Cultural Antropology
Gram
Stratiquiz

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1. As a result of the introduction of sisal as a cash crop in the Brazilian village of Vila Nova, which of the following changes have taken place?
 Almost every family can now make a decent, if hard-working, living.
 Patterns of mutual aid and co-operation have increased among the farm families, who take turns working in each other's fields to ensure maximum yields for all of them.
 People unused to having cash available to them now spend their new profits unwisely on modern technologies, which they will not be able to maintain.
 Most villagers no longer grow their food, and must now work on the large plantations to earn money to buy food.
 All of the above are mentioned as direct or indirect results of this newcrop.
 

2. What is sisal?
 A spiny, cactus-like plant, with long fibers in its leaves which can be made into rope or twine.
 A form of marijuana, originally grown for use in native rituals, and now increasingly grown as a cash crop for export to the United States.
 A starchy root crop, somewhat like a potato, which is a staple of rural Brazilians' diets.
 A highly nutritious cereal grain, related to wheat, which can also be used to make a strong, dark native beer.
 A bamboo-like plant, used to make the native flutes regarded as necessary elements in Brazilian healing rituals.
 

3. In the shantytowns of Brazil (as described in the article, "Death Without Weeping"), how do mothers explain the deaths of so many of their infants?
 The mothers explain the high infant mortality as the result of the grinding poverty in which they are forced to live.
 The mothers believe that Jesus has called the babies back to Heaven, to be with Him.
 The mothers know that the babies are starving to death, and could be saved by better care.
 The mothers believe that Satan has stolen their babies, because they are so beautiful...and that there's no way to fight the devil.
 The mothers blame themselves for not knowing how to provide the care their infants need, and feel each loss with both guilt and grief.
 

4. The nutritional studies carried out in Vila Nova, Brazil, reveal which of the following health patterns among sisal workers' families?
 The grown-ups were depriving themselves of necessary calories and nutrition in order to see to it that their children were well-fed.
 Because of the government "hot lunch" programs in the schools, children were often nutritionally better off than their parents.
 Childrens' diets were more deficient in calories and nutritional value than their parents' diets.
 Although the quantity of food per household diminished, with the new foods that had become available, the nutritional quality of daily meals improved.
 

5. What changes have occurred in Vila Nova, Brazil, as a result of the turn to sisal as a cash crop?
 Because there is now money to buy foods from outside the region, everyone is eating a more balanced diet than before.
 Families are tending to be larger, as there is an economic incentive to have more workers.
 Most of the sisal workers and small farmers have become dependent for necessary supplies on a new, relatively wealthy class of small businessmen.
 The conflicts between ranchers and sisal growers have intensified, as the growers fence off what used to be free grazing range.
 The mechanization of sisal production has freed the children from laboring in the fields, so more children are now attending school.
 
 
 
    
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