ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Harvest Festival, Fraternities And Sororities, Cultural Relativism
Document Summary
Anthropologists study religion and health with similar emphasis on. How rational, scientific are we in beliefs and behaviors. Patterned repetitive behavior usually focused on supernatural realm, but can also be secular(non-religious) Periodic ritual: performed annually to mark important events. Non-periodic: occur in response to unplanned events or to mark events in a person"s life. Rite of passage-events that mark a change in status or life stage. Rituals of inversion-ritual in which normal social roles and order is temporarily reversed. Anonymity and masks contributes to abnormal behavior. And may experience communitas-a sense of unity. Release of societal pressures and temporary equality. Originally, lower caste would literally throw shit at people in higher caste. Rites of intensification: reinforce values and norms of a community; strengthen group identity. Followed contact with colonial societies and intensified during wwii. Islander"s observed that cargo was the source of power behind americans and. Rituals based on imitation of white man will bring cargo and material wealth.
