Q&A Hero

Q: With patrilineal descent, a person takes her or his father's last name but recognizes descent through both parents.

Q: In unilineal descent, one's ancestry is traced through either the male or the female line (not both).

Q: Members of a clan claim (but cannot demonstrate) descent from a common apical ancestor.

Q: Your family of procreation is the one in which you were born.

Q: Although the nuclear family exists in many societies around the world, it is not a cultural universal.

Q: Discuss the general patterns found in the family organization of foragers.

Q: Detail how divorce can vary cross-culturally. List factors that affect the ease (or difficulty) and frequency of divorce.

Q: A descent group consists of a married couple and their children.

Q: Discuss the major similarities and differences among nuclear families, extended families, and descent groups (e.g., lineages and clans).

Q: Determine how the Mozambique BaThonga's practice of giving lobola (substantial gifts to bride's family) affects their marriages.

Q: Compare endogamy and exogamy and determine how absolute the distinction is between the two. Use examples to illustrate your argument.

Q: Discuss how lobola is insurance against divorce. List what types of cultures may require this type of marital exchange.

Q: The custom of a dowry that goes to the husband's family correlates with A. low male status. B. high male status. C. low female status. D. high female status. E. descent-inheritance systems.

Q: Which of these statements about divorce is NOT true? A. "Divorce is more common now than it was a century ago." B. "The more substantial the joint property, the more complicated the divorce." C. "Divorce is more difficult in a patrilineal society." D. "Divorce is unique to industrialized nation-states." E. "Substantial lobola discourages divorce."

Q: List ways that industrialism affected North American family organization.

Q: Polygyny is A. a situation in which a woman has more than one husband at the same time. B. the custom whereby a wife marries the brother of her dead husband. C. the type of marriage that follows divorce. D. the custom whereby a widower marries the sister of his dead wife. E. a situation in which a man has more than one wife at the same time.

Q: Exogamy is adaptive because it A. increases the number of individuals that one can rely upon in times of need. B. increases the likelihood that disadvantageous alleles will find phenotypic expression and eliminate them from the population. C. impedes peaceful relations among social groups and therefore promotes population expansion. D. was an important causal factor in the origin of the state. E. reduces the gene pool of a community.

Q: Which of these statements about polyandry is true? A. "Polyandry is found only among mining communities in Madagascar." B. "Polyandry is a cultural adaptation to the high labor demands of rice cultivation." C. "Polyandry is a cultural adaptation to mobility associated with male travel for trade, commerce, and warfare." D. "Polyandry almost always takes the form of a sororate." E. "Polyandry is not considered a possible marriage form."

Q: The zadruga is a type of extended-family household in A. Mexico. B. the Malabar Coast of India. C. eastern Siberia. D. western Bosnia. E. Japan.

Q: The Life at Home study based on middle-class families who either owned or were buying homes found that American life centered on the A. family room. B. kitchen. C. garden or yard. D. bedroom. E. living room.

Q: Discuss ways in which kinship and descent help human populations adapt to their environments.

Q: Lobola is a substantial gift to be given before, at, or after a marriage A. by the wife to her husband. B. by the husband to his wife. C. by the wife's kin to her husband. D. by the husband's kin to his wife. E. by the husband and his kin to the wife and her kin.

Q: The custom in which a widow marries the brother of her deceased husband defines A. sororate marriage. B. serial polyandry. C. filial marriage. D. levirate marriage. E. polygynous marriage.

Q: Which of the following is a negative consequence of online networking? A. Many relationships begin "virtually." B. There are increased opportunities to meet new people. C. People may share personal details with someone other than their partner. D. Internet dating is an "experience technology." E. Socially isolated people have an increased ability to network.

Q: In matrilineal societies A. daughters become lifetime members of their mother's group, but sons belong to their father's group. B. sons become lifetime members of their mother's group, but daughters belong to their father's group. C. descent groups include only the children of the group's women. D. descent groups include only the children of the group's men. E. postmarital residence tends to be patrilocal.

