Course Introduction
Biological Anthropology
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Biological Anthropology explores the biological and evolutionary aspects of the human species, examining human origins, genetic diversity, adaptation, and primate behavior. This course investigates the fossil record, human variation, and the interplay between biology and culture in shaping human evolution. Students learn about contemporary methods for studying skeletal remains, forensic anthropology, and the relationship between humans and other primates, providing a holistic understanding of what it means to be human from a biological perspective.
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Window on Humanity A Concise Introduction to General Anthropology 6th Edition by Conrad Kottak
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Chapter 1: What Is Anthropology
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Q1) Ethnography is
A)the firsthand, personal study of local settings.
B)the process by which culture is learned and transmitted across generations.
C)the study of interrelationships among all living things in an environment.
D)a policy aimed at removing groups that are culturally different from a country.
E)the cross-cultural comparison of cultural data.
Answer: A
Q2) The term enculturation refers to the process through which children learn culture.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Archaeologists study
A)language.
B)race.
C)biological adaptation.
D)modern cultural diversity.
E)material remains.
Answer: E
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) Although there are many different levels of culture, an individual can participate in only one level at a time.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Cultural generalities may arise through independent invention, when people in different societies devise similar solutions to comparable problems or challenges.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) What people say they do or should do is
A)imagined culture.
B)ethnocentrism.
C)agency.
D)ideal culture.
E)verbal culture.
Answer: D
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Doing Anthropology
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Q1) Taphonomy is the science that examines the ways in which sediments accumulate in layers.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Stratigraphy is useful for purposes of dating because
A)all environmental forces leave behind the same kind of soil deposit.
B)the depth and order of undisturbed soil strata reflect the age of their deposition.
C)higher strata are usually older than lower strata in undisturbed soil.
D)soil strata are uncluttered by bones, stones, and artifacts.
E)once in the soil, there are very few things that can damage or disturb bones.
Answer: B
Q3) ___________ have traditionally studied small, non-Western populations
A)Ethnographers
B)Sociologists
C)Economists
D)Palynologists
E)Limnologists
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Evolution, Genetics, and Human Variation
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Q1) Gene flow between populations tends to prevent speciation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Discuss some of the problems underlying phenotype-based racial classifications.
Q3) Identify and discuss the sources of genetic variety on which natural selection may operate.
Q4) Independent assortment and recombination play a role in evolution by
A)limiting the amount of variation in a population.
B)increasing the frequencies of deleterious genes.
C)limiting the number of potential phenotypes.
D)creating genetic variability in a breeding population.
E)reducing the overall fitness of a breeding population.
Q5) In evolutionary terms, natural selection is the process that favors the organism's ability to
A)displace natural predators from many different niches.
B)become as specialized as possible.
C)control the largest amount of resources in a particular niche.
D)survive and reproduce.
E)mature more rapidly than other organisms.
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Chapter 5: The Primates
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Q1) Learning, adaptive flexibility, and tool use are traits found only in the platyrrhines.
A)True
B)False
Q2) __________ is shared by all anthropoids.
A)The ability to knuckle-walk and carry tools
B)Bipedalism and birth of a single offspring
C)Prehensile tails
D)A decrease in size of canines and an increase in size of molars
E)A dry nose separate from the upper lip
Q3) Of the following nonhuman primates, __________ are most comparable to humans.
A)lemurs
B)prosimians
C)New World monkeys
D)terrestrial primates
E)arboreal primates
Q4) A primary trend in primate evolution involves a shift from sight to smell as the most important means of obtaining information.
A)True
B)False
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Early Hominins
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Q1) The earliest stone tools (dating to 2.6 m.y.a.) discovered thus far
A)may have been made by A.garhi.
B)were made by H.erectus.
C)come from the Djurab Desert in Chad.
D)belong to the Mousterian toolmaking tradition.
E)were probably made by the last common ancestor of hominins and the African apes.
Q2) The fossil known as A)sediba is important because A.there is debate if it should be a member of Homo sapiens.
B)it has no evidence of being bipedal, but it has a large brain.
C)it was found with the earliest stone tools.
D)it has anatomy similar to both australopithecines and Homo.
E)a team of prominent paleoanthropologists found it on their first day in the field.
Q3) Identify the most significant differences between the australopithecines and early Homo, and discuss how these differences related to environmental niches.
