Intro to Cultural Anthropology – Chapters 1–5 Review

Question-and-answer flashcards that cover key people, concepts, methods, and vocabulary from Chapters 1–5, suitable for exam review.

What issue did Audrey Richards research among Bemba women and children in the 1930s?

Nutrition

On what topic did Franz Boas serve on a U.S. presidential commission?

U.S. immigration policy

Which primary research strategy gives cultural anthropologists a holistic perspective of community life?

Firsthand ethnographic fieldwork / participant observation

The late-19th-century U.S. preference for northern over southern European immigrants illustrates which concept?

Ethnocentrism

What term describes believing one’s own culture is normal and others are abnormal?

Ethnocentrism

Which historical force largely gave rise to anthropology as a discipline?

Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century colonialism

Define applied anthropology.

Using anthropological skills outside academia to address contemporary problems

Archaeology focuses on what kind of evidence?

Any human material remains

What concept reflects anthropology’s commitment to studying the full scope of human experience?

Holism

Which strategy unites cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic anthropology?

The four-field approach

What do anthropologists call long-term, face-to-face research in a community?

Participant observation

Participant observation is an essential method in which subfield?

Cultural anthropology

Which anthropologists study living human culture, from war to child-rearing?

Cultural anthropologists

Which term names the current era in which human activity reshapes the planet?

The Anthropocene

Which feature makes modern globalization seem different from earlier periods?

Intensification (the speed and scale of global connections)

Large movements of Nepali, Filipino, and Turkish laborers illustrate what global dynamic?

Increasing migration

Ken Guest’s work linking Chinatown and Fuzhou is an example of what research design?

Multi-sited ethnography

Why did Fuzhou villagers tell Ken Guest to go back to New York?

Most villagers had already migrated to New York, making his trip ironic

How do humans acquire culture throughout their lives?

Through continuous learning over the life span

The process of learning culture formally and informally is called what?

Enculturation

Culturally shared ideas of appropriate behavior in specific situations are called what?

Norms

Anthropologists label cheek-kissing or handshaking as what type of actions?

Symbolic actions that communicate meaning

Which statement about culture is accurate?

Culture is a system

Who wrote the first formal anthropological definition of culture?

Edward Burnett Tylor

Franz Boas’s view that each culture arises from its own history is called what?

Historical particularism

Which Boas student emphasized unique cultural patterns?

Ruth Benedict

Margaret Mead contrasted Samoan sexual freedom with what in U.S. culture?

Repression of sexuality

Mead argued that sexual behavior is shaped primarily by what process?

Enculturation

Which approach sees culture mainly as a system of symbols?

Interpretivist approach

Clifford Geertz’s work emphasized what key anthropological insight?

Symbols are crucial for understanding culture

Structural functionalism compares society to a body whose parts each have what?

A particular function

What is the ability or potential to bring about change called?

Power

Eric Wolf saw what element as present in all human relationships and leading to stratification?

Power dynamics

What term describes unequal distribution of resources and privileges?

Stratification

What is hegemony?

The ability to create consent by shaping what people see as natural and possible

Viewing one’s own cultural truths as the only natural ones illustrates what?

The hegemony of ideas

How do financial institutions support consumer culture?

By allowing people to consume even without cash (credit)

A broad global outlook that coexists with local identities is called what?

Cosmopolitanism

The McFalafel in Egypt shows that global products can be what?

Modified to reflect local culture

Nancy Scheper-Hughes’s activist scholarship exemplifies what type of anthropology?

Engaged anthropology

What term describes the disorientation felt when entering an unfamiliar culture?

Culture shock

Why is fieldwork considered a rite of passage for anthropology students?

It produces mutual transformation between researcher and community

Can anthropologists experience culture shock upon returning home?

Yes, reverse culture shock is common

Merchant and missionary tales in the 19th century sparked what among scholars?

Intense curiosity about unknown peoples and lands

What does salvage ethnography attempt to do?

Rapidly record material and key interviews from cultures believed to be disappearing

Malinowski urged anthropologists to do what essential thing in the field?

Get off the veranda and learn the local language

Which method introduced by Malinowski is fundamental today?

