CHAPTER 1

Anthropological Perspectives

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
This chapter introduces anthropology as an academic subject and explores its historical
development. It discusses various theoretical and contemporary perspectives on fieldwork and
ethnography. It also explores how the evolutionary past of primates and early humans is used and
understood by contemporary cultural anthropologists.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the definitions of culture and the subdisciplines of
anthropology.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand the differences between cultural relativity and
ethnocentrism.
• Learning Objective 3: Understand the significance of the major characteristics, physical and
cognitive, of Homo sapiens and how they differ from earlier hominids.
• Learning Objective 4: Understand the history of anthropology and the changes in the
discipline over the past 150 years.
• Learning Objective 5: Understand how the metaphor of the “tapestry” applies to learning
about culture.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. Anthropology can be best described as:
A. the study of behavior and customs
B. digging up bones to study the evolution of the human species
C. the comparison of cultures in order to identify similarities and differences of patterning
D. the analysis of the weaving of tapestry
2. Culture can be defined as:
A. a set of ideas and meanings that people use based on the past and by which they construct
the present
B. symphony orchestras and opera
C. the knowledge about yourself and your past that you’re born with and is transmitted through
your genes
D. all of the above
3. Society is
A. the same thing as culture
B. common to humans, animals, and insects living in groups
C. only what elites in a community have
D. a social grouping of individuals of the same age and gender
4. Since all cultures need to solve the basic problems of human existence, all cultures share
certain cultural universals such as
A. language and incest taboos
B. the same set of ideas about marriage and kinship

Chapter 1–1
 C. food preferences
D. the same laws to keep people under control
5. Claude Lévi–Strauss is most closely associated with the theoretical perspective of
A. cultural evolution
B. social Darwinism
C. functionalism
D. structuralism

ANSWERS: 1–C; 2–A; 3–B; 4–A; 5–D

True–false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. Ethnocentrism means being proud of your heritage.
T F
2. Culture is something that you’re born with like eye color or hair color.
T F
3. Archaeology is the study of cultures through their material remains.
T F
4. Navajo people today live, work, and exist totally separate from other Americans, exactly as
their ancestors did several generations ago.
T F
5. The concept of “partial truths” suggests that different people within a culture have different
views of ideas and norms about the culture as a whole.
T F
6. Human cultural behavior is unique in that it is based on language and the capacity to create
symbols, in contrast to other primates.
T F
7. Franz Boas was an American anthropologist who did fieldwork among Northwest Coast native
peoples.
T F
8. Bronislaw Malinowski is famous for his fieldwork in western Africa.
T F
9. Clifford Geertz explored the meanings that cultures encode by analyzing the Balinese
cockfight.
T F
10. Most contemporary anthropologists ignore the history of the community they study and leave
the study of those issues to historians.
T F
ANSWERS: 1–F; 2–F; 3–T; 4–F; 5–T; 6–T; 7–T; 8–F; 9–T; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.
1. The nineteenth-century anthropologist who made ethnographic observations about the
Iroquois Indians and theorized about cultural evolution was:

Chapter 1–2
2. The early twentieth-century anthropologist who did extensive fieldwork among the Trobriand
Islanders near New Guinea and viewed cultural institutions as functioning in response to human
biological and psychological needs was:
3. Clifford Geertz and David Schneider are associated with the theoretical perspective of:
4. The fundamental similarities that all cultures share are referred to as:
5. Culture is learned and acquired by infants through a process referred to by anthropologists as:

ANSWERS:
1. Lewis Henry Morgan
2. Bronislaw Malinowski
3. symbolic anthropology
4. cultural universals
5. enculturation

Internet Activities:
1. AnthroSource is the website for the American Anthropological Association. Log on to the
website and look at “Sections and Interest Groups.” What does this suggest to you about the
scope of contemporary anthropology? Which of these groups do you think you would want to
join, and why?

2. The Public Anthropology Journal Archive Project, allows you to search for any author, topic,
or cultural group written about in American Anthropologist, the journal of the American
Anthropological Association, from 1888. Log onto its site,
http://www.publicanthropology.org/Archive/AAListByYears.htm, and search articles about one
culture group that interests you, for example, the Maya or Hopi. Some things you might want to
note in the resulting list:
• What issues were prominent in the late nineteenth century?
• early twentieth century?
• early twenty-first century?
• What might account for some of the changes you see in the discussion of a particular culture
group over the two centuries of publication of this journal?

