Back In First Year Anthropology Quiz

Answer: Tibet

Polyandry generally takes place in areas where land is scarce. Rather than subdivide the family farm into plots too small to support a family, a set of brothers will all marry the same woman. By sharing a wife, they ensure that only one set of children will inherit the land.

Although this type of marriage is rare, it does take place in Tibet, a mountainous country where land suitable for cultivation is hard to come by.

Answer: Untouchables

To outside observers, the Untouchables occupied the lowest rank in the caste system, but Indians will tell you they actually existed apart from it. Untouchables performed those tasks which were considered "dirty work," occupying an essential niche within Indian society.

However, because of their existence outside the accepted system, they had little interaction with other members of Indian society.

Answer: horticulture

Horticulture refers to a system of gardening using hand tools, such as hoes, sticks and shovels. It allows for a higher population density than hunting and gathering, and also allows for a semi-sedentary population. Because horticultural societies must work to change their physical environment to a considerable degree, for example by felling trees, people in horticultural societies work very hard to obtain their means of subsistence.

Answer: ethnocentrism

Anthropologists attempt to view each culture on its own merit, in order to gain an understanding of a culture from the inside. Thus, anthropologists must work hard to overcome any ethnocentric tendencies within themselves.

Answer: morpheme

A morpheme can be a whole word, or a part of a word that carries meaning. For example, the "tri" in the word "tricycle" is a morpheme meaning "three." A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound selected for use in a language. Each individual sound in the word "tricycle" is considered to be a phoneme.

Answer: Yanomamo

First published in 1968, Chagnon has published numerous editions of this book updating us on new information he has found about the Yanomamo and changes that have occured due to the incursion of the dominant Brazilian culture. A major gold rush in the 1980s has had a profound impact upon the Yanomamo and indeed, the survival of their culture is threatened.

Answer: folklore

Folklore today usually refers to knowledge that is passed down orally through performance rather than knowledge that is written down. Folklore can be purely entertaining, or it can be educational by teaching life lessons. It can also be considered an informal means of exercising social control in that it can summarize the major points of cultural charters.

Answer: any action taken when a norm is breached to counter that breach

In our culture, putting a thief in prison would be considered a counteraction, as would shunning a person in Mennonite societies.

Answer: pastoralists

The Maasai live in the Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa, in a territory which crosses the borders of modern-day Kenya and Tanzania. Their society is based on the herding of cattle. The culture of the Maasai is threatened, as they are pressured to assimilate to the dominant society.

Answer: True

The Bushmen of Southern Africa lead a nomadic life, surviving through hunting and gathering. Although their numbers are large, with 25 000 in Botswana, 29 000 in Namibia and 8 000 in Angola, the encroachment of cattle ranchers and wars have made it impossible for the Bushmen to continue their traditional hunting and gathering way of life. Bushmen were featured prominently in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

Answer: segmental opposition

Segmental opposition is the principle that two separate but equal social entities will unite to counter another group. Thus, while you may be in conflict with members of your family, you join with them when your family is threatened by another family.

Answer: rite of passage

A true rite of passage has three sections: rites of separation, in which a person is removed from the society; transition rites, in which a person is given educational and/or mystical forces that provide new capacities; and rites of incorporation, in which a person re-enters society with a new social position.

Answer: True

"Affine" is just a fancy word anthropologists and genealogists use to refer to in-laws.

Answer: diffusion

An important way in which cultures change is through diffusion. Cultural diffusion takes place all the time. Tools, meanings, and other inventions are borrowed from neighbours and incorporated into the existing culture.

Answer: True

While some people may call animism a religion, it is more properly understood as a means of seeing the world. Animists do not consider themselves practioners of an animist religion.