Q&A Hero

Q: _____ is the scholarly discipline concerned with the systematic study of human society. a. Biology b. Psychology c. Positivism d. Sociology

Q: According to the text, while conducting research in Second Life, Tom Boellstorff used all of the following research methods and strategies, EXCEPT: a. participant observation. b. surveys. c. interviews. d. focus groups. e. none of the above

Q: ________ are computer- and Internet-based technologies that serve as sources of pleasure and social engagement. a. Universal aesthetics b. Photographic gazes c. Avatars d. Paleolites e. Social media

Q: ________ are virtual characters created to inhabit alternate worlds. a. Mediascapes b. Avatars c. Oralities d. Surrogates e. Socialites

Q: Because anthropologist Tom Boellstorff describes Second Life as populated by people who interact, create intimate relationships, and develop a unique culture and sets of beliefs, it can be likened to Benedict Anderson's notion of: a. a global mediascape. b. the virtual environment. c. an imagined community. d. an ethnologue. e. social media.

Q: Lutz and Collins concluded after their investigation of National Geographic photos that the magazine provides readers a view of all the following messages, EXCEPT: a. in essential ways, the world that seems so diverse is actually quite familiar. b. many regions are suffering conflict along gender, race, and economic lines. c. fundamentally, all is well with the world. d. the United States plays a benevolent role in world events. e. despite differences in appearance, peoples of the world are more alike than different.

Q: The majority of the 40 million people who read National Geographic at its peak were: a. anthropologists and their students. b. black or Latino professionals. c. subscribers to the journal. d. white and middle class. e. over the age of forty-five.

Q: Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins applied the photographic gaze to National Geographic magazines because: a. on average, more than 100 million people worldwide read it monthly. b. it was the only source of information available about cultures of the world prior to cable television becoming widely available. c. they were paid more than $25,000 by the publishers to help increase subscription rates. d. they wanted to explore the power of visual images to shape cultural perspectives and behavior. e. they learned that their students were more willing to read National Geographic articles than the ethnographies they assigned them.

Q: Which of the following is NOT a type of representation that visual anthropologists study? a. theatrical performances b. museum displays c. mass media d. television e. rock music

Q: The research of visual anthropologists focuses on: a. the production, circulation, and consumption of visual images. b. understanding social relationships in the photographic community. c. ways that musical lyrics reflect social hierarchies. d. distinguishing between popular and high art. e. identifying ways that literacy rates increase if textbooks are illustrated.

Q: The author states that immigrants to ________ recognized him because of media he has participated in while visiting their village in rural China. a. Shanghai b. New York City c. London d. Rio de Janeiro e. Toronto

Q: As discussed in the text, ________ are a critical form of media that allows Chinese immigrants and those at home to remain in contact. a. letters b. telephones c. books d. newspapers e. videos

Q: In the late twentieth century, ________ emerged as a dominant form of global communication. a. telephones b. the Internet c. books d. letters e. newspapers

Q: Arjun Appadurai calls the global cultural flows of media and visual images that enable linkages and communication across boundaries a(n): a. critical transformation. b. virtual hologram. c. lingering avatar. d. global mediascape. e. imagined community.

Q: In addition to intensifying the worldwide movement of people, money, data, goods, and services, ________ has transformed the flow of images and sounds through new media technologies. a. visualization b. socialization c. globalization d. migration e. mediation

Q: Gaunt's research into kinetic orality in U.S. playgrounds shows that: a. young black girls tend to imitate the music and gestures of hip-hop performers. b. black male musicians created a new art form. c. kinetic orality is a unique rhyming pattern similar to that spoken in south London. d. young women raised in black culture learn to perform a rhythmic pattern of clapping and stomping as part of the socialization process. e. young black women tend to play together until young men show up.

Q: Ethnomusicologists would be most likely to study: a. portraits in National Geographic. b. communication through social media. c. the use of playground rhymes by U.S. rap artists. d. the marketing of oceanic arts. e. identity formation among Latin American wood carvers.

Q: According to the text, desi men's performance of an "authentic" Indian marriageable identity: a. does not conflict with their performance at dance clubs because they consult with their elders about expectations. b. includes adopting the look, dress, and language of U.S.-based "gangstas." c. includes consulting a marriage broker because all of these marriages are arranged. d. includes working toward a career that will support a wife and family. e. includes trying to blend into mainstream U.S. culture.

Q: According to the text, desis attempt to define their identity through: a. music, dance, and fashion that blends U.S. and Indian cultural heritage. b. acrylic painting that draws on a perceived connection to Paleolithic New Guinea art. c. taking cooking courses based on recipes of earlier generations who emigrated from Africa. d. elaborate stage shows that blend hip-hop music and Jamaican Rasta costumes. e. reconstruction of gender role ideals in which women dance dressed as men.

Q: ________ compose the fourth-largest population of Asian Americans in the United States. a. Chinese Americans b. Korean Americans c. Japanese Americans d. Vietnamese Americans e. Indian Americans

Q: According to the text, rara festivals are closely founded in: a. a dynamic economy, where locals make money by selling tourist art. b. locals' desire to become involved in the global art market through dance and song. c. protests about historic social inequality and political repression. d. an evangelical movement, which has inspired new forms of praise. e. attempts by transgendered individuals' public performance of their identities.

Q: Anthropologists find that in addition to its aesthetic value, art also serves often as a: a. form of political protest. b. critique of economic inequality. c. means of establishing identity. d. way of performing gender. e. all of the above

Q: Ethnographic studies indicate that art produced by local peoples presented on the global scale: a. can help the local producers establish a visible ethnic identity. b. never attains the same economic value as high art. c. has little impact on social dynamics within the producers' communities. d. appeals only to hippies and members of the so-called counterculture. e. has become so popular that most artists now cut out the middlemen.

Q: The author writes that the marketing of art created by the Pintupi of Western Australia: a. involves stressing that the art shows native ingenuity in the twenty-first century. b. stresses the authenticity of these designs through their link to the Dreaming. c. informs tourists that this culture will disappear if foreigners don"t purchase the art. d. appeals to eco-friendly consumers by stressing the use of trees from sustainable forests. e. has created considerable differences of wealth within the Pintupi community.

Q: The acrylic dot paintings produced by Western Australian aborigines: a. are based on designs in fine art that gallery owners bring them. b. were first invented in the 1970s. c. are sold exclusively as tourist art to visitors to the region. d. have no connection to traditional religious beliefs. e. have done little to improve the local economy.

Q: The important aspects of any art market that ethnographers strive to understand are: a. production, consumption, and distribution. b. the effects of immigration and globalization. c. gender and racial hierarchies. d. Internet marketing campaigns. e. advertisements on television.

Q: West African art is sold predominantly: a. to art museums. b. to galleries. c. from a New York warehouse. d. on the Internet. e. by women traders.

Q: As discussed in the text, the art known as "wood" and "mud" is produced primarily in: a. Oceania. b. West Africa. c. Southern Europe. d. Central America. e. Eastern Australia.

Q: ________ is the perception of an object's antiquity, uniqueness, and originality within a local culture. a. Aesthetics b. Popularity c. Kinetics d. Value e. Authenticity

Q: Steiner's research among the wood carvers of Abidjan indicates that the ________ is pivotal in determining the monetary value of art. a. artists' formal training b. buyers' perception of an object's authenticity c. length of time required to produce it d. combination of colors (e.g., black and yellow are preferred) e. exchange rate on the euro at the time of purchase

Q: Christopher Steiner's ethnography of art in Abidjan, Cte D"Ivoire, focuses on a market where the primary consumers of locally produced art are: a. Arab businessmen. b. African farmers. c. Western businessmen. d. Western tourists. e. Muslim art collectors.

Q: The complexity of cave art suggests that: a. the paintings may have been used in storytelling or for record keeping. b. humans did not yet have advanced cognitive skills. c. cavemen had limited knowledge of the technology required to show movement. d. the type of paint used for painting was simple watercolors. e. cavemen began to paint before they were able to carve bones.

Q: Analysis of European Paleolithic cave art indicates that: a. the designs were painted by the same group of individuals. b. there were no burials associated with the paintings. c. the paintings depicted an equal number of humans and animals. d. there is no indication of ritual or symbolic meaning. e. the paintings were modified over a 20,000-year period.

Q: Archaeologists discovered evidence of ________ in South Africa's Blombos Cave. a. paintbrushes b. carved bison bones c. cave paintings of giraffes d. red and yellow ochre e. woven baskets

Q: The archaeological record shows evidence of human artistic expression dating back ________ years. a. 10,000 b. 100,000 c. 50,000 d. 1 million e. 500,000

Q: The anthropological approach to understanding art includes all of the following, EXCEPT: a. reconsidering Western art within its own indigenous, local cultural context. b. investigating the "social life" of art as it moves beyond local borders. c. displaying art without reference to its original context. d. suggesting alternate ways for museums to display art. e. transforming the ways that art museums depict non-Western cultures.

Q: The anthropological approach to art:a. advocates displaying art from different cultures without specifying its original context.b. attempts to understand the development and meaning of local art forms within their unique and complex cultural contexts.c. emphasizes evolutionary framing and evaluation.d. has not focused on the movement of art beyond local or national borders.e. has tended to reproduce stereotypes and hierarchies within the art world.

Q: Early anthropologists played an important role in the acquisition of so-called ________ art that came from Oceania, Africa, and Latin America. a. high b. Western c. primitive d. ethnographic e. aesthetic

Q: Cross-cultural research leads anthropologists to argue that appreciation of art is acquired through: a. social media. b. genetics. c. the enculturation process. d. fieldwork. e. authenticity.

Q: Immanuel Kant and Georg Hegel argued that humans' determination of beauty is determined by: a. culture. b. nature. c. minimalism. d. priests. e. their age and sex.

Q: The assertion that human beings have an intrinsic way of determining what is beautiful is known as: a. the universal gaze. b. authenticity. c. cultural relativity. d. visual anthropology.

Q: Anthropologists' definitions emphasize that art is: a. solely the domain of elites. b. created only by professional artists. c. exclusively seen in museums or heard in opera houses. d. shaped by the viewers' perspective and culture. e. a product of individual rather than community production.

Q: Decisions about what is displayed as fine art typically reflect: a. wealth and power stratification. b. egalitarianism. c. collective decision making. d. gender equality. e. cultural relativity.

Q: As defined in the textbook, the aesthetic experience refers to: a. universal perceptions of what is art. b. perceptions of art based on logic. c. scientific studies of how art is perceived. d. the perception of art through one's senses. e. a perception that art is produced only for the general public.

Q: Art in Western traditions is often associated with notions of ________ art. a. popular b. tourist c. universal d. authentic e. high

Q: Cooking and building, fashion and oratory, decorating and dressing, and sewing and play all represent ________ through which artists and audience communicate. a. sculpture b. media c. songs d. games e. programs

Q: According to the text, anthropologists who study art pay attention to all of the following, EXCEPT: a. paintings. b. movement. c. cuisine. d. statistics. e. globalization.

Q: One result of the attention focused on Morrinho has been: a. that art students received scholarships to study at a university in Madrid. b. that the number of Internet users in Paris increased dramatically. c. opportunities for the creators to re-create it at an arts festival in London. d. new guidelines in regulations about television broadcasts for children. e. the revision of immigration policies to the United States.

Q: Morrinho is important to anthropologists as a: a. miniature Brazilian city where individuals act out everyday life. b. board game played in Spain by North Africans who reenact life at home. c. video game created by Parisian college students who modeled it on French culture. d. painting that depicts Mexican immigrants' view of the border crossing. e. cartoon that allows children to play out cultural practices using avatars.

Q: Summarize Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins' study of National Geographic's photographic gaze. What is the effect of National Geographic's cultural lens? Then make a short list of visual media you encounter throughout the daysocial media, news, television shows, websites, and advertising, for exampleand list some clues that you think intentionally or unintentionally express the worldviews of the media owners, editors, designers, videographers, or others who made that media.

Q: Evaluate this statement: "As people become frustrated with the lack of intimacy provided by electronic technologies, this form of communication will become less important in coming decades." Is it true or false? Use examples from the text to support your conclusion.

Q: Pick an example of American art (either pop or fine art) or media and subject it to an anthropological analysis. In what context does it occur? Who is the intended audience? How does it intersect with race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, politics, or economics? Consider what specific questions you would want to answer if you were to conduct an ethnographic study of this art or media form. How would you structure your research?

Q: Analyze Sunaina Maira's ethnography Desis in the House. Who are desis? What conflicts of ethnicity, gender, and authenticity do they navigate? What if anything can we learn about the experiences of second-generation immigrants from the case study of desi culture?

