GED 210 Unit #3 & Unit #3 Essay Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Multiple Choice Questions (Enter your answers on the enclosed answer sheet)
- The most important belief underlying the practice of having a widow marry one of her brothersin-law
is that:
- her family should not have to return the bride price
- the rights of the deceased husband must be preserved
- all men should have more than one wife
- widows should never have to live alone
- The most common form of polyandry is ________, in which brothers share a wife.
- risk taking
- sibling polyandry
- fraternal polyandry
- levirate
- When a married couple goes to live in the house of the brother of the husband’s mother, the
post-marital residence pattern is referred to as:
- avunculocal
- matrilocal
- patrilocal
- fratrilocal
- In most tribal societies, rules of descent, marriage, and residence are:
- flexible and often subject to lengthy discussion and negotiations
- strictly enforced and rarely changed
- known only to village elders, who are consulted whenever a decision must be made
- unconscious, and therefore defined mostly by outsiders (such as ethnographers)
- In general, divorces are most common among societies that are:
- patrilineal and patrilocal
- matrilineal and matrilocal
- organized into bilateral descent groups
- polyandrous and avunculocal
Unit 3 Examination
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GED210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- Deborah Gewertz, who has re-examined Mead’s interpretations of the Tchambuli (Chambri),
arrived at the conclusion that:
- Chambri women are among the most aggressive in all human societies
- Mead’s interpretations failed to take specific historical circumstances into account
- Chambri men were submissive due to frequent defeats in warfare
- cultural values do not influence gender roles
- The Kula, described by Malinowski in Argonauts of the Pacific, refers to:
- a type of outrigger canoe used for long-distance travel by island chiefs
- a ceremonial dance performed by the indigenous Hawaiians
- a ritual in which red shell necklaces were traded for white armbands
- a sacred beverage whose use was restricted to Tahitian chiefs
- The Kula is an example of what type of exchange?
- redistribution
- balanced reciprocity
- hypergamy
- market exchange
- The term “barter” is used to refer to:
- the agreement on a certain price for a specified product
- a system of unbalanced reciprocity in which goods of unequal value are exchanged
- the direct exchange of one commodity for another
- the redistribution of goods in a marketplace
- The potlatch feasts of the northwest coast societies are usually interpreted as a form of:
- long-distance barter
- resource conservation
- ritualized warfare
- redistributional exchange
- Which of the following might be interpreted as a modern example of the potlatch?
- A local politician gives away hundreds of frozen turkeys at a campaign rally.
- A special interest group pays the salary and expenses of a lobbyist.
- A former president makes speeches in favor of his party’s new candidate.
- Delegates at a national convention trade buttons and other campaign memorabilia.
Unit 3 Examination
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GED210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- A major difference between redistributional and reciprocal economies is that:
- reciprocal economies are more common in societies with inequalities in social status
- redistributional economies tend to make certain individuals wealthier than others
- reciprocal economies always involve the exchange of a recognized form of currency
- only redistributional economies involve transfers of goods among related villagers
- From a cross-cultural study, Jack Goody learned that bridewealth occurs more frequently in
horticultural societies, whereas the dowry system is most frequently found in agricultural
states. He further hypothesized that one function of the dowry system was to:
- consolidate property in the hands of elite groups, thus increasing their wealth and
status
- spread wealth out over a larger area so that everyone in the society had about the same
level of affluence
- counteract the practice of bridewealth, non-adaptive in an agricultural state, because it
allowed certain families to accumulate too much wealth by selling their daughters to the
highest bidder
- create an egalitarian society
- Since wealth and status determine the type of marriage patterns found in agricultural states,
the primary form of marriage for all but the elite was:
- polygyny
- polyandry
- polygamy
- monogamy
- Monogamy is the primary form of marriage in most agricultural states. The probable reason this
pattern is so prevalent is:
- most agricultural states have laws against polygamous marriages of any kind because
they disrupt the normal flow of the agricultural cycle
- in agricultural societies, where land is a scarce commodity, peasants cannot afford the
luxury of polygyny
- polygyny is impossible because there are fewer women than men in agricultural states
- most peasants can only afford to accumulate enough wealth for one dowry
- Divorce was rare in agricultural states because of a number of factors. Which of the following
is not one of the factors discussed in the text?
- Both the corporate character of the extended family and the necessity for cooperative
labor among family members usually lead to normative constraints against divorce.
- Marriage was the most important way that land was transferred, and marriages were the
basis of alliances between families and kin groups.
- In some societies, marriage became a sacred institution and there were laws against
divorce.
- Divorce was not allowed in many, if not all, agricultural states because of the emotional
disruption it caused to the family members, often making them unfit for agricultural
labor.
Unit 3 Examination
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GED210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- In many agricultural states, women were restricted to domestic activities while men were
permitted to engage in public (outside) endeavors. Women were often not allowed to own
property, engage in politics, or pursue educational goals. These restrictions were reflected in a
number of cultural practices such as:
- purdah and foot binding
- caste system
- idiographic mediation
- dowry and bridewealth
- Social inequality is exemplified in the __________ of India. These social units are endogamous
groupings into which a person is born and dies.
