Anthropology midterm review

What is Anthropology?

• the study of the full scope of human diversity.

• the study of ants.

• the study of human fossil remains.

• the study of cultural histories. 

Anthropology’s approach to the study of human diversity helps us avoid the intellectual pitfalls of 

• globalization.

• ethnography.

• ethnocentrism.

• fieldwork.

What is NOT one of the primary four fields of anthropology?

• linguistic anthropology

• archaeology

• physical anthropology

• business anthropology

The forces of globalization have changed

• the communities that anthropologists study.

• the methods that anthropologist use to do research.

• how anthropologists communicate with their research participants.

• all of the above.

Human culture is

• taught through formal instruction.

• hardwired into our DNA.

• learned informally.

• both A and C.

The framework that anthropologists use to challenge ethnocentrism is

• ethnography.

• norms and values.

• cultural relativism.

• mental maps of reality.

In early evolutionary frameworks of cultural variation, anthropologists tended to describe Western cultures as

• savage

• barbarian

• unilineal

• civilized

The study of epigenetics tells us that

• even our genes can be affected by the environment.

• there is a clear-cut line between biology and culture.

• men and women are different for hard-wired evolutionary reasons.

• culture is determined by biology. 

The roots of anthropological fieldwork lie in

• Franz Boas’s dedication to “salvage anthropology.”

• Margaret Mead’s role in bringing anthropological knowledge to bear on public debates.

• the increased international movement of Europeans during the late nineteenth century.

• the need to provide objective, scientific accounts of isolated cultures.

A successful ethnographer needs

• expensive recording equipment.

• excellent listening skills.

• a way to maintain strict social distance from the community.

• only a short amount of time to fully understand the local culture.