Q&A Hero

Q: Regarding sexual orientation, all of the following are true EXCEPT that A. different types of sexual desires and experiences hold different meanings for individuals and groups. B. there is conclusive scientific evidence that sexual orientation is genetically determined. C. in a society, individuals will differ in the nature, range, and intensity of sexual interests and urges. D. culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges toward a collective norm, and these norms vary from culture to culture. E. flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage, since both masturbation and same-sex sexual activity exist among chimpanzees and other primates.

Q: The domestic-public dichotomy refers to the separation of A. spheres of exchange. B. secular and sacred domains. C. the elite and commoners. D. home and the outside world. E. cooking and sleeping spaces in residential units.

Q: Among the Agta of the Philippines, women not only gather, they also A. fish, while carrying their babies with them. B. are the primary warrior class, unless pregnant or breastfeeding. C. cultivate small food plots inside village defenses. D. hunt, while carrying their babies with them. E. are the tribal leaders.

Q: When compared to other kinds of societies, all the following are true about foragers EXCEPT that A. the public and private spheres are least separate. B. hierarchy is least marked. C. when gathering is prominent, gender status tends to be more equal. D. sexual promiscuity is most common and routinely punished. E. the rights, activities, and spheres of influence of men and women overlap the most.

Q: Among horticulturalists with matrilineal descent and matrilocality, A. women tend to have high status, but only within the domestic sphere. B. gender and sex become indistinguishable. C. female status tends to be high. D. women rarely inherit any property and are therefore at a disadvantage in comparison to their brothers. E. women leaders are only symbolic, because men tend to have true decision-making power.

Q: Which of the following is NOT among the four sexual orientations found throughout the world? A. transsexuality. B. homosexuality. C. bisexuality. D. heterosexuality. E. asexuality.

Q: If a patriarchy is a political system ruled by men, what would a matriarchy bea political system ruled by women? Anthropologist Peggy Sanday, who investigated these questions among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, found that A. true matriarchies do not exist. B. women in matriarchies see their male counterparts as being inferior. C. women of newer generations are experimenting with new ideas of gender roles. D. although matriarchies do exist, they are not mirror images of patriarchies because, at least for the Minangkabau, both men and women are seen as cooperative partners for the common good. E. although Minangkabau women play a central role in their culture's social, economic, and ceremonial life, they are still regarded as having lower status than men.

Q: Which of the following statements about groups with the patrilineal-patrilocal complex is NOT true? A. They are sometimes characterized by a view that females are dangerous and polluting. B. Their land and prestige are passed through the females. C. They have strongly developed private-public dichotomies. D. They have their prestige goods under male control. E. They often practice polygyny and have patterns of intervillage raiding.

Q: Among societies exhibiting the patrilineal-patrilocal complex in highland Papua New Guinea, A. women remain the primary producers of subsistence crops. B. women govern the extra-domestic distribution of prestige items. C. women fear contacts, including sexual intercourse, with men. D. polygyny decreases household productivity, because a man must provide for more than one wife. E. the population pressure on strategic resources is relaxed.

Q: With the term sex, anthropologists are referring to biological differences. In contrast, they define gender as A. the cultural construction of whether one is female, male, or something else. B. a political system ruled by men that defines the identity of women. C. the tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex. D. the marked differences in male and female biology, which vary across cultures. E. one's biological identity.

Q: The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex are known as A. gender stereotypes. B. the prestige coefficient. C. sexual ascribed status. D. gender roles. E. sex roles.

Q: According to anthropologist Ann Stoler, the economic determinants of gender status include A. the level of interest rates and the price of oil. B. controlling one's own and others' tendency toward overconsumption. C. free will and overcoming ideas that associate sin with the desires of the flesh. D. free will and overcoming ideas that split the mind and body. E. freedom or autonomy in terms of disposing of one's labor and its fruits, and social power: control over the lives, labor, and produce of others.

Q: Ethnographic evidence has revealed that traditionally, Pawnee women worked wood, and among the Hidatsa, women made boats. Cases such as these suggest that A. the division of labor by gender is a natural characteristic of human societies. B. biology has nothing to do with gender roles. C. anthropologists are overly optimistic about finding a society with perfect gender equality. D. patterns of division of labor by gender are culturally generalnot universal. E. exceptions to cross-cultural generalization are actually the rule.

Q: This chapter's discussion on recurrent gender patterns stresses that A. it is the role of industrialized nations to correct patterns that are immoral. B. the United Nations should become more involved in reversing these patterns. C. exceptions to cross-cultural generalizations may involve societies or individuals. D. these patterns are universals rather than generalities. E. these generalities are based on bad data, because the studies did not use randomized sampling.

