Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Midterm Review Sheet
Midterm Exam, October 17, 2017
The exam is worth 30% of your final grade.
The exam consists of 40 multiple choice and true/false questions (2 point each)
and 4 short answer questions (5 points each). There will be one bonus question
worth 2 points.
***Students must be present on the day of the exam.***
You must be familiar with the main points of You must be able to define:
assigned readings by: • Ethnocentrism
Adam Kuper • Cultural relativism
• The myth of “primitive society” • Holism
• Lack of evidence for unilineal evolution • Emic/etic
Franz Boas • Social/cultural construct
• Social purposes of the potlatch • Enculturation
Margaret Mead • Norms
• Adolescence across cultures • Values
Clifford Geertz • Symbols
• Meaning of the cockfight • Status hierarchy (Geertz)
• Importance of symbols for “reading” a • Informed consent
culture • Participant observation
Bronislaw Malinowski • Reflexivity (Rosaldo)
• Understanding how a culture functions • Kinship
• Trobriand Islanders’ knowledge of the • Descent
Kula • Lineage (matrilineal, patrilineal)
Renato Rosaldo • Kinship diagram
• Understanding the meaning of cultural • Marriage
practices based on your own • Walking Marriage (Mosuo people)
experiences (from a particular subject • Endogamy/exogamy
position) • Monogamy/polygamy
• Ilongot headhunting • Dowry/bridewealth
Laura Ahearn • Nuclear family (neolocal residence)
• Impact of greater literacy and • Matrilocal/patrilocal residence
development discourse on marriage • Chosen families
practices and gender roles in Junigau • Agency
Eva-Marie Dubuisson • Arranged marriage/capture
• Aitys as a genre and a national symbol marriage/elopement (in Junigau; Ahearn)
• Reasons that poets can criticize the • Phone
government as part of aitys • Phoneme
Jane Hill • Syntax
• Relation between language and • Semantics
structural/institutional racism • Code switching
• Racialization of Spanish speakers • Dialect
Laurence Ralph • Elite/prestige language
• Lived experiences of injury as possibility • Genre
• The frame of isolation for black, inner- • Genotype
city communities, its impact, and • Phenotype
possible alternatives • Whiteness
Ernest Gellner • Racialization
• Relationship between state and nation • Indexicality (Hill)
• How nationalisms arise • Covert racist discourse (Hill)
Midterm Review Sheet
Midterm Exam, October 17, 2017
The exam is worth 30% of your final grade.
The exam consists of 40 multiple choice and true/false questions (2 point each)
and 4 short answer questions (5 points each). There will be one bonus question
worth 2 points.
***Students must be present on the day of the exam.***
You must be familiar with the main points of You must be able to define:
assigned readings by: • Ethnocentrism
Adam Kuper • Cultural relativism
• The myth of “primitive society” • Holism
• Lack of evidence for unilineal evolution • Emic/etic
Franz Boas • Social/cultural construct
• Social purposes of the potlatch • Enculturation
Margaret Mead • Norms
• Adolescence across cultures • Values
Clifford Geertz • Symbols
• Meaning of the cockfight • Status hierarchy (Geertz)
• Importance of symbols for “reading” a • Informed consent
culture • Participant observation
Bronislaw Malinowski • Reflexivity (Rosaldo)
• Understanding how a culture functions • Kinship
• Trobriand Islanders’ knowledge of the • Descent
Kula • Lineage (matrilineal, patrilineal)
Renato Rosaldo • Kinship diagram
• Understanding the meaning of cultural • Marriage
practices based on your own • Walking Marriage (Mosuo people)
experiences (from a particular subject • Endogamy/exogamy
position) • Monogamy/polygamy
• Ilongot headhunting • Dowry/bridewealth
Laura Ahearn • Nuclear family (neolocal residence)
• Impact of greater literacy and • Matrilocal/patrilocal residence
development discourse on marriage • Chosen families
practices and gender roles in Junigau • Agency
Eva-Marie Dubuisson • Arranged marriage/capture
• Aitys as a genre and a national symbol marriage/elopement (in Junigau; Ahearn)
• Reasons that poets can criticize the • Phone
government as part of aitys • Phoneme
Jane Hill • Syntax
• Relation between language and • Semantics
structural/institutional racism • Code switching
• Racialization of Spanish speakers • Dialect
Laurence Ralph • Elite/prestige language
• Lived experiences of injury as possibility • Genre
• The frame of isolation for black, inner- • Genotype
city communities, its impact, and • Phenotype
possible alternatives • Whiteness
Ernest Gellner • Racialization
• Relationship between state and nation • Indexicality (Hill)
• How nationalisms arise • Covert racist discourse (Hill)
