ANTH 205 Exam 2 Review - Lynch

Human Universals

Any cultural trait or institution that is found in all societies or cultures

Similar set of needs and problems

• Basic Survival

• Subsistence

• Protection

• Enculturation (children need to be taught how to act and behave)

• Language

• Health

• Explain the Unknown (all groups have a belief system), ect

Common Biological Ancestry

Biological Constraints

• Prolonged Dependency of Children (how long it takes the brain and social abilities to develop)

• Language Acquisition

• Sexual Dimorphism

  • Division of Labor & Hunting (men hunted, women gathered bc of babies)

Catherine Marsh Study

Gauged animal reactions to menstrual blood; herbivores and game animals displayed avoidance while larger carnivores (lions, tigers, bears) reacted w/ hostility and aggression

• Female Reproductive Changes

  • Menopause

  • Quantity vs Quality Theory (in genetic interest for men to make as many babies as possible, for women to make better baby), Sociobiology (input from both sexes was required)

• Loss of Estrus (cycle in women, prob most important event, humans are only mammals to conceal ovulation)

Insecure Male Theory, “Cuckoldry”

When someone else is having sex w/ your significant other, a terrible insult

“Blank Slate” or “Empty Cup” Theory

Human beings are like an empty cup/blank state > Ruth Benedict > Myth > Behavioral Universals

Cognitive Design Elements

• Detect and Prefer the Central Tendency of the Group

  • Evolution and Conformity

  • Groups that cooperated had an adaptive advantage

• Trust the Familiar, Distrust the Foreign i.e. xenophobia

  • Taught to children from a young age (babies cry when held by someone knew, teach stranger danger to young children)

  • War, Aggression, Slavery, Chimpanzees (aggressive bands attacked other bands to mate, created xenophobia in them), Non-Linguistic Universals

Culture can Override

Things we may think of as universal

i.e. Mother Infant Bonding and Anjinhos

Shepper-Hughes and Anjinhos

Little angels in Portugese, children who are born but aren’t meant to live

• babies born weak, inactive, quiet

• aren’t cared for to furtherest extent and slightly neglected because of their weakness/inactivity, sometimes aren’t named

  • “Naturally Aggressive”

Semai people of Malaysia

Value gentleness and nonagressive as the norm

• Most aggression is making fun of people who are aggressive

• Withdrew into the mountains and have little contact w/ outside world

Enculturation

The process of the acquisition of culture, learned/taught

4 Avenues:

• Observation and Mimicry (active from birth, not explicitly taught)

  • language acquisition, food preferences, way ppl carry body, clothing, gender roles

• Emulation of Model Behavior

  • high status figures: older siblings, aunts and uncles, culture heros, fictitious characters

• Technical Instruction (explicitly taught special skills)

• Conditioning (positive reinforcement or punishment for certain behaviors)

  • fictive agents

Fictive Agents

Parents use fictive agents as a form of conditioning i.e. santa clause, the boogeyman, La Llorna

Subsistence

Theme- we all have same basic needs, but different cultures have different solutions

Needs:

1. Energy, need calories

• Marasmus

2. Protein, needed for skeletal growth and children

• Kwashiorkor

3. Vitamins, for various deficiences

4. Fats, for energy storage and regulation

5. Water

Solutions:

• Great Basin groups: herded grasshoppers at certain times of year when protein was scarce and ate them (good protein source)

• Eskimo/Athabascan: relied on sausage and fish when in hard winters and food was hard to find

  • Hunted seabirds in unique way and stored them in the house until it turned gelatinous and formed a sausage

• Pastoralists: tapped cows for blood and mixed it with milk for a quick meal on the road

Marasmus

Caloric deficiency disease; when body doesn’t receive enough calories and begins to consume itself

Kwashiorkor

Protein deficiency diease; lack of protein for an extended period of time,

Gives you skin leisons or sores, swelling of abdomen, rust colored hair tint

Loss of Estrus

Cycle in women, prob most important event, humans are only mammals to conceal ovulation

Human Language is unique among animals _________

Primarily in its complexity

4 Primary Attributes of Language

1. Tremendous Intraspecific Diversity: thousands of languages exist on earth, animals of the same kind communicate in the same ways

