CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
FINAL EXAM REVIEW SHEET
Section 3: Thurs.. May 7th at 8am in our classroom
Section 4: Mon. May 11th at 10:30am in our classroom
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MATERIALS COVERED:
* FERRARO (only as I covered it in class):
-- CH 14 Supernatural Beliefs
-- CH 7 Making a Living (note: what are some of the problems I had with this)
-- CH 16 Culture Change & Globalization
-- CH 8 Economics
* CONFORMITY AND CONFLICT
-- CH. 30 & 31 Religion and the Supernatural (Taraka’s Ghost – Freed &
Freed; Baseball Magic – Gmelch
-- CH. 10, 11, 12 & 13 Ecology and Subsistence ( The Hunters – Lee; Adaptive
Failure: Easter’s end – Diamond; Forest Development & Guarani – Reed;
Subsistence and Market: When the Turtle Collapses -- Miskito Indians
Nietschmann)
-- CH. 37 Kayapo Resistance – Turner; (CH 36 Japanese Hip-Hop by Condry is
optional)
* VIDEOS:
 Latah (Malaysia) clip
 Vodou Healing Ceremony from Ancient Healing
 Huichol segment from Millennium: Touching the Timeless (VHS 3502)
 Animism (Australian Aborigines)—on reserve in library
 Millennium: Ecology of Mind – Aborigines & Gabra (VHS 3501)
 Trobriand Cricket clip
 UN In Action, Programme 1135 Guarani fight for rights in Bolivia
 Protecting the Amazon Rainforest #596, You Tube
* WEBSITES:
 www.ithacahours.com
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RELIGION AND THE SUPERNATURAL
* Know some general points about: -- CH. 30 & 31 Religion and the Supernatural (Taraka’s
Ghost – Freed & Freed; Baseball Magic – Gmelch)
* Review Religion Handouts (pdf on homepage)
* What does Latah have to do with beliefs of religion and gender? What is semangat?
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*How does Vodou offer an excellent example of syncretism? What is a community Vodou
healing ritual like?
*What are some prominent symbols involved in the Huichol pilgrimage for peyote?
* How prevalent are beliefs in ghosts and ghost stories in America? What can we learn from
these stories and legends?
* SYNCRETISM: combination and overlay of cultural beliefs & practices (seen often in
religion)
* Study of world religions and indigenous “religions” (i.e., cultures)
* FUNCTIONS OF RELIGION: what are they?
* How are religion, culture and ecology linked in the Australian Aboriginal example in the
animism film? (one hint: dhuwa and yirritja moiety system)
* What are some parallels between Australian Aborigines and Native Americans?
ECOLOGY AND SUBSISTENCE:
* Know the Handouts:
1) “Are you poisoning your pets, family with lawn pesticides?” (Bioregional Quiz on
back)
2) “Cultural Ecology” (green handout with subsistence types and what anthros. study)
* What do the Gabra do for their subsistence? What happened when someone introduced a
mechanical well? What is finn?
*According to Winona LaDuke, how many chemicals might we have swimming around in our
bodies? What kinds of chemicals might be in our blood?
* What are the range of topics that environmental/ecological anthropologists study? What are
some examples of topics we are concerned about?
* What is your ecological footprint rating? (be prepared to discuss this on the test) What are
some changes you can make in your life to improve you rating?
* Why do I want you to be very concerned about lawns in your neighborhood? What are some
of the other environment and health issues I discussed in class?
* Patterns of subsistence: hunters & gatherers (foragers or “food collectors”), and “food
producers”: horticulturalists, pastoralists, agriculturalists, industrialists; what kinds of
political organizations are these strategies associated with?
* What are some of the discourses in Ferraro ch. 7 Making a Living that sound biased or
ethnocentric in relation to foragers? (I pulled up Jared Diamond’s article, “The Worst
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Mistake in the History of the Human Race” to discuss this -- http://www.awok.org/worstmistake/)
** In this section of the course, we examine cultures in relation to the land and ecology. Many
of these understandings move far beyond looking at mere uses of the land (e.g., subsistence) to
include spirituality, religion, ritual, and symbolism.
