Assignment:
Short Answer Questions. Please answer the questions fully. There is not specific length required.
1. Ethically, an anthropologist should be unbiased and open-minded when conducting a study. However, this is not always the case. Think about Chagnon's work with the Yanomamo. Do you feel there were other examples of anthropologists whose work may have been ethically questionable this semester? Give specific examples and discuss how reactions and studies may have been handled more ethically.
2. What is cultural relativism? Why is it important for a cultural anthropologist to develop this outlook? Are there limits to cultural relativism? What do you think they should be?
3. Name and describe the four fields of anthropology. Anthropologists also debate the existence of a fifth field. What is this fifth field? Do you feel it should be considered a fifth field? Why or why not?
4. Contrast cultural materialism with interpretivism in terms of their theoretical position, definition of culture, and methods. Give examples of each from this semester.
5. Explain two of the different post marital residence patterns.
6. What is meant by functional theories and who was best known for using them?
7. Explain the difference between reciprocity and a potlatch.
8. What are two of the most important things for an anthropologist to do when they are preparing to go do fieldwork?
9. What are the differences between emic and etic? Give an example of how each would be used in field work.
10. What are the three distinguishing features of the industrial mode or reproduction?