2. Language is based on Symbols: arbitrarily assigned over time to stand for something else

3. Multiplicity of Patterning: ability to combine and recombine a limited number of  phonemes into billions of combinations to express thoughts

• Phoneme

• Morpheme

• Syntax

• Linguistic Frames

4. Displacement:  ability to refer to something that is not immediately present or is even abstract, may be unique in human language

• Examples: “Can you go grab the yellow file on my desk in the other building?” (animals can’t refer to something not there), heaven, hell, boogey man, philosphical thought, existentialism

Phoneme

Smallest units of a language, distinct sounds, 42 in the English language

Morpheme

Smallest unit of a language that has semantic significance (meaning), formed from phoneme. Two Types:

• Free: not dependent, have meaning all on their own i.e. boy, girl

• Bound: must be bound to a free morpheme in order to have meaning i.e. boys, girls (s indicates plurality and has meaning, same with “ed”)

Syntax

word order, needed to assure meaning

Linguistic Frames

can change or add meanings/shape/grades of meaning

i.e. gestures, changes in volume, repitition, intonation, situation is status dependent

ex: mom starts yelling and saying your full name when she’s upset

Non Verbal Communication

2 Broad Avenues:

1.  Proxemics:  Study of the use of space, both public and private.

• Personal Space: in the U.S approximately 3 feet

  • Crowded Elevators (people usually refrain from speaking and distract themselves/avoid eye contact)

  • Cross-cultural comparisons: Brazilians are very touchy and have a small personal space bubble and greet w/ cheek kisses.

• Greeting Space: in the U.S. is approximately 20-12 feet, half while indoors, Brazilians is like 50-60 feet (no shame in yelling to greet)

2.  Kinesics: study of the use of the body, body language, the language they convery with their body (intended or unintended).

• Is highly Situation/Status Dependent: affected by gender, wealth, status, body adornment (tattoos, clothing)

ex: Touching among Adults: very little unsolicited touching in US; Children & Status: adults touch children in ways they wouldn’t with adults i.e. aunt pinching your cheek, spinning babies and toddlers around, tickling them, football players slapping others butts 

• Situational & how one carries the Body, Posture, Clothing

  • Ex: sit up straight and make eye contact in a  job interview, cross legs and kick backed and relaxed in a social situation, body ornamentation (shoulder pads for men and women)

Cognition

The process through which we perceive and process information

i.e. folk taxonomies and monolexic color terms

Taxonomy

hierarchical system of classification of phenomena

how people order or classify things from general to specific

Monolexemic

Indicates something that it very general

2 criteria: cannot be subsumed into a larger category eg. vehicle; wide applicability, can be used to refer to many things

• Light spectrum: There are eleven monolexemic terms to classify colors in the light spectrum: black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, gray, brown and orange. Patterns:

  • Black & White= found in all cultures

  • If 3 terms, always Red

  • If 4 terms, Red, Yellow, or Green

  • If 5 terms, Red, + Yellow or Green (Maya & “Blue”, don’t have word for blue)

  • If 6 terms, “ “ + Blue

    ***After 6 there is no pattern.

Why are there differences in monolexemic terms?

Direct correlation to cultures dependence on the environment and number of monolexemic terms

i.e. Amazon tribes don’t have word for green (unhelpful in their environment)

Polylexemic References

More specific and descriptive, using more than one word or catergory of description i.e. “the snake has horns and large fangs”

• Eg. Plant Taxonomy

  • Unique Beginner: plant vs. animal

  • Life Form: tree vs. bush vs. vine vs. grass

  • Generic: oak tree vs. spruce tree vs. poplar tree

  • Specific: white oak tree vs. red oak tree

  • Varietal: red scrub oak (very specific)

Levels are determined by the people’s reliance on the environment

• Eg. Domain of Snow & Ice: People who live in Artic areas will have many words for snow and ice because that’s their domain i.e. Eskimos have many words for snow and ice

Domain of Snow and Ice

People who live in Artic areas will have many words for snow and ice because that’s their domain i.e. Eskimos have many words for snow and ice

