Cultural Anthropology

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Religion

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belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces; bodies of people who gather together regularly for worship

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Effervescence

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the bubbling up of collective emotional intensity generated by worship

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Communitas

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an intense community spirit, a feeling of great social solidarity, equality, and togetherness

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Sir Edward Burnett Tylor

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founder of anthropology of religion, Tylor thought as people tried to understand conditions and events they could not explain by reference to daily experience

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Animism

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the earliest stage of religion, a belief in spiritual beings (Tylor)

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Polytheism

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second stage of religion, the belief in multiple gods

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Monotheism

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third stage, the belief in a single, all-powerful deity

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Mana

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a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe, can reside in people, animals, plants, and objects. Attributed to success

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Taboo

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set apart as sacred and off-limits to ordinary people

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Magic

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supernatural techniques intended to accomplish specific aims-- spells, formulas, and incantations

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Contagious Magic

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whatever is done to an object is believed to affect a person who once had contact with it

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Rituals

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formal, stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped. people perform them in special (sacred) places and at set times. they are social acts

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Liturgical Orders

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a kind of ritual, a sequence of words and actions

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Rites of Passage

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customs associated with the transition from one place or stage of life to another (boyhood to manhood) include a period of isolation

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Three phases of Rites of Passages

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Separation, Liminality, and Incorporation

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Liminality

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period between states, the limbo during which people have left on place but haven't yet entered or joined the next. they occupy ambiguous social positions and are cut off from normal social contact (many times marked by reversals of ordinary stereotypes)

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Rites of Intensification

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they demand collective adherence to the rules of ritual behavior and create emotions that enhance and intensify social solidarity

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Totem

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can be animals, plants, or geographical figures, they are sacred emblems symbolizing common identity

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Leveling Mechanism

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a custom or social action that operates to reduce status differences and thus to bring standouts in line with community norms-- form of social control

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Shamans

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part-time religious figures who mediate between people and supernatural beings and forces... general term for curers, mediums, spirituals, etc.

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Communal Religions

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in addition to shamans, community rituals such as harvest ceremonies and collective rites of passage

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Olympian Religions

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which arose with state organization and marked social stratification, add full-time religious specialists (priesthoods)

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Revitalization Movements

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social movements that occur in times of change, in which religious leaders emerge and undertake to alter or revitalize a society (ex. Christianity)

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Cargo Cults

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revitalization movements, attempting to explain European domination and wealth and achieve similar success magically by mimicking European behavior and manipulating symbols of the desired life style