Site MapHelpFeedbackPractice Quiz
Practice Quiz
(See related pages)

1
George Gill believes that race is a useful concept because
A)it provides a set of identifying characteristics that are independent of environment.
B)it shows the independence of skeletal and surface features, such as skin color.
C)it correlates with differences in blood factors.
D)it helps forensic anthropologists identify people from their remains.
2
C. Loring Brace believes that races as biological entities do not exist because
A)biological differences between adjacent populations are small.
B)migrations have confused the boundaries of races.
C)intermarriage has broken down the once pure geographical races.
D)the idea of race inevitably leads to racism.
3
Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, who believe that humans are inherently violent, argue that this social pattern is universal among human males because
A)communities are defended by related men.
B)communities are based on ties between mothers and their children.
C)males move to neighboring communities when they marry.
D)males are only aggressive toward other males.
4
Robert W. Sussman, who does not believe that humans are inherently violent, attributes human violence mainly to culture, arguing that the behavior of modern chimpanzees is irrelevant to the question of whether or not human males are innately violent because
A)gorillas are more closely related to humans than are chimps.
B)the common ancestor of chimps and humans may have behaved differently than modern chimps.
C)chimps are only violent in captivity.
D)chimps are only violent when competing for females.
5
David Buss, who believes that females are selected to be monogamous, argues
A)males benefit from having sex with multiple partners.
B)the male's investment in his offspring is greater than the females.
C)females benefit from being promiscuous.
D)the reproductive strategies of males and females are the same.
6
Carol Tavris, who believes that females are not selected to be monogamous, suggests
A)female monogamy is not common among other primates.
B)females improve their chances of conception by mating with many males.
C)females generally choose which males they have sex with.
D)all of the above.
7
Bruce Bradley and Dennis Stanford, who believe that the earliest human immigrants to the Americas came from Europe, base their assertion on all but which one of the following?
A)The similarity between Clovis and Solutrean material culture.
B)The similarity between the skeletal remains of Solutrean peoples and Clovis peoples.
C)The lack of evidence for immigrants coming from northeastern Asia.
D)The location of the earliest Clovis sites in the Americas
8
Lawrence Guy Straus rejects the hypothesis that the earliest human immigrants to the Americas were descendants of the Solutrean people of southern Europe for all but which one of the following reasons?
A)There is no evidence that Solutreans had boats.
B)Solutreans were adapted to hunting terrestrial game.
C)Clovis tools are too different from Solutrean tools.
D)Clovis tools appear too early to have been derived from Solutrean tools.
9
Archaeologists Donald K. Grayson and David J. Meltzer reject the hypothesis that human hunters caused the extinction of the North American megafauna because
A)no megafauna bones have been found in conjunction with stone tools.
B)the megafauna were already extinct by the time humans arrived south of the ice sheet.
C)few sites exist that contain megafauna bones.
D)the stone tools of the Clovis people would have been unable to penetrate the skin of large animals such as mammoths.
10
Archaeologists Stuart Fiedel and Gary Haynes reject the hypothesis that climate change caused the extinction of the North American megafauna because, according to them,
A)the climate did not change appreciably until after the extinctions took place.
B)the megafauna could have moved north as the climate became warmer.
C)the megafauna were adapted to a wide range of temperature and rainfall patterns.
D)the warming climate would have been favorable to the survival of the megafauna.
11
James C. Chatters, who believes archaeologists can determine the cultural background of the earliest Americans from the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man, identifies the location of the Kennewick discovery as the
A)headwaters of the Snake River.
B)mouth of the Yakima River.
C)Upper Yukon River valley.
D)south bank of the Columbia River.
12
Michelle D. Hamilton, who does not believe archaeologists can determine the cultural background of the earliest Americans from the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man, explains that the federal act known as NAGPRA is an article of cultural legislation that deals with
A)Native American dead.
B)anthropological research of prehistoric America.
C)tribal litigation among Native American peoples.
D)violated treaties between the U.S. government and Native Americans.
13
According to Marija Gimbutas, who believes that there was a goddess cult in prehistoric Europe, the culture of "Old Europe" was characterized by all of the following except
A)women were the supervisors of agriculture and trade.
B)there were no large differences in wealth between families.
C)the political system was based on small kingdoms or city-states.
D)the religion focused on a deity that was both giver and taker of life.
