ANTHROPOLOGY 111 EXAM 1 USI WITH DR. DAUER STUDY GUIDE 2026/2027 |
PRACTICE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & COMPREHENSIVE ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW
All children learn culture and generally subscribe to the dominant/appropriate cultural form. This
process of learning culture is known as: - correct answer ✔✔Enculturation
Which best describes Cultural Anthropology? - correct answer ✔✔Cultural Anthropology is the study of
contemporary culture
Culture is: - correct answer ✔✔Learned, shared, based on symbols, integrated, flexible & unique to
humans
Culture is also: - correct answer ✔✔Adaptive, maladaptive, instrumental, dynamic & constantly changing
Anthropology is: - correct answer ✔✔A holistic discipline that is approximately 130 years old
Cultural knowledge gained from observation and personal experiences rather than direct instruction or
being taught is referred to as: - correct answer ✔✔Tacit knowledge
Which is true according to our reading by Kluckhohn and our discussion of culture? - correct answer
✔✔Culture influences and shapes biological processes
Which of the following is not a sub-field of anthropology? - correct answer ✔✔Paleobotany
Anthropologists that focus on the examination of past cultures through looking at material remains are
known as archaeologists. T or F? - correct answer ✔✔True
Which statement accurately describes culture as it relates to non-human animals? - correct answer
✔✔Culture is unique to humans while some other primates exhibit protoculture
Four Enduring Terms - correct answer ✔✔1. Environment & landscape shape humanity
2. Culture is key
3. Unity & diversity
4. Humanity changes
What is the built environment? - correct answer ✔✔Human-made surroundings that provide the setting
for human activity (Example: sidewalks)
We are all connected but all different. (Examples) - correct answer ✔✔Connected: Belief, happiness,
anatomy, emotions, social, & communication
Diversity: Personality, environment, language (individual use), preferences
Technology changes our behaviors (Example: Social media, & smartphones)
Basic Truths - correct answer ✔✔1. All humans have the same ability to learn culture
,2. Biology DOES NOT determine culture
3. Contemporary humans adapt primarily through cultural means
Enculturation - correct answer ✔✔The process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the
generations (The way we obtain our culture)
What is explicit knowledge? - correct answer ✔✔Knowledge that is easy to articulate, write down, and
share
What is tacit knowledge? - correct answer ✔✔Knowledge gained from personal experience that is more
difficult to express (Example: Elevator behavior)
What is cognition? - correct answer ✔✔The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses (Our brains are different/like fancy animals)
What does not determine culture? - correct answer ✔✔Biology. It allows us (We adapt via culture)
What is culture? - correct answer ✔✔The way of life for a group of people
What is the earliest definition of culture? - correct answer ✔✔"The complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and other capabilities acquired (learned) by man (humans)
as a member of society." Edward Taylor (1871)
What is society? Culture? - correct answer ✔✔Society: Organization of individuals of all types of animals
(ants, bees, etc.)
Culture: Fundtemently different, programmed (biologically). We think to solve problems.
What is protoculture? - correct answer ✔✔The passing of behaviors from one generation to another
among non-human primates like chimps (They do not change/adapt/not flexible/they can copy but can
not do it on their own)
What does biology provide us? - correct answer ✔✔With opportunities and limitations
Clyde Kluckhohn suggests that "culture channels biological processes" (1949)
What is cultural relativism? - correct answer ✔✔The idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices
should be understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another
What is ethnocentrism? - correct answer ✔✔The act of judging another culture and believing that the
values and standards of one's own culture are superior - especially with regard to language, behavior,
customs, and religion
What is cultural hybridity? - correct answer ✔✔The process by which a cultural element such a food,
language, or music blend into another culture by modifying the element to fit cultural norms (Where
two cultures are combined, new, different forms of culture emerge)
, What is comparative discipline? - correct answer ✔✔Anthropologists must consider similarities and
differences in a wide a range of human societies as possible before generalizing about what it means to
be human
What is ethnography? - correct answer ✔✔Referred to the comparative study of two or more ways of
life (Who write ethnographies are called: Ethnographers. Who compare ethnographic information on
many different ways of life are called: Ethnologists)
What is participant observation? - correct answer ✔✔Observer becomes part of the group being
observed
What are informants? - correct answer ✔✔People who share information about their way of life with
anthropologists
What is fieldwork? - correct answer ✔✔Anthropologist try to live for a year or more to study and record
their long-term experience with specific group of people and their way of life
What is language? - correct answer ✔✔The system of arbitrary signs (Example: Spoken, signed, or
inscribed)
What is objective knowledge? - correct answer ✔✔Undistorted, and this universally valid, knowledge
about the world.