Eskimo- Sound: Eskimos use sound (tapping their walking stick) to determine how thick the ice is on an icy lake. Can reproduce the ice sounds verbally

Status

socially defined or recognized position within the group

Role

set of behaviors appropriate to that position

Status can be _________

Permanent or Temporary

If you’re born in a specific country then you get permanent citizenship status, gender is permanent status, age/a minor is a temporary status

Rite of Passage

Institutionalized rituals sanctioned by societies or social groups to recognize and legitimize your new position

ex: Graduation from highschool and college, marriage ceremonies, fraternity/sorority rushes, promotion or retirement ceremonies, male and female initiation at puberty

• Can be extended into entire process of changing i.e. dating, then dating exclusively, then engagement, then living together, then marriage ceremony OR entire college experience

• New Status carries both privileges and duties: Eg Marriage: expect emotinal and physical support, share responsibilities, pledge fidelity, share resources

Determination of Status

1. Achieved: must be achieved, in most egalitarian societies and some western societies i.e degree of education, wealth

2. Ascribed: status that is birth related and usually cannot be changed

   ex. Royalty, Race, Gender: predetermined absolute status i.e. women and the taliban, Slavery

Orixas

African slaves in Brazil held a veneer of Christianity by “worshipping” christian saints but internally still worshipped african dieties (orixas)

Covade

when the wife is giving birth, other women will assist her in a special birthing tent and husband will pitch a tent next to her, he would mimic her and “go through birth” with her to a doll; among groups that adopted horse culture

Berdache

males that took on the roles of females and lived their lives as females, dressed like women/took care of children/cooked meals

Carnaval

huge celebration carnival in Brazil where everyone celebrates, samba schools were created to teach people to dance for this event and people practice every day to have a moment in the spotlight

Class Systems

US and the “Open Class System” versus “Life Chances”

• Open class systems aren’t usually harshly divided and are mostly based on income

• Social/upward mobility is possible through individual achievement

• Life chances: individuals opportunity to fulfill or fail to fulfill their potential in society; depends on class you’re born into

  • Poverty and wealth may make life harder for some more than others

Caste System in India

Ranked according to ritual purity; determined by birth and social mobility is impossible

• Brahmins- priests and scholars, ranked highest

• Kshatriyas- warrior class 2nd

• Vaishyas- merchants 3rd

• Shudras- menial workers or artisans 4th

• Untouchables (dalit)- casteless person, forced to take menial jobs like cleaning or working leather 5th

  • mere touch from these people could pollute the ritual purity of a higher casted individual

Why is marriage a human universal?

1. Functions of Marriage: Provides advantages to both sexes; provides for rights of inheritence, socially sanctions and controls sexual behavior, provides an environment or stable structure for enculturation, define each partners role w/in the marriage i.e. as breadwinner or child care, way to submit economic and sociopolitical alliances between different families and groups

2. Evolutionary Explanation: To ensure male investment of time and resources for women, ensure paternity for men. Insurance that males aren’t investing in another man’s offspring (cuckoldry)

   • Insecure Male Theory: know human females are the only one w/ hidden ovulation

   • Loss of Estrus Cycle

   • Cuckoldry: Significant other is messing around w/ someone else

Marriage Types

1. Monogamy: one man and one woman

• Preferred by 25% of cultures (after WWII)

• Highest fertility rates, highest health rates, highest in modern western cultures

• Serial monogamy, multiple monogamous relationships in a lifetime

2. Polygyny: one man has multiple wives

• Preferred by 71% of cultures (after WWII), a little skewed

• Common among pastorialist and horticulturalists groups

• Most men won’t have more than one wife, only rich and high status men do

• Have fewer offspring in part bc of postpartum sexual taboos

• Chiefs have multiple wives to form a power base

• Christianity changed most to monogamy

3. Polyandry: one woman has multiple husbands

• Preferred by 4% of cultures (after WWII)

• Husbands were as closely related as possible i.e. brothers and cousins        

  • Would pool resrouces to get bride price  

• Found in harshest environments w/ land that has little carrying capasity

  • Alternatively the environment is rich but land is scarce, so land is passed from generation to generation from daughter to daughter

