Comparative Cultures Solved
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Course Introduction
Comparative Cultures explores the diverse social, religious, artistic, political, and economic systems that define human societies around the world. Through a multidisciplinary approach, students examine key cultural practices, beliefs, and values, analyzing similarities and differences across regions and historical periods. The course emphasizes critical thinking about how global interactions, migration, and cultural exchange shape societies, identities, and worldviews, fostering greater intercultural understanding and awareness of contemporary global issues.
Recommended Textbook
Cultural Anthropology 11th Edition by Serena Nanda
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Chapter 1: Anthropology and Human Diversity
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Q1) All of the following are ways that globalization has affected anthropology except:
A)Anthropologists have become increasingly more politically engaged with indigenous peoples.
B)Anthropologists have become more active in social action to defend minority populations.
C)Anthropologists today are more focused on studying relationships and exchanges between populations.
D)Studies today are more holistic and tend to focus on the particular and specific characteristics of the societies in which the anthropologist is researching.
E)Anthropologists frequently collaborate with those they study in order to better represent the culture and its changes.
Answer: D
Q2) Cultural relativism is the perceptual bias that prevents us from seeing the logic in other cultures.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Doing Cultural Anthropology
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Q1) A major point of the ethnography "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" is to:
A)Show how foolish people's rituals are.
B)Help us look at our own culture from a different perspective.
C)Promote practices of preventive medicine.
D)Increase our respect for primitive cultures.
E)Put a little laughter into our dreary lives.
Answer: B
Q2) Anthropologists and activists have argued that female genital operations are all of the following except:
A)Are grave violations of human rights.
B)Are affirmations of the value of women.
C)Should be legal in European nations.
D)Should be banned in European nations.
E)Should not be studied because they are not important.
Answer: E
Q3) What are two criticisms associated with the Human Relations Area Files database?
Answer: It takes cultural data out of context and it collates multiple perspectives from different time periods and does not take into account how the different authors and historical eras affect the data.
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The Idea of Culture
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Q1) Comparing culture to a system implies that:
A)A change in one part of culture will result in changes in other parts of culture.
B)Culture is a means to an end.
C)Each cultural pattern has the same meaning for every individual.
D)A culture has no immediate relationship to its natural environment.
E)No part of culture can work unless every part of culture works.
Answer: A
Q2) Pure cultures,free from outside influence:
A)Have never existed.
B)Existed until the 15th century in many parts of the world.
C)Are more common in Africa than in other parts of the world.
D)Have fewer traits than those in frequent contact with the outside.
E)Tend to be much more ethnocentric than other cultures.
Answer: A
Q3) Ethnoscience is a theoretical approach that focuses on the way in which members of a culture classify their world.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Communication
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Q1) What are the four components of any language?
Q2) How do linguists define a "word"?
Q3) When researchers tried to teach human language to chimpanzees and gorillas,they found that:
A)These animals were incapable of using language in ways that resembled those used by human beings.
B)While these animals were able to master the use of verbs,they were unable to produce new words.
C)There was very little difference between the linguistic capacities of humans and our nearest primate relations.
D)Language skills were never masterfully demonstrated in the chimpanzees or gorillas.
E)Language soon became as essential to the trained chimpanzees and gorillas as it is to humans.
Q4) Even a child brought up in isolation will automatically be able to speak the language of his or her parents.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is AAVE,and how is it related to social stratification?
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Chapter 5: Making a Living
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Q1) Global warming has made it easier for the Inuit to hunt year-round and has therefore increased the number of Inuit living traditional lifestyles.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The change from foraging to food production was revolutionary in that it happened within a very short period of time.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Name three advantages of using a plow in agriculture.
Q4) Musha,in Upper Egypt,is a typical contemporary peasant village in that the peasants:
A)Are isolated from the outside world.
B)Are in almost total control of their economy.
C)Have hardly changed their culture in hundreds of years.