Q4) Discuss the place of Ardipithecus and Australopithecus anamensis in hominin evolution, as well as the current dates associated with both species.
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Chapter 7: The Genus Homo
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Q1) Researchers learned that ___________ by looking at the molars and chewing muscles of H.erectus.
A)H.erectus was more dependent on tubers than earlier hominins
B)H.erectus was more dependent on hunting than earlier hominins
C)the chewing apparatus of H.erectus was essentially identical to that of H.habilis
D)the chewing apparatus of H.erectus was different from that of H.habilis
E)H.erectus had not yet begun to hunt.
Q2) Discuss the Neandertals-their anatomy, when they existed, and their geographic distribution.Review and evaluate the different positions in the debate over Neandertals' relationship to anatomically modern humans.
Q3) Provide evidence for an increased dependence on culture during hominin evolution.
Q4) Citing both biological and cultural evidence, discuss the major similarities and differences between the sociocultural means of adaptation employed by Australopithecus and H.erectus.
Q5) Discuss the major anatomical differences between the australopithecines and H.erectus.
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Chapter 8: The First Farmers
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Q1) In the Middle East, the domestication of plants and animals begin to replace broad-spectrum foraging as the basis of subsistence by
A)50,000 B.P.
B)20,000 B.P.
C)7,500 B.P.
D)5,000 B.P.
E)1,000 B.P.
Q2) Animals domesticated in the New World include llamas, alpacas, turkeys, ducks, guinea pigs, and horses.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A vertical economy exploits environmental zones that are close together in space, but differentiated by altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) With domestication, plants developed thicker husks.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: The First Cities and States
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Q1) The Shang dynasty had bronze metallurgy and writing.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Olmec were a(n)
A)state.
B)empire.
C)tribe.
D)band.
E)chiefdom.
Q3) Long-distance trade is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the emergence of states.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Such writers as Heyerdahl and von Daniken ignore __________ in their theories of world development.
A)diffusion
B)culture contact
C)independent inventiveness
D)alien influence
E)agriculture
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Chapter 10: Language and Communication
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Q1) The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis argues that
A)the degree of cultural complexity is related to the effectiveness of languages as systems of communication.
B)the languages people speak influence the way they think.
C)the Hopi do not use three verb tenses; thus, they have no concept of time.
D)culture determines what language is able to describe.
E)all humans are endowed with the ability to use language.
Q2) BEV is a distinct language.
A)True
B)False
Q3) All human nonverbal communication is instinctive and thus not influenced by culture.
A)True
B)False
Q4) __________ refers to all of a language's morphemes and their meanings.
A)Syntax
B)Lexicon
C)Ethnosemantics
D)Ethnoscience
E)Phonology
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Making a Living
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Q1) A common social unit among foragers is the A)tribe
B)chiefdom
C)segmentary lineage
D)state
E)band
Q2) __________ is a characteristic of most foraging societies.
A)Social stratification
B)Sedentism
C)Egalitarianism
D)Irrigation
E)Large populations
Q3) Describe how economic specialization in industrial nations differs from specialization in nonindustrial societies.
Q4) Discuss the major differences between industrial and nonindustrial modes of production.
Q5) Contrast generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity.Describe how negative reciprocity differs from the market principle.
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Chapter 12: Political Systems
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Q1) Social scientists use the term __________ to refer to the socially approved use of power.
A)authority
B)influence
C)prestige
D)stratification
E)endogamy
Q2) States are complex systems of sociopolitical organization that aim to control and administer everything from conflict resolution to fiscal systems to population movements.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In nonstate societies,
A)professional armies conduct warfare.
B)political institutions are separate from economic institutions.
C)social control is maintained mostly through physical coercion.
D)economic, political, and religious activities are often interrelated.
E)all political power is based on religion.
Q4) Identify the factors responsible for the variable development of political regulation and authority structures among pastoralists.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Families, Kinship, and Marriage
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Q1) __________ refers to a unilineal descent group whose members claim, but cannot demonstrate, common descent from an apical ancestor.
A)Clan
B)Lineage
C)Extended family
D)Family of procreation
E)Family of orientation
Q2) In patrilineal societies, lobolalike gifts
A)ensure the wealth of the wife.
B)ensure the wealth of the children.
C)make the children born to the woman full members of her husband's descent group.
D)make the husband part of the wife's descent group.
E)has little effect on descent groups.
Q3) Discuss the general patterns found in the family organization of foragers.
