answer the questions and explain the answer. 1. The Boasian-era approach of salvage ethnographyis no longer practiced by contemporary anthropologists. From the choices below, identify the major critiques (or problems) modern anthropologists have with salvage anthropology. A) It assumes that an “authentic” set of cultural traditions exists, and what those are is determined by the anthropologist.
B) It assumes that archaeological methods are better suited to the study of ancient peoples.
C) It assumes that anthropologists should only study aspects of two or more cultures, rather than study societies holistically.
D) It assumes that cultures should not be compared to one another, but rather understood on their own terms.
2. Each of the following is a characteristic of language except:
A) All languages are systematic, rule driven, and equally complex overall.
B) All human cultures have a language and use it to communicate.
C) All human languages evolve over time from primitive to more complex forms.
3. Holiday lights, decorative jewelry, and fancy sports cars are all examples of how culture can be:
A) Maladaptive
B) Patterned
C) Non-utilitarian
4. Moral relativism and cultural relativism mean the same thing, and are terms that can be used interchangeably.
A) true
B) false
5. Anthropologists only consider spoken or written languages to be actual, or true, languages.
A) true
B) false
6. Anthropology is one of the social sciences.
A) true
B) false
7. What term refers to the idea that human social variation is the result of cultural, rather than racial or genetic causes?
A) Ethnology
B) Biological determinism
C) Cultural determinism
8. From the Greek phrase to, literally, “write of a people, nation, or culture,” what are the primary texts written by cultural and linguistic anthropologists called?
A) Field notes
B) Novels
C) Ethnography
9. In December 1996, a school board in Oakland, California, passed a resolution that would allow students to use and learn Ebonics, or AAVE, in school. This sparked controversy, as opponents argued that AAVE was not a “proper” language with its own rules and grammar. Using terms from linguistic anthropology, why were critics against teaching Ebonics in school?
A) Because AAVE is an English DIALECT.
B) Because AAVE is an English PIDGIN language.
C) Because AAVE is an English VERNACULAR
10. Sociolinguists argue that since the Great Migration, AAVE has become more distinct from other Standard North American dialects. What reason do these sociolinguists give for this increasing difference?
A) It is language death, because fewer people are speaking African American Vernacular English.
B) It is largely the result of increased urban isolation in many northern cities.
C) It is solely due to the global popularity of rap and hip hop.
11. What is the definition, as well as the purpose, of anthropology?
A) The study of past peoples and historic societies
B) The study of humankind, broadly defined
C) The study of human culture and society.
12. The Inuit people live in northern Canada and parts of Greenland and Alaska. Inuit traditional languages have multiple words that describe different types of snow and ice, such as qanikcaq (‘snow on ground’), nutaryuk (‘fresh snow’), and qengaruk (‘snow bank’). English, by contrast, has only one word for ‘snow.’ This lexical difference between Inuit and English is an example of linguistic__________________.
13. Which is the largest anthropological sub-discipline, as measured by the number of people who graduate with PhDs every year?
A) Medical
B) Cultural
C) Biological
14. Which of the following is not a subdiscipline of anthropology?
A) Biological
B) Sociological
C) Linguistic
15. Armchair anthropologists have been critiqued by subsequent generations of anthropologists for what reason?
A) They often relied on missionary, traveler’s or other secondhand accounts.
B) Their conclusions tended to be culturally relativistic
C) They preferred to study their own societies and cultures.
16. What does it mean to be reflexive, or to practice reflexive thinking?
A) To recognize your own cultural bias or preconceptions.
B) To study your own culture or community
C) To “go native.”
17. Given that 41% (2,900) of the approximately 7,000 different languages used worldwide are endangered, linguists estimate that more than half of the world’s languages could be lost in the next 100 years. What is the most likely explanation for this?
A) There is rapid language death occurring worldwide.
B) Young people worldwide are abandoning traditional languages for global trade languages.
