Magic, Witchcraft and Religion: Midterm Exam Study Guide

Cultural Anthropology

The study of human culture, beliefs, practices, values, ideas, and social behaviors across different societies

Holism (Holistic Approach)

the idea that all aspects of human life are deeply interconnected and must be studied together to understand humanity as a whole

Ethnography

The qualitive study and systematic recording of human cultures, groups, and social interactions

Participant Observation

When a researcher immerses themselves in a community’s daily life to observe and experience cultural practices from an “insider” perspective

Cultural Relativism

Values of one culture should not be used to evaluate another culture

Ethnocentrism

The use of culture to judge someone else’s

Culture

The nonbiological means in which humans adapt to their environment. A system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society passes down/ shares generation to generation

Unilinear Evolutionism

The theory that all human societies and cultures developed along a single universal path. E.g. (Savagery>barbarianism>civilization)

Historical Paricularism

Franz Boas asserts that each society has its own unique, distinct, historical development and must be understood within its specific cultural, environmental, and social context

Structural Functionalism

Durkheim; a theological framework that views society as a complex interconnected system that works together to maintain order

Interpretative Anthropology

An approach to studying culture as a system of shared symbols and meanings rather than an objective or mechanical science.

Characteristics of Religion

A shared set of core characteristics, practices, and worldviews

Supernatural

Anything that exists or happens outside of the normal physical laws of nature and cannot be explained by science.

Sacred

things, places, times, or symbols that a society sets apart from the everyday world; endows with extraordinary or supernatural meaning

Animism

The belief that non-human organisms, natural objects, landforms, and inanimate things possess a spiritual essence or soul

Evolutionary Approach to Religion

As cultures “evolve” into greater complexity, so do their religious practices

Marxist Approach to Religion

Defines religion not as a supernatural or independent truth, but as a social product of material and economic conditions

Functional Approach to Religion

how religion serves individual/societal needs

Interpretive Approach to religion

A system of symbols that constructs deep seated meanings

Psychosocial Approach to Relgion

How religious belifes, symbols, and rituals simultaneously shape and are shaped by both individual mental processes and group life, social structures, and cultural systems

Myth

Regarded as fact: accepted on faith, source of authority on moral and ethical issues. Many supernatural elements, sacred, remote places of another world

Legend

Based on real people, or events, and considered to be factual, few supernatural elements, generally human, takes place in the recent past

Monomyth

AKA Heros journey; proposes that all mythic narratives across world cultures share a single, universal structural pattern

Ritual

A repeated, structured set of actions performed in a specific, intentional way

Totemism

A belief where an individual or group of people feel a special spiritual connection, family bond, or kinship with a specific animal, plant, or natural object

Offering

Any gift brought for a sacred place or being as an expression of gratitude, worship, or fellowship

Sacrifice

Involves the destruction, transformation, or surrender of something living or highly costly,

Magic

Supernatural techniques intended to accomplish specific goals

Law of Sympathy

things can influence one another through a secret invisible connection

Law of Similarity

A person, object, or action can influence a seperate target by imitating or resembling it

Contagious Magic

The principal that things that have once been in contact with each other will continue to act on each other at a distance

Magic in the Trobriand Islands

Trobriand magic is a structured system of specialized chants and rituals used alongside practical skills to manage risk, anxiety, and environmental uncertainty. Rather than replacing hard work, magic complements technical knowledge in areas like yam gardening, canoe-building, fishing, and love, acting as psychological security against factors humans cannot control.

Kuru

Fatal neurodegenerative brain disease caused by cannibalism

Liminality

“in-betweenness” that belongs to neither one world or another

Communitas

An intense, spontanteous feeling of deep social belonging, equality, and shared identity that develops among people going through a transition or crisis together. E.g. Dodgers fans

Ghost Dance

A revitalization movement among Native American tribes in the western United States as they faced intense cultural disruption. A prophet taught participants that they could bring back the dead through communal round dances.

Revitalization Rituals

An organized, deliberate attempt to resolve severe societal crisis’ through supernatural or spiritual intervention

Sorcery

Antisocial magic used to interfere with the lives of others

Divination

The supernatural ways of gaining information about the unknown

Divination techniques

Presentiment (feelings that one may have that predict future events) and necromancy (conflict with spirits or ancestors)

Possession

When a persons body and consciousness are temporarily controlled, occupied, or inhabited by a non-human entity

Prophecy

A statement or message that predicts the future, often believed to be revealed by a god or spiritual source S

Sacred Art

art the participates directly in ritual life and mediate between human communities and the divine order. E.g. The Sacrophages of Lord Pabal

Altered States of Consciousness

Any condition that differs from ordinary waking awareness; where normal patterns of thought, perception, time orientation, and self-control are temporarily changed or misplaced

Prophet

Direct communicators of dieties P

Priests

Full time religious specialists, typically associated with more complex societies and formalized religious institutions. Personifies the ideal person representation of the religion

Shamanism

Mediators between humans and the supernatural through trance. Often appointed at birth through supernatural beings

Pilgrimage

A purposeful journey away from home to a sacred or spiritually significant destination functioning as a ritualized departure from everyday life

Rites of Passage (and stages)

A ceremonial event that marks an individuals transition from one social, spiritual, or biological status to another. (Separation/detachment>transition/liminality>Incorporation/reargreggation)

Syncretism

The blending of values in cultures

Mana

Unseen life force or supernatural power that permeates people, nature, and objects

Tabu

A strong, ritual prohibitation against an action, object, person, or place, based on a belief that it is either too sacred or too dangerous for ordinary people to engage with

Coming of age rituals

A specific rite of passage that ceremonially marks an individuals transition from childhood to adulthood

Joseph Campbells Monomyth

Call to adventure, refusal of call, supernatural aid, crossing the first threshold, and belly of the whale

Emic Perspective

Examining a culture through the eyes of those who live within it

Etic Perspective

An outsiders perspective that analyzes a culture or behavior using external scientific frameworks rather than local meanings