• Lowest levels of fertility, lowest health rates, and extreme birth control is practiced, post partum sexual taboos to limit population size

4. Others: Levirate (something to husband) and Sororate (something to wife)

• Monogamous on surface, pledge between families to provide a child

• In marriage, if something happens to the wife or husband (die, infertile), they must be replaced w/ another family member i.e. younger brother or cousin

Premarital Chastity

Emphaisis on being on a virgin at marriage (mostly on women than men) & places w/ Dowry or Bride Price place emphasis on this

• Seen as a form of honor

Incest Taboos

almost a human universal within the nuclear family

• Brother-sister marriages are condemned and only acceptable for royal divine lineages

• First cousins and often further are condemned usually, varies by group

Reasons/Theories for Incest Taboos

• Inbreeding Avoidance: undesirable recessive genes (mental disorders, infant and childhood mortality, disabilities)

• Familiarity Breeds Avoidance: Children that grew up together often have little sexual interest in each other later on

  • i.e. Kibbutz: jewish community that raised children communally and they never married w/in same kibbutz

  • i.e. Taiwan: future bride raised in home of future husband and tended to lead to marriages w/ sexual dysfunction, extramarital affairs, low numbers of children

• Prevent Disruption of Family Unit, to inject competition.

Divorce

Helen Fisher’s cross-cultural study and hypothesis found that couples get wandering eyes w/in 3-4 years of marriage, first 3-4 years of a marriage coincides w/ first 2-3 years of childs life and survivability increases (many resources and time is devoted to keep child alive), serves to keep couple together long enough to make a child stable and survive

• First extramarital affair occurs 3-4 years after marriage

• Secrete pheromones and start to smell different after 3-4 years

Mating Preferences - Cross Cultural Studies

Men tend to prefer women that are beautiful, youthful, and have traits that exhibit high fidelity across cultures (standards for these vary across culture, and cues for high fidelity)

Women prefer higher social status, intelligence, charisma, and high success potential (cues for men to provide for children)

• One study flashed pictures on screen and gauged the men and women’s level of attraction to them

• Differences in people they chose to date and those for marriage

Purposes of Kinship Systems

Determines social support, determines altruistic behavior (unselfish concern and action for others even to the point of your own detriment), determines who you can marry

• Exogamy

• Endogamy

Exogamy

marrying out of ones group (usually kin group)

• spreads genetic potential and lowers genetic birth defects

• cements alliances btwn families and groups

• clans often marry out of their own clans

Endogamy

Marrying w/in ones own social group

i.e. marrying w/in your caste in a caste system, marrying w/in your religion

Kinship is based on 3 lines

1. Consanguineal- blood related, biological family

2. Affinal- in laws, related solely by marriage

3. Fictive- common in clans, people claim one ancestor as the founder of the clan (this person’s existence is sometimes fictional)

Tracing Decent

• Patrilineal: traced through fathers line

  • Often patrilocal as well (women go to live w/ men’s family)

• Matrilineal: traced through mothers line

  • Often matrilocal

• Bilateral: emphasis is placed on both sides of the family

Kin Terms

• Our System= Eskimo (they were the only people who matched our naming system); one word for cousin, uncle, aunt

• Simplest= Native Hawaiians; extremely ambiguous, no words for aunts and uncles & no words for nieces and nephews, older gen = father/mother, younger gen=son/daughter, same gen=brother/sister

• Most Complicated= Sudanese; have hundreds of terms for different types of kins, tells exactly how and in what way each person is related

Others:

• Avunculocal Residence: Pator & Genitor are different, eg Crow. 

  • biological father/mother and social father/mother are different

  • Crow are matrilineal and patrilocal, young boys would go to live w/ mother’s brother after age 5 to 6 to complete their education

• Trobriand Islanders:  matrilineal, no word for genetic father.

  • children are close to their biological fathers in an informal way and the mother’s brother is the authority figure

Pator

social thought

Genitor

biological thought

History: Evolutionary Schemes

Lewis Henry Morgan, Anthro.= Science, Religion has no place.

