Q&A Hero

Q: Although nuclear families are found in many societies around the world, this phenomenon is not a cultural universal.

Q: The higher proportion of expanded family households among poorer Americans has been explained as an adaptation to poverty.

Q: After reaching an all-time low for the 20th century in the 1970s, the nuclear family is now making a rebound, accounting for a greater number of U.S. households each year.

Q: Recent census data reveal that more U.S. women are now living without a husband than with one.

Q: Industrialization increases mobility, which plays a major role in the disappearance of extended families in the United States.

Q: Comparing notions of family between the United States and Brazil, the extended family still plays a central role for most Brazilians.

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

Q: Like bifurcate merging kinship terminology, generational kinship terminology A. is common in North America. B. makes sense only from the perspective of ego. C. illustrates the complicated ways in which adults confuse their children about the realities of biology. D. uses the same term for parents and their siblings, but lumping is more complete (there are only two terms for the parental generation). E. uses the same term for parents and grandparents, so there is less lumping than in the bifurcate merging kinship system.

Q: According to genealogical kin types used by anthropologists to study kinship relations, what kind of relative is egos mothers brother? A. lineal relative B. affinal relative C. collateral relative D. nuclear family member E. member of the P2 generation

Q: Like race, kinship is a cultural construction, in that it exhibits considerable cultural diversity.

Q: What does ego stand for in a depiction of a kinship system? A. the sense of distinct individuality that is present in any society B. the emotional attachment felt by the people who use the system C. the point of reference used to determine which kin terms go where D. the boundary between ones kin group and outsiders E. a gender-free way of reckoning kinship

Q: Anthropologists distinguish between kin terms and genealogical kin types. What is the difference? A. Kin terms refers to the actual genealogical relationship; genealogical kin types are the words used for different relatives in a particular culture. B. The difference is only a methodological onein practice, they are the same thing. C. Kin terms are the words used for different relatives in a particular language, but genealogical kin types refers to the actual genealogical relationship. D. Kin terms are the words used for socially constructed relationships, whereas genealogical kin types refers to relatives. E. Kin terms are the terms used for different relatives from the egos perspective, whereas genealogical kin types refers to objective relatives from no perspective in particular.

Q: What kind of kinship is most common in the contemporary United States? A. matrilateral kinship B. bilateral kinship C. patrilateral kinship D. collateral kinship E. generational kinship

Q: In what kind of kinship calculation are kin ties traced equally through males and females? A. bilineal B. bifurcate merging C. bifurcate collateral D. bilateral E. biluminous

Q: Kinship terminology is a classification system, a taxonomy or typology. More generally, a taxonomic system A. is based on how people perceive similarities and differences in the things being classified. B. is accurate only when based on Western science. C. is based on categories given by nature. D. usually changes with every generation. E. applies best to nonliving things.

Q: What makes up egos nuclear family of orientation? A. parents and siblings B. spouse and offspring C. extended family D. lineal kin E. collateral kin

Q: A lineal kinship terminology A. is generally found in societies with patrilineal descent rules. B. uses two terms to identify egos parents siblings: one term for both FZ and MZ and another term for both FB and MB. C. is often found in association with the distinction between parallel and cross-cousins. D. stresses relationships with collaterals. E. uses the same term to refer to M and MZ.

Q: Which of the following kin types is NOT egos lineal relative? A. M B. B C. MM D. F E. S

Q: In a lineal system of kinship terminology, which of the following pairs would be called by the same term? A. M and FZ B. M and MZ C. FB and MB D. FB and FZ E. F and FB

Q: Which of the following does NOT belong to egos matrilineage? A. FM B. B C. ZS D. MB E. M

Q: In a bifurcate merging kinship terminology, what is merged? A. lineal relatives and collateral relatives B. members of the family of orientation and those of the family of procreation C. affinal relatives and collateral relatives D. affinal relatives and lineal relatives E. lineal relatives and offspring

Q: In a bifurcate merging kinship system, which of the following would be called by the same term? A. F and MB B. M and MZ C. MB and FB D. FZ and MZ E. JR and BJ

Q: Which of the following statements about bifurcate merging kinship terminologies is NOT true? A. They generally are found in societies with unilineal descent. B. They use the same term to describe F and FB and the same term for M and MZ. C. They generally are found in societies with unilocal residence patterns. D. They often are found in association with the kinship distinction between parallel and cross-cousins. E. They use the same term to describe MB and FB.

