Cultural Anthropology quiz

More questions about Cultural Anthropology

These visible examples show the question style. LearnClash turns the full topic into ranked duels and spaced repetition.

1. 1 Easy

   Which descriptive study of a culture comes from long fieldwork?

   Answer: Ethnography

   Why: Malinowski's Trobriand fieldwork between 1915 and 1918 became Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), the book that made immersion the standard.

2. 2 Medium

   Why do some cultures practice the tradition of levirate marriage?

   Answer: Providing for a widow

   Why: The name comes from levir, Latin for a husband's brother, and the mirror custom binding a widower to his late wife's sister is called sororate.

3. 3 Hard

   Why did the Tiwi traditionally marry off infant girls to old men?

   Answer: For political social capital

   Why: Among the Tiwi, bestowal was the main way to get young wives, and successful older men often had many, even up to 20.

4. 4 Easy

   Why do indigenous people in the Andes chew coca leaves?

   Answer: To suppress hunger

   Why: Coca also blunts thirst, fatigue and cold, and this mild stimulant is chewed most at high altitude and among mineworkers.

5. 5 Medium

   How do Melanesian Big Men initially acquire their political power?

   Answer: Through strategic gift giving

   Why: Ongka of the Kawelka gave away 600 pigs, 12 cassowaries, a motorbike and a pick-up truck at one moka, then declared he had won by giving.

6. 6 Hard

   How did the transition to a cash economy affect Ju/'hoansi?

   Answer: It increased material inequality

   Why: Wage jobs went mostly to men, and collecting wealth challenges the Ju/'hoansi tradition of sharing.