SYP 2450 Global Society 11.00 AM.
Final Exam Study Guide*
Fall 2019
Reminder: The final exam is scheduled for Tuesday December 10, opening at 8:00 A.M.
and closing at 10.00 P.M. As before, it will be given online via Canvas. And as before
the exam is timed and must be done in one sitting.
Details—number of questions and time allotted—will be provided via email the day
before the exam.
Lecture 6 - Health and Disease
Know/Be able to describe, explain, or discuss:
1. What historic and contemporary human actions do Robbins and Dowty link with
contracting and dying from infectious diseases? (slide 9)
 Alterations to environment, settlement, and recreational patterns. E.G. 17th and
18th century New England forest cleared for farming, leading to regrown forests
with different ecology –without certain species of animals. Thus, predators—
deer and mice—increased. Also ticks that carried the Borrelia organism in their
salivary gland, resulting in Lyme disease. (B) Overuse or misuse of antibiotics by
medical personnel; patients’ failure to take diagnosed dosage; use of antibiotics
on livestock, aquaculture, and other biological industries (the latter leads to the
evolution of drug‐resistant strains of pathogens, some of which may infect
people. )
2. Relationship between culture and disease in sedentary agriculturalist societies
 Early hunting and gathering societies likely contracted diseases that were quite
different from the ones we face today. Since populations were small and
geographically scattered, infectious diseases did not have the same opportunity
to infect or be transmitted as they do in large, densely populated modern
societies.
3. 5 diseases that benefited from the growth of cities (be able to name them)
 subsonic
 plague
 leprosy
 cholera
 tuberculosis
 syphilis
4. How did the growth of cities lead to the spread of leprosy and syphilis?
 facilitated by growing population density in cities, disdain or bathing, wool
clothing, sharing bedding with others to stay warm
 Spread through sexual intercourse or transmitted at birth from infected mother
to her child.
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Spread of this disease has been facilitated by anonymity of urban life, influx of
single people especially men in search of work which promoted greater sexual
activity, experimentation and prostitution.
5. Compare the impact of urbanization on the spread of disease in London and NY,
with that in periphery cities.
a. Disease and inner-city children according to UN and WHO reports.
 collects and examines reports from scientific research and determines the
degree of agreement in the scientific community where it comes to climate
change.
b. Know cysticercosis example.
 disease produced by tapeworms in under-cooked pork and other animal flesh)
6. Relationship between environmental change and spread of disease, including
Senegal example (schistosomiasis)
 due to building of the Daima Dam on the Senegal River by the Mauritanian,
Senegalese, and Malian governments. The dam made it possible to irrigate
10,000 hectares of desert soil, so it could be converted into fields of sugarcane,
potatoes, mint, and rice.
7. According to the film, The Coming Pandemic, shown in class, what is the name of
the 1918 flu epidemic? Where did the H5N1 (bird flu) emerge? Based on the case
study recounted in the film, how did spread?
 epidemic killed from 50 million to 100 million people worldwide, almost 700,000
in the U.S. alone. Ghana lost 5% of its population and Western Samoa 20%.
8. How did H1N1 of 2009-2010 emerge and what does the way it emerged tell us
about the nature of the influenza virus?
 Wild ducks migrating south from China for the warm weather, rested in a small
town north of Bangkok. While there they infected chickens at a local chicken
farm. 3 weeks later, the owner’s nephew died. The day after the ducks had
arrived, the chickens had begun to show signs of illness (shaking, faces turned
purplish/blackish color, e.g.). At that stage no one knew the virus was loose. The
chickens seemed sick but it seemed a waste not to eat them. So they gave them
away. The farmer’s nephew, got on his bike and shared them around the
neighborhood. He was sick for three weeks. Then he died. Shortly after, a friend
who had helped deliver the chickens died as well.
9. Hierarchical diffusion: What does it mean? How is the term used to explain the
relationship between capitalism and the spread of disease?
 that capitalism involves a mode of production that creates a hierarchy of labor
and a family structure that relegates women to domestic work and inevitably
leads to the oppression of women.
10. What factors initially hampered research about and treatment of AIDS?
a. What factor explains the spread of HIV/AIDS in Haiti and Thailand? How?
 Anthropologist and physician, Paul Farmer, has suggested that the history of
HIV/AIDS in Haiti is linked to its history as a tourist destination. Haiti became a
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tourist destination in the 1970s, and with tourism came an increase in
institutionalized prostitution.
b. Which groups are most susceptible to contraction of HIV/AIDS? Why?
Paul Farmer in a 1999 publication (Infections and Inequality) documents the link
between economic inequality and susceptibility to infectious disease.
c. By how much did the new drug developed in 1996 cut mortality rates in
the U.S.? Why does the poor generally not have access to the drug (two
reasons?)

