Deck 7: What Can Anthropology Tell Us About Religion and World-View

Question 1

Encompassing pictures of reality created by the members of a particular society are called

A) Schemas.
B) Experiential gestalts.
C) Worldviews.
D) Metaphors.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Symbols may be

A) Words.
B) Images.
C) Actions.
D) All of the above.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

To many people, the American flag stands for "the American way." The flag is thus an example of a(n)

A) Elaborating symbol.
B) Summarizing symbol.
C) Personal symbol.
D) Archetype.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following represents for members of a society, in an emotionally powerful way, what their way of life means to them?

A) Elaborating symbols.
B) Summarizing symbols.
C) Personal symbols.
D) Archetypes.

Question 5

According to Godfrey Lienhardt, the Dinka use cattle as

A) Elaborating symbols.
B) Summarizing symbols.
C) Personal symbols.
D) Archetypes.

Question 6

Which of the following are analytic, providing people with categories for thinking about the order of the world?

A) Elaborating symbols.
B) Summarizing symbols.
C) Personal symbols .
D) National symbols.

Question 7

Robin Horton suggests that people who construct a worldview are concerned, above all, to show that the world is

A) Orderly and predictable.
B) Changing and unpredictable.
C) Peopled with invisible superhuman beings.
D) Empty of supernatural forces.

Question 8

If people construct a worldview in terms of a societal metaphor, this is because (according to Robin Horton) they associate the social world with

A) Constant, unpredictable change.
B) Order, regularity, and predictability.
C) Spirituality.
D) Materialism.

Question 9

When contemporary sociobiologists describe the nurturing behavior of parents toward their offspring as "parental investment," they are using what kind of metaphor?

A) Economic.
B) Societal.
C) Technological.
D) Both a and b

Question 10

When the characteristics of human beings are attributed to nonhuman entities, this is an example of

A) A technological metaphor.
B) An organic metaphor.
C) Personification.
D) Both b and c

Question 11

The growth of Western science contributed to the rise of which of the following kinds of key metaphor?

A) Societal.
B) Technological.
C) Organic.
D) Religious.

Question 12

"The web of life" is an example of a(n)

A) Societal metaphor.
B) Organic metaphor.
C) Technological metaphor.
D) Conduit metaphor.

Question 13

"He's a real ROM (read only memory) head" is an example of a(n)

A) Conduit metaphor.
B) Organic metaphor.
C) Societal metaphor.
D) Computer metaphor.

Question 14

When biologists studying cells compare cells to a factory assembling the biochemical products needed to support the body's economy, they are using a(n)

A) Conduit metaphor.
B) Organic metaphor.
C) Societal metaphor.
D) Computer metaphor.

Question 15

When the president of the United States says, "Americans are waging a war on poverty," what is the underlying metaphor?

A) Poverty is the enemy.
B) The citizens of the United States are an army.
C) There will be many casualties.
D) Both a and b are true.

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT one of the features of the definition of religion offered in the text?

A) Religion involves ideas.
B) Religion is social.
C) Religion is universal.
D) Religion involves practice.

Question 17

For many anthropologists, using the term supernatural in a definition of religion is

A) A problem because it may distort how informants perceive the forces at work in the world.
B) A problem because it implies an invisible world.
C) Necessary to capture the distinction between the world human beings can see and the one they cannot.
D) Necessary because it is found universally.

Question 18

For anthropologists, "religion" includes

A) The assertion of idiosyncratic individual beliefs about "reality."
B) A belief in God.
C) Claims that there is a reality beyond that which is immediately available to the senses.
D) A personal relationship between believer and deity or deities.

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT a minimal category of religion, according to A. F. C. Wallace?

A) Prayer.
B) Exhortation.
C) Reflexiveness.
D) Physiological exercise.

Question 20

The principle that sacred things are to be touched so that power may be transferred refers to which of the following minimal categories of religion?

A) Prayer.
B) Sacrifice.
C) Mana.
D) Taboo.

Question 21

Every religious system in the world has a customary way of addressing the supernatural. This feature is captured by the minimal category of religion called

A) Prayer.
B) Exhortation.
C) Mana.
D) Taboo.

Question 22

In some religious systems, certain objects or people may not be touched or else the cosmic power in them may drain away. This feature is captured in the minimal category of religion called

A) Physiological exercise.
B) Mana.
C) Sacrifice.
D) Taboo.

Question 23

Part-time religious practitioners who are believed to have the power to contact supernatural forces directly are called

A) Shamans.
B) Priests.
C) Oracles.
D) Witches.

Question 24

The term shaman comes from which of the following parts of the world?

A) North America.
B) Eastern Siberia.
C) Southern Africa.
D) Central America.

Question 25

The idea that illness is caused by spirits and that curing requires someone to enter into the world of the spirits-called "half death"-to heal the sick is found among which people?

A) Ju/'hoansi.
B) Tungus.
C) Hopi.
D) Khalapur Rajputs.

Question 26

Religious specialists skilled in the practice of religious rituals, which they carry out for the benefit of the group, are called

A) Shamans.
B) Priests.
C) Oracles.
D) Witches.

Question 27

The Azande use chicken for

A) Stir fry.
B) Celebrations.
C) Detecting witches.
D) Enhancing the powers of witchcraft.

Question 28

For the Azande, witchcraft

A) Consists of spells that must be purchased from other witches.
B) Is a substance in the body of witches.
C) Is ordinarily practiced by women.
D) Is most powerful in important chiefs.

Question 29

To the Azande, witches are

A) Neighbors.
B) Antisocial.
C) Those whose behavior is out of line.
D) All of the above.