E.B. Tyler: focused on religion. His Evolutionary Scheme:

1. Animism: everything in environment has souls/essence

   • was most primitive belief form

2. Animitism: belief in a single abstract force that humans can tap into through ritual to manipulate the environment or circumstance

   • more advanced than animism

3. Polytheism: constellation of gods and goddesses that are responsible for different aspects of life, could be personifications of natural forces, world features, or human endeavors

   • more primitive than monotheism

4. Monotheism: belief in one god

   • was most advanced

   • common in state level societies

   • believed all societies would eventually arrive here

Bronislaw Malinowski Evolutionary Scheme

1. Primitive= Magic

2. Civilized= Religion (contemporary) 

3. Future= Science (Believed science would take over for Religion)

• Magic: animism, animitism & some polytheism: supernatural specifically done to influence the environment and served psychological function (gave feeling of control over circumstance)

  • Sympathetic Magic: “technology of the sacred”

• Religion: Polytheism & Monotheism> more concerned with explanation of phenomena, especially creation a human’s place in the world (how we fit into natural world and how we should conduct ourselces)

• Science: based on empirical observation; enables us to predict and explain phenomena, leaves many philosophical questions i.e. why do we die, why do bad things happen to good people

Magic

animism, animitism & some polytheism: supernatural specifically done to influence the environment and served psychological function (gave feeling of control over circumstance)

Religion

Polytheism & Monotheism> more concerned with explanation of phenomena, especially creation a human’s place in the world (how we fit into natural world and how we should conduct ourselves)

Science

based on empirical observation; enables us to predict and explain phenomena, leaves many philosophical questions i.e. why do we die, why do bad things happen to good people

Ethonoscience

In “primitive” societies, still based on empirical observation and hypothesis testing.

ex: medicinal plants, Navigation in the Pacific “Lapita Culture”

Navigation in the Pacific “Lapita Culture”

• People of the Pacific Asian mainland

• Archaelogical observation based on style of pottery – 4000 years ago

• Able to navigate from their origins from their asian mainland and populate new zealand, hawaiian islands, easter island, and around the world

• Succeeded the europeans in their exploration of the world w/ long boats (resembled large canoes w/ triangle sails) that tapped into wind to move

• Didn’t have chart, pilot books, compass, etc; navigated through ethnoscience (observation, trial and error, hypothesis testing)

Wufanu “Lapita Culture”

Stories, creation myths, and stories of actual navigation

• Seafaring culture had many stories involving heros

• Structured into song or rhyme, taught to children at a very young age (almost as good as writing, like a mnemonic device)

• Directions embedded into stories, starts w/ starts (star courses embedded in these songs)

• Beginning of the song indicate the time of year bc stars change throughout the year

• Stars/skies look different as you sail far in one direction, so a point of reference is included in the song

• Descriptions of particular islands are included as well, indicates how far from land you are

• Presence of seabirds – how long does it take a bird to fly our, fish, and fly back

• Sea swells emanate from land and islands in the oceans itself, tells where land might be

• Master navigator rich in manna that he could kill you w/ a glance if you disobey a direct order

• Other Signs: “sea marks”

Malinowski’s Hypothesis

Says that when a particular action is important to a society yet is very risky and the outcome is uncertain, then there will be greater ritual activity and thus magic associated w/ it

• Risk and uncertainty = greater ritual and magic involved

• Greater ritual and magic = greater feeling of control over circumstance

ex: Malinowski’s Trobriand Islanders = Lagoon vs Open Sea

• Got this from observing the trobriand islanders off the coast of new guinea

• Observed fishing in the lagoon vs open sea

• Lagoon = protected water way, nothing in the way of waves, relatively shallow, the game isn’t dangerous and plentiful

  • Sometimes don’t have much resources

  • Certain resources needed that can’t be provided by lagoon (i.e. whales)

• Saw zero ritual activity associated with lagoon hunting but tons of rituals done for sea fishing

  • Abstain from sex, fast for days, many rituals to give calm winds, luck and favor before deep sea fishing expeditions (inundated w/ ritual)

Urubu, forest is asleep - Malinowski’s Hypothesis

• Group of people in native central Africa

• Hunter gatherers

• Believe that the forest goes to sleep each night and human beings have to wake it up or it wont provide resources for humans

