Magic anad Witchcraft midterm

Animate

Something alive that is traditionally not

Animism

A belief system where spirits or souls are believed to exist in all things, including animals, plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena like weather

Axis mundi

A symbolic or physical center of the world that connects the heavens, the earth, and the underworld

Sacred point or world axis

Cartesian ontology

A worldview rooted in Rene Descartes dualism, where reality is divided into two distinct substances; mind (thinking, immaterial) and matter (extended, physical). This framework assumes a sharp separation between humans and the natural world, subject and object, spirit and body

Ceremonialist

A ritual specialist, or a person who performs or leads ceremonies and rituals that are significant to a community’s culture, spirituality, and social life.

Culture

Traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, that form and guide the beliefs and behavior of the people exposed to them

Cosmos/Cosmology

A society’s or culture’s system of beliefs about the universe, including origin, structure, and how it operates. Expressed through myths, rituals, and stories

Ideology

A system of shared beliefs, values, and ideas that a group uses to interpret their world and make sense of social and political realities.

Emic

The insider’s perspective within  a culture system, where cultural practices and beliefs are understood from the viewpoint of the members of that culture

Epistomology

Foundational branch of philosophy that is concerned with nature, origins, scope, and limits of knowledge. Often called “theory of knowledge”.

What does it mean to know something? How we we acquire knowledge? What justifies a belief?

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture is the “correct” or superior standard by which to judge all other cultures

Etic

An outsider’s perspective for studying a culture, using objective, external criteria for analysis and comparison

Ethos

The distinctive character, spirit, and underlying values of a culture, community, or group

Magic

Using rituals, symbols, or actions to influence events and apply will on the universe by manipulating supernatural forces

Mask

An artifact that holds diverse meanings, used for ceremonial, ritual, artistic, and social purposes rather than simple face covering

Myth/Mythology

Stories and histories that a culture holds to be true; Many times describing the creation of the world, the birth of a culture, or where you go when you die.

Ontology

Branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being and reality Provides the scaffolding on which all magical systems rest

It explores  what entities exist, how they relate to one another, and how categories like space, time, consciousness, and causality organize the universe.

Participant observation

Qualitative research method where an ethnographer immerses themselves in a community's daily life to study their culture, behaviors, and social structures from an insider’s perspective

Priest

Full time religious practitioner who performs rituals and acts as a formal intermediary between people and deities, often holding a position of high social status

Prophet

Religious specialist who is believed to have direct, personal contact with a divine or supernatural being and acts as an intermediary for that entity

relational ontology

Individual’s or entity’s existence and identity defined by their relationships with others, objects, and the environment, rather than by their inherent properties alone

Religion

Supernatural premise

Anthropologists study what people say about the supernatural and how they interact with it

A cultural system of shared beliefs and practices about the sacred, supernatural, and human place in the universe, providing meaning, influencing social structures, and shaping worldview

Shaman/Shamanism

A person with the ability to communicate with the spirit world

A spiritual practiced centered on the spirit worl

Sorcerer

An individual who uses learned magical techniques, often for hire, typically with the intent to cause harm, such as through spells or charms

Spirit

A non-corporeal essence of life, a supernatural entity, or the subjective experience of consciousness, emotion, and will that animates the body

Soul

The immaterial essence of a living being

staff

Long rod used to channel magical energy and focus it into being

symbol/symbolism

An object, word, or action that stands for something else

Sacred symbols represent religion and bind cultures together

Totem

A natural object, being, or symbol that serves as an emblem for a social group, representing a spiritual or familial connection

Wand

A piece of decorated wood or metal that channels magic into the world

Some believe that wands are living beings with souls and wills

Witch/Witchcraft

Someone believed to possess inherent, often invisible, power to harm others

Distinct from sorcerers who use learned techniques

Worldview

Comprehensive framework of a gorup’s or individual’s fundamental beliefs, assumptions, and values that shape their perception and interpretation of reality

Franz Boas

Established cultural relativism and a four field approach

need for empirical, scientific research, arguing that culture is shaped by histprical and environmental factors rather than biological determinism

Clifford Geertz

Founded symbolic anthropology

culture as a system of symbols and meanings rather than a collection of behaviors

said that religious symbols express and sustain the relationship between a society’s ethos and its worldview

Irvine “Pete'“ Hallowell

Ethnographic field research with north American Indians, especially the ojibwa

Eduardo Kohn

Argues that all living beings are capable of thought and communication through signs

Ontology is the study of reality

Human and non-human lives are deeply entangled

Relational ontology

Raymond Lee

Amulets article

Malaysia

Katherine Swancutt

Dreams are the center of culture

Edward Burnett Tylor

Defining culture as a complex whole acquired by people in society and by pioneering the idea of unilineal cultural evolution

Anthony Wallace

Theory of revitalization movements

How societies reorganize in response to stress