, Chapter 01
What Is Anthropology?
1. What is anthropology?
A. the art of ethnography
B. the humanistic investigation of myths in nonindustrial societies
C. the study of the stages of social evolution
D. the study of long-term physiological adaptation
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. refers only to the cultural aspects of human diversity that anthropologists study.
B. most characterizes anthropology when compared to other disciplines that study humans.
C. makes general anthropology superior to sociocultural anthropology.
D. is the hallmark of all social sciences, not just anthropology.
E. makes anthropology an interesting field of study, but too broad of one to apply to 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. rest on certain features of human biology that make culture, which is not itself biological, possible.
B. prove that only fully developed adults have the capacity for culture; children lack the capacity for culture until they
mature.
C. have made some human groups more cultured than others.
D. rest on certain features of human biology that make culture itself a biological phenomenon.
E. are shared with other animals capable of organized group life—such as baboons, wolves, and even ants.
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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 is passed on genetically to future generations.
B. Cultural forces consistently mold and shape human biology and behavior.
C. Culture is passed on from generation to generation.
D. Culture guides the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to it.
E. Culture is a key aspect of human adaptability and success.
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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. acculturation
D. ethnology
E. enculturation
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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 human plasticity has decreased ever since we embraced a sedentary lifestyle some 10,000 years ago.
C. how biological adaptations are effective only when they are genetic.
D. how in matters of life or death, biology is ultimately more important than culture.
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
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,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. long-term physiological adaptation
B. symbolic adaptation
C. genetic adaptation
D. cultural adaptation
E. short-term physiological 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. social institutions, such as the state, that coordinate collective action
B. biological means of adaptation, mostly thanks to advanced medical research
C. technological means of adaptation, such as the creation of virtual worlds that allow us to escape from day-to-day reality
D. cultural means of adaptation
E. a holistic and comparative approach to problem solving
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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. Anthropological research tools do not work in this new modern world system, making their contributions less valuable.
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. 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.
E. 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."
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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. cultural genetics perspective
C. scientific-humanistic perspective
D. biocultural perspective
E. holistic 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. medical anthropology, ethnography, ethnology, and cultural anthropology
B. biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology, and archaeology
C. primatology, ethnology, cultural anthropology, and paleoscatology
D. archaeology, biological anthropology, applied linguistics, and applied anthropology
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. was replaced in the 1930s by the two-field approach.
E. proved early on that culture is a function of race.
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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 biological variability.
B. Each subfield studies the human capacity for language.
C. Each subfield studies human variation through time and space.
D. The subfields really are not unified; their grouping into one discipline is a historical accident.
E. Each subfield studies human genetic variation through time and space.
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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. Anthropologists cannot agree on what anthropology is, much less share key assumptions.
B. We can draw conclusions about human nature by studying a single society.
C. A comparative, cross-cultural approach is essential to study the human condition.
D. A degree in philosophy is the best way to produce good ethnography.
E. There are no universals, so cross-cultural research is bound to fail.
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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. all kinds of societies.
C. former colonies.
D. the tropics.
E. factories.
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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. preliminary data that sociologists use to develop survey research.
B. fieldwork component of cultural anthropology.
C. study of biological adaptability.
D. cross-cultural comparative component of cultural anthropology.
E. generalizing aspect of cultural anthropology.
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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 his observation that contact between neighboring tribes had existed since humanity’s beginnings and covered
enormous areas, Franz Boas argued that
A. language must have originated among the Neandertals.
B. even the earliest foragers engaged in warfare.
C. cultures should not be treated as isolated phenomena.
D. general anthropologists were wrong to focus too much attention on biology.
E. biology, not culture, was responsible for the vast majority of human diversity.
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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. fieldwork
B. ethnology
C. ethnography
D. data collection
E. data entry
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Learning Objective: List the four subfields of anthropology and distinguish between ethnography and ethnology.
Topic: The Subdisciplines of Anthropology
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