Q: In an ethnographic field study of political systems in northern Mozambique, Nicholas Kottak found that avoiding shame can be an effective control against breaking social norms. This example of how shame can be a powerful social sanction A. is unique among ethnographic cases illustrating the variety of sociopolitical systems that exist in the world today. B. is often a key component of the formal processes of social control. C. is evidence that shame is a cultural universal. D. is an indication that women tend to suffer from the consequences of shame more than men do. E. joins the work of many other anthropologists that cite the importance of informal processes of social control, including gossip and stigma.

Q: The anthropological approach to the study of political systems and organization is global and comparative and includes nonstates as well as the states and nation-states usually studied by political scientists.

Q: The sociopolitical organization of foragers tends to be bands.

Q: In bands, the leader occupies an official office with coercive control over the members of the community.

Q: Since bands lack formalized law, they have no way 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 band and tribal societies in the world today are completely cut off from the rest of the world.

Q: The key difference between a village head and a big man is that the big man has supporters in many villages, whereas the supporters of the village head are restricted to his respective village.

Q: Pantribal sodalities function to integrate the community by providing a series of important nonkin relationships.

Q: Age grades represent stages in one's life with specific tasks, obligations, and duties for the individuals in a given grade.

Q: The Qashqai and Basseri peoples are examples of nomadic foragers who live in modern-day Iran.

Q: The status systems of chiefdoms and states are similar, in that both are based on differential access to resources. Nevertheless, a key distinction is that A. status is much more important to leaders in chiefdoms than in states. B. differential access in chiefdoms is still very much tied to kinship. C. stratum endogamy exists in chiefdoms but not in state status systems. D. in chiefdoms, women are always excluded from the competition for status, whereas in states, this gender difference does not exist. E. the status system of chiefdoms can sometimes function in a completely egalitarian manner when the populations are small enough.

Q: Which of the following kinds of societies is most likely to have stratum endogamy (marriage within one's own group)? A. band B. state C. chiefdom D. society with segmentary lineage organization E. tribe

Q: How do chiefdoms differ from states? A. Chiefdoms are based on differential access. 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: The presence and acceptance of which of the following is one of the key distinguishing features of a state? A. gender differences in terms of access to resources B. generosity, even at the fiscal level C. rapport between the elites and commoners D. stratification E. the authority of charismatic leaders

Q: The influential sociologist Max Weber defined which three related dimensions of social stratification? A. wealth, power, and prestige B. cultural capital, power, and population control C. superordinate, ordinate, and subordinate D. judiciary, enforcement, and fiscal E. selfishness, greed, and ignorance

Q: According to Max Weber, prestige is the basis of A. economic status. B. political status. C. social status. D. power. E. political capital.

Q: Which of the following is the most important factor in determining an individual's power and prestige in a state? A. personality B. ancestry C. speaking ability D. anthropomorphism E. physical size

Q: Which of the following is NOT typical of state-level societies? A. a purely foraging-based subsistence strategy B. class stratification C. boundary maintenance systems D. intensive, managed agriculture E. a specialized decision-making system

Q: Which of the following statements about nonstate societies is true? A. Warfare is conducted by professional armies. B. Political institutions are maintained totally separate from economic institutions. C. Social control is maintained mostly through physical coercion. D. Economic, political, and religious activities are often embedded in one another. E. All political power is based on religion.

Q: What is hegemony? A. overt sociopolitical strategies used to control people B. use of social controls that induce guilt and shame in the population C. the critique of power by the oppressed that goes on offstage, in private, where the power holders can't see it D. a stratified social order in which subordinates comply with domination by internalizing their rulers' values and accepting the "naturalness" of domination E. open, public interactions between dominators and the oppressedthe outer shell of power relations

Q: In the anthropological study of political systems, social control maintains social norms (cultural standards) and regulates conflict. Which of the following is NOT a form of social control? A. hegemony B. shame C. making subordinates believe they will eventually gain power D. exogamy E. gossip

Q: According to Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, A. it is easier and more effective to dominate people in their minds than to try to control their bodies. B. if state institutions such as prisons and schools are able to control people's bodies, their minds will follow. C. anthropologists have no business studying the process of how the dominant ideology becomes internalized, since this is the job of psychologists and political scientists. D. overt violence is critical in order for a state to succeed in dominating its population. E. anatomically modern humans have a long way to go in the process of evolution, since they are so easily tricked into believing that forms of state control are both natural and good.

Q: In the pre-Civil War southern United States, gatherings of five or more slaves were forbidden unless a White person was present, because A. resistance was most likely to be expressed openly when Black slaves were provoked by the presence of White persons. B. resistance is most likely to be expressed openly when people are allowed to assemble. C. White persons were curious about the use of the story of Moses that was popular among slaves at the time. D. some Whites were eager to join the Black slaves in their plans, some successful, in establishing free communities in isolated areas. E. these Whites were actually covert anthropologists eager to study social relations during these politically difficult times.

