Anthropology Exam 1

Question 1

The characteristics of culture

Answer 1

Learned, shared, symbolic, integrated, dynamic

Question 2

Cultural Relativism

Answer 2

This is when each culture must be understood within its own context. This means one culture is no better than another.

Question 3

Ethnocentrism

Answer 3

This is when you evaluate someone else from your own vantage point and describe it in your own terms.

Question 4

Culture vs. Society

Answer 4

Society is a group of people organized by social relations. Culture is the behaviors you have acquired as members of society

Question 5

Enculturation

Answer 5

This is the process through which culture is passed from one generation to the next.

Question 6

Social Evolutionism

Answer 6

Nineteenth century model of cultural progression from savagery through barbarism to civilization; created by Lewis Henry Morgan

Question 7

Bronislaw Malinowski

Answer 7

He was an anthropologist who was a major proponent of participant observation.

Question 8

Marcel Mauss

Answer 8

He was an anthropologist who was influential in understanding exchange.

Question 9

Franz Boas

Answer 9

He was an anthropologist who took the discipline away from armchair anthropology and moved towards understanding culture.

Question 10

Cultural Materialism

Answer 10

Paradigm from anthropologist Marvin Harris, posits social life as a rational response to practical issues; population/production determine political economy and values/behavior

Question 11

Steps for conducting fieldwork

Answer 11

Choose a location, look at past research, get funding, travel arrangements, and adjust to life in the field.

Question 12

Problems arising from fieldwork

Answer 12

Research topic changes in the field, the anthropologist never becomes an insider, culture shock, language issues, gender bias, friendship dilemmas, and personal space.

Question 13

Endogamy vs. Exogamy

Answer 13

Endogamy is when you marry within a group. Exogamy is when you marry outside the group.

Question 14

Lineage vs. Clan

Answer 14

Lineage are the people who can indicate by stating all intermediate links. There is a common descent from an ancestor or ancestress. Clan are the people who assume shared descent from an ancestor or ancestress without being able to enumerate all of the links.

Question 15

Patrilocal Residence

Answer 15

When the married couple lives near the groom’s family.

Question 16

Matrilocal Residence

Answer 16

The married couple lives near the wife’s family.

Question 17

Neolocal Residence

Answer 17

The married couple establishes a home away from both families.

Question 18

Avunculocal Residence

Answer 18

The couple lives near the husband’s mother’s brother.