Cultural Anthropology Ch 05

Front 1

worldview

Back 1

how a culture makes sense of the experience in ways that link it meaningfully to the wider world

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religion

Back 2

a worldview in which people personify cosmic forces and devise ways to deal with them that resemble the ways they deal with powerful human beings in their society

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animism

Back 3

religions based on the belief in the existence of such souls or spirit beings

Hint 3

English anthro E.B. Taylor coined this term

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ancestor cult

Back 4

the ancestors are believed to maintain a strong interest in the lives of their descendants and are believed to act to maintain social order by sending sickness or other misfortune when the rules by which people are supposed to live are violated

Front 5

gods

Back 5

sentient and personified forces that are less local and more powerful

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polytheistic religions

Back 6

traditions in which there are many beings

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mana

Back 7

a Melaniesian term introduced toa nthro in the 19th century to designate a cosmic force whose only human-like attriute is the aility to respond to human beings who use the correct symbolic formulas when they want to harness or channel this force for their own purposes.

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oracle

Back 8

an invisible force capable of understanding questions addressed to it in human language and willing to respond truthfully using symbolic means that human beings with the proper cultural knowledge can interpret

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dogma/orthodoxy (correct belief)

Back 9

when the truth beliefs contain may not be questioned

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myths

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stories whose truth seems self-evident beause they do such a good job of integrating personal experiences with a wider set of assumptions about the way that society or the world in general must operate

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origin myths

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explain teh creation of the world or of a particular features of the landscape or human beings

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ritual

Back 12

certain repetitive social practices, many of which have nothign to do with religion

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religious rituals

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regularly involve attempts to influence or gain teh sympathy of a particular personified cosmic being

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prayer

Back 14

define

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sacrifice

Back 15

offerign something of value to the invisible forces or their agents

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congregation

Back 16

members of a religious tradition who come together in processions, meetings, or convocations

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orthopraxy

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aims to ritualize virtually every waking act that adherents perform (correct practice)

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rite of passage

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occurs when one or more members of society are ritually transformed from one kind of social person into another

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liminal perioud

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when one is between stages in rights of passage, neither betwixt nor between

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communitas

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an unstructured or minimally structured community of equal individuals

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magic

Back 21

ritual practices that do not have technically or scientifically apparent effects but are believed by the ators to have an influence on the outcome of practical matters

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witchcraft

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the performance of evil by human beings believed to possess an innate, nonhuman "witchcraft substance"

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shamans

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part-time religious specialists commonly found in small-scale egalitarian societies

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priests

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skilledin the practice of religious rituals, which are caried out for the benefit of the group or indivdiuals within the group

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conversion

Back 25

when one adopts an entirely new worldview, frequently a religious system

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syncretism

Back 26

a creative synthess of old religous practces and new ones introduced from the outside

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revitilization

Back 27

a deliberate organized attempt by some members of a society to create a more satisfying culture

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art

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sculpture, drawing, painting, dance, theater, music, and literaure, films, etc., activities, products of society

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aesthetic

Back 29

refers to theories about nature and value of art but also is "appreciate of, or responsive to, form in art or nature."

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art by intention

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includes objects that were made to be art

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art by appropriation

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all other objects that "became art"

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art world

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the set of people an institutiosn concerned with defining and maintaining art in one form or another

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ethnomusicology

Back 33

includes the study of music and social, cultural, or gender identity; the role of music and musicians in society; the effect of music on social life, and the study of sound as a form of communication