ANTHROP 1AB3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cultural Relativism, Transubstantiation, Ethnocentrism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHROP 1AB3
• Professor: Karen Mc Garry

Document Summary

Anthropologists that had to deal with cultural relativitism and avoiding ethnocentric judgements about other sorts of cultures. This anthropologist did a study about the indigenous people in the amazon. She looked at their funerary practices, what kind of funerals do they hold for their deceased, attitudes towards the deceased. She found that they practice funerary cannibalism- eat portions of the deceased persons body. Instead of judging them, she asked questions as to why this was important to them and reasoning (cid:271)ehi(cid:374)d it. He fou(cid:374)d that the (cid:449)ari did(cid:374)"t (cid:271)elie(cid:448)e i(cid:374) (cid:271)ur(cid:455)i(cid:374)g their dead (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause the(cid:455) (cid:271)elie(cid:448)ed that the underground was ritually polluted. Or putti(cid:374)g o(cid:271)je(cid:272)ts o(cid:374) the grou(cid:374)d (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause the(cid:455) thi(cid:374)k that it gets (cid:272)o(cid:374)ta(cid:373)i(cid:374)ated. The(cid:455) thi(cid:374)k it"s a (cid:373)oral disservice for their deceased to decay underground. When someone dies, they burn and get rid of all personal possessions and anything that connects them emotionally to that person.