Saturday, September 1, 2018

LET SOCIAL SCIENCE - ANTHROPOLOGY


Sample Test on Anthropology
Choose the letter of the best answer.
1. 'Lost villages' like Pilfershire can be found:
  a. using satellite imaging.
  b. only by archaeologists.
  c. often just by taking a walk in the woods.
  d. All of the above.

2. The belief that processes like weathering and erosion are responsible for the appearance of the earth is known as:
  a. natural selection.
  b. creationism.
  c. uniformitarianism.
  d. adaptation.

3. A place where people lived and/or worked and where the physical evidence of their existence can be or has been recovered is:
  a. a feature.
  b. an ecofact.
  c. a site.
  d. an artifact.

4. Archaeology is a branch of
  a. cultural anthropology.
  b. biological anthropology.
  c. anthropology.
  d. paleoanthropology.

5. How does anthropology differ from other social sciences such as economics and sociology?
  a. The other social sciences are holistic and integrative in their approach.
  b. Anthropology tends to specialize in the workings of specific systems.
  c. Anthropology is holistic and integrative in its approach.
  d. Anthropology is more important than the other social sciences.

6. Researchers who study humans by residing in particular societies and observing the behaviors of the people are:
  a. archaeologists.
  b. linguists.
  c. ethnographers.
  d. paleoanthropologists.

7. A person who believes that the current appearance of the earth can be best explained as having resulted from a series of natural disasters is known as a:
  a. debaclist.
  b. cataclysmist.
  c. catastrophist.
  c. calamitist.
 
8. When the author refers to the 'detritus of past people' he is writing about their:
  a. debris.
  b. written records.
  c. gravestones.
  d. all the above.

9. Creationists believed the Earth had not changed since its creation less than six _________ years earlier.
  a. hundred
  b. thousand
  c. million
  d. billion

10. In 1797, John Frere found some unusual _________ in an English quarry.
  a. animal remains
  b. creationist documents
  c. stone tools
  d. human skulls

11. The significance of Frere's discovery was that the things he'd found were located
  a. above a large deposit of gold
  b. beneath the remains of extinct animals
  c. in a place no one thought humans had ever lived
  d. right where the elves had left them.

12.Which archaeological method is best for identifying large-scale land modifications?
  a. test pits
  b. ground-penetrating radar
  c. aerial photography
  d. proton magnetometers

13. Stratigraphy is:
  a. the study of the earth's layers.
  b. the jutting forward of the lower face and jaw area.
  c. a design etched into a rock face.
  d. the study of ancient diseases.

14. Charles Lyell, an English geologist and a uniformitarian, believed that the world must be extremely old. His based his argument on the fact that
  a. he had developed an innovative reading of Genesis.
  b. catastrophic events (volcanoes, floods) had happened long ago.
  c. he had found human and mammoth bones in the same cave.
  d. erosion works incredibly slowly.

15. The three-age system refers to:
  a. the human physical stages of infancy, puberty and adulthood.
  b. the ripening of cheese.
  c. the breakdown of human culture into a Stone Age, a Bronze Age and an Iron Age.
  d. the chronological classification of human achievement into a Gold Age, a Silver Age, and a Bronze Age.

16. Who is best known as an ethnographer?
  a. Jane Goodall
  b. Dian Fossey
  c. Margaret Mead
  d. Farley Mowat

17. In nature a mode or strategy for survival is known as:
  a. an association.
  b. artificial selection.
  c. an adaptation.
  d. adaptive radiation.

18. While studying animals (e.g., finches and turtles) on the Galapagos islands, Darwin was struck by the fact that
  a. each island seemed to have a sort of finch or turtle that was related to the species on the mainland, but recognizably different.
  b. the island species were more advanced (stronger, faster) than those on the mainland.
  c. the human population of the islands lived in tranquility with the animals.
  d. fossil remains showed that the animals had existed there for millennia largely unchanged.

