ANTH205 Lecture 8: The Creative Management of Fear
22 May 2018
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THE CREATIVE MANAGEMENT OF FEAR
FRIDAY, APRIL 6
Remember Mental Mapping
● Culture is symbolic and material
○ Culture is structured, or created, through a variety of processes
● 4 main concepts in which culture is structured/created:
○ These illustrate the symbolic and material aspects of culture
○ They are norms, values, symbols, ideologies and mental maps
● Even within a culture, not everyone shares equally in intuitions about these ideas and
fear is no exception.
○ But each of these elements powerfully frames what people can say, do, and
sometimes even think.
○ We will take a look at each of these symbolic and material aspects of culture in
depth.
● Mental maps of reality
○ The human ability to use symbols ties directly into our use of “mental maps.”
● Mental maps of reality are cultural classifications of what kind of people and things exist,
and the assignment of meaning to those classifications.
○ Mental maps represent people’s attempt to distill the complex world around them
into understandable categories
○ The world around is incredibly complex
○ You cannot look at every blade of grass, every cloud, even at every person who
walks by without placing them into a pre-existing category
○ Only learning new information creates new categories
● Our brains are hardwired toward classification
○ We lump things into categories, thus making it easier to navigate the world
○ Our own personal mental maps are heavily influenced by cultural constructs
○ Norms and values influence what we think is important, and symbols suggest
how we encode information
● As products of our own culture, we cannot escape it
○ It influences the way we think and the way we ask
○ Our mental maps help us encode and understand information
What You Don’t Know Might Kill You
● If the mind can’t categorize it into something known, your mind will fashion a
category reminiscent of an existing belief
● The logic: better to make up a danger and be safe than to perceive safety and there is
danger
● Sometimes, the perceived unknown is really unknown
What Are Monsters?
● “Monster is a flexible multi-use concept. Until quite recently, it applied to unfortunate
souls like the hydrocephalic woman. During the 19th century ‘freak shows’ and ‘monster
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spectacles’ were common… the concept of the monster has evolved to become a moral
term in addition to a biological and theological term. We live in an age, for example, in
which recent memory can recall many sadistic political monsters” (Asma 2009, 7).
Reasonable Fears of Humans
● What is deleterious to survival or unknown can be frightening
○ Othernio Abel (1914) postulated that Greek myth of the cyclops was based on
fossil remains of elephants.
○ Thomas Jefferson (1790) introduced the fossil he called Megalonyx as the claw
of a giant cat when it fact it was a giant sloth.
Cryptozoology
● The study or search for legendary creature may seem silly.
○ Ex: Yeti, BigFoot, Jersey Devil, Chupacabra, Loch Ness Monster, Jackalope
● But research into myths and legendary monsters has proven scientifically fruitful by
disproving and proving the existence of nature’s monsters.
● The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore.
○ Turns out that jackalopes were real, in a way, as rabbits suffering from Shope
papilloma virus
There Are Still Monsters to Slay: Making Monsters Makes Sense
● There are several types of monsters
● Monsters potentially threaten our lives and stir fears
○ Health, physically, emotionally, socially including religiously…
● Monsters are what is monstrous - a manifestation of fears.
● “Monsters” can be a threat to the culturally constructed norms
○ These monsters are created through systems of knowledge, beliefs…
○ These monsters can be banished with knowledge, social growth, and unity:
mythology creatures, fears of death, diseases (the pandemic)
● More importantly there are human monsters who behaviors diverge from human
universals and the strongest, most consistent human generalities
○ These monsters are harder to banish
○ What these monsters do will always be more monstrous - genocide, serial killing,
child abuse…
THE CREATIVE MANAGEMENT OF FEAR
MONDAY, APRIL 9
As you view the film, note:
● How anthropologists take the myths and deconstruct them
○ Explain the modern manifestation
○ Explore the roots of the myths
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○ Interpret the role that the myths serve in society
● The anthropologist’s task when examining religion is to try to capture the vivid inner life,
sense of moral order, dynamic public expressions, and interactions with other systems of
meaning and power
○ Based on your interpretation of the local vampire myth, how does religion inform
an individual’s inner life, sense of moral order, dynamic public expressions, and
interactions with other systems of meaning and power?
○ How does religion inform these aspects on a cultural or social level?
○ What is the underlying purpose of religion within a cultural group or society?
○ What do anthropologists have to offer to the explanation and understanding of
world religions?
● How and why is religion a part of the function of myths
○ Reinforcing “good” behaviors; punishing “bad”
● The forces of globalization are affecting religion and religious practices
○ Did you observe examples that illustrate how globalization is affecting religion
and religious practices, and explain how.
○ Conversely, are the religions and practices in your affecting globalization, and if
so, how? How do your examples also reveal the relationship between religion
and other social systems of power?
○ How will future forces likely affect the religion and practices of your examples?
○ How will future forces likely affect the general status of world religions and
practices?
○ Do you think religion will be less or more prominent in people’s daily lives in the
future? Why do you think this will be the case?
Film:
● Vampires weren’t always seen as fiction
● John Blair: anthropologist in the film
● Evidence: deviant burials to ensure they didn’t become walking dead
○ Juveniles found buried with their heads cut off and placed on their legs within
churchyard, which was written in medieval records as work of a vampire. (Kent,
England)
○ People buried face-down, broken legs so they couldn’t walk. (Yorkshire, England)
-- dated from year 1000 during Anglo-Saxon period
○ Hands and feet chopped off
○ Rocks and stones on top of the body to prohibit movement after death
○ Bodies with stakes bound to the ground
○ Vampire-slaying ritual (Romania)
■ Man was believed to be a vampire sucking the blood of a young girl
■ Man dug up the “vampire’s” body, took out his heart and set fire to it
● Dracula, Bram Stoker
○ The man who wrote Dracula in the late 1800s collected notes from medieval
records to create his vampire
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Culture is structured, or created, through a variety of processes. 4 main concepts in which culture is structured/created: These illustrate the symbolic and material aspects of culture. They are norms, values, symbols, ideologies and mental maps. Even within a culture, not everyone shares equally in intuitions about these ideas and fear is no exception. But each of these elements powerfully frames what people can say, do, and sometimes even think. We will take a look at each of these symbolic and material aspects of culture in depth. The human ability to use symbols ties directly into our use of mental maps. Mental maps of reality are cultural classifications of what kind of people and things exist, and the assignment of meaning to those classifications. Mental maps represent people"s attempt to distill the complex world around them into understandable categories.
