ANTH 4340 Magic, Witchcraft and
Religion Test With Solution
Ethnocentirism - ANSWER Evaluation of other cultures according to
preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of ones own culture
Religion - ANSWER A system of beliefs and practices usually involving the
worship of supernatural forces or beings
Dichotomy - ANSWER A division or contrast between two things that are
represented as being opposed or entirely different: other societies may not
make a supernatural/natural distinction
Identifying the Supernatural - ANSWER What we consider as supernatural,
others may not (water babies)
Holistic Perspective - ANSWER Looking at it from all different aspects and
how they are interconnected by the whole
Objective Perspective - ANSWER Observe without passing judgement
Comparative Perspective - ANSWER How does it compare to other cultures
and peoples
Interdisciplinary - ANSWER Being open to the ideas and observations from
other fields studying the same subject
Emic Perspective - ANSWER
Evolutionism - ANSWER The study of origin
Functionalism - ANSWER The study of function
,Symbolic and Iterperative approaches - ANSWER The study of meaning
Knowledge - ANSWER The study of experience
Rationalism - ANSWER Reason: beginnings of Anthropology Sociology and
Psychology
James Ussher - ANSWER -1654 he calculates the date of creation to be 23
October 4004 BC
-Catatrophism
Catastrophism - ANSWER The idea that the earth was shapes by a series of
sudden, short-lived, violent events (ex: the great flood)
Attributed to James Ussher
Charles Lyell - ANSWER -1830's Principles of Geology argues for
uniformitarianism --> the laws of nature are constant
-The earth is not divinely created
-Geological formations require millions of years
Charles Darwin - ANSWER -Origin of species
-"Much light will be shed on the origin of man and his history"
E.B. Tylor - ANSWER -Quaker
-Deeply anti-catholic
-Wanted to account for the origin of religion and trace its developmental
history
-Put himself in the shoes of primitive man
,-What makes the difference between a living body and a dead on?
-Animism: belief in supernatural beings (minimal definition of religion)
-Primitive man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopher
-Preliterate religions were essentially consistent and logical, based on
rational thinking and empirical knowledge
Animism - ANSWER In preliterate cultures
Animals,plants and inanimate objects are endowed with souls
Tylor
Polytheism - ANSWER The idea of multiple spiritual beings to explain natural
events and phenomena
Belief or worship of one or more god
Tylor
Monotheism - ANSWER Belief that there is only one god
Animism of civilized man
Tylor
Sympathetic Magic - ANSWER -Trying to affect other people
-Get a representative of the person itself and anything done to that object is
done to the person (voodoo)
-Cave art may have been used for this type of ritual
Contagious Magic - ANSWER -The notion that things which have once been
conjoined must remain ever afterwards, even when quite dissevered from
, each other, in such a sympathetic relation that whatever is done to one must
similarly affect the other
-Most common example is between man and any severed portion of a person
(hair,skin, nails)
-Baseball Magic
Functionalism - ANSWER
Emile Durkheim - ANSWER -Dissatisfied with Tylor's minimal definition of
religion, he claimed we needed a broader definition
-Atheist
-Felt that even the most barbaric and fantastic religious rites must be based
on some human need
-Divided religion into two parts: Rites and Beliefs
-Religion didn't include magic
Beliefs - ANSWER Durkheim
All Religous beliefs presuppose a classification of all things real and ideal into
two classes or opposed groups: the sacred and the profane
Rites - ANSWER Durkheim
Rules of concept which prescribe how one should behave in the presence of
the sacred
We know what things are sacred or profane by how people react to these
things
Religion Test With Solution
Ethnocentirism - ANSWER Evaluation of other cultures according to
preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of ones own culture
Religion - ANSWER A system of beliefs and practices usually involving the
worship of supernatural forces or beings
Dichotomy - ANSWER A division or contrast between two things that are
represented as being opposed or entirely different: other societies may not
make a supernatural/natural distinction
Identifying the Supernatural - ANSWER What we consider as supernatural,
others may not (water babies)
Holistic Perspective - ANSWER Looking at it from all different aspects and
how they are interconnected by the whole
Objective Perspective - ANSWER Observe without passing judgement
Comparative Perspective - ANSWER How does it compare to other cultures
and peoples
Interdisciplinary - ANSWER Being open to the ideas and observations from
other fields studying the same subject
Emic Perspective - ANSWER
Evolutionism - ANSWER The study of origin
Functionalism - ANSWER The study of function
,Symbolic and Iterperative approaches - ANSWER The study of meaning
Knowledge - ANSWER The study of experience
Rationalism - ANSWER Reason: beginnings of Anthropology Sociology and
Psychology
James Ussher - ANSWER -1654 he calculates the date of creation to be 23
October 4004 BC
-Catatrophism
Catastrophism - ANSWER The idea that the earth was shapes by a series of
sudden, short-lived, violent events (ex: the great flood)
Attributed to James Ussher
Charles Lyell - ANSWER -1830's Principles of Geology argues for
uniformitarianism --> the laws of nature are constant
-The earth is not divinely created
-Geological formations require millions of years
Charles Darwin - ANSWER -Origin of species
-"Much light will be shed on the origin of man and his history"
E.B. Tylor - ANSWER -Quaker
-Deeply anti-catholic
-Wanted to account for the origin of religion and trace its developmental
history
-Put himself in the shoes of primitive man
,-What makes the difference between a living body and a dead on?
-Animism: belief in supernatural beings (minimal definition of religion)
-Primitive man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopher
-Preliterate religions were essentially consistent and logical, based on
rational thinking and empirical knowledge
Animism - ANSWER In preliterate cultures
Animals,plants and inanimate objects are endowed with souls
Tylor
Polytheism - ANSWER The idea of multiple spiritual beings to explain natural
events and phenomena
Belief or worship of one or more god
Tylor
Monotheism - ANSWER Belief that there is only one god
Animism of civilized man
Tylor
Sympathetic Magic - ANSWER -Trying to affect other people
-Get a representative of the person itself and anything done to that object is
done to the person (voodoo)
-Cave art may have been used for this type of ritual
Contagious Magic - ANSWER -The notion that things which have once been
conjoined must remain ever afterwards, even when quite dissevered from
, each other, in such a sympathetic relation that whatever is done to one must
similarly affect the other
-Most common example is between man and any severed portion of a person
(hair,skin, nails)
-Baseball Magic
Functionalism - ANSWER
Emile Durkheim - ANSWER -Dissatisfied with Tylor's minimal definition of
religion, he claimed we needed a broader definition
-Atheist
-Felt that even the most barbaric and fantastic religious rites must be based
on some human need
-Divided religion into two parts: Rites and Beliefs
-Religion didn't include magic
Beliefs - ANSWER Durkheim
All Religous beliefs presuppose a classification of all things real and ideal into
two classes or opposed groups: the sacred and the profane
Rites - ANSWER Durkheim
Rules of concept which prescribe how one should behave in the presence of
the sacred
We know what things are sacred or profane by how people react to these
things