Q: ________ refers to sexual relations with someone considered to be a close relative. A. Levirate B. Sororate C. Polyandry D. Incest E. Exogamy

Q: Rules of endogamy A. prove that the incest taboo is not a cultural universal. B. encourage people to disregard social distinctions in choosing mates. C. tend to maintain social distinctions between groups. D. expand a population's gene pool. E. result in ever-widening kinship networks.

Q: ________ refers to the practice of marrying a person outside of the group to which one belongs. A. Incest B. Exogamy C. Hypogamy D. Endogamy E. Polygamy

Q: In patrilineal societies, lobola like gifts A. ensure the wealth of the wife. B. ensure the wealth of the children. C. make the children born to the woman full members of her husband's descent group. D. make the husband part of the wife's descent group. E. have little effect on descent groups.

Q: Incest is a cultural universal, but A. not all cultures have one. B. not all cultures define incest the same way. C. not all cultures know about incest. D. some cultures have replaced it with the levirate. E. some cultures nevertheless encourage incest.

Q: Substantial gifts given by the bride's family or kin are known by the term A. bride theft. B. elopement. C. dowry. D. lobola. E. cross-cousin marriage.

Q: Fiscal systems include the judges, laws, and courts that resolve conflicts.

Q: ________ is the postmarital residence pattern in which a married couple is expected to live in the husband's community. A. Neolocality B. Patrilocality C. Matrilocality D. Ambilocality E. Uxorilocality

Q: One of the main differences between descent groups and nuclear families is that A. descent groups are typically not involved with politics, while nuclear families are. B. nuclear families are always exogamous, while descent groups are always endogamous. C. descent groups are permanent, while nuclear families are not. D. members of descent groups are called affines, while members of nuclear families are consanguines. E. nuclear families are found only in industrial societies, while descent groups are found only in foraging societies.

Q: Incest restriction A. only exists in societies that practice patrilocal residence. B. is a feature of a capitalist economy. C. does not eliminate incest. D. has a genetic basis. E. is not documented in classic ethnographies.

Q: The term ________ refers to a unilineal descent group whose members claim, but cannot demonstrate, common descent from an apical ancestor. A. clan B. lineage C. extended family D. family of procreation E. family of orientation

Q: "Population control" in states refers to police and military forces.

Q: A ________ is a nonhuman apical ancestor of a clan. A. tarawad B. sororate C. levirate D. totem E. pater

Q: The elites of archaic states enjoyed restricted access to sumptuary goods.

Q: The basic social units typically found in foraging societies are A. band and clan. B. lineage and nuclear family. C. extended family and clan. D. nuclear family and band. E. band and extended family.

Q: The relatively high incidence of expanded family households among poorer North Americans is A. the result of a patrilocal residence pattern. B. an adaptation to poverty. C. maladaptive, since smaller families would have fewer expenses. D. the result of bifurcate merging, a practice brought to the United States by Scotch-Irish immigrants during the early part of the 20th century. E. the reason welfare in the United States is ineffective.

Q: The family in which one is born and raised is one's A. family of procreation. B. family of orientation. C. family of nucleation. D. levirate family. E. sororate family.

Q: The ________ is the most stable social group among band societies with a seasonal pattern of population dispersal. A. lineage B. band C. nuclear family D. clan E. expanded family household

Q: An age set is an example of a pantribal sodality.

Q: Status in chiefdoms and states is based primarily on differential access to resources.

Q: Of the specialized subsystems characteristic of states, the religious subsystem is the most important.

Q: During the "Facebook Revolution" in Brazil, the communities of Ibirama and Turedjam had little to no Internet access.

Q: States are complex systems of sociopolitical organization that aim to control and administer everything from conflict resolution to fiscal systems to population movements.

Q: Chiefs occupied formal offices and administered or regulated a series of villages.