d. Why has the drug generally not been available to HIV/AIDs patients in
periphery countries?

Lecture 7 - Environment and Consumption/Chapter 7 pp. 214-220)
Define:
1. Environmental alteration
 is determined partly by population, and partly by technology.
2. Climate change
 many environmental threats posed by our production of stuff: unhealthy air and
water, deforestation, the accumulation of both toxic and non‐toxic waste, etc.
One measure that, to some degree encompasses
Know/Be able to describe, discuss, or explain:
1. What pattern of behavior is discussed in the film “The True Cost?”

2. What is fast fashion?
 Advertising messages suggesting buying more will make you happy; but as
people become more materialistic, their unhappiness increases. Distracts people
from the rising costs of the things we really need (housing, education, life
insurance).
3. What, according to the film, are adverse outcomes of fast fashion?

4. What is the name of main institutional authority on climate change? What does
the organization do? What are its conclusions?

5. According to the text, what are three factors have been identified as causes of
environmental alteration/climate change? Which receives more attention?
Which receives the least attention? Why?
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6. What are signs that climate change is occurring?

7. Predicted effects in North America and Africa (Table 7.4 p. 215)

8. What are the two opposing views on climate change? What evidence do they
each provide for their views? (p. 218)

9. Two factors complicating a solution to climate change. (pp 217-218).

Lecture 8 – Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Conflict
Define:
1. Indigenous groups

2. Ethnocentrism

3. Agroforestry

Know/Be able to describe, explain, or discuss (know/be able to recognize examples):
1. Why are indigenous groups’ cultures generally at odds with the culture of
capitalism?

2. Characteristics of indigenous cultures

3. 7 steps toward destruction of indigenous cultures (know details and examples.)
a. 3 ways (modes) by which indigenous groups have been incorporated into
capitalist culture (i.e. by which step # 7 has been achieved)

4. Why was the Guaraní practice of agroforestry successful?

5. How does agroforestry differ from forestry under capitalism?

6. Why did agroforestry make the Guaraní targets for colonization?

7. What caused the destruction of Guaraní culture and system of adaptation?
a) What factors have contributed to deforestation?

b) What have been the effects of those factors on the Guaraní?

8. According to Robbins and Dowty, who/what is to be blamed for the destruction
of indigenous groups (or their ways of life?)
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Lecture 9 Peasant and Anti-Systemic Protest
Define:
1. Weapons of the weak

2. Sex

3. Gender

4. Patriarchy

Know/Be able to describe, explain, or discuss (know/be able to recognize examples):
1. 3 problems caused by the fact that under capitalism not everyone is free to
move (slide 3)

2. Describe weapons of the weak (including examples)

3. Positive outcomes and negative of the green revolution in Malaysia

4. What factors led to the peasant revolt in Sedaka, Malaysia?

5. What were the weapons used by Malaysian peasants?
a. Why did Malaysian peasants resort to “weapons of the weak?”

6. Why are the protests discussed in chapter 9 termed “anti-systemic?”

7. The 1948 Revolution
a. Focus and outcomes of worker movements

b. Focus and outcomes of national liberation movements
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8. What caused the 1968 revolution and what was its focus?
a. The main concern of movements in the periphery

9. What does Eleanor Lealock mean by the assertion that capitalism is both
patriarchal and paternalistic?

10. Four factors that, under capitalism, have led to the modern oppression of
women
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11. Strategies of feminist protest in Western countries
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12. How does Aihwa Ong propose that women’s movements approach gender
oppression in periphery countries?
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