ANT 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Empiricism, Animism
27 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
What is religion: an organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere or the supernatural, along with ceremonial practices by which people try to interpret and/or influence aspects of the universe otherwise beyond their control. How is science different from religion: empiricism- the idea that knowledge is derived from replicable observation, not just a feeling, emotion, faith, or trust. False dichotomies: during the age of exploration, europeans began to construct a worldview that separated nature from culture, 17th century enlightenment, a matter of separations, nature vs. culture, subject vs. Mythology of metaphorical history: myth- sacred narratives about the world that explain the fundamentals, like how things came into existence or why things change, traditional ecological knowledge, ethnoscience, oral traditions. Separation of nature and culture: basis for resource exploitation in the modern era. Shamanism: shaman- a person who can act as an intermediary between supernatural forces and mortals, often through altered states of consciousness, shamans heal, protect, divine, and/or forecast.
