Chapter 10

• Worldview


  An encompassing picture of reality created by members of a society
• Types of worldviews


  • Positivism
  • Science
  • Religion
  • Secularism
• Worldview


  Knowledge systems, not just belief systems
• Summarizing symbols


  • Canadian flag
  • Queen Lili"uokalani
• Elaborating symbols


  • Cultural mosaic
• Metaphor


  A form of thought and language that asserts a meaningful link between two expressions from different semantic domains
• Metaphor


  • "the Lord is my Shepherd"
• Types of metaphors


  • Societal metaphors
  • Organic metaphors
  • Technological metaphors
• Societal metaphor


  A key metaphor whose model for the world is the social order
• Societal metaphors


  • Biologists comparing cells to an assembly line in a factory
• Societal metaphors impact not just our understanding but also our lived experiences, e.g. gender stereotypes and conception
• Organic metaphor


  A key metaphor whose predicate lies in the image of a living body
• Technological metaphor


  A world-view metaphor that employs objects made by human beings as metaphorical predicates
• Religion


  Ideas and practices that postulate reality beyond that which is immediately available to the senses
• Religious ideas


  • Monotheism
  • Polytheism
  • Reincarnation
  • Mana
  • Ancestor Worship
  • Animism
• Animism


  A worldview in which all natural objects and phenomena, animate and inanimate, have spirits. Today, many anthropologists prefer the term relationality.
• Ancestor Worship


  A worldview in which deceased ancestors are still connected to the living relatives and have the power to intervene in the daily life of the living
• Shinto


  An ancient and diverse religion premised on the veneration of kami, translated into deities, spirits, or phenomena associated with nature (animism). Deceased relatives also become kami (ancestor worship) and all kami are viewed as connected to—and an expression of—a divine force that is present in all of nature (a concept similar to mana).
• Shinto


  • Many practitioners of Shinto are also practitioners of Buddhism
• Mictēcacihuātl


  • The Aztec god of the dead, also known as "Lady of the Dead", who ruled over the Aztec underworld and watched over the remains of the dead. She is the precursor to La Catrina Calavera (the elegant female skeleton seen in contemporary Day of the Dead celebrations) and the folk saint Santa Muerte.
• Day of the Dead celebrations

  • An excellent example of how religious ideas coexist, overlap, and change over time
• Myth


  Stories that recount how various aspects of the world came to be the way they are. They are a powerful way to communicate the ideas, beliefs, and knowledge of a particular worldview.
• Myth as a Charter for Social Action


  (Malinowski's anthropological explanation of myths)
• Religious practices


  • Magic
  • Witchcraft
  • Prayer
  • Physiological exercise
  • Exhortation
  • Taboo
  • Feasts
  • Sacrifice
• Ritual

  A repetitive social practice composed of a sequence of symbolic activities in the form of dance, song, speech, gestures, or the manipulation of objects, adhering to a culturally defined ritual schema and closely connected to a specific set of ideas that are often encoded in myth.
• Elements of ritual

  • Repetitive
  • Social practice
  • Apart from the social routines of everyday life
  • Adhere to a characteristic, culturally defined ritual schema
  • Closely connected to a specific set of ideas central to the culture
• Ritual text


  The sequential ordering of acts and events
• Ritual performance


  How the ritual text is performed
• Stages of rites of passage

  • Separation
  • Transition
  • Liminal period
  • Communitas
  • Re-aggregation
• Liminal period


  The ambiguous transitional state in which the person undergoing the ritual are outside their social positions
• Specialized religious roles


  • Shamans
  • Priests
• Shaman

  Healers, religious practitioners with individual powers to communicate with invisible forces
• Priest

  A religious practitioner skilled in the practice of religious rituals, which he or she carries out for the benefit of the group. Also applies to rabbis, imams, etc., skilled in ritual and scripture, and typically found in hierarchical societies.
• Stable experiences reinforce traditional worldviews, while unpredictable experiences lead to worldview changes
• Worldviews can evolve through time and space based on social, economic, and political pressures and cultural changes
• Syncretism

  The synthesis of old religious practices (or an old way of life) with new religious practices (or a new way of life), introduced from outside, often by force.
• Syncretism in Mexico


  • Virgin of Guadalupe (Tonantzin)
  • Santa Muerte (Mictēcacihuātl)
• Revitalization

  A conscious, deliberate, and organized attempt by some members of a society to create a more satisfying culture in a time of crisis. Sometimes syncretism is embraced; other times it is rejected in favour of a return to the traditional ways.
• Revitalization

  • Ghost Dance
• Secularism


  The separation of religion and state