=Throughout the readings, think not only of how ecology and subsistence relate to one
another, but note the effects of development, culture change, and the repercussions of
these for Native peoples.
** C & C (ch. 10) -- Lee -- What relationship did the !Kung have with the land in Lee’s
article? Why might the !Kung be described as an “affluent society”? What impacts have
culture change and influence from outside cultures brought to the !Kung?
** C & C (ch. 11) -- Diamond -- What was the ecology of Easter Island when Polynesians first
arrived on the Island about 400 A.D.? What were the main sources of food eaten by the
islanders in the early years of island inhabitation? What changes occurred in the environment
due to human exploitation? How did this affect the life of the islanders? How does the Easter
Island case apply to what is happening in the world today?
** C & C (ch. 12) -- -- Reed -- How did Amazon Indians manage forest resources? Why is
horticulture more environmentally sustainable than intensive agriculture in the Amazon
forests? How are outside initiatives for development very different? What has happened to the
Guarani of Paraguay? What updates did I give in class of what is happening to the Guarani
today (you can also look them up in www.survival-international.org/tribes/guarani and
http://ftp.cs.org/ourpublications/news/article/guarani-kaiowaacute-encamped-along-highway-afterforced-eviction and the UN in Action clip)?
** C & C (ch. 13) -- Subsistence and Market: When the Turtle Collapses -- Miskito Indians
Nietschmann) – how is this both an example of subsistence and of collision between western
and non-western economics?
CULTURE CHANGE
** Know points from Kayapo Resistance – Turner – what was their traditional subsistence
strategy, how did they react to the intrusions into their land? Why have they been so
successful asserting their rights as indigenous people and holding on to their land (also
presented in the You Tube clip)
** Japanese Hip-Hop (Condry) is optional
** Know the Handouts:
1) Culture Change (Ferraro ch. 16)
2) Trobriand Cricket
3) Traffic of Wealth and Natural Resources
4) Modernization & Globalization as Culture Change
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** From Ferraro Culture Change ch. 16 know: invention, diffusion, reciprocity, acculturation,
and pgs. 403-413 (survival of indigenous peoples, development, world systems, neocolonialism,
LDSs, first to forth world nations, and globalization of world cultures – that’s what we talked
a lot about in class – I pdf’d this section and put it on the homepage)
** What are some of the patterns involved with the “Traffic of Wealth and Natural Resources”
** What is globalization? What are some of the positive and negative outcomes?
** Remember: traditions are not static; most indigenous peoples do not wish to remain in an
unchanging past; many cultures around the globe want to articulate with modernity and
modernization, but on their own terms (as Kingdom of Tonga did) – they wish to direct their
own culture change (perhaps by engaging in sustainable development practices)
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS: FROM RECIPROCITY AND TRADE TO THE MODERN
WORLD SYSTEM AND GLOBALIZATION
Handouts:
 Economics: Western & Non-Western (last page of packet)
 Ithaca Hours
How do the examples of the Guarani and the Kayapo not only give us examples of indigenous
subsistence, but also culture change, globalization, and economics (remember quote from
Turner article top of page 387 I read in class)?
 Common cross-cultural theme -- among many indigenous peoples and in kin-based
cultures, status is often gained by what you give away (food, status items, other forms
of wealth as in the Native American potlatch) versus what you amass for yourself
which is more of a Western model
 Conflicts between western and non-western economics (Miskito C & C chapter by
Nietchmann exemplifies this; Kayapo & Guarani)
 What are some of the powerful forces that affect and control the global marketplace
today? (I pdf’d the pages on economics and WTO from Ferraro for the homepage)
 How can we engage in directed culture change to deal with some of the negative aspects
of globalization and our market-oriented culture?
 What is Ithaca Hours? What is its purpose? See www.ithacahours.com
Holistic Reflections:
 How has your introduction to anthropology (or at least my version of it!) impacted the
way that you see the world and the many diverse cultures and practices within it?
 How did the food ethnography assignment enhance your abilities to think holistically?
 How do you think you might incorporate some of what you learned in this class into
your own lives, either now or in the future?
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