Deck 1: The Anthropological Study of Religion

Question 1

What evidence is there to suggest that Neanderthals may have been concerned with an afterlife?

A) cave art
B) iconical artifacts believed to represent a Shepherd of the Ancestors
C) artifacts from burial rituals
D) hunting rituals

Answer 1

artifacts from burial rituals

Question 2

The editors of this book have suggested that religion is a human universal. What other human universal do they point to as a primary impetus and factor in the worldwide emergence of religion?

A) celestial observation
B) agriculture
C) adversity (life is hard)
D) divine visitation

Answer 2

adversity (life is hard)

Question 3

Which thinker used a functionalist approach to explain religious behavior?

A) Malinowski
B) Tylor
C) Turner
D) Durkheim

Answer 3

Malinowski

Question 4

Which anthropologist viewed religion as serving three functions corresponding to three human desires?

A) Spiro
B) Durkheim
C) Malinowski
D) Tylor

Question 5

When A.F.C. Wallace studied various forms of religious behavior he concluded that

A) differences in religious practice are arbitrary.
B) there are five major approaches to religion corresponding to five geographical regions.
C)there are different "types," from simple to complex, of religious forms, which often correspond to the level of social structure in the society.
D) "primitive" belief systems lack important characteristics of religion as a genre.

Question 6

Eller describes the four domains of culture as:

A) Economics, Kinship, Religion, and Social Interaction
B) Economics, Language, Politics, and Religion
C) Economics, Politics, Kinship, and Religion
D) Politics, Kinship, Language, Environment

Question 7

How is religion distinct from the other domains of culture?

A) The objects or players in religion are non-human or non-living
B) The objects or players in religion are not social and are outside of society
C) The objects or players in religion are commoditized and are therefore not distinct from the other domains
D) The objects or players in religion are not affected by environment or other pervasive factors such as gender or language

Question 8

Eller discusses what Talal Asad suggests is involved in Anthropology as a discipline defining anthropology as:

A) Ethnography
B) Fieldwork and participant observation
C) Comparison of embedded concepts
D) All of the above

Question 9

How is Anthropology like Science?

A) It seeks to explain its subject matter by reducing it to a single theoretical perspective
B) It seeks to explain its subject matter by constructing a model to identify the different theoretical . processes or mechanisms working within a single phenomenon
C) It seeks to explain its subject matter within one culture/society
D) It seeks to explain its subject matter by establishing a truth

Question 10

Why does Eller argue that a holistic approach must be used to analyze religion anthropologically?

A) Holism is present across other disciplines of psychology and biology; anthropology had to adopt this principle
B) Holism provides solutions to immediate problems posed by religion
C) Humans have perceived and received different truths across time and space
D) None of the above

Question 11

What makes the anthropological study of religion different from other approaches?

A) Use of a comparative or cross cultural perspective, holism, and cultural relativity
B) Reliance on self-reflection
C) reliance on one theoretical ideology
D) Comparison of other cultures

Question 12

Wagner describes the six stages of anthropological fieldwork/research in order as:

A)(1) gaining entree, (2) establishing rapport, (3) experiencing culture shock, (4) attaining an ever increasing understanding of the culture, (5) analyzing and interpreting what has been learned, and (6)leaving the field.
B) (1)Gaining entree, (2) establishing rapport, (3) experiencing culture shock, (4) attaining an ever increasing understanding of the culture, (5) leaving the field, and (6) analyzing and interpreting what has been learned.
C) (1) gaining entree, (2) experiencing culture shock, (3) establishing rapport, (4) attaining an ever increasing understanding of the culture, (5) analyzing and interpreting what has been learned, and (6)publishing research findings.
D) (1) gaining entree, (2) experiencing culture shock, (3) establishing rapport, (4) attaining an ever increasing understanding of the culture, (5) leaving the field, and (6) analyzing and interpreting what has been learned.

Question 13

All of the following are signs that the researcher is attaining an ever-increasing understanding discussed by Wagner EXCEPT:

A) Ability to participate in the culture's activities with greater ease.
B) Actions of the culture seem "normal" when compared to actions of the researcher's native culture.
C) Ability to explain cultural phenomena in both emic (native) and etic (outsider) terms.
D) Actions of the culture's actors become predictable.

Question 14

All of the following are examples of anthropologists embracing a less humanist, more scientific perspective and methodology EXCEPT:

A) Discouraging narrative and subjectivity or personal accounts in research findings.
B) Maintaining distance from research subjects.
C) Exploring and reporting how the subject or society being studied have affected the internal thoughts . and processing of the researcher.
D) Engaging in what Spradley describes as "passive" rather than "active" participation in the culture being studied.

Question 15

Two issues that anthropologists encounter and struggle with in ethnographic or participant-observation fieldwork that Wagner discusses are:

A) Loyalty and trust
B) Loyalty and "the exclusion syntax principle"
C) Loyalty and "the concrete principle"
D) Loyalty and avoiding anti-popular culture biases

Question 16

All following are principles proposed by Spradley to maintain objectivity in recording of participant observations EXCEPT.