Q: Why is it important to remember that the chiefdom and the state, like many categories used by social scientists, are ideal types? A. They distinguish political and sociopolitical analyses among social scientists. B. They are useless in sociopolitical analysis. C. They represent social goals that politicians should strive to achieve. D. They are labels that make social contrasts seem sharper than they really are. E. They ensure that the field of anthropology remains more scientific.

Q: Noting that chiefdoms created the megalithic cultures of Europe, such as the one that built Stonehenge, Kottak reminds us that A. chiefdoms that failed to become states did not have enough stone. B. chiefdoms and states can fall as well as rise. C. all chiefdoms end up becoming states. D. all powerful chiefdoms required elaborate stonework to be recognized by competing groups. E. chiefdoms have been among the rarest forms of social organization throughout human history.

Q: In which of the following forms of political organization is it most likely that the most important leaders will acquire their positions based upon personal background or ability, rather than heredity? A. tribal societies B. feudal states C. imagined communities D. chiefdoms E. agrarian, preindustrial states

Q: The Inuit song battle is A. sometimes the occasion for a "treacherous feast." B. a widespread feature of tribal society. C. a ritualized means of designating hunting lands. D. a means of resolving disputes so as to forestall open conflict. E. used to initiate colonial strategies.

Q: Which of the following statements about political leaders in foraging bands is true? A. They maintain power by keeping up strong ties with the commoner class. B. They have inherited special access to strategic resources. C. They maintain control by conquering foreign territories. D. They have no means of forcing people to follow their decisions. E. They are the most dominant males in the largest, most powerful descent group.

Q: Tribal societies, which are typically organized by village life or membership in descent groups, tend to be egalitarian. However, egalitarianism diminishes A. as tribal leaders gain too much power and start to put it to use to buy favors. B. as village size and population density increase. C. as the village head's family grows. D. the closer one is to the big man's wife. E. as the overall population ages.

Q: As an example of how virtually no one is immune from larger political and economic forces, the Yanomami tribal society of Brazil has suffered recent changes as a result of A. being overrun by the more expansion-minded Nilotic peoples. B. modern-minded big men amassing so much wealth that people have begun to regard them as chiefs. C. village raiding among tribal groups. D. the involvement of NGOs in their internal political affairs. E. encroachment by gold miners and ranchers.

Q: The Yanomami of Venezuela and Brazil have descent groups, which span more than one village and are A. matrilineal and primarily dependent on foraging. B. typically led by a female leader. C. lacking gender stratification. D. purely horticulturalists. E. patrilineal and exogamous in nature.

Q: In the context of tribal societies, what is a "big man?" A. someone who holds a permanent political office B. a hereditary ruler C. a person who creates his reputation through entrepreneurship and generosity to others D. a leader who avoids excessive displays of generosity E. a leader who has tremendous power because he is regarded as divine

Q: How does a big man increase his status? A. Big men are village heads who are trying to turn their achieved status into something more permanent; the standard way of doing this is through conspicuous symbolic displays of wealth. B. The term big man refers to the liminal state a Kapauku youth enters before marriage; he accumulates wealth as a way of funding the wedding and paying the bride price. C. Big men are typically war leaders and as such, must have a standing supply of "grievance gifts" to compensate the families of warriors who die under their command. D. The primary means of becoming a big man is the wearing of a tonowi shell necklace, which is imported from the coast and is therefore quite expensive by Kapauku standards. E. Big men do not keep the wealth they accumulate; instead, they redistribute it to create and maintain alliances with political supporters.

Q: A big man's position depends on all of the following EXCEPT A. hard work. B. inherited inequality. C. generosity. D. personal charisma. E. creation of wealth superior to that of others.

Q: What is an age set? A. a village council B. a pantribal sodality that represents a certain level of achievement in the society, much like the stages of an undergraduate's progress through college C. all men and women related by virtue of patrilineal descent from a human apical ancestor D. all men and women related by virtue of matrilineal descent from a nonhuman apical ancestor E. a group uniting men born during a certain span of time in some pastoral African societies

Q: A comparison between the Basseri and Qashqai, two Iranian nomadic tribes, illustrates how as regulatory problems increase, A. pastoralists are less likely to interact with other populations in the same space and time. B. rules regarding crime and punishment become more severe. C. political hierarchies become more complex. D. age sets begin to disintegrate. E. silence becomes the best strategy for avoiding conflict.

Q: Kottak prefers the term sociopolitical organization to Morton Fried's term political organization in discussing the regulation or management of interrelations among groups and their representatives, because A. the term sociopolitical is more politically correct. B. anthropologists and political scientists have an interest in political systems and organization, but they cannot agree on the same terminology. C. sociopolitical is the term the founders of anthropology used to refer to the regulation or management of interrelations among groups and their representatives. D. the term political refers only to contemporary Western states. E. Fried's definition is much less applicable to nonstates, in which it is often difficult to detect any public policy.

