Components: Cultural World view People dealing with ideas World view- A generally coherent system of cultural ideas and beliefs about the nature of reality that is shared by the members of a society Culture- A society's framework for constructing reality Epistemology- The study of how knowledge or information is acquired Sensory Perception Source---->sense--->brain--->?--->perception only minor differences no known differences in brains Muller-Lyer Illusion---> carpentered environment experience, learning Netsilik: Tupiliqs (evil ghosts) tunraqs (protective spirits) Pilots were trained to see things below the 80ms range world view Epistemology sensory perception socialization reasoning, knowledge, logic intuition, ESP, precognition, etc. divination- the art of foreseeing future events or discovering hidden knowledge through supernatural means Symbolic Classification- the way in which a culture organizes knowledge into significant categories Values- standards of what is good, desirable, or correct that are shared by the members of a society peasants- rural people who produce food for their own subsistance but who must also contribute to see their surpluses to others who do not produce their own food. Image of limited good- a present value based on the attitude of that 1.) all of the good things in life are limited in quantity and are always in short supply, 2.) there is no way to increase the availability of the good things in life, 3.) therefore an individual or a family can get more of the good things only at the expense of others language = speech linguistics- the study of language structural linguistics (grammer) syntax: the study of sentence structure morphology: the study of word structure phonology: the study of sound structure semantics: the study of meaning
morphology prefixes, suffixes, inflection plural cats (s) foots dogs (z) mens horses (iz) gooses past tense rake(d) make plan (d) runned plant (id) doed-ed phonology: the study of sound structure humans can make 800 speech sounds phoneme: 1) a sounds or set of sounds that make a difference in meaning to the speakers of a language, 2) the unique set of basic sounds of language. English has 39, Hawaiian has 13. semantics: the study of meaning neologism: making a new word historical linguistics: the study of how languages are constructed syntax (slowest) morphology phonlogy semantics (most rapid) Modern English 1500-present Middle English 1100-1500 Old English 450-1100 Syntax SOV (commonest), SVO, VSO, OVS morphology- had inflections (case endings), like German The Great Vowel Shift Dialect- a variety of a language spoken in a particular area or by a particular social group:
Germanic Balto-Slavic West- Enlish, Dutch, German North- Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish East- Gothic (extinct)
Lithuanian Latvian Old Church Slavonic- Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech/Slovak Romanian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguest Gaelic, Welsh
Latin Proto-Indo-European Celtic
Classical Greek Modern Greek Albanian Armenian Indo-Iranian Old Persian- Persian, Kurdish Sanskrit- Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi
Language family- A group of languages that are related by descent from a common ancestor Protolanguage- a hypothesized ancestral language from which two or more languages seem to have descended Proto- Indo European people originate in eastern Ukraine. Kurgan people (proto-Indo-european) domesticated horses Cognates- words that belong to different languages, but have similar sounds and meanings 50% of English word based off of French Animal Communication Apes Human language instinctive viki 4 words (1947-1951) symbolic genetically programmed washoe: Loulis learned sign-meaning ameslan (ASL) sign-meaning fixed KoKo arbitrary closed open Brocas area= speech production Washoe- (1965-2007) Koko had kittens & boyfriends koko lied she said she was a person and her boyfriend was a gorilla Edward Sapir- Benjamin Lee Whorf people act about situations in ways which are like the ways they talk about them Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis- The structure of every language uniquely shapes the perceptions, ideas, and experiences of its speakers Obligatory Categories- categories in a language that force a speaker to make certain choices before he or she can speak a sentence Edward Tylor, Primitive Culture: first cultural anthro book believed religion started as simple---> then developed into complex
wanted to know if religion had a single origin Tylor's stages of Religious Evolution Animism- 1.) Dual existence for all things, physical and psychic. 2.) Natural phenomena have souls. (ancient savage philosopher), not only do people have souls, but so do plants and animals. (Shintoism, hinduism, neopaganism) polytheism- recognizing many gods, none of whom is believed to be superordinate (greeks, romans, egyptians, etc) monotheism- believing that there is only one god (christianity, muslim) whats the difference between the living and the dead? What is the nature of dreams The soul is insubstantial, the earliest form of existence Earliest evidence for religion= burials that contain pottery, food, etc. Buried dead with grave goods, to take with them to the afterlife Guy Swanson- did a cross cultural study on beliefs and religions. the gods are most likely to punish people for immoral behavior when there are considerable differences in wealth within the society Anthropomorphic- having human physical characteristics Anthropopsychic- sharing the traits of human mentality Anthroposocial- endorsing the values of human society
Dualistic- 1.) isolating the external supernatural world from the everyday natural-world where humans live. 2.) dividing supernatural beings into those representing absolute good and those representing absolute evil, which are at war Monistic- 1.) believing the natural and supernatural worlds to be geographically joined or connected. 2.) characterizing supernatural beings as having both good and evil qualities Cosmology- A culture's theory of the origin and general structure of the universe Supernatural Beings Humans Nature
