Superorganic: there is something in culture that makes it different from organic
the use of symbols is what sets culture apart from the organic
the question is whether or not these are a continuoum of culture or whether they are mutually exclusive
Culture is a symbol dependant, energy transforming system that provides subsistence, shelter, defense, and cosmology (world view).
Culture vs. culture
Four things cause societies to fail
Biological extinction of the membership (Shakers)
Apathy of all of the members
The War of all upon All
Absorption of a society by an encroaching group
came up with the "functional prerequisites" to prevent the previous four from occuring
cosmology is rational to those that believe in it, those from outside the group are the ones that see the cosmology as irrational
Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, State
Can science provide a window to the world view of others?
Are descriptions of culture all that science can provide?
FILM: The Mehinaku
South America: Brazil: Xingu region
Please consider these issues and others you may note
How many different spirit types did you observe?
spirits are present in all aspects of everyday life
In any one ritual, is more than one spirit attended to?
I didn't see in ritual that called for more than one spirit at a time, the last ceremony calls for pairs of spirits
Are there differences in the sex roles during supernatural rites?
The women are only involved in an indirect manner with their preparation of the food, while the men partake directly in the flute playing and ceremony. The women use to be in control of the flutes until the men ursurped that control. There are rites that only the women will take part in such as the separation. the last of the summer ceremonies has spirits, both male and female(husband and wife), but played by men, while the wife is still responsible for distributing the ceremonial food
Are all members of the community aware of all spirits and concerned about the supplication?
everyone is aware of the spirits
What is the role of children in supernatural activities?
the boys take part in the men's ceremonies and both sexes take part in "games" that prepare them for adulthood
Do the Mehinaku seem to display a real concern about how effective their rites are?
yes, especially when it comes to the flutes
How does the layout of the village play a role in spiritual affairs?
the village is laid with the center acting as a ceremonial center as well as conveinent location
What other religious implications did you observe in the film?
basically an empirical religion in that they observe that if they perform the rituals and ceremonies then the food and harvest would be good, if the results were bad, then they must not have performed the rituals to the satisfaction of the spirits
faith: complete confidence or trust in something; or a belief in God
religion(norback): ideas, attitudes, creeds, and acts of super-naturalism(everything that isn't natural; mysterious, un-explainable)
religion(geertz): a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
religion(dictionary): a set of beliefs concerning the cause and nature of the universe
Magic(dictionary): the use of techniques including spells and charms to assure human control of the super-natural power; magic is different from religion in some cultures and not in others; modern magic is considered the use of illusion and not the super-natural
religion(millertown): religion is instrumental and used to acheive particular ends, it is expressive and used to symbolize certain relationships
sacred and profane(durkheim): the sacred produces an emotional state that makes you feel like you are in the presence of greatness; the sacred (student of durkheim) is the control exercised over the individual conscionous(sp)
durkheim authors the concept of the worship of collective life
if religion is the belief in a sacred force, then magic is the belief in the control of those forces that are magical and not those that are religious
religion is a humbling state while magic is power trip
morality: conformity to the rules of right or wrong conduct, often associated with religion in our society, but others such as durkhiem see morality as a product of the need for the group to work together
Post-modernism: an attack that there is no real world
not the first time science has been attacked (when science first came about it was attacked)
the ultimately science has been seen as having an ulterior motive
science does not by definition take a stand on moral, science can study morals, but what has happened is the use of science in "immoral" ways
science: we must generate knowledge about the experienced world,
we do this by evaluating logical theories with empirical data,
we assume there is a real world,
we assume that all ideas are subject to scrutiny
and that all ideas may be falsified
science can study the concept of god between groups, but cannot engage in theorical debate over the existance of god due to god being of the super-natural and non-testable
Historical / Traditional(Cultural)
Materialism / Economic / Ecological
Kinship can either be inheritated (historical) or the environment cause it (materialism)
high islands of the pacific and their complex economy (differentially distributed and seasonly variable)
low islands of the pacific and their simple economy (geographically uniform and seasonally constant)
trade or redistribution must occur on the high islands and complex descent groups or ramages are seen; the ramages allow for kin claims and resource movement
trade is not really needed on low islands and truncated descent groups are seen; the family is cut off after so many generations so that small groups can survive
if groups move from either type of island move to the opposite type then the groups adopt the local descent group system
implication is that kinship is determined by materialism and not necessarily on historical
crow indians developed matriarchal society due to farming of women along rive bottoms, but in reality after receiving the horse from the spanish the behavior of the crow was along the lines of a patriarchal society, therefore history was overriding the materialism
the notion of scrunity is what separates religion from science, in that we dont challenge the foundations of religion
epistemology: the study of how we know what we know
the limits of science only deals with what is natural, including cultural and social aspects, we can compare, but we can not explain, prove, or reject the supernatural
science cannot address the supernatural or metaphysical
metaphysical: ultimate nature of existence
creationism: a belief in the literal interpretation of Genesis which explains how matter and life came to be and how certain moral absolutes where established (strick constructionists)
post-modernists are different from creationist in that they believe that there is no single beginning and that every idea is valid (radical cultural realtivism)
post-modernists believe that christianity is a totalizing and oppressive force serving the needs of the ruling class
but creationism and post-modernists are similar in that they see the world as starting somewhere and that is all there is about it, they also share a strong moral base and are very intolerant of other epistomologies
science is a method, a method of collecting data, with concern over instrumentation as it is hypothesizing
science understand the limits to which science can answer questions
science has both reliablity(the ability to get consistant results through experimentation) and validity(whatever your measuring is the actual measurement)
the critiques of these are that there are examples where the validity can be challenged
however, science is constantly being refined
cause, explanation, and prediction
the limits of science: we have decided that probablity and cause are the same thing
prediction is hard because control over all variables is tough
creationsists have a problem with science not being able to predict the future, except under specific conditions, but science allows for the lack of prediction
science is all about comparing differnces
science assumes that the world is ordered and that one can develop theories and hypothesises
science also denies the use of the super-natural as an explanation of processes
science began to explain the religious aspects in terms of science during the mideval period which eroded the aspects to which the chruch could teach
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