Deck 14: The World System and Colonialism

Question 1

Which is NOT true of core nations?

A) They export their raw materials to other countries.
B) They consist of the strongest and most powerful states.
C) They have advanced systems of production.
D) They have complex economies.
E) They represent the dominant structural position in the world system.

Answer 1

They export their raw materials to other countries.

Question 2

According to Karl Marx, classes are

A) complementary, in that they each do different tasks necessary for the survival of the society.
B) part of the original, preindustrial social system of humans.
C) powerful collective forces that could mobilize human energies to influence the course of history.
D) based more on notions of prestige and morality than on actual economic differences.
E) not important to his vision of social change in Western society.

Answer 2

powerful collective forces that could mobilize human energies to influence the course of history.

Question 3

The growth of a market for sugar in Europe spurred

A) a tremendous expansion in the strength of independent indigenous nations of Mexico and South America.
B) the development of a transatlantic slave trade.
C) the movement of sugar-producing nations from the periphery to the core of the world system.
D) the movement of capitalism, once a cultural trait specific to New Guinea (where sugar was first domesticated), to the rest of the world.
E) a long-term improvement in the distribution of wealth among the rural peasantry of England.

Answer 3

the development of a transatlantic slave trade.

Question 4

Which of the following did NOT result from Christopher Columbus's voyages?

A) The rate of violence among Native Americans markedly increased.
B) Europeans extracted silver and gold from the land.
C) Europeans enslaved Native Americans.
D) Europeans offered statehood to Peru, Mexico, and Cuba.
E) Europeans colonized New World lands.

Question 5

Which of the following statements about Karl Marx is NOT true?

A) He analyzed 19th-century industrial production capitalism.
B) He viewed socioeconomic stratification in terms of several classes with different but complementary interests.
C) He called the owners of the means of production the bourgeoisie.
D) He called the people who sold their own labor the proletariat.
E) He emphasized class consciousness.

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT true about the modern world system?

A) The distinction between bourgeoisie and proletariat has disappeared.
B) The contrast between capitalists and propertyless workers is a worldwide phenomenon.
C) Stratification systems are not simple and dichotomous.
D) There is a growing middle class of skilled and professional workers.
E) Intermediate occupations create opportunities for social mobility.

Question 7

What best characterizes the intervention philosophy of the British empire?

A) manifest destiny
B) white man's burden
C) this land is our land
D) fifty-four forty or fight
E) in his majesty's domain

Question 8

According to Wallerstein (1982, 2004), what are the three structural positions of the modern world system?

A) core, periphery, and semiperiphery
B) metropole, satellite, and semisatellite
C) state, nation-state, and nation
D) wealth, power, and prestige
E) preliterate, nonliterate, and literate

Question 9

Which of the following statements about British colonialism is NOT true?

A) It lacked an intervention philosophy.
B) It can be divided into two stages.
C) It was legitimized by the racist notion of the "white man's burden."
D) It began to disintegrate after World War II.
E) It was partly driven by business interests.

Question 10

Periphery nations

A) export to the core but not the semiperiphery.
B) lack industrialization.
C) are isolated from the world economy.
D) have economies that disproportionately benefit capitalists in the core.
E) have little incentive to interact with nations of the core.

Question 11

What is the name of the political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended time?

A) apartheid
B) colonialism
C) alienation
D) petty capitalism
E) industrialization

Question 12

How does the modern world system affect ethnographers?

A) There are almost no truly isolated cultures left, making it difficult to do real ethnographic research.
B) They need to be aware of the fact that any culture they study is influenced by and has influence on other cultures.
C) They must be careful when comparing their findings to those who did work in the first half of the 20th century, when there were many isolated cultures.
D) There are no more indigenous peoples.
E) It has brought about a blending of the races, which makes it harder to identify specific cultures.

Question 13

What does the term Columbian exchange refer to?

A) the exchange of culture that occurred among Native Americans and Europeans that eventually led to the first great civilizations in the Americas and, in Europe, the first classless societies
B) the general reciprocity that characterized the relationship between Europeans and Native Americans during the first 15 years after initial contact
C) the spread of people, resources, products, ideas, and diseases between the Eastern and Western hemispheres after contact
D) the spread of European notions and technologies of warfare to Native Americans, who never engaged in massive violent campaigns prior to the 1500s
E) the peaceful exchange among Europeans and Native Americans of native edible plant species

Question 14

What term refers to wealth or resources invested in business with the intent of producing a profit?

A) the modern world system
B) industrialization
C) an open class system
D) socioeconomic stratification
E) capital

Question 15

What term refers to the ideological justification for outsiders to guide native groups in specific directions?

A) development ideology
B) intervention philosophy
C) coercive philosophy
D) development philosophy
E) intrusive ideology

Question 16

In anthropology, history, and literature, the field of postcolonial studies has gained prominence since the 1970s. Postcolonial refers to

A) the study of the interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized.
B) the period succeeding the slave trade.
C) a moral stance toward oppressed peoples.
D) the study of social movements that, instead of rejecting colonialism, actually embraced it and transformed it for their own benefit.
E) an up-and-coming subfield in sociology.