Terms: Magic- the performance of certain rituals that are believed to compel supernatural paowers to act in particular ways homeopathic magic- the attempt influence to people or things based on a mystical connection Frazer called the law of similarity- like affects likelihood contagious magic- the attemt to influence people or things based on a mystical connection frazer called the law of contact- the part affects the whole Mana- a supernatural impersonal force that inhabits certain objects or people and is believed to confer success and/or strength taboo- a prohibition that, if violated, is believed to bring supernatural punishment sorcery- use of certain materials to invoke supernatural powers to harm people witchcraft- attempting to harm people by supernatural means, but through emotions and thought alone, not through the use of materials amulet- an object, usually worn, thought to possess power to ward off danger or confer some ability
shaman- a master of spirits who makes contact with the supernatural world on behalf of the community through trance or altered consciousness priest- a religious specialist trained in the competent performance of rituals trepanning- surgically opening the skull to drive out evil spirits Netsilik Death taboo must stay in tent or igloo, 4 days for women, 5 for men cannot work or cook during this time must remove body through wall men get into heaven by being good hunters women must have tattoos 3 afterlife's one in sky one under earth (seasons opposite) one below that = dark, gloomy, and only eat butterflies evil ghost= illness if death taboo had not been observed, personal soul condemned to wander world aimlessly and became an evil ghost. Personal soul (inseq) immortal, invisible, if injured person becomes sick (baliki) death taboo must be done Name soul guardian spirit women during labor screams name when baby comes out: the name previously said becomes name soul Animal soul 3 biggies= seal, caribou, bears morally and intellectually better than humans (animals feel sorry for us so they give up their lives.) hunters must recognize taboos crooked spirit- angry vengeful spirit who enters body and causes sickness amulet spirit an object, usually worn, thought to possess power to ward off danger or confer some ability mothers would sow amulets into childrens clothes to protect from curses etc. Anilmals require something from humans, if the animals are going to allow them to kill them, the netsilik must respect the animals man had to use only the weapons preferred by the animal taboo about how to behave before and after hunt, etc animals soul would become enraged at hunter if mistreated, called crooked spirit Tupiliq (illness) --->spirits that are round, sphere filled with blood that attacks people in group formations, source of illness Tunraq- A shaman's helper spirit (shamans could send Tunraqs on missions, but if Tunraq failed, it turned in to a Reversed Tunraq.)
strange beings Deities Noliajuk (sedna) girls who has an orphan people threw her over board she grabbed on to sides people cut off her fingers fingers became seals (whales, walruses) sank to the bottom of the sea where she became the goddess of animals both land and sea hated humans Narssuk= baby orphan parents were giants people killed the parents baby jumped into the sky and became the god of weather when women... narssuk sends storms (ice quakes) Tatqeq (moon god) son and daughter killed evil mother brother and sister fell in love sister turned into sunday brother turned into moon destined to chase each other women who slept outdoors under the moon were made pregnant by tatqeq Spirits controlled the natural world and the major events in human life except for deities, supernatural beings maintained one to one, personal relations with individuals most supernatural beings were considered either potentially or openly evil and dangerous people feared encounters with spirits the shaman is the only line of defense against all spirits shamans usually in horticulture, rural societies not usually in industrial societies except Korea priests usually in bigger societies Erika Bourguignon: Achieving altered states of consciousness (trance) is a part of religious experience in 90% of the worlds societies Supernatural theories of illness: soul-loss- soul leaves body, because intrusion-mystical object enters person possession-patients body invaded by a spirit (netsilik) Trepanning (trephining, trepanation)- drilling a hole in the skull to take out an evil spirit. Netsilik:
tendency to spontaneously trance if an older shaman thinks that a boy has talent, he will take him as an apprentice. While apprentice, he has to follow a diet, sex taboos, certain sleep schedules secret shaman vocabulary when training is over mater shaman gives boy a tunraq boys parents present him with a headdress and a belt almost all shamans tended to be male Supernatural Being deity evil ghost crooked spirit tupiliq reversed tunraq ? Effect Starvation, storms (group disasters) illness (personal disasters)
Cause Taboo Breaking
Sorcery, witchcraft
all curing is done publicly where his talents are shown gets patient to confess which taboo they have broken (say out loud in front of everybody) shaman will go into a trance where he is able to contact his tunraqs to assist him with help of tunraqs he drive the tupilaqs out of the man with help of people in community they coax the tupilaqs back in, the shaman pulls out his snow knife and starts slashing in the air to kill the evil spirits shows knife and theres blood on it, patient is cured shamans use slight of hand to create blood on knife shamans excuses if patient dies too many tupilaqs to kill, they go back into body another shaman is working against him to kill the person Kwakiutl- from Vancouver area Quesalid, 1898 bloody worm when Quesalid was young, he was sure that all shamans were frauds. He was convinced that it was trickery he studied as an apprentice, during the course of his training, he learned the tricks shaman took a piece of eagles feather, when he pretended to suck the worm out of the arm, he would bite his tongue and spit the feather out FINAL terms: Values Peasants Image of Limited Good Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Obligatory Categories
Covers all assigned readings, Netsilik essay Read Netsilik for essays Test on Tuesday @ 12:45?