Cultural Anthropology Notes

Worldview: Beliefs and assumptions about reality, the world, and a group's place in it.
Religion: Beliefs and behaviors related to supernatural beings or forces. Often treated differently from worldview.
Water witch: Divination to locate resources.
James Fraser's principles of magic:
- Law of Similarity (Imitative Magic): Mimicking.
- Law of Contagion (Contagious Magic): Previous physical contact.

Myth: Stories about supernatural forces/beings (oral or written).
- Functions of myths:
  - To teach.
  - To mediate contradictions and confusions.
  - To manage environmental resources.
Doctrine: Expressions of religious belief defining supernaturals, worldview, human's role.
- Formal, written.
- Associated with large-scale, institutionalized religion.
Ritual: Patterned, repetitive, supernatural or secular.
- Life-cycle ritual (rite of passage): Separation, liminal/transition, reintegration (e.g., puberty ceremony).
- Pilgrimage: Round-trip to sacred place for religious devotion (e.g., Mecca for Muslims).
- Ritual of Inversion: Temporarily inverted social roles (e.g., gender roles, carnival in Sardinia).
- Sacrifice: Offering to supernaturals (e.g., vegetables, flowers, animals, human).
  - Human sacrifice among the Aztec (16th century).
World Religions: Text-based, cross borders (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam).
African Religions: Not text-based.

Religious Pluralism: Religions coexist separately.
Religious Syncretism: Religions blend together.
Directions of Change:
- Revitalization Movements:
  - Ghost Dance (Native Americans).
  - Cargo Cults (Melanesia): Response to Western/Japanese influences.
    - Waiting for arrival of "cargo".
    - Response to disruptive effects of new goods.
- Contested Sacred Sites: Jerusalem; Hindus and Muslims in India.
- Disappearance: Paiwan five-year ceremony.
Shamanism Revitalization: Indigenous communities preserving traditions with government support.
- Response to social/political changes (recognition of rights, rise of cultural identity).

Behaviors, ideas, and experiences related to art, leisure, or play.
Art: Defined broadly in cultural anthropology to include cross-cultural variations in aesthetics.

Museum: Collects, preserves, interprets, and displays objects.
- Functions: Aesthetic, educational, political.
- Key Political Issues:
  - Representation.
  - Ownership/Repatriation (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act).
  - Public service vs. elitism.
  - Need for ethnographic context.
Ethnomusicology: Cross-cultural study of music, linking anthropology and musicology (technical and sociocultural aspects).
Heterotopia: Something formed from elements drawn from multiple and diverse contexts.
- Gardens (Foucault).
- Architecture, cuisine, dress.
Cultural Microcosm: Smaller, representative part of a larger culture.
- Games and sports.
  - Enact social roles, instill values.
  - American football: Hierarchy, territorial expansion.
- Male Wrestlers in India: Entertainment, spiritual development, asceticism.
  - Self-discipline (defecation, bathing, comportment, devotion).
  - Akhara (gym), guru.
  - Sticky diet: Vegetarian, avoid alcohol/tobacco, consume bhang (milk, spices, almond, marijuana).
  - Requires physical, spiritual, moral health.
- Trobriand Cricket: Followed British pattern, merged with indigenous political competition.
  - Rules, white uniforms.
  - War-related magic: Spells, decorated bats.
  - Winning secondary to feast and generosity to guests.

Material Cultural Heritage: Sites, monuments, buildings, moveable objects with value to humanity.
- Physical objects, artifacts, places.
Intangible Cultural Heritage: Living heritage: oral traditions, languages, performing arts, rituals, knowledge about nature, craft making.
- Non-physical aspects.

Internal Migration: Movement within a country.
- Rural to urban (work).
- Push-Pull Theory: Rural areas lack support, cities attract with employment and lifestyle.
International Migration: Movement across country boundaries (work).
Transnational Migration: Regular movement between countries, new cultural identity.
- Motivated by economic factors.
- Affects identity, citizenship.
Circular Migration: Regular pattern of movement between places.
Internally Displaced Person: Forced to leave home but remains in the same country.
Institutional Migrants: Prisoners, soldiers, students, medical patients.
- Soldiers as circular migrants.
Boarding School Girls in Madagascar: Spirit possession.
Trends of "New Immigrants" to U.S./Canada (since 1990s):
- Globalization: Scales expanded.
- Acceleration: Numbers increased.
- Feminization: Women as major source.
Chain Migration: Repeated movement between places.
Migration Politics, Policies, and Programs:
- Exclusion.
  - Life-boat mentality: Limiting group size due to resource constraints.
  - Working class racism.

Focus on culture and "development" (poverty reduction, improved lives).
Invention and Diffusion:
- Invention: Discovery.
- Diffusion: Spread of culture.
  - Acculturation: Loss of distinctive identity.

Modernization: Industrialization, market expansion, technology, literacy, social mobility.
- Goals: Material progress, individual betterment.
- Criticisms: Consumption, resource use.
Growth-Oriented Development: Modernization-induced, trickle-down effect.
- Strategies:
  - Increased productivity/trade in modernized agriculture/manufacturing.
  - Structural Adjustment: Reducing government spending to reduce debt and reallocate resources.
Distributional Development: Emphasis on social equity, income, literacy, health.
- Critical of growth-oriented development; favors public services.
- Kerala (India) as success story.
Human Development: Investing in health, education, environment.
- Challenges reliance solely on economic development.
Sustainable Development: Social, economic, environmental improvement for generations.

Indigenous Development:
- Indigenous people as colonized/marginalized.
- Land encroachments.
- Organizations promoting "development from within".
Women’s Development:
- Male-biased development bypasses/"domesticates" women.
- Organizations improve lives, address concerns.
  - Women's World Banking, Society of Muslim Women, female Maya street vendors.
  - Successful in dealing with discrimination, changing conditions, and finding greater security.
Cultural Property Rights:
- Lawyers protect rights to cultural knowledge/behavior.
- Copyright and protection of indigenous property passed down through generation.