Midterm Review (chapters 1-4)
Chapter 1
What does it mean to be holistic?
What is participant observation and why do anthropologists use it?
How else to anthropologists collect data?
Describe the differences in the etic and emic perspectives
What is ethnocentrism and why should it be avoided?
What is meant by cultural relativism?
What is worldview and how does it connect to religion?
Be able to discuss how worldview affects creation myths (ex. Navaho vs. Judeo-Christian, see more
below).
What are some approaches to studying religion?
Is religion biological, social, or both?
Chapter 2
What are myths and what are they used for in society?
How do they connect to worldview (see above)?
Be able to discuss and identify the 4 common themes of different creation myths we analyzed.
How is a creation myth different from a folktale?
Be able to identify myths, folktales, legends, urban legends.
How does the myth of Genesis show social charter?
What are trickster myths?
What are hero myths?
What are monomyths? Why is the hero myth universal?
Chapter 3
What is a symbol?
What are some characteristics of a symbol?
Be able to discuss how the swastika is both a religious symbol and a symbol of hatred.
Be able to discuss the same for the pentagram.
Why was the fish an important Christian symbol?
Are all Christian crosses the same?
How is color a symbol?
How is time symbolic?
How are music and dance used as symbols in religious rituals? Be able to also identify examples.
Chapter 4
What is a ritual?
How are rituals like plays?
Be able to identify different types of rituals (prescriptive, situational, calendrical, etc.).
Be able to identify elements of technological, protective, and healing rituals, and know examples.
What is the difference between an offering and a sacrifice?
What is ethnobotany?
What are salvation and revitalization rituals?
What are rites of passage? Be able to identify and know examples.
What are the stages of rites of passage?
How do people alter the body during rituals? (temporary and permanent)
How is body modification used as a mark of identity or an initiation?
What are views of female genital cutting?
What is a tabu/taboo? What are examples? Why are they useful in society?
Chapter 5
What is an altered state of consciousness?
Give some examples of what one could experience during an ASC.
What type of stimulation can lead to ASC?
What is the purpose of fasting?
What is sacred pain and what is its purpose?
How is sacred pain used with other types of rituals?
Can there be biological evidence of ASC? If so, does this mean it is not a spiritual experience?
What is the difference between use of drugs in Native American ASC and drug use in the US?
Be able to identify ethnographic examples of how religions use ASC.
Chapter 6
Define what a religious specialist is.
Describe their difference in developing vs. technologically developed communities.
Define and give an example of each of the following:
-individualistic:
-shamanistic:
-communal:
-ecclesiastical:
Describe at least 3 differences between a priest and a shaman.
Do shamans use ASC? If yes, give example.
Do priests use ASC? If yes, give example.
What is Axis Mundi?
How do shamans use gender crossing?
Be able to identify examples of shamanism from lecture and videos.
Be able to identify examples of priests from lecture and videos.
Is hierarchy more important in priests or shamans?
What is a diviner? What types of questions do they answer?
What are prophets? What are their roles?
Videos and Articles
Review elements that are similar and different in the Yanomamo, and Judeo-Christian myths. Be able to
identify common themes and connect to worldview.
What is the hero myth and why is it so common?
Review how music and dance are used in rituals (similarities, differences). What is symbolic about these
in Voodoo dancing, Pentecostal service, and Whirling dervishes?
In the video, how did the Hindu woman try to show the Jewish man that the swastika is not a symbol of
hate?
Why is the Virgin of Guadalupe a master symbol? Why does she represent hope?
Do rituals have to biologically heal a person in order to be effective?
Why are rituals beneficial to people (article Adaptive Value of Rituals)
How are bees and leeches used as healing rituals?
What are examples of initiations/rites of passage? (video)
Give examples of how Native Americans use ASC for healing (from excerpt of article “Native American
Healing”). (PowerPoint)
In the video on sacred pain, why did the man pierce his tongue?
In the article “Trance and Possession,” is spirit possession the only interpretation of a trance?
What is a berdache and how is it connected to shamanism?
Discuss why Lia’s parents thought she was destined to become a shaman when she first had a seizure.
How does the box (6.2 in textbook) on African Healers meet Western Medicine connect to the novel A
Spirit Catches You?
Review chapters 1-6 of novel (review sheet, quiz questions).