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| Question | Answer |
| Emic | insider's view - explanation in terms of what is meaningful in the culture |
| Etic | analyst's outsider view - explanation in general theoretical terms |
| Paradox | how can you explain something in etic terms without being reductionistic |
| Fieldwork | to study religion and other social issues |
| Holistic | focus - not only on religion but on whole life of a group of people |
| Participant Observation | spending a long time doing fieldwork |
| Ethnography | a detailed anthropological description on culture |
| Stages of Ethnography | 1) Entree 2) Culture Shock 3)Establishing Rapport 4) Gaining understanding 5) Leaving the Field 6) Analyzing and interpreting 7) Writing |
| James Clifford | The ethnographies are "partial truths" - 2 senses of partial |
| dealing with conflicting beliefs | 1) compartmentalization 2) "suspending disbelief" 3) loyalty to own group and the group being studied |
| Wagner | Did fieldwork in the US with evangelical, fundamentalist Christians |
| Wagner's Findings: | 1) New age groups are broadly tolerant of all kinds of beliefs, including anthropologists who identify as "student of belief" rather than believers 2) conservative Christians wanted to convert her, also asked her to be "educational consultation" a role in which she felt would be unethical to take on; would have become too much a part of the group |
| Reflexivity | a style of ethnography that includes attention to the researcher's position and subjectivity, for example, by considering the effect of a researcher's presence on what is being investigated |
| religion defined - E.B. Taylor | the belief in supernatural things "animism" |
| religion defined by Durkheim | practices relative to sacred things - sacred meaning "apart from the profane" |
| Sir James G. Frazer - religion defined | the propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and human life |
| Religion Defined: Anthony Wallace | a set of rituals rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purposes of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man and nature |
| Religion defined: Eller | religion is the discourse, the language and practice, or the means by which human society and culture is extended to include the non-human |
| Religion defined: Clifford Geertz (more recent) | religion generates meaning and order in people's experience |
| worldview | The way a group of people understand the cosmos and their place in it |
| weltanschauung | a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint |
| religion defined: post-modern trend | away from static definitions, look at particular situations not categories |
| Talal Asad | surveys the intellectual history of concepts of "religion" and "secular" |
| Functions of Religion | to explain, console, generate meaning, and regulate social behaviour -it can generate anxiety about afterlife -can serve as a form of social control -anxiety and fear about retribution also forms social cohesion |
| practice | what people actually do |
| prescription | what texts, canon law, and scriptures specify |
| Spiro's 3 orientations within Southeast Asian Buddhism (etic) | 1) Nibbanic or soteriological- concerned with attaining Nervana 2) Kammic - concerned with karma, getting spiritual merit for better re-births 3) Apotropiac - concerned with daily problems, avoiding evil and attracting good fortune (amulets in thailand) -these can overlap |
| Amulets in Thailand | -apotropiac -objects of actual power -the production of amulets is secret and based on specialized knowledge -different amulets are more popular at different periods of time |
| jatukhamrammathep amulets | -Hindu images, astrological signs, and herbal ingredients -worth several hundred million baht -had to be consecrated through ceremony by monks -popularity based on socio-political and natural circumstances |
| reasons jatukhamrammathep amulets were used (2007) | -desire for protection during unstable times -required consecration - had the owner complete a ritual component -fundraising for monks |
| Malinowski and rituals | magical rituals performed in the face of uncontrollable forces and circumstances |
| Official Discourse: Thai Amulets | amulets have no power, should only be worn to remind the wearer of Lord Buddha and promote mindfulness |
| Popular discourse: Thai Amulets | amulets protect us against witchcraft, disease, and accidents |
| Beginnings of Christianity | came of Judaism 2000 years ago |
| All Christians believe | Jesus is the sun of God, resurrected after the crucifixion, and provides eternal life |
| Divisions within Christianity | schism of 1054 between eastern orthodoxy and roman Catholicism |
| 1517 Luther, protestant reformation | schism between western Christianity between Catholic Church and reformers who protested against some of the Catholic Doctrines and formed new churches (protestant) - Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others |
| Friends of God | 2007 Wagner documentary in the same population that Wagner studied on Us. conservative Christians and Evangelical Christians - filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi |
| Megachurches | have large congregations with popular, entertaining services, and contemporary music styles |
| Anthropology and Christianity | it took a long time for anthropologists to study christianity because it was seen as too close to home -they wanted to distance themselves from missionaries -there are fundamental ideological issues because Anthro deals with evolution and many Christians are creationist making it hard to develop rapport |