Q: What does it mean that kinship, like race, is culturally constructed? A. The educational system is failing to educate people about real, biologically based human relatedness. B. Like race, kinship is a social fiction, with no real social consequence. C. It is a phenomenon separated from other real aspects of society, such as economics and politics. D. Studies of kinship tell us little about peoples actual experiences, only about what they think those experiences are like. E. Some genealogical kin are considered to be relatives whereas others are not, and the rules underlying such considerations vary across cultures.

Q: The Bar of Venezuela recognize multiple fathers, even though biologically there can be only one actual genitor. This example shows A. that women have a better understanding of biological processes than do men. B. that like race and gender, kinship is culturally constructed. C. cultures explanations for biological processes vary because the access and quality of educational systems vary as well. D. how, as in the United States, having more than one father is detrimental to a childs development and adjustment in society. E. that multiple (partible) paternity is a common and beneficial biological fact.

Q: Traditionally, in some areas of the former Yugoslavia, several nuclear families were embedded in an extended family household called a zadruga. Among the Nayars in southern India, it was typical for people to live in matrilineal extended family compounds called tarawads. Descriptions of these two culturally specific cases highlight that A. children who grow up in stable kin groups are better off than those who dont. B. the nuclear family is the only stable kin group arrangement. C. nuclear families are extremely rare in terms of living arrangements. D. extended family households are an adaptive strategy to extreme poverty. E. there are many alternatives to the nuclear family.

Q: What is the name of the postmarital residence pattern in which the married couple is expected to establish its own home? A. neolocality B. patrilocality C. matrilocality D. ambilocality E. uxorilocality

Q: What is the most common system of kinship classification used in the United States? A. bifurcate merging B. lineal C. bifurcate collateral D. generational E. patrilineal

Q: In North America, the relatively high incidence of expanded family households in the lower class is A. the reason why the families of lower-class urbanites are dysfunctional. B. an important strategy the urban poor use to adapt to poverty. C. maladaptive, since poor families should be smaller in order to cut down on expenses. D. caused by bifurcate merging, a practice brought to the United States by Irish immigrants during the early part of the 20th century. E. the result of enduring cultural ties to Europe.

Q: In Arembepe, Brazil, a degree of community solidarity was promoted, for example, by the myth that everyone was kin. However, social solidarity was actually much less developed in Arembepe than in societies with clans and lineages. Why? A. Intense social solidarity requires not a myth but a biologically grounded genealogy that shows peoples actual relatedness. B. Arembepeiros who became successful were bound by social obligation to share their wealth. This powerful leveling mechanism worked against social solidarity. C. In societies with clans and lineages, social solidarity is much more developed, because they have more elaborate kinship rituals than Arembepeiros do. D. Intense social solidarity is possible only in societies having homogeneous ancestry. In Arembepe, high ethnic diversity weakens kinship ties. E. Intense social solidarity demands that some people be excluded. By asserting they were all relatedthat is, by excluding no oneArembepeiros were actually weakening kinships potential strength in creating and maintaining group solidarity.

Q: Although the nuclear family remains a cultural ideal for many Americans, nuclear families accounted for just 22.5 percent of American households in 2007. In fact, other domestic arrangements outnumber the traditional U.S. household more than four to one. All of the following are among the reasons for these trends EXCEPT that A. women are increasingly joining men in the workforce. B. job demands compete with romantic attachments. C. divorce rates have risen. D. it is increasingly economically feasible for women to delay marriage and yet live away from their family of orientation. E. contrary to expectations, the importance of kinship is growing in contemporary nations.

Q: Contemporary North American adults usually define their families as consisting of their husbands or wives and their children. In contrast, when middle-class Brazilians talk about their families, they mean their parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and on, down to their children. They rarely mention the spouse. Which of the following is among the reasons for this stark cultural contrast? A. Brazilians readily incorporate strangers into their social worlds. B. North Americans value independence over their family. C. North Americans have more choices about where they can live, and they have chosen to live away from their relatives. D. Brazilians live in a less mobile society and so stay in closer contact with their relatives, including members of their extended family, than do North Americans. E. Brazilians have purely economic relationships with their spouses.