Question 17

According to Weber, what are the three dimensions of social stratification?

A) the means of production, mode of production, and measure of production
B) status, exchange, and religion
C) gender, ethnicity, and race
D) wealth, power, and prestige
E) age, gender, and ethnicity

Question 18

Who viewed the nation-state as an instrument of oppression and religion as a method of diverting and controlling the masses?

A) Weber
B) Freud
C) Tylor
D) Marx
E) Morgan

Question 19

According to Marx, who are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat?

A) the products of gender differentiation from Europe's tribal past
B) groups destined to reconcile through the postcapitalist process of alienation
C) distinct and opposed classes produced by the world capitalist economy
D) exogamous social groups
E) moiety groups that dominated Western capitalism

Question 20

What best typifies the intervention philosophy of the French empire?

A) carte blanche
B) savoir-faire
C) coup d'état
D) mission civilisatrice
E) nom de plume

Question 21

Trade and other economic relations between core and periphery disproportionately benefit capitalists in the core.

Question 22

This chapter's "Focus on Globalization" discusses outsourcing jobs to countries outside the United States. What is an outcome of this outsourcing?

A) decreased profits for U.S. corporations
B) an increase in union membership within the U.S.
C) corporations realizing the importance of workers' rights
D) fewer jobs in the U.S., as they are replaced by machines and outsourced jobs
E) more incentives for illegal immigration

Question 23

________ is the term for the physical destruction of ethnic groups by murder, warfare, and introduced diseases.

A) Sociocide
B) Ethnocide
C) Biocide
D) Genocide
E) Patricide

Question 24

Sugar and cotton helped fuel the development of a capitalist world economy.

Question 25

Who are indigenous peoples?

A) people who live in autonomous, independent nation-states
B) peasants who are of the same ethnicity as the ruling elite
C) descendants of tribespeople who live on as culturally distinct, colonized peoples, many of whom aspire to autonomy
D) any population living in a nation-state on the periphery of the world system
E) people who have emigrated to a new country

Question 26

One consequence of the ongoing globalization of work and migration is that skilled Western workers must now compete against well-educated workers in such low-wage countries as India, where an experienced software programmer earns one-fifth the average salary of a comparable U.S. worker.

Question 27

Communism has two meanings, distinguished by how they are written. Small-c communism describes a social system in which property is owned by the community and in which people work for the common good. Large-C Communism

A) is just another version of neoliberalism but in disguise.
B) is an imperial doctrine to appropriate private capital for the sake of the survival of the state.
C) is Lenin's political theory of small-c communism.
D) refers to the social aspects of small-c communism.
E) was a political movement and doctrine seeking to overthrow capitalism and establish a form of communism such as that which prevailed in the Soviet Union (the USSR) from 1917 to 1991.

Question 28

All of the following are true about neoliberalism EXCEPT that it

A) places more emphasis on individual responsibility than on the common good.
B) characterizes the type of policies designed by powerful international financial institutions.
C) has been spreading globally.
D) refers to a recent revival of economic liberalism.
E) is characterized by the policy that environmental protection and job safety are too important to be left unregulated.

Question 29

This chapter argues that the World Bank's approach to corruption is

A) effective when dealing with cases in postsocialist nations.
B) wrong to assume that the state (public)-private dichotomy is universal and that it takes a similar form in all societies.
C) right to assume that the fallacy of underdifferentiation applies equally to all societies.
D) wrong to assume that in postsocialist nations officials don't respect business moral codes.
E) ineffective, because it lacks the expertise of ethnographically informed secret agents.

Question 30

The seeds of industrial society were planted well before the 18th century. For example, a knitting machine invented in England in 1589 was so far ahead of its time that it played a profitable role in factories two and three centuries later.

Question 31

According to Wallerstein, the nations in the world system can be classified into three types: core, periphery, and frontier.

Question 32

The Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street and spread to other U.S. and Canadian cities, recognizes the disparity between the rich and the poor. Which of the following statements about U.S. wealth as of the year 2009 is NOT correct?

A) The top 1% of American households hold over one-third the nation's wealth.
B) The net worth of the top 1% is 225 times greater than the typical household's net worth.
C) The net worth of the top 1% compared to the typical household is the highest ratio on record.
D) The bottom 90% of income-earning households control half of all net worth.
E) The top 1% owns more than the bottom 90% combined.

Question 33

The Industrial Revolution did not begin in France, because the French domestic manufacturing system could produce satisfactorily without innovating.

Question 34

According to Marx, the bourgeoisie is made up of the people who must sell their labor to survive.

Question 35

The current world stratification system features a substantial contrast between capitalists and workers in the core nations, and workers on the periphery.

Question 36

Neoliberalism is a new form of the old economic liberalism laid out in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776). To Smith, economic liberalism encouraged free enterprise and competition, with the goal of generating profits. However, this meaning of liberal

A) is a Protestant ideology.
B) varies depending on whether it refers to politics in a Western or non-Western context.
C) has no implications for the relationship between economics and the state.
D) is a more accurate use of the term than the one Americans typically hear in current talk radio.
E) is different from the one typically used in current U.S. politics, in which liberal is the opposite of conservative.

Question 37

The labels First World, Second World, and Third World represent a common, if ethnocentric, way of categorizing nations. First World refers to the democratic West, which is traditionally conceived of as being in opposition to a Second World ruled by

A) folk economic and political models.
B) primitive neoliberalism.
C) Communism.
D) dictators.
E) imperialism.

Question 38

One effect of the spread of industrialization has been

A) a decrease in global power.
B) the destruction of indigenous economies, ecologies, and populations.
C) the incorporation of indigenous communities into industrial projects.
D) an increased awareness among industrialists and states of the need for environmental protection.
E) an increase in the equitable distribution of wealth.

Question 39

As this chapter's "Appreciating Anthropology" segment notes, around the world many contemporary nations are repeating-at an accelerated rate-the process of resource depletion that started in Europe and the United States during the Industrial Revolution. Fortunately, however,

A) this resource depletion is very localized, since extractive enterprises have been using new technologies that completely eliminate negative externalities.
B) the money made from this resource depletion always benefits the host communities and countries.
C) resource depletion now is more than 80 percent sustainable.
D) today's world has some environmental watchdogs-many of them anthropologists-who did not exist during the first centuries of the Industrial Revolution.
E) anthropologists are increasingly being consulted prior to the start of new resource extraction projects.

Question 40

Marx argued that socioeconomic stratification was based on the sharp and simple division between the successful Protestant industrialists and the poor Catholic peasantry.

Question 41

The British notion "white man's burden" is similar to the French concept mission civilisatrice in that both were racist ideologies used to justify the colonial efforts of their respective countries.

Question 42

How did the views of Marx and Weber on stratification differ? Relate their views to the modern global stratification system.

Question 43

What is the world system perspective, and why is it important in anthropology?

Question 44

Many of the political, linguistic, religious, and economic distinctions among the countries of West Africa today are artifacts of colonialism.

Question 45

Belgian colonial administrators were careful to use culturally significant differences to distinguish between the Hutus and Tutsis.

Question 46

What is the world capitalist economy? When did it originate, and what are its features? What are core, semiperiphery, and periphery? What is their relationship to world capitalism?

Question 47

Ethnocide refers to the intentional destruction of an ethnic group's traditional customs, beliefs, and behaviors.

Question 48

The United States originally started out as a peripheral nation, but by 1900 it had asserted itself as a member of the industrialized core.

Question 49

French colonial strategies incorporated both direct and indirect rule.

Question 50

Mass production has led to critical consumption as people are forced to make careful decisions regarding what is needed and what is excess.

Question 51

Weber argued that the only true capitalists were Protestants, and people who believed in any other faith could never fully mature as capitalists.

Question 52

The distinction between small-c communism and large-C Communism is an example of arbitrary concepts defined in the social sciences.

Question 53

Higher wages and improved benefits for workers in core nations are possible only because an added surplus from the periphery enables companies to maintain high profit margins.

Question 54

Weber argued that without Catholic ethic and values, capitalism and industrialism would have never spread beyond England.

Question 55

When indigenous peoples are incorporated into modern nation-states, they usually become part of the impoverished classes.

Question 56

Neoliberalism refers to a revival of Adam Smith's classic economic liberalism, which suggests that governments should not regulate private enterprise and that free market forces should rule.

Question 57

With the spread of industrialization, the existence of indigenous economies, ecologies, and populations has become threatened all over the world.

Question 58

Life in nations in the periphery is characterized by high percentages of poverty and frequent food shortages brought on by a high level of stratification between a small number of large landowners and landless workers.

Question 59

Colonialism refers to the solicitation by peripheral countries of political and financial assistance from core nations.

Question 60

What was the Industrial Revolution, and how did it differ from previous life in villages, towns, and cities? Why is this topic relevant to an anthropologist?

Question 61

Hundreds of ethnic groups and so-called tribes are colonial constructs. What does this mean-does it suggest that they are only imaginary and therefore of no consequence? Provide illustrations with your answers.

Question 62

Who are the groups known as indigenous peoples? What is their situation in the world system today?

Question 63

Ethnographic research in postsocialist societies is thriving. What are some of the common problems typical of these societies? Why would an ethnographic approach be advantageous to addressing these problems?

Question 64

How is the world stratification system related to the structural positions within the world capitalist economy? What about the modern stratification system within the United States?

Question 65

Based on the way the text defines imperialism and colonialism, do you think that they describe phenomena of the past? These terms have been used recently to describe current international affairs. Find an example of this, and compare the use of the term to its definition in the text.