272 animism Flashcards
animism
all of life is animated (alive)
humans in comparison to rest of creation
- a part of creation, not sun of or most important
- all has life/spirit, humans just have more
totemism
humans have a bond with animals
totem 4
- animal linked to people with a spiritual bond
- ex being bear clan bc of bear’s strength
- totems disposed toward their people and vice versa, and won’t hurt each other but protects each other
- may use euphemism for name
totemic objects
if totem animal naturally dies, can take objects for protection, strength, manna
vision question 2
- at coming of age, you go on your own to prove you can live off of land
- looks for power animal (personal totem) which is special to you and not shared with anyone
characteristics of animism 4
- holism
- spiritual
- mythical
- rhythmical
holism
everything from birth to death and beyond is connected, can not be separated
mythical 2
- no specific founding date or person
- ethnocentric, complex creation myths
rhythmical
- rites of passage - to cross a threshold from which you can’t return
mana 3
- impersonal source of power
- not to be worshipped
- want. to accumulate it so it can help you
cannibalism 4
- sacred, only happens under special circumstances
- would cannibalize someone from other tribe to take their mana
- often eat small parts of brain or liver
- keep skulls/bones of cannibalized and natural deaths to honour, curved poles constructed if cannibalized by other trip
creator god
- impersonal or difficult to know, not interaction on day-to-day basis
offended spirits 4
- spirits who had violent, untimely (before marriage, no descendents), or unnatural deaths
- punish breeches of tradition or tabus or any failure to honour ancestors or spiritual beings
- could be vengeful cannibalized people
- could be people of bodies never found, no proper funeral
honoured ancestors
good spirits
living dead 4
- bodiless spirits
- porous barrier to living and living dead
- good ones rejoin the unborn to rejoin the living
- bad ones go to dead dead when no one remembers them
legendary greats 3
- no one knows them personally,
- but aspire to live like them,
- founders of community
4 types of tabus
things you can’t eat, touch, see, say
universal tabu
incest
magic 3
- controlling, coercive, forceful through spells
- seeks to dominate the supernatural
- human-initiated and centred
religion (in contrast to magic) 3
- gains favour through supplicative prayer
- seeks to influence the supernatural
- deity-centred
3 kinds of magic
fetishistic, shammanistic, popular/folk
fetishistic magic
based around a fetish (object)
shammanistic magic 3
- inlivens a person
- shaman powerful, has ability to do the supernatural and connect wit the unseen
- spirits go upon person, possessed person is willing (for strength, help, status, power)
popular/folk magic 2
- everybody has access to it
- use regular intelligence alongside spirituality
shaman vs priest characteristics 5
- ecstatic vs non-ecstatic
- self-validated vs office-validated
- part time vs full time
- male or female vs mostly male
- serves ind’ls vs serves large groups
2 types of shamans
witch doctor and sorcerer
witch doctor 2
- tries to help those who are bewitched
- known to go to for help
sorcerer 3
- works against leadership
- does evil
- not known to community
ecstatic 3
- transstates (in a trance)
- claims to have answers directly from deity
- God -> humans
non-ecstatic 3
- don’t claim to be possessed
- don’t claim to have direct answers
- human -> God, reaches up to deity to ask for answers
shamans self-validated
- if what they do works, they have authority, power, validation
office validation 3
- support of group (ecclesia)
- some sort of qualification
- if what they do does not work, still stood by by people
fecundity
ability to conceive and reproduce, connected to shamans able to be part time and women
sin and the afterlife 3
- animism does not have theological sin against god
- rather, it has social sin - to go against community, neighbour
- afterlife more linked to being remembered than sin
positives of animism 5
- holistic
- connection to spiritual ancestors
- spirituality should connect to and prosper community
- how sin affects community
- respect for creation
