ANTH 202 EXAM STUDY GUIDE SOLVED
QUESTIONS UPDATED 2026
⫸ Cultural Anthropology. Answer: -Focuses on the social lives of
living communities
-Prior to the 1970s, primarily non- Western communities
-anthropologists study the ethnic groups, occupations, institutions,
advertising, or technology of their own cultures as well.
-studies all aspects of human behavior
⫸ Physical (biological) anthropology. Answer: -Focuses on the
physical aspects of the human species
-Study of human biology within the framework of evolution and with
an emphasis on the interaction between biology and culture
-Examples:
Human evolution
Health and disease
Behavior of nonhuman primates
Human genetics
Diet and nutrition
Impact of social stress on the body
⫸ Archaeology. Answer: Archaeology -Studies past cultures, by
excavating sites where people lived
,-is a body of methods designed to understand the human past through
the examination and study of its material remains
Artifacts: objects or materials made or modified for the use by
hominids
Material culture: the physical manifestations of human activity, such
as tools, art, and structures
-Prehistoric archaeologists study the vast time period before written
records. Examples of major changes in prehistory:
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming The rise of
complex cities and states
-Historic archaeologists excavate sites occupied during historical
times.
Excavations explore perspectives not recorded in historical
documents.
⫸ Linguistics. Answer: -Studies how people communicate through
language
-How language shapes group membership and identity
-How people order their natural and cultural environments using
linguistic categories
⫸ Colonialism. Answer: -The historical practice of more powerful
countries claiming possession of less powerful ones
-Colonial powers employed anthropologists to help better understand
the indigenous
peoples of their colonies.
,-Into the 1920s, anthropologists pursued an approach known as the
salvage paradigm: to observe indigenous ways of life before
knowledge of traditional languages and customs before they were
presumed to disappear.
⫸ Industrialization. Answer: -The rise of industrial towns and cities
raised questions about how society was changing, including how a
factory-based economy and the attendant growth of the cities shaped
society, government, residential patterns and culture
⫸ The Moundbuilders Myth. Answer: -In St.Louis, Ohio, etc, man
made mounds that took a lot of man power
-Colonists found them and wondered how and who built them
-Said it could not have been Native Americans because it was too
advanced in europeans view.
-Some said it was the Atlantans
-Tried to figure out who made the mounds by Archaeology
⫸ Cyrus Thomas. Answer: -Initially a proponent of the myth
-Commissioned to research the Moundbuilders Myth beginning in
the1870s:
Excavated the mounds
Interviewed and studied living Native Americans
Compared bones from mound burias to living Native Americans
Found that it looked like early Native Americans
, ⫸ Empirical. Answer: coming from, based on, or able to be verified
by experience or experimentation; not purely based on theory
⫸ Cultural Relativism. Answer: the moral and intellectual principle
that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic
beliefs and practices.
⫸ Salvage Paradigm. Answer: -it was important to observe
indigenous ways of life, interview elders, and assemble collections of
objects made and used by indigenous peoples because this knowledge
of traditional languages and customs would soon disappear
⫸ Culture. Answer: -refers to those taken-for- granted notions, rules,
moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural and
like the way things should be.
-has been an integral part of anthropology since the beginning.
-first applied in the 1870s by British anthropologist Edward Burnett
Tylor.
-Strategies humans use to adapt to their environment:
technologies
subsistence patterns
housing types
clothing
religion
marriage and family
values
QUESTIONS UPDATED 2026
⫸ Cultural Anthropology. Answer: -Focuses on the social lives of
living communities
-Prior to the 1970s, primarily non- Western communities
-anthropologists study the ethnic groups, occupations, institutions,
advertising, or technology of their own cultures as well.
-studies all aspects of human behavior
⫸ Physical (biological) anthropology. Answer: -Focuses on the
physical aspects of the human species
-Study of human biology within the framework of evolution and with
an emphasis on the interaction between biology and culture
-Examples:
Human evolution
Health and disease
Behavior of nonhuman primates
Human genetics
Diet and nutrition
Impact of social stress on the body
⫸ Archaeology. Answer: Archaeology -Studies past cultures, by
excavating sites where people lived
,-is a body of methods designed to understand the human past through
the examination and study of its material remains
Artifacts: objects or materials made or modified for the use by
hominids
Material culture: the physical manifestations of human activity, such
as tools, art, and structures
-Prehistoric archaeologists study the vast time period before written
records. Examples of major changes in prehistory:
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming The rise of
complex cities and states
-Historic archaeologists excavate sites occupied during historical
times.
Excavations explore perspectives not recorded in historical
documents.
⫸ Linguistics. Answer: -Studies how people communicate through
language
-How language shapes group membership and identity
-How people order their natural and cultural environments using
linguistic categories
⫸ Colonialism. Answer: -The historical practice of more powerful
countries claiming possession of less powerful ones
-Colonial powers employed anthropologists to help better understand
the indigenous
peoples of their colonies.
,-Into the 1920s, anthropologists pursued an approach known as the
salvage paradigm: to observe indigenous ways of life before
knowledge of traditional languages and customs before they were
presumed to disappear.
⫸ Industrialization. Answer: -The rise of industrial towns and cities
raised questions about how society was changing, including how a
factory-based economy and the attendant growth of the cities shaped
society, government, residential patterns and culture
⫸ The Moundbuilders Myth. Answer: -In St.Louis, Ohio, etc, man
made mounds that took a lot of man power
-Colonists found them and wondered how and who built them
-Said it could not have been Native Americans because it was too
advanced in europeans view.
-Some said it was the Atlantans
-Tried to figure out who made the mounds by Archaeology
⫸ Cyrus Thomas. Answer: -Initially a proponent of the myth
-Commissioned to research the Moundbuilders Myth beginning in
the1870s:
Excavated the mounds
Interviewed and studied living Native Americans
Compared bones from mound burias to living Native Americans
Found that it looked like early Native Americans
, ⫸ Empirical. Answer: coming from, based on, or able to be verified
by experience or experimentation; not purely based on theory
⫸ Cultural Relativism. Answer: the moral and intellectual principle
that one should withhold judgment about seemingly strange or exotic
beliefs and practices.
⫸ Salvage Paradigm. Answer: -it was important to observe
indigenous ways of life, interview elders, and assemble collections of
objects made and used by indigenous peoples because this knowledge
of traditional languages and customs would soon disappear
⫸ Culture. Answer: -refers to those taken-for- granted notions, rules,
moralities, and behaviors within a social group that feel natural and
like the way things should be.
-has been an integral part of anthropology since the beginning.
-first applied in the 1870s by British anthropologist Edward Burnett
Tylor.
-Strategies humans use to adapt to their environment:
technologies
subsistence patterns
housing types
clothing
religion
marriage and family
values
