Exam 1 Study Guide
EXAM 1- OPEN FROM MONDAY, FEB. 22 TO SUNDAY, FEB. 28. Please follow the link and take Exam 1 online. This is a timed exam. The questions include multiple choice, true/false and matching, as well as 3 short answer questions. You will have one hour and 20 minutes to complete the exam.
Cultural Anthropology Exam 1 Review Sheet
You must be able to define or discuss the following concepts:
Ch. 1
- Anthropology and its four fields and their goals and approaches.
- Understand what is distinctive about cultural anthropology compared to the other three fields of anthropology and in comparison to some other disciplines.
- The concept of cultural relativism vs ethnocentrism
- Approaches to defining the concept of culture.
- What microcultures are and on what bases they are formed; provide examples.
- Discuss the culture of the San people of southern Africa and contemporary challenges they are facing.
Ch. 2
- Three stages in the history of research in cultural anthropology.
- Conceptualize the several stages involved in designing and carrying out a research project in cultural anthropology.
- Explain how the research goals of cultural anthropology influence the selection of methods for data gathering and analysis.
- The difference between etics and emics.
- Understand participant observation, what it involves, and why it is the central research method in cultural anthropology.
- The key differences between qualitative and quantitative data, how the two types of data are analyzed, and what they reveal about culture.
- Ethical issues in cultural anthropology research and how anthropologists face them.
- Be familiar with the culture of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea and contemporary challenges they are facing.
Ch. 4
- The differences among the three modes of reproduction.
- The different cultural patterns of sexual intercourse frequency and how they relate to fertility.
- Examples of cross-cultural techniques of fertility control.
- Recognize how different cultures shape personality and a sense of identity during childhood and how these differences relate to the mode of livelihood.
- How homosexuality is variably defined cross-culturally and often accepted without stigma.
- The concept of gender pluralism and identify some contexts where it exists.
- How parent roles differ and resemble each other cross-culturally.
- How elders are treated in various cultures and how attitudes toward death vary cross-culturally.
Ch. 6
- Define kinship and its three bases: descent, marriage, and sharing.
- Understand how unilineal and bilineal descent correspond with different modes of production.
- Understand how patrilineality and matrilineality work, and the implications for male and female status in society.
- Define family and household.
- Understand problems in finding a universal definition of marriage.
- Distinguish cross-cultural variations of spouse selection.
- Understand types of exchanges made at marriages and how they are related to the cultural context.
- Understand examples of intra-household relationships cross-culturally and why this topic is important.
- Understand how domestic life is changing in various contexts.
KEY CONCEPTS (You must be able to define or discuss the following concepts):
Chapter 1:
- agency
- anthropology
- applied anthropology
- archaeology
- biological anthropology
- biological determinism
- class
- cultural anthropology
- cultural constructionism
- cultural materialism
- cultural relativism
- culture
- ethnicity
- ethnocentrism
- functionalism
- gender
- globalization
- participant observation
- qualitative data
- informed consent
- kula
- multisited research
- quantitative data
- rapport
Chapter 4:
- adolescence
- asexuality
- berdache
- female genital cutting (FGC)
- fertilitygender pluralism
- hijra
- infanticide
- menarche
- menopause
- mode of reproduction
- personality
- puberty
Chapter 2:
- collaborative research
- culture shock
- deductive approach (to research)
- emic
- etic
- ethnography
- fieldwork
- indigenous knowledge (IK)
- inductive approach (to research)
Chapter 6:
- bilineal descent
- brideprice
- brideservice
- cross-cousin
- descent
- dowry
- endogamy
- exogamy
- extended household
- family
- household
- incest taboo
- kinship system
- marriage
- matrilineal descent
- nuclear household
- parallel cousin
- patrilineal descent
- polyandry
- polygamy
- polygyny
- unilineal descent
Possible short answer questions. Please be prepared to answer at least three of the following questions:
- Define the principles of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Choose an issue discussed in the text or class and consider it from two of these perspectives.
- What is participant observation, when was it "discovered" as a method, and what positive benefits does it have in terms of data quality in anthropological research?
- Explain why children in horticultural societies are more likely than children in industrial/informatic societies to grow up learning to be nurturant-responsible.
- What are third gender roles and gender pluralism? Discuss two ethnographic examples.
- What is unilineal descent and with which modes of livelihood is it most associated? Discuss at least one ethnographic example.
- Discuss at least three arguments for the cultural role/importance of Female Genital cutting, and give at least two arguments made be people who argue that the practice should be abolished.