Deck 4: Shamans, Priests, and Prophets

Question 1

In the introductory section to Chapter four, the editors assert that societies that place a great deal of emphasis on religious experts tend to

A) be small, scale hunter-gatherer societies.
B) have political systems that are one and the same with the religious leadership.
C) organize civic life around the agricultural cycles.
D) produce their own food and have complex political and social systems.

Answer 1

produce their own food and have complex political and social systems.

Question 2

The goal of this chapter is to explore

A) the typology of religious specialists and how they function within their religious and cultural system.
B) which practices concerned with the supernatural are actually "religious."
C) how all religious figures have essentially the same role within their traditions if they are understood within context.
D) why shamanism is a mark of less complex, and less structured societies.

Answer 2

the typology of religious specialists and how they function within their religious and cultural system.

Question 3

All of the following are important in anthropological studies of religious leaders EXCEPT:

A) Understanding the structure, society, and supernatural world of the studied culture/group.
B) Understanding weather or not the tasks performed by religious specialists are religious.
C) Understanding how religious leaders are identified or designated.
D) Understanding the exact procedure of rituals/tasks that the religious leader carries out.

Answer 3

Understanding the exact procedure of rituals/tasks that the religious leader carries out.

Question 4

Turner asserts early on in his article that the practice of manipulating impersonal supernatural powers referred to as "magic"is

A) not a religious practice, in the Western anthropological sense of the word.
B) sometimes associated with religion, but is actually more connected to methods of social control and conflict resolution.
C) considered a religious practice because some element of the supernatural is manipulated for specific ends.
D) misguided superstition and, therefore, doesn't involve truly religious concepts.

Question 5

How does Max Weber characterize the "prophet"?

A) The prophet is one of the select few religious heretics that ever gained public support.
B) The prophet is the "impatient priest" who divines a "better path" to spiritual communion.
C) The prophet is distinguished by a personal call-the claim to authority is based upon divine revelation and charisma.
D) The prophet serves as a reinforcement or revitalization of community stability.

Question 6

Although priests and shamans sometimes coexist as among the Plains Indians of North America, Turner notes that shamans are most often found where the priest is absent in

A) small-scale agricultural societies with ceremonial public "calendrical" rites.
B) food-gathering cultures where they perform "non-calendrical" rites to address illness or mishap.
C) cultures that operate with an inherent cultural fear of supernatural mischievousness and treachery.
D) small-scale societies with high incidences of inter- and inner-tribal conflict.

Question 7

Turner uses the term "divination"to refer to all of the following practices except

A) inquiring about the future events and matters affecting entire tribes and nations from a Supreme Being.
B) gaining insight into "untoward events" of the past through analysis of the past.
C) inquiring about future personal and immediate events or matters from a deity or supernatural power.

Question 8

Turner notes that the roles of "diviner"and "doctor"are most often

A) combined into a single recognized position of healer among food-producing societies.
B) specialized and performed by different individuals.
C) stratified by a hierarchy of religious specialists in any society.
D) combined into a single recognized position of healer among food-gathering societies.

Question 9

Why does Vitebsky argue that the word "shamanism"may not be an accurate term?

A) The term "shaman" is only used by the people in about half the religions referred to as "shamanism."
B) Neo-shamanism of today has changed people's ideas of traditional shamanism.
C) "-ism" carries a connotation of formality used when describing "western" religions which may be inappropriate for more fluid and flexible religions.
D) The term was derived from a tribe in Amazonia which has few similarities to other peoples around the world.

Question 10

While the term "shamanism"has been defined in various ways, to Vitebsky _________ is the single most important defining feature.

A) soul flight
B) anyone thought to have a special relationship with spirits
C) religions of the non-European peoples of the circumpolar north
D) one who possesses a unique relationship with animals

Question 11

Vitebsky uses the examples of the Iglulik Inuit and the Sora to show

A) how shamanism has evolved since prehistoric times.
B) the ways in which the shaman is viewed as a deity to the local people and plays a role outside the social structure.
C) the vast differences in shamanism around the world.
D) the public role of the shaman and the way his/her role is embedded in the local social structure.

Question 12

One difference between shamanic and neo-shamanic practices of today is that

A) neo-shamanic practitioners argue that shamanism is a technique anyone can learn.
B) shamanic practices hold a validity and originality that neo-shamanic practices do not.
C) neo-shamanic practices are evolving all the time while shamanic practices stay relatively unchanged.
D) there is only one shaman that serves a group of people in traditional shamanism.

Question 13

Brown notes that shamanism in the Amazon has some "violent undercurrents"to it

A) that cancel out the superficial benefits gained from the practice.
B) even though shamans do beneficially serve their communities in numerous ways.
C) that go unnoticed by native and New Age practitioners alike.
D) but that they pale in comparison to the kind of violence that would predominate if the quasi-judicial system of a belief in sorcery didn't exist.

Question 14

Brown finds the New Age embrace of shamanism unsettling because

A) he is afraid that practitioners will unwittingly increase tension in their communities instead of alleviating it.
B) shamanistic traditions are being incorporated into Christian rituals.
C) it lacks an appreciation of the cultural context and the rather stark facts about the practice.
D) people are going to shamans when they should just go to the doctor.