- purdah system
- shogun scheme
- caste system
- slavery system
- Capitalist societies share three basic ideals. Which of the following is NOT one of these ideals?
- The elements of production are privately owned.
- Companies are free to maximize profits and accumulate wealth.
- Land and resources should be owned and controlled by the state government, while
production and services are in the hands of free enterprise.
- Free competition and consumer independence are basic to all economic activities.
- Anthropologists have found that kinship in industrial states:
- often becomes solidified and molded into large descent groups called oligoclans
- becomes much more important and clearly defined than in preindustrial societies
- becomes less important as new structures and organizations replace and begin to
perform many of the functions associated with kinship in preindustrial societies
- tends to remain about the same as is found in chiefdom societies
- With industrialization, the functions of the family changed, and one of the major
transformations was the:
- increase in the frequency of polyandrous marriages, especially those involving
brothers
- decrease in the mobility of members of the family since they were all tied to industrial
production
- increase in matrilocal residence and a reduction in patrilocal residence
- diminishing importance of the extended family and the emergence of the nuclear family
Unit 3 Examination
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GED210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- As nuclear families replace extended families in industrial societies, older people no
longer reside with their adult children. The role of the elderly in retaining and disseminating
information has diminished in industrial societies. The elderly have lost much of their
economic power. Sociologist Donald O. Cowgill has hypothesized that:
- The status and role of the elderly in the future will increase because the birthrate has
dropped to an all-time low.
- There will be an elderly revolution, termed the “silver-haired rebellion,” which will place
much of the lost power and status back into the hands of the older segment of society.
- As the rate of technological change accelerates, knowledge quickly becomes obsolete, and
this decreases the status and role of the elderly (they are no longer the storage houses of
technological knowledge; libraries and databanks have taken over this role).
- In the future, there will be a major reorganization of kinship and the family, which will restore
power to the elderly.
- Chiefdoms and agricultural states are classified as __________ because they provide little
opportunity for social mobility. Industrial states, on the other hand, are considered
___________ because social status can be achieved through individual effort.
- oppressive; free
- hierarchical; egalitarian
- closed societies; open societies
- caste cultures; kindred cultures
- The House of Lords in Great Britain differs from the House of Commons because membership
in the house of lords is:
- based on intellect
- inherited through families
- limited to those individuals who have already served in the house of commons
- based on religious affiliation and achieved status
- The primary mode of social mobility in Japanese society is:
- education
- luck
- inheritance
- what is called burakumin and eta
Unit 3 Examination
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GED210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Writing Assignment for Unit Three
- Responses must be submitted as a MS Word Document only, typed double-spaced, using a
standard font (i.e. Times New Roman) and 12 point type size.
Word count is NOT one of the criteria that is used in assigning points to writing assignments. However,
students who are successful in earning the maximum number of points tend to submit writing assignments
that fall in the following ranges:
Undergraduate courses: 350 – 500 words or 1 – 2 pages.
Graduate courses: 500 – 750 words or 2 – 3 pages.
Doctoral courses: 750 – 1000 words or 4 – 5 pages.
Plagiarism
All work must be free of any form of plagiarism. Put written answers into your own words. Do not simply cut
and paste your answers from the Internet and do not copy your answers from the textbook. Be sure to refer to
the course syllabus for more details on plagiarism and proper citation styles.
Please answer ONE of the following:
- Include your name, student number, course number, course title and unit number on each page
of your writing assignment (this is for your protection in case your materials become separated).
- Begin each writing assignment by identifying the question number you are answering followed by
the actual question itself (in bold type).
- Use a standard essay format for responses to all questions (i.e., an introduction, middle
paragraphs and conclusion).
- What is the relationship between post-marital residence rules and the form of descent found
within a society? How did patrilocal and matrilocal residence patterns arise? What is the
possible relationship between warfare and residence rules?
- Compare and contrast the theories presented by Elman Service and Timothy Earle on the
evolution of chiefdoms. What are the key points on which Earle differs? Given your
understanding of chiefdoms, which theory do you prefer and why?
- Compare and contrast the nature of divorce in agricultural states, chiefdoms, tribes, and forager
societies. Do you see any parallels, or is divorce simply a cultural facet that does not relate to
the rest of society?
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Multiple choice
- The most important belief underlying the practice of having a widow marry one of her brothers in-law
is that:
the rights of the deceased husband must be preserved
The most common form of polyandry is ________, in which brothers share a wife.
fraternal polyandry
When a married couple goes to live in the house of the brother of the husband’s mother, the
post-marital residence pattern is referred to as:
Essay
- Compare and contrast the theories presented by Elman Service and Timothy Earle on the evolution of chiefdoms. What are the key points on which Earle differs? Given your understanding of chiefdoms, which theory do you prefer and why?
Elman Service and Timothy Earle have fascinating hypotheses of the advancement of chiefdoms. Earle communicates are exceptionally particular key contrasts from Service. When I characterize what chiefdom is and elucidate both Service and Earle’s hypothesis; I will clarify my inclination and w…
