ANT102H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Nontheistic Religions, Hazing, Traditional African Religion
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Document Summary
Culture is a system of symbols/signs through which we think and communicate. Words, categories, images, ideas (use them to think about what the world is like and divide the world into different parts) Non-human animals are divided into whats edible and inedible. Geertz study of persons: what we think it takes to be a person. Ritual, whether religious or secular, is a means by which we apply these categories (symbolic forms) onto the world. Ritual: a stereotyped sequence of activities (distinguished from ordinary conversation) involving gestures, words, objects performed in a sequestered place, and designed to in uence preternatural entities or forces (supernatural forces) on behalf of the actors" goals and interests. Any non-instinctive, predictable action or series of actions that cannot be justi ed by a rational means-to-end type of explanation - shaking hands is a ritual (it"s not rational) but planting potatoes is not. It can only be decided from a particular cultural viewpoint.
