The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft

"The Anthropological Study of Religion The anthropological perspective The concept of culture Marginalia Cultural relativism and ethics Four fields of anthropology The holistic approach The study of human societies Ethnographic fieldwork Box 1.1 First fieldwork Marginalia Anthropology and ethics The Fores of New Guinea: an ethnographic example Two ways of viewing culture Box 1.2 Fieldwork among the Kiowas Viewing the world Theoretical approaches to the study of religion Evolutionary approaches to religion The Marxist approach The functional approach The interpretive approach The psychosocial approach The bio-cognitive approach to religious behavior Postmodernism Attempts at defining religion The domain of religion The dependent and independent variables of religion Table 1.1 Culture areas of the world Table 1.2 Food-getting strategies Conclusion Summary Study questions Religious Symbols What is a symbol? Religious symbols The swastika The pentagram Christian symbols Box 2.1 The commodification of Zuni art Sacred art and architecture Maya architecture and hierophany The meaning of color Marginalia Commodification of color Yoruba color terminology Sacred space and sacred time The Maya view of time Box 2.2 The end of time Rituals and calendars in modern world religions Sacred time and space in Australia Marginalia Animal symbols as mascots Totemism and Dreamtime The symbolism of music and dance The symbolism of music Marginalia Music and religion Music in ritual The symbolism of dance Tattooing and other permanent body alterations Conclusion Summary Study questions Mythology The nature of myths Worldview Stories of the supernatural Myths and religion Table 3.1 Forms of narrative The nature of oral texts Marginalia Oral tradition and the Shakers Box 3.1 Genesis Box 3.2 Gender and the Christian Bible Understanding myths Approaches to the analysis of myths Searching for myth origins in the nineteenth century Fieldwork and functional analysis Structural analysis of myth Box 3.3 The Gururumba creation story Psychological symbols in myth Common themes in myths Origin myths Marginalia Emergence myths Box 3.4 The Navajo creation story: Diné Bahane’ Apocalyptic myths Hero myths Table 3.2 The monomyth in cinema: a sampling of common features Conclusion Summary Study questions Ritual The basics of ritual performance Prescriptive and situational rituals Periodic and occasional rituals A classification of rituals Table 4.1 A classification of rituals Technological rituals Rites of intensification Marginalia St. Francis rituals Protective rituals Divination rituals Therapy rituals and healing Navajo healing rites Anti-therapy rituals Ideological rituals Offerings and sacrifices Human sacrifice Box 4.1 Morning star ceremony Table 4.2 Skiri cosmology Maya sacrifice and autosacrifice Rites of passage The structure of a rite of passage Coming-of-age rituals Transition and liminality Table 4.3 Characteristics of liminality Apache rite of passage Secular rites of passage Revitalization rituals Alterations of the human body Genital cutting Marginalia Genital cutting in the U.S. Pilgrimage as a religious ritual Box 4.2 The hajj The Huichol pilgrimage Zuni quadrennial pilgrimages Religious obligations Tabu Mana and tabu in Polynesia Jewish food laws as religious ritual Box 4.3 Menstrual tabus Conclusion Summary Study questions Altered States of Consciousness The Nature of altered states of consciousness Table 5.1 Characteristics of altered states of consciousness Entering an altered state of consciousness Table 5.2 Factors stimulating an altered state of consciousness Fasting Sacred pain The biological basis of altered states of consciousness Box 5.1 Altered states in Upper Paleolithic art Ethnographic examples of altered states of consciousness San healing rituals The Sun Dance of the Cheyennes The Holiness churches Marginalia Christian snake-handlers Hallucinogen-induced altered states of consciousness Shamanism in South America Hallucinogenic snuff among the Yanomamös Tobacco in South America Peyote in the Native American Church Marijuana among the Rastafarians Non-Indigenous uses of hallucinogens Conclusion Summary Study questions Religious Specialists Shamans Becoming a shaman The shamanic role and rituals Marginalia Shamanic visualizations Siberian shamanism Yakut shamanism Korean shamanism Pentecostal healers as shamans Box 6.1 Clown doctors as shamans Neoshamanism Priests Zuni priests Okinawan priestesses Eastern Orthodox priests The monks on the Holy Mountain of Mt. Athos Marginalia Religious icons Other specialists Kiowa owl prophets Conclusion Summary Study questions Magic and Divination The nature of magic Box 7.1 Why there is evil in the world Magic and religion Rules of magic Homeopathic magic Contagious magic Marginalia Religious relics Religious Relics and the Shakers Magic in society Magic in