Exam 1: Anthropology in a Global Age

Understanding miscommunications between men and women resulting from their differing use of language would demand a close examination of the cultural context of language. This would be the work of what type of anthropologist?

The theory of time-space compression suggests that the way we think about time and space has been transformed. What do anthropologists think might be the underlying reason for this?

Human beings have long been migrant, moving themselves, their material goods, and even ideas from one part of the world to another. What makes this process, which is now called globalization, seem so different today than in the past?

What field of anthropology studies monkeys and apes, but not human beings?

Discuss the ways in which local communities react to the potential influence of global forces. Support your description with an example from the class.

What is considered the most distinctive feature of being human?

An anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork on Mormon fundamentalists and their marriage patterns wants to now compare those patterns to those of Muslim tradition. What would this require?

Recently, anthropological research has begun to look at the upper segments of society, such as financial institutions, aid and development agencies, medical laboratories, and doctors. What is this process called?

Explain how anthropologists have had to adapt to the impact of global forces on the communities they study. What tools or new approaches have they developed to help them do their work in a globalized world?

Explain how globalization has enabled flexible accumulation, and how it works. Provide an example from class.

Which discipline of anthropology studies human beings in the present and from the past through the excavation and analysis of human material artifacts?

What do many scientists and experts call our current historical era, defined by the ways in which human activity is permanently reshaping our planet?

Archaeology, the study of cultures in the human past, focuses on what?

What is one possible consequence of oil spills and other forms of mass water pollution?

Global forces are expanding rapidly and moving into local communities everywhere. According to the author, people in local communities respond to these global forces by:

What do we call the belief that one's own culture or way of life is normal and natural and the practices of other people are abnormal and unnatural?

The sequencing of mitochondrial DNA to trace changes in human ancestors over time involves which specialization of anthropology?

What do garbage dumps offer to both anthropologists and archaeologists?

Cultural anthropologists often spend a great deal of time in the communities where they conduct research and they ask lots of questions as people work, celebrate, dance, or play games. What is the term used for this process?

People are biological creatures as well as rational human beings. In order to gain a complete understanding of any aspect of human behavior, the field of anthropology adopts what strategy?