Anth test 4 chapters 10, 11, & 12

Domestication

Refers to converting wild plants and animals to human uses by taming animals or turning them into herds that can be raised for meat or milk or making plants able to be grown for food or other uses

Foraging

Obtaining food by searching for it, as opposed to growing or raising the plants and animals people eat. 

Generalized Foraging model

A model asserted that hunter-gatherer societies have five basic

characteristics. 

Maize

The indigenous species of corn that was first domesticated in Mexico—the term is often used for any variety of corn, since all current varieties are thought to have been derived from this early version of so-called Indian corn. 

Mesolithic

The period from the end of the last ice age until the beginning of agriculture, a number of hunter-gatherer-forager groups had established lakeside or seaside settlements that seem to have been year-round sites during this period

Neolithic

The “new” stone age when humans had begun growing crops and raising animals for food, using a stone-tool technology

Pastoralism

The practice of animal husbandry, which is the breeding, care, and use of domesticated herding animals such as cattle, camels, goats, horses, llamas, reindeer, and yaks

Patrilocal bands

Small groups where men controlled resources and hunting territories. 

Potlatches

Opulent ceremonial feasts intended to display wealth and social status by giving away or destroying valuable possessions like carved copper plates, button blankets, and baskets of food. These were characteristic of the communities on the Northwest coast of North America. 

Sedentism

Year-round settlement in a particular place.

Transhumance

The practice of moving herds to different fields or pastures with the changing seasons. 

Domestication is the process of

adapting wild plants and animals for human use

What method establishes the date or period of an organic artifact or feature from the relative proportions of radioactive carbon to non-radioactive isotopes?

Carbon-14 dating. 

One of the defining hypotheses about hunter-gatherer societies that changed after the “Man the Hunter” conference is that

hunting was not the defining feature of hunter-gather societies

The generalized foraging model holds that all the following are true except

the creation of food storage sites in a territory

The importance of Marshall Sahlins’ analysis of hunter-gatherer societies was to note the existence of

an entirely different cultural logic about their lives and the environment

In analyzing the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural society, Esther Boserup examined the relationship between

population growth and food production.

One theory about the relationship between global warming and the shift from foraging to food production holds that

the warming that took place after the last ice age made the environment more habitable. 

What is the significance of tubers as a very early cultigen in the New Guinea Highlands?

it shows us that early cultigens can be something other than grains

Which of the following is NOT a feature of the generalized foraging model?

unquestioned obedience to the leadership of the band's headman by members of the band

The practice of pastoralism involves

the breeding, care, and use of domesticated herding animals

What material would be most suitable for Carbon-14 dating?

charcoal

The effects of sedentism and population growth on populations can also be seen in the presence of

epidemic diseases

The “shift” in the primary mode of subsistence that resulted in agricultural production was called the __________.

Neolithic Revolution

Egalitarianism is a significant part of the __________ model. 

Generalized foraging

For Robert Malthus, societies with small populations were limited by __________. 

subsistence (food supple)

The need to keep pace with your neighbors and maintain alliances as a reason for the rapid spread of cultivation in New Guinea was dubbed the _______. 

jones effect

The moving of animal herds to different places in accordance with seasonal changes is called ______. 

transhumance

The amount of __________ in a piece of organic material always declines over time, and always at the same rate.

Carbon

The Neolithic Revolution happened only in the region we call the Middle East

false

Patrilocal bands are small groups where men control the hunting and territorial resources

true

One surprising discovery about hunter-gatherer lives was that they worked only a few hours a week.

true

Cultigens became an integral part of human life almost simultaneously in different parts of the world.

true

The shift to horticulture or simple farming typically increased the number of cultigens consumed by members of a community.

false

One of the ways that peoples of Highland New Guinea stored their crops was by

feeding them to their herds of pigs

Early anthropologists considered the environments of hunter-gatherer societies to be harsh, and their methods of subsistence and technology to be simple, crude, and primitive reinforcing. 

long-held cultural stereotypes

In what ways were principles of natural selection involved in the increasing size of food grains like corn, wheat, and barley?

Natural selection was not involved because the processes involved humans selecting the best seeds. 

One of the plausible reasons for the lack of surpluses in hunter-gatherer groups is that surpluses could deplete local resources. This argument is called

An optimal foraging strategy

An important distinction between hunter-gatherers today and those of the past is.

linkage to sedentary agricultural societies through trade and other social ties.

V. Gordon Childe understood the revolution brought by the rise of early agriculture involved all the
following except. 

increasing brain size among the population that was at the heart of the revolution.

David Rindos argues that the shift to agriculture happened because both humans and plants began to

coevolve

The importance of maize in archeology is that it

Provides strong evidence that humans understood and cultivated plants. 

The tending of the sago palm to increase the amount of starch in the tree is an example of

Arboriculture

The application of pastoral practices leads to both an increase in population and 

an increase in social complexity

The development of what might be called true agriculture—the use of fertilizers or elaborations of technology—was most likely due to

an increased probability of shortages

One of the reasons that today's agricultural dietary practices seemingly restrict the variety of food choices stems from the existence of

complex patterns of food taboos

Esther Boserup argued that increases in __________ led people to work harder

population growth

__________ populations have extraordinary knowledge of their natural environment, even though they
may not generally seek to domesticate plants and animals.

