Deck 21: Religion

Question 1

Who the mentioned in the text as a founder of the anthropology of religion?

A) Margaret Mead
B) Claude Lévi-Strauss
C) Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
D) Sir Edward Burnett Tylor
E) Bronislaw Malinowski

Answer 1

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor

Question 2

Marvin Harris's studies (1974,1978)of how beliefs and rituals may function as part of a group's cultural adaptation to its environment are an illustration of

A) how religion can play a prominent role in cultural ecology.
B) the dangers that religious effervescence can pose to the environment if it is not contained.
C) how nonhuman primates also have a capacity for religion, although it is very limited.
D) the dangers of extending the realm of religion to nature.
E) the fact that religion is evolutionarily adaptive.

Answer 2

how religion can play a prominent role in cultural ecology.

Question 3

What term refers to the manipulation of the supernatural to accomplish specific goals?

A) animism
B) magic
C) religion
D) a rite of passage
E) pantheism

Answer 3

magic

Question 4

Rituals serve the social function of creating temporary or permanent solidarity among people-forming a social community.We see this also in practices known as

A) mana.
B) liminality.
C) animism.
D) totemism.
E) fundamentalism.

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT among contemporary rites of passage?

A) initiation
B) fasting
C) baptism
D) marriage
E) bat mitzvah

Question 6

According to Victor Turner,all rites of passage have three phases: separation,liminality,and incorporation.Of these three,the liminal phase-which is the most interesting-is typically characterized by

A) intensification of the social hierarchy.
B) a forming of an implicit ranking system.
C) the use of secular language.
D) symbolic reversals of ordinary behavior.
E) no change in the social norms.

Question 7

What is communitas?

A) a social inequality that is accepted even by those who are less privileged
B) a collective liminality
C) anxiety
D) the Latin word for mana
E) the supernatural

Question 8

Bronislaw Malinowski found that the Trobriand Islanders used magic when sailing,a hazardous activity.He proposed that

A) people turn to magic to instill psychological stress on their competitors, especially when the fish supply is very low.
B) magic actually reduced the fishing success of the Trobriand Islanders, but at least they did not feel directly responsible, since then they could blame it on bad luck.
C) magic was a surprisingly effective stand-in for proper fishing skills and experience, because it made people confident in their capabilities.
D) because people can't control matters such as wind, weather, and the fish supply, they turn to magic.
E) magic emboldened people to take more risks.

Question 9

What kind of religion is based on the idea that each human has a double that is active during sleep?

A) animatism
B) totemism
C) animism
D) mana
E) polytheism

Question 10

Like ethnicity and language,religion also is

A) a social fiction.
B) a topic of research that distinguishes anthropology from other disciplines.
C) a phenomenon that illustrates the power of biology over culture.
D) a cultural generality.
E) associated with social divisions within and between societies and nations.

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a reason that the Indian sacred cow is adaptive,according to Harris's studies?

A) Zebu cattle require less food per animal than do beef cattle.
B) Wandering cattle indirectly provide fertilizer for agricultural fields.
C) Zebu cattle are frequently slaughtered and their meat distributed on ceremonial occasions.
D) Cattle dung provides a cheap source of heating and cooking energy.
E) Cattle are an affordable form of power for peasant farmers.

Question 12

What are both induction into the U.S.Marine Corps and the vision quest of certain North American Indian societies examples of?

A) binary opposition
B) a generalized exchange
C) a structural analysis of religion
D) rites of passage
E) genetic programming

Question 13

Religion and magic don't just explain things and help people accomplish goals-they also enter the realm of human feelings.In other words,

A) they serve emotional needs as well as cognitive (i.e., explanatory) ones.
B) religion helps reduce differences by promoting brotherly love.
C) they determine the emotional well-being of all their practitioners.
D) they often lead to extreme psychological disruption and even mental illness.
E) they are psychologically and cognitively relevant, but these realms are well contained and have no effect beyond the mental well-being of the practitioner.

Question 14

What is the term for the marginal or in-between phase of a rite of passage?

A) voodoo
B) mana
C) taboo
D) liminality
E) animism

Question 15

Émile Durkheim,an early scholar of religion,stressed what he termed religious effervescence.Anthropologists too have stressed

A) that proper analysis requires separation of collective re-creation from collective religion.
B) the collective, shared, and enacted nature of religion, the emotions it generates, and the meanings it embodies.
C) the analysis of the use of behavior-altering drugs in religious experience.
D) the collective as well as individual universality of religion.
E) the qualities that make religion present in some societies but not in others.

Question 16

Which of the following is true about rites of passage?

A) Beliefs and rituals can, ironically, both diminish and create anxiety and a sense of insecurity and danger.
B) Despite their prevalence during the time that Victor Turner did his research, rites of passage have disappeared with the advent of modern life.
C) Participants in rites of passage only are tricked into believing that there was a big change in their lives.
D) Rites of passage only worsen the anxieties caused by other aspects of religion.
E) Rites of passage would be effective in diminishing anxiety and fear if they did not involve the liminal phase.

