SAMPLE FINAL
EXAMINATION
Name_______________________
I Short Answer
1. Name three important rivers in Mexico [Rio Grande doesn't
count]. (3 pts)
2. Name one important river in Guatemala. (1 pt)
3. Huichol native maize ceremonies include (circle 5) Atole making, Green Maize, Squash ,
Beans, Planting maize, Roasting Ears , Parched Corn , Seed
Maize (5 pts)
4. Name one important lake in Guatemala (1 pt)
5. For whom was 4 the ritual number (circle one); Huave, Mazatecs, Aztecs, Huichol,
Zapotecs, Mixtecs (1 point)
6. Name three languages of Middle America with 400,000 or
more speakers each (3 pts).
7. What Mayan language is located more than 400 miles from any other
Mayan language? (2 pts)
8. Which four of the following are non-alcoholic Middle American
maize based drinks: tequila, mescal,
popo, aguamiel, pozol, pinol, pulque, pozute, tepinazo, atol, guacamaya,
chilongo, (4 pts)
9. Circle the three of the following fruits that were not
growing in Middle America when the Spaniards first arrived: zapotes
, plantains, avocados,
limes, mangos, tomatoes,
cherimoyas,
hog plums (3pts)
10. Circle the two of the following indigenous groups of Mexico that
are known to be seasonally nomadic.
Huichol, Huastec, Huave ,
Tarahumara, Aztec, Seri, Tequistlatec, Lacandón, Tzeltal (2 pts)
11. The first and last films we saw this semester were about (circle one): Huichol, Tzeltal, Lacandón, Huave, Zapotec, Tarahumara, Totonac,
Aztec, Tequistlatec, Oaxaca Chontal, Yaqui
(2 points)
12. Deities are classified according to kinship terms by the: (circle one) Seri, Aztec, Huichol, Tzeltal, Zapotec (1 pt)
13. The Seri ceremonial drink, with a pineapple base that is fermented
with sugar and potatoes, is called a)
nixtamal b) chontal c) tepache
d) huehuete
14. Circle the two Indian groups among whom footracing is an
important activity; Huave, Seri, Tzotzil, Mazatecs, Tarahumara,
Lacandón, (2 pts)
15. Circle two Indian groups that depend heavily upon fishing for
subsistence: Tzeltal, Tzotzil,
Tarahumara, Chontal, Tequistlatec,
Seri, Tlapanec, Huave, Mazatec, Aztec
(2 pts)
16. Circle the four of the seven invariant elements to be found in
Tarahumara native festivals that appear here.
Special patio, use of a deer
hoof, ceremonial use of crosses, four directions, animal sacrifice, foot racing, use of the sacred 2 string
violin (4 pts)
17. Circle the animal that indigenous people in Mexico and Guatemala
tend to associate with rain deities;
a) dog b) snake c) opossum
d) deer (1 pt)
18. Which Mexican group uses the term Teenek for self-reference; Lacandón,
Tzeltal, Quiché, Mam, Huastec,
Huichol, Tzotzil (1 pt)
19. What life cycle event signals the important
transition to adult life in Mesoamerica:
a) marriage, b) puberty c) compadrazgo d) having one's first child
(2 pts)
20. Circle four Indian groups that by tradition don't participate in
the Mesoamerican market economy:
Mazatec, Lacandón, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Huastec, Zapotec, Tarahumara,
Aztec, Huichol, Huave, Seri (4pts)
21. What animal was kept protected, and quite tame, in great numbers
by the Mazatecs when the Spaniards invaded;
a) dog b) deer c) jaguar
c) peccary d) owl e) turtle
(1 pt)
22. Name five of the "sacred elements" of the Huave. (5
pts)
23. Mazatec divination includes three categories mentioned by the
lecturer (circle three): copal
burning, bird sacrifice, toloache (jimson
weed), mushrooms, maize casting on cards, basket lifting, pulsing (3 pts)
24. Circle three of the following that the lecturer specifically
mentioned as having a "social control" function: sorcery, insults, joking relationships,
norawa relations, hunting, gossip,
divination, hallucinogens,
proverbs (3 pts)
25. Some Chiapas natives use the unripe black zapote for a) food
b) dye c) fish poison d) something to throw e)
dog food (1 pt)
26. Circle which among the following groups live in Oaxaca; Aztec, Tequistlatec, Mazatec, Lacandón, Tarahumara, Zapotec,
Huichol, Huave, Seri (4 pts)
27. The cross shape was said by the lecturer to symbolically
represent, in Mesoamerica: a) a
mouth b) a portal between worlds c) an owl
d) the cosmos e) a turtle f) a
drum g) a & b h) d & f (1 pt)
28. Which Mesoamerican society has no color-directional
symbolism; Aztec, Tequistlatec,
Mazatec, Huave, Zapotec, Huichol, Tarahumara, Huastec (1 pt)
29. Circle three Indian languages in the (Macro) Aztec-Tanoan
language family: Seri, Tequistlatec,
Huichol, Mazatec, Huave, Aztec, Tarahumara, Tzeltal, Lacandón, Tzotzil, Huastec
(3 pts)
