, Chapter 01
What Is Anthropology?
1. What is anthropology?
A. the art of ethnography
B. the study of the stages of social evolution
C. the study of long-term physiological adaptation
D. the humanistic investigation of myths in nonindustrial societies
E. the study of humans around the world and through time
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Learning Objective: Define general anthropology.
Topic: General Anthropology
2. A holistic and comparative perspective
A. is the hallmark of all social sciences, not just anthropology.
B. refers only to the cultural aspects of human diversity that anthropologists study.
C. most characterizes anthropology when compared to other disciplines that study humans.
D. makes general anthropology superior to sociocultural anthropology.
E. makes anthropology an interesting field of study, but too broad of one to apply to the real problems people face today.
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
3. As humans organize their lives and adapt to different environments, our abilities to learn, think symbolically, use language, and employ tools and
other products
A. are shared with other animals capable of organized group life—such as baboons, wolves, and even ants.
B. rest on certain features of human biology that make culture, which is not itself biological, possible.
C. prove that only fully developed adults have the capacity for culture; children lack the capacity for culture until they mature.
D. have made some human groups more cultured than others.
E. rest on certain features of human biology that make culture itself a biological phenomenon.
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
4. Which of the following statements about culture is FALSE?
A. Culture guides the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to it.
B. Culture is passed on genetically to future generations.
C. Culture is a key aspect of human adaptability and success.
D. Cultural forces consistently mold and shape human biology and behavior.
E. Culture is passed on from generation to generation.
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
5. What is the process by which children learn a particular cultural tradition?
A. ethnography
B. biological adaptation
C. enculturation
D. acculturation
E. ethnology
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
6. This chapter's description of how humans cope with low oxygen pressure in high altitudes illustrates
A. the need for anthropologists to pay more attention to human adaptation in extreme environments.
B. how biological adaptations are effective only when they are genetic.
C. how in matters of life or death, biology is ultimately more important than culture.
D. how human plasticity has decreased ever since we embraced a sedentary lifestyle some 10,000 years ago.
E. human capacities for cultural and biological adaptation, the latter involving both genetic and physiological adaptations.
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
,7. The presence of more efficient respiratory systems to extract oxygen from the air among human populations living at high elevations is an example
of which form of adaptation?
A. cultural adaptation
B. short-term physiological adaptation
C. long-term physiological adaptation
D. genetic adaptation
E. symbolic adaptation
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
8. Over time, humans have become increasingly dependent on which of the following in order to cope with the range of environments they have
occupied in time and space?
A. a holistic and comparative approach to problem solving
B. social institutions, such as the state, that coordinate collective action
C. technological means of adaptation, such as the creation of virtual worlds that allow us to escape from day-to-day reality
D. biological means of adaptation, mostly thanks to advanced medical research
E. cultural means of adaptation
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
9. Today's global economy and communications link all contemporary people, directly or indirectly, in the modern world system. People must now
cope with forces generated by progressively larger systems—the region, the nation, and the world. For anthropologists studying contemporary forms
of adaptation, why might this be a challenge?
A. A more dynamic world system, with greater and faster movements of people across space, speeds up the process of evolution, making the study of
genetic adaptations more difficult.
B. Truly isolated indigenous communities, anthropology's traditional and ongoing study focus, are becoming harder to find.
C. Since cultures are tied to place, people moving around and connecting across space means the end of culture, and thus the end of anthropology.
D. According to Marcus and Fischer (1986), "The cultures of world peoples need to be constantly rediscovered as these people reinvent them in
changing historical circumstances."
E. Anthropological research tools do not work in this new modern world system, making their contributions less valuable.
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
10. Which of the following perspectives emphasizes how cultural forces constantly mold human biology?
A. psychological anthropological perspective
B. holistic perspective
C. cultural genetics perspective
D. biocultural perspective
E. scientific–humanistic perspective
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Learning Objective: Describe how anthropology describes the whole of the human condition.
Topic: Human Adaptability
11. What are the four subdisciplines of anthropology?
A. archaeology, biological anthropology, applied linguistics, and applied anthropology
B. medical anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, and cultural anthropology
C. primatology, ethnology, cultural anthropology, and paleoscatology
D. biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology, and archaeology
E. genetic anthropology, physical anthropology, psychological anthropology, and anthropology and linguistics
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Learning Objective: Define general anthropology.
Topic: General Anthropology
12. Anthropologists' early interest in Native North Americans
A. was more important than interest in the relation between biology and culture in the development of U.S. four-field anthropology.
B. is unique to European anthropology.
C. is an important historical reason for the development of four-field anthropology in the U.S.
D. proved early on that culture is a function of race.
E. was replaced in the 1930s by the two-field approach.
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Learning Objective: Define general anthropology.
Topic: General Anthropology
, 13. How are the four subfields of U.S. anthropology unified?
A. Each subfield studies human genetic variation through time and space.
B. The subfields are really not unified; their grouping into one discipline is a historical accident.
C. Each subfield studies the human capacity for language.
D. Each subfield studies human variation through time and space.
E. Each subfield studies human biological variability.
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
14. What is one of the most fundamental key assumptions that anthropologists share?
A. We can draw conclusions about human nature by studying a single society.
B. There are no universals, so cross-cultural research is bound to fail.
C. Anthropologists cannot agree on what anthropology is, much less share key assumptions.
D. A degree in philosophy is the best way to produce good ethnographies.
E. A comparative, cross-cultural approach is essential to study the human condition.
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
15. Cultural anthropologists carry out their fieldwork in
A. the third world.
B. factories.
C. former colonies.
D. the tropics.
E. all kinds of societies.
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
16. Ethnography is the
A. generalizing aspect of cultural anthropology.
B. cross-cultural comparative component of cultural anthropology.
C. preliminary data that sociologists use to develop survey research.
D. fieldwork component of cultural anthropology.
E. study of biological adaptability.
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
17. Based on Franz Boas's observation that contact between neighboring tribes has existed since humanity’s beginnings and covered enormous areas,
it can be argued that
A. biology, not culture, was responsible for the vast majority of human diversity.
B. language must have originated among the Neandertals.
C. general anthropologists were wrong to focus too much attention on biology.
D. cultures should not be treated as isolated phenomena.
E. even the earliest foragers engaged in warfare.
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
18. What component of cultural anthropology is comparative and focused on building upon our understanding of how cultural systems work?
A. data collection
B. ethnology
C. fieldwork
D. data entry
E. ethnography
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
19. Archaeologists studying sunken ships off the coast of Florida and analyzing the content of modern garbage are examples of how
A. Hollywood has popularized archaeology in recent movies, making it a popular college major.
B. archaeology is free from having to worry about the impact of its work on people.
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