A) "The exclusion syntax principle"
B) "The language identification principle"
C) "The concrete principle"
D) "The verbatim principle"

Question 17

Harris asserts that non-human species

A) display sound evidence to convince us that they too hold spiritual beliefs.
B) do not display anything seemingly religious that it similar to human superstition.
C) display false associations of causality, like human superstitions, which are not to be counted as true religious behavior.
D) have a sense of ancestor worship.

Question 18

Which of the following does Harris consider to be a true religious concept?

A) mana
B) luck
C) superstition
D) animism

Question 19

Harris refers to Tylor's concept of animism in order to

A) disprove it.
B) demonstrate that it needs to be broadened in order to include a belief in mana and/or superstitions.
C) distinguish religious belief from other forms of causal beliefs.
D) demonstrate the difference between true religious concepts and the concept/phenomenon that Tylor studied.

Question 20

According to Harris, the mystery of death is made humanly sensible through

A) the concept of a supreme plan or order.
B) the concept of a soul.
C) the idea of divine regeneration.
D) natural observation.

Question 21

Harris noted that the types of spirit beings found in pre-state societies

A) differ dramatically from the types of spirit beings found in modern religions.
B) were considered to be more personal than modern deities.
C) have their analogues or exact prototypes in modern religions.
D) were based entirely upon superstition.

Question 22

Lee asserts that religion in primitive societies

A) usually involves an immediate personal relatedness with the divine.
B) always recognizes a certain spiritual worth and dignity in the universe that prevents the exploitation of nature.
C) exerts a greater influence over daily life than any of the modern religions do.

Question 23

Which of the following groups is not an example of how agriculture is often an expression of a people's religious relatedness to the universe

A) the Tikopia of the Solomon Islands.
B) the Navajo IndiAns:
C) the Baiga in India.
D) the Maya IndiAns:

Question 24

Lee points out that the concept of harmony between man and the universe

A) is present in nearly all primitive religions.
B) is actually a Biblical concept.
C) is vitally important to understand if you are to understand Navajo religion, rhythms, stories, art, and life.
D) has its closest Western counterpart in the concept of balance and/or justice.

Question 25

Lee discusses the importance of personal autonomy among Crow and Sioux Indians to demonstrate

A) how some groups consider the spiritual world to be full of evil-willing beings.
B) how understanding the worldview of a society can lend insight into past and present cultural expressions.
C) the overwhelming similarities with other Native American Indian religions such as that of the Hopi.
D) that not all Native American religions emphasize a personal relationship with the spirit world.

Question 26

What factors influenced Moro's preconceptions of Thai Buddhism?

A) Her own religious beliefs.
B) Non scholarly works read while researching the subject.
C) Various iconic media images of the time period.
D) Experiences at Buddhist wats (temples) in California.

Question 27

The anthropologist must pay attention to _____ when studying religion.

A) cross-cultural similarities and differences on a global level and varieties of experiences amongst members of the same society
B) how assertions by scholars from other disciplines are correct or incorrect
C) whether or not beliefs and practices provide a positive function for the society
D) topics the society may view as taboo

Question 28

What does Spiro argue is the relationship between Buddhist texts and daily practices of the people?

A) Common people are well versed in Buddhist texts which greatly influences daily practices.
B) Most common people are familiar with basic Buddhist principles but key ideals seem to be separate from attitudes and day-to-day practices.
C) Only religious leaders are keenly aware of Buddhist principles and the daily lives of common people are separate from religion.
D) Buddhist texts are strictly learned by all but do not greatly influence daily life.

Question 29

Anthropologists often understand religion as a way to

A) Clear one's mind from the hardships of daily life.
B) Control and understand forces that are uncontrollable and unexplainable.
C) Distinguish one culture from another.
D) Create solidarity within a group of diverse peoples

Question 30

Howells posited that there are four main characteristics that distinguish "primitive"religions from the world's "great faiths."

Question 31

All the major anthropological thinkers asserted that religious behavior functions principally to produce social cohesion.

Question 32

Lévi-Strauss emphasized the symbolic structure of "homemade"taxonomies, or systems of classification, in understanding cultural forms.

Question 33

Malinowski used his work with the Trobriand Islanders to distinguish "primitive thought"as a distinctive mode of reasoning.

Question 34

Harris concluded that Western notions such as superstition and luck are modern manifestations of true religious concepts.

Question 35

Harris showed that animism isn't universal, as Tylor had proposed, because Buddhism lacks beliefs in gods or souls.

Question 36

Lee asserts that while religion permeates most of material culture, economic systems seem to be predominantly unaffected.

Question 37

According to Lee, there are many different terms referring to the human relationship with the divine in societies in which religion is widespread.

Question 38

Anthropologists seek the truth in the religion they are studying, focusing on different concepts depending on their training and theoretical inclinations.

Question 39

Anthropologists have studied the relationship and interaction between religious texts and the actual beliefs and practices of devotees.

Question 40

To attempt to understand the recent amulet obsession, Moro takes into account historical cultural patterns and contemporary political and economic pressures.

Question 41

Social tensions explain why people cherish amulets or charms in nearly all societies.

Question 42

Culture Stock occurs during a set period of time and once this stage of anthropological research has been passed it is no longer an issue for researcher and their findings.

Question 43

Reflexivity refers to concerns about the ethnographer's proper role in research.

Question 44

The ethnographic story must he based on empirical data and an analysis that seeks cultural patterns.