TEST BANK
Introduction to Anthropology
03/08/22 1
,Introduction to Anthropology
OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology
Test Bank
Chapter 1
1. Which description BEST defines the overall field of anthropology?
a. *the biological and social context of humans in a wide range of environmental and
historical contexts
b. the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens and other primates
c. the cultural history of human beings
d. the available archaeological evidence pertaining to prehistoric cultures
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Moderate
2. Anthropologists are committed to describing and understanding the diversity of
humans and their culture. Which of the following would NOT be considered a research
area of anthropology?
a. exploring ancient civilizations through excavation
b. researching cultural behavior as it relates to social class
c. *determining the relatedness of two different dinosaur species
d. understanding gender roles in an Indigenous society
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
3. Anthropologists are interested in learning about the different types of relationships
between groups, which are BEST described as which of the following?
a. inherently harmonious in nature
b. *cooperative, competitive, or combative
c. egalitarian or hierarchical
d. capitalist or socialist
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
03/08/22 2
,Introduction to Anthropology
4. Which term describes the anthropological approach to understanding how the
elements of a culture are interconnected?
a. ethnocentrism
b. *holism
c. cultural relativism
d. minimalism
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
5. Why might an anthropologist be interested in the physical environment when studying
a culture?
Sample answer: Culture and the environment are not separate but are interconnected,
with each playing a major role in understanding our human past and development.
Culture interacts with the natural world not only as a resource for survival but also as an
expression of the natural world through cosmology, myth, and language.
Anthropologists may also be interested in how changes in the environment such as
climate change can impact culture, as well as how humans can impact biodiversity.
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
6. Which subfield of anthropology seeks to understand how prehistoric people
understood celestial objects and events?
a. *archaeoastronomy
b. ethnobotany
c. astronomy
d. ethnoecology
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
7. Which subfield of anthropology examines how people in different cultures categorize
and use plants for food, shelter, tools, transportation, art, and religion?
a. ethnohistory
b. *ethnobotany
c. archaeoastronomy
d. ethnomusicology
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
03/08/22 3
,Introduction to Anthropology
8. Which term describes an anthropologist who studies the human fossil record, genetics,
and evolution to answer questions about human origins?
a. cultural anthropologist
b. archaeologist
c. linguistic anthropologist
d. *biological anthropologist
Text Section: 1.2
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
9. Consider the following scenario. An energy company is planning to expand its business
by adding buildings on the banks of the Ohio River. As they begin to survey the land,
they notice pottery shards, spear points, and other artifacts scattered on the ground.
What type of anthropologist would be notified?
a. cultural anthropologist
b. *archaeologist
c. linguistic anthropologist
d. biological anthropologist
Text Section: 1.2 The Four Fields of Anthropology: Four Approaches within the Guiding
Narrative
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
10. What type of anthropologist researches the organization and relationships of a culture
through direct observation?
a. *cultural anthropologist
b. archaeologist
c. linguistic anthropologist
d. biological anthropologist
Text Section: 1.2 The Four Fields of Anthropology: Four Approaches within the Guiding
Narrative
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
11. What type of anthropologist studies the origins of language, how language shapes
thoughts, and the power of language in forming relationships and cultural worldviews?
a. cultural anthropologist
b. archaeologist
c. *linguistic anthropologist
d. biological anthropologist
03/08/22 4
,Introduction to Anthropology
Text Section: 1.2
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
12. Which term describes the mindset or belief that one’s own cultural knowledge,
traditions, and beliefs are better than that of another culture?
a. cultural relativism
b. holism
c. *ethnocentrism
d. minimalism
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Moderate
13. Which term refers to the process of acquiring knowledge about the norms and values
of one’s own culture?
a. *enculturation
b. participant observation
c. ethnocentrism
d. primitivism
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
14. Consider the following scenario. Noor and Aniya became roommates in a college dorm.
Noor was raised Muslim, and Aniya grew up in a Catholic family. They both were taught
ways to pray that reflected the rituals and beliefs of their respective cultures. As
roommates, they found it was very difficult to understand each other and to accept
their differences. The difficulty or inability to accept the practices or beliefs of another
would be described as what?
a. *ethnocentrism
b. holism
c. cultural relativism
d. enculturation
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
03/08/22 5
,Introduction to Anthropology
15. How did 18th-century European explorers and missionaries view Indigenous people
when they encountered them?
