Exam 7: Analyzing Sociocultural Systems

The general categories used by anthropologists to describe different political systems are band, tribe, chiefdom, and state.

Age is a universal principle used in prescribing social status within a sociocultural system.

An important component of social structure is status, or the recognized position that a person occupies within society. Societies recognize two kinds of status, one attached to a person from birth called status and the other based on a person's specific actions called status.

The two major types of families found throughout the world are the extended family and the nuclear family.

Demographic anthropologists are interested in demonstrating how cultural systems modify the natural environment.

Shamans are full-time religious practitioners who serve in an official capacity as the custodians of sacred knowledge.

In order to understand population change and distribution, demographic anthropologists usually focus on what three major variables in a population?

Within any society, an individual occupies a status and plays a .

What are some of the research goals of demographic anthropologists as they relate to hunter-gatherer studies? Why is a demographic perspective important in anthropological research?

Conducting unstructured and structured interviews, talking with key informants, making naturalistic observations, engaging in participant observation, and collecting quantitative and qualitative data are all parts of a research design __________.

Repetitive religious behaviors that communicate sacred symbols to members of society are:

Skin color has been used to designate ascribed status differences in South Africa under the system of apartheid.

Religion appears to be a cultural universal, although specific practices and beliefs vary significantly from culture to culture.

It has been argued by anthropologists such as Leslie White and Julian Steward that technology, as opposed to values, emotions, or social organization, is the basic and primary source of sociocultural change.

The process in which an organism adjusts successfully to a specific environment is called:

Have you ever gone through a "rite of passage"? If so, what was the rite of pas?sage? Have you experienced more than one rite of passage? Pick one rite of passage that you have experienced and describe it in terms of Van Gennep's stages of separation, marginality, and incorporation (aggregation).

What is the difference between legitimate and illegitimate political power? Give an example of each.

From a female perspective, you will be a daughter and possibly a mother and wife. As such, you assume what are called roles that correspond to these different status positions.

Small-scale societies tend to have more social stratification than large-scale societies because there are fewer people to occupy the statuses and play the roles.

Which of the following is not a function of the family?