| Sacred Narratives | myths that are believed to be true -key parts to larger theological system -tell how world came to be in its present form -Characters: Gods, semi divine and culture heroes -accepted on faith and accepted to be truth |
| Myth | -used to explain -account for natural features and animals -explain rituals and the reasons why there are certain taboos -they describe the social worlds of the deities -popular idea is that a myth means something is untrue |
| Myth as Charter | myth sets precedent for existing order, legitimates social norms by tracing them back to sacred beginnings -sometimes they cover over historical inconsistencies |
| Myth and Psych: Frued | myth can be used as a projection of subconscious though, feelings, and wishes - gives them expression in symbolic form |
| Myth and Psych: Jung | myths contain universal archetypes that lead to wisdom - child archetype |
| Modern study of myth | looks at myth in the context of the rest of culture - its history, its daily life, material culture, environment, gender relations, economy vs. individual psychology |
| Myth and Worldview | shapes groups understanding of reality or worldview: "All encompassing picture of reality, based on shared assumptions of how the world works -deals with existential dilemmas -responds to the need for meaning |
| Symbol | is something that represents something else - they are central to religion and are sometimes believed to hold sacred power |
| Multivocal Symbols | mean more than one thing at a time |
| Soma | life-giving nectar |
| suhag | state of being auspiciously married |
| Urmilaji | no woman wants to be a widow. No matter how bad the husband is |
| High Caste Perspective | upper castes prohibit widows from remarrying |
| Kangra | like much of India - patrilocal = woman goes to live with the husband's family at marriage and her marital ties are vastly -many times she has a low position in the husband's family -when she is widowed she feels isolated in a family that's not blood, unless she has a son who can take care of her |
| Widows in Indian Culture | inauspicious, unlucky - have to obey ritual rules and stay celibate, some leave their husband's family homes and live in ashrams to perform rituals for food and beg |
| Myth of Sunna the Washerwoman | although refers to past period when characters in myth had special powers – shows that through worship, proper observance of rituals, auspicious marriage achieved |
| Claude Lévi-Strauss | The structural study of myth -myth is a logical model that attempts to resolves fundamental human contradictions -binary life/death and good/evil -there is no possible resolutions to these contradictions |
| Geertz | Religion’s moral imperatives arise from the way that it depicts fundamental nature of reality |
| Ethos | moral and aesthetic style, tone character and quality of a group's life |
| Geertz: Central feature of all religions | meaningful relationships between moral and ethical values that a group of people holds and their understanding of the "general order of existence" -people conduct themselves based on their worldview |
| meaning and symbols | meaning is stored in symbols which are found in myth and rituals - they can represent positives and negatives |
| Azande | people of North Central Africa then equate negative things with witchcraft |
| Java | evil that results by unregulated passion in Melanesia |
| Wajang | Javanese puppet shows that dramatize stories from the Indian Epic Mahabarata -these stories have to do with moral dilemmas |
| Goal of Javanese Puppet Shows | to achieve detached tranquillity without being removed from the world - expressed in the mystical worldview and codes of behaviour in the Javanese culture |
| Geertz: Humans | symbolizing, meaning seeking animals; want to make sense out of experience and see it as orderly |
| Geertz: religion | attempt to provide orientation for an organism which cannot live in a world it is unable to understand |
| Serpent Handling Belief (Pentecostal) | that if you have salvation and eternal life you will be safe while handling snakes - you are one of the saved and no matter how difficult life is you can look forward to heaven - west virginia |
| serpent | symbol of death (to handle a snake and survive is to overcome death) |
| Virgin of Guadeloupe (master symbol) | christianity and roman catholicism in Mexico - said to be where the virgin Mary appeared to a Christianized Indigenous man, Juan Diego and spoke to him in his native language after 10 years of Spanish conquest |
| Virgin of Guadeloupe Miracle | made roses grow in the desert and told Juan Diego to gather them in his cloak - when he took the cloak to the Bishop who did not believe him there was an imprint of Mary on his cloak |
| Tonantzin | temple of the fertility goddess Tonantzin on the same spot as the shrine to the virgin Mary |
| Tepeyac | where the shrine of the virgin Mary was built, the same place where the pre-hispanic temple of Tonantzin was |
| syncretism | synthesis of 2 religious symbols and traditions |
| Eric Wolfe: Virgin of Guadeloupe | she plays the role of mother in Mexican family types and in terms of social groupings in society - she represents a loving mother and a virgin - the ideal woman - represents the successful outcome of men struggling with patriarchal father figures |
| mestizos | social groupings of Indigenous people who are marginalized from social and political power in Mexico |
| Virgin to mestizos | she was important because she was both indigenous and Spanish -she became the symbol for the Mexican movement for Independence |