D)Are highly constrained by government intervention.
E)Are influential in government planning.
Q5) Define industrialism as a subsistence strategy.
Q6) Define foraging.
Q7) Name the three basic criteria of each subsistence strategy.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Economics
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Q1) Peasants generally:
A)Own the land that they farm.
B)Support a wealthy,landowning class.
C)Have higher standards of living than horticulturalists.
D)Become landowners if they work hard enough.
E)Survive only by doing part time factory work for wages.
Q2) Are you a resister to capitalism? Explain the ways in which you are,or are not,with reference to the definition of capitalism provided in this chapter.
Q3) What are the three components of economics?
Q4) A capital good is anything that is used to make something else.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Where resources are scarce and large areas are needed to support the population,territorial boundaries are:
A)Strictly defended and the cause of high amounts of conflict.
B)Loosely marked,but strictly defended by military coalitions.
C)Usually not defended.
D)Strictly marked,but loosely defended during certain seasons.
E)Marked and privately owned by influential members of the community.
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Chapter 7: Kinship
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Sample Questions
Q1) Corporate descent groups tend to exist in societies with:
A)Industrial economic systems.
B)Unilineal descent.
C)Kindreds.
D)High geographic mobility.
E)A complex social stratification system.
Q2) A correct conclusion from the chapter regarding kinship in modern,complex societies is that kinship:
A)Has no place in these societies.
B)Is more important than other forms of belonging,such as citizenship.
C)Is more important as a basis of social relationships than in more traditional societies.
D)Plays an important but not central role in establishing rights and relationships.
E)Is more important among the lower than the upper classes.
Q3) How are parallel cousins different from cross cousins?
Q4) Discuss the major differences in the kinship terminology systems between North India and the United States,and account for those differences in the value systems of the two cultures.
Q5) Contrast a lineage with a clan.Name at least 3 differences.
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Chapter 8: Marriage, family, and Domestic Groups
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Q1) One anthropological explanation for the incest taboo is that such taboos prevent sex with close relatives from causing disruption within the family.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How is dowry different from bridewealth?
Q3) The nuclear family appears to be well adapted to:
A)Horticulture.
B)Pastoralism.
C)Warfare.
D)Intensive cultivation.
E)Industrialization.
Q4) In India,the use of dowry is increasing.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Endogamy is the social rule that you must marry within your own group. A)True
B)False
Q6) The Na of China,have no word for marriage. A)True
B)False
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Gender
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Q1) Alternative,or multiple sexes and genders have been found only in Native North America.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Compare and contrast gender relations in horticultural and pastoral societies.
Q3) What do anthropologists mean by saying that there is a "cultural construction of gender"?
Q4) Women's hunting among the Agata illustrates that:
A)Women are just as strong and fast as men.
B)Child rearing is really best done by the child's biological parents.
C)Women,in some situations,can bring home larger quantities of game than men.
D)The demands of child rearing can be adapted to economic needs.
E)Young girls are better hunters than young boys but after puberty,boys are better.
Q5) What is a hijab?
Q6) In some Muslim countries,such as Tunisia,the wearing of the veil is discouraged.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Describe theoretical contributions of Margaret Mead in the area of gender studies in anthropology.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Political Organization
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Q1) Moots differ from courts among the Kpelle mainly in that:
A)Courts are a traditional part of Kpelle culture,whereas moots are a Western innovation.
B)Courts are held in English,whereas moots are held in the local languages.
C)Courts give a lot of time to examining the complexities of a case,whereas moots are quick,superficial affairs.
D)Courts aim at determining legal liability,whereas moots aim at reconciling disputing parties.
E)Courts have dramatic,ritual,and psychological functions,whereas moots lack these expressive aspects.
Q2) Warfare may be a means of regulating population in tribal societies.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is the nation-state?
Q4) Outline the main features of the Kpelle moot.In what way does it seem different from the way disputes are handled in American courtrooms? Can you see any situations in which moot-like proceedings would be useful in American society? Discuss why or why not.
