Chapter 20

what is a worldview

Important concept

learned, shared cultural assumptions about how the world is and how it works

Encompassing picture of reality

Spiritual and Secular things

what is religion and magic

belief in supernatural beings or forces about supernatural

Something beyond the natural

both can overlap (magic in religion)

what is the difference between religion and magic

difficult in defining both

diety (religion) vs. practical (magic)

religion typically includes belief in supernatural and use rituals and symbols; people need to BELIEVE

Magic is more practical; achieves a goal

Magic is more like science (it exists and works) does NOT need people to believe since it’s tre

what are myths

stories that explains events and highlights valies and appropriate behaviors

carries a message for memebers of the community

Does NOT mean untrue but an oral history or based on faith

usually involves a hero (ancestor) and is told through generations

teaches morals and taboos

what is a ritual

symbolic practices that are ordered and repeated

people practice their beliefs (usually OLD religion) through rituals

connects them to the community

can be specific (sacrifice, marriage, funeral, birth etc.)

do rituals need to be religious

Does not need to be religious

can be rites of passage

what are rites of passage

most important for anthropoligcal understanding

rituals that move individuals from one position in social structure to another

involves 3 stages

eg. marriage makes your status from single → married

what are the 3 stages of rites of passage

separation

transition

reaggregation/ reintroduction

explain how separation works in rites of passage

separation from old social position and from normal time

eg. highschool leaving to college

explain what happens in transition in rites of passage

KEY phase of the ritual (it’s the ritual itself)

transition into liminality (neither old nor new social position)

most previous social distinctions diappear and they have intense comradeship and feelings of oneness

most dangerous phase (if ritual is never completed you are stuck and not belong anywhere)

explain how reintroduction/ reaggregation works in rites of passage

reintroduction of the person into their new social position

what are supernatural beings

personified or embodied gods, spirits, ghosts, demons, etc.

Can be good/ evil

does not need a physical body

eg. Deities (gods/ goddessess) common in hierarchical societies

polytheism (multiple god) or monotheism (one god)

ancestral spirits; ancestral veneration

spirits of nature

what are supernatural forces

Disembodied powers

can bring good/ bad luck

not personified

describe spirits of nature

aminism- spirits that inhabit natural objects (personified BEING)

animatism- belief that supernatural FORCES reside in everyday things

who are religious practitioners

priests

shamans

Describe Priests/ Priestesses as practitioners

full time (main role in the society and no other role)

often found in stratified societies with Gods/ Goddessess

carry out required religious rituals (mediator)

also carry out duties as a member of the community

describe shamans as practitioners

specializes in communicating with spirits, ancestors and deities

part time practitioners

they can make contact with the spirit world in different ways (prayers, chants, songs, rituals, sacrifice, and TRANCE)

they have both contact with natural and supernatural world

what are witchcraft and magc

witchcraft are perfomance of magic by HUMANS through innate supernatural powers (intentional or not); not gods

magic are the practice designed to control aspects of the world for specific purposes

eg. Evans Pritchard and Azande witchraft

what is Azande witchcraft

mangu (witchcraft) was thought as a bodily substance of witches

illness, death, misfortune were usually attributed to witchcraft (despite recognized physical causes); they know the actual problem but refuses and justify magic instead (coincedence)

seek for causes internal to society

wrote book that analyzed magic/ ritual deeply

how do they counter witchcraft

countered by further magic

to identify witches Azande consulted oracles (invisble forces where people address questions about specific people)

people accused of witchcraft acted outside social norms, surpirsed at the finding, and enjoined to change their behavior