Q: Despite the analytical usefulness of learning about anthropologist Elman Service's typology of political organization into bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states, it is important to remember that A. Bronislaw Malinowski first came up with this typology. B. it applies only to the reality of societies in the so-called Third World. C. none of these political entities, or polities, can be studied as a self-contained form of political organization, because all exist within nation-states. D. it has no practical value in ethnographic research, only in theoretical anthropology. E. people all over the world vocally reject being classified under such a typology and typically express their anger through hidden transcripts.

Q: Foraging economies are usually associated with which type of sociopolitical organization? A. band B. tribal C. state D. chiefdom E. primate

Q: Anthropologist Susan Kent notes a tendency to stereotype foragers, to treat them as all alike. They used to be stereotyped as isolated, primitive survivors of the Stone Age. Another common, more recent, stereotype of foragers sees them as A. peaceful individuals in touch with their inner selves. B. culturally deprived people forced by states, colonialism, or world events into marginalized environments. C. ideal humans with the perfect diet and rhythm of life. D. not isolated at all but living in nation-states and an interlinked world. E. primitive survivors not of the Stone Age but of the Bronze Age.

Q: Modern foragers are not Stone Age relics, living fossils, lost tribes, or noble savages. Still, to the extent that foraging has been the basis of their subsistence, contemporary and recent hunter-gatherers A. are the closest we can come to studying true human nature. B. illustrate links between foraging economies and the emergence of social stratification. C. suggest that the most basic motive driving human survival is the need for power. D. can illustrate links between foraging economies and other aspects of society and culture, such as their sociopolitical organization. E. illustrate the social precursors to hegemony.

Q: Which of the following was NOT used by the traditional Inuit to handle disputes? A. blood feuds B. song contests C. killing of the offender D. courts of law E. kin ties

Q: This chapter describes various ways in which dominant members of society exert control over a population by resorting to indirect or even covert means. What are some examples of this? What concepts have some come up with to understand the social dynamics that arise from these situations? Can you think of some contemporary examples of the use of these means of control?

Q: This chapter's description of the Makua of Mozambique illustrates the combination of newer and more traditional characteristics of the Makua's formal political system. Give three examples of how the formal and traditional systems mix. Would the duality of the Makua system have been revealed had the analysis of this community focused only on the formal aspects of social control?

Q: What are the differences between shame and guilt? Why is it important for anthropologists interested in understanding sociopolitical organization to pay attention to people's concerns with shame or guilt in the communities they study?

Q: The efficacy of social control depends on how clearly people envision the sanctions that an antisocial act might trigger.

Q: Social controls refers to the fields of the social systembeliefs, practices, and institutionsthat are most actively involved in the maintenance of norms and the regulation of conflict.

Q: In the Igbo women's war, women used song, dance, noise, and "in-your-face" behavior to attempt to subvert formal authority, but women did not gain any greater influence.

Q: How does Morton Fried define political organization? Why does Kottak prefer to use the term sociopolitical organization in discussing the regulation or management of interrelations among groups and their representatives?

Q: What are the major results and implications of food production? How does reliance on food production affect the social, economic, and political organization of societies that practice it?

Q: Modern hunter-gatherers should not be seen as representative of Stone Age peoples, all of whom were also foragers. Why?

Q: Anthropologists claim that in nonstate societies the political structure is embedded in relationships based on kinship, descent, and marriage. What does this mean? Use two ethnographic cases to illustrate this claim.

Q: Discuss ways in which order is maintained in societies that lack chiefs and rulers.

Q: Contrast two of the following as political regulators: A) sodalities based on age and gender; B) village headmen; C) village councils; D) big men; and E) pantribal sodalities.

Q: Contrast the Inuit and Yanomami with respect to their reasons for disputes, the effectiveness of their means of resolving disputes, and how they enforce decisions about resolving disputes.

Q: What factors are responsible for the variable development of political regulation and authority structures among pastoralists?

Q: How does one distinguish between a chiefdom and a state? Is this a useful distinction? Is it always easy to make such a distinction?

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

Q: According to Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, it is easier and more effective to dominate people in their minds than to try to control their bodies.

Q: What is industrial alienation? What kinds of activities are most likely to be associated with alienation? What activities in our own society are most alienating? Which are least so?

Q: In chiefdoms, chiefs occupy formal offices and administer or regulate a series of villages.

Q: In chiefdoms, individuals are ranked according to seniority, but everyone is believed to be descended from a common set of ancestors.

Q: Stratum endogamy is restricted to chiefdoms, wherein chiefs occupied a formal elite stratum in society.

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

Q: With the rise of states, kinship's role in society continued to grow and dominate daily activities.