Quiz 2 study guide
Cultural Anthropology, spring 2012
Quiz is scheduled for May 21
1. What is the difference between sex and gender? (lecture and ‘Humanity’ ch. 11)
2. According to Michael Kimmel, is gender inequality learned or biological? (lecture)
3. What is the general rule connected with women, economic contribution and level of
power and influence in a culture or group? (lecture)
4. Why have many anthropologists concluded that gender inequalities in several places
of the world were often created or exacerbated by Western, European and EuroAmerican influences during and after colonialism? How is the case of the Igbo
women in Nigeria an example? (lecture)
5. What did anthropologist Helen Fisher (TED video) say concerning the sex drive,
romantic love, and deep attachment?
6. What did Signithia Fordham show in her study of a predominantly black high school
in Washington D.C? What did Fordham learn about the paradox that Euro-American
women experienced in the 1990s compared with the double paradox that African
American women experienced? What were mainstream assumptions about women
and the reality for African American women? Why? (lecture)
7. How do plow agriculture and horticulture often figure into historic and current
patterns of male and female relationships?
8. How does Fordham’s study relate to Maltz and Borker’s study results about
‘mainstream’ male and female differences in communication and the reasons for
those differences? (handout)
9. How does the Malagasy example of men and women’s speech patterns and beliefs
about gender compare with typical North American assumptions about men and
women’s speech patterns and beliefs about gender? (lecture)
10. According to the biological anthropologist authors of Why Sex Matters, what are the
reproductive imperatives of males compared with females and what might those
differences have to do with patterns of gender dominance? (lecture)
11. Why have there been no apparent matriarchies? (lecture/Why Sex Matters,
‘Humanity’)
12. What are some of the main points that evolutionary psychology scientists make
concerning sexual double standards? (‘Humanity’, pgs. 240 to 241)
13. What is significant about the Hua of Papua New Guinea and their concepts
concerning gender? (‘Humanity’ pg. 242)
14. Be prepared to discuss multiple gender identities discussed in your book Humanity,
pgs. 244-249, and the article The Berdache Tradition in AEA. According to the article
The Berdache Tradition, why is the Western debate about homosexuality less
applicable to more traditional Native American philosophy and cosmology? How are
more traditional Native American understandings about spirituality and nature
different from many Western traditions, and how do philosophies about human
relationships with spirituality and nature influence interpretations of sexuality?
15. Consider some of the scientific examples concerning homosexuality that are
outlined on the handout and that were discussed in the videos. (You can review the
videos on the wiki, week 7)
16. Understand the main points of the articles Where Fat is a Mark of Feminine Beauty
and … what if it’s a girl?
17. What were the main points in the video Missrepresentation. When the social order
of a society is undergoing change, people often work (often subconsciously) to bring
back the status quo. They may try to do so indirectly. How does this tendency
connect with the observations made in the video? (See video trailer for review. If you
have forgotten some of the main points, a few notes concerning the video have been
provided on the wiki, week 5.)
Kinship Section (see study cards for some of these concepts, the lectures and
chapters 8 and 9 in ‘Humanity’)
18. What is the importance of kinship to social organization?
19. Vertical function of kinship
20. Horizontal function of kinship
21. Define types of kinship descent: bilateral, patrilineal, matrilineal
22. Define common types of residence after marriage: patrilocal, matrilocal, neolocal
23. Bride wealth, bride service and their functions
24. Dowry and its function
25. Polygamy
26. Polygyny and reasons for … (‘Humanity’ pgs. 174 – 179)
27. Polyandry and reasons for … (‘Humanity’ pgs. 179 – 180)
28. In reference to the exercise you did as a class to arrange the marriages of your
children: be able to explain what you learned about the economic and social
functions and ideologies connected with arranged marriage in many Arab cultures.
29. What is the theory of cultural materialism? (see lecture notes) What are
infrastructure, social structure, and super structure and their relation to each
other?
30. How might the theory of cultural materialism help explain some of the reasons for
kinship systems and marriage practices such as polyandry in Tibet (article), the
Awlad ‘Ali Bedouins (lecture and class exercise), Kyrgyzstan bride kidnapping
(video) and arranged marriages in India (article). Consider the basic infrastructure
(economic system, technology, environment, ways of making a living etc.) for each
group and be able to point to how the kinship system and marriage rules (social
structure) support the infrastructure. Discuss what you know about the ideologies
and beliefs (super structure) that motivate people in these groups to follow their
kinship rules and marriage practices.