Practice Exam 1

ANT 105

Fall 2008

You will receive 5 bonus points for attempting to complete the practice midterm by classtime on Thursday, September 17—correct or incorrect answers are important only to remind you what to study. Answers will be posted after class on Thursday, September 17. You should grade your own definitions and essay, and you may ask Dr. Reber to make comments on your essay. Please send e-mailed copies of the exam to rebere@uncw.edu.

Please define two of the following four terms, and say how they are important to the study of anthropology:

1) Society

A group of people sharing a culture and political and social institutions; it usually inhabits a definite territory. It is important to anthropology because anthropologists study them, and because theoretically European anthropology tended to be more about societies than cultures.

2) Longitudinal Research

A long-term study of an anthropological culture, taking place over many years and often with many different researchers. This is important because it allows anthropologists to learn about how a culture changes over time, rather than just giving a snapshot.

3) Blended family

A blended family is a nuclear family made up of a serially monogamous couple, their children from previous marriages, and their children from the present marriage. It is important because it tends to be a marker for serial monogamous societies with bilateral or ambilineal kinship, nuclear families, and neolocal or ambilocal family residences.

4) Serial monogamy

Serial monogamy is when the marriage structure is monogamous, but divorce is allowed and people often engage in more than one marriage. Our society is serially monogamous. It is important because it often occurs in societies with a high degree of flexibility, bilateral, ambilineal, or matrilineal kinship, and either neolocal or ambilocal family residences. It generally only happens in societies with a reasonable degree of female influence. It does not often happen in societies where women cannot own property and cannot have custody of their children.

Write a paragraph on one of the following two topics:

5) Can people of the same race belong to different ethnicities? Why? Give at least one example.

Yes, people of the same race can belong to different ethnicities, because of the basic definition of both ethnicity and race. Ethnicity is how you define yourself, based on a feeling of origin. Race is how other people in your culture define you, based on physical appearance. It is quite possible for people of the same race to define themselves as different ethnicities. Examples are very common, and can range from the personal (people you know who fulfill the situation), cross-cultural (people who define themselves as different ethnicities, while our culture defines them as the same race, due to our cultures definition of race), or public (public figures who fulfill this situation).

6) Pick a TV show or sports event that you regularly watch, and enjoy watching. Briefly analyze it anthropologically. Does it serve a cultural function? What does it tell you about the larger culture?

Any TV show or sports event will work for this question. The main point is to look at the cultural elements of the show, and to do so from at least a slightly etic aspect. How does it define friendship, kinship, relationships, marriage? Is this definition the same as that used in the culture at large? Do you think some aspect of the show or sports event serves a cultural function, as in shared ritual (many sports), outlets for frustration, or explaining the struggle between old and new definitions of kinship or marriage? All these things will help you look at the larger culture.