PART THREE: Answer 5 of these questions with a few sentences or a paragraph. Be thorough and clear. (4 points each)
1. What are the three main components of the “anthropological perspective”? How do they depend on each other?
2. How and why did a science—or at least a perspective—like anthropology not begin to emerge in Western civilization until the last few centuries? What are the main barriers to an anthropological perspective? What made it possible for Western societies to gradually develop an anthropological perspective since around the year 1500?
3. Discuss the idea of the “distribution of culture.” What are the four “levels” or degrees of distribution? Give an example or two of each, from your own culture. Why is this an important idea for understanding the shared and transmitted quality of culture?
4. What does it mean to say that language is more than a way to exchange factual information? How and why does language convey “social information”? How does language actually achieve “social effects”? Give some examples.
5. What do anthropologists mean when we say that gender is culturally constructed? What is the evidence that gender is a culturally relative concept or category? What kinds of practices to cultures use to construct culturally-appropriate gendered persons?
6. Most anthropologists agree that “race” is a cultural concept. According to Smedley, what are the specific features of the North American concept of race? Why did this concept develop—that is, why do North American and European societies have such a concept?