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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do ambiguities allow for?

2. According to Chapter 1, what do contemporary practices divide?

3. In which type of world view does Douglas believe the world is seen as subjective and personal?

4. According to Douglas, morality is wrongly assumed to protect who?

5. What example of a people is given to demonstration insulation from wrong practices, according to Douglas?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Douglas describe the ways in which purity can be achieved?

3. What were Frazer's beliefs?

4. How does the Old Testament relate to purity, in Douglas' opinion?

5. What does morality ensure, according to Douglas?

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

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

8. What does Douglas describe as being the factors that rituals require?

9. How has anthropology shown the distinction between primitive and modern cultures?

10. How does Douglas describe fortune as it is related to cosmic alliances in different cultures?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the contradiction in rejecting and accepting death? Is this something that takes place in modern culture? Give one example of such an event.

Essay Topic 2

Describe social control as Douglas defines it. What role does social control play in primitive and modern cultures? Why? What are some examples of social control? What does social control stem from?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze hygiene and how it compares to rituals as described in the reading. What is the significance of ritual in hygiene? Can you be hygienic without ritual? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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