30. Members of which Middle American Indian group have a tradition
specifying that one who kills a dog
must eat its body before going to heaven after death a)
Tarahumara b) Aztec
c) Lacandón d) Huave e)
Seri (2 pts)
31. Which group traditionally holds that the souls of ancestors are
held in quartz crystals: a) Seri, b)
Tzeltal c) Huastec d) Huichol e)
Zapotec (1 pt)
32. Circle three indigenous groups of Chiapas in Mexico; Aztec, Yucatec, Lacandón, Tequistlatec,
Huave, Mixe, Tzeltal, Huastec, Tzotzil,
Tarahumara, Huichol.. (3 pts)
33. Music has been said to not really fit into the religious ceremonial life of one Middle American indigenous group. This group is the a) Seri b) Huave c) Tzeltal d) Tarahumara e) Aztec f) Tequistlatec (2 pts)
34. A being
in Mexican folklore who drowned her children and attempts to wreak vengeance on
men is known as a) el tigre b) mushi maam c. la llorona
d. guachi guara e)
la virgen de Guadalupe (2 pts)
35. A
Tarahumara cooperative work fiesta in which liberal amounts of alcohol are
served is known as a) norawa b) esquiate c) tesgüinada d) wirikuta e. mara'akame (2 pts)
36. An Aztec and Zapotec female monster perhaps ultimately related to
the woman who drowned her children is known as
a) Matlacigua b) Juana
Martinez c) Iztaccihuatl d) Fane Kansini (2 pts)
37. Aztec rain dwarfs living in caves cause a kind of disease
sometimes called a) susto
b) popoteco c) aigre d) embriaguez (2 pts)
38. A Tequistlatec culture hero who invented cotton armor and saved
the Tequistlatecs from Zapotec conquest was named a) Fane Kansini b)
Matlacigua c) Orizaba
d) Ma'am e)
Iztaccihuatl (2 pts)
39. A disease common in Mesoamerica that is caused by anger or
hostility is called a) susto b) espanto c) muina d) aigre
e) chipil (2 pts)
40. An individual's animal spirit companion or co-essence is often
referred to as his/her a) amigo b) calzón
c) nagual d) torero (2 pts)
.
41. An Aztec being dressed as a Ladino that tries to get one to sell
his soul to the Devil is called: a)
Cuerpito b) Pingo
c) Juan Sanchez d)
Rugroller (2 pts)
42. The land of pilgrimage to which the Huichol return yearly to find
their lives, and to gather peyote, is called
a) Mara'akame b) Nayarit c) Tenerife d)
Wirikuta (2pts)
43. A disease more common in children and thought to be something
like sibling rivalry is referred to as
a) susto b) evil eye c)
chipil d) sereno e)
borrego (2 pts)
44. A Tarahumara trading partner is called: a) Esquiate b) Norawa
c) Escuintli d)
Elder Brother Deer Tail (2
pts)
45. A disease sometimes described as due to fright, and sometimes a
form of soul loss is called a)
aigre b) susto c)
muina d) Evil Eye e)
musto (2 pts)
46. One of the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh is named: a) Vucub Kaq'ix b) Kondoy c) Xbalanque d) Iximche' e)
Ensalada f) Cuate (2 pts)
47. A man who flies around a pole in a ceremony performed by
Huastecs, Otomí, Aztecs, Quiché, and Totonacs is known as a)
Voteador b) Volador
c) Toreador d) Conductor (2 pts)
48. A Lacandón creator deity, the most important of the deities, is
named a) K'akoch b) Kusansum c) Hachakyum d)
Chembek'u e) Sukunkyum
f) Mensäbäk (2 pts)
49. The name for the Aztec Rain deity is a)
Chaac b) Cocijo c) Quetzalcoatl d) Tlaloc (2 pts)
50. Author of the Winds of Ixtepeji, a book about Zapotecs: a) W.J. McGee b) Alfred Kroeber c) Evon Vogt
d) Michael Kearney e)
Laura Nader (2 points)
51. A steam bath, found more commonly in the highlands and of ritual
importance is the a) Temascal b)
Cascarron c) Popocatépetl d) Tenemaste e) Ducha Común (1 pt)
52. A maize based drink with chocolate and yam in it, and used by
Chinantecs and Mazatecs, is
called: a) Tesgüino b)
Popo c) Pulque
d) atole e) esquiate (2 points)
53. A woman from the Isthmus region of Oaxaca, who is a retail
merchant, is often referred to as a:
a) Tehuana
b) Tenemaste c)
Cascabelle d) Partera (2 points)
54. The lord of the Aztec underworld is known as a) Tezcatlipoca b) Huitzilopochtli c)
Mictlantecuhtli d)
Cihuacoatl e) Tzitzimime (2 points)
55. Tequistlatecs see the Devil as the elder brother of a) God
b) Fane Kansini c) a coyote
d) man
56. Homshuk is the Sierra Popoluca counterpart of Tequistlatec Fane
Kansini and Mixe Kondoy. All three a) are maize deities b) hatched from an egg c)
are culture heroes d) are
dwarfs e) b & c
II True or False
(place a T or F to the left of each number, in
the space ___
(2 pts each)
___ 2. Ritual kinship is not generally an important
factor in inheritance in Middle American Indian groups.