Q: Define the term "kinetic orality" and describe the circular relationship Kyra Gaunt documented between the games black girls play and commercial hip-hop culture, especially as it pertains to the construction of gender.

Q: The author discusses that in addition to its aesthetic content, people also use artistic expression to express a wide range of emotions and sentiments, including frustration with the status quo. Define the term popular art,and explain why the rara festivals in Haiti are an example of this form of expression. Describe who participates in a rara performance and provide two specific examples of how these performances allow the participants to express their religious beliefs and frustration with social and political inequality in Haiti.

Q: The importance of "provenance"or the origins of a piece of "fine art" or an antiquehas long been a critical component of its value for buyers. The text discusses a similar type of evaluation that occurs depending on the perceived "authenticity" of so-called primitive art. Using the specific example of the art produced by the Pintupi, explain how what is essentially an "invented" way of producing art is marketed as a reflection of the Pintupi's "traditional" culture. Having done that, explain how this "invented tradition" has helped to establish the Pintupi's identity on national and global levels.

Q: As discussed in this text, Globalization has meant greater economic overlap and communications between different nations. Anthropological studies of art traced the production and sale of art created in once-remote locations to galleries and shops on the other side of the world. When did so-called ethnic art become more popular? Using two specific examples discussed for Africa, explain how art produced in one part of the world is distributed and consumed in the United States or Europe. Who are the two primary types of buyersand discuss three categories of individuals most directly involved in selling the works of art abroad?

Q: The author discusses the importance of art found in caves inhabited by humans in the Paleolithic era for understanding the lifestyles of early humans. Summarize the important finds in Africa and Europe to explain how archaeological excavations of the painters' studio found in the cave have shone new light on our knowledge and understanding of the technologies developed by early humans, including when humans created art. Use two additional examples from southern Europe to discuss ways that evidence from the Paleolithic era has expanded our understanding of the social life and religious beliefs of "cavemen" and the way that human cultures have developed, including when we see evidence of widespread production of art.

Q: Different cultures have different visions of the meaning and value of art. Provide the author's definition of "art," and use this as a starting point for explaining why Western art became the standard for galleries and museums. Distinguish between Western and so-called primitive art, and explain the role anthropologists played in raising awareness of the latter. Highlight both the positive contributions attributed to and criticisms of anthropologists relative to notions of "ethnocentrism" and the "universal gaze." Provide two examples to discuss how and why "primitive" or "ethnic" art has become a collector's item.

Q: Anthropological studies of art rely most on which of the human senses? a. sight b. sound c. taste d. touch e. none of the above

Q: Aimee Cox argues that based on her own experience as an artist and anthropologist, in many ways, ________ is the foundation for culture. a. the Internet b. social media c. religion d. performance e. cuisine

Q: The participants in the Black Light Project with whom Aimee Cox worked were: a. homeless. b. handicapped. c. avatars. d. socialites. e. poets.

Q: Through the Black Light Project: a. young men in New York City wrote poetry about what they had learned from their fathers. b. young women performed street theater to engage in dialogue with members of the public in Detroit. c. residents of a nursing home began entertaining at children's hospitals in Chicago. d. teenagers created a workshop for migrant children in Los Angeles to narrate their journey to the United States. e. teachers in a Scottish preschool taught children a dance that had not been performed for decades.

Q: Anthropologist Aimee Cox's personal story focuses on her experiences as a(n): a. opera singer. b. sculptor. c. painter. d. dancer. e. actress.

Q: Tom Boellstorff described Second Life as a community because: a. participants have developed a unique culture and set of beliefs. b. the community has clearly stated ultimate goals. c. participants were able to tell him how the community began and would end. d. most participants spent considerable amounts of time together when they were not online. e. all of the participants speak English as their first language.

Q: What did Anne Fadiman's research among Hmong refugees in California contribute to anthropological knowledge of the conflicts that can arise between Western and non-Western approaches to health care and treatment? Summarize Lia Lee's health condition, including how her parents' understanding of qaug dab peg differed to physicians' understanding of her condition. What were the experiences of this child and her family as a result of cross-cultural misunderstandings?

