Component 4

“Religion is the belief in spiritual being”

E.B. Tylor

“…a unified set of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite a single moral community all those who adhere to them”

Emile Durkheim

“…a propitiation and conciliation of power superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life. Thus defined religion consists of a theoretical and a practical namely a belief in power higher than man and an attempt to propitiate or please them.”

Sir James Frazer

“… a set of ritual rationalized by myth which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving preventing or transforming human state or nature.”

Anthony F. C. Wallace

“ Religion

1. Is a system of symbols which acts to 2. establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting mood and motivations in men by 3. formulation conception of a general order of existence and 4. clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that 5. the moods and motivation seem uniquely realistic.”

Clifford Geertz

Cult

Way of worshipping

N.R.M

New Religious Movement

Individualistic Cult

A type of cult that emphasizes personal spiritual experience, one-on-one.

-Crow Vision Quest

-Altered State Of Conscious (social isolation, privation, exertion, sex, chanting)

Axis Mundi

The center of the world

Shamanistic Cults

Individual is recognized for their ability to drop into ASC to communicate with spiritual realms and provide guidance or healing.

Communal Cult

A type of cult that focuses on shared beliefs, values, and collective practices among members, often leading to a tight-knit community.

-Rite of passage

-Rite of Solidarity

What are the three rite if passage?

Separation, limnality, and Reincorporation.

Ecclesiastical Cult

When religion started getting written down.

What type of societies are shamanistic and individualist cult?

band and tribe

What societies are communal cults?

Chiefdoms

What type of society a ecclesiastical cult?

states

Syncretism

Cultural borrowing of meaning and symbols from one religions understanding to the next.

Anthony Wallace- Revitalization Movements

an anthropologist who studied religious behavior and developed the concept of the "cult formation". He emphasized the role of revitalization movements in cultural change.

Nativism

A reaction against cultural change where a society turns inward, emphasizing traditional beliefs and practices, often in response to perceived external threats.

Millenarian

A revitalization movements that say, lets throw the whole thing out and start a new millennium.

What are the three things that an anthropologist can condtribute to the solution to problems that are unique?

1. Holistic view

2. Etic- Emic awareness

3. Awareness of Ethnocentrism

What question does holism ask?

How does one small change affect every part of a society?

What question does ethnocentrism ask?

What is ethnocentrism's influence?

What does etic/emic try to find?

Etic understanding might not be the reason for emic understanding

Kuru(The fore)

is a neuro degenerative disease. The first symptoms is trembling and jerking motions.

Who did kuru tend to affect more?

Women and children

The fore mortuary practice and Kuru

is linked to cannibalistic funeral rites where relatives consumed the flesh of deceased loved ones, leading to the spread of the disease.

How did applied anthropology start?

Research endeavor for colonizing nations