14
Lynn Meskell, who does not believe that a goddess cult existed in prehistoric Europe, argues that the figurines found in Europe and southwest Asia are not firm evidence of the former existence of such a cult because
A)they are never found in temple complexes.
B)they represent ordinary, mortal women.
C)many of them are male or of indeterminate sex.
D)many of them have been deliberately broken.
15
E. S. Savage-Rumbaugh, who believes that apes can learn language, emphasizes that Kanzi, in contrast to other apes, learned symbols by
A)having humans shape his hands into signs.
B)observing humans point to the symbols or objects while speaking the words.
C)receiving treats when he signed the correct word.
D)responding to questions.
16
According to Joel Wallman, who does not believe that apes can learn language, the most serious error of behaviorist theories of language acquisition is the assertion that
A)words can be stimuli for further words.
B)words can be responses to external stimuli alone.
C)words can be both responses to stimuli and stimuli themselves.
D)preschool children need intensive training to learn language.
17
John J. Gumperz and Stephen C. Levinson, who believe that language determines how we think, contend that criticisms of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis are only valid
A)when discussing the large number of Eskimo terms for snow.
B)if "basic color terms" are excluded from consideration.
C)for a handful of exotic languages spoken in southern Africa.
D)when considering the most deterministic reading of the hypothesis.
18
According to Steven Pinker, who does not believe that language determines how we think, the major problem with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is that
A)linguists and anthropologists have exaggerated the differences in how other languages classify concepts.
B)thought does not map onto language directly, yet language is all that linguists have to look at.
C)despite more than a century of analyzing foreign languages and their grammars, linguists still have an inadequate understanding of most non-Western languages.
D)it ignores the problems of "basic color terms."
19
Linguist Ernie Smith, who believes that Black English is a separate language, would probably agree with which one of the following statements?
A)Black English is slowly changing into standard American English due to the influence of modern media.
B)The distinctive pronunciations of English words in Black English are due to the loss of final consonant clusters.
C)Black English developed out of a pidgin trade language combining English grammar with African vocabulary.
D)Only the vocabulary of Black English is derived from standard English.
20
Linguist John McWhorter considers Black English to be merely a dialect of English mainly because
A)they are both written the same way regardless of pronunciation differences.
B)the grammatical differences between them are due to recent changes in Black English.
C)they are mutually intelligible.
D)Black English is just a simplified version of standard American English.
21
Clifford Geertz rejects the idea that anthropology is like the natural sciences. He says anthropologists should do "thick description," which involves
A)minutely recording the physical characteristics of human actions.
B)classifying actions in objective categories.
C)determining the causes and effects of human actions.
D)determining what the person's intentions are in performing an action.
22
According to Carneiro, the primary job of cultural anthropology is to
A)interpret the meanings of social actions.
B)explain social actions in terms of real-world causes and effects.
C)explain social actions in terms of the actors' psychological states.
D)celebrate the diversity of humanity's cultural creations.
23
According to Derek Freeman, who believes that Margaret Mead's fieldwork on Samoan adolescents was fundamentally flawed, the theory of cultural determinism to which Mead subscribes states that
A)people's beliefs determine their behavior.
B)social conditioning molds all human thoughts and behaviors.
C)people's behaviors are jointly shaped by their culture and their biological nature.
D)culture shapes people's artistic expressions while biology shapes their emotions.
24
Lowell D. Holmes and Ellen Rhoads Holmes, who do not believe that Margaret Mead's fieldwork on Samoan adolescents was fundamentally flawed, defend Mead's conclusion that adolescence was easier in Samoa than in the United States, but they admit that her report contains all of the following flaws except that she
A)underestimates how competitive Samoan society was.
B)exaggerates the degree of sexual freedom enjoyed by Samoans.
C)neglects the influence of Christianity on her informants.
D)underestimates the amount of affection that existed between spouses and lovers.
25
Steven Goldberg, who does not believe that sexually egalitarian societies exist, contends that men hold most of the high-prestige positions in all societies because of
A)socialization.
B)neuro-endocrinological factors.
C)historical circumstances.
D)parental roles.
26
Which of the following is not an explanation offered by Kirk and Karen Endicott for the fact that men did not dominate women among the Batek of Malaysia?
A)Batek women were not dependent on any particular man for their own survival but could generally get whatever they needed on their own.
B)Authority was dispersed among the members of the Batek band.
C)The Batek are extremely non-violent.
D)Batek men think that Batek women are inherently polluting and have instituted a variety of taboos to control men's behavior.
27
Roger Ivar Lohmann, who believes that the natural-supernatural distinction exists in all cultures, argues that the supernatural can best be understood as
A)a ubiquitous reflection of colonial activity in non-Western countries.
B)a mental model that depicts one or more nonhuman, sentient, volitional agencies that are understood to be the ultimate cause of elements of physical reality.
C)a term used by anthropologists for non-existent beings.
D)a synonym for pagan religions.
28
Frederick P. Lampe, who does not believe that the natural-supernatural necessarily exists in all cultures, is most concerned that the use of the term "supernatural" by anthropologists will
A)perpetuate an unhealthy power differential between researcher and subject.
B)incorrectly suggest to the subjects of anthropologists' research that their religious beliefs are being mocked.
C)undermine an anthropologist's ability to understand the rituals of a particular culture.
D)allow anthropologists to force and facilitate religious change in the societies that they study.
29
Which of the following is not a psychological function of ethnicity in Kakar's psychoanalytic model?
A)Groups different from one's own group offer a container for undesirable traits felt but not accepted within the group.
B)Groups different from one's own create within one's own group a sense of superiority.
C)Differences among ethnic groups explain why some humans have darker skin color than others.
D)Differences among identifiable groups promote a sense of well-being by encouraging bonds within one's own group.
30
Anthony Oberschall, who does not believe that ethnic conflict is inevitable, states that ethnic conflict in Bosnia can be characterized by which one of the following models?
A)primordialist
B)circumstantialist
C)neo-evolutionist
D)sociobiological
31
According to Roger M. Keesing, who believes that native peoples today invent their traditions, what is the main reason why native peoples accept these "inventions" as traditional?
A)Native peoples do not know very much about their past.
B)Most native peoples had no written histories.
C)There are political incentives for accepting invented traditions as traditional ones.
D)Invented traditions often appeal to tourists, thus providing economic incentives to believe in the new traditions.
32
Haunani-Kay Trask, who does not believe that native peoples today invent their traditions, argues that Keesing's article is "a gem of academic colonialism." What is the main reason she believes this to be true?
A)Keesing, like most anthropologists, does not know much about the distant past of the native communities that he studies.
B)Most anthropologists do not ask the native elders about native traditions.
C)Keesing does not believe what the native elders say about native traditions.
D)Keesing's assertions about the invention of native traditions is another way to show that white anthropologists are better than the native peoples.
33
According to James Riding In, who believes that the remains of prehistoric Native Americans should be reburied rather than studied, Pawnee religion states that if the remains of the dead are disturbed,
A)their spirits will wander and harm the living.
B)enemies may use the remains to perform sorcery against the deceased's group.
C)the spirit of the deceased cannot be reborn in a Pawnee baby.
D)the spirit of the deceased will be relegated to an unpleasant underworld.
34
Clement W. Meighan, who does not believe that the remains of prehistoric Native Americans should be reburied rather than studied, argues that laws enforcing such reburial are a threat to the existence of American archaeology because
A)only Native Americans would have the right to excavate Native American graves.
B)archaeologists would be forced to obtain bones from unscrupulous antiquities dealers.
C)it is a basic principle of science that scholars must preserve their evidence so other scholars can reexamine it.
D)archaeologists cannot know the identities of the inhabitants of archaeological sites unless they examine their bones.
35
Patrick Tierney and Terence Turner imply that Napoleon Chagnon exaggerated the amount of violence and aggression in Yanomami society in order to
A)justify his own aggression toward Yanomami.
B)maximize the sales of his books on the Yanomami.
C)support his theory that tribal societies do not have adequate mechanisms for settling disputes.
D)support his theory that tribal leaders are innately aggressive individuals.
36
Hagen, Price, and Tooby do not regard Chagnon's method of obtaining the names of dead Yanomami as unethical because
A)he paid people for the information.
B)he only sought the information from close relatives of the deceased.
C)he did not use the names disrespectfully.
D)he regarded the Yanomami taboo on saying the names of the dead as hindering the ability of doctors to treat their hereditary diseases.







McGraw-Hill CLS Taking SidesOnline Learning Center

Home > Anthropology > 5e > Practice Quiz