Questions and Answers of Biological Anthropology

What is ethnocentrism and what is its importance in the study of different cultures?
What is cultural relativism, and is it the same as moral relativism?
How is the practice of anthropology different today than it was 60 years ago?
How have anthropologists responded to the increasing interconnections among people throughout the world?
What is anthropology's relationship to other university disciplines, and what sorts of jobs do anthropology majors hold?
In what ways is anthropological thinking useful in the world?
What does anthropology tell us about humans and violence?
When did anthropology begin as an academic discipline and what were the methods and goals of early anthropologists?
Describe some of the key issues surrounding the development of anthropology in the 19th and early 20th centuries. What motivated early anthropologists?
Pandemics have often been critical events in world history. How do you think the world will change as a result of COVID-19?Plagues and pandemics have had profound effects on world history. The
Who was Franz Boas, and what role did he play in U.S. anthropology?
Participant observation is the key research technique of anthropology. How is it done? What are its advantages? What problems and issues face researchers using participant observation?
Now that we have all experienced a pandemic, how do you think governments will deal with future pandemic threats?Plagues and pandemics have had profound effects on world history. The Justinian plague
Who was Bronislaw Malinowski, and what role did he play in anthropology?
Summarize the key challenges that feminism and postmodernism posed for anthropology and the ways in which the discipline responded.
Schoch-Spana points out that communication from authorities during disasters such as pandemics needs to be frequent, consistent, and honest. To what degree did authorities achieve this goal during
How is research in anthropology today different from research in the early 20 th century?
To what degree do you think anthropologists should be involved in promoting the welfare of the people with whom they work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of engaged and collaborative
What is participant observation?
What are the emic and etic perspectives?
What is the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) database, and what is it used for?
How does Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg's work among drug users demonstrate the value and limits of anthropological fieldwork?
What is feminist anthropology, and what is its importance in the development of anthropological thinking?
What is postmodernism, and how did it affect anthropology?
What are engaged and collaborative anthropology?
What are native anthropologists, and what special advantages and problems do they have?
What are some ethical dilemmas that anthropologists face?
What is the importance of anthropology in an increasingly globalized world?
How have anthropologists analyzed pandemics and other disasters?
One way of thinking about culture is to see it as an adaptation to the environment. All living things are biologically adapted to their environments, and all use these adaptations to survive and
Do you believe there is such a thing as American culture? Support your position with at least three examples.Throughout this chapter, we have identified culture as something shared by a group of
What might human beings without culture be like?
Culture depends on learned behavior. What sorts of behaviors do children in the United States learn before the age of 5 and how are these behaviors reflected throughout their lives?
How do anthropologists define culture?
No one doubts that elements of culture are related to one another, but clashes between different aspects of culture are common. What parts of your life fit well together and what parts clash?
In the future, will Americans be increasingly united by their culture or increasingly divided by it?Throughout this chapter, we have identified culture as something shared by a group of people. This
What is the importance of learning in human cultural behavior?
Because everyone's life experiences are different, each person has a different experience of their own culture. How can we reconcile the shared nature of culture with our different experiences of it?
What is the importance of classification and symbols in human cultural behavior?
In the early 20th century, anthropologist Clarke Wissler argued that the oldest cultural traits were those that had diffused most widely from their points of origin. What's wrong with this idea? What
How does the case of Lia Lee illuminate the importance of classification in medical diagnosis?
Anthropologists argue that culture is unique to human beings, but many other animals live in social groups and have learned behavior. What separates human culture from the behavior of social animals?
In what ways are cultures like biological organisms, and what are the problems with this organic analogy?
What are norms and values? Do people within a culture agree upon them?
How is culture similar to the biological adaptations of nonhuman animals to their environments?
How did James Hamilton's attempt to build a house in Thailand reflect cultural adaptation and maladaptation?
Are there any cultures that are static and unchanging?
Define innovation and diffusion and describe their importance to culture.
Do anthropologists agree on the definition and meaning of culture?
Is there such a thing as American culture?
Analyze the differences between human language and nonhuman biological communication systems.
Understanding the meaning of a communication is often much more than simply understanding the words that have been said. The connection between language and the body runs deep. When we talk, we often
In what ways is human language distinct from animal communication?
In what ways is the learning and use of language by humans different from the use of call systems by other animals?
Describe the process by which humans learn language.
Can animals be taught to use speech like humans do?
Language use is closely related to culture. What aspects of your use of language reflect your particular ethnic and geographical background?
Examine the structure of human language including phonology, morphology, the lexicon, and syntax.
When did human language originate?
How closely related do you believe language and thought to be? During the production of Chapter 3 in this book, the authors and editors debated whether we should use the word "autistics" or the
Discuss the relationship between language and culture.
How do children learn language?
Describe American styles of nonverbal communication. Are there different styles of nonverbal communication in different areas of the United States?
Define and compare forms of nonverbal communication including artifacts, haptics, chronemics, proxemics, and kinesics.
What are the principal components of all human language?
In the 1890 s, L. L. Zamenhof believed that different language was a key source of strife between people. He created Esperanto, which he hoped would be a universal language, to foster peace and
Summarize different ways in which language changes, including the social and political forces that affect language change.
What is the relationship between the rules of language and the performance of language?
Analyze the relationship between language and identity, and how they are affected by globalization.
Are some forms of speech better than other forms?
Define and describe African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
What forms of nonverbal communication are used in human societies?
Describe two key ways in which language changes.
Was there ever a single human language?
Are we moving toward a world with only a single language?
What are the cultural patterns and values that underlie food choices in the United States, and how do they affect what you eat?Many fish have a smaller carbon footprint than livestock. However, there
What is the relationship between the environment and the subsistence (food-getting) pattern of a society?
Do you believe that individual food choices can affect large patterns such as global warming?Many fish have a smaller carbon footprint than livestock. However, there is a great deal of variability.
When did plant and animal domestication first occur?
Given that, in poor countries, increased meat consumption has been linked to greatly improved health, should poor countries encourage it?Many fish have a smaller carbon footprint than livestock.
What are the five major subsistence strategies of human populations?
What is foraging?
What is pastoralism?
What is horticulture?
What is agriculture, and how is it related to larger societies and states?
What is industrialism, and how is it related to wealth and the environment?
How are food choices related to global warming?
Define economics, describe economizing behavior, and give examples of situations when people use economizing behavior and when they do not.
As almost everyone reading this book will be aware, college is expensive, and its cost has been rising. In 1970 , the total cost for a year of college at a 4 -year public university was about \(\$
What is economics and what is economic behavior?
Summarize how people in foraging, pastoral, horticultural, and agricultural societies generally allocate resources.
What are productive resources? Give some examples.
Explain different ways of organizing labor.
How does the allocation of productive resources differ in foraging, pastoral, horticultural, and agricultural societies?
Differentiate between reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange, with examples of each.
What is the organization of labor and what are its key elements in most preindustrial societies?
Summarize the key characteristics of capitalism.
What is the relationship between population, social complexity, and specialization?
Discuss the rising cost of higher education.

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