Sample answer: European explorers and missionaries viewed Indigenous people as
savages who were ignorant, inferior, simple-minded, and not civilized. This behavior
became associated with the term primitivism. Likewise, Europeans who traveled to the
Middle East and Asia identified those cultures as being mystical, fanatical, lawless, and
irrational, which became associated with the term orientalism.
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
16. Which description would be an example of cultural bias?
a. asking permission to attend religious services with a friend from another cultural
background out of a desire to learn more about their culture
b. learning to speak a second language to make yourself more employable
c. *refusing to taste the food served to you when visiting friends who emigrated from
another country because the food is unfamiliar
d. helping a friend who recently became a US citizen register to vote
Text Section: 1.4
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
17. Which anthropologist was largely responsible for changing many of the
misrepresentations of Indigenous people common in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries?
a. Francis La Flesche
b. Bronisław Malinowski
c. Alfred Kroeber
d. *Franz Boas
Text Section: 1.4 Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
18. As a cultural anthropologist researching an Indigenous culture in the Amazon, how
would you integrate holism into your research?
Sample answer: An anthropologist seeking to utilize a holistic approach would look not
only at those things that keep a society together, but also those things that have the
potential to create conflict and change. In looking at Indigenous cultures in the Amazon,
you would want to examine the dynamics within the culture as well as external
influences such as the threats of capitalist industries and habitat loss. For example, how
03/08/22 6
,Introduction to Anthropology
might the destruction of the rain forests impact the survival of Indigenous cultures who
depend on the forests for their survival?
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
19. What is meant by the statement “Each culture around the world is an integrated
whole”?
Sample answer: All the elements of culture are interconnected and can influence each
other. Whenever a new element (such as a new religion) is introduced into a society, it
may be either adaptive or maladaptive for that specific culture.
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
20. Which of the following items BEST describes culture?
a. sedentary and fixed
b. *dynamic and changing
c. stabilizing and collaborative
d. conflict-based and combative
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Easy
21. Which term refers to the practice of understanding elements of a culture within the
context of that particular culture?
a. ethnocentrism
b. holism
c. *cultural relativism
d. collaboration
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
22. Do you think that anthropologists should take an “anything goes” approach to cultural
relativism, or are there situations for which there needs to be a line? Defend your
answer using material from the text.
Sample answer: Cultural relativism is a tool used by anthropologists so that they may
temporarily suspend cultural biases in order to properly analyze and gain greater
understanding of a specific conflict or human behavior that may be encountered in a
culture. That, however, does not mean anything goes. Clearly there are some things,
03/08/22 7
,Introduction to Anthropology
such as the atrocities of the Holocaust and WWII, that would prove to be too
challenging to fully implement cultural relativism.
Text Section: 1.6
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
23. The primary goal of an anthropologist is best described as which of the following?
a. to research and publish
b. *to ethically and accurately represent a culture through the perspective and
worldview of the culture studied
c. to introduce Western culture and new ways of doing things to the culture being
studied
d. to analyze and interpret a culture from the scientific perspective
Text Section: 1.7
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Moderate
24. Which action would BEST help address the challenges of cultural bias as anthropologists
strive for the “insider’s point of view”?
a. interviewing people in the community
b. creating documentation to record observations and narratives
c. utilizing university students to obtain multiple perspectives
d. *engaging in collaborative ethnography that engages members of the community in
the research
Text Section: 1.7
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
This file is copyright year 2021, Rice University. All Rights Reserved.
03/08/22 8
, TEST BANK
Introduction to Anthropology
03/08/22 1
, Introduction to Anthropology
OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology
Test Bank
Chapter 2
Cultural and Archaeological Methods
1. Which of these is NOT a relative dating method?
a. seriation
b. stratification
c. *radiocarbon dating
d. superimposition and context
Section 2.1
Bloom: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
2. Which of these is NOT an absolute dating method?
a. *seriation
b. radiocarbon dating
c. dendrochronology
d. potassium-argon dating
Section 2.1
Bloom: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
3. Which of these is NOT an example of typological sequencing?
a. seriation of pottery types
b. different type of stone tools over time
c. *radiocarbon dating of an artifact
d. types of manufacturing techniques seen in arrowheads and spear points
Section 2.1
Bloom: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
4. What is the difference between primary and secondary context?
Sample answer: Primary context refers to an artifact or feature that has not been
disturbed and remains “in situ”—at its original location. Secondary context refers to an
artifact that has been moved from its original location.
