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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Douglas states that if progress is considered to be differentiation, primitive culture is more what?
(a) Unified.
(b) Tolerant.
(c) Systematic.
(d) Supernatural.

2. Which of the following transmits disease and has a toxic influence, according to Douglas?
(a) Hair.
(b) Flesh.
(c) Food.
(d) Aluminum.

3. Douglas believes that if you maintain holiness, what will you be safe from?
(a) Wholeness.
(b) Pollution.
(c) Incompleteness.
(d) Blessings.

4. Which of the following does not contribute to social control as described by Douglas?
(a) Predictability.
(b) Social awareness.
(c) Monetary incentives.
(d) Coercion.

5. According to Frazer, what did the primitive people fail to incorporate in religion?
(a) Ethics.
(b) Love.
(c) A deity.
(d) Churches.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is not a social control that Douglas lists?

2. To study purity and pollution, what does Douglas believe one must understand?

3. According to Douglas, who had contempt for primitive society through preconceived judgments?

4. How do people with wills and intelligence respond, according to Douglas?

5. Which of the following is not involved in the patterns Douglas suggests?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the anti-ritual prejudice that Douglas describes?

2. What does Douglas believe you need to understand to study purity?

3. What conclusions did Malinowski come to when he studied primitive cultures?

4. What are the differences between primitive cultures and modern cultures in regard to the rules Douglas states?

5. What was Smith's perception of magic?

6. In Douglas' book, what is the difference between holiness and blessing?

7. What is the role of men-centered religions on a culture as described by Douglas?

8. Describe the rationale for the classification of animals.

9. Describe medical materialism as it is described in Purity and Danger.

10. What does Douglas believe has led to the belief that primitive cultures are inferior?

(see the answer keys)

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