Final Exam

MMW 2  FINAL EXAM
Winter 2010

Part One: Multiple Choice 20 x 5 points each

✏ Answer all questions by placing the correct letter in the space provided.

Part Two: Matching Vocabulary 10 x 5 points each

✏ Match words with their corresponding definitions. Note that there will be 2 more definitions than words.

Part Three: Source Recognition 5 x 5 points / answer = 10 points / quote

✏ Supply the requested information for 5 quotations. You will be given brief passages from primary source readings, and will be expected to answer two fill-in-the-blank type questions for each passage. The questions will test your knowledge of the primary sources and their historical or social context.

Part Four: Close Reading Essay 50 points

✏ For this part of the test you will be given three long passages out of the quarter’s readings. You must choose ONE of the three and write an essay in which you discuss the source of the passage, the significance of specific details and actions found in the passage, and the place of this passage within the broader tradition from which it comes. You will write a better essay if your claim is about the tradition, and if you rely upon your passage to provide facts and details from which to argue about the tradition.

Your Close Reading Essay must be no longer than one side of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. That page will be supplied to you in the test.

Part Five: Interpretive Essay 100 points

✏ Write an essay based on the question assigned to you. MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU REFER TO AND PARAPHRASE COURSE READINGS IN YOUR ANSWER. You will not be judged by the quantity of information you can reproduce. Rather, we are seeking high quality interpretations. An essay that does not coherently synthesize its facts within an argument, but instead spews forth a lot of ‘stuff,’ will get 75 points at best.

It is acceptable for you to come up with answers to these questions in collaboration with your classmates, friends, and teachers. On the day of the test, however, you will have to write the essay by yourself.

You will need to bring one or two bluebooks for this portion of the exam.

!!! When figuring out answers try to recognize how the three questions overlap with one another! The answer to one question may provide part of the answer for the others !!!

INTERPRETIVE ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Every group we study in MMW2 represents its own group-members as special, superior to other people. In other words, every group articulates a myth about the nature of the world and gives itself a privileged position in that world. Using the “cube,” write an essay in which you explain how two social groups create myths about themselves and their members. Compare and contrast the different approaches or methods used by these groups to represent themselves as uniquely credible, and authoritative human beings. You may choose any two groups you want for this question.

Hint: Pay close attention to your chosen civilizations’ creation stories.

2. Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher, wrote that humans differ from animals in that humans “cannot learn to forget but always remain attached to the past,” whereas animals “immediately forget.” This compulsion to remember the past is closely tied to the origin and development of civilization. In a sense, stages in a civilization’s life can be mapped out in terms of the changing ways in which living people deal with their collective past. Write an essay in which you explain how two of the following leaders used an attachment to the past as a basis for controlling the present and building a future. Provide specific examples of actions or ideas for at least TWO leaders, one each taken from at least TWO distinct civilizations.

Possible examples include:

Pericles      Gilgamesh      Joshua      Josiah      Laozi      Zhuangzi      Lord Shang      Han Feizi      Krishna      Arjuna      King Asoka

3. Develop a general theory of the relationship between ritual practice and the creation of social order. In other words, come up with a “level 3″ question about the relationship between ritual practice and the creation of social order, then answer that question in your essay. Your theory could consider issues of hierarchy, authority, organization, as well as any other concepts from the course you deem relevant. Your essay must refer to at least TWO concrete examples, one each takenfrom at least TWO distinct civilizations.

Possible examples can be found in the sources listed below. You are not restricted to these sources.

Theogony      Bakkhai      Exodus 24:3-24:8      2 Kings 22-23      The Book of Rites      “Social Rituals”      Rig Veda      Legend of Asoka      story of Viswamitra      “Developing the Thought of Enlightenment”