Q: In chiefdoms, individuals were ranked according to seniority, but everyone was believed to have descended from a common set of ancestors.

Q: The best known chiefdoms arose in Papua New Guinea and Melanesia.

Q: In chiefdoms, stratum endogamy ensured that only chiefs belonged to the elite social stratum.

Q: Identify the factors responsible for the variable development of political regulation and authority structures among pastoralists.

Q: Describe to what extent modern foragers serve as the basis for reconstructions of social, political, and economic organization among ancient hunter-gatherer bands. Justify your answer.

Q: List the ways anthropologists distinguish between a chiefdom and a state. Determine if this is a useful distinction, and analyze if this is an easy-to-make distinction.

Q: List the three dimensions of social stratification as defined by Weber. Discuss the basis of each dimension, and answer how stratification differs from status systems in nonstate societies.

Q: Describe at least two methods of social control and two methods of resistance. Give examples.

Q: Shame and gossip are the only methods of social control in band-level societies.

Q: The nuclear family and the band are the two basic social groups typically found in forager societies.

Q: Band leaders occupy official offices and are able to force other band members to obey their commands.

Q: Since bands lack formalized law, they have no means of settling disputes.

Q: In tribal societies, the village head leads by example and through persuasion; he lacks the ability to force people to do things.

Q: Most bands and tribal groups in the world today are isolated from other human societies.

Q: A big man has supporters in many villages, while a village head has supporters only in his own village.

Q: The Yanomami are one of the few tribes completely isolated from the national government.

Q: Big men are found in tribes, chiefdoms, and archaic states.

Q: Contrast two of the following: (a) band leaders, (b) village heads, (c) big men, (d) chiefs. Discuss how these political figures attainand keeptheir leadership positions. Discuss the extent to which they can they enforce their decisions, and relate how permanent their political roles are.

Q: ________ is NOT typical of state societies. A. A primarily foraging-based subsistence strategy B. Class stratification C. The fixing of state boundaries D. Intensive agriculture E. Fiscal support

Q: The internalization of a dominant ideology is A. a method of chiefly redistribution. B. the way that pantribal sodalities are formed. C. a resistance method practiced in small-scale societies. D. a form of fiscal control. E. called hegemony.

Q: Chiefdoms differ from states in that A. chiefdom status systems are based on differential access to resources. B. chiefdoms lack socioeconomic stratification and stratum endogamy. C. chiefdoms lack ascribed statuses. D. chiefdoms have permanent political regulation. E. chiefdoms have full-time religious specialists.

Q: A ________ features differential access to resources based on social stratification. A. chiefdom B. band C. clan D. tribe E. state

Q: The Igbo Women's War is an example of A. hegemony working to eliminate resistance. B. social stratification. C. religious control. D. shame and ridicule as a method of resistance. E. women achieving status in a tribal society.

Q: Ascribed status is a A. status that a person has little or no choice about occupying. B. status that a person chooses. C. status that a person earns, as when a successful law student becomes a lawyer. D. position of dominance in a society. E. status based on standardized test scores.

Q: ________ represents social status based on talents, actions, efforts, choices, and accomplishments. A. Ascribed status B. Achieved status C. Situational status D. Negotiated status E. Ethnicity

Q: The "Facebook Revolution" occurred in A. Thailand. B. the United States. C. Brazil. D. Mexico. E. China.

Q: List the major implications of food production. Describe how reliance on food production affects the social, economic, and political organization of societies.

Q: Describe some of the ways in which social order is maintained in band and tribal societies.

Q: In nonstate societies, relationships based on kinship, descent, and marriage are essential to sociopolitical organization. Discuss two ethnographic cases that illustrate this point.

Q: A big man's position does NOT depend on A. hard work. B. inherited status. C. generosity. D. personal charisma. E. accumulation of wealth.

Q: According to Weber, the basis of social status is A. wealth. B. age. C. prestige. D. intelligence. E. power.