Q4) Discuss ways in which kinship and descent help human populations adapt to their environments.
Q5) If a man marries his deceased brother's widow, it is a levirate marriage.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Gender
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Q1) __________ is not culturally constructed.
A)Race
B)Gender
C)Kinship
D)Sex
E)Sexual norms
Q2) In the United States, attitudes regarding the role of women in the workplace have varied according to economic needs.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Gender roles are the instinctual behaviors associated with each sex.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In general, the status of women
A)rises as dependence on food production intensifies.
B)is higher in societies in which males do most of the work in food production.
C)is higher among agriculturalists than it is among foragers.
D)is higher in matrilineal societies than it is in patrilineal societies.
E)is higher in Yanomami society than it is among the Betsileo of Madagascar.
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Chapter 15: Religion
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Q1) Witch hunts are an example of religion's function as A)a revitalization movement.
B)shamanism.
C)a form of social control.
D)a mechanism to reduce fear and uncertainty.
E)a rite of passage.
Q2) In Melanesia, mana was a sacred force that could reside in people, animals, plants, and objects.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Contrast ritual behavior with ordinary behavior.Give examples of religious and secular rituals, and identify the main differences between such kinds of ritual.
Q4) Explain the universality of religion.
Q5) During the liminal phase of a rite of passage, participants occupy ambiguous social positions.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Define mana, and discuss the difference in the beliefs that surround mana in Melanesia and Polynesia.
Page 17
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Chapter 16: Ethnicity and Race
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Q1) The burakumin constitute an isolated breeding population that is genetically distinct from the majority Japanese population.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In Brazil, a person's phenotype and racial label may change due to environmental factors.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Barth uses the term __________ to refer to a society that combines ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization, and economic interdependence of groups.
A)colony
B)broad-spectrum subsistence
C)plural society
D)imagined community
E)assimilation
Q4) In many societies, minority groups have inferior power and less secure access to resources than do majority groups.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Applying Anthropology
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Q1) Non-Western medicine does not maintain a sharp distinction between biological and psychological illnesses.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Describe the relationship between theory and practice in anthropology, and list reasons why applied anthropology should be or should not be recognized as a separate subdiscipline.Explain how it is different from the traditional subfields of anthropology.
Q3) Examine how a premedical student could apply some of the knowledge learned in anthropology courses as a physician.
Q4) Anthropology may help the progress of education by enabling educators to avoid all of the following except
A)indiscriminate assignment of nonnative speakers of English to the same classrooms as children with "behavior problems."
B)tolerance of ethnic diversity.
C)incorrect application of labels (e.g., "learning impaired").
D)sociolinguistic discrimination.
E)ethnic stereotyping.
Q5) Define overinnovation, and explain why it can undermine development projects.
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Chapter 18: The World System and Colonialism
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Q1) The three positions that nations occupy in the world system are.
A)core, periphery, and semiperiphery
B)metropole, satellite, and semisatellite
C)state, nation-state, and nation
D)wealth, power, and prestige
E)bourgeoisie, middle class, and proletariat
Q2) According to Weber, the three dimensions of social stratification are
A)means of production, mode of production, measure of production.
B)status, exchange, religion.
C)gender, ethnicity, race.
D)wealth, power, prestige.
E)age, gender, ethnicity.
Q3) The spread mining in Papua New Guinea contributed to the destruction of A)neighboring nation-states.
B)peasants who are of the same ethnicity as the ruling elite.
C)indigenous economies, ecologies, and populations.
D)the coral reefs.
E)None of the above is correct.
Q4) Define the Industrial Revolution, and describe how the lives of ordinary working people changed as a result of this revolution.
Page 20
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Chapter 19: Anthropologys Role in a Globalizing World
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Q1) The statement, __________, is true.
A)"studies show that people accept television's messages at face value, without much reinterpretation"
B)"television coverage can increase an area's participation in an activity"
C)"American programming is much more popular than local television shows around the world"
D)"television is more popular in urban than in rural areas"
E)"television has little effect on culture"
Q2) __________ keeps the Earth's surface warm.
A)The atmosphere
B)Global warming
C)Ocean currents
D)The hothouse effect
E)The greenhouse effect
Q3) Acculturation can occur with or without firsthand contact between groups.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss why the term indigenous people has great political weight.Identify what indigenous movements in Latin America have emphasized in their drive for self-determination.
21
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