Study Questions for Exam III
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Winter 2010
Magic and Religion Section
1.
What is ‘magic’ and what are examples? (knocking on wood, etc.) (study cards)
2. What is the supernatural? (study cards)
3. What is sympathetic magic? (study cards)
4. What is cosmology? (power point notes)
5. What is the definition of religion and how is it different from magic? (power point notes)
6. What is the definition of ritual and what is its importance in magic and/or religion?
7. In The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual what did Sosis discuss as the reasons people participate in difficult
rituals and taboos as part of religion (in regard to optimizing human group survival?)
8. What are the main points of the film What About God?
9. How did Atran et al. define “sacred values” and what did the authors say about the importance of symbolic
concessions and apology in peacemaking negotiations in the article Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution?
10. What did George Gmelch say about sports magic and the reasons behind creating magic rituals. (See power
point notes)
11. What is the New Guinea version of a cargo cult in comparison with the United States version? (see chapter 12
Culture Counts)
12. What is the power of the liminal? (pg. 270 Culture Counts)
Legal anthropology
13. What happens when a dominant legal system is imposed upon groups with differing legal codes? How does
law become an agent of colonialism? Consider the Tlingit example and the law of the land concerning taking
others’ resources or the law of an eye for an eye. (See power point notes)
14. How is Circle Peacemaking in Kake, Alaska a response to involuntary legal/culture change? (power point
notes and film Circle Peacemaking)
15. How do the legal processes in Circle Peacemaking and the Kpelle Moot in Liberia differ from Western or U.S.
legal processes?
16. According to justice researchers Albert Dzur and Susan Olson, what are some of the social processes that get
lost in the official legal system because our justice is primarily performed for us by professionals such as
lawyers and judges? (power point notes)
17. What is law? (study cards)
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Culture contact (voluntary and involuntary), colonialism and neocolonialism
18. What are types of culture contact changes? (study cards)
19. In general, what are various types of voluntary and involuntary culture change? (study cards)
20. What are some results of involuntary culture change? (study cards)
21. What are pathologies that manifest as a result of involuntary culture change? (study cards)
22. What is cultural reorganization? (study cards)
23. What is cultural revitalization? (study cards)
24. What are the main points about methods and results of forced culture change and colonialism on Native
Americans in the film Transitions?
25. What is colonialism? (pgs. 291-305 in Culture Counts)
26. What is the European colonial mindset? (study cards and lecture)
27. What is neocolonialism? What are some examples? (study cards)
28. What are the main points about the methods and purposes of colonialism in the film This Magnificent African
Cake?
29. Has colonialism ended? (power point notes and pgs. 315-322 in Culture Counts)
30. Why has independence from colonialism been such a difficult struggle for so many previously colonized cultures
and countries? (power point notes and pgs. 305 to 308 of Culture Counts)
31. What are the main points of the article The Price of Progress?
32. How do the ‘appetites’ of the developed world often affect the lives of people in many undeveloped places,
such as the Ngobe lands in Panama, current mining operations that affect Mayan lands in Guatemala, and
Africans, whose lands are coveted by wealthier nations for food growing? (power point notes)
33. What are the main points of the article Just Another Job?
34. Consider the reasons that people try to leave their countries of origin, what they hope for, and what they must
give up.
35. How do immigration laws influence the possibility that they will receive good or fair treatment as workers?
36. Be prepared to answer questions about attempts of vigilante groups to stop migration from Mexico in the film
Walking the Line.
37. Consider the reasons that many people from Central America and elsewhere seek work in the United States.
(See power point and other sources on the wiki as well as references in your text book.)
To prepare for short answer questions:
38. Be prepared to answer the questions on the handout concerning the film Smoke Signals.
39. Be prepared to answer the questions on the handout concerning the film Dying to Leave.
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40. What were the main points Father Oleksa made in the film Communicating Across Worlds: Clash of Cultures
about involuntary culture change, its results, and the possible solutions to the problems such change has
instigated? (see film handout)
41. What did Father Oleksa point out about the patterns of involuntary culture contact that start out with the
indigenous culture being put in a situation of dependence in relation to the dominant culture? (see film handout)
How did he say we could work to break the cycle?
42. In the book Tortilla Curtain, “the symbol of the coyote appears throughout the novel and represents illegal
Mexican immigrants. In his nature column, Delaney writes, "The coyote is not to blame--he is only trying to
survive, to make a living, to take advantage of the opportunities available to him." He concludes the same
column by writing, "The coyotes keep coming, breeding up to fill in the gaps, moving in where the living is
easy. They are cunning, versatile, hungry and unstoppable." How do these passages reflect Delaney's mixed
feelings about illegal immigrants? Is he a hypocrite? As the novel progresses, Delaney's humanistic beliefs give
way to racism and resentment, and he directs his rage at all illegal immigrants onto Candido. When confronted
with evidence that Candido is not the vandal at Arroyo Blanco, he destroys it. Why does Delaney need to
believe that the vandal is Candido? How does Delaney evolve from being a "liberal humanist" to a racist?”
43. In the book Tortilla Curtain, “boundaries--both real and imagined--play a large role in the novel, especially the
front gate at Arroyo Blanco Estates. In what other instances do boundaries appear and what do they
represent? What roles do the different characters play in constructing these boundaries?”
44. Be prepared to answer questions about Foucault’s “Historical Geneology” in regard to neocolonialism, as
described on the handout.
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