Q: What are the two basic social units of foraging societies? A. the band and the clan B. the lineage and the nuclear family C. the extended family and the clan D. the nuclear family and the band E. the band and the extended family

Q: A unilineal descent group whose members demonstrate their common descent from an apical ancestor is a(n) A. clan. B. lineage. C. extended family. D. family of procreation. E. family of orientation.

Q: What term refers to the kind of descent in which people choose the descent group that they join? A. neolineal B. patrilineal C. ambilineal D. matrilineal E. bilineal

Q: What postmarital residence rule is most often found in societies with lineal kinship terminologies? A. ambilocal B. neolocal C. patrilocal D. matrilocal E. bilocal

Q: Anthropologists are interested in kinship calculation, which is A. the position from which one views an egocentric genealogy. B. the rules people use to determine their ethnic affiliation to a group. C. the process by which people choose their postmarital residence. D. the system by which people in a society reckon their kin relationships. E. peoples emic perspective on family values.

Q: Understanding kinship systems is an important part of anthropology because A. it provides an objective, universal perspective on how people are related to one another. B. kinship ties are important to the people anthropologists study; they are a key component of peoples everyday social relations. C. their study is part of the anthropological tradition established by the fields pioneers. D. kinship ties are what triggered the split between the hominin line and the rest of the primates and is thus the defining aspect of our humanity. E. it is the only aspect of anthropological study that the general public cares about.

Q: What is the name of the family in which a child is raised? A. family of procreation B. family of orientation C. family of nucleation D. genealogical family E. family of kin

Q: With the baby boom and the increase in industrialization, women have contributed more and more to the workplace while receiving pay equal to that of their male coworkers.

Q: Even though women represent more than half the U.S. workforce, single-parent families headed by women represent more than half the households below the poverty line.

Q: Reasons why there are so many single-parent families headed by women include male migration, divorce, abandonment, and the idea that women are responsible for the children.

Q: Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage.

Q: What position do most anthropologists take on the matter of whether male dominance is a cultural universal? What is your own view on the matter? What evidence can you put forth to support your view?

Q: How are sexuality, sex, and gender related to each other? What are the differences among these three analytical concepts?

Q: Contrast gender roles in two of the following: A) foraging societies; B) matrilineal-matrilocal societies; C) patrilineal-patrilocal societies; D) pastoralists; and E) agriculturalists.

Q: What is the private-public dichotomy? In what kinds of societies does it occur, and in what kinds of societies is it absent? What factors contribute to its presence or absence, and what are its effects on gender roles?

Q: What is the relationship between gender stratification and economic roles? Do these relationships apply equally to all types of societies, regardless of the type of productive activity? Why or why not?

Q: Are certain sexual preferences more natural than others? What factors compel some societies to deviate from the heterosexual norm found in most human societies?

Q: What factors might explain the correlation between womens work outside the home and a national index of happiness? What is it about women working outside of the home that might make a countrys population happier? Brainstorm possible causes for this correlation.

Q: In agricultural societies, women generally dominate the practice of subsistence labor.

Q: The traditional gender roles of the Betsileo of Madagascar illustrate the idea that intensive cultivation does not necessarily entail sharper gender stratification.

Q: Domestic violence against women is prevalent in patrilineal-patrilocal systems in which women are cut off from their supportive kin ties.

Q: In the United States, attitudes regarding the role of women in the workplace have varied according to economic needs.

Q: The reason there are more modern-day Rosie the Riveters is that modern industry is even more physically demanding than it was during World War II.

Q: Intersex, a group of conditions involving discrepancy between external genitals and internal genitals, can have a variety of chromosomal causes that create a sex-gender difference. Which of the following chromosomal anomalies identifies a person with the chromosomes of a woman and female internal anatomy, but with male external genitals? A. XY Intersex person B. True Gonadal Intersex person C. Klinefelters syndrome (XXY configuration) D. XX Intersex person E. Turner syndrome

Q: The specific roles assigned to each gender vary from culture to culture.

Q: Gender roles are the instinctual behaviors that are the exclusive domain of each sex.

