Chapter 9 Final

Question 1

God

Answer 1

An individual supernatural being, with a distinctive name, personality, and control or influence of a major aspect of nature (such as rain or fertility), that encompasses the life of an entire community or a major segment of the community.

Question 2

Spirit

Answer 2

: A supernatural being that is less powerful than a god and is usually more localized; often one of a collection of non-individualized supernatural beings that are not given specific names and identities.

Question 3

Shrine

Answer 3

An object or building that contains sacred objects or is associated with a venerated person or deity.

Question 4

Angel

Answer 4

In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, spirit beings who act as mediators between god and human beings.

Question 5

Jinn

Answer 5

In Islam, a spirit being created of fire.

Question 6

Demon

Answer 6

A spirit being, usually evil.

Question 7

Incubi

Answer 7

Male demons who have sex with human women while they sleep, resulting in the birth of demons, witches, and deformed children

Question 8

Succubae

Answer 8

Female demons who have sex with human men while they sleep, resulting in damnation of the men’s souls

Question 9

Anthropomorphic

Answer 9

Nonhuman entities that have human characteristics.

Question 10

Pantheon

Answer 10

All gods and goddesses in a polytheistic system; a hierarchy of gods.

Question 11

Supreme god

Answer 11

The god who resides at the top of a pantheon.

Question 12

Creator gods

Answer 12

Gods that are responsible for the creation of the physical earth and the plants and animal that live upon it.

Question 13

Otiose gods

Answer 13

Gods that are too remote and too uninterested in human activities to participate in the activities and fate of humans.

Question 14

Trickster god

Answer 14

: A god who gave humans important things or skills, often by accident or through trickery.

Question 15

Attribute gods

Answer 15

Gods that rule over very tightly defined domains

Question 16

Ascribed status

Answer 16

A status one automatically has because of gender, age, kinship affiliation, etc.

Question 17

Achieved status

Answer 17

A status that one has because of a factor other than automatic membership due to gender, age, kinship affiliation, and so forth.

Question 18

Misogynistic

Answer 18

Characterized by a hatred of women.

Question 19

Avatar

Answer 19

The incarnation or embodiment of a god in human form

Question 20

Mystery religion

Answer 20

A religion whose beliefs, practices, and true nature are known only to those who have been initiated into the religion.

Question 21

Polytheism

Answer 21

A belief in many gods.

Question 22

Monotheism

Answer 22

A belief in one god

Question 23

Omnipotent

Answer 23

Being all-powerful.

Question 24

Omniscient

Answer 24

Being all-knowing

Question 25

Atheism

Answer 25

Disbelief or denial of the existence of God or gods.

Question 26

Agnosticism

Answer 26

The idea that the question of the existence of God is unsolvable, unprovable.

Question 27

Bronislaw Malinowski (1894 – 1942)

Answer 27

o Very good at languages • 1915 – 1918: his first field study o Trobriand Islands (Argonauts of the Pacific) - ended up being stuck there so he ame back with the first extensive field work British scholars have seen • Participant observation o Learning the native language • All components of society interlock to form a system • Science, technology and magic can co-exist • BRIDGE FIGURE - American anthropology --- British/European anthropology

Question 28

Bronislaw Malinowski (1894 – 1942) & Durkheim?

Answer 28

“Father of social anthropology” o Stands on Durkheim • But went into the field and refined the practice and methodology  Raised the standards • Critiqued and re-did his own work and emphasized it • functionalist perspective o Durkheimian but from the bottom up • Assumed that everything was done for a purpose, and that that purpose was the survival of the group

Question 29

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1891-1955)

Answer 29

• Structural-functionalist • Did much to reduce ethnocentrism in the British school of social anthropology • 1906 –09: Andaman Islands • 1910-12: Australia and Tonga; Africa o He had a government position during these years in Africa

Question 30

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1891-1955) & Malinowski?

Answer 30

• Recognized Malinowski’s work in the field • comparative study; reduce ethnocentrism o Malinowski was more focused, Radcliffe-Brown had breadth (in their studies) – rifle vs. shotgun • Always listed Malinowski as the best example when he started to write the standards for ethnogrophy  Definition of ethnography according to Radcliffe-Brown: “an explicit and systematic method for the scientific study of societies” • respected Malinowski, collegial, writer, networked… • 1920s: began teaching at Cambridge and even then began to steer his students towards Malinowski’s writing

Question 31

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1891-1955) & Malinowski - Both scholars

Answer 31

* Reduce ethnocentrism in the field * Raised scientific methodology * In a generation they moved the discipline ahead by a century * Began to bridge the gap between America and Europe – helped create a more inclusive atmosphere

Question 32

• Theocracy

Answer 32

o A religious state

Question 33

• State Church

Answer 33

o E.g. Church of England – Queen of England

Question 34

• The Secular State

Answer 34

o The separation of religion from public life

Question 35

• Civil Religion and the problem

Answer 35

o American exceptionalism • For social scientists, political scientists, international affairs in the 1960s there was a basic problem:  Intellectually they stood on the shoulders of positivists and evolutionists who believed that as there was an increase of education, science and technology, there would be a decline of religion

Question 36

o Civil religion thesis (Robert N. Bellah, American sociologist

Answer 36

• If you opened up to your possible understandings of what religion was • In contrast to a particular religion which may have a minority population in a modern nation state (i.e. Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Sweden, US, England, etc.) there will be Protestant, Catholic Christians, all types of Jews and Muslims, diverse Hindus and Bhuddists → how on Earth can we understand Durkheim’s theory in that context?  Bellah: • There can be a set of beliefs and rituals that are related to the people of the nation state somehow, and they are understood with a sacred reference. o Definition: • ‘Any set of beliefs and rituals, related to the past, present and/or future of a people (nation) which are understood in some transcendental fashion’ (Hammond, 1976: 171)