03/08/22 2
Introduction to Anthropology
03/08/22 1
,Introduction to Anthropology
OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology
Test Bank
Chapter 1
1. Which description BEST defines the overall field of anthropology?
a. *the biological and social context of humans in a wide range of environmental and
historical contexts
b. the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens and other primates
c. the cultural history of human beings
d. the available archaeological evidence pertaining to prehistoric cultures
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Moderate
2. Anthropologists are committed to describing and understanding the diversity of
humans and their culture. Which of the following would NOT be considered a research
area of anthropology?
a. exploring ancient civilizations through excavation
b. researching cultural behavior as it relates to social class
c. *determining the relatedness of two different dinosaur species
d. understanding gender roles in an Indigenous society
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
3. Anthropologists are interested in learning about the different types of relationships
between groups, which are BEST described as which of the following?
a. inherently harmonious in nature
b. *cooperative, competitive, or combative
c. egalitarian or hierarchical
d. capitalist or socialist
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
03/08/22 2
,Introduction to Anthropology
4. Which term describes the anthropological approach to understanding how the
elements of a culture are interconnected?
a. ethnocentrism
b. *holism
c. cultural relativism
d. minimalism
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
5. Why might an anthropologist be interested in the physical environment when studying
a culture?
Sample answer: Culture and the environment are not separate but are interconnected,
with each playing a major role in understanding our human past and development.
Culture interacts with the natural world not only as a resource for survival but also as an
expression of the natural world through cosmology, myth, and language.
Anthropologists may also be interested in how changes in the environment such as
climate change can impact culture, as well as how humans can impact biodiversity.
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
6. Which subfield of anthropology seeks to understand how prehistoric people
understood celestial objects and events?
a. *archaeoastronomy
b. ethnobotany
c. astronomy
d. ethnoecology
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
7. Which subfield of anthropology examines how people in different cultures categorize
and use plants for food, shelter, tools, transportation, art, and religion?
a. ethnohistory
b. *ethnobotany
c. archaeoastronomy
d. ethnomusicology
Text Section: 1.1
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
03/08/22 3
,Introduction to Anthropology
8. Which term describes an anthropologist who studies the human fossil record, genetics,
and evolution to answer questions about human origins?
a. cultural anthropologist
b. archaeologist
c. linguistic anthropologist
d. *biological anthropologist
Text Section: 1.2
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
9. Consider the following scenario. An energy company is planning to expand its business
by adding buildings on the banks of the Ohio River. As they begin to survey the land,
they notice pottery shards, spear points, and other artifacts scattered on the ground.
What type of anthropologist would be notified?
a. cultural anthropologist
b. *archaeologist
c. linguistic anthropologist
d. biological anthropologist
Text Section: 1.2 The Four Fields of Anthropology: Four Approaches within the Guiding
Narrative
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
10. What type of anthropologist researches the organization and relationships of a culture
through direct observation?
a. *cultural anthropologist
b. archaeologist
c. linguistic anthropologist
d. biological anthropologist
Text Section: 1.2 The Four Fields of Anthropology: Four Approaches within the Guiding
Narrative
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
11. What type of anthropologist studies the origins of language, how language shapes
thoughts, and the power of language in forming relationships and cultural worldviews?
a. cultural anthropologist
b. archaeologist
c. *linguistic anthropologist
d. biological anthropologist
03/08/22 4
,Introduction to Anthropology
Text Section: 1.2
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
12. Which term describes the mindset or belief that one’s own cultural knowledge,
traditions, and beliefs are better than that of another culture?
a. cultural relativism
b. holism
c. *ethnocentrism
d. minimalism
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Moderate
13. Which term refers to the process of acquiring knowledge about the norms and values
of one’s own culture?
a. *enculturation
b. participant observation
c. ethnocentrism
d. primitivism
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
14. Consider the following scenario. Noor and Aniya became roommates in a college dorm.
Noor was raised Muslim, and Aniya grew up in a Catholic family. They both were taught
ways to pray that reflected the rituals and beliefs of their respective cultures. As
roommates, they found it was very difficult to understand each other and to accept
their differences. The difficulty or inability to accept the practices or beliefs of another
would be described as what?
a. *ethnocentrism
b. holism
c. cultural relativism
d. enculturation
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
03/08/22 5
,Introduction to Anthropology
15. How did 18th-century European explorers and missionaries view Indigenous people
when they encountered them?
Sample answer: European explorers and missionaries viewed Indigenous people as
savages who were ignorant, inferior, simple-minded, and not civilized. This behavior
became associated with the term primitivism. Likewise, Europeans who traveled to the
Middle East and Asia identified those cultures as being mystical, fanatical, lawless, and
irrational, which became associated with the term orientalism.