Q: Cross-culturally, womens roles tend to be focused on activities associated with the home, but men are more active in the public domain.

Q: Cross-culturally, the subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal.

Q: Adding together mens and womens subsistence activities and their domestic work, men tend to work more hours than women do.

Q: The relative gender equality found in horticultural societies most likely characterizes the most natural state of gender differentiation.

Q: Women in matrilineal societies tend to occupy elevated status positions.

Q: Gender stratification tends to be extremely pronounced in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.

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: Transvestism, when members of one gender (usually males) dress as another (female), is A. very common in Brazil, given this countrys general acceptance of alternative gender roles. B. an example of the biological basis of sexual expression. C. evidence of the cultural limits in determining gender roles. D. perhaps the most common way of forming genders alternative to male and female. E. increasingly popular among gay men in Brazil.

Q: According to studies in the 1960s, why did young Etoro men and boys engage in homosexual relationships? A. They did not understand biological reproduction, which is why they no longer exist. B. The status of Etoro women was the highest in the world, in a status above and beyond males. C. Genetic drift created a population dominated by a homosexual gene. D. They believed it necessary for boys to ingest semen in order to mature in a healthy way. E. A warrior cult of older adult men vigorously enforced a monopoly on access to women.

Q: Based on research in the 1960s, which of the following statements about Etoro conceptions of heterosexual intercourse is NOT true? A. It was thought to sap a mans vitality. B. Women who wanted too much heterosexual intercourse were viewed as witches. C. Such sex was permitted only a hundred days a year. D. It was permitted to take place only in the couples residence. E. It was seen as a necessary sacrifice that would eventually lead to a mans death.

Q: What is meant by the term feminization of poverty? A. the view that conditions of poverty are emasculating B. the increasing representation of women among the poorest people C. the popularity of feminist ideals among poor people D. the recent campaign by feminists to work with the poor E. the view that only women care about issues of poverty

Q: This chapters Focus on Globalization section discusses the strides different countries have made to close the gender gap. Which region has done the least to correct gender-based inequality? A. North America B. Africa C. Latin America D. Middle East/North Africa E. Nordic countries

Q: Transgender is a social category that A. includes people whose gender identity has no apparent biological roots. B. always contrasts biologically with ordinary males and females. C. consists of only intersex people. D. is entirely biologically constructed. E. has no validity within the social sciences.

Q: Of the following factors, which is historically correlated with the lowering of womens status in the United States? A. European immigration around 1900 B. World War II C. voting rights for women D. inflation E. the womens rights movement

Q: More than half of all U.S. families living in poverty are A. patrifocal. B. blended. C. headed by men. D. headed by women. E. dichotomized.

Q: Which of the following statements is NOT true? A. The feminization of poverty is unique to the United States. B. Households headed by women tend to be poorer than those headed by men. C. Married couples are much more secure economically than single mothers. D. Women now head more than half the households in the United States. E. The feminization of poverty has serious consequences with regard to living standards and health.

Q: In which type of society would you expect womens status to be highest? A. pastoralists B. agriculturalists C. societies where there is much population pressure D. hunters and gatherers E. industrial states with high unemployment

Q: Recent cross-cultural studies of gender roles demonstrate that A. the gender roles of men and women are largely determined by their biological capabilitiesrelative strength, endurance, intelligence, and so on. B. women are subservient in nearly all societies, because their subsistence activities contribute much less to the total diet than do those of men. C. foraging, horticultural, pastoral, and industrial societies all have similar attitudes toward sex but different attitudes toward gender. D. changes in the gender roles of men and women are usually associated with social decay and anarchy. E. the relative status of women is variable, depending on such factors as the type of subsistence strategy employed, the importance of warfare, and the prevalence of a domestic-public dichotomy.

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 chapters 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: 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: Recently, Indias four largest cities introduced commuter trains exclusively for female passengers. The aim of this new service was to A. support womens effort to keep men out of their own domestic space. B. offer women an alternative method of transportation to and from work with less risk of harassment or violence. C. offer women work in the transportation industry. D. help women maintain their traditional gender roles in society. E. increase the gap between public and domestic spaces that women inhabit on a day-to-day basis.