3. http://www.discoverchimpanzees.org is the website for the Jane Goodall Institute Center for
Primate Studies at the University of Minnesota. It provides a wide variety of information about
chimpanzee distribution and behavior. It also contains field guides for observing and recording
information about chimpanzee behavior. Follow the instructions for one of the downloadable
activities for observing wildlife. How do you think observing primate behavior compares with
fieldwork observing human populations?

Chapter 1–3
 CHAPTER 2
The Anthropological Method

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
This chapter discusses fieldwork—its history, theory, and practice. Exploring fieldwork
methodology reveals important contradictions and moral dilemmas anthropologists face in the
field, interacting with informants. By employing the comparative method this chapter analyzes
two weddings in different communities, different times, and drawing on difference sources. This
reveals similarities and differences as well as the multiple forms of data from which
anthropologists can draw conclusions about culture and ritual.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the complexities and dynamics of fieldwork.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand the multiple dilemmas fieldworkers face with informants
and data gathering.
• Learning Objective 3: Understand the complexities of a Kwakiutl marriage, based on
ethnographic data collected by Franz Boas and his key informant George Hunt in the late
nineteenth century.
• Learning Objective 4: Understand the intricacies of an elite American wedding, based on
widely– available newspaper and magazine descriptions.
• Learning Objective 5: Draw conclusions on the similarities and differences of these two
wedding ceremonies and experience making conclusions about the respective cultures from
diverse forms of data.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. George Hunt was:
A. the founder of the school of thought known as structuralism
B. the key informant of Franz Boas in Baffinland
C. the inventor of anthropology
D. a nineteenth-century armchair scholar
2. While doing fieldwork an anthropologist:
A. lives in the community being studied
B. participates in daily life and activities
C. learns the language
D. does all of the above
3. An ethnography that traces one phenomenon across borders and through transnational
communities is referred to as:
A. historical
B. –multisited
C. community study
D. urban anthropology
4. Anthropologists working in a community gathering data are:

Chapter 1–4
 A. generally aloof and standoffish so they don’t form personal relations that get in the way of
their scientific observations
B. concerned with reciprocity, that is, how they can repay their informants for their time and
effort
C. unconcerned with how the community views them
D. see themselves as teachers, there to change the ways of the community
5. One major difference between the Kwakiutl wedding and the Shriver–Schwarzenegger
wedding is:
A. The focus in the Kwakiutl wedding is on the families of the bride and groom, while in the
American wedding the focus is on the couple.
B. The Kwakiutl wedding brings together families of different socioeconomic statuses; the
American wedding is between equals.
C. The American wedding is only about religion and ritual; money and consumption play no
part in the ceremony, while they are important in the Kwakiutl wedding.
D. There are no differences—brides and grooms are the same the world over.

ANSWERS: 1–B; 2–D; 3–B; 4–B; 5–A

True–false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. Participant observation involves living with other people, learning their language, and
understanding their behavior and ideas.
T F
2. Anthropologists gain information by interviewing individuals in the culture, who are referred
to as local guides.
T F
3. George Hunt was Franz Boas’s key informant.
T F
4. In a Kwakiutl wedding the bride and groom are the primary focus of all the rituals.
T F
5. A numaym is the Kwakiut term for a group of relatives.
T F
6. A Kwakiutl wedding is marked by massive distribution of valued material goods like blankets.
T F
7. Salvage anthropology is the study of waste and garbage.
T F
8. A potlatch is a large–scale ceremonial distribution of important material goods that enhances
the political prestige of the donor.
T F
9. A total social phenomenon is one in which the entire community is involved and that has
important economic and political elements.
T F
10. Being reflexive in ethnography means the same thing as being scientific and objective.
T F

Chapter 1–5
ANSWERS: 1–T; 2–F; 3–T; 4–F; 5–T; 6–T; 7–F; 8–T; 9–T; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.
1. The first person to carry out fieldwork in the late nineteenth century with the Eskimos of
Baffinland was:
2. Diverse societies with regional, class, occupational, religious, and ethnic differences are
referred to as:
3. Ethnography that informs readers about the anthropologist's experiences of fieldwork as well
as the anthropological conclusions is referred to as:
4. The ceremonial redistribution of large amounts of food and material goods that reinforces
social and political status is known as:
5. An ethnography that traces a phenomenon across borders and through transnational
communities is:

ANSWERS:
1. Franz Boas
2. complex societies
3. reflexive
4. potlatch
5. –multisited ethnography

Internet Activities
1. Explore current ethical issues in anthropology and fieldwork. Log onto the website of the
American Anthropological Association, http://www.aaanet.org. Go to the Handbook on Ethical
Issues in Anthropology, edited by Joan Cassell and Sue–Ellen Jacobs. Click onto the section
“Cases and Solutions,” http://www.aaanet.org/publications/pubs/casesandsolution.cfm. This
chapter contains several cases of ethical dilemmas faced by actual anthropologists in their field
settings. Read any two cases, and see if you agree with the anthropologists’ decisions and the
outcome of the cases as described.

2. The website http://astro.temple.edu/~ruby/ruby/boas.html contains the analysis of a film Boas

made of the Kwakiutl in 1930, depicting the movements involved in dance, basketry, and
woodworking. It is also a discussion of his contributions to the field of visual anthropology and
suggests why he is such a revered figure in American anthropology. What are some of the major
contributions Boas made to the study of anthropology?

3. Compare mainstream American wedding practices and those of other ethnicities. Search
“wedding etiquette” for multiple websites and information on American and ethnic wedding
norms, practices, and rituals. What are the major characteristics of the American wedding and
the division of its expenses? What do these norms reveal about contemporary American culture?
Research further and find ethnic or regional variation in American wedding customs.

Chapter 1–6
 CHAPTER 3
Language and Culture

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
This chapter discusses language as part of culture. Language is central to culture since it is the
means through which most of culture is learned and communicated. This chapter explores the
structures and components all languages have in common. It discusses the theories and
objectives of historical linguistics, and it demonstrates how linguistics and archaeology work
together in reconstructing historical human migration patterns. It looks at the many forms of
sociolinguistics, the discussion of how languages reflect issues of power, gender, race, and ethnic
identity.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the structural components of all languages.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand the processes anthropologists use for uncovering the
histories of languages and language groups.
• Learning Objective 3: Explore the political implications of language contact, language
interaction, and language use in communities and within states.
• Learning Objective 4: Explore how subcultures and ethnic groups use language as a form of
resistance and expression. Understand the gender–based differences in language style within
one culture.
• Learning Objecting 5: Understand how anthropologists and linguists think about African
American Vernacular and other linguistic forms unique to one language community.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. What are morphemes?
A. the smallest units of sound in a language that make distinction in meaning
B. the smallest units of sound in a language that convey meaning
C. the same thing as a word
D. none of the above
2. What term refers to the arrangement and ordering of words into sentences?
A. lexicon
B. ethnosemantics
C. syntax
D. phonology
3. Linguists Sapir and Whorf both studied and wrote about:
A. the relationship between the language people speak and their perception of the world around
them
B. the universal patterns of language all human beings express
C. African American Vernacular
D. rap music and its influence on popular culture
4. Human language is considered distinct from other forms of animal communication because:
A. It communicates thoughts and ideas symbolically.

Chapter 1–7
 B. It is infinitely creative and expandable.
C. It is based on a set of ideas that are learned across generations.
D. All of the above
5. Studies comparing gender styles and language in different locations show:
A. Women around the world use the same speech styles and patterns.
B. Men’s speech is always more assertive than women’s speech.
C. Women in business settings are at a disadvantage unless they emulate masculine linguistic
styles.
D. Malagasy and British linguistic styles are the same for men and women.

ANWERS: 1–B; 2–C; 3–A; 4–D; 5–C

True-false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. A morpheme is the smallest unit of speech with sound and meaning.
T F
2. A phoneme is the same as a short word.
T F
3. The –er in shoemaker is a bound morpheme.
T F
4. A complete description of a language is its lexicon.
T F
5. The American linguist Noam Chomsky argues that there are a great many shared
characteristics in all languages due to underlying structures of the human brain.
T F
6. The American anthropologist Franz Boas argued that languages are all equally complex and
cannot be rated on a scale from simple to more complex.
T F
7. Cognates are words with the same meaning and similar phonemic structure in two languages.
T F
8. Ethnosemantics is the investigation of culture-specific systems of classification of animals,
plants, colors, and numbers.
T F
9. African American Vernacular English is the same thing as slang, or ungrammatical, standard
English.
T F
10. Ferdinand de Saussure is associated with the linguistic hypothesis that the way humans
perceive the world is dependent upon the lexicon of the language they use.
T F

ANSWERS: 1–T; 2–F; 3–T; 4–F; 5–T; 6–T; 7–T; 8–T; 9–F; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.

