Deck 15: Spirituality, Religion, and the Supernatural

Question 1

A part-time religious specialist that generally serves as a healer and spiritual mediator is called a:

A) shaman
B) priest
C) spiritual guide
D) holy father

Answer 1

shaman

Question 2

The collective body of ideas, beliefs, and values by which a group of people makes sense of the world and their place in it is:

A) infrastructure
B) spirituality
C) religion
D) worldview

Answer 2

religion

Question 3

The ancient Greeks had a type of religion known as:

A) pluralism
B) pantheonism
C) polytheism
D) polyvalence

Answer 3

polytheism

Question 4

Which of the following is the oldest known sacred text(s)?

A) Bible
B) Vedas
C) Koran
D) Book of Chibcha

Question 5

According to anthropologists, which of the following statements is true?

A) religion is very common to humankind
B) religion is found in primitive societies only
C) religion has been found to be a part of all cultures
D) religion is virtually a universal, although there have been some groups without it

Question 6

The belief that nature is filled with a variety of unattached or free-ranging spirits is:

A) animism
B) animatism
C) spirituality
D) naturalism

Question 7

In anthropology, religion and spirituality are classified as part of a culture's:

A) structure
B) infrastructure
C) substructure
D) superstructure

Question 8

In the United States today, there are approximately how many declared practitioners of Buddhism?

A) 10,000-20,000
B) 9-10 million
C) 800,000-1 million
D) 2-3 million

Question 9

In a society where women hold little public authority, you would commonly find a religion in which:

A) there are many supreme goddesses
B) there are many supreme gods
C) the supreme goddess is feminine
D) the supreme god is masculine

Question 10

Approximately what percentage of adults in the world claims to be "nonreligious"?

A) 26
B) 7
C) 40
D) 16

Question 11

Which of the following has been showing some decline in membership in recent years, while all of the others have been increasing in membership?

A) evangelical Christian religions
B) fundamentalist religious traditions
C) nondenominational spiritual traditions
D) traditional, mainline Christian religions

Question 12

What is the anthropological definition of "myth"?

A) ancestral narratives
B) a collection of legends and tall tales
C) untrue narratives
D) explanatory narratives

Question 13

Which of the following is larger in the United States?

A) Buddhism
B) Islam
C) Hinduism
D) Wicca

Question 14

In what century was there a common intellectual tradition that gave rise to the idea that modern science would soon replace religion?

A) 19th century
B) 18th century
C) 20th century
D) 17th century

Question 15

Which of the following is not considered to be a strong patriarchic religion?

A) Christianity
B) Wicca
C) Islam
D) Judaism

Question 16

Which one of the following characteristics distinguishes spirituality from religion?

A) belief system
B) ceremonial practices
C) concern with the sacred
D) individual practice

Question 17

What sacred narratives explain the fundamentals of human existence?

A) legends
B) texts
C) myths
D) rituals

Question 18

The concepts of mana, manitou, and wakonda are all associated with:

A) fundamentalism
B) monotheism
C) animism
D) animatism

Question 19

A collection of gods and goddesses is known as:

A) pantheon
B) dogma
C) deity
D) trinity

Question 20

Which kind of religious specialist would you expect to find in a foraging society?

A) spiritual guide
B) priest
C) sorcerer
D) shaman

Question 21

The powerful healing force recognized by the Ju/'hoansi is called:

A) boa
B) manitou
C) n/um
D) mana

Question 22

Which of the following is not part of the traditional shamanic complex?

A) chief
B) shaman
C) patient
D) community

Question 23

Among the Ju/'hoansi, consciousness is a sign that:

A) the gods inhabit the person's body
B) the prayer has been answered
C) a hunter will have success the next day
D) the soul and body are reunited

Question 24

Why do the Mende practice clitoridectomy?

A) they believe it enhances female reproductive potential
B) it makes childbirth much easier
C) it enhances the beauty of women in public
D) it is a healthy procedure that makes women cleaner

Question 25

The male puberty rite found among the Australian aborigines involves removing the young man from society and:

A) leaving him to find his way back to his group
B) marrying him to a young woman
C) tattooing him
D) teaching him

Question 26

All of the following are ways to "conjure up" the healing force latent in Ju/'hoansi bodies except:

A) dancing
B) intense concentration
C) eating mushrooms
D) close exposure to the heat of a fire

Question 27

Clitoridectomy is sometimes referred to as:

A) birth rites of passage
B) female geniture mutilation
C) female genital mutilation
D) female genital imitation

Question 28

The transition that is effected in a rite of passage is comparable to:

A) social death and rebirth
B) marriage and union
C) sorcery and witchcraft
D) specialization

Question 29

Which of the following is one of the most common activities of shamans cross-culturally?

A) controlling animals
B) healing the sick
C) bringing rain
D) punishing enemies

Question 30

When do Mende girls undergo female initiation rites?

A) after they move out of their natal homes
B) after they have their first child
C) after the beginning of menstruation
D) immediately before the beginning of menstruation

Question 31

Which of the following is not a common reason to enter a trance state among the Ju/'hoansi?

A) to bring rain
B) to heal the sick
C) to control animals
D) to preserve crops

Question 32

Rites of passage include all of the following stages except:

A) incorporation
B) transformation
C) transition
D) separation

Question 33

What is a clitoridectomy?

