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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In South India, what is part of the entry to the caste?
(a) Purity of men.
(b) Purity of elders.
(c) Purity of women.
(d) Purity of children.

2. For the Maoris, what does menstrual blood represent?
(a) Life.
(b) Sin.
(c) Death.
(d) Faith.

3. Which of the following do cultures not involve, according to the reading?
(a) Cosmology.
(b) Norms.
(c) Religion.
(d) Rituals.

4. What are Douglas' rules of pollution concerned with?
(a) Strategy.
(b) Opinions.
(c) Morals.
(d) Facts.

5. What do the Dinka people try to control more than other cultures, according to Douglas?
(a) Birth.
(b) Marriage.
(c) Suffering.
(d) Death.

6. Why are moral situations difficult for Douglas to define?
(a) They don't allow everybody to be a moral person.
(b) They are contradictory and uncertain.
(c) They are too specific.
(d) They are not specific enough.

7. Which of the following describes the Southern Nayar girls?
(a) No fertility.
(b) No permanent husband.
(c) Only upper castes can marry.
(d) They get to choose a husband.

8. Rejecting or affirming dirt has little to do with which of the following described by Douglas?
(a) Psychology.
(b) Relativisism.
(c) Escapism.
(d) Crossing boundaries.

9. What do the Nuer determine their moral code through?
(a) Sumerian teachings.
(b) The Old Testament.
(c) God's words.
(d) Punishment laws.

10. What example is given to describe why a sorcerer would move animals to the human sphere?
(a) To consume them in hard times.
(b) To exploit them for evil powers.
(c) To anger God.
(d) To sacrifice the animal's blood.

11. What do the Lele men compete for?
(a) Children.
(b) Homes.
(c) Sex with multiple women.
(d) Wives.

12. The model of sexual energy that Douglas describes is a basis of what?
(a) Pollution.
(b) Purity.
(c) Power.
(d) Collaboration.

13. What can be changed through the margins Douglas describes?
(a) Pollution.
(b) Conflicts.
(c) Shapes.
(d) Ideas.

14. If a husband's life is threatened, who is to blame in Nuer beliefs?
(a) His father.
(b) His mother.
(c) His children.
(d) His lover.

15. When do Orthodox Brahmins marry off their daughters?
(a) Before birth.
(b) Before puberty.
(c) After puberty.
(d) After they begin menstruating.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who do people at the margins of society represent danger to, according to Douglas' view?

2. What does Douglas think a system needs to be successful?

3. As excrements pass the boundary of the body, what do they present to the cultures Douglas describes?

4. What do boundaries represent to Douglas?

5. What type of collaboration does Douglas believe must be maintained to assure social life is preserved?

(see the answer keys)

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