Deck 1: Anthropology in a Global Age

Question 1

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 anthropologist.
D) sociolinguist.

Answer 1

sociolinguist.

Question 2

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) biological anthropology
C) historic ethnology
D) cultural anthropology

Answer 2

cultural anthropology

Question 3

What type of anthropologist focuses on how humans have adapted to their environments over time?

A) physical anthropologist
B) descriptive linguist
C) paleoanthropologist
D) cultural anthropologist

Answer 3

physical anthropologist

Question 4

Studying how men and women use language differently and how this regularly leads to miscommunication between them would demand a close examination of the cultural context of language. This would be the work of what type of anthropologist?

A) biological linguist
B) sociolinguist
C) historical linguist
D) descriptive linguist

Question 5

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 6

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

A) human adaptation to the environment in the past
B) human evolution from the fossil record
C) any human material remains
D) any human burial sites

Question 7

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

A) prehistoric archaeology
B) primatology
C) evolutionary archaeology
D) paleoanthropology

Question 8

Cultural anthropologists like to hang out with the people they are studying and ask lots of questions as the people work, celebrate, dance, or play games. What is the term used for this process?

A) ethnology
B) participant observation
C) cultural anthropology
D) cognitive anthropology

Question 9

Cultural anthropologists employ the process of ethnology to:

A) challenge ethnocentrism.
B) challenge ethnographic authority.
C) ethnographically document other cultures.
D) compare cultures.

Question 10

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

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

Question 11

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 12

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 13

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 14

Anthropology has long studied the marginalized and remote segments of human society. Recently, a lot of research has begun to look at the upper segments of society, which can help us understand how the other marginalized groups come into being and exist at all. What is this process called?

A) studying up
B) marginalization
C) deep ethnography
D) thick description

Question 15

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 normal
C) belief in the power of globalization
D) ability to evaluate others on the basis of one's own beliefs

Question 16

What is considered the most distinctive feature of being human?

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

Question 17

Material remains help prehistoric archaeologists reconstruct:

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

Question 18

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 19

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

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

Question 20

What do garbage dumps offer to both anthropologists and archaeologists?

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

Question 21

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

A) evolutionary biology
B) paleoanthropology
C) paleoprimatology
D) primatology

Question 22

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 23

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) flexible time scales
B) rapid economic growth
C) rapid accumulation of profits
D) rapid innovation of communication and transportation

Question 24

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) archaeologist
C) paleoanthropologist
D) paleoprimatologist

Question 25

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) comparative research
C) classical linguistics
D) historic linguistics

Question 26

Which discipline of anthropology studies human beings through the excavation and analysis of human material artifacts?

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

Question 27

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) looking at biology.
D) using participant observation.

Question 28

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) undertaking comprehensive holistic analysis
C) carrying out additional ethnographic fieldwork
D) locating informants who are both Mormon and Muslim

Question 29

The huge inflow of refugees from the wars in the Middle East to parts of Europe and Scandinavia has created a lot of social and political problems in those countries where the refugees wind up. What kind of anthropologist would offer useful input to the politicians making decisions about resettlement programs?

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

Question 30

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

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

Question 31

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

A) uneven development
B) workload migration
C) flexible accumulation
D) global regulation

Question 32

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 what it means to be human is known as:

A) evolutionary biology.
B) physical anthropology.
C) primatology.
D) cultural anthropology.

Question 33

What type of anthropologists explore 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) ethnologists
B) sociolinguists
C) holistic anthropologists
D) cultural anthropologists

Question 34

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) the four-field approach
B) migration
C) intensification
D) ethnocentrism

Question 35

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) Internet communication
B) technological adaptation
C) flexible accumulation
D) time-space compression

Question 36

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) domestic migration
D) increasing migration

Question 37

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 38

In the "Social Life of Things," we follow the path of a shoe. In this example, a corporation in the United States makes a large profit. At the same time, almost half of the people in Senegal live in poverty and many children suffer poor living conditions. What is this an example of?

A) uneven development
B) flexible accumulation
C) elitism
D) marginalization

Question 39

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

A) marginal exploitation
B) technological migration
C) labor-tax compression
D) flexible accumulation

Question 40

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

A) economic elitism
B) uneven development
C) marginalization
D) neocolonialism

Question 41

The British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 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) ethnocentrism
B) time-space compression
C) today's global age and the impacts of increasing globalization
D) the changing meaning of natural resources

Question 42

Climate change, including global warming, is primarily produced by what?

A) pro-market policies that allow emissions to go unchecked
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

Question 43

The dramatic impact of globalization in the past, and even more so today, is driven by what kind of changes?

A) internal and external migration patterns
B) perceptions of time and space
C) greenhouse gasses and weather patterns
D) transportation and communication technologies

Question 44

The Chinese government counts nearly 250 million internal migrants floating in China's cities. What draws these internal migrants?

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

Question 45

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 46

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 47

The author states that pollution, population growth, climate change, and overfishing are serious issues, and nature may not be able to adapt to:

A) human activity.
B) glacial activity.
C) global warming.
D) intensification.

Question 48

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

A) ease of transportation
B) increasing nationalism
C) increasing migration
D) increased access to the Internet

Question 49

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

Question 50

In order to understand how any group of people lives in our global world today, what would we need to consider in addition to the customs, beliefs, and other aspects of their local culture?

A) political systems
B) global influences
C) production and exchange systems
D) religion and belief systems

Question 51

Anthropology developed during an intense period of globalization in the nineteenth century. What was one of the major characteristics of that period of globalization that drove this development?

A) slave economies
B) the willingness of anthropologists to travel great distances to study remote peoples
C) transportation
D) decline of European monarchies

Question 52

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 53

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

Question 54

What does an anthropologist call the type of research that compares multiple communities in order to examine links between them?

A) cross-linked ethnology
B) multisited ethnography
C) globalized anthropology
D) bilocational fieldwork

Question 55

The distinct era in which human activity is reshaping the planet in permanent ways is referred to as what?

A) Homocene
B) Anthropocene
C) Paleocene
D) Humanism

Question 56

Policy makers and environmental experts struggle to agree on what should be done with nuclear waste, the life span of which will extend beyond human existence itself. What concept is best used to explain this phenomenon?

A) ethnocentrism
B) cultural anthropology
C) time-space compression
D) Anthropocene

Question 57

Explain why anthropologists study nonhuman primates like apes and monkeys.

Question 58

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) New mutant varieties of sea life will evolve.
C) Killer whales will alter their migration routes to avoid garbage.
D) It will kill off all fish in the Gulf of Mexico by 2030.

Question 59

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) actively working to reshape encounters with global forces.
B) strengthening and renewing religious practices.
C) overturning immigration restrictions.
D) acting with violence and rebellion.

Question 60

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

Question 61

Discuss the ways in which local communities react to global forces influencing and mingling with local cultures. Support your description with an example from the class.

Question 62

Globalization is also affecting the world's environment. Identify three effects of human activity on the environment, and then choose one and discuss its consequences.

Question 63

Anthropologists have increasingly used the concept of the Anthropocene to explain the relationship between human activity and changes in the environment. Define the term Anthropocene and use it to explain one phenomenon mentioned in the text.

Question 64

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

Question 65

Explain how anthropologists have had to adapt to the impact of global forces on the communities they study.

Question 66

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