Anthropology of Death Quizzes 1-5

According to George Gerbner, the "mean world syndrome" describes depictions of death in the mass media as embedded in a structure of violence that conveys

A heightened sense of danger

What is one consequence to the soul of improper mummification?

A second death

Which of the following best describes a corvee system of labor?

A system of required labor, where lower class individuals work as a form of tax.

A common practice in pre-dynastic Egyptian culture, was to _______________ before formal burial.

bury the body is the searing hot sand

Which is an example of a homemade condolence?

Comfort Quilts

What term do social scientists use to describe the phenomenon of societies falling behind in dealing with new challenges resulting from rapid technological and social change?

Cultural Lag

Which of the following is NOT an example of a dimension of sociological thanatology?

Disposal of the dead

Avoiding words like "dead" or "dying," instead using phrases in which loved ones "pass away," the deceased in "last to rest," and the corpse is "remains," are examples of ___________.

Euphemisms

The belief that life is really just a preparation for the afterlife if a common belief held by cultural groups with little else in common, including

Evangelical Christians and animists of Madagascar

Looking at all the physical evidence, what is the most likely form of mortuary practice that H. naledi engaged in?

Funerary Caching

What has been called the "oil of society"?

Humor

Which of following best describes a "cosmopolitan" society?

Ideas and practices from other historical periods and cultures are valued and examined.

In what culture are surface burials of the dead the result of environmental necessity and practical need?

Inuit

One explanation, called the ________ Hypothesis suggests that archaic humans interbred with Neanderthals, eventually evolving into Homo sapiens.

Regional Continuity

What do some commentators call the new "porn star" of popular culture?

The corpse

What does the term taphonomy mean in this context?

The study of all of things that happen to a body between death and discovery.

What does Kerrigan mean when he uses the term 'conspicuous consumption' (page 32)?

The vikings would buried their dead with an expensive ship to demonstrate the prestige of the individual.

What is the core problem with interpreting the taphonomy of fossils?

There are a large number of factors that can affect how we reconstruct an event.

What set Greek and Roman burials apart from other societies?

They buried their dead far outside the cities in which they were living.

What alternative hypothesis has been presented to explain how the fossils got into the cave?

Water transported them into the cave

What can the physical evidence NOT tell us about this species?

Where their behavior fits on a scale of primate grief expression to symbolic meaning.

For many ancient societies, mortal life was a test of __________ which would be reflected in the afterlife.

Worthines

What is one behavioral trait that distinguishes modern humans from their ancestors?

a record of symbolic behavior

What else, besides cannibalism, could explain why patterns of processing are observed on their bones?

a variety of funerary rites (rituals) or violent acts

What were the components of an ancient Greek funeral?

laying out of the corpse, family visitations, procession to cemetery, family mourning

A common practice in ancient Persian culture, was to _______________ before formal burial.

leave the body outside for scavengers

Randolf-Quinney argues that critics misunderstand the differences between

mortuary behavior and the notion of the burial

When the first Neanderthal bones were discovered, a leading doctor of the time argued that the bones were oddly shaped as a result of disease and trauma in an effort to:

refute the idea that they were older than 5,000 years

What is the difference between "structured abandonment" and "funerary caching"?

whether the place of deposition has meaning

The term "patterns of processing" describes which of the following?

damage to bones indicating they were eaten by humans

Neanderthals were first depicted as ________.

dumb, brutish apes

What are the 3 components of a formal burials?

excavation, internment, covering

Pettitt suggests that chimpanzees and other apes react to death with ________ actions. This is not the same as complex mortuary behavior, which is ________ in nature.

expressive; symbolic

What is the most likely explanation for cannibalism at Atapuerca?

human flesh was part of their regular diet

Which Native American culture buried their dead in earthen mounds?

Adena

According to Kerrigan, which of the following do NOT believe in an afterlife?

America's native peoples, atheists, and Freud

Kerrigan argues that for many ancient cultures, the inclusion of grave goods in burials was a way of ________________.

Keeping up appearances in the next world

In _________ mythology, the story of the creation of the world is deeply ingrained with the concept of death, specifically the dead boy of an ancestor.

Norse

A feature length story on the death of someone famous is a(n) ____________.

Obiturary

Food sharing, planning ahead, empathy, culture, and tool use are social skills that modern humans share with _________.

Other apes

One explanation, called the ________ Hypothesis suggests that Homo sapiens originated in Africa and later out-competed Neanderthals when they reached Europe.

Out of Africa

Thanatos, from Greek mythology, is generally understood as a response to the

Personification of death

For the ancient Egyptians, __________ was a meaningful analogy for the rebirth of an individuals after death.

Planting seeds for food

What were the components of a Pharaoh's funeral?

funeral procession, feast, transferal to a boat, ritual dances, mouth touching

Across many cultures ______________ are examples of grave goods that signified the idea that death was a journey.

ships, horses, boots

Archaeologists now only consider patterns of processing to be indicative of cannibalism if they can be matched with _________.

similar damage to other animals at the site

The excavation of Ur in Mesopotamia revealed that

social status in life had a large bearing on how the dead where buried

One critique of the interpretation of the H. naledi fossils is that

the excavators did not do a sufficient job of collecting all of the bones

Based on the movie "Death: The Ultimate Enigma" and what you read, funerary practices and beliefs in an afterlife can be characterized as a reaction to

the fear of dying

Large structures such as burial mounds and pyramids where not just places for the dead, but also would have symbolized:

the importance of the person buried within