Final Essay Questions

Essays (10 points each, Answer 7 Questions)

1) In what ways does magical thinking persist in contemporary America? Is it likely to persist into the future? How does it exist in American Sports? Please reference classroom discussions and at least one course reading.

2) In the essay “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight”, Clifford Geertz tries to read Balinese ritual and actions like a text in order to decode the symbols in their society. Leni Reifenstahl, the director of the film “Triumph of the Will”, argued throughout her life that this film was not a Nazi propaganda film, but a documentary. How might a symbolic anthropologist, like Geertz, approach the question of whether this film was a form of Nazi propaganda or a documentary? That is, what do the scenes, colors, and images in the film tell you? If an anthropologist were to read “Triumph of the Will” like a text, what might the images symbolize or say to the anthropologist?

3) What is a revitalization movement? Explain how and why they come into existence. Give an example of at least one revitalization movement and explain why it should be categorized so.

4) What is globalization? Is it something new? Is there anything unique about globalization today? For instance, is culture becoming homogenized? If so, then how? Is it becoming more heterogeneous? If so, then how?

5) Discuss the Trobriand interpretation of cricket? Explain how the game changed Trobriand society. How is this form of cricket different from the cricket played by the British?

6) Discus the case of the Gypsy offender. How do Gypsy’s tend to think of identity? Does this conflict of the way that identity is typically constructed in the U.S.? How much of the law committed by the young offender is due to cross-cultural differences according to the anthropologist who wrote the article?

7) Explain the phenomenon of ghost possession in Hindu village belief as discussed by Ruth and Stanley Freed in “Taraka’s Ghost.” What were the conditions that made ghost possession possible in the article? Do religious/supernatural ideas link with other social institutions in the article? Why is Sita a prime candidate for ghost possession?








8) Explain the role of the Shaman in Yanomamo society? What is the role of the shaman in Yanomamo society? Might you compare it to anyone in our own society? What does this film have to do with reciprocity? Is something give? Received? Given back? If so, then what is its significance? What was the function of this act of war? Did it accomplish anything?

9) What are the myths about the sex industry in the Dominican Republic town of Sosúa according to Denis Brennan? What draws women to the town to act as sex workers? How do European men find out about the sex trade in this town? What do the sex workers tend to believe that European clients can do for them? What is the usual outcome of sexual relations with European clients?


10) In the article discussing the Kayapo resistance. Who are the Fourth World Peoples? What is the Kayapo relationship with their natural environment? How do they subsist in the Amazon? What forces threaten their livelihood and social existence as a distinct cultural group?