Anthropologists Typically Conduct Fieldwork as Participants, Living and Coexisting with Those

question 23

Multiple Choice

Anthropologists typically conduct fieldwork as participants, living and coexisting with those they study. Why is it that anthropologists believe religion, as a set of beliefs about how the world ought to be, can also be successfully studied in this manner?

• A) Religion can only be understood by participating in formal religious services.
• B) Religion is also lived out in a community of people.
• C) Participant observation can also reveal if a religion is true or false.
• D) Religion is also useful as a theoretical understanding of daily life.

---

Definitions:

Physiological Effects

Changes in the body's normal functions that result from disease, substances, or psychological states.

Schizophrenia

A long-term mental disorder involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.

Extraterrestrials

Beings that are not from Earth, often speculated to exist in the universe and sometimes depicted in science fiction.

Moses

A prophet in the Abrahamic religions who, according to biblical narratives, led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery and received the Ten Commandments from God.