Question 15

Reichel-Dolmatoff suggests that we should conceive of the Kogi as

A) a materially complex culture with a wide range of unique adaptations to their environment.
B) a group of people we should respect for their ability to live in harmony and balance with nature.
C) a people who have developed a spiritual means of accepting hardship and misfortune.
D) indigenous people who have successfully remained untainted by the modern world.

Question 16

To Kogi men, women are seen as

A) a symbol for purity and spiritual divinity.
B) intrinsically evil and desirous of conflict.
C) tricksters.
D) obstacles to spiritual growth.
E) living representations of the cosmic egg.

Question 17

Which term best denotes the meaning of aluna?

A) spiritual
B) libidinous
C) imaginary
D) otherworldly

Question 18

Which of the following is not a field of study central to the education of a Máma?

A) mythology
B) community leadership
C) social structure
D) biology
E) rhetoric

Question 19

Mámas hold counsels intended to

A) convey a condensed set of moral values to a group of men.
B) educate men in esoteric spiritual matters.
C) encourage women to abstain from sex and excessive sleeping and eating.
D) teach children the rudimentary social values of Kogi society.

Question 20

According to Reichel-Dolmatoff, Kogi priests serve an adaptive purpose, meaning

A) they help the Kogi adapt to their harsh physical environment by teaching agriculture, natural history, and vocational skills.
B) their ability to control the cycles of the sun allows them to keep the environment in balance, thus assuring a bountiful crop.
C) they provide the Kogi a spiritual way of reconciling themselves with a harsh and tenuous physical existence.
D) they are able to enforce social relationships that are critical for the material survival of the group.

Question 21

Which deity from another Asian religion became the primary deity of the Aum Shinrikyo movement?

A) Siddhartha
B) Shiva
C) Vishnu
D) Shoko Asahara

Question 22

All of the following were principles central to the Aum Shinrikyo movement and philosophiesEXCEPT:

A) Renouncing society and the outside world
B) Self-sufficiency
C) Central organization
D) Financial independence

Question 23

Shoko Asahara had which of the following anthropologically defined qualities of a "prophet"or religious leader:

A) He directly provided food to his followers.
B) He created a highly ordered society within the Aum movement.
C) He encouraged use of monetary tender.
D) All of the above.

Question 24

All of the following are true demographics regarding Aum Shinrikyo membership EXCEPT:

A) Over 75% of Shukkesha members of Aum communities were women
B) Most Aum communities or "lotus villagers" were in rural areas
C) Members were spread across 25 villages in Japan and additional groups in Russia
D) Most Shukkesha members were in their 20s or 30s

Question 25

All of the following are conclusions that Mullins draws from his anthropological research on the Aum Shinrikyo movement and its creator Shoko Asahara EXCEPT:

A) Each new act of violence made future acts of violence easier and more important to cover up.
B) The movement's violence in rural areas garnered media attention, but not as much as the Tokyo subway nerve gas attacks of 1995.
C) The violence carried out in this "new religion" is consistent with the sociological theory of "democratization of evil.
D) "New religious" groups like the Aum Shinrikyo movement need to have widespread power and central organization to have clout or impact society outside of their group.

Question 26

The theory of unilineal evolution is one of the most important anthropological tools in any investigation of religious specialists.

Question 27

Anthropologists consider all specialists whose power emanates from supernatural agents to be in the realm of the religious (although some aim to serve and others to harm).

Question 28

As the scale, complexity, and degree of specialization increase within a society the domain of religion in social life contracts.

Question 29

Shamans, mediums, and prophets are generally more sensitive and responsive to the private and the personal than the priest.

Question 30

Women tend to be granted greater recognition and power as religious functionaries in complex societies.

Question 31

Vitebsky compares soul flight to hunting as evidence of shamanism's prehistoric roots.

Question 32

Trance is a technique of dissociation which the shaman is forced to enter and usually has little control over.

Question 33

A shaman's initiation ritual is usually filled with symbolism of transformation and rebirth.

Question 34

Shamans have often been compared to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.

Question 35

Vitebsky suggests that shamanism seems to be becoming a globalized world religion.

Question 36

Shamanism affirms life but also spawns violence and death.

Question 37

Brown shows how shamans simultaneously act as the sorcerers they are trying to protect people from, thereby creating the need and delivering the remedy.

Question 38

Kogi villages are usually occupied throughout the year.

Question 39

A Kogi priest must be well-versed in all aspects of Kogi life.

Question 40

By isolating novice priests from the rest of society, Mámas intend to ensure the spiritual purity of such novices.

Question 41

There are both good and evil Mámas that are active in Kogi society.

Question 42

The education of a Kogi priest is a model for the education of all men.

Question 43

At the time the 1995 Tokyo Subway nerve gas attacks, Aum Shinrikyo was a well-established, well-known "new religion"globally.

Question 44

Shukkesha are members of Aum who have renounced society and live in communes.

Question 45

Asahara's Aum movement had infiltrated the ministry of science and technology in efforts to produce massive amounts of sarin nerve gas to spray and create the apocalypse that Aum followers believed would come.