Chapter 1–8
1. The smallest unit of sound in any language that is used in various combinations to make up
units of meaning is called a:
2. Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and most of the languages of modern Europe belong to the language
family called:
3. Words in different languages with similar phonemic structures and the same meaning are:
4. The study of how cultures organize and classify the world and its components as expressed in
language is:
5. The study of how speech forges shared cultural understandings and constructs social life and
political relationships between groups is:

ANSWERS:
1. phoneme
2. Indo-European
3. cognates
4. ethnosemantics
5. sociolinguistics

Internet Activities
1. Explore the website Ethnologue: Languages of the World, at www.Ethnologue.com. Click
onto the “Country Index” section and consider the following questions:
• In North America, how many speakers are there of: Western Apache? Choctaw? Haida?
Inuktitut–Northwest Alaskan Inupiat? Koyukon? Mohegan–Montauk–Narragansett?
Omaha? Ponca? Powhatan? Snohomish? Tuscarora? Wampanoag? Wintu? Zuni?
• What does this suggest to you about linguistic diversity and linguistic imperialism in
American history?
• By analyzing over the list of languages spoken in the United States what can you
conclude about important social and historical forces impacting on language use today in
the United States?

2. Look at the links at Explore Linguistics, http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore, a website that

encourages students to study linguistics. What are some of the major issues that contemporary
linguistics are concerned with today?

3. Read the page “Primate Use of Language,” created by Lauren Kosseff at

http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/language.htm. Study the communications abilities of
Kanzi, Washoe, Loulis and Nim, and Koko. What are some of the characteristics of primate
language? Is primate language the same as human language? Based on these reports, do you
think language is uniquely human?

Chapter 1–9
 CHAPTER 4
Learning Language and Learning Culture:
Culture and the Individual

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
This chapter considers the ways in which individuals learn the language of the society into which
they are born and how language relates to culture and behavior. This discussion includes the
relationship of the individual to his or her culture, the range of personality variation within
cultures, and ways that cultures deal with individuals whose behavior is outside the generally
accepted norms.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the various stages of speech perception of infants and
young children.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand the relationship between learning one’s language and
learning one’s culture, including gender roles and appropriate social behaviors.
• Learning Objective 3: Understand the uses and limitations of cross–cultural study of
personality types.
• Learning Objective 4: Explore cross–culturally processes of enculturation and the connection
between child–rearing and personality.
• Learning Objecting 5: Understand how anthropologists study mental illness using a cross–
cultural perspective.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. Recent research shows that the earliest stage at which a child responds to language is:
A. fetal (prenatal)
B. newborn
C. toddler
D. adolescence
2. The rate at which an infant builds vocabulary:
A. is based on neuroanatomy and therefore is the same for all infants everywhere
B. is determined by what skills the infant is born with
C. is greatly influenced by parental input and interactions
D. depends upon the mother’s age at birth
3. The learning of cultural norms throughout childhood is related to:
A. language acquisition
B. cultural variables in child–rearing techniques
C. emulating the language and social behavior of those around them
D. all of the above
4. Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict are associated with:
A. psychological anthropology studies in the 1930s and 1940s
B. cultural evolution theories

Chapter 1–10
 C. symbolism
D. postmodernism
5. The process by which children learn the rules and values of their society is:
A. acculturation
B. enculturation
C. deculturation
D. culturation

ANSWERS: 1–A; 2–C; 3–D; 4–A; 5–B

True–false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. Perception of linguistic difference begins as early as the prenatal stage of human development.
T F
2. The only way a child learns the rules of his culture is by mimicking adult behavior.
T F
3. Acculturation is the process by which a child learns cultural rules and norms.
T F
4. Anthropologists now know that all mental illness is caused by brain malfunctioning and
therefore manifests itself the same way in all human beings.
T F
5. Anthropologists Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict both studied the relationship between
early childhood experiences and cultural norms.
T F
6. Amok and Latah are associated with Plains Indian societies.
T F
7. All members of a culture know exactly how to act and what the consequences are for violating
the norms; therefore, everyone follows the same rules the same way.
T F
8. An American cultural value is to appear happy even if that is not an expression of the true
underlying emotion.
T F
9. Individuals who, through their own vision and actions, transform ideas in a culture are called
innovators or revolutionaries.
T F
10. “Compartmentalization” refers to a psychotic need among Anglo–Americans to place all
their things in neat piles.
T F

