REL 110 T/F & Multiple Choice Midterm

The word Dalit means

"the oppressed"

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed in

1978

Who was Black Elk?

A famous Lakota religious leader

Henotheism acknowledges

A plurality of gods but elevates one of them to special status

Myth as understood by the academic field of religious studies is

A powerful source of sacred truth

Rama was

A prince

What is a hogan?

A sacred structure of the Pueblo peoples.

The word karma refers to

Action

Among many examples of a place of special significance established by a hierophany is

All of the above (

Myths may contain lessons concerning

All of the above (How to behave appropriately in social situations, how to farm or subsist off the land, and life and death)

The Shrine at Ise is dedicated to

Amaterasu

The capacity for seeing things from another's perspective is

Audacity

The god Quetzalcoatl is recognized in

Aztec religion

In the Ramayana Rama went to the forest for fourteen years __________.

Because he was banished

The 1819 Civilization Fund Act

Both a and b (Aimed to educate native children in an effort to "civilize" them and led to the development of many boarding schools)

The divinity of the Japanese emperor was advanced by

Both a and b (Kokugaku and State Shinto)

In Wovoka's vision and teachings,

Both a and b (The Creator told him that the ancestors would rise up and if enough people believed and danced, human miser and death would end)

In Shinto belief, the most serious pollutants are

Both a and b (blood and death)

Trickster figures in mythology

Both a and b (teach important life lessons through their actions and are often animals)

In the Popol Vuh,

Both a and b (the creation of humans took several tries and stories about hero twins are relayed)

The Sun Dance

Both b and c (Is widely practiced in many Native American religious cultures and is a midsummer Native American ritual that spans nearly two weeks)

The indigenous religions of North America

Both b and c (changed over time just like all other religions and were affected by colonialism)

In the Purusha Sukta, from the head of the Cosmic man emerged

Brahmins

Some nontheistic religions assume the existence of divine beings while rejecting the notion that such beings can truly help humans find spiritual fulfillment; an example is

Buddhism

Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy

Describes the encounter with "the Holy" as "numinous".

Bruce Lincoln's definition of religion emphasizes four "domains":

Discourse, practice, community, and institution

Religious scholar Ninian Smart's "dimensional" scheme divides the various aspects of religious traditions into seven dimensions, which include

Doctrinal and ritual

Jinja, the Shinto shrine, literally means

Dwelling place of the kami

T/F. A religion that teaches that the world is inherently sacred naturally discourages a sense of stewardship toward the natural world.

False

T/F. A sound definition of religion need not accommodate the distinction between "religion" and "spiritual," because for all practical purposes the terms mean the same thing.

False

T/F. All Shinto kami are benevolent deities who bring blessings to the faithful

False

T/F. Black Elk was a famous Cherokee religious leader.

False

T/F. Both Jainism and Judaism call for extensive attention to historical development in order to best understand the context of their teachings and practices.

False

T/F. In Native American religions, healing the sick is never a part of religious practice.

False

T/F. In the Shinto creation myth, Izanagi is female and Izanami is male

False

T/F. Karl Marx was a thoroughgoing idealist who insisted that religious ideas can cause great changes in the economy.

False

T/F. Monotheism is the belief in one god who is more powerful than the rest.

False

T/F. Over the course of the past century, scholars from various academic disciplines have gradually come to a general consensus over how to define the term "religion."

False

T/F. Rudolf Otto gives preference to the mystical experience, a category that includes such phenomena as Buddhist nirvana.

False

T/F. Some Hindus are monistic and some are polytheistic, but never at the same time.

False

T/F. The Popol Vuh is a major sacred text of the Apache people.

False

T/F. The White Mountain Apache of Arizona place no importance on the landscape.

False

T/F. The biblical account of creation is commonly and naturally taught alongside the theory of evolution

False

T/F. The challenge of mortality—the fact that we are destined to die—is invariably the primary motivating force behind religion.

False

T/F. The indigenous religions of North America are all essentially the same.

False

T/F. The term Shinto existed in Japan from the very beginning of Japanese civilization

False

T/F. To celebrate a matsuri, Shinto believers make blood offerings to the gods

False

T/F. Vision quests are found only in the Mayan religion.