___ 3. A beautiful purple dye is extracted by Tequistlatecs from a
local mollusc
___ 4. The Tarahumara
constitute one of Mexico's smallest indigenous groups.
___ 5. Maize is a staple crop
among the Tarahumara.
___ 6. The Huichols call
themselves Rarámuri
___ 7. Aztec deities are
classified by kinship terms
___ 8. The Seri are mostly
Catholics
___ 9. According to
Tequistlatec tradition Fane Kansini was a culture hero born from a huge
egg.
___ 10. The
deer-maize-peyote complex involves a belief that deer were once maize and
peyote was once deer.
___ 11.
Huichol children are given Indian names by a shaman on the 3rd day after
birth.
___ 12 Compadrazgo is a kind of ritual kinship.
___ 13. Tarahumaras prefer
to live in compact settlements.
____14. A vertical strategy in gaining compadres
might be when an Indian asks a Mestizo to be his compadre.
___ 15. A ramifying selection
strategy in compadrazgo would be when one selects the same person as compadre
for more than one event.
___ 16. The sweet potato, rather than maize, is a staple food among the Huave.
___ 17. surrogates for self,
or intermediaries, seem to create more problems than they avoid.
___ 18. Tarahumaras generally
fence and fertilize their milpas.
___ 19. Middle American
Indian communities generally have elaborate puberty rituals.
___ 20.
The male head of the family featured in the film Guenati'za, about a
Zapotec family in Southern California returning home to Oaxaca for a fiesta,
was a janitor.
___ 21. Hawk plumes and squirrel tails are important
ceremonial objects to the Huichol.
___ 22. Whereas to the
Tarahumara land is private property, for the Huichol land is communal and
cannot be bought or sold.
___ 23. Peyote is abundant in the state where the
Huichol live.
___ 24. The Seri make ironwood carvings nowadays for
the tourist trade.
____25. A Huave illness called "they of long
nose" is caused by one having been shamed in public.
___ 26. A Huichol male must
have a peyote experience before he can get married.
___ 27.
The Huichol make "god's eyes" [ nearika ] of shells and small
stones.
___ 28. Orizaba is a lake in
Mexico
___ 29. For the Huave the
whirlwind is one form of the living dead
___. 30. Porfirio Diaz, of Mixtec heritage, was a
liberal, and a dictatorial Mexican president before the revolution of 1910.
___ .31. Some Tarahumara social events, such as
footracing, involve betting.
___ 32. Joking relationships
are important among the Tarahumara.
___. 33. Tarahumara men generally carry things in a
blanket slung over the shoulder.
____34. The Huave see the earth as flat and circular
___ 35. A fire deity is
important to the Huichol, who connect it with the east.
___ 36.
The peyote pilgrimage of the Huichol is an occasion when one says the
opposite of what one means.
___ 37. In a Mazatec medicine
bundle, fig tree paper represents a promise.
___ 38. During the peyote
pilgrimage it is necessary to consume quantities of salt and to bathe
frequently.
___ 39. The house patio is
important to Tarahumara marriage by capture.
___ 40. The Mazatec are known to employ hallucinogenic mushrooms at
midday for curing and divination.
___ 41. In Seri tradition
singing is both common and much appreciated.
___ 42.
Communal work [tequio ] is of considerable importance among the Mazatec.
___ 43.
A Mazatec house, before being occupied, must have a sacrificed deer
placed under the hearth.
__ 44. Huichol Pilgrims are given new names just
before they start out on the peyote pilgrimage
.
___ 45. For Aztecs sparing the rod is thought to
spoil the child, so they don't.
___ 46. Mazatec whistle speech is used by Mazatec
men only, but easily understood by Mazatec women
___ 47. The Zapotec are well known as long distance
traders although the majority of them are subsistence farmers.
___ 48. Isthmus Zapotec and Valley Zapotec are not
mutually intelligible.
___ 49. The "solar" market pattern is well
developed in the Oaxaca valley.
___ 50. In addition to copal and candle stubs, Huave
sorcery bundles contain flowers.
