Anthropology of Religion Final Exam Cheat Sheet

McPherson: Sorcery can be defined as a form of esoteric knowledge bestowing personal power which the adept can use willfully to realize desired ends. Not everyone is able to become a sorcerer, however everyone has the power to use one. Believes that the idea of knowing sorcery is readily available, it becomes a deterrent in for deviant behavior. Sorcery is most commonly used for the control or punishment/treatment of those who stray from the social norms. However, sorcery is viewed as extremely powerful and at times almost impossible to control. In response to this, it is important that a unanimous judgment has been made prior to conducting. Sorcery is essentially a male role/profession that is acquired and harnessed through apprenticeships in what is known as the lum or male house. Kabana sorcerers also have the power to create illnesses through the use of objects such as stones. Author believes that Sorcery is actually a deviant act in itself, whose selfhelp techniques strip away all that it is to be human in Kabana. Hewlett: Mbondo is a root that is found between the two populations of Aka and Ngandu. This root is believed by these two people as a supernatural agent that can be spoken to and even give the truthful answers to difficult questions. However in reality, this root contains a poison that can indeed kill you. These two populations use oracles, who essentially are a medium between the root and those who wish to encounter its supernatural powers. These people also believe in evil and malevolent forces, just like witches. However, unlike the most common ideas of witches, the Aka and the Ngandu believe that these ev il people (molemba) are not born with the power, but gain these powers through the addition of another gland known as gundu that is fed to them as children by their families when they are young. Over time it grows, yet allows them to be disguised among the community. Molemba meet at night and eat the souls of individuals. They do it solely out of enjoyment. People can hire molemba and use them to wreak havoc on those who the person is jealous of. Rich people are commonly associated with hiring them. Stevens: Witchcraft and sorcery are social problems that are relieved by social agencies, especially in the urban setting. However, for the most part, in times of little stress, these beliefs are commonly not accepted among the western societies. Anthropologist essentially agree that both witchcraft and sorcery are evil powers. Sorcery is the learned use of objects or words while witchcraft is an extra-somatic power vested in certain individuals which operates without recourse to magic. Witches in the western world has taken heavy hits, mostly due to Christianity, which relates them and sorcery to Satan himself. Sorcery works with Frazers law of sympathy and uses the relationships of objects and actions to its advantage. The real po wer of these two is through the psychology of the person being affected. Brown: Vodou is a syncretic religion that influenced primarily by Traditional African and Roman Catholic ideas. It is influence by African mostly due to the once presence of slaves in Haiti. The slaves came from all over Africa and knew only the traditions of Africa. However, because they were split apart from families when they got there, they usually had a variety of different tribes traditions. Over time, there began to be a coalescence between the slaves and their ideals, eventually leading to a revolution. Many deities, like Ogun the smith, can be traced back to multiple tribes. On the Roman Catholic side, the first introduction to RC is the mandatory baptism of slaves by France. African traditions were not allowed to be served during their slavery by the Euro nations such as France. So it is believed that many of the slaves used RC as a faade to cover up their true intentions. Because of this, a parallel inadvertently began to form between the two, creating a fusion and similarity between them. Lewis: ASC is most commonly found in the form of what we know as a trance Lewis encounters one during a sance of the zar cult, in which through ritual style of dancing, a pregnant woman stood up and began to endanger the baby by smashing her stomach into the grinding stone that was present. She was said to be possessed by an evil spirit, when other women who were in a similar trance, began stand between her stomach and the grinding stone, oblivious to what else was going on around them. Another time, Lewis was engaging in a sance in London when the witchdoctor collapsed and began to speak in many different tongues while also muttering something else. Trance is most common ASC Greenfield: A healer-medium in the city of Fortaleza was told by a patient to have vision problem, in which he began to speak to the ceiling and shake into a self-induced trance. He then simply became much more authoritative and began to work on the patient with a style that would seem barbaric to most. He was described to have been flowing through the surgery swiftly and with precision. He did this many times, patient after patient and removed cysts, tumors, etc. providing prescriptions and guaranteeing the patient to be well. Harner: The Jivaro Indians of the Amazon believe in witchcraft and that it is the main reason as to why illnesses and non-violent deaths exist. They believe that what normally one views as the real world is in actuality a lie and an illusion which can only be counteracted by the use of hallucinogenic drugs. Shamans dedicate themselves to enter into these altered states of consciousness and deal with the forces that affect their daily lives. There a two shamans, a healing and a bewitching. Each take a drink and enter the world to protect those around them using spirit helpers.

Anthropology of Religion Final Exam Cheat Sheet

Mullins: Aum Shinrikyo is a syncretic belief system. The goal of this belief is to teach the truth about the creation and the destruction of the universe using other belief systems such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. It was originally used to understand ones spiritual powers and development, however it began to change focus. Under new leadership, followers went from development to salvation and liberation through following the new leaders teachings. This eventually led to terrorism and other sorts of violence. Eventually there were those who remained conservative and separated themselves from the new ideology. Juergensmeyer: Five issues of violence in the name of religion is one, which the people follow and give power to leaders who misconstrue the original doctrines of the belief system and create violence across the globe. It in turn becomes difficult to combat because the enemies of these people are satanized and will never be communicated with. Compromise is also impossible to achieve because the rewards from their religion exceed far more than what can be given to those in the living world. Also, terrorism creates a religious state that cannot be ignored by the politics of the state that they reside in. This is turn gives them political power and legitimacy in the world as a threat. Finally, the enemies are the people themselves, creating an enemy that does not actually exist. That cannot actually be stopped. Fluehr-Lobban: Islamic law is based on the immutable holy sources of the Quran and Sunna and is a religious law. Sharia, a religious law, pertains to all legal matters involving criminal, civil and family. This code of laws is comprehensive and extends outwards even to economics. It means correct path and holds firm to the idea of putting someone on that same path. It teaches the ways a household should be run, how people should be dressed, and other ways that follow their religious texts. This is due to the fact that Islam is found to easily coexist with the society and other secular areas of the state. Hoodfar: The veil pre-exists Islam and is actually found to have originated in non-Arab states. Veiling is meant to represent the respectable woman, and separate her from those who are not. It is a sign of status, and was historically used by the elites of ancient civilizations. It was only from the conquering of the Muslims did the veil reach into the realm of Islam. Veiling is not actually discussed in the Quran and it was only believed by the followers to follow in the path of the prophets wife. During colonialism, veiling was a distinguishing factor for Islam for Europeans and it was then that Islam took it as their own. Universal Attributes of Witches: Social subversion, nocturnal activity, transformation, flight, the familiar animal or spirit, the Sabbat, spread of disease, abduction of children, illicit sexual behavior, ritual murder and use of blood/body parts, cannibalism, vampirism, association with death. Principles of Magic-natural forces, power, coherent and interconnected universe, symbols, Frazers principles of similarity, contact Correspondence between AG and CS: Ogun is the smith deity, can also be related to St. Peter. Ololu is similar to St. John the Baptist, Aizan is similar to Christ, Father of Damballa is similar to Moses. Revitalization: Nativism is universal. Stages: 1. Steady State, 2. Increased Individual Stress (crime, drugs, alcohol, domestic), 3. Cultural Distortion (everyone is generally unhappy, could cope/rebel/head in new direction and listen to a prophet or supernatural intervention), 4. Revitalization (mazeway reformulation, communication, organization, adaptation, cultural transformation, routinization), 5. New Steady State (Zoroastrianism, The Third Reich)