• Uses a flute to wake up the forest first thing in the morning

  • Crow, medicine & “Two Leggings”

• Crow warrior

• Early life is visual quests to obtain better medicine to be a better warrior

• Extremely risky so lots of rituals associated

  • Huron warfare & satisfaction of soul desires

• Tons of rituals associated w/ this and satisfaction of soul desires

Religion Fundamental Principles

1. Based on Faith

2. Reflection of the Human Life Cycle

3. Reflection of the Social Order

4. Functions to Control Behavior

Religion Fundamental Principles - Based on Faith

• Why? (faith) versus How? (science)

• Strong motivating force

• Functions To Help us through bad times, reconcile loss, failure & death.

  • Associated w/ religion and engage w/ religion more during difficult times

  • No atheism in foxholes – always associated w/ danger and risk

  • “Malinowski’s hypothesis” not so clear cut

• Operated in a different realm from science – seeks to explain that which science cannot

• Questions fundamentally unanswerable through scinetific method

• Proving or disproving the existence of god impossible w/ science

Religion Fundamental Principles - Reflection of the Human Life Cycle

Anthropomorphize dieties

• Project the divine on what we know – but more than/greater than humans

  • Allows us to partake in divinity itself

• Common themes reflected in mythologies for diff religions

  • Miracle births: women able to have kids when really old (sarah birthing isaac), products of these tend to be prophets or heros

  • Huitzilopochtli: product of a virgin birth

  • Heros and demigods very often go through a period of ritual (endire evil/temptation/hardship, have a demise/defeat/setback, have a rebirth as a fully fledged diety)

Huitzilopochtli

Product of a virgin birth

Religion Fundamental Principles - Reflection of the Social Order

Peggy Sanday – anthropologist, wrote “female power male dominance”

• Did a study of cross culture creation myths

• Under what circumstance do females have greater secular and religious power?

• Whether dieties are male or female

• Created rules of tendency

  • Women contribute significantly and uniquely to subsistence and economic arrangements

  • Tend to have more secular and religious power

  • Participate in religious rituals

  • Have more religious and female centric types of myths

  • More female deities

• But when females don’t have this economic contribution, tend to have more male dominated pantheons

  • Greater male religious and secular power

  • Saw correlation between view of environment and whether it’s seen as begging and more of a partner of human beings and associated w/ women (birth and growth and creation) rather than a forbidding kind of environment

    • Social and/or physical is more of an enemy and antagonist and difficult in areas of more male power and religious leadership

• Eskimo Society

• Protestantism vs. Catholicism

Religion Fundamental Principles - Functions to Control Behavior

• Religion main source of law and guide for society and behavior and transgressions and punishment

  • Yabilh Chakular > Concept of Limited Good - Belief that among rural ppls in Guatemala associated w/ concept of limited good

  • Elephantiasis in India – Caused by divine punishment for social, familiar, and relationship infidelity                                

  • Spanish Inquisition – Accused of being witches; testing if they were witches would be horrible

    • Testing in the water if they float or sank, burned at stake

    • Very targeted w/ spanish inquisition: targeted muslims and jews that refused to convert; Gypsies - nonconformists, heavily targeted; ppl who were politically aligned against the church

• Idea of hell and eternal damnation or punishment

• Phrase from christian gospel – the meek shall inherit the earth

Yabilh Chakular

Concept of Limited Good

Belief among rural ppls in Guatemala associated w/ concept of limited good

Umbanda

Alternative religion found in Brazil

Brazil is characterized by the long-standing, deeply embedded traditions of:

• Religious syncretism

• Religious pluralism

• Medical pluralism

Religious Syncretism

blending of different religious traditions

Religious Pluralism

individuals wil look to different religious traditions for treatment

Medical Pluralism

individuals will seek help from western modern medicine and religious means in one or more religious traditions; magic to mediumistic to herbalism

How did Umbanda come about?

1. Half of all the slaves imported into the new world from Africa went to Brazil. White settlers were outnumbered 3 to 1. Slaves worshipped African deities called Orixás, who were disguised as Catholic Saints.