19. _________ is the set of strategies for survival that are NOT genetically determined.
  a. Evolution
  b. Adaptation
  c. Culture
  d. Social life

20. 'Subsistence patterns' refers to:
  a. what people ate
  b. where they lived
  c. how they buried their dead
  d. both A and C

21. According to Lewis Henry Morgan's stages of human culture, labeled savagery, barbarism and civilization, which of the following statements is correct?
  a. A culture that is in a stage other than civilized is 'stuck' there due to something lacking in their society.
  b. A culture is civilized once it discovers pottery and animal husbandry.
  c. The advancement of raw materials is the determining factor in deciding what stage a society is in.
  d. All the above

22. Which field of anthropology concentrates on the human past?
  a. paleoanthropology
  b. archaeology
  c. primatology
  d. both A and B

23. Trace element analysis:
  a. determines the geographic source of materials used by ancient peoples
  b. is used to discover archaeological sites without digging
  c. classifies items based on similarities and differences
  d. determines spatial distribution of buried materials by digging holes

24. A proposed explanation for some phenomenon that may be derived initially from empirical observation by a process called induction is a:
  a. hypothesis.
  b. theory.
  c. scientific method.
  d. deduction.

25. Artifacts _________; ecofacts __________
  a. are valuable and rare; are easy to come by.
  b. are made by humans; exhibit traces of human activity.
  c. decay rapidly; last for a long time.
  d. are facts about art; are facts about nature.

26. A site's spatial arrangement is:
  a. not as important as the recovered artifacts
  b. more important than the recovered artifacts
  c. ruined once digging begins
  d. none of the above

27. Which subfield of anthropology could be described as studying 'other people's garbage?'
  a. primatology
  b. archaeology
  c. paleoanthropology
  d. linguistics

28. Taphonomy is
  a. a systematic classification based on similarities and differences.
  b. the study of how materials ended up in a particular place.
  c. a study of the spatial relationships among artifacts, ecofacts, and features.
  d. a dating technique based on the decay of a radioactive isotope of carbon.

29. A _________ contains primary refuse; a _________ contains secondary refuse.
  a. kitchen; garden
  b. grave; hospital
  c. picnic site; trash dump
  d. dumpster; recycling bin

30. Pompeii was unusually well preserved because
  a. the layer of volcanic pumice created a seal over the remains
  b. the avalanches pushed the remains into the sea
  c. poisonous volcanic gases killed people instantly
  d. the Romans embalmed the victims

31. The appropriateness of pedestrian surveys depends on two factors:
  a. primary and secondary refuse
  b. artifacts and ecofacts
  c. visibility and obtrusiveness
  d. test pits and remote-sensing devices

32. Which of the following is a remote-sensing device used to find archaeological sites?
  a. ground-penetrating radar
  b. proton magnetometers
  c. electrical resistivity meters
  d. all the above

33. Which of the following methods is not used to remove the soil enclosing site materials?
  a. brushes
  b. trowels
  c. shovels
  d. dental picks

34. The context in which an artifact is found:
  a. is lost once digging begins.
  b. is not as important as the artifact.
  c. provides only a fraction of information.
  d. is crucial to understanding the site.

35. Scientists don't usually determine an artifact's function by studying its
  a. morphology.
  b. molecular structure.
  c. location.
  d. wear patterns.

36. The presence of caribou bones found near the Hudson River valley in New York from a site dated 10,000 years ago implies:
  a. there were good relations between Canada and the United States.
  b. a much colder climate during that time period.
  c. the main food source was caribou meat.
  d. the pre-historic people who lived at this site had high cholesterol.

37. Which of the following signifies that a person was very young when they died?
  a. The fusion of the epiphyses to the diaphysis.
  b. The absence of cranial sutures.
  c. The presence of deciduous dentition.
  d. All of the above.

38. What is the difference between an absolute date and a relative date?
  a. An absolute date refers to a year or a range of years, while a relative date indicates a chronological order.
  b. A relative date is derived from radiometric dating techniques, while an absolute date comes from guesswork.
  c. A relative date refers to a chronological order, while an absolute date indicates a year or a range of years
  d. An absolute date involves vodka, while a relative date is illegal.

39. By analyzing the levels of 13C in bones, researchers can establish whether an individual ate
  a. mostly meat or most vegetables
  b. mostly grains or mostly nuts and fruits
  c. no dairy or lots of dairy
  d. a certain type of honey produced only in sub-Saharan Africa

40. Which dating technique is based on the patterns of tree-ring growth?
  a. radiocarbon dating
  b. fission-track dating
  c. paleomagnetic dating
  d. dendrochronology

Answers below:
1 to 7: c
8. d
9. b
10. c
11. b
12. c
13. a
14. d
15 to 17. c
18. a
19. c
20. a
21. d
22. d
23. a
24. a
25. b
26. d
27. a
28. b
29. c
30. a
31.c
32. d
33. c
34. d
35. b
36. b
37. c
38. a
39. b
40. d