What is positivism? - correct answer ✔✔Anthropologist felt free to apply scientific methods in any are of
anthropological interset, from stone tools to religion, confident that the combined results of these
efforts would produce a genuine "Science of Man"
What is modernism? - correct answer ✔✔Viewed in terms of liberation from outdated traditions that
prevent people from building better lives for themselves and their children
What is postmodernism? - correct answer ✔✔A broad movement that developed in the mid- to late
20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from
modernism
What is reflexive activity? - correct answer ✔✔Means an act of self-reference where examination or
action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination
A low level of reflexivity would result in an individual shaped largely by their environment (or "society")
What is multisided fieldwork? - correct answer ✔✔Ethnographic research on cultural processes that are
not contained by social, ethnic, religious, or national boundaries, in which the ethnographer follows the
process from site to site, often doing fieldwork at sites and with persons who traditionally were never
subjected to ethnographic analysis
What is moral anthropology? - correct answer ✔✔Reflects general moral principles of what is bad and
what is good in terms of what one should not do and what one should do as a professional in the
discipline (Distinguishing from good and evil)
PRACTICE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & COMPREHENSIVE ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW
All children learn culture and generally subscribe to the dominant/appropriate cultural form. This
process of learning culture is known as: - correct answer ✔✔Enculturation
Which best describes Cultural Anthropology? - correct answer ✔✔Cultural Anthropology is the study of
contemporary culture
Culture is: - correct answer ✔✔Learned, shared, based on symbols, integrated, flexible & unique to
humans
Culture is also: - correct answer ✔✔Adaptive, maladaptive, instrumental, dynamic & constantly changing
Anthropology is: - correct answer ✔✔A holistic discipline that is approximately 130 years old
Cultural knowledge gained from observation and personal experiences rather than direct instruction or
being taught is referred to as: - correct answer ✔✔Tacit knowledge
Which is true according to our reading by Kluckhohn and our discussion of culture? - correct answer
✔✔Culture influences and shapes biological processes
Which of the following is not a sub-field of anthropology? - correct answer ✔✔Paleobotany
Anthropologists that focus on the examination of past cultures through looking at material remains are
known as archaeologists. T or F? - correct answer ✔✔True
Which statement accurately describes culture as it relates to non-human animals? - correct answer
✔✔Culture is unique to humans while some other primates exhibit protoculture
Four Enduring Terms - correct answer ✔✔1. Environment & landscape shape humanity
2. Culture is key
3. Unity & diversity
4. Humanity changes
What is the built environment? - correct answer ✔✔Human-made surroundings that provide the setting
for human activity (Example: sidewalks)
We are all connected but all different. (Examples) - correct answer ✔✔Connected: Belief, happiness,
anatomy, emotions, social, & communication
Diversity: Personality, environment, language (individual use), preferences
Technology changes our behaviors (Example: Social media, & smartphones)
Basic Truths - correct answer ✔✔1. All humans have the same ability to learn culture
,2. Biology DOES NOT determine culture
3. Contemporary humans adapt primarily through cultural means
Enculturation - correct answer ✔✔The process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the
generations (The way we obtain our culture)
What is explicit knowledge? - correct answer ✔✔Knowledge that is easy to articulate, write down, and
share
What is tacit knowledge? - correct answer ✔✔Knowledge gained from personal experience that is more
difficult to express (Example: Elevator behavior)
What is cognition? - correct answer ✔✔The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses (Our brains are different/like fancy animals)
What does not determine culture? - correct answer ✔✔Biology. It allows us (We adapt via culture)
What is culture? - correct answer ✔✔The way of life for a group of people
What is the earliest definition of culture? - correct answer ✔✔"The complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and other capabilities acquired (learned) by man (humans)
as a member of society." Edward Taylor (1871)
What is society? Culture? - correct answer ✔✔Society: Organization of individuals of all types of animals
(ants, bees, etc.)
Culture: Fundtemently different, programmed (biologically). We think to solve problems.
What is protoculture? - correct answer ✔✔The passing of behaviors from one generation to another
among non-human primates like chimps (They do not change/adapt/not flexible/they can copy but can
not do it on their own)
What does biology provide us? - correct answer ✔✔With opportunities and limitations
Clyde Kluckhohn suggests that "culture channels biological processes" (1949)
What is cultural relativism? - correct answer ✔✔The idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices
should be understood based on that person's own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another
What is ethnocentrism? - correct answer ✔✔The act of judging another culture and believing that the
values and standards of one's own culture are superior - especially with regard to language, behavior,
customs, and religion
What is cultural hybridity? - correct answer ✔✔The process by which a cultural element such a food,
language, or music blend into another culture by modifying the element to fit cultural norms (Where
two cultures are combined, new, different forms of culture emerge)
, What is comparative discipline? - correct answer ✔✔Anthropologists must consider similarities and
differences in a wide a range of human societies as possible before generalizing about what it means to
be human
What is ethnography? - correct answer ✔✔Referred to the comparative study of two or more ways of
life (Who write ethnographies are called: Ethnographers. Who compare ethnographic information on
many different ways of life are called: Ethnologists)
What is participant observation? - correct answer ✔✔Observer becomes part of the group being
observed
What are informants? - correct answer ✔✔People who share information about their way of life with
anthropologists
What is fieldwork? - correct answer ✔✔Anthropologist try to live for a year or more to study and record
their long-term experience with specific group of people and their way of life
What is language? - correct answer ✔✔The system of arbitrary signs (Example: Spoken, signed, or
inscribed)
What is objective knowledge? - correct answer ✔✔Undistorted, and this universally valid, knowledge
about the world.
What is positivism? - correct answer ✔✔Anthropologist felt free to apply scientific methods in any are of
anthropological interset, from stone tools to religion, confident that the combined results of these
efforts would produce a genuine "Science of Man"
What is modernism? - correct answer ✔✔Viewed in terms of liberation from outdated traditions that
prevent people from building better lives for themselves and their children
What is postmodernism? - correct answer ✔✔A broad movement that developed in the mid- to late
20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from
modernism
What is reflexive activity? - correct answer ✔✔Means an act of self-reference where examination or
action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination
A low level of reflexivity would result in an individual shaped largely by their environment (or "society")
What is multisided fieldwork? - correct answer ✔✔Ethnographic research on cultural processes that are
not contained by social, ethnic, religious, or national boundaries, in which the ethnographer follows the
process from site to site, often doing fieldwork at sites and with persons who traditionally were never
subjected to ethnographic analysis
What is moral anthropology? - correct answer ✔✔Reflects general moral principles of what is bad and
what is good in terms of what one should not do and what one should do as a professional in the
discipline (Distinguishing from good and evil)