Question 30

When Azande believe they have been victimized by witchcraft, their usual response is

A) Fear.
B) Anger.
C) To run to the chief to ask for protection.
D) To suspect the chief of being a witch.

Question 31

For the Azande, deaths are caused by

A) Natural causes, old age, and witchcraft.
B) Old age and witchcraft.
C) Natural causes and old age.
D) Witchcraft.

Question 32

An invisible force to which the Azande address questions and whose responses they believe to be truthful is called a(n)

A) Witch.
B) Magician.
C) Oracle.
D) Chief.

Question 33

Witchcraft beliefs, especially witchcraft accusations,

A) Can serve to unify a society.
B) Can defend the wider values of a community.
C) Can weaken in-group ties.
D) All of the above.

Question 34

Accusations of witchcraft reaffirm group boundaries and solidarity when

A) The accused is an outsider.
B) The accused is an insider.
C) The accused is a woman.
D) All of the above.

Question 35

Accusations of witchcraft realign factions within a society when

A) The accused is an outsider.
B) The accused is an insider.
C) The accused is a man.
D) All of the above.

Question 36

How do the congregants at the evangelical Vineyard Christian Fellowship appear to explain misfortune?

A) Victims have been attacked by witchcraft made by unknown enemies.
B) They believe that people determine their own fate at a deep soul level.
C) They do not offer any cause for misfortune, but instead seek solutions in their religious practice for it.
D) Misfortune stems from social forces beyond their control.

Question 37

According to James Fernandez, the syncretistic Bwiti religion represents

A) An antimissionary religious movement that has spread across Africa.
B) A kind of escape from the pressures of the outside world.
C) A response to governmental interference in local affairs.
D) The effects of long-term Christian missionary activity in the area in which members live.

Question 38

According to Roger Keesing, the Kwaio responded to colonial influence by

A) Resisting syncretism.
B) Embracing Christianity.
C) Serving in the army of the Solomon Islands.
D) Both b and c

Question 39

What is a conscious, deliberate attempt by some members of a society to create a more satisfying culture in a time of crisis by defending their own way of life?

A) Syncretism.
B) Revitalization.
C) Communitas.
D) Liminality.

Question 40

Syncretism involves

A) Discarding the old ways and embracing the new.
B) Resisting the new ways and defending the old.
C) Combining the old and the new in an attempt to cope with changed circumstances.
D) Inventing a way of life that has nothing to do with the old or the new.

Question 41

Nativism refers to

A) Going native.
B) Ridding society of alien influences.
C) Following a messiah to a new golden age.
D) None of the above.

Question 42

Metaphors, or the symbols that represent them, can be used as instruments of power when

A) They are under the direct control of a person wishing to affect the behavior of others.
B) They are used for reference or in support of certain conduct.
C) Some people are able to impose their metaphors on others.
D) All of the above.

Question 43

When one worldview is backed by the powerful in society and alternative worldviews are censored, many social scientists would start to call the dominant worldview

A) A religion.
B) A philosophy.
C) An ideology.
D) Secularism.

Question 44

The separation of religion and state following the European Enlightenment is called

A) Democracy.
B) Multiculturalism.
C) Orthopraxy.
D) Secularism.

Question 45

In European secularism, religion is defined primarily in terms of

A) Beliefs.
B) Practices.
C) Citizenship.
D) Individualism.

Question 46

Secularism depends on

A) Individual choice.
B) A domain of social life that is "worldly."
C) A high level of technology.
D) Public education.

Question 47

The conflict between secularism and certain religious traditions is in part the result of a commitment

A) To an entire way of life of "correct practice" on the part of practitioners of the religious tradition.
B) On the part of the state to respect individual faiths.
C) By state and practitioners to participation in the public domain as equal citizens.
D) To the marketplace of ideas.

Question 48

One issue raised in the text's discussion of the conflict over whether Muslim girls should be permitted to wear headscarves in French schools is that

A) There is not always a simple or straightforward way to resolve conflicts over worldview.
B) It is inappropriate for adults to work out their own political disputes through children.
C) The French have always been tolerant of religious displays by all faiths in such public settings as schools.
D) When people of goodwill negotiate, even the most difficult conflicts can be resolved through give-and-take.

Question 49

Why did magic fail to return the stolen bicycle as described in the story that opens the chapter on worldview? Be sure to include Amadou's explanation as well as that of the anthropologists.

Question 50

In many societies, the model for the wider world is the social order. Discuss the consequences that follow from this and illustrate with examples.

Question 51

What are some consequences that follow from drawing the key metaphors of a worldview from technology? Illustrate with examples.

Question 52

What are the three ways in which metaphoric innovation can proceed? Discuss each way and illustrate with an example.

Question 53

Why is the term supernatural problematic for some anthropologists who study religion?

Question 54

Summarize the interrelationship of witchcraft, oracles, and magic for the Azande. What is the logic of the system from an Azande perspective? How would a nonbelieving outsider explain its workings? Can you think of any tests whose outcome could be used to verify or falsify either interpretation?

Question 55

Compare and contrast Azande and North American evangelical explanations of misfortune.

Question 56

What is a revitalization movement? What forms can it take? Illustrate with examples.

Question 57

Why is the concept of metaphor so important to an analysis of worldview in anthropology?

Question 58

Discuss the relationship between worldview and power. Illustrate your answer with examples.

Question 59

What is a key metaphor? Choose two of the key metaphors discussed in the text and discuss the kinds of entailments that follow from them, once a worldview is based on them.