Answers should be at least one page, double
spaced, in 12 point font, and should not only reflect your knowledge and
understanding of the essay question, based on the lectures, discussions and
readings, but also your own innate knowledge, common sense and imagination.

1. Explain the
Belief Cycle. How does the Belief Cycle
involve itself in every facet of a Belief? Why do we even need to express
Belief in such terms; in other words, how does breaking a Belief down into
these smaller parts help us to better understand the Belief, the societyand its
culture?

2. Explain how belief
systems play a role in typical foraging (hunter/gatherer)/horticultural type
societies, where livelihoods bring the society in close contact with natural
earth processes. From a
structuralist/functionalist point of view, how do belief systems help support
such a society?

3. Describe in as
much detail as possible the five stages of ethnographic fieldwork. How and why is the written ethnography a key
part of fieldwork? What are some special
challenges the ethnographer may ecounter while doing fieldwork? How important is it to maintain an etic
approach during and after fieldwork?

4. In working with
kinship systems in cultural anthropology, please define the following terms: consanguineal; affinial; fictive;
patrilineal descent; matrilineal descent; bilateral descent. In addition, what are three major aspects
of an individual that are revealed in kinship terms?

5. Describe in as
much detail as possible the four major theories that attempt to explain the
incest taboo, a prohibition found amongst all peoples. What are your ideas on why there is an incest
taboo in our society? And why in almost
everysociety does it seem that the taboo is broken?