ANSWERS: 1–T; 2–F; 3–F; 4–F; 5–T; 6–F; 7–F; 8–T; 9–T; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.
1. At the same time that children acquire language, they are also acquiring:

Chapter 1–11
2. The anthropological study of culture and personality in the 1930s and 1940s was strongly
influenced by the psychological development stages hypothesized by:
3. The process by which children learn the rules and values of their culture is:
4. The psychoanalyst strongly influenced by anthropologists who broadened Freud’s stages of
psychosexual development to make them applicable to non–Western cultures is:
5. Deviance from the normal, expected, and acceptable behavior is the anthropological definition
of:
6. One adaptation strategy used by people with transnational affiliations is:
7. Amok and latah are examples of:
8. The anthropologist who examined differences in personhood in Java, Bali, and Western
societies is:
9. A consciousness of self in relationship to the statuses of others is expressed through language
use in the culture of:
10. The view of the self as autonomous, separate, and unbounded is associated with the culture
of:

ANSWERS:
1. knowledge about their culture
2. Sigmund Freud
3. enculturation
4. Erik Erikson
5. mental illness
6. compartmentalization
7. culture bound mental syndromes in Malaysia
8. Clifford Geertz
9. Japan
10. mainstream America

Internet Activities
1. A website with links to resources on psychiatric/psychological anthropology is
http://homepage.mac.com/mccajor/SSL_panth.html. Look over the multiple links on the website
for professional discussions and bibliographies about this field. Click onto the link “Culture–
Bound Syndromes,” by Timothy McCajor Hall. Compare this discussion of culture–bound
syndromes in China with two other culture–bound syndromes described in Tapestry of Culture.

2. http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/cult&per.htm contains a historical survey of the

culture and personality school in anthropology. It presents capsule summaries of its basic
premises, information about key figures, and recent critiques of this approach. Review the site
and compare the contributions of any two anthropologists associated with culture and personality
studies. What is the contemporary status of this perspective?

3. The centennial of Margaret Mead’s birth was celebrated in 2001; multiple exhibitions,
programs, and websites were mounted throughout that year to honor her life. The Library of
Congress exhibited a selection of her field notes, archives, and artifacts; the collection
documents major themes in Mead’s life and work. Highlights and related links are at
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mead/ Explore this website and identify major themes in Mead’s

Chapter 1–12
work in the areas of childhood, gender, and personality formation. Why do you think she was
such an important, iconographic figure in American anthropology?

Chapter 1–13
 Chapter 5
Symbolic Meanings

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
The analysis of symbols deals with the meanings of words, the meanings of actions, and the
meaning of objects in the culture. This chapter discusses “reading” culture like a text, and how
anthropologists understand and interpret the meanings of words and actions.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the symbolic use of metaphor and metonym and the two–
sidedness of symbols.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand the multiple uses of symbolism in food and eating cross–
culturally.
• Learning Objective 3: Understand how group identity is established through symbolism.
• Learning Objective 4: Understand how to “read” the symbolism of domestic and public
space.
• Learning Objecting 5: Understand the multiple ways in which the human body is
symbolically used in culture–specific contexts of meaning.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. A metaphor is:
A. the smallest unit of language that contains meaning
B. a linguistic device that uses a part of something to stand for the whole
C. a kind of symbol that uses a thing or idea to stand for something else
D. found only in the English language
2. A metonym is:
A. another word for metaphor
B. a type of symbol that uses a part of something to stand for the whole
C. a unit of language that contains both sound and meaning
D. a kind of sport played in the Trobriand Islands
3. In many societies eating is a metaphor for:
A. sexual relations
B. sports
C. domestic space
D. all of the above
4. A totemic animal:
A. may represent a clan ancestor
B. metaphorically represents a group of people
C. may be carved on house pillars and decorations
D. all of the above are true of a totemic animal
5. In different cultures arrangements of space in a house may symbolize:
A. social rank
B. gender norms