Q: What was the focus of Khiara Bridges' research in the New York City women's health clinic? How did the composition of the patient population compare to that of the medical staff? What noticeable differences did she observe, if any, in the treatment that patients received? What, if anything, did she attribute any disparities to? Specifically, how did members of the medical staff view their patients, and how did she interpret these differences as creating disparities across race lines?

Q: What is kuru, and why was it important that anthropologists understand how it was transmitted? Which anthropologists investigated this condition in New Guinea, and how did their specific findings about the connection between kinship and funerary customs underscore the idea that illness is a facet of culture that must be understood holistically? Make sure to state what the conditions are that cause kuru, and discuss why the disease is not as much of a threat today.

Q: How has Paul Farmer's research shown that medical anthropologists can improve the lives of individuals who are suffering from illnesses? What specifically did he learn about the infrastructure, daily routines, and beliefs about illness that helped him treat illness and combatcritical issues such as infant mortality? What did he find was the best way to treat tuberculosis?

Q: Discuss how "traditional" Chinese medicine (TCM) has "gone global." What are two underlying beliefs that shape this approach to health care despite the range of areas where TCM is practiced? What is qi and what does this type of treatment attempt to achieve? Distinguish between three different forms of treatment within TCM. How and when did Chinese medical practices become more widespread in North America and Europe, and which are most common in California?

Q: What is biomedicine, and how do the practitioners view and treat diseases? Discuss two criticisms that anthropologists have about the European biases in the model relative to ethnocentric views about non-Western populations.

Q: How have the processes of globalization and Westernization affected health care in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas? Specifically, describe the care provided by Tibetan Buddhist healers, and provide three specific examples of how this system has changed during the past thirty years in terms of how these healers are compensated, the introduction of Western medical approaches, and the global interest in this type of health care.

Q: Anthropologists believe that culture plays an underlying role in ways that health is perceived, experienced, and treated. Using the example of the Maya of Yucatn, identify two specific aspects of the birth process and explain how these reflect local cultural values andcommunity conditions.

Q: What are the four factors that anthropologists examine when they study childbirth practices cross-culturally? Contrast the view and practice of childbirth in U.S. hospitals with the typical birth experience in Sweden and Holland. What do anthropologists learn about variations in the approaches to childbirth?

Q: Describe the factors that contribute to the state of health for the residents of colonias in Texas. What is the infrastructure like in these communities? Analyze this situation from the perspective of critical medical anthropology by identifying three diseases that may be attributed to specific conditions. For example, what factors in the infrastructure might cause the spread of dengue? Do residents have access to health care? If not, what are the deterring factors?

Q: As discussed in the text, anthropologist Paul Farmer: a. is a founding member of Doctors Without Borders and works closely with German physicians in Afghanistan. b. is cofounder of Partners in Health, which works with local communities in Haiti to improve the health conditions of poor Haitians. c. has studied cultural beliefs and practices surrounding childbirth in a number of countries. d. linked the degenerative disease kuru with cannibalistic death ritual in South Fore. e. studies the conflict resulting from medical pluralism between Hmong immigrants and American health-care professionals.

Q: Which of the following statements accurately describes Chinese medicine? a. Researchers have identified a uniform set of Chinese medical practices used by practitioners within and outside China that complement biomedical treatments. b. It was suppressed as "unscientific" after the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. c. Patients submit to the authority of the doctor, accepting a regimented prescription to achieve and maintain heath. d. Chinese medicine rejected Western medicine in the early twentieth century as "inauthentic" and "un-Chinese." e. Chinese medical practices vary widely within China, from patient to patient, and also over time.

Q: Which of the following is NOT a function of the human microbiome? a. aid in digestion b. synthesize vitamins c. combat pathogens d. attract mates e. moisturize the skin

Q: The author writes that all medical systems constitute a form of ________ because they are based in a particular local cultural reality. a. ethnomedicine b. ethnopharamacology c. biomedicine d. medical pluralism e. illness narrative

Q: Since 1996, the rate of births by cesarean section (C-section) in the United States has: a. decreased dramatically as more mothers turn to alternative medical options. b. increased dramatically, probably more as a result of cultural conceptions of childbirth and institutional pressure than medical necessity. c. increased dramatically as the medical necessity for C-sections is proven by studies of other cultures. d. fluctuated widely as trends in childbirth come in and out of cultural acceptance. e. neither increased nor decreased by a significant amount.