Question 17

Animism,polytheism,and monotheism are the

A) three kinds of religion that exist in the world today.
B) stages of ritual, according to Victor Turner.
C) stages, according to Edward Tylor, through which religion evolved.
D) stages through which all present-day religions have passed.
E) names for the three psychological needs that all individuals have, thus explaining the universality of religion.

Question 18

Totemism,one form of cosmology,is

A) a system, in this case a religious one, for imagining and understanding the universe.
B) Claude Lévi-Strauss's term to describe the binary oppositions prevalent in religious myths all over the world.
C) a synonym for folklore.
D) the etic explanation of people's view on human agency.
E) the emic concept of spirituality.

Question 19

________ magic is based on the belief that whatever is done to an object will affect a person who once had contact with it.

A) Contagious
B) Imitative
C) Serial
D) Sequential
E) Simultaneous

Question 20

Besides animism-and sometimes coexisting with it in the same society-there is a view of the supernatural as a domain of raw impersonal power,or force,that people can control under certain conditions.This conception of the supernatural is particularly prominent in Melanesia.Melanesians refer to this force as

A) taboo.
B) magic.
C) good (or bad) luck.
D) The Force.
E) mana.

Question 21

In Melanesia,mana is an essential sacred life force that resides in people,animals,plants,and objects.

Question 22

Which of the following kinds of religion involves full-time religious specialists?

A) communal religion
B) shamanistic religion
C) Olympian religion
D) individualistic cults
E) idiosyncratic belief systems

Question 23

Robert Bellah (1978)coined the term world-rejecting religion to describe most forms of Christianity,including Protestantism.More generally,world-rejecting religions

A) are shamanistic religions that reject the encroachment of capitalism and modernity.
B) reject the material world and focus on the body's internal biological balance.
C) are a recent historical phenomenon.
D) tend to reject the natural-the mundane, ordinary, material, secular-world and focus instead on a higher realm of reality.
E) focus on the effects that heavenly bodies such as the moon, sun, and Mars have on social life.

Question 24

Which of the following kinds of religion involves part-time religious specialists in foraging societies?

A) communal religion
B) shamanistic religion
C) Olympian religion
D) individualistic cults
E) idiosyncratic belief systems

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT a problem with defining religion?

A) There are both sacred and secular rituals.
B) Distinctions between supernatural and natural are not consistently made in a society, making it difficult to tell what is a religion and what isn't.
C) Behaviors considered appropriate for religious occasions vary between cultures.
D) Only one religion can be considered true, so all others must be classified as myth.
E) Defining religion with reference to supernatural powers makes it difficult to classify ritual-like behavior in secular contexts.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about religion is NOT true?

A) It is a cultural construction, therefore not a reality.
B) It can both create and maintain divisions within society.
C) It is sometimes a source of conflict.
D) It is, in some cases, ecologically adaptive.
E) It can both create and maintain social solidarity.

Question 27

According to Bronislaw Malinowski,religion provides people with emotional comfort during problematic times.

Question 28

Émile Durkheim,an early scholar of religion,stressed what he termed religious effervescence.Anthropologists too have stressed the collective,social,shared,and enacted nature of religion,the emotions it generates,and the meanings it embodies.

Question 29

What is one of the most important activities in Pentecostal culture that has greatly aided its expansion?

A) active evangelization
B) the use of media and televangelism
C) a strict hierarchy
D) heavy funding from North America
E) a Western political agenda

Question 30

Evangelical Protestantism is experiencing rapid growth in all of the following regions EXCEPT

A) the Middle East and North Africa.
B) sub-Saharan Africa.
C) Europe.
D) Latin America.
E) Brazil.

Question 31

Which of the following groups see a sharp divide between themselves and other religions,as well as between a "sacred" view of life and the "secular" world?

A) mainline Protestants
B) Haredi Jews
C) Pentecostals
D) Hindus
E) Communitas

Question 32

Which of the following statements about religion is NOT true?

A) The functions of religious beliefs and practices vary with the society.
B) Religion is often an instrument of societal change, even revolution.
C) Religion serves only to maintain social solidarity; it does not create or maintain societal divisions.
D) Political leaders never mix religion with politics.
E) Religious beliefs can help regulate the economy.

Question 33

Protestant values such as asceticism and entrepreneurship as a result of the belief that success on Earth could lead to salvation,and a fervent individualism due to the belief that only individuals could be saved,both lead in the right conditions to the rise of capitalism.Who made this argument?

A)Claude Lévi-Strauss in his famous book The Savage Mind (1962,1966)
B)Robert Bellah
C)Anthony F.C.Wallace in his attempt to show religion's relevance in understanding historical change
D)Sir Edward Burnett Tylor
E)Max Weber in his influential book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904,1958)

Question 34

Which of the following tend to be directed at socially marginal individuals as a method of social control?

