STUDY GUIDE FOR ANTHROPOLOGY FINAL
What’s on the Exam:
This Exam will cover basic principles and ideas of Anthropology. Many of the
questions you have seen before. There will be approximately 125 scantron
questions (multiple choice, T/F, matching). To help you earn a better grade, you
will be permitted to use a handwritten, non-photocopied 5X8 index card (2
sides) along with all the note-cards you have turned into me up to this point.
You will need to study for this to do well, but if you have a decent understanding
of the material and review it, it should be straightforward since I am not here to
trick you. I do, however, take the responsibility of helping you expand your
anthropological horizons seriously, and so should you, since most of you will be
required to take an anthro-style course in college.
I am giving you the chapters of the book as to where the info can be found, but
the best place to find the info for your study guide would be to review passedback quizzes, homework, lecture/powerpoint notes, and movie notes. These will
help you just as well as the book, if not better, if you took decent ones.
Chapter One:
I will be looking at the major points that are presented in this chapter concerning
the field of anthropology.
 What are the four major subdisciplines of anthro and what are they concerned
with?
 What is an ethnography and how is it undertaken?
Chapter Two:
 What is context and why is it important? What are fossils and what do they
tell us?
 What are the various dating methods and when/how are they used? (know
this!! review your notes—look at the lecture on the website—What is the
difference b/twn relative and absolute dating, stratigraphy, carbon 14,
dendrochronology, fission tracking, K-Ar)
Chapter Three:
This will cover the general ideas found in evolution and some specific points such
as
 the ideas of early creationists/evolutionists (Linneaus, Lamarck, Cuvier,
Bishop Ussher, Lyell)
 the basic whats, hows, principles of:
 natural selection
 heredity: ie. genes/chromosomes/dna
 variation: genetic recombination and mutation
 speciation
 how natural selection can affect behavioral traits/culture
Chapter Four: (Primates)
 the main ideas found on pages 54-58 and 67-72
 If you revisit the bolded terms throughout the entire chapter (ie. what is
the difference b/w: prosimian & anthropoid; diurnal & brachiation) along
with understanding some of the basic stuff that was reinforced at the zoo
and in videos we watched (ie. review all your primate notes) you should be
ok.
Chapter Five
 Know what the first primate looked like and Proconsul,
 Know Miocene epoch (what was the environment like, and what favored the
emergence of early primate--this is in your notes more concisely)
 why Sarich’s research is important
Chapter Six, Seven, Eight: (Early Man Stuff)
 Bipedalism theory of evolution
 Why Leakey, Johanson, Dart are important
 Why Australopithecines are important
 Re-read notes on tools, fire use, shelter etc.
 Know basic stuff about the early hominids: homo habilis, erectus, neandertal
and sapiens—look at your video and lecture notes
Chapter 19: (Gender and Sex Differences)
 The theories on how productive activities influence gender roles (strength,
compatibility with child care, economy of effort, etc)
 Theories anthropologists give on the why/how of gender roles
 How Martin Whyte’s work interprets why there are differences in status
among women in various societies
 Recognized personality differences
 How socialization differences account for differences in aggression and how
Whiting’s work interprets this
 Review your lecture notes or skim the main examples of premarital sex,
extramarital sex, sex within marriage, homosexuality that we went over in the
lecture.
Chapter 20 (Marriage)
 Basically review your homework on why and what marriage is, the economic
aspects of it (dowry, bride service, etc), who marries whom and why, know
these terms (levirate, sororate, exomgamy, endogamy, dowry, and the
difference between joint, nuclear, and extended families)
Dating, Gestures, Language, Ethnology
 A number of questions concerning main ideas from our discussions,
videos, and exercises will be included in this section; make sure you review
your notes on main points concerning dating (esp. “first dates”),
evolutionary biology and sexual attraction, gestures vs. gesticulations,
“gesture frontiers”, what an ethnography is.
Archaeology: Review your notes—know what sites/legends Schliemann, Arthur
Evans, Howard Carter, Leonard Woolley were associated with and what some of
the facts/situations were surrounding those sites; review the stuff about Pompeii,
Ancient Graves video (Cheddar Man, Juanita the Ice Maiden, Otzi, and
milkshakes), Hopewell Mounds