Anthropology Test 4 Ch 11

Front 1

Anthony Wallace definition on religion

Back 1

the belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces.

Front 2

Reese definition on religion

Back 2

focuses on bodies of people who gather together regularly for worship, emphasizing the collective, shared, and enacted practices of religion.

Front 3

Religion is a cultural what?

Back 3

Universal.

Front 4

E. B. Tylor's Three categories of Religion.

Back 4

animism, polytheism, monotheism

Front 5

Animism

Back 5

seen as the most primitive and is defined as a belief in souls (or spiritual beings) that derives from the first attempt to explain dreams and like phenomena.

Front 6

Polytheism

Back 6

belief in multiple gods.

Front 7

Monotheism

Back 7

belief in a single, all-powerful deity.

Front 8

Components of Religion

Back 8

1. Beliefs about nature and character of SUPERNATURAL POWERS (forces and beings).
2. TEACHINGS OR TRADITIONS which tell of these supernatural powers.
3. RITUALS intended to include or direct these powers for the benefit of the group.

Front 9

Mana

Back 9

(aboriginal Polynesia) a belief in an immanent supernatural domain or life force, potentially subject to human manipulation for good or evil purposes.

Front 10

Mana has also been described as a

Back 10

sacred impersonal force that is much like the Western concept of luck.

Front 11

Supernatural beings, unlike supernatural forces:
Usually have qualities such as:

Back 11

a bodily form,
some way of appearing before people,
a personality, and
a fairly predictable way of responding to human activities.

Front 12

Individualistic Cults

Back 12

emphasize direct, personal interactions between people and the supernatural.(one on one)

Front 13

vision quests

Back 13

an active search or quest to acquire a vision.

Front 14

Shamanistic Cults

Back 14

ome individuals are believed to have contact with the supernatural that ordinary people lack.

Front 15

Shamans (or medicine men)

Back 15

are part-time religious intermediaries who may act as curers.

Front 16

Communal Cults

Back 16

members of a particular group gather periodically for rituals that are believed to benefit the group as a whole.

Front 17

Ancestral Cults

Back 17

Beliefs and rituals surrounding the interactions between the living and their departed relatives.

Front 18

Totemism

Back 18

The belief that human groups have a special mystical relationship with natural objects, such as animals, plants, and sometimes, nonliving things.

Front 19

Ecclesiastical Cults

Back 19

the practice of religion is carried out by formal, specialized officials (priests) who perform rituals that that benefit the society as a whole. FULL TIME SPECIALISTS.

Front 20

Theoretical Functions of Religion

Back 20

Intellectual, Psychological, Social

Front 21

Intellectual

Back 21

humans demand explanations for the world around them.

Front 22

Psychological

Back 22

(Malinowski) helps people cope in times of trouble, stress, and anxiety. On the one hand it does, but on the other it can create fears and anxieties that would not otherwise exist.

Front 23

Social

Back 23

instills and maintains common values, leads to increased conformity to cultural norms, promotes cohesion and cooperation.

Front 24

Sorcery

Back 24

the performance of rites and spells intended to cause supernatural forces to harm others.

Front 25

Sorcery is based on two logical principles.

Back 25

imitative principle, contagious principle

Front 26

imitative principle

Back 26

the premise that like produces like (voodoo doll).

Front 27

contagious principle

Back 27

assumption that power comes from contact. Things once in contact with someone can be used in rites and spells to make things happen to that person (hair & nail clippings, bodily excretions, clothing, etc.)

Front 28

Witchcraft

Back 28

the use of psychic power to cause harm to others.

Front 29

Navajo Witchcraft Beliefs

Back 29

associate witches with the worst imaginable sins (incest, bestiality, necrophilia, cannibalism).

Front 30

Nyakyusa of Tanzania Witchcraft Beliefs

Back 30

motivated by lust for food, witches suck dry the udders of cattle and devour internal organs of humans while they sleep.

Front 31

Azande of Southern Sudan Witchcraft Beliefs

Back 31

witches possess a substance that leaves their bodies at night and eats the flesh and internal organs of their victims.

Front 32

Ibibio of Nigeria Witchcraft Beliefs

Back 32

witches remove the spiritual essence of their enemies and place it in an animal who dies when the witch slaughters and eats the animal.

Front 33

Syncretisims

Back 33

cultural mixes, including religious blends, that emerge when two or more cultural traditions come into continuous firsthand contact.

Front 34

Vodun

Back 34

(voodoo)

Front 35

candomlé

Back 35

(mixtures of African, Native American and Catholic beliefs).

Front 36

Cargo Cults

Back 36

attempt to explain European domination and wealth and to achieve similar success magically by mimicking European behavior and symbols.