Guided Reading for The Western Traditions.

Find the answer to each of these questions as it is given in the textbook before moving on to the next question. Some answers, drawn from the textbook alone, will be rather simplistic. They can, and should, be elaborated upon as your knowledge of the subject grows.

Pages 463 - 491:

The symbol (*) after a question indicates that these might be used for longer essays in your quizzes.

  1. Why is much of Africa’s past a mystery?

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  2. What can one view as universal in African religion?

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  3. What is maintained by a variety of rituals?

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  4. What may the practice of Africa ritual specialists entail? How has this activity been categorized?

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  5. Towards what is this activity oriented?

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  6. What is the extent of "East Africa?" By what has this area been influenced for centuries?

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  7. Who were Ngundeng and Rembe?

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  8. Who was Isaiah Shembe?

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  9. What did modernity mean in southern Africa?

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  10. What did William Wade Harris promise in return for giving up worshipping local spirits in favor of the universal creator god?

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  11. Who did Harris claim to be?

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  12. Did all African reform Churches call for the abandonment of traditional African practices?

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  13. The African traditions of which people are thought to have persisted in Brazil?

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  14. What was deliberately encouraged in order to prevent the suppression of Afro-Brazilian religion by slave owners?

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  15. What is practiced by 80 - 90% of the population of Haiti?

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  16. What do the broad outlines of the psychology and terminology of this religion reflect?

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  17. Who is "the Baron" in this tradition?

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  18. Who exploited this tradition for political purposes?

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  19. Who was Ras Tafari? (*)

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  20. What do modern powers exemplify according to Rastafarians?

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  21. What does the term "Inuit" mean?

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  22. How many Inuits are there?

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  23. What type of religious specialist exists among the Inuit?

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  24. What may well emerge as the central theme of the legacy of Inuit religion?

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  25. Were Native American before the arrival of Europeans a single unified culture?

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  26. Which native American groups lived in longhouses, tipis, and pueblos respectively?

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  27. Was the degree of cultural development conducive to their cultural survival after contact with the Europeans?

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  28. What practice is widespread among the woodlands and plains Indians?

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  29. Who was Handsome Lake and to what did he dedicate himself?

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  30. What happened at Wounded Knee?

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  31. What has been welcome from Native American spirituality at the present time? As what has it been promoted?

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  32. What is Mesoamerica?

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  33. What did the name Yucatan mean in the original Mayan dialect?

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  34. When did Mayan civilization reach its apex?

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  35. How long was the Mayan year?

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  36. When did the Aztecs come to power and where was their capital?

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  37. Who conquered the realm from Ecuador to central Chile beginning around the twelfth century?

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  38. Who was their supreme god?

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  39. What did they believe happened to the dead?

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  40. What is the closest relative to Islam? (*)

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  41. Who was Baha’u’llah? What does this name mean?

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  42. In what should a man glory, in what should he not glory, according to Baha’u’llah?

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  43. Where is today’s headquarters of the Bahai faith?

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  44. How long is the Bahai year?

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  45. In what American city was a Bahai temple constructed in 1893?

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  46. What happened to the Bahai faith in 1979? Why?

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  47. For what cluster of emphases does the term "new age" serve as shorthand? (*)

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  48. Of what is the commercial viability of, for example, psychic hotlines evidence?

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  49. Who might mention Swedenborg, Emerson, Blavatsky, and others in connection with the new age movement and why?

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  50. When did the witchcraft movement come into view in Britain? What is its oldest name?(*)

    51.  

  51. What is the Covenant of the Goddess and when was it formed?

    52.  

  52. What ritual does the ceremony of witchcraft often parallel or parody?

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  53. As well as a quest for tangible and physical religious experience, what does Neopagan witchcraft entail?

    54.  

  54. Despite its differences from the witchcraft movement, what does the new age movement offer in common with the witchcraft tradition? (*)

 

Additional Notes: