Anthropology 309
First Exam Study Guide
1. What are the subdisciplines of anthropology? How is anthropology relatively distinct from
other social sciences?
2. What is the definition of culture, products of culture, and features of culture?
3. What is the primary methodological/investigative tool used in cultural anthropology?
4. What is the ethnosphere? What was the number of languages spoken in the world
about 50 years ago and how many are actively spoken today (the percentage of loss over
time)? What is ethnocide?
5. Ecology terms: ecology, biotic, abiotic, ecosystem, biome (with examples), niche
Theory
1. Who is father of American anthropology, who coined the term cultural ecology? What were
the differences between Steward and Harris about the role of environment in shaping human
culture and behavior?
2. What are the differences between the culture core and secondary features of culture? Is a
culture type part of the culture core? What is the adaptation (cultural type) of patrilineal bands?
3. Is Steward an environmental determinist?
4. What is unilineal evolution and why is it problematic?
5. Why is religious reverence for cows in India adaptive? What are the three levels of cultural
materialism, which aspects of culture are most important with this theoretical orientation? Are
emic or etic data more important with this theoretical orientation?
6. Understand and define the following concepts: emic, etic, cultural relativism, unilinear versus
multilinear evolution
1. Have a basic understanding of human behavioral ecology, ecosystems, political ecology,
and ethnoecology (culturalist).
2. What research methods are common with each of the three theoretical orientations?
3. 4. What is a proxy of fitness in HBE?
4. 6. Why do humans occupy so many habitats and have such a broad niche? What
distinguishes humans from other species abilities to adapt to different environments?
Human Behavioral Ecology
What are the two main types of modelling used in HBE? What is the primary difference between
these types of models?
What is the difference between ultimate and proximal goals? What is a currency in HBE?
Political Ecology
Ecosystems
Ethnoecology
1. Why do some researchers use the term “Pygmies” and others do not (from Unit overview)?
2. What are the three basic ecological characteristics of tropical forests?
3. What are the three foundational schemas that influence Aka life?
4. What are the Aka infant mortality (IMR) and total fertility (TFR) rates?
5. What is the average camp size, frequency of movement, post-marital residence?
6. What is the approximate total number of plant and animal species they utilize?
7. What are characteristic features of hunter-gatherers?
Culture Scale (Unit 4)
1. According to Diamond, why did Europeans have more complex technology and political
organization before South America and Africa? Why were European diseases so
devastating/virulent for peoples of South America, where did these diseases come from, which
areas of the world had the greatest number of mammals for potential domestication and the
greatest number of large-seeding grass species 10,000 years ago? Is Diamond an environmental
determinist?
2. What are the advantages of small-scale cultures according to Bodley? Why did large-scale
cultures evolve according to Bodley? What is the key factor that leads to the decline of
indigenous peoples according to Bodley?
3. What is the subsistence system of most band level societies? What is the subsistence system of
most tribal level societies? At what level of culture scale is inequality the greatest? Why?
4. About how many years ago did domestication of plants and animals take place? About how
many years ago do politically centralized societies emerge? When do commercialization and
global-level societies emerge?
Term: indigenous people, imperial world
Cultural diversity of African Pygmies (Bahuchet chapter)
1. Approximately how many Pygmy ethnolinguistic groups exist in the Congo Basin?
2. What are the common types of hunting among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers? What
types of forager hunting techniques were adopted from farmers?
3. Do all Congo Basin hunter-gatherers live in association with farmers?
4. Do Pygmies have their own language or do they usually speak a language of a farming
group?
Original affluent society (Sahlins article)
1. What is the Zen road to affluence?
2. What is Neolithic ethnocentrism?
3. Why is wealth a burden for foragers?
4. About how many hour per week do Australian Aborigines and Bushmen foragers
work?
Foraging lifestyle in the African tropical forest (Sato chapter)
1. What is the wild yam question? What evidence do researchers use to suggest life
forager life in the forest is not possible? What evidence does Sato present to suggest it is
possible?
2. What is a controlled foraging trip?
Forest conservation and indigenous peoples in the Congo Basin (Ichikawa chapter)
1. Acronyms—WWF, WCS, REDD, NTFP
2. What is “customary right to forests” and can the establishment of it impact the
bushmeat trade?
3. What percentage of Cameroon’s land mass is designed as a wildlife protection area?
4. What are the top two tropical forest blocks in the world?
5. What is the second leading human-induced cause of global warming?
6. What are the costs (problems) and benefits of the REDD program?
7. How can NTFP harmonize forest conservation with local people’s welfare?
8. Why has “sustainable” logging failed to reduce poverty
9. How does the World Bank define “indigenous peoples” and why is this definition
problematic in Africa?
10. Why does the author argue for the management of forest lands by Pygmies?
Bushmeat hunting in the Congo Basin” (Wilkie article)
1. What are the potential roles of a cultural anthropologist in mitigating the impacts of
bushmeat trade?
2. Approximately how much game meat do rural Congo Basin foragers consume per
person per day?
3. What is the most common Congo Basin game animal consumed?
4. Do more data exist on consumption or production rates of forest game animals?
5. Do game meat harvest rates increase or decrease with increasing distance from a
village or settlement?
6. How do logging concessions facilitate bushmeat hunting?
7. What percentage protein consumed by Congo Basin forest peoples comes from game
hunting?
8. Does bushmeat trade provide a good income for merchants?
9. What is the single most important barrier to mitigating over-exploitation of game
meat?
10. Does the author think that controlling the domestic supply of game meat is feasible?
11. Is bushmeat hunting sustainable for primates and large bodied duikers?