Q5) How does political leadership vary between tribes and chiefdoms?
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Chapter 11: Stratification
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Q1) During the Maoist era,China was ideologically committed to:
A)Eradicating social class.
B)Implementing a caste system.
C)Implementing global capitalism.
D)Eradicating ethnicity.
E)Establishing new racial categories.
Q2) Real wealth in the U.S.is measured as income plus:
A)Assets.
B)Retirement accounts.
C)Prestige.
D)Education.
E)Private property.
F)Power.
Q3) How have global technology changes affected the process of immigration today?
Q4) What is a "voluntary minority"?
Q5) There is no such thing as a pure class or caste society.
A)True
B)False
Q6) How is the cultural construction of race in Brazil different from that of the United States?
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Religion
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Q1) In general,the American reaction to the increasing religious diversity of the United States has been:
A)Tolerance.
B)An increase in acts of violence against non-Christians.
C)An increase in missionary activity,both in the United States and abroad.
D)A movement to impose religious quotas on new immigrants.
E)Calls for increased separation of church and state.
Q2) The anthropologist Walter Cannon argued that sorcery:
A)Could kill people through an "extreme stress reaction."
B)Backed the power of the wealthy in society.
C)Was an entirely anti-social force that societies must strive to eliminate.
D)Could not be effectively differentiated from witchcraft.
E)Was present in Africa but not in Europe or Asia.
Q3) How are monotheism and polytheism alike and different?
Q4) Europeans saw the Melanesian cargo cults as irrational.But anthropologists studying them in the 1950s argued that they were rational responses.What evidence did they cite for this?
Q5) Military basic training is a good example of a rite of intensification.
A)True
B)False
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Creative Expression: Anthropology and the Arts
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Q1) Bhangra is a musical form that originated from Eastern European folk music.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Distinguish between manga and anime.
Q3) External interest in Native American art negatively impacted the prestige of Maria Martinez.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The most important part of the Balinese cockfight is:
A)The gambling associated with it.
B)The costumes worn by the cock owners.
C)The magical ritual surrounding it.
D)Its historical origins in antiquity.
E)The special names given to the cocks by their owners.
Q5) European artists were rarely concerned with representing non-Europeans in their art. A)True
B)False
Q6) Provide three possible explanations for cave art provided by archaeologists.
Q7) How do anthropologists define art?
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Power, conquest, and a World System
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Q1) Disease was a major factor in the colonization of the Americas.Consider what might have happened had this one impact not occurred.Discuss two possible scenarios of how colonialism would have been different in the Americas without the aid of European diseases.
Q2) The principal resource that Spanish Conquistadors sent back from the Inca Empire was:
A)Slaves.
B)Diseases.
C)Tobacco.
D)Gold.
E)Sugar.
Q3) While Europeans practiced slavery in Africa,they rarely forced other Europeans into any form of servitude.
A)True
B)False
Q4) John Winthrop,one of the early governors of Massachusetts,declared that settlers had fair title to land because of vacuum domicilium.What does this mean?
Q5) What were two functions of taxation in European colonies?
Q6) What was meant by the concept of "White man's burden"?
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Culture, change, and the Modern World
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Q1) Even though populations have increased dramatically,in most places traditional subsistence strategies are still able to provide enough food for people.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to Jim Igoe,who worked with the Maasai,a critical problem with development is that:
A)Many projects are based in Western understandings that seem logical to the people who design the projects but less plausible to their recipients.
B)Many projects assume a level of education that is just not present among the project recipients.
C)Projects that are designed by local communities are often unacceptable to the people who have to fund them.
D)Western project managers are rarely accepted by project recipients in poor nations.
E)Although major donors want to fund large projects,the kinds more likely to work are small projects.
Q3) What are three critical problems facing poor nations today?
Q4) Why do some anthropologists reject development projects?
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