Anthro 566-603, Pt 3

Anthropologist Laurel Kendall studied the public and private rituals of women shamans in rural South Korea.
Her book, Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits (1985), details a public shamanistic ritual called kut.
The kut ceremony involves multiple women shamans performing a dramatic show using costumes, music, dances, and trancelike states.
The shamans communicate with local gods, ancestors, and other spirits, beseeching them to aid attendees facing problems such as:
- Troublesome children
- Drunken husbands
- Economic struggles
- Illness
Shamans invoke deities with whom they have close relationships, allowing these spirits to inhabit them during rituals.
Rituals depict spirits weeping, lamenting, and consoling the living.
Public rituals represent a professional level of Korean household religion, while untrained women also engage these spirits privately for family wellness.
This spiritual practice intricately blends elements of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
Both shamans and housewives hold significant roles as ritual specialists and meaning creators within their communities.
Current trends show shamans relocating from rural to urban areas, adapting within immigrant communities.
A shaman's roles can also be found in formal religious organizations for guidance through prayer and meditation.

Anthropology traditionally examines cultures where magic plays a role and witches exist.
Magic encompasses spells and incantations to control supernatural forces for either good or evil purposes.
Cultural practices across the globe integrate magic, with religion frequently containing magical components.

E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) was a British anthropologist known for his studies in southern Sudan's Azande people.
He challenged the belief that modernization and science lead to the decline of magic.
His findings portrayed Azande magic as a rational, organized belief system.
In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande (1937), he explores the Azande system, where misfortunes are explained through witchcraft, believed to be an inherited psychic power.
Unlike magic, which is consciously performed through rituals, spells, and medicines, witchcraft is seen as an inherited affliction.

Witch doctors use magical techniques to combat witchcraft accusations.
They undergo formal training to learn rituals and remedies.
In serious cases, poison oracles determine innocence or guilt by observing a chicken's reaction to poison (death indicates guilt).
Evans-Pritchard argues that magical beliefs coexist rationally with empirical knowledge in Azande thought.
For the Azande, incidents that defy scientific explanation are understood through the framework of magic and witchcraft, offering a cohesive worldview.

Anthropologist Paul Stoller's In Sorcery's Shadow (1987) further examines beliefs in magic and sorcery.
Stoller lived in the Songhay region of Niger and underwent initiation as a sorcerer's apprentice, immersing himself deeply in local magical practices.
His experiences included memorizing incantations, engaging in medicinal rituals, and participating in acts of sorcery.
Stoller reflects on the challenges of conducting ethnographic research while respecting local belief systems, yet highlights the risks involved in such immersion.

George Gmelch, a former Minor League Baseball player and anthropologist, explores the prevalence of magic in American sports through his 2017 study of baseball rituals.
Rituals often include unique taboos and sacred objects.
Examples of magical practices in baseball:
- Turk Wendell's habit of leaping over baselines and wearing necklaces made from hunted animal teeth.
- Paula Creamer's belief in wearing pink for good luck during tournaments.
- Beliefs surrounding good luck charms or repetitive actions based on previous successes (e.g., pitchers touching caps, batters repeating routines).

sacred: Considered holy.
profane: Considered unholy.
ritual: Repeated acts or series of acts embodying a group's beliefs.
rite of passage: Ritual marking a change in status.
liminality: Transitional stage in rites of passage.
communitas: Camaraderie arising from shared rites of passage.
pilgrimage: Religious journey for devotion and transformation.
cultural materialism: Theory emphasizing material conditions in social organization.
secular: Without religious basis.
shamans: Practitioners who connect individuals to supernatural powers for healing and guidance.
magic: Use of incantations for supernatural influence.

In Western cultures, religion is often considered a personal affair, particularly in the U.S. with its separation of church and state.
However, an analysis of religion in cultural systems shows negotiation of power within the system.
Clifford Geertz views religion as a cultural system of powerful symbols conveying meaning beyond material objects—like the significance of a cow in Hindu practices.
Talal Asad critiques Geertz, questioning how symbols gain authority and the historical context behind their significance.
Asad believes understanding religion requires acknowledging local contexts rather than applying universal definitions.
There is a need for anthropologists to explore how symbols develop meaning, power, and authority through historical and cultural processes.