A) blood feuds
B) Olympian religions
C) rites of passage
D) cargo cults
E) witchcraft accusations

Question 35

Like ethnicity and language,religion is associated with social divisions within and between societies and nations.

Question 36

According to Edward Tylor,religion evolved from polytheism to animism to monotheism.

Question 37

A "world-rejecting religion" is one that

A) concerns itself with a higher realm of spirituality.
B) rejects worldly goods and popular culture.
C) is polytheistic or monotheistic, and is led by a shaman.
D) has been rejected by the world.
E) focuses on a higher realm of reality.

Question 38

Cargo cults,syncretic religions that mix Melanesian and Christian beliefs,are

A) culturally defined activities associated with the transition from one place or stage of life to another.
B) a religious response to the expansion of the world capitalist economy, often with political and economic consequences.
C) cultural acts that mock the widespread but erroneous belief of European cultural supremacy.
D) just like religious fundamentalism in that they are ancient cultural phenomena enjoying a rebirth in current world affairs.
E) antimodernist movements that reject anything Western.

Question 39

Animism,belief in souls or doubles,is thought by some to be the earliest form of religion.

Question 40

Antimodernism describes the rejection of the modern in favor of what is perceived to be an earlier,purer,better way of life.Fundamentalism describes antimodernist movements in various religions.Ironically,

A) fundamentalist movements have both benefited from and promoted the use of technology for international networking.
B) fundamentalists never lead a better way of life, precisely because they reject the benefits of modern life.
C) religious fundamentalism is itself a modern phenomenon, based on a strong feeling among its adherents of alienation from the perceived secularism of the surrounding modern culture.
D) fundamentalist sentiments depend on recognition of the modern culture.
E) religious fundamentalism is an extremely old phenomenon that actually spurred the rise of modernism.

Question 41

Communitas is the strong feeling of collective unity shared by individuals at the core of a society who define themselves in opposition to the society's liminal members.

Question 42

Fundamentalists are not among those who feel alienated from the perceived secularism of modern culture.

Question 43

Religious fundamentalism is as old as religion itself.

Question 44

Based on people's claimed religions,Christianity is the world's largest,with some 2.2 billion adherents.

Question 45

A syncretism is a mixture of cultural influences from a series of different cultural traditions.

Question 46

Witch hunts are an example of how religion can be used to limit deviant social behavior by instilling strong motivations to behave properly.

Question 47

How do you explain the universality of religion?

Question 48

Behaviors associated with sports fandom could be considered secular rituals.

Question 49

After Christians and Muslims,the largest spiritual group are those who lack any religious affiliation.

Question 50

Antimodernism is a rejection of the modern in favor of what is perceived as an earlier,purer,better way of life.

Question 51

Religion can be used as a powerful means of controlling society.

Question 52

Rites of passage involve three phases: separation,liminality,and totemism.

Question 53

Like Catholicism,Pentecostalism is egalitarian,and adherents need no special education to preach or run a church.

Question 54

The cargo cults of Melanesia functioned to integrate Melanesians and set the stage for the formation of political parties and economic interest groups.

Question 55

By participating in a ritual,the participants signal that they accept the common social and ethical order prescribed by their religion.

Question 56

Worldwide,Islam is growing at a rate of about 2.9 percent annually,versus 2.3 percent for Christianity.

Question 57

The Hindu principle of ahimsa functions to ensure that cattle milk production is maximized.

Question 58

Shamans are full-time religious practitioners generally found in state-level societies.

Question 59

Max Weber argued that the spread of capitalism was closely linked to the ethics and values of Catholicism.

Question 60

To Kottak,the widespread U.S.belief that recreation and religion are separate domains is both ethnocentric and false.Further,it may be taking the "fun" out of religion.

Question 61

Discuss two cases illustrating religion's role in social change.

Question 62

Is religion declining or becoming increasingly important in contemporary society? Why? If you believe that religion is declining,what is replacing it?

Question 63

What are the similarities and differences between religions of foraging societies and those of nation-states? How do these compare with Olympian religions and monotheism? What kinds of general evolutionary trends are discernible in religious worship?

Question 64

Ironically,religious fundamentalism is a very modern phenomenon.Why is this an irony? How does learning about the concept of modernism in the context of a chapter on anthropology and religion alter,if at all,the way you understand world events today?

Question 65

Contrast ritual behavior with ordinary behavior.Give examples of religious and secular rituals.What are the main differences between such kinds of rituals?

Question 66

On the basis of theories about the origins and functions of religion,what are the functions that organized religion serves in U.S.society? Can religion in the United States be described as embedded in other sociocultural institutions,such as politics? If you have spent most of your life in a different country,feel free to write about religion in that country.

Question 67

Much religious and ritual behavior is adaptive.Can you think of cases in which it is not? What does it mean for religion to be maladaptive?