Anthropology Exam 4

Religion

Set of beliefs and rituals based on a vision of how the world ought to be and how life ought to be lived, often, though not always, focused on a supernatural power and lived out in community

Martyr

A person who sacrifices their life for the sake of their religion

Saint

An individual considered exceptionally close to God who is exalted after death

Sacred

Anything deemed Holy

Profane

Anything deemed Unholy

Ritual

An act or series of acts regularly repeated over years or generations that embodies the beliefs of a group of people and creates a sense of continuity and belonging

Right of Passage

A category of ritual that enacts a change of status from one life stage to another, either for an individual or for a group

Liminality

One stage in a rite of passage during which a ritual participant experiences a period of outsider hood, set apart from normal society, that is key to achieving a new perspective on the past, present, and future community

Communitas

A sense of camaraderie, a common vison of what constitutes that good life, and a commitment to take social action toward achieving this vision that is shaped by the common experience of rites of passage

Pilgrimage

A religious journey to a sacred place as a sign of devotion and in search of transformation and enlightenment

Cultural Materialism

A theory that argues material conditions, including technology and the environment, determine patterns of social organization, such as religious principles

Secular

Without religious or spiritual basis

Shamans

Local religious practitioners with abilities to connect individuals with supernatural powers or beings to provide special knowledge and power for healing, guidance, and wisdom

Magic

The use of spells, incantations, words, and actions in an attempt to compel supernatural forces to act in certain ways, whether for good or for evil

Symbols

Anything that represents something else

Authorizing Process

The complex historical and social developments through which symbols are given power and meaning

Contagious Magic

Ritual performances or words that reach efficacy when specific materials that encounter one person have magical connections that let power go from person to person

Imitative Magic

Attaining efficacy by imitating the wanted magical result through ritual performance

Mary Douglas

Believed dietary restrictions helped define their community, making it clear who followed their religion and who didn’t (Jewish)

Clifford Geertz

Thought religion is basically a set of powerful symbols surrounded by a system of ideas

Karl Marx

Believed that religion dulled people’s pain and they would not understand how serious a situation is/was

Marvin Harris

Believes that human culture is a response to the practical problems people regularly face - dietary restrictions to adapt to their environment

Max Weber

Believed that there were things that gradual rationalization of religion would come from

Health

The absence of disease and infirmity as well as the presence of physical, mental, and social well-being

Disease

A discrete natural entity that can be clinically identified and treated by a health professional

Illness

An individual patient’s experience of being unwell

Sickness

An individual’s public expression of illness and disease, including social expectations about how one should behave and how others should respond

Ethnomedicine

Local systems of health and healing rooted in culturally specific norms and values

Ethnopharmacology

The documentation and description of the local use of natural substances in healing remedies and practices

Biomedicine

A practice, often associated with Western medicine, that seeks to apply the principles of biology and the natural sciences to the practice of diagnosing diseases and promoting healing

Medical Pluralism

The intersection of multiple cultural approaches to healing

Illness Narrative

The personal stories people tell to explain their illnesses

Human Microbiome

The complete collection of microorganisms in the human body’s ecosystem

Health Transition

The significant improvements in human health made over the course of the twentieth century, they were not, however, distributed evenly across the world’s population

Critical Medical Anthropology

An approach to the study of health and illness that analyzes the impact of inequality and stratification within systems of power on individual and group health outcomes