Deck 12: Religion

Question 1

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.

Answer 1

a system, in this case a religious one, for imagining and understanding the universe.

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

associated with social divisions within and between societies and nations.

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

symbolic reversals of ordinary behavior.

Question 4

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

Question 5

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 6

Marvin Harris's (1974, 1978) studies 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.

Question 7

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

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

Question 8

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 9

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

Question 10

What are 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 11

Which of the following phases is NOT included in passage rites?

A) aggregation
B) authorization
C) marginality
D) separation
E) reintegration

Question 12

________ 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 13

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 others.

Question 14

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 15

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 16

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 17

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 results for 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 capacities.
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 18

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 19

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 20

Which of the following was NOT a reason that the Indian sacred cow is adaptive in 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) Harris demonstrated that the Indian sacred cows are not adaptive.

Question 21

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

Question 22

A major difference between rituals and plays is that the participants in rituals are performing in earnest.

Question 23

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 24

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 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 25

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 26

What term refers to a custom or social action that operates to reduce differences in wealth and bring standouts in line with community norms?

A) rite of passage
B) revitalization movement
C) syncretism
D) taboo
E) leveling mechanism

Question 27

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 fundamentalism is as old as human culture.

Question 28

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 29

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

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

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 32

What kind of religion is most frequently found in foraging bands?

A) communal
B) shamanic
C) cargo cult
D) monotheistic
E) polytheistic

Question 33

Which of the following functions to reduce differences in wealth between the members of a society and tends to be directed at socially marginal individuals?

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

Question 34

According to this chapter's "Focus on Globalization" section, Evangelical Protestantism is most explosive in "Global South" countries. Which of the following regions is NOT part of the Global South?

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

Question 35

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

A) are shamanic 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 36

Christianity is the world's largest religion, with some 2.1 billion adherents, followed by Islam, which has approximately 1.3 billion practitioners. Islam is the fastest-growing religion. This chapter's "Appreciating Diversity" segment examines how Islam has spread by adapting successfully to many national and cultural differences, including the presence of other religions that were already established in the areas to which Islam has spread. An important result of this process is that

A) Islam is far from homogeneous-the faith reflects the increasingly diverse areas in which it is practiced.
B) unlike Christianity, Islam has the capacity to transform local culture profoundly.
C) Islam is growing at the expense of other beliefs and practices.
D) the separation of religion and state is disappearing in most places in the world.
E) the West is losing the culture war.

Question 37

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 38

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

Question 39

What did Handsome Lake lead in about 1800 among the Iroquois?

A) a shamanistic cult
B) a revitalization movement
C) an animistic-residualist front
D) a structuralist movement
E) a cargo cult

Question 40

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

How do you explain the universality of religion?

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

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 45

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 46

The Handsome Lake revitalization movement urged its followers to reaffirm the traditions of the Iroquois.

Question 47

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

Question 48

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

Question 49

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

Question 50

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

Question 51

Religious fundamentalism is as old as religion itself.

Question 52

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

Question 53

Overall, countries in the Global South tend to be more conservative than countries in the Global North.

Question 54

Behaviors associated with sports fandom could be considered secular rituals.

Question 55

Based on people's claimed religions, Christianity is the world's largest, with some 2.1 billion adherents.

Question 56

Worldwide, Islam is growing at a rate of about 2.9 percent annually, versus 2.3 percent for Christianity, whose overall growth rate is the same as the rate of world population increase.

Question 57

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

Question 58

Fundamentalists are correct in seeing a rise in secularism in contemporary North America.

Question 59

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

Question 60

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

Question 61

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

Question 62

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 63

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

Question 64

What are the similarities and differences between shamanistic and communal religions? How do these compare with Olympian religions and monotheism? What kinds of general evolutionary trends are discernible in religious worship?

Question 65

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

Question 66

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?

Question 67

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?