A) form of female circumcision
B) type of marriage
C) process of giving birth
D) tattooing the face

Question 34

Approximately what percentage of older women serve as shamans among the Ju/'hoansi?

A) 0%
B) 25%
C) 50%
D) 33%

Question 35

In anthropology, marriage rituals are almost always classified as:

A) rites of union
B) rites of transition
C) rites of intensification
D) rites of passage

Question 36

The meanings ascribed to sensations experienced in altered states are:

A) determined solely by the shaman
B) universally the same
C) biologically determined
D) culturally determined

Question 37

Among Australian aborigines, a common way of inducing courage and manhood in boys involves:

A) scarifying their chests
B) knocking out a tooth
C) sending them out alone
D) piercing their noses

Question 38

The widespread occurrence of shamanism and the remarkable similarities noted among various shamanic traditions are due to:

A) common neurological inheritance
B) legitimacy and accuracy of the religion
C) universal ailments of humankind
D) diffusion of tradition among groups

Question 39

Which of the following is not a common practice in Mende girl initiation?

A) harsh teaching and training
B) undergoing a clitoridectomy
C) spending significant amounts of time alone and secluded
D) smearing body with white clay

Question 40

The period of isolation that forms part of a rite of passage is which stage?

A) separation
B) transition
C) transformation
D) incorporation

Question 41

The Aztecs had a monotheistic religion.

Question 42

The Ibibio make a distinction between:

A) sorcerers and priestesses
B) evil and benign witches
C) benign sorcerers and witches
D) sorcerers and benign witches

Question 43

The word "myth" means "untrue stories" in Greek.

Question 44

Religion and spirituality are best examined as part of a society's worldview.

Question 45

More than 40% of the world's adult population claims to be atheist.

Question 46

Which of the following is not a common belief or element associated with cargo cults?

A) worship in a temple compound
B) arrival of material riches
C) resurrection of dead relatives
D) destruction of whites

Question 47

Goddesses are most likely to be prominent in food-foraging cultures.

Question 48

In the United States which of the following revitalization movements occurred?

A) Asatru
B) cargo cults
C) Mau Mau uprising
D) Sun Dance

Question 49

One goal of anthropologists is to develop a better religion.

Question 50

It is a common belief among social scientists that religion will be replaced by science.

Question 51

Ancestral spirits reflect and reinforce social reality.

Question 52

From the 15ᵗʰ through the 17ᵗʰ centuries, approximately how many individuals were executed as witches in Europe?

A) 200
B) 1500
C) 2 million
D) 500,000

Question 53

Why is there so much controversy over clitoridectomy?

A) it is a non-Western religious practice
B) it is extremely dangerous to women's health
C) it causes women to have too much fertility
D) it allows women to practice birth control

Question 54

Some groups have deities to whom they pay almost no attention.

Question 55

Which of the following is not commonly used in the practice of contagious magic?

A) clips of hair from someone
B) images and likenesses of someone
C) fingernail clippings from someone
D) a special piece of jewelry that belongs to someone

Question 56

What is a "cargo cult"?

A) a rite of passage
B) a revitalization movement
C) a form of imitative magic
D) a form of religious worship

Question 57

Which of the following best describes revitalization movements?

A) a movement for radical cultural reform in response to widespread social disruption
B) a movement for political change in response to economic destruction
C) a movement for liberation during times of oppression by outside forces
D) a religious movement that styles itself on communistic structures

Question 58

The Vedas are believed to be one of the oldest known sacred texts.

Question 59

Religions tend to perpetuate the social structure of the society of which they are a part.

Question 60

Which of the following best describes witchcraft?

A) belief that some individuals possess the supernatural power to manipulate objects
B) belief that some individuals possess psychic power to cause harm
C) belief that some individuals can travel at night and cause altered states
D) belief that some individuals possess specific formulas to temporarily change people

Question 61

Industrial societies are typically animistic.

Question 62

A belief in ___________________________ is consistent with the widespread notion that human beings are made up of two closely intertwined parts, a physical body and some mental component or spiritual self.

Question 63

The healing force that the Ju/'hoansi use to cure is called _______________.

Question 64

A collection of gods and goddesses is known as a _______________.

Question 65

Revitalization movements lie at the root of all known religions.

Question 66

More than 2000 women were accused of being witches in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.

Question 67

In industrial societies there are no shamans.

Question 68

When there is an individual focus on the sacred, as distinguished from material matters, and in a non-traditional format, it is called _______________.

Question 69

The Ju/'hoansi enter into a trance in order to heal themselves.

Question 70

The collective body of ideas that members of a culture generally share concerning the ultimate shape and substance of their reality is called a ________________.

Question 71

A male, full-time religious specialist is called a _______________.

Question 72

Ministers, imams, lamas, and rabbis are together known in anthropology as _______________.

Question 73

The explanatory narrative that rationalizes and reinforces religious beliefs and practice is called _______________.

Question 74

The adoration of saints' relics is a form of contagious magic.

Question 75

The belief that nature is enlivened or energized by an impersonal spiritual force is called _______________.

Question 76

_______________ spirits played an important role in the patrilineal society of traditional China.

Question 77

An organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere, along with ceremonial acts by which people attempt to interpret and control their reality is called ________________.

Question 78

When a group sees themselves as part of nature, they have a _______________ worldview.

Question 79

_______________ is the belief in multiple gods and goddesses.

Question 80

The Mende practice female circumcision.