C) With globalization and the internet, fewer languages are necessary
18. Kamari is studying the cultural traditions of rural Appalachian families. Kamari’s own cultural background is different from her subjects, however, she does her best not to compare their beliefs to her own. What anthropological approach is Kamari using?
A) Cultural relativism
B) Moral relativism
C) Cultural determinism
19. In his classic definition of culture, E.B. Tylor (1871) wrote that, “Culture, or Civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole…” What anthropological perspective best reflects that approach, i.e., that in order to understand a culture anthropologists ask how different aspects of human life influence one another?
A) Cultural relativism
B) Anthropological holism
C) Comparative method
20. In contrast to other ancestral hominins, Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) possessed a _____________and the______________ , both of which are evolutionary adaptations to language present in anatomically modern humans (H. sapiens).
21. In “Talking Black in America” (2017), interviewees said that social context influences how they speak, to “maneuver with it” or “talk like this with this group of people.” As one student described it, “Talking to other people, professors, it’s like I’m a different person.” Select the sociolinguistic term that best describes this behavior.
A) Code-switching
B) Paralanguage
C) Minimal response
D) Linguistic relativism
22. Cultural traits are inborn, or instinctive, behaviors.
A) true
B) false
23. As ethnographic fieldwork does not occur in a laboratory setting, cultural and linguistic anthropologists do not need to obtain any permissions before conducting their research.
A) true
b) false
24. Ethnographies are fictionalized accounts of cultural anthropological research.a) true
b) false
25. All of the following anthropologists believed in unilinear theories of cultural evolution except:a) Lewis Henry Morgan
b) E.B. Tylor
c) Franz Boas
26. In Coming of Age in Samoa (1928),________________ observed that Samoan society had a more relaxed attitude with regards to sexuality, and thus, argued that if American society adopted a similar, more permissive, stance on sexuality, that adolescence might be less stressful for American youth.27. Approximately 40% of the global population has developed lactase persistence, or the ability to digest the lactase found in most dairy products. Lactase persistence is most commonly found in populations that live in harsher climates, often too cold, dry, or hot for intensive agriculture. Instead, these societies historically relied on livestock, which in turn, produced dairy. In these cultures, lactase persistence (or lactose tolerance) is an example of cultural:a) Adaptation
b) Necessity
c) Patterning
28. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that:a) All modern languages have evolved from primitive to complex linguistic systems.
b) The grammatical categories of different languages lead their speakers to think about things in particular ways.
c) Human brains contain a limited set of rules for organizing language, so that all languages have a common structural basis.
29. Thomas is from the United States, and has competed in a number of hot dog eating competitions in his life. For ANT 221, Thomas decides that he wants to study the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Since Thomas is a cultural insider for this and similar events, his perspective is best described as:a) Emic
b) Etic
c) Reflexive
30. In “The Couple in the Cage” (1993), the fictional “Guatinau” were displayed in a manner similar to human zoo exhibitions that were popular in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. What literary, scholarly, and artistic trope from that era was also represented in the “Guatinau” exhibition?a) Cultural survivals.”
b) The “familiar strange.”
c) The “noble savage.”
31. What is one of the major advantages of participant observation as a research method over armchair anthropology?
a) Anthropologists can understand how individuals express innate cultural characteristics.
b) Anthropologists can learn more about the everyday life of people in different cultures.
c) Anthropologists can “go native” to find out what it is like to be a cultural “Other“.
32. Migration and urbanization has created generational distinctions in spoken AAVE, especially in rural Southern communities where young people and teenagers have abandoned regional dialects for more urban varieties, a process linguistic anthropologists refer to as:a) Proxemics
b) Language shift
c) Linguistic determinism
33. please feel free to leave comments or suggestions in the space below. I’d love to know what you’re enjoying about the class so far, or if you have any suggestions for improvement moving forward. If there’s a topic that you especially enjoyed, or wish had been more fully explored, feel free to include that information as well.