   • Since so many slaves, revolts were a huge danger and whites turned a blind eye to religious differences to avoid inducing anger

   2. Portuguese crown was weak, had few places in Africa from which to get slaves= cultural continuity and continuous influx of African peoples up to the 1880’s.

   3. African medicine was very superior to European in Brazil during colonial times. Developed in similar environments (came from same climate and experienced similar diseases as Brazilians).

   • Religious rituals were mixed in with healing and disguised as Christian

Other Factors:

• Folk Catholicism= “cult of the saints”  intercessors to God; petition favors (luck, health, fortune), cities have a patron saint

• African Traditions=  polytheistic, nature-based, spirit possession.

• Spiritism and the Rise of Umbanda

Spirit Types

Normally accepted in Umbanda

• Exus

• Pomba Giras

• Preto Velhos

• Caboclos

Folklore Figures and Spirit Protectors:

• Ze Pilintra

• Zombeteiros

Exus

• servants of the gods

• forces of nature

• neutral - can be utilized for good or evil

• masters of the crossroads – open doorways to the spirit world

Pomba Giras

• female exus that are identified as being unconventional witches in a past life

• called for help w/ love and relationships

• likes to receive offerings

• considered dangerous and jealous

Preto Velhos

• spirits of old wise former slaves

• suffering in life has ennobled them – good and don’t do wrong

• called for healing, blessing, cleansing, and advice

Caboclos

• spirits of native Americans/folklore figures/mixed blood spirits

• powerful and strongly connected to earth

• likes pipes and cigars and sugarcane rum,

• considered very noble and won’t do harm

• gives force to ppl to help them overcome obstacles

  • helps them get rid of physical or spiritual spirits, can overcome lessor spirits and black magic

Ze Pilantra

Folklore Figure

• Mixed descent spirit

• Was a party animal, gambler, and had trouble w/ the law in life

• Was a half and half spirit of different types (half caboclos and exus)

• Alive over 100 years ago

• Night of Works: included animal sacrifice, always used for good but bad things can happen, energy is dispersed amongst people

Zombeteiros

evil spirits that appear as cadavers to those that can see them, ppl who suffered untimely deaths, exus have power over these spirits

• Spirits seek physical existence and gorge themselves on things they want i.e. candy, tobacco, alcohol, flattery/perfume

• Will offer magic, luck, and protection to get a physical existence

Pirambu

the largest favela (shanty town) in city of Fortaleza, secondest largest in Brazil

• 250,000 ppl inside w/ extreme poverty

• Located along the coast line

• Lots of people came to look for jobs but were unable to with influx of ppl, became squatters and never pay rent

• Land had sewage pumped over it, so no one wanted the land cause the water and beaches were polluted

• Most don’t have indoor plumbing and electricity (ppl tap into electricity illegally, so more have power than stated)

• Most have tv

• Roads are very narrow and composed of anything (brick, stone, plywood)

• Nicest houses have tile floors, indoor plumbing, refrigerator

Encosto

Folk illness, characteristics; a particular spirit is bothering/severly hurting/attacking a person

• Very severe in favelas

Encosto Case Studies

35 victims were interviewed for 37 separate cases.

• Some conditions caused by encosto were severe: mental conditions, addiction, illness, and death

• Ppl thought it was caused by prolonged crazed or violent behavior, and its sent by ppl who wish to do you harm (like a curse)

• 5 total incapacitation, 1 leprosy, 1 tuberculosis ….

• Nightmares, hallucinations, uncharacteristic disturbing behavior, losing jobs, addictions, law troubles, and other things came as result

Results:

• 23 thought to be caused by intentional evil magic performed by someone to the victim (witchcraft)

  • 16 of 23 caused by jealousy

• 13 total had lack of spiritual protection

  • 9 happened by “accident”, lack of spiritual protection or spirits being attracted to basic natures of individuals

  • 4 failed to develop maginity, they’re more open to spirit communcaitions and didn’t have training so were exposed

• 1 failed to perform proper ritual obligations to his orixas (diety)

• Were treated with herbal substances/treatments and modern medicine

Major Themes/Functions of Encosto

1. Explanation illness and dysfunction, coping mechanisms for harsh reality

2. Means of empowerment where it can be defeated, power over circumstance

3. Method of social control

4. Enhances charismatic leaders (those who provide treatment) prestige; power; and importance, makes them powerful priests and gives them special privileges

