2Anthropology Chapter 7 Part 2

Front 1

Ritual in Popo Vhoul- Mesoamerican ballgame is both__ and __? what impact does the ritual of the game have? where does the sport become a ritual?

Back 1

- Mesoamerican ballgame is a sport and a ritual performance of myth
- the ritual of the game affected people lives: it's outcome decides people's fate
-- winners represent all that is good and vital about a person's life
- losers were sacrificed (this is where the sport becomes a RITUAL)

Front 2

views of the meaning of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Levi-Strauss. Freud. Melowinski.

Back 2

-LS= it reinforced the STRUCTURAL components of mythology
- F= it brings to life the psychological dimensions of mythology: violence, fertility, parts of our instincts
- M= it shows the FUNCTION in terms of ritual performance in its meaning

Front 3

characteristics of rituals

Back 3

- a repetitive social practice involving symbols
- set off from everyday routine
- follows the pattern of a culturally defined schema

Front 4

characteristics of rituals: a repetitive social practice involving symbols

Back 4

- people manipulate these symbols to show a meaning
- through the symbols, people develop an intimate connect (ex- to a divine being)

Front 5

characteristics of rituals: set off from everyday routine

Back 5

- involves a form of conscious definition and purposeful action
- takes us outside of ourselves in order to be with others we have something in common with
- celebrate uniqueness

Front 6

characteristics of rituals: follow the pattern of culturally defined schema

Back 6

- patterned and structured in predictable ways
- repetitive
- often connected to ideas that are encoded in myth

Front 7

rituals are often connected to myths. examples

Back 7

- Christian church service
- Namaz- ritualized prayer> demonstrates choreographed function of rituals (big group of people coming together)
- Easter condenses the myth into an event with rituals: everything that happens involves the death and resurrection of Christ
- performing the ritual KEEPS MYTH ALIVE- connects those who believe in it to the event

Front 8

rituals bring about change

Back 8

- pledge of allegiance changed to say g-d
- MLK's manipulation of symbols> specific outcome (justice and equality)- shows creativity of human action with symbols

Front 9

rituals as action. ex) CR, Gandhi

Back 9

- civil rights activism as a ritual
- ritual as political protest
- Ghandi
-- satyagraha- militant nonviolence
-- swadeshi- ritualized spining to symbolize independence and freedom
- fasting- ritualized "starvation"

Front 10

rites of passage: 3 parts. Examples

Back 10

- separation- symbolic BREAK with PREVIOUS SOCIAL STATUS
- transition- condition of having NO SOCIAL STATUS- a way for ritual to clarify what has been achieved
- reintegration- incorporation into a NEW SOCIAL STATUS

example: african women performing rituals to embrace their puberty, annual check-up, ritualized meal to show what he has learned in his training

Front 11

ritual

Back 11

- RP- a repetitive social practice composed of a sequence of symbolic activities in the form of dance, song, speech, gestures, or the manipulation of objects, adhering to a culturally defined ritual, schema, and closely connected to a specific set of ideas that are often encoded in myth

Front 12

rite of passage. liminality ex)

Back 12

- RP= a ritual that serves to mark the movement and transformation of an individual from one social position to another
- L=the ambiguous transitional state in a rite of passage in which the person or persons undergoing the ritual are outside their ordinary social positions
ex) bootcamp

Front 13

communitas. bootcamp example

Back 13

- an unstructured/ minimally structured community of equal individuals found frequently in rites of passage
- shared experience of ritualized anti-structure/ disorder creates intense affinity between group

bootcamp
- forcing young boy out of old social status- in period of transition
- communal bond established> need communitas to survive

Front 14

Victor Turner- structure v. anti-structure. ex of anti-structure

Back 14

- believes in social transformation from the destruction of old structures and the building of new structures
rituals- establish new structural relationships by first breaking down old structures through ritualized communitas
- ex) ritual of Holi in North India

Front 15

ritual of Holi in North India as example of anti-structure. role of communitas?

Back 15

- anti-structure= day of equality that breaks down hierarchy
- celebrates human similarity rather than human hierarchal difference
- people become soaked in a mix of colors> colors mix together= people become identical to each other symbolically

- commuitas in the context of a very hierarchal social structure
-- this structures people's conception of normal relationships in India
- Holi invokes structure and then wipes it out for one day