Chapter 1–14
 C. ethnic identity
D. all of the above

ANSWERS: 1–C; 2–B; 3–A; 4–D; 5–D

True–false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. Metaphors are found only in cultures with written languages.
T F
2. A metonym is the smallest part of a language with meaning.
T F
3. In many different cultures, food and eating symbolize sexual relationships.
T F
4. The human body is the same throughout the world; therefore, all cultures represent it
symbolically in the same way.
T F
5. In most cultures eating with one’s enemies is commonplace.
T F
6. In a caste–based society, people pray together according to social rank but routinely eat
together regardless of social rank.
T F
7. In American society the type of food offered to guests symbolizes social relationships.
T F
8. The phrase “It’s a jungle out there” is an example of metaphor.
T F
9. Referring to “the crown” to represent a monarchy is an example of metaphor.
T F
10. Gypsies in America have abandoned their traditional symbolic system of ritual and pollution
in order to fit into mainstream society.
T F

ANSWERS: 1–F; 2–F; 3–T; 4–F; 5–F; 6–F; 7–T; 8–T; 9–F; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.
1. The term for the use of an idea or a thing to stand for something else is:
2. The use of a part to stand for the whole is:
3. An animal that is believed to be a group’s ancestor is its:
4. A society with ranked groups, economic specialization, and rules about accepting food and
drink from others is an example of:
5. Calling someone “a team player” in an American corporation is example of a:
6. “The British crown” is an example of a:
7. In many cultures there is a symbolic association between food and:
8. In the American kinship system, the symbol for kinship and relatedness is:
9. Throughout European and American history one symbol of opposition to political authority is:

Chapter 1–15
10. Symbols that carry similar meanings in all cultures are:

ANSWERS:
1. metaphor
2. metonym
3. totem
4. caste system
5. metaphor
6. metonym
7. sexual relationships
8. blood
9. hair style
10. universal symbols

Internet Activities
Color symbolism
http://poynterextra.org/cp/colorproject/color.html
This site contains many discussions and exercises that illustrate the symbolic and emotional
content of color in graphic design and in Western art. Go through the exercises and see how you
respond to the color images and contrasts. Do you think responses to color are universal or
culturally patterned? Think of some examples to support your position. Then go to
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/color2.htm. See what the resources on
this website say about universal and culture specific color symbolism.

Body adornment
In Canela society, adorning the body enhances appearance, signals changes in social identity, and
expresses culturally prescribed moral values. The website
www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/canela/canela2.htm is a link from the National Anthropological Archives
of the Smithsonian Institution. Examine these photographs and discuss the gender and age
symbolism of body enhancement practices. How do you think these practices compare with
gender–specific forms of body enhancement in contemporary America?

Chapter 1–16
 CHAPTER 6
Ties That Connect: Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
Kinship plays a fundamental role in weaving the tapestry of culture in all societies. Even with
increasing industrialization and globalization in so many parts of the world today, culture-
specific ideas about kinship continue to be important in people's lives. This chapter explains the
anthropological concepts involved in a study of kinship systems, social structure, and household
forms.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the principles of marriage prohibitions, incest taboos, and
marriage payments.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand multiple types of postmarital residence patterns and their
subsequent effect on the structure of family and household over the life cycle of the family.
• Learning Objective 3: Understand different types of descent groups and how they form the
identity of individuals.
• Learning Objective 4: Understand the principles of analyzing different kinship terminology
systems and how kinship terminology relates to ideas about marriage, family, household, and
appropriate social relations with different sets of kin.
• Learning Objective 5: Understand new forms of family emerging in contemporary societies
globally as the result of adoption, same sex unions, remarriage, new reproductive
technologies (NRTs), and transnational families.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. What is the name of the postmarital residence pattern in which the married couple is expected
to establish their own home?
A. neolocal
B. virilocal
C. duolocal
D. matrilocal
2. What kind of relative is your mother’s sister to you?
A. lineal
B. collateral
C. affinal
D. none of the above
3. The Na of Yunnan Province in China:
A. are matrilineal
B. do not believe that the father of a child is related
C. have many structural similarities with Trobriand culture
D. all of the above
4. In a matrilineal society with a rule of lineage exogamy, which relative would NOT be in the
same lineage as a male ego?

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 A. mother
B. father
C. sister
D. brother
5. Who are categorized as your cross cousins?
A. the children of your mother’s sisters and your father’s sisters
B. the children of your mother’s brothers and your father’s brothers
C. the children of your mother’s brothers and your father’s sisters
D. all of the above

ANSWERS: 1–A; 2–B; 3–D; 4–B; 5–C

True–false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. Exogamy is the practice of seeking a mate from within your own group.
T F
2. Serial monogamy is the practice of having many legal spouses, but only one at a time.
T F
3. Bride service is the practice of grooms living with and working for the family of the bride
after marriage.
T F
4. Incest taboos are based on the knowledge derived from the Human Genome project.
T F
5. In America we have a kinship terminology system that belongs to the Iroquois category.
T F
6. A clan is a group of people who can demonstrate through written genealogies that they are all
related.
T F
7. The Yanomamo of Brazil have a terminology system that uses one set of terms for Ego’s
father’s brother’s children and mother’s sister’s children.
T F
8. A clan is a group of people who claim relatedness through a common ancestor and may hold
property in common.
T F
9. In a matrilineal descent system, women inherit positions of political power.
T F
10. Lewis Henry Morgan is the anthropologist associated with the critique of the anthropological
practice of grouping kinship systems together based on their common characteristics.
T F

ANSWERS: 1–F; 2–T; 3–T; 4–F; 5–F; 6–F; 7–T; 8–T; 9–F; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.
1. A kinship terminology system that contains only two terms per generation is:

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2. The payment of goods from the bride’s side to the groom’s side upon marriage is:
3. Your father’s brother’s son’s relationship to you is:
4. The American kinship system is an example of which terminology system:
5. In America, if you married someone of your own religion, this would be an example of:
6. The custom by which a widower marries the sister of his deceased wife is:
7. The term for prohibitions against sex and marriage with specific groups of kin is:
8. David Schneider’s research demonstrates that the primary symbol for kinship and relatedness
in the American kinship system is the metaphor of:
9. A household that consists of mother, father, one son, and his nuclear family is:
10. The postmarital residence pattern in which a bride moves into her husband’s parent’s
household is:

ANSWERS:
1. Hawaiian
2. dowry
3. parallel cousin, collateral kin
4. Eskimo
5. endogamy
6. sororate marriage
7. incest taboo
8. blood
9. stem family
10. virilocal (or patrilocal)

Internet Activities
1. A tutorial on kinship fundamentals, descent systems, kinship terminology, marriage, and
residence rules titled “Kinship and Social Organization” can be found at:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/kintitle.html. Go to this website, explore it
in detail, then go to the link “Begin Tutorial.” The author has five different ethnographic
examples about different kinship systems. You should be able to answer the following questions
about each example:
• Who is the preferred marriage partner? If none, what are the marriage prohibitions?
• Do they operate under unilineal or cognatic descent?
• Which kinship terminology system most closely correspondents to the one they use?
• What are the postmarital residence rules?

2. The Patrin Web Journal: Romani (Gypsy) Culture and History site can be found at
http://geocities.com/Paris/5121/. Follow the link to “Romani Culture and Traditions” and from
there to “Marriage Customs.” You should be able to answer the following questions:
• Are the Romani endogamous or exogamous?
• Are they patrilineal or matrilineal?
• Do they practice bridewealth or dowry?
• How do you think these practices relate to other forms of social, economic, and political
organization?
• How do these marriage practices relate to Romani marginalization in most locations where
they live?

Chapter 1–19
3. Lambda Legal Defense Fund is a legal rights organization for gays and lesbians; their website
is www.lambdalegal.org. Click onto “Issues” and then onto “Marriage, Relationships and Family
Law.” Try to answer the following questions based on the information contained in the various
links:
• What are the major legal arguments for gay and lesbian marriage?
• What are the forms of legal discrimination gay and lesbians face when trying to marry?
• What are some of the social and economic consequences of not being able to marry legally?
• What are the major arguments against recognizing gay and lesbian marriage?

Chapter 1–20
 CHAPTER 7
Gender and Age

Learning Objectives
Chapter Objectives
Every society makes social distinctions based on sex and age. This chapter explores various
ways societies construct these differences. Multiple ethnographic examples are presented to
illustrate the concepts of the cultural construction of sex, gender, age, and life stage.
• Learning Objective 1: Understand the cultural construction of male and female roles and the
concept of gender.
• Learning Objective 2: Understand the economic and political impacts on the construction of
gender roles. Document the multiple historical trajectories that changes in gender roles take
in different political and historical situations.
• Learning Objective 3: Explore the concept of shifting gender categories and the cultural
meaning of terms such as “heterosexual” and “homosexual.”
• Learning Objective 4: Understand the concepts of age categories as social constructions;
explore age grades and other types of age-based groupings.
• Learning Objective 5: Compare concepts of aging, and care for the aging, in America and
Japan.

