SOAN 361 Exam

Question 1

the systematic study of the natural world through observation and experiment

Answer 1

science

Question 2

academic disciplines that study human culture

Answer 2

humanities

Question 3

identifying patterns in how humans think, behave, and organize

Answer 3

theory

Question 4

in-depth written descriptions of cultures

Answer 4

ethnography

Question 5

an aim to offer a broader (more culturally relativistic) perspective on human life

Answer 5

humanistic aim

Question 6

an aim to influence policy

Answer 6

applied aim

Question 7

studied geology and zoology of places they visited; from finches on Galapagos, he began to speculate that the finches began to diverge into new species after their arrival to the Galapagos; wrote Origin of Species and The Descent of Man

Answer 7

Charles Darwin

Question 8

believed in degenerationism which is that “primitive peoples” under the influence of Satan had falled from a higher state of civilization; wrote On the Natural Variety of Mankind in 1795 that declared there were 5 races and coined the term “Caucasian”

Answer 8

Johan Blumenbach

Question 9

geologist; found that slow geological processes caused changes leading to a much older Earth; subscribed to uniformitarianism

Answer 9

Charles Lyell

Question 10

slow, gradual change happening over millions of years; the Earth’s physical features are the result of imperceptible natural processes (erosion, deposition of sediments)

Answer 10

uniformitarianism

Question 11

concept of evolution applied to societies and cultures; cultures “evolve” over time from primitive to civilized states; rejected religiously-based explanations of difference (i.e. degenerationism); people from all cultures were capable of rational thought; all races were of a single species, had a common origin

Answer 11

unilineal evolution

Question 12

extensive fieldwork on kinship systems; fieldwork among the Iroquois; unilineal evolutionist; he identified patterns that led him to seek out a larger unilineal evolutionary framework; argued for monogenesis; proposed that Native Americans came from Asia (not the Lost Tribes of Israel); had a theory of savagery –> barbarism –> civilization

Answer 12

Lewis Henry Morgan

Question 13

first professor of Anthropology at Oxford; influenced by Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin; applied concepts of uniformitarianism and evolution; unilineal evolutionist; race does not explain cultural differences; wrote about the religious stages of societies (animism –> polytheism –> monotheism)

Answer 13

Edward Burnett Tylor

Question 14

PhD in physics; expedition to Baffin Island to study the Inuit; hired by BAAS to study Kwakiutl in Pacific Northwest; insisted on participant observation fieldwork; rejected unilineal evolution; argued for cultural relativism; defined the four subfields of anthropology; groundbreaking research on race (1911 race study);

Answer 14

Franz Boas

Answer 14

Max Weber