In the story of Snow White, the queen’s looking glass is an example of:
a. magic
b. divination
c. witchcraft
d. a worldview
In the Navaho Creation Story, the Holy People appeared and explained that they wanted
to create people:
a. with the power of insects
b. with supernatural powers
c. who were giants
d. with hands and feet like the Holy People
A series of witchcraft trials and executions took place in the late 17th century in the
United States, in the town of:
a. Lancaster
b. Salem
c. Concord
d. Springfield
Anthropologists study societies as systematic sums of their parts, a concept known as:
a. relativism
b. ethnology
c. holism
d. postmodernism
Music in religious ritual functions to:
a. set a religious mood for the ritual
b. symbolically represent knowledge from the religious texts
c. facilitate the memorization and recitation of religious texts
d. all of the above
The term tabu refers to:
a. objects and persons that are sacred
b. objects and persons who possess potentially dangerous supernatural power
c. inappropriate modes of behavior
d. all of the above
Who wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature”?
a. Edward Tylor
b. Bronislaw Malinowski
c. Karl Marx
d. Sigmund Freud
Which of the following is true about the concept of the soul?
a. in some societies one’s soul is in one’s shadow or in one’s reflection in a mirror
b. the destiny of one’s soul after death always depends on how one behaved in life
c. there is always a single soul
d. all of the above statements are true
Neoshamanism differs from traditional shamanism as seen in small-scale societies in
that neoshamanism:
a. focuses on the individual with the goal of improving one’s life
b. is based on core shamanism, the universal aspects of shamanism
c. deals with the positive aspects of shamanism
d. all of the above
Magic is most frequently found in situations that are:
a. unpredictable
b. reasonably reliable
c. associated with those at the fringes of society
d. associated with the politically powerful
Among the Yakut (Shkha) of Siberia:
a. although most people are Russian Orthodox, many continue to practice shamanism
b. many Christian elements are found in modern shamanism
c. new groups are forming around charismatic shamans
d. all of the above
The book Malleus Maleficarum stated that witches:
a. could shift shapes, and fly through the air
b. were more likely to be women than men
c. must be arrested, convicted, and executed
d. all of the above
The rite of passage that revolves around the White Painted Woman is found among the:
a. Yanomam
b. Apache
c. Gururumba
d. Haida
Therianthropes are:
a. images of transformed shamans
b. guardian spirits
c. diviners
d. a class of gods
Wade Davis believes that from an etic perspective, Haitain zombies really:
a. did not exist
b. have been given a powder containing tetrodotoxin
c. were in it for the fame and wealth
d. were animated from the dead to work in the fields
Among the Yup”ik of western Alaska seals have souls. These souls are returned to the
sea during an annual festival when the ________ of the seal, which contains its soul, is
shoved through the hole in the ice.
a. liver
b. bladder
c. heart
d. brain
The importance of ancestors in a society is often a reflection of the importance of:
a. kinship
b. death
c. inheritance of wealth
d. reincarnation
From an etic perspective, the appearance of exhumed bodies thought to be vampires
were actually the result of the:
a. acidic nature of the soil found in some eastern European cemeteries
b. natural process of decay
c. mutilation of bodies by people wanting the village to believe in vampires
d. real work of supernatural forces
A ritual brings about illness, accident or death is called a(n):
a. therapy ritual
b. anti-therapy ritual
c. antisocial ritual
d. devitalization ritual
Inspirational fortuitous forms of divination include:
a. astrology
b. prophecy
c. omens
d. mediums (psychics)
A solution to a particular problem that is found through the application of technology is
a(n):
a. discovery
b. creation
c. invention
d. diffusion
The idea that supernatural beings reflect human behavior and provide a model for
humans was developed by:
a. Guy Swanson
b. Sigmund Freud
c. John Roberts
d. Robin Horton
Which of the following is an oracle used by the Azande to discover the identity of
witches?
a. the rubbing board oracle
b. spirit possession by a medium
c. throwing of shells on a mat and reading the pattern formed
d. studying the internal organs of a sacrificed chicken
Deliberate inspirational forms of divination include:
a. mediums (psychics)
b. reading palms
c. Zande poison oracle
d. prophecy
The concept of animatism refers to a belief:
a. in spirit beings
b. that it is impossible to prove the existence of a supernatural power
c. that humans are set off from the animal world
d. in an impersonal supernatural power
A clear separation of biological and social death is found among the:
a. Beng
b. Yoruba
c. Tana Toraja
d. Hmong
Generally speaking, all of the following are true about spirits except:
a. they are most often seen as classes of supernatural beings
b. they tend to be associated with specific locations
c. they provide protection and success, but also are blamed for minor mishaps
d. they are responsible for some powerful aspect of nature
The pentagram has been used to symbolize:
a. the Church of Satan
b. Wicca
c. the witch’s foot
d. all of the above
A technique of body movements call tensegrity is associated with:
a. Neoshamanism
b. Akimel O”odham shamanism
c. Korean shamanism
d. Siberian shamanism
Magic involves the use of plant material, called medicines, in which supernatural power
resides among the:
a. Trobriand Islanders
b. Fore
c. Azande
d. Wiccans
Death rituals or funerals serve many purposes among which is (are):
a. channeling the expressions of grief
b. determining the fate of the soul
c. protecting the community of ghosts
d. all of the above
The African Burial Ground is a Yoruba cemetery located in what is today Nigeria.
The Huichol journey:
a. reenacts the journey of the Ancient Ones
b. involves each person assuming the identify of a god
c. includes the eating of peyote which enables the Huichol to see what the gods see
d. all of the above
The term supernatural refers to:
a. an attitude of reverence and respect
b. a belief in spirit beings such as spirits and gods
c. belief in a general supernatural force
d. things that are above the natural and not subject to the laws of nature
Traditioning is the idea that Biblical texts are relevant to life today.
Reciprocity between humans and gods is often part of the worldview that underlies
sacrifices and offerings.
A symbol can be a physical thing, a sound, or a dance step.
The origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was that of a
revitalization movement.
A symbol associated with the Church of Satan and Wicca is the pentagram.
Ishtar was an Egyptian goddess who is the mother of the god Horus.
The Navaho worldview suggests an exploitation of natural resources by human society.
Lord Pakal died and was entombed in the Temple of the Inscriptions in Palenque on
August 31, 1123 B.C.
A shaman is more likely to have a direct experience with a supernatural being than is a
priest.
The movement of the technology of processing acorns among the tribes of California is
a good example of syncretism.
Claude Levi-Strauss analyzed the structure of myths and pointed out tat humans tend to
categorize the world in terms of binary opposites.
Gods and ghosts are examples of anthropomorphic supernatural beings.
Many societies have prohibitions against eating particular foods. An example would be
kashrut, the Jewish laws regarding what foods can and cannot be eaten and how they
must be prepared.
A totem is symbol that is associated with a particular social group.
The story of crocodiles living in the sewers of New York is an example of a myth.
To say that something is a myth means that it is not true.