Download Exam II Study Questions

Exam II Study Questions
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Spring 2010
1.
What is the language socialization paradigm (as discussed in class)
2. What does the article Our Babies Ourselves tell us about the influence of culture on personality development?
3. According to the study by anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath, what are the differences between the ways that Mainstream,
Trackton, and Roadville children learn language? What patterns of language use and questioning do public educators
typically use to teach reading, writing, etc.? How do school patterns compare with Mainstream, Trackton and Roadville
language styles? What do the differences in language acquisition styles and use mean for school success? (Class
presentation)
4. What is the meaning of the terms ‘bad’ and ‘good’ subjects, according to some psychological anthropologists? How do
caregivers teach ‘badness’ at the same time they are teaching ‘goodness’, according to linguistic anthropologists Kulick and
Schiefflen? How did anthropologist Patricia Clancey describe Japanese good/bad enculturation patterns? For Japanese
children, what becomes the motivation for ‘goodness’? What is the desirable to desirable, undesirable to undesirable
language socialization pattern? Who typically uses it? In this system, what becomes the motivation for ‘goodness’? (Class
presentation)
5. Why is language enculturation analysis crucial to understanding ‘badness’, according to Kulick and Schiefflen?
6. Individualism as defined by Francis Hsu
7. Collectivism as defined by Francis Hsu
8. What did the film Preschools in Three Cultures reveal about ways children learn tendencies toward individualism or
collectivism in Japan, China, and Hawaii?
9. Describe areas of the United States that are more collectivistic and why, according to social psychologists Vandello &
Cohen (1999). Why are some areas more or less individualistic?
10. What does it mean that sex is biological and gender is learned? What does it mean that gender is a cultural construction?
What are some contrasting examples from Chapter 8 of Culture Counts?
11. What does the article Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk and the Construction of Heterosexual Masculinity
by Deborah Cameron demonstrate about the role of gossip as a means of gender enculturation?
12. Compare the main points of (1) the article A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Communication and (2) male and female
speech habits among the Malagasy (as discussed in class). How are males in Malagasy socialized to talk compared with males
in mainstream United States? How are females in Malagasy socialized to talk compared with females in mainstream United
States? What do the differences tell us about ‘natural’ versus ‘learned’ male and female speech patterns? What forms of speech
have the most prestige in both cultures?
13. How would you identify or participate in a public transcript compared with a hidden transcript, as defined by James Scott?
14. What are some of the purposes of gossip as a form of enculturation and otherwise?
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15. How is everyday storytelling a co-construction of cultural meanings and values?
16. What is a detective story and how do detective stories influence co-construction of cultural meanings and values?
17. What are performance frames? Be able to describe some.
18. What is the importance of saving face in various culture groups? What are some of the performance repertoires that people in
mainstream U.S. culture recognize as face-saving-performances? (Class presentation)
19. What is the importance of kinship to social organization?
20. Vertical function of kinship
21. Horizontal function of kinship
22. Types of kinship descent: bilateral, patrilineal, matrilineal
23. Common types of residence after marriage: patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal
24. Types of marriages: monogamy, polygamy, polygyny, polyandry
25. Endogamy and its social purposes (see chapter 7 of Culture Counts)
26. Exogamy and its social purposes (see chapter 7 of Culture Counts)
27. Bride wealth and its function (see chapter 7 of Culture Counts)
28. Dowry and its function (see chapter 7 of Culture Counts)
29. How do the Na of China practice marriage? (see chapter 7 of Culture Counts)
30. Be able to describe gender ideologies and marriage practices among the Awlad ‘Ali Bedouin Tribes, according to
anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod (as discussed in class)
31. In reference to the exercise you did as a class to arrange the marriages of your children: be able to explain what you
learned about the functions and ideologies connected with arranged marriage in many Arab cultures
32. What is infrastructure, social structure, and super structure and their relation to each other?
33. How does Marvin Harris’s Cultural Materialism and infrastructure (social structure, and super structure) help explain the
bride burning situation in India and the reasons for polyandry in Tibet? (Law, Custom, and Crimes Against Women &
When Brothers Share a Wife)
34. What are the Hijras’ roles in India? (see chapter 8 of Culture Counts)
35. How are gender differences accommodated in various indigenous North American groups, according to the article Strange
Country This.
36. What is the importance of economy to social organization?
37. Explain generalized reciprocity as an economic strategy. What were the lessons about generalized reciprocity that the
Counts learned as described in Too Many Bananas, Not enough Pineapples, and No Watermelon at all.
38. Explain balanced reciprocity. What is its social significance as an economic strategy?
39. What is negative reciprocity?
40. What is the importance of gift giving as a foundation for economics in many cultures?
41. How would you explain the complexities of ‘gift giving’ from wealthy nations to poor nations as a type of reciprocity,
according to the discussion in the article Strings Attached?
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42. What is foraging and what are some typical foraging social elements?
43. What is pastoralism and what are some typical pastoralist social elements?
44. What is horticulture and what are some typical horticultural social elements? What is agriculture and what are some typical
agricultural social elements?
45. What is industrialization and what are some typical industrialization social elements?
46. What is capitalism and what are some typical capitalistic social elements?
47. Be able to discuss egalitarian, ranked, and stratified societies.
48. What is the functionalist explanation of the importance of class compared with the conflict view explanation?
49. Define hegemony.
50. What is a radical critique?
For some of the short answer questions, be prepared to answer each part of the following questions.
1)
Discuss the article The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race as an example of radical critique. A. Why is the article a radical
critique? B. Give examples of hegemony that anthropologist Jared Diamond discusses in the article. C. What are several reasons Diamond
gives for asserting that agriculture may be problematic to human health and sustainable livelihood? D. How would you critique Diamond’s
discussion? (Critique means an assessment, be it negative and/or positive. Critique means an analysis of strengths and weaknesses.)
2) About the film Who’s Counting, about New Zealand economist Marilyn Waring. A. In the film, what are several examples of confronting
hegemony, or of radical critique? B. What men, women, and children are negatively affected by the limitations of the international
economic system? How and Why? C. How might beliefs about the current systems of accounting inhibit or even prevent certain kinds of
creative solutions to environmental and economic crises? (Beliefs such as: It’s common sense. That’s just the way it is and there’s
nothing we can do about it. It’s inevitable. It’s the best possible system. Etc. etc.) D. How might we create a system that is more
conducive to equitability and sustainable livelihood? What can be done?
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