Hunter-gatherer

One consequence of sedentism is that populations tend to grow, and people lose control over their lives as a consequence of __________. 

epidemic diseases

Sedentism and increased population growth leads to __________.

all of the above

It is possible to know the nutritional problems found in early humans using fossil evidence

true

Women in Arctic hunter-gatherer groups do not work as hard as men because there is no option to
forage. 

False

It now seems very likely that the earliest human efforts to manipulate plants happened through the tending of useful trees.

true

As the intensity of agricultural practices increases, the range of cultigens decreases.

true

During the “Man the Hunter” conference, archaeologists and cultural anthropologists presented all sorts of evidence they had gathered about hunter-gatherers. Which of the following was not one of the conclusions of their collective assessments:

most hunter-gatherers relied much more heavily on game that was hunted by men than had been understood previously.

Not all sites and materials are suitable for Carbon-14 dating. At which of the following sites would Carbon-14 dating be most appropriate?

cultural dating

Which of the following is NOT a reasonable account used to explain why humans started raising their own food by domesticating plants and animals?

by the end of the ice age, human brains were finally large enough and humans smart enough to learn that if they planted seeds they would grow.

Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger found evidence that human settlements had much larger populations in parts of the Amazon rainforest earlier than was previously believed. His research suggests which of the following:

unlike more customary understandings of Amazon-dwelling people,they have been cultivating the rainforest for much longer thanpreviously assumed

Were you to visit the New Guinea Highlands, you might be offered a meal consisting of cooked pork and sweet potatoes, which demonstrates

use of low-intensity agricultural practices that nevertheless can provide significant food resources.

You are an archaeologist with a site in the African Rift Valley and you think that you have discovered evidence that dates from 150,000 years ago. What dating method would you use to further your investigations?

K-Ar (Potassium-Argon) dating of volcanic rock

Assemblage

A group or collection of objects found together at an excavation or site. 

Cities

Relatively large and permanent settlements, usually with populations of at least several thousand inhabitants. 

City-state

An autonomous political entity that consisted of a city and its surrounding countryside.

Collapse

The rapid loss of a social, political, and economic order or complexity.

Complex Societies

Societies in which socioeconomic differentiation, large populations, and centralized political control are pervasive and defining features of the society.

Hydraulic Despotism

Denotes empires built around the control of water resources by a despotic, or all-powerful, leader.

Microgravimentry Survey

Measuring the gravitational pull of different parts of a stone structure or pyramid to uncover formerly hollow sections that were filled with less dense stone. 

Resilience

The ability of a social system to absorb changes and still retain certain basic cultural processes and structures, albeit in altered form. 

Ruralization

Process in which the countryside was configured as a contested no-man's land lying between competing city-states. 

Social Complexity

A society that has many different parts organized into a single social system.

States

Societies with forms of political and economic control over a particular territory and the inhabitants of that territory. 

Stelae

Carved Limestone slabs

Urbanization

Process by which towns grew as residential centers as opposed to being trading centers.

A society having many different parts organized into a single social system is said to have

Social complexity

A key requirement for the formation of a complex society is

An increased intensity of food production.

Trade models of state formation focus on the people doing the trading work--traders--as well as the people

Providing military protection

When archaeologists study the use-wear of an artifact, what are they studying?

the patterns of wear and tear on an artifact that is presumed to be due to use

A hydraulic despot is someone who

Builds their empire around the control of water

One of the ways that archaeologists know there was social complexity in the Tarascan empire is through

Spatial segregation of elite and commoner neighborhoods

Archaeologists know that in the Tarascan empire there was a consolidation of state power because

Objects found with the dead were being produced in areas controlled by the empire. 

Jared Diamond argues that cities and states don't last because

The fundamental cause of collapse is environmental.

Archaeologists today generally agree that most social systems

Do not collapse but instead transform into other stems, retaining vestiges of their past. 

Much of our knowledge of the ancient Mayan empire comes from the careful study of

Stelae

Of the many reasons suggested for the abandonment of the Mayan city of Copán, one reason we can safely say was not part of the process was

drought

One of the reasons that the understanding of many early city-states is challenging is due to

lack of written records

A complex society is in part defined by a high degree of socioeconomic _______________

differentiation

The growth of ancient towns into residential centers is called _______________. 

Urbanization

Archaeologists can evaluate the complexity of a system through the analysis of material things because the material goods are part of an _______________.

Urbanization

Similar to individual material objects, the determination of ____________ happens when individual elements of analysis are no longer taken in isolation.

social complexity

The microscopic analysis of the residues of plant and animal foods on pottery or tools is known as__________.

Seriation

Often, the specific characteristics of __________ become blurred because the definitions used fail to fully capture cultural dynamics individual elements

cities and states

Social complexity is always associated with social inequality and hierarchy.

False

Ruralization is the process that leads to a contested space in the country located between different city-states.

True

Rich documentation describing the minute details of daily life exists for all of the city-states in the Middle East region, including Mesopotamia and Egypt.

False

Total collapse of city-states is a commonplace event

False

Socially complex societies can range in population size from hundreds to hundreds of thousands.

False

The dynamics of a complex society ensure that

Lifestyles of the elites benefit from the labor of non-elites

One of the side effects of increased food production is the generation of a surplus, something that helped give rise to

new social roles for food producers, typically specialist roles

True control of food production appeared with the development of

irrigation systems

Why do archaeologists disagree with Indiana Jones' approach to archaeology?

they only focus on finding treasures, and never record the context of these artifacts