Deck 15: Religion 

Question 1

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

Answer 1

they serve emotional needs as well as cognitive (i.e., explanatory) ones.

Question 2

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

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

Answer 2

fasting

Question 3

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

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

Answer 3

witchcraft accusations

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a religious discriptor term?

A) caste
B) unaffiliated
C) syncretic
D) agnostic
E) None of the answer choices are correct, as all are religious descriptors.

Question 5

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

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

Question 6

Animism, polytheism, and monotheism are the

A) stages of ritual, according to Victor Turner.
B) stages, according to Edward Tylor, through which religion evolved.
C) three kinds of religion that exist in the world today.
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 7

As today's forces of globalization displace people, which church has spread most quickly, offers a tightly knit egalitarian community, and adapts easily to local culture?

A) Pentecostal
B) Jewish
C) mainline Protestant
D) Catholic
E) Islam

Question 8

Which of the following is true about rites of passage?

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

Question 9

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

A) the collective as well as individual universality of religion.
B) the qualities that make religion present in some societies but not in others.
C) the analysis of the use of behavior-altering drugs in religious experience.
D) that religious worlds are real and significant to those who construct and inhabit them.
E) that proper analysis requires separation of collective re-creation from collective religion.

Question 10

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

Question 11

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

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

Question 12

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

Question 13

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

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

Question 14

What is communitas?

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

Question 15

Which of the following describes a church's ability to become locally relevant as it spreads throughout the world?

A) homogenization
B) fundamentalism
C) hybridization
D) globalization
E) antimodernism

Question 16

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

Question 17

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

A) because people can't control matters such as wind, weather, and the fish supply, they turn to magic.
B) magic emboldened people to take more risks.
C) magic was a surprisingly effective stand-in for proper fishing skills and experience, because it made people confident in their capabilities.
D) 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.
E) people turn to magic to instill psychological stress on their competitors, especially when the fish supply is very low.

Question 18

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

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

Question 19

Like ethnicity and language, religion is

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

Question 20

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

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

Question 21

Émile Durkheim, an early scholar of religion, stressed what he termed religious effervescence, the bubbling up of collective emotional intensity generated by worship.

Question 22

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

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

Question 23

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

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

Question 24

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

A) Olympian religion
B) communal religion
C) shamanistic religion
D) individualistic cult
E) idiosyncratic belief system

Question 25

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

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

Question 26

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

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT a problem when defining the difference between secular and sacred?

A) Secular rituals are performed in strictly religious settings.
B) The distinction between the supernatural and natural is not consistently made in society.
C) Behavior considered appropriate for religious occasions varies from culture to culture.
D) Some secular settings, things, and events acquire intense, powerful meaning.
E) All answer choices are correct.

Question 28

Which of the following statements about religion is FALSE?

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

Question 29

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

Question 30

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 31

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

Question 32

Which of the following statements about religion is FALSE?

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

Question 33

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

Question 34

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

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

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

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

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

Question 43

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

Question 44

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

Behaviors associated with sports fandom could be considered secular rituals.

Question 47

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

Question 48

Based on people's claimed religions, Christianity is the world's largest, with some 2.3 billion adherents.

Question 49

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

Question 50

Religious fundamentalism is as old as religion itself.

Question 51

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 52

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

Question 53

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

Question 54

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