Text Section: 1.3
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
16. Which description would be an example of cultural bias?
a. asking permission to attend religious services with a friend from another cultural
background out of a desire to learn more about their culture
b. learning to speak a second language to make yourself more employable
c. *refusing to taste the food served to you when visiting friends who emigrated from
another country because the food is unfamiliar
d. helping a friend who recently became a US citizen register to vote
Text Section: 1.4
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
17. Which anthropologist was largely responsible for changing many of the
misrepresentations of Indigenous people common in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries?
a. Francis La Flesche
b. Bronisław Malinowski
c. Alfred Kroeber
d. *Franz Boas
Text Section: 1.4 Western Bias in Our Assumptions about Humanity
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
18. As a cultural anthropologist researching an Indigenous culture in the Amazon, how
would you integrate holism into your research?
Sample answer: An anthropologist seeking to utilize a holistic approach would look not
only at those things that keep a society together, but also those things that have the
potential to create conflict and change. In looking at Indigenous cultures in the Amazon,
you would want to examine the dynamics within the culture as well as external
influences such as the threats of capitalist industries and habitat loss. For example, how
03/08/22 6
,Introduction to Anthropology
might the destruction of the rain forests impact the survival of Indigenous cultures who
depend on the forests for their survival?
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
19. What is meant by the statement “Each culture around the world is an integrated
whole”?
Sample answer: All the elements of culture are interconnected and can influence each
other. Whenever a new element (such as a new religion) is introduced into a society, it
may be either adaptive or maladaptive for that specific culture.
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
20. Which of the following items BEST describes culture?
a. sedentary and fixed
b. *dynamic and changing
c. stabilizing and collaborative
d. conflict-based and combative
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Easy
21. Which term refers to the practice of understanding elements of a culture within the
context of that particular culture?
a. ethnocentrism
b. holism
c. *cultural relativism
d. collaboration
Text Section: 1.5
Bloom’s Level: Remember
Difficulty: Moderate
22. Do you think that anthropologists should take an “anything goes” approach to cultural
relativism, or are there situations for which there needs to be a line? Defend your
answer using material from the text.
Sample answer: Cultural relativism is a tool used by anthropologists so that they may
temporarily suspend cultural biases in order to properly analyze and gain greater
understanding of a specific conflict or human behavior that may be encountered in a
culture. That, however, does not mean anything goes. Clearly there are some things,
03/08/22 7
,Introduction to Anthropology
such as the atrocities of the Holocaust and WWII, that would prove to be too
challenging to fully implement cultural relativism.
Text Section: 1.6
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Difficult
23. The primary goal of an anthropologist is best described as which of the following?
a. to research and publish
b. *to ethically and accurately represent a culture through the perspective and
worldview of the culture studied
c. to introduce Western culture and new ways of doing things to the culture being
studied
d. to analyze and interpret a culture from the scientific perspective
Text Section: 1.7
Bloom’s Level: Understand
Difficulty: Moderate
24. Which action would BEST help address the challenges of cultural bias as anthropologists
strive for the “insider’s point of view”?
a. interviewing people in the community
b. creating documentation to record observations and narratives
c. utilizing university students to obtain multiple perspectives
d. *engaging in collaborative ethnography that engages members of the community in
the research
Text Section: 1.7
Bloom’s Level: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
This file is copyright year 2021, Rice University. All Rights Reserved.
03/08/22 8
, TEST BANK
Introduction to Anthropology
03/08/22 1
, Introduction to Anthropology
OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology
Test Bank
Chapter 2
Cultural and Archaeological Methods
1. Which of these is NOT a relative dating method?
a. seriation
b. stratification
c. *radiocarbon dating
d. superimposition and context
Section 2.1
Bloom: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
2. Which of these is NOT an absolute dating method?
a. *seriation
b. radiocarbon dating
c. dendrochronology
d. potassium-argon dating
Section 2.1
Bloom: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
3. Which of these is NOT an example of typological sequencing?
a. seriation of pottery types
b. different type of stone tools over time
c. *radiocarbon dating of an artifact
d. types of manufacturing techniques seen in arrowheads and spear points
Section 2.1
Bloom: Apply
Difficulty: Moderate
4. What is the difference between primary and secondary context?
Sample answer: Primary context refers to an artifact or feature that has not been
disturbed and remains “in situ”—at its original location. Secondary context refers to an
artifact that has been moved from its original location.
03/08/22 2
