Back to Visuals Page
Back to Teaching Page

AN120:Peoples of the World

Midterm Study Guide

About the exam:The exam consists of a mix of multiple choice and true/false questions, 50 total, all worth 2 points each.

 

Material covered:The exam draws heavily upon the readings, as well as the lectures, web page (visuals used in lectures), films, and recitation sections.

 

Sample Test Questions

 

 

A specific belief or behavior can best be understood
 

a) in relation to other cultures with similar beliefs and behaviors

b) by finding a similar belief or behavior in one’s own culture

c) by dissecting and analyzing its structure and meaning

d) in relation to the cultural context in which it is embedded

e) all of the above


 

Claude Levi-Strauss stated that the attempts of anthropologists to immerse themselves in the world of others causes them to become
 

a) aware of the difficulties in explaining and understanding their own beliefs

b) marginal men or women

c) completely removed from the subject culture

d) all of the above

e) none of the above

 

 

Study Questions (NOT an exhaustive List, but a GUIDE)

 
  1. What is one of the major characteristics of human beings that distinguish them from other species?
  2. Why does Clifford Geertz say that human beings are “incomplete or unfinished animals”?
  3. What is the ethnocentric dilemma?What is the relativistic dilemma?
  4. What is one solution to the dilemma of choosing between relativism and ethnocentrism?
  5. What is participant-observation?
  6. In what way is culture like a ‘text’?
  7. What kind of statements does the cockfight make to Balinese males about status?
  8. What statements does a football game make to Americans about gender roles?
  9. How do we, as Americans, view the relationships between technology, progress, and problem solving?
  10. Why is the belief that hunter/gatherer societies have a harsh and dangerous lifestyle ethnocentric?
  11. How does Leslie White describe the relationship between energy and cultural development?
  12. What did the British textile trade have to do with India, China, and with the Cherokee in North America?
  13. What is economic development? What are different ways of doing economic development (applying appropriate technology, etc.)?
  14. Why do people in Brazil not get enough to eat?
  15. What are some of the ways in which human behavior influence the incidence of disease?
  16. What conditions are required for slash and burn agriculture to be more efficient than irrigation agriculture?
  17. What are some of the common explanations for disease found in traditional societies?
  18. What is the interpersonal theory of disease?
  19. How can the notion of progress be defined and why is this notion of progress questionable?
  20. What is ritual? What did Roy Rappaport have to say about ritual?
  21. What did Sapir and Whorf say about language?
  22. What is metaphor and how does it relate to the concept of worldview?
  23. What is the possible relationship between metaphor and Acheulian tools? What group of hominids used Acheulian tools?
  24. What is a key metaphor?
  25. What is a ‘key metaphor’ for Americans?For the Kwakiutl?
  26. What is the symbolic significance of the Kwakiutl cannibal dance ritual?
  27. How can we understand belief? What are some ways anthropologists approach belief?
  28. What is an anthropology of experience about?
  29. What are revitalization movements?What are some examples and the conditions in which they arose?
  30. What are the factors one would have to know about another society in order to write a soap opera about families in that society?
  31. What are kinship and marriage?What do they do?
  32. What are the different kinds of marriage (e.g., monogamy, polyandry, etc.)
  33. What are some of the typical terms anthropologists use for describing kinship systems in various societies?
  34. What are some of the different kinship systems found worldwide? (e.g., lineal)
  35. What is the difference between patrilineal and matrilineal descent?How is it related to marriage patterns?
  36. How would you characterize relations between husbands and wives among the Trobriand Islanders?
  37. If the relationship between brother and sister is central to a matrilineal society, what relationship is central in a patrilineal society such as China?Why does that difference exist?
  38. Why are daughters devalued in Chinese society?
  39. What is the difference in the manner of arranging marriage between the Ju/wasi, Trobrianders, and Chinese?
  40. What is the Trobrianders’ myth about the creation of people and the dala?