Candidate’s Exam No: _______________________

UNIVERSITY OF KENT
SE301/09

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

LEVEL C EXAMINATION

ANTHROPOLOGY

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Saturday, 6 June 2009 : 9.30-12.30

The paper comprises TWO sections. Candidates must answer ALL Multiple choice
questions in Section A and TWO of the essay questions in Section B. Answers to
Section A are worth one third of the total marks for the paper, whilst answers to Section
B are worth two thirds. Candidates should allocate their time accordingly.

Answers to all questions in Section B should be supported and illustrated with

ethnographic examples where relevant.

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 Part A. Multiple Choice Questions

Tick the answer you think is the most accurate:

1. According to de Saussure, the ‘signified’ is:

A person or thing in the real world A

A person or thing that has been elevated to high B

status
A mental concept C

An act of particular social significance D

2. The formulae MBS and MBD refer to:

Matrilateral second cousins A

A nephew and niece B

Matrilateral cross-cousins C

Agnatic cousins D

3. According to Sahlins, ‘negative reciprocity’ occurs when:

One party makes a profit A

One part refuses to enter into an exchange B

The exchange is delayed C

The exchange is considered immoral D

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4. The ‘Kula ring’ is:

A form of initiation ceremony A

A system of exchange B

A ceremonial ring worn by Azande princes C

The deliberate destruction of wealth D

5. ‘Charter myths’ refer to myths:

That establish rights, duties and obligations A

That are true or have historical content B

That have been written-down C

That relate to the Church D

6. ‘Rites of passage’ are rites:

That you must perform before a journey A

That you must perform before passing through a B

doorway
That are used to bless canoes, particularly in the C
Trobriand Islands.
That effect a change in a person’s status D

7. The Azande poison oracle works by:

A chicken dying if the person named is guilty A

A series of chickens dying if the person named is B

guilty
A chicken living if the person is innocent C

A chicken either living or dying if the person named D

is guilty according to which way the question is
asked

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8. ‘Gender’ is:

A set of social attributes and roles related to a A

person’s being male or female
A person’s secondary sexual characteristics, B
including height, weight, strength etc
A technical term used in sociology and anthropology C
to refer to a person’s sex
The sum total of universal differences between D
males and females

9. For Levi-Strauss ‘structuralism’ is a mode of analysis:

That seeks to define the structure of a society, i.e. A

its social ‘shape’
That claims that the structure of a cultural artefact is B
more important than its use
That sees the value of any element in a cultural C
system as dependent on the set of relationships it
holds with the other elements in that system
That studies the hierarchical structures of societies, D
i.e. chiefs, princes, ‘big men’

10. According to Benedict Anderson, ‘imagined communities’ are:

Ideal communities that are represented only in A

myths
Communities that are imagined to have special B
abilities in relation to ritual practices
Communities that are ‘unreal’ and which can be C
contrasted with empirically observable groups
Communities with which people identify without D
knowing all the individuals that comprise them

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 SECTION B - ESSAY QUESTIONS

9. Classification is ‘the primate and fundamental concern of social anthropology’.

(Needham) Discuss.

10. Discuss the social and cultural significance of EITHER gifts OR food

11. Is it possible to define religion?

12. A society’s myths and rituals reveal what is important to its members. Discuss.

13. Children are born, but adults are socially created. Discuss.

14. Marriage is... ‘a bundle of rights’. (Leach) Discuss this bundle in relation to AT
LEAST TWO societies.

15. Ethnicity is a social construct. Discuss.

16. Does globalization mean the end of anthropology?