ANTH 110/Fall 2013
Exam 1 Review sheet
Dr. Roberts

As per the syllabus the exam will be worth 75 points and comprised of multiple-choice, true-false, and matching questions.
It will be based upon material from the textbook as well as lectures and videos shown in class.

Remember I'm updating this review sheet all the way up to the exam, especially with any new video clips I might use.

What is Anthropology?
Gezon & Kottak Chapter 1

  1. Understand what is meant by the statement "anthropology is the holistic and comparative study of humanity".
  2. Know the four primary types of human adaptation and consider why their interrelationship has been particularly important for the human species. (This subject will be raised more systematically in subsequent chapters.)
  3. Be able to identify, distinguish, and describe the four subfields of U.S. anthropology. Know what distinguishes ethnography from ethnology.
  4. Understand why anthropology is considered a social science, how it integrates scientific and humanistic perspectives, and the role that the scientific method plays in structuring anthropological research and explanation.

Culture
Gezon & Kottak Chapter 2

  1. Know the defining dimensions of culture. In particular, understand what it means that culture is learned, symbolic, shared, all-encompassing, and integrated.
  2. Consider how people may avoid, subvert, and manipulate particular cultural "rules" and expectations, and know how anthropologists today tend to view and analyze such practices.
  3. Understand and be able to provide examples of cultural universalities, generalities, and particularities.
  4. Identify the three levels of culture described by Gezon and Kottak and address why it is important to differentiate among them.
  5. Distinguish between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism and consider how both relate to human rights.
  6. Identify and understand the mechanisms of cultural change.
  7. Know how to define globalization and consider how people may affect and be affected by the interrelated forces of globalization.
 
Ethics and Methods
Gezon & Kottak Chapter 3
  1. Know the ethical dimensions of anthropology.
  2. Understand what ethnography is and why it is anthropology's distinctive strategy.
  3. Be able to identify and distinguish between the major ethnographic techniques and what kinds of information they collect.
  4. Understand why I used the example of Keiyo beliefs about malaria from my field research in Kenya.
  5. Understand some of the trends in the evolution of ethnography and how current ethnographers are increasingly doing multi-timed and multi-sited work.
  6. Know how ethnography and survey research differ in terms of methods, goals, and kinds of societies in which they are used.
Language and Communication
Gezon & Kottak Chapter 5

  1. Understand the structure and nature of animal communication and how it differs from human communication (language).
  2. Be familiar with nonverbal forms of communication like gestures, facial expressions, and body movements, and consider how these form an interwoven part of spoken language.
  3. Be able to identify the interrelated levels of organization in language (structure of language).
  4. Be familiar with the central premise of Noam Chomsky's concept of universal grammar, as well as that of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
  5. Know what distinguishes a focal vocabulary, and be able to identify the subject matter of semantics.
  6. Know what sociolinguists study. In particular, be familiar with how social difference is organized and maintained through specific, situated linguistic practices. Even as fundamentally social linguistic practices are differentially valued and evaluated, what does the concept of linguistic relativity assert?
  7. Know what BEV (Black English Vernacular) is and how it compares to SE (Standard English).
  8. Know what historical linguists study and how their work contributes to anthropology.