the Trobriand Islands Learning magic Trobriand garden magic Magic among the Azandes Kiowa power contests Wiccan magic Divination Forms of divination Table 7.1 A classification of methods of divination with examples A survey of divination techniques Noninspirational forms of divination Box 7.2 I Ching: The Book of Changes Inspirational forms of divination Box 7.3 Spiritualism and séances Ordeals Astrology Maya astronomy and astrology Oracles of the Azandes Divination in Ancient Greece: the Oracle at Delphi Magical behavior and the human mind Magical thinking Why magic works Conclusion Summary Study questions Souls, Ghosts, and Death Souls and Ancestors Variation in the concept of the soul Souls, death, and the afterlife Examples of concepts of the soul Yup’ik souls Yanomamö spirits and souls Hmong souls The soul in Roman Catholicism The soul in Hinduism and Buddhism Ancestors Yoruba ancestors Beng ancestors and reincarnation Tana Toraja ancestors and social death Bodies and Souls Ghosts Box 8.1 A haunting in eastern Oklahoma Ghosts around the world Marginalia Ghosts in Southeast Asia Dani ghosts Bunyoro ghosts The living dead: vampires and zombies Vampires Vampires in New England Archaeological evidence of vampires in Poland Haitian zombies Zombies in contemporary culture Marginalia Zombies as fear projections Death rituals Funeral rituals Disposal of the body Burial The African Burial Ground Secondary burials Cremation Mummification Exposure U.S. death rituals in the nineteenth century U.S. funeral rituals today Box 8.2 Roadside memorials Days of Death Halloween Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Mexico and the Andes Conclusion Summary Study questions Gods and Spirits Spirits Marginalia Japanese kami Dani views of the supernatural Table 9.1 The supernatural world of the Danis Guardian spirits and the Native American vision quest Box 9.1 Kiowa vision quests Jinn Christian angels and demons Box 9.2 Christian demonic exorcism in the United States Gods Types of gods Table 9.2 The Roman gods and goddesses of agriculture Gods and society Gods reflect human behavior Big gods The gods of the Yorubas Table 9.3 Some of the Yoruba orisha The gods of the Ifugaos Goddesses Ishtar (Ancient Near East) Isis (Ancient Egypt) Kali (Hinduism) Mary (Roman Catholic) Monotheism: conceptions of god in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Judaism Christianity Islam Marginalia Jains and ahimsa Atheism Conclusion Summary Study questions Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Wizardry Witchcraft, sorcery, and wizardry Witchcraft among the Azandes The Zande belief in witchcraft The role of divination An analysis of Zande witchcraft beliefs Witchcraft among the Zunis Sorcery among the Fores Kiowa sorcery Euro-American witchcraft beliefs The connection with pagan religions The witchcraze in Europe The witchcraze in England and the United States Marginalia Tituba Functions of Euro-American witchcraft beliefs Witches as women Box 10.1 The evil eye Modern-day witch hunts Box 10.2 Satanism Neo-paganism and revival The Wiccan movement Wiccan beliefs and rituals Marginalia The Wiccan athame The growing popularity and persecution of Wicca Conclusion Summary Study questions Magic, Medicine, and Religion Explanatory models Disease/illness dichotomy Healers in the three sectors of healthcare Box 11.1 African healers meet Western medicine Personalistic and naturalistic medical systems Personalistic medicine in small-scale societies Table 11.1 Cross-cultural causes, prevention, and treatments Marginalia Taqui Onqoy, the Dancing Sickness Shamanistic techniques Cholera in a Chinese village Novocain magic Plant spirits and medicines in personalistic medical systems Humoral pathology and the rise of Western biomedicine Humoral pathology in the North American colonies Box 11.2 Ancient symbols in Western medicine The smallpox blanket myth Negotiating medical models in clinical settings Faith and the biomedical approach Spiritual architecture in the biomedical environment The labyrinth Religious specialists in biomedical environments Conclusion Summary Study questions The Search for New Meaning Classic revitalization movements Box 12.1 The Asbury revival Haitian Vodou History of Vodou Vodou beliefs Santería Cargo cults The Ghost Dance movements of 1869 and 1890 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) Modern-day cultural revival in Belize New meaning in fundamentalism Characteristics of fundamentalist groups The Iranian Revolution Box 12.2 The veil in Islam The Arab Spring High demand religions The ""cult"" question Characteristics of high demand religions Mind control? Examples of high demand religions Branch Davidians (Students of the Seven Seals) Unification Church UFO religions Heaven’s Gate Raelians Marginalia Edgar Cayce New directions and revitalization in religion ""Spiritual but not religious"" Conclusion Summary Study questions"