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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. According to Purity and Danger, which of the following can an impersonal universal power not do?

2. According to Douglas, rituals help to focus through what?

3. Which of the following do Douglas' assumptions not allow for?

4. In African tribes, what is personality said to be influenced by?

5. Douglas believes that primitive cultures experience less of which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were Frazer's beliefs?

2. Describe purification as it relates to Sumerian civilization.

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

4. How does Douglas believe that one can one maintain holiness?

5. Which cultures does Douglas describe as avoiding pollution and why?

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

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 is schematizing disrupted, according to Douglas?

10. What is involved in the categorization that Douglas describes?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What happens when order is absent from the cultures that Douglas describes? What factors create disorder? Do you think Douglas is accurate here?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

According to the reading, how is harmony assured in society both externally and internally? What does collaboration have to do with internal lines? What does sexual collaboration have to do with harmony? Give examples of harmony's role in society in both primitive and modern cultures.

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