ANTH Religion, Ritual, and Belief Systems 2

Question 1

In anthropology, 'mana' (from Melanesian and Polynesian cultures) is best described as:

Accepted Answer

An impersonal supernatural force that inheres in people, objects, and places

Answer

A hereditary chiefly title conferring political authority

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A ritual feast held to redistribute wealth among community members

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A type of ancestral spirit that protects the lineage

Question 2

James George Frazer's 'The Golden Bough' (1890) is best known for arguing that:

Accepted Answer

Magic, religion, and science represent successive evolutionary stages of thought

Answer

Magic and religion are functionally identical responses to human uncertainty

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Ritual sacrifice is the universal foundation of all religious systems

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All world religions derive from a single ancient solar myth

Question 3

E.E. Evans-Pritchard's classic study of the Azande of Central Africa (1937) was groundbreaking because it demonstrated that:

Accepted Answer

Witchcraft, oracles, and magic form a coherent, internally logical explanatory system

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Witchcraft beliefs are irrational superstitions unique to 'primitive' societies

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African societies have no indigenous scientific knowledge

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Ritual specialists are always fraudulent manipulators of public belief

Question 4

In anthropology, a 'revitalization movement' (Anthony Wallace, 1956) is defined as:

Accepted Answer

A deliberate, organized effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture, often with religious innovation

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A government program to document endangered indigenous ceremonies

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A scholarly movement to apply scientific methods to the study of religion

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A form of cargo cult specific to colonial Papua New Guinea

Question 5

Durkheim's concept of 'collective effervescence' refers to:

Accepted Answer

The intense emotional energy and social solidarity generated when people gather for communal rituals

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The contagious spread of religious beliefs through missionary contact

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The gradual erosion of religious belief in modernizing societies

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The charismatic authority of a prophet who transforms social norms

Question 6

According to Frazer, 'sympathetic magic' operates on which core principle?

Accepted Answer

Like produces like — an effect resembles its cause in appearance or action

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Objects that were once in contact retain a mystical connection even after separation

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Spirits must be appeased through sacrifice before magic can work

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Only a trained specialist can channel supernatural power into material objects

Question 7

Which anthropological term describes a ceremony that formally marks an individual's transition from one recognized social status to another?

Accepted Answer

Rite of passage

Answer

Ritual of intensification

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Calendrical ceremony

Answer

Propitiation ritual