___ 51. Children are used as "mediators"
or "go-betweens" in a number of Mesoamerican communities.
___ 52. Shamans go through some kind of initiation
and also are found to have an extra bone in their body or they could be lacking
one.
___ 53. Quetzalcoatl was also the white
Tezcatlipoca.
___ 54. The ritual number for the Aztecs was 5
___ 55. Zapotecs refer to themselves as mero ikootz.
___ 56. Unlike other Mesoamericans Huave feel that
the Sun is feminine and the Moon masculine.
____57. Tequistlatec is classified as a Hokan
language.
____58. Seri is classified as a Uto-Aztecan
language.
___ 59. Most indigenous
Mesoamericans associate dwarfs with the realm under the earth's surface.
___ 60.
The Huave and Zapotecs believe that some cats are minions of the devil.
___ 61.
The Pochteca were the class of traders among the Aztecs
___ 62. The Huichol shaman is called a Mara'akame.
___ 63. The Seri ritual number is 4
___ 64. Tarahumaras have a
custom that we would call trial marriage.
___ 65. For the Zapotec it
could be said that "marriage mediates death"
___ 67. The Mazatec would
consider it impolite to flavor a maize based drink with yam.
___ 68.
Burnt offerings are left by Huave sorcerers directly in the path of the
intended victim.
___ 69. Isthmus Zapotec men are noted for their
skills in retail commerce.
___ 70. Seris follow the fruiting of the organ
cactus known as pitahaya
___ 71. The Zapotec god of lightning (rain,
fertility) may appear as an iguana.
___ 72. Go-betweens and middle-men have no place in
Zapotec life, for these people prefer to deal directly with others.
___ 73. Mazatec men have shaved heads under their
turbans.
___ 74. Tarahumara and Lacandon men wear their hair
relatively long and sometimes loose.
___ 75. Huave tradition holds that knowing the
precise animal that is one's spirit companion enables that person to transform
himself into the animal shape
___ 76. Another name for the Oaxaca Chontal is
Soconusco.
___ 77. The Huichol were once almost unique in their
absence of the flute among their
Musical instruments.
___ 78. Zapotec Musicians are frequently blind or have some other infirmity.
___ 79. Tarahumaras prefer to use intermediaries in conducting most social business.
___ 80. A group living at the southern end of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec associates North with the male principle and south with the female.
___ 81. Some Zapotecs have a cemetery for non-persons that is separate from the one for persons.
____82. Shamans often communicate with otherworld
entities with a language other than their native tongue.
____83. A child can be used by grownups as a
"spy" when sent on errands, but he can unwittingly become a
"double agent."
____84. Pedro de Piedra, collector extraordinaire,
was turned into tamales after having alienated the Tequistlatecs by executing
some of
them
in order to make examples of them.
III Identification (Identify
each with a few words, up to a sentence or two if necessary)
III Identification
(identify each with a few words or a sentence or two)
1. Chatino
2. Huitzilopochtli
3. La Llorona
4. Mara'akame
5. Muina
6. Mictlantecuhtli
7. Nixtamal
8. Pingo
9. Susto
10. Tepoztlan
11. Toloache
12. Wirikuta
13. Tepache
14. Matlacigua
15. Tequistlatec
IV Short Essay (pick five
- no more than lO-l5 minutes on each)
(15 pts each)
l. Discuss the social meaning of food sharing in a Zapotec
group.
2. How does the ritual number 5 manifest itself in Huichol life. Use your reading as well as the lectures to answer this question.
3. What does Evon Vogt mean by structural and conceptual replication, and how does this relate to Zinacantan's two Christ figures.
4. Discuss in detail the major life-cycle events among the Yucatecs.
5. What evidence does the book Peyote Hunt present suggesting that the
Huichol were hunters and gatherers only a few centuries ago?
6. Describe, in detail, compadrazgo in Middle America,
including selection strategies.
7. La llorona has been seen as a symbol of family and
interpersonal relations by at
least one researcher.
Can you explain this view.
8 Discuss market and trading in indigenous Mexico and Guatemala,
including concepts of
the solar market system, penny capitalism, norawa,
long distance trade.
9. Describe Mazateco whistle speech, its basis, functions,
settings of use, etc.
lO. What features of
Tarahumara society do you feel are dictated or at least strongly influenced
by the environment (you will
have to have read Kennedy's book to answer this appropriately).
l2. What can you say about marriage
customs in Middle American Indian societies; give examples from
your reading.
l3. What do you consider the
crucial features of the cosmology of the Aztecs (be specific, naming at
least several deities as well as where they fit into the cosmology).
14. What are the five world ages of the Aztecs. Minimally, name each one, who presided over
it, what the people ate, and how it ended.
15. Explain the idea that "marriage mediates death"