Sample Questions
Multiple choice questions
Select the one answer that best completes the thought.
1. The cultural construction of gender refers to:
A. the different ways cultures organize behaviors around the way they conceptualize
differences between men and women.
B. the different ways societies punish men and women who don’t act the way they should
C. the way all cultures keep women in domestic spaces
D. all of the above.
2. Gender stratification refers to:
A. men’s economic tasks invariably having greater prestige than women’s
B. whatever the economic role of men, it is that role the culture values
C. gender associations extend into economic and political roles
D. all of the above
3. The Hijras of India are:
A. recognized as women socially and ritually
B. no longer have a social role to play in Indian society
C. were wiped out during the colonial period
D. have just appeared on the social scene in India following economic liberalization

4. Masculinist studies explore:

A. the multiple ways men are inherently more powerful than women because of male
biological characteristics
B. the universal characteristics of male dominance

Chapter 1–21
 C. the multiple constructions of masculinity in different cultures and historical periods
D. the jobs that men are better at than women
5. Queer studies explore:
A. the analytical weaknesses in dichotomous sexual opposites
B. the problems associated with dichotomous “gay” and “straight” categories
C. multiple, nonexclusive, and overlapping forms of sexual identity
D. all of the above

ANSWERS: 1–A; 2–D; 3–A; 4–C; 5–D

True-false questions
Are the following statements true or false? If any part of a statement is false, then the answer
must be F.
1. Gender is the same as sex.
T F
2. As the result of the feminist revolution, women dominate economic and political realms in
Western industrial societies.
T F
3. All societies divide up work according to gender.
T F
4. All societies divide up work according to gender in the same way.
T F
5. In America all aging people eventually end up in retirement homes.
T F
6. An age grade is an informal association of both boys and girls of the same age.
T F
7. Among traditional Navajo as many as four separate gender categories were recognized.
T F
8. Masculinist studies are a parallel to feminist studies, as it seeks to understand in part how
ideas about appropriate behaviors and work for men are culturally patterned.
T F
9. Retirement homes are found only in America, as all other cultures care for their aged in the
homes of their children.
T F
10. Anthropologists have demonstrated that work between men and women has always been
divided up in the same way.
T F

ANSWERS: 1–F; 2–F; 3–T; 4–F; 5–F; 6–F; 7–T; 8–T; 9–F; 10–F

Fill in the blank

Complete the following statement with the word or phrase that best completes the thought.
1. What field is most responsible for developing the notion of gender as an analytical construct
for understanding culture?
2. The field of scholarship that studies the construction of sexuality in historical and cultural
contexts is:

Chapter 1–22
3. The parallel to feminist studies, studying the construction of male roles in society is:
4. The term that refers to American immigrants over time reuniting their families across
generations in the United States is:
5. When age categories are formally named and recognized, and crosscut the entire society, they
are referred to as:

ANSWERS:
1. feminism/feminist anthropology
2. queer studies
3. masculinist studies
4. chain migration
5. age grades

Internet Activities
1. A website titled Gender Games, developed by Candy Tymson discusses the different
communicative styles of males and females in the business world. The general website address is
http://www.tymson.com.au/. Go to that site, then follow the link to “Articles and Stories” and
then to the article, “Business Communication—Bridging the Gender Gap.” After reading the
article, document the different communicative styles information style vesus relationship style)
of men and women. Observe conversations between men only and between women only and
then between men and women to see if you can document these differences.

2. The website Feminist Anthropology: Anthropological Theories, developed by James Boschma

and Marsha Franks at the University of Alabama, discusses the history of androcentric
anthropology and contemporary feminist anthropology. The site can be found at
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/feminism.htm. Answer the following questions based
on the material on this website:
• Who are the major theorists associated with feminist anthropology?
• What are the major accomplishments of this perspective?
• What are the major critiques of this perspective?
• In your opinion, how can the anthropological study of gender be strengthened in the future?
What issues not included currently do you think should be?

Chapter 1–23