| Independence movement | increased political and social power of Mestizos as opposed to "pure" Spanish -the virgin of Guadeloupe is the symbol of Mexican society |
| Ritual | -religiously directed action -less about thinking, belief, more about doing -symbols, formal language and behaviour repetition, aesthetic elaboration - strengthens social bonds |
| secular ritual | rituals that are not linked to religious institutions or doctrines but are still deal with meaningful values, emotions, and intensify emotional bonds |
| types of rituals: Rights of passage | life cycle rituals |
| rights of intensification | associated with crisis |
| calandrical rituals | rituals that are associated with important times of year |
| Rosaldo: rituals | a busy intersection |
| Functions of Ritual: Malinowski | reduce anxiety, helps people as a social group to face situations over which they lack control (ie. death) |
| Geertz: Ritual | rituals are cultural performances that synthesize ethos and worldview; rituals enact the perfect fusion of values, sense of the way the world really is, and moral behaviour; in so doing they both describe and shape the social order |
| Arnold Van Gennep: The rights of passage | - common pattern in all rituals associated with the transition of social categories - associated with the life cycle transitions -rights of passage both mark and produce the transition from one social state to another |
| Structure of Rights of Passage | 1) right of separation - detach from previous social category 2) right of transition - move from one category to the next 3) right of incorporation - incorporation into a new social category, status is celebrated and confirmed |
| Victor Turner | British Anthropologist - wrote "the ritual process" - interested in the right of transition, the middle phase of rights of passage -during the rights of transition the person is liminal which means powerful |
| communitas | the sense of close interpersonal bonding, egalitarian relationships arising in liminal contexts |
| rights of Ndemdu in Zambia | -studied by turner -when young men are separated from the group to undergo initiation rituals -signifies rebirth |
| Turner: Sacra | material items used in rituals for instruction -usually combines elements from one domain into another |
| Incwala | -a Swaziland right of passage that involves the seclusion of a king - calendrical ritual that is meant to make the king and country stronger |
| lunar symbolism | when a king is in seclusion he is like the moon in between waxing and waning periods - liminal period where he is painted blank and dangerous to other people - he does not engage and stays in his ritual hut - after this social order is renewed |
| Santeria | Cuban religion synthesizing elements from Yoruba religion in west African and Roman Catholicism |
| Santeria Initiation | done by the god parents -focuses on the bodily experience of the ritual which is washing in herbal water called Osain which transforms the person into a Santeria member |
| Osain | herbal water in Santeria |
| Santeria Godparents | padrinos |
| Important body part in Santeria Initiation | the head: it is the spiritual organs and the centre of the human being, receives persons character from Creator prior to birth |
| aleyo | intiate in santeria who is then cleansed with the wings of a rooster and three doves and a hen and then the birds are sacrificed which opens the road for the initiate |
| Performance theory | rituals are cultural performances that enact and communicate meanings through bodily experience and through the manipulation of material culture |
| Habitus | those aspects of culture that are anchored in bodily skills, styles |
| Initiation in Santeria Puerto Rico | -initiation of a priest Shango (Thundergod) - stones are washed in sacred water - Sacrifice: blood anointed to the head - the initiate recieves a new name : Oba Ko Puro which in Yuroba means "The king does not lie" |
| Morrocco Women's Henna Tattoo | -used to be actual tattoos but henna is not permanent so it doesn't contradict the hadith teachings -this tattoo is a woman's right of passage |
| Henna | body markings that accompany rights of passage and festive occasions in Moroccan women - was used by the Prophet Mohammed - said to be the chief of the sweet smelling flowers - provides luck, insurance against the evil eye, health, blessings and a sign of joy when applied for a wedding |
| day of the bath | Moroccan women's tradition where the bride is purified by bathing in a public bath called a Hammam |
| Significance of Blood for Moroccan Women | -henna is reddish (evokes blood) the state of being married woman is marked by blood -a symbol of child birth -blood is polluting and henna contradicts it |
| Baraka | divine blessing power in the Moroccan tradition |
| Wedding in Morocco | - right of passage for the bride - bride is liminal -fasting, silence -starts during the application of henna - demands control of body and consumption so the bride does not smudge the henna -bride is passive, submissive, and shy like an ideal woman - applied to the hands and feet which are the only body parts shown in the wedding, both disguises and calls attention to the bride - marks bride as a sexual being and shows the boundaries of her skin and body and how it will be broken - silence and immobility make the bride look inside herself |
| Baraka of Henna | - permeate the interior of the body and spirit -purifies from the outside in |
| Marriage in Morrocco | - clearly defined right of passage in a society that has clear gender roles |
| Shango | Thundergod in Santeria in Puerto Rico |
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