4 midterm (Anthropological and Sociological Approaches 3)

Question 1

what did Bronislaw Malinowski do

Answer 1

introduced ethnography into anthropological research of cultures

Question 2

Bronislaw Malinowski brough the study from evolutionism to what

Answer 2

functionalism

Question 3

Through his fieldwork on Trobriand Islanders, Malinowski provided what

Answer 3

a less evaluative way to approach societies

Question 4

what did Malinowski emphasize

Answer 4

He emphasized the psychological function of religious practices

Question 5

what did Malinowski see magic and religion as

Answer 5

“Magic” and “religion” are means to cope with challenging situations in life coupled with rational, technical knowledge

Question 6

do primitives realize the whole world isnt engulfed in magic

Answer 6

primitives realize the whole world isnt engulfed in magic, but the realize what happens when you cut a tree down or hit an animal, but they want to explain the anomalies

magic and religion are not just primitive stuff it is a way to cope (at a psychological functional level)

Question 7

did Malinowski play up the positives or the negatives of magic and rleigion

Answer 7

positives

Question 8

what did A.R. Radcliffe-Brown do

Answer 8

argued for the importance of interpreting religious social activity, which can have a positive or negative impact on society

Question 9

what did A.R. Radcliffe-Brown say magic and religion did

Answer 9

Magic and religion serve to eliminate fear and anxieties but also cause them, e.g., fear the effects of malicious magical acts or the vengeful actions of divine spirits.

basiclly; more developed sensibility of the way that religion nd magic have an impact of society
emphasized the social relevance of religion
magic and religion are not just positive, but they are fans to increase the anxiety in religion (it is both negative and positive)

Question 10

The General Idea of Functionalism (according to Rodrigues & Harding, p. 57)

Answer 10

“… ritual values should not be studied to establish whether they are magical or religious, or whether they alleviate personal anxieties or depend on a belief in supernatural agents. They are studied to understand how they reinforce the social networks that bind persons into what constitutes a meaningfully ordered life”

Question 11

for more on functionalism… see the screenshot on the desk top– it shows the mode and explains it

Answer 11

go glen co co

Question 12

what did E.E. Evans-Pritchard do

Answer 12

emphasizes the importance of meaning i.e., how religious beliefs, meanings, provide for the overall structure of religious communities

Question 13

how did Evans-Pritchard reverses the emphasis in functionalism

Answer 13

Evans-Pritchard reverses the emphasis in functionalism, which focuses on societal explanations of religion, i.e., what religion contributes to society (good and bad). He emphasizes instead the importance of determining religious meanings in terms of what they provide that elude explanations provided by other institutions in society (like science).

Question 14

give a summary on evans-pritchard

Answer 14

reveres the kind of emphasis in functionalism
explains how religion contributes to society
emphasized the importance of determining religion beliefs in terms of what thy provide to see what we commonly accept (like through scientific understandings of the world)
he becomes an important stepping stone from functionalism to interpretive (meanings)
the other functionalists were looking at how religion shapes society and its place in society and hat it contributes to the kind of maintenance of soviet
he said you have to dig deeper and look at how religious meanings bring societies together in conjuntion with other explanations in the world

Question 15

Evans-Pritchard’s functionalism as bridge to what

Answer 15

interpretive approach

Question 16

how is Evans-Pritchard’s functionalism as bridge to interpretive approach

Answer 16

This newfound emphasis on meaning caused the pendulum in anthropology to swing toward rationality and cultural translation as the predominant concern of researchers (i.e., how industrialized, secular society is to understand and thereby translate what to it are “foreign” systems of meaning).

Question 17

what did Clifford Geertz do

Answer 17

Enter Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) and the requirement of “thick description”* in anthropology

Question 18

what is meant by “thick description”

Answer 18

See Rodrigues & Harding, p. 60, on the distinction between “thin” and “thick description”. Thick description is synonymous with what in the preceding slide is described as “cultural translation”.

Question 19

what does Clifford Geertz emphasize

Answer 19

Emphasizes the meaning and function of religious “symbols”

Question 20

The category of “culture” surfaces as terribly important as a result of what (Clifford Geertz)

Answer 20

the shift from functionalism to interpretive anthropology.

Question 21

what does Geertz say about religion as a cultural system

Answer 21

“The anthropological study of religion is … a two-stage operation: first, an analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and psychological processes.” (Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System”).

Question 22

what is a Cultural system

Answer 22

a social-cultural means of relating to specific objects of concern, whether physical, political, psychological, metaphysical, etc., as in science, art, philosophy, ideology, common-sense, and religion

Question 23

what is culture

Answer 23

“a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols” (Geertz) whose manner of expression constitute a cultural system.

Question 24

what does Interpretive Anthropology say religion is

Answer 24

(1) a system of symbols which acts to
(2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in