ANTHR 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Cave Painting, Medicinal Plants, Curandero
Anthr 102
LTR
Cultural Anthropology
Rituals
● Religion in action
● Repeated actions patterned and identifiable
● Religion or secular
○ Religion: spiritual
○ Secular: non spiritual
● Victor Turner
○ Zambia: ndembu
○ “rites of passage”
● patterned activities
○ identifiable steps visible especially against every day life
○ call attention to themselves
○ express values of the group
○ marked by symbols
● tapa: barker’s ancestral lines
Magic
● a ritual
● way of knowing/explaining the world
● designed to compel the supernatural to act on your behalf, age you, help you
○ i.e. prayer to make your sick friend happy again
○ very practical
● kind of interface with the spiritual
law of sympathy
● “like produces like”
● magic work between similar things
1. law of similarity
○ aka imitative magic or image magic
○ casual; relationship between similar things
■ i.e. Voodoo doll: doll you make or specialist makes for you that looks
like your enemy once spell has been cast r ritual whatever pain you do
to the pain your enemy will fell the same thing
■ i.e. cave art: example of image magic
2. law of contagion
○ contagious magic
○ things once in contract remain I contract
■ i.e. Navajo don’t like photographs taken of them, believe you can do
bad things to them with the picture of them
■ i.e. lucky rabbits foot:
○ hair, fingernails: if you cut them make sure you burn them because people
think people could do things to you (Voodoo)
do these rituals work?
● Yes it always works, except when it doesn’t
Specialists
Document Summary
Marked by symbols tapa: barker"s ancestral lines. Magic identifiable steps visible especially against every day life. Designed to compel the supernatural to act on your behalf, age you, help you i. e. prayer to make your sick friend happy again. Kind of interface with the spiritual law of sympathy. Magic work between similar things: law of similarity. Contagious magic things once in contract remain i contract i. e. navajo don"t like photographs taken of them, believe you can do bad things to them with the picture of them i. e. lucky rabbits foot: Yes it always works, except when it doesn"t. In all religions where people need help conducting there life changing rituals. Wedding, baptism, turning from boy to man or girl to women, funerals. All are given authority through a religious institution. Failures can be the result of gods. Religion and everyday life events always distinct. Followers will leave if your rituals fail.