The Azande Geography

• Southwestern Sudan mostly and some in Congo

• Mud homes w/ thatch roofs

• Houses also have granaries

The Azande Subsistence

• Shifting cultivation

• Don’t rotate crops

• Grow millet, maize, gourds, pumpkin, beans

• No cattle, most meat comes from hunting

• Only domesticated animals are dogs and chickens

The Azande Socio-Political Structuce

• Chiefdom w/ nobility (avongara (don’t know spelling)) and commoners

• Avongara wont hex commoners, but commoners can hex nobility

The Azande Marriage

• Combination of polygamy and monogamy

• Rich men get multiple wives

• Bride price is prevalent but payment is put off

The Azande Witchcraft

• Believed to be the source of all misfortune, illness, and death

• Can be intentional or not

  Mangu- Magic is a physical substance that is within people

  • Mangu travels at night but only short distances

  • Death is seen as murder (can only be caused by mangu), witch is put to death unless they can show remorse and get out of it

  • Source is jealousy, can accidentally attack someone if you sleep near them and your mangu travels to them

• Leveling mechanisms that works against disruptive behavior

• Greater wealth could lead to jealousy, so its encouraged to not outproduce one another

• Even small inconveniences or injuries are caused by witchcraft

The Azande Oracles

• People who are constantly consulted in order to make decisions, especially when finding out who witches are

  Benge- most powerful oracles who poison chickens, very expensive

  • Sometimes a whole village will pay for a Benge oracle

  • Wealthy have an advantage when consulting oracles

• There’s termite oracles, rubbing board oracles, and Benge (poison) oracles

• Each have varying levels of effectiveness/truth

Azande Scheme

• British occupying force moved the Azande out of the valley and overcrowded them

• Azande like having distance from neighbors bc witchcraft passes at night over short distances

• Forced crop and cotton production onto Azande

• Plots and homes were assigned arbitrarily, so nobility had worse homes than some commoners

  • Caused witchcraft accusations to skyrocket and greatly disrupted society

• HIV believed to be caused by witchcraft

The Azande Civil War

• War in Sudan that lasted for decades that led country to be split into two

• Azande had a hard time under fundamentalist law

• North was majority Muslim and south was majority Indigenous and Christian

• North wanted resources of the South

• Many were displaced and were unable to return home

The Mexica - Where did they come from?

• Northern Mexico and invaded the valley of Mexico

• Originally hunter-gatherers and were very warlike when they came to valley

• State level societies existed in valley long before they arrived

• Became mercenaries and received land no one else wanted bc there were snakes

• Guided by their god to the land of the prickly pear cactus

• Married into a royal line and eventually overthrew them by capturing a princess

The Mexica Subsistence

• Maize was the #1 crop and was venerated

• Chinampas (floating gardens) and extremely efficient irrigation systems

• Beans, squash, veggies, fishing, waterbirds, wild animals, domesticated birds, and a tribute system provided food

The Mexica - How were they conquered?

• Cortez used the hatred others had for the Aztecs to convince them to help him conquer the Aztecs (VERY EFFECTIVE)

• Spanish had superior warfare technology: chainmail armor, steel swords, some guns, horses BUT Spanish soldiers were much smaller in numbers

• Aztec obsidian blades couldn’t get through steel armor

• Aztecs received bad omens that foretold the doom of their empire, so people were resigned to the fact that they were going to fall

• Population was decimated after smallpox was introduced by conquerors

• Civil war was already brewing in a neighboring city

• Cortex used trickery to seize the Aztec ruler (Aztec soldiers wouldn’t attack in fear of harming the leader)

  • Ruler urged his family to surrender in fear of his life

     

The Mexica Other Notes

• Highly specialized crafts and jobs

• Extremely strict dress code for nobles vs. commoners

• How one dies determines the afterlife, not how they lived

  • A gory death led to a positive afterlife

• Very strict laws for conduct: theft left to loss of a hand or slavery to those you stole from, public drunkenness could lead to death

• Slavery was not an ascribed status (not born into it and not a lifelong condition)