Chap 1 – Flashcard Test Questions
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Modern archaeologists study ancient peoples by 1. making an educated guess based primarily on what they know about a specific natural environment. 2. relying only on what they can learn from artifacts. 3. combining a variety of approaches that include the study of artifacts and attention to environmental factors. 4. relying only on written documents.
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combining a variety of approaches that include the study of artifacts and attention to environmental factors.
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In AD 1492, the empire of the Mexica 1. traded peacefully with neighboring groups, which allowed the Mexica to develop a rich culture that included writing, waterworks, gardens, and zoos. 2. encompassed 2.5 million people and had a rich culture due to the region's abundant rainfall and natural resources. 3. encompassed up to 25 million people and became enriched by redistributing the wealth of those they conquered. 4. stretched from Brazil to Mexico and encompassed 5 million people.
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encompassed up to 25 million people and became enriched by redistributing the wealth of those they conquered
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Anasazi culture disappeared 1. for reasons that remain a mystery. 2. because of a drought that lasted more than fifty years. 3. because many Anasazi left in pursuit of the great bison. 4. because the Anasazi lost a series of wars with neighboring Indian groups.
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because of a drought that lasted more than fifty years.
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Eastern Woodland peoples around the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492 clustered into which three major groups? 1. Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Muskogean peoples 2. Sioux, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet peoples 3. Apache, Navajo, and Hopi tribes 4. Pawnee, Mandan, and Comanche tribes
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Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Muskogean peoples
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Multistory cliff dwellings and pueblos are residential structures associated with the 1. Anasazi communities. 2. Adena people. 3. Hopewell excavations. 4. Mogollon culture
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Anasazi communities
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Although the exact time people began migrating to North America is debated by experts, the first migrants probably arrived 1. around 15,000 BP. 2. over 1.5 million years ago. 3. around 25,000 BP. 4. less than 5,000 years ago.
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around 15,000 BP.
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The League of Five Nations, which remained powerful well into the eighteenth century, was formed as 1. an alliance among Spain, England, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal in AD 1500 to promote New World exploration. 2. a confederation of the Iroquoian tribes for the purposes of war and diplomacy. 3. an alliance among the Algonquian tribes for the purposes of perpetuating their nomadic existence. 4. a confederation of the Aztec tribes for the purpose of establishing a trade network.
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a confederation of the Iroquoian tribes for the purposes of war and diplomacy
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Evidence indicates that before 1492 Native Americans 1. engaged in violent conflict with others infrequently and in limited ways. 2. engaged in extensive and frequent religious and familial conflicts. 3. lived in peace and harmony with each other. 4. engaged in violent conflict and that some practiced cannibalism.
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engaged in violent conflict and that some practiced cannibalism.
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Around the time Europeans arrived in the New World, most native North Americans obtained much of their food 1. through a combination of trade and farming. 2. through a combination of hunting and gathering and farming. 3. through a combination of hunting and long-distance trade. 4. from local trade
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through a combination of hunting and gathering and farming.
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The Archaic Indians in the Great Basin inhabited a region of 1. predominantly desert topography with little plant or animal life. 2. great environmental diversity, including marshes, deserts, and mountains. 3. few game animals and waterfowl. 4. moderate temperature variations and long growing seasons.
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great environmental diversity, including marshes, deserts, and mountains
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The Archaic Indians of the Great Basin maintained their basic hunter-gatherer way of life until long after AD 1492 by 1. concentrating their settlements near the rainy foothills of mountains. 2. relying primarily on a diet of small-game meat. 3. diversifying their food sources and migrating to favorable locations. 4. carefully charting and following the migrations of a particular game animal.
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diversifying their food sources and migrating to favorable locations.
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Around 4000 BP, which of the following important changes occurred among Woodland cultures? 1. They began focusing less on hunting and more on plant gathering because their traditional animal food sources were becoming scarce. 2. They abandoned their hunting-gathering lifestyle and built permanent settlements devoted to raising corn. 3. They incorporated limited forms of plant growing and pottery making into their hunting-gathering lifestyle. 4. They abandoned their hunting-gathering lifestyle and began domesticating animals for food sources.
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They incorporated limited forms of plant growing and pottery making into their hunting-gathering lifestyle
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After their arrival in the Western Hemisphere, Paleo-Indians migrated to the southern tip of South America and virtually everywhere else in the Western Hemisphere within 1. 10,000 years or so. 2. 50 years or so. 3. 100 years or so. 4. 1,000 years or so.
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1,000 years or so.
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Which of the following is an accurate description of Archaic Indians? 1. They hunted smaller game with traps, nets, and hooks and used tools to process wild foods. 2. They domesticated animals as a food source. 3. They depended on agriculture for food. 4. Most established permanent, though small, villages.
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They hunted smaller game with traps, nets, and hooks and used tools to process wild foods.
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Modern archaeologists study ancient peoples by 1. combining a variety of approaches that include the study of artifacts and attention to environmental factors. 2. relying only on what they can learn from artifacts. 3. making an educated guess based primarily on what they know about a specific natural environment. 4. relying only on written documents.
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combining a variety of approaches that include the study of artifacts and attention to environmental factors.
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The primary reason native peoples in California remained hunters and gatherers for hundreds of years after Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere was that 1. the small number of tribes in the region freely shared acorn-gathering territory. 2. both land and ocean provided an abundant food supply. 3. California was the least populated area in ancient America, and little competition existed for food sources. 4. the California peoples developed specialized diets that included only fish and marine life.
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both land and ocean provided an abundant food supply.
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The Athapascan tribes—mainly Apache and Navajo—were 1. skillful warriors who preyed on the sedentary pueblo Indians. 2. descendants of the Anasazi cultures who lived in settled agricultural communities. 3. migrants from Mesoamerica who invaded the southwest. 4. successful farmers who grew both corn and sunflowers.
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skillful warriors who preyed on the sedentary pueblo Indians
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The greatest similarity among the many tribes that inhabited North America at the dawn of European colonization was that 1. they used domesticated animals for hunting and agricultural production. 2. they employed some form of written language. 3. they no longer depended on hunting and gathering for the major proportion of their food. 4. their distinct cultures had developed as adaptations to their local natural environments.
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their distinct cultures had developed as adaptations to their local natural environments
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Burial mounds and chiefdoms are associated with 1. Southwestern cultures. 2. Great Basin cultures. 3. Woodland cultures. 4. Pacific Northwest cultures.
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Woodland cultures.
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The apparent uniformity of the big-game-oriented Clovis culture was replaced by great cultural diversity in the last eleven millennia because people devoted more energy to 1. developing trade networks, which led to more bartering and exchange of ideas. 2. domesticating animals to replace the large mammals, which led to greater specialization of tribal roles. 3. foraging, which pushed them into other natural environments and led to more profound environmental adaptations. 4. developing stationary agriculture, which led to more diverse farming cultures.
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foraging, which pushed them into other natural environments and led to more profound environmental adaptations
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Agriculture changed Archaic cultures because it 1. encouraged the gradual establishment of permanent settlements and discouraged mobility. 2. discouraged permanent settlements and encouraged mobility. 3. made Native Americans more vulnerable to smallpox and other diseases. 4. quickly led to the disappearance of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
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encouraged the gradual establishment of permanent settlements and discouraged mobility.
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. Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, Missouri, was 1. the birthplace of the most powerful ancient chief. 2. a remarkably egalitarian Mississippian village. 3. noteworthy for its lack of burial mounds. 4. the largest Mississippian site.
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the largest Mississippian site.
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Spanish conquerors exploited the weaknesses of the Mexican empire, which included 1. subject peoples who did not see the Mexica as legitimate or fair rulers. 2. an overreliance on trade with neighboring cultures. 3. diverse tribal factions that were often in conflict with one another. 4. a brewing democratic reform movement
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subject peoples who did not see the Mexica as legitimate or fair rulers
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Ancient Southwestern Indians became experts in 1. soil conservation. 2. wild-game conservation. 3. waterfowl conservation. 4. water conservation.
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water conservation.
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The basic reason for the early, prolonged absence of humans in the Western Hemisphere is that 1. plentiful food made it unnecessary for northern European tribes to seek a different home. 2. large herds of mammoths made migration to the Americas too dangerous. 3. the warm climate of Africa attracted most of the earth's population. 4. North and South America had become detached from the gigantic continent of Pangaea.
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North and South America had become detached from the gigantic continent of Pangaea.
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Most of the artifacts that have survived from the Paleo-Indian era suggest that the first Americans 1. used bows and arrows to kill small animals. 2. specialized in hunting big mammals. 3. ate no plant foods. 4. developed permanent settlements along the Canadian Rockies.
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specialized in hunting big mammals.
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Which of the following statements does not accurately describe the work of a historian? 1. Historians study artifacts but focus more of their attention on written documents left by people in the past. 2. Historians and archaeologists usually employ different methods to obtain information. 3. Historians seek artifacts over written documents to determine the attitudes of a people. 4. Historians study personal as well as public writings
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Historians seek artifacts over written documents to determine the attitudes of a people.
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At the time of Columbus's arrival in the New World, the population of Native Americans in North America is prudently estimated to have been 1. 500,000. 2. 1 million. 3. 15 million. 4. 4 million.
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4 million
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About 11,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians faced a major crisis because 1. the large animals they hunted had difficulty adapting to a warming climate. 2. people had difficulty living in a cooling climate. 3. an overconcentration on hunting small animals eliminated many of the food sources of the large mammals. 4. running water became scarce as the climate cooled.
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the large animals they hunted had difficulty adapting to a warming climate.
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The Wisconsin glaciation created conditions that permitted 1. a very narrow land bridge to surface for a short time so that some migrating hunters could leave Asian Siberia and enter American Alaska. 2. freezing of the waters of the Bering Strait, which supported over-the-ice migration of hunters into American Alaska. 3. a warming of the waters of the Bering Strait, thereby raising the sea level 350 feet and allowing easy navigation over submerged icebergs. 4. the creation of Beringia, which supported herds of mammoth, bison, and smaller animals.
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the creation of Beringia, which supported herds of mammoth, bison, and smaller animals.
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Though ancient Americans lacked writing skills, they 1. shared a common spoken language. 2. differed from most people over the past 400 million years in this respect. 3. knew how to read. 4. used many other kinds of symbolic representation.
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used many other kinds of symbolic representation
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Early Woodland Indians practiced basic survival strategies including 1. hunting deer and gathering nuts and seeds. 2. building large, permanent settlements and growing a variety of crops. 3. following the great herds of bison and harvesting wild-growing corn. 4. herding sheep and fishing for salmon.
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hunting deer and gathering nuts and seeds
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Multistory cliff dwellings and pueblos are residential structures associated with the 1. Mogollon culture. 2. Hopewell excavations. 3. Adena people. 4. Anasazi communities.
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Anasazi communities.
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In 1492, Native American cultures were 1. characterized by an impressive level of similarity and unity. 2. divided into about a dozen groups whose members shared most important cultural traits. 3. becoming increasingly unified and similar. 4. so varied that they defy easy and simple description.
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so varied that they defy easy and simple description.