Participant observation

Why is Evans-Pritchard’s classic Nuer study criticized?

It ignored the colonial system surrounding the community

Mead’s accessible writing allowed her to do what?

Engage the public in cultural debates

Margaret Mead is most famous for studying what in Samoa?

Sexuality and gender roles

How did Annette Weiner revise Malinowski’s Trobriand work?

She showed his male viewpoint overlooked women’s roles

What was new about Steward and Mintz’s Puerto Rico project?

Collaborative, multi-sited ethnography

Scheper-Hughes’s activism classifies her work as what?

Engaged anthropology

What is often a first step when planning fieldwork?

Conducting a literature review

Who are community members that guide an ethnographer?

Key informants

What personal hurdle must ethnographers recognize during long-term study?

Their own identities and biases

An insider’s viewpoint in ethnography is called what perspective?

Emic perspective

A comparative, outsider’s viewpoint is called what?

Etic perspective

Including multiple community voices in a text demonstrates what practice?

Polyvocality

Critical self-examination of the researcher’s role is termed what?

Reflexivity

Why do many anthropologists oppose defense-funded programs like HTS?

They fear the weaponizing of anthropology

Protecting informants’ identities in publications illustrates what ethical principle?

Anonymity

How do anthropologists commonly ensure anonymity?

Use alternate names or codes in notes and publications

Which foundational ethical directive guides anthropological research?

Do no harm

During the 1960s–70s anthropology’s role in colonialism was viewed how?

Negatively, for aiding colonial powers

Studying linked populations in multiple places is called what?

Multi-sited ethnography

Spanish has been spoken in parts of the present-day United States for how long?

More than 500 years, since Spanish colonization

Approximately how many languages are spoken worldwide today?

Nearly 7,000

Body movements that communicate meaning are termed what?

Kinesics

Why did Kwan’s ‘OK’ gesture upset his host in Brazil?

Gesture meanings are not universal

Tone of voice and gestures that modify meaning are examples of what two concepts?

Kinesics and paralanguage

A group sharing norms of language use is called a what?

Speech community

In linguistics, /d/ and /p/ are different what?

Phonemes

Knowing that English word order is not “bacterias healthies” shows knowledge of what?

Grammar (syntax and rules)

Define language in anthropological terms.

A system of symbols with learned, shared meanings used for communication

What kind of language is ‘standard French’ in Paris compared to border French?

Prestige language

Whorf’s study of Hopi suggested what about language and thought?

Language shapes ways of thinking

Laura Bohannan’s Tiv translation of Shakespeare showed what?

Meanings can be lost; words do not translate exactly

The idea that male-female speech differences stem from gender inequality is called the what model?

Dominance model

Beliefs that justify language-based stratification are called what?

Language ideology

Obama’s use of “Nah, we straight” is an example of what linguistic practice?

Code-switching

Understanding Portuguese while fluent in Spanish illustrates what phenomenon?

Language continuum

European languages such as English and Greek descend from which proto-language?

Proto-Indo-European

Lakota language preservation efforts increasingly rely on what tool?

Social media for sharing and engagement

Which language currently has the greatest number of native speakers?

Hindi (of the options provided)

The disappearance of languages with few speakers is called what?

Language loss

European languages gained global dominance primarily through what historical process?

Early colonial expansion

Jonathan Marks uses children sorting blocks to illustrate what problem with racial categories?

Arbitrary and subjective classification

Humans of every race share approximately what percent of their DNA?

99.9 percent

The gradual lightening of skin color with distance from the equator exemplifies what?

A cline

Provide the anthropological definition of racism.

Institutional patterns and individual actions that reproduce unequal access to power and resources based on race

In Brazil, changing hairstyle, dress, or wealth can shift one’s racial identity. Which factor is especially noted?

Affluence

Britain’s long-term control over Malaysia is an example of what?

Colonialism

Donna Goldstein found that soap-opera humor differs for workers and employers because of what?

Vastly different life experiences

What was new on the 2020 U.S. census regarding race?

The ability to self-select racial categories more precisely

Everyday slights conveying negative messages about someone’s identity are called what?

Microaggressions

Modern global racism and the very concept of race grew historically out of which practice?

Colonialism