ANTHROP 2202H Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Cargo Cult, Totem, Liminality
19 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Attempts to explain dreams and trances led early humans to believe two entities inhabit body (one active during day and soul) Religion evolves through stages: polytheism to monotheism: powers and forces. Impersonal force which people can control under certain conditions. Sacred impersonal force in melanesian and polynesian religions. Prohibition backed by supernatural sanctions: magic and religion. Use of supernatural techniques to accomplish specific aims. Imitative magic: produce desired effect by imitating it. Contagious magic: whatever is done to an object is believed to affect a person who once had contact with it: uncertainty, anxiety, solace. Serve emotional needs as well as cognitive ones. Behavior that is formal, stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped, performed earnestly as a social act; rituals are held at set times and places and have liturgical orders: rites of passage. Culturally defined activities associated with the transition from one place or stage of life to another. Can create anxiety and a sense of insecurity and danger.