False

The nineteenth-century scholar who is generally regarded as the founder of the modern field of religious studies is

Friedrich Max Muller

The Chinese account of Himiko says all of the following except for

Himiko was a man

In the Japanese creation myth, Izanagi is the _____ of Izanami

Husband

The saishu is the Grand Priestess at

Ise

Recently, the definition of religion set forth by Clifford Geertz has been the subject of much criticism, in part because of

Its emphasis on the private or internal thoughts and feelings of the religious person

The ancestral spirits of the Pueblo peoples are known as

Kachinas

Many rites of renewal focus on

Maintaining the sacred balance of the natural world

Psychology is an especially useful disciplinary approach when trying to

Make sense of the modes of religious experience

Mt. Shasta is a sacred place to

Many Native communities in northern California.

The definition that describes a religion as "an institution consisting of culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings" was set forth by

Melford Spiro

The general process through which societies transform economically, socially, and culturally to keep pace with an increasingly competitive global marketplace is

Modernization

Which of the following is true?

Native American religions are very diverse.

The Shinto text Kojiki is all of the following except for

Published during the Heian period

The Shinto ritual of harae focuses on

Purification

Which of the following is not one of the Four Ends of Life for Hindus?

Renunciation

Which of the following is the best definition of a rite of passage?

Rituals that mark the transition from one social state to another.

A matsuri is a

Shinto festival

Wilfred Cantwell Smith in The Meaning and End of Religion argues that use of the term "religion" by theorists

Should be abandoned altogether, due to its ambiguity and misleading inferences

In the Japanese creation myth, Amaterasu is the _____ of Susa-no-o

Sister

The Pueblo peoples are from

The Southwestern United States.

According to Shinto myth, the Japanese imperial family is traceable back to

The Sun Goddess

Brahman is

The all-pervasive one supreme consciousness

Globalization is

The linking and intermixing of cultures

Which of the following is NOT true of the Kinaalda?

The rite enacts important Lakota myths.

French sociologist Émile Durkheim insists in his definition of religion on

The unification brought about by "beliefs and practices," culminating in a "moral community called a Church"

Shinto literally means:

The way of the gods

T/F. A century ago, only about 10 percent of the global population lived in cities; today, more than half of us are urbanites.

True

T/F. Changing Woman is an important figure in Navajo religious tradition.

True

T/F. Emperor Jimmu is the first human descendant of Amaterasu to rule Japan

True

T/F. European imperialism from the sixteenth century through the early twentieth century radically influenced indigenous religious traditions in the Americas.

True

T/F. In 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed in an effort to give Native peoples the right to express and practice their beliefs.

True

T/F. In Shinto, kami can be deities, natural objects, animals, or humans

True

T/F. Many indigenous peoples converted (forcibly or by choice) to the Christianity of the colonizers.

True

T/F. On festival days, Japanese carry their local gods on parade in portable shrines

True

T/F. Religious cosmologies typically describe both the origin and the status of the universe, and typically these two issues are intertwined.

True

T/F. Religiously pluralistic, Japanese can embrace Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism all at the same time

True

T/F. The Chinese account of Himiko provides a glimpse into the nature of women's role in Shinto beliefs in fourth century c.e. Japan

True

T/F. The Inner Shrine at Ise is periodically torn down and rebuilt in exact identical form

True

T/F. The Shinto purification ritual of misogi always involves water

True

T/F. The major teachings of indigenous North American religions are contained in mythic narratives.

True

T/F. The tipi, a typical structure of the tribes of the Great Plains, has a sacred blueprint.

True

T/F. The trickster figure in myths is often an animal who has adventures and engages in mischief.

True

T/F. Theology, the field of inquiry that focuses on considering the nature of the divine, is an important example of doing and being religious.

True

T/F. There is much diversity in the religions of native North America.

True

T/F. Usually, the goal of the vision quest is for an individual to make contact with the spirit world.

True

The principle of saisei-itchi in ancient Japan meant

Unity of the religious and the political

The Native American Church

Was founded by followers of Peyote Religion to protect their religious practice.

Misogi is the ritual of purification by

Water

Which of the following is not among the prominent questions addressed by religions?

What is the correct definition of "religion"?

Hindus will perform their own last rites while still living

When they take sannyasi vows and become a monk

The Ghost Dance came to a tragic end at

Wounded Knee

The region rule by the first Japanese rulers was

Yamato