied.
D)   his lack of understanding of the forces of evolution.

Question 10

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Accepted Answer

A)   conducted a restudy of the Trobriand Islands.
B)   researched social life among the Nuer of Africa.
C)   studied the effects of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
D)   examined sexuality in Samoa.

Question 11

Lewis Henry Morgan

Accepted Answer

A)   conducted a restudy of the Trobriand Islands.
B)   became an expert on Native Americans.
C)   studied the effects of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
D)   examined sexuality in Samoa.

Question 12

Sydney Mintz conducted research on the nature of sugar production in Puerto Rico in the 1970s and 1980s,which looked at the way local communities were affected by capitalism.His work also helped to illustrate the problems arising from

Accepted Answer

A)   small-scale communities as a subject of research.
B)   banking systems as the central power in global economies.
C)   globalization.
D)   racism.

Question 13

The author writes that the roots of cultural anthropology and ethnographic fieldwork lie in

Accepted Answer

A)   biological models.
B)   philosophical debates.
C)   laboratory experiments.
D)   late nineteenth-century globalization.

Question 14

What are the core moral and ethical concerns of anthropological research? Why are they necessary?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are the core moral and ethical...

Question 15

A multi-sited ethnography might be used to understand the nature of an urban legend-a repeated variation of some bizarre event around the world-by visiting many different countries and conducting interviews with participants.An anthropologist seeking a similar answer,but lacking the resources to move about easily,might also conduct a multi-sited ethnography through the use of

Accepted Answer

A)   careful library research.
B)   government Web sites.
C)   the Internet.
D)   tourist accounts.

Question 16

The key difference between Henry Lewis Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor,two early anthropologists,is that Tylor conducted his research

Accepted Answer

A)   through careful examination of older literature and maps.
B)   by publishing a large number of books that were widely read.
C)   by applying statistical methods to the accounts of others.
D)   in his favorite armchair.

Question 17

Sidney Mintz

Accepted Answer

A)   conducted a restudy of the Trobriand Islands.
B)   researched social life among the Nuer of Africa.
C)   studied the effects of colonialism in Puerto Rico.
D)   examined sexuality in Samoa.

Question 18

Explain why ethnography is considered both a science and an art.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain why ethnography is considered both a...

Question 19

In studying the very poor,our understanding of their lives may be difficult.As Nancy Scheper-Hughes discovered,one of the more useful ways to decode radically different cultures is through a careful examination of

Accepted Answer

A)   relationships.
B)   language.
C)   patterns.
D)   poverty.

Question 20

Define zeros and explain their significance for ethnographers.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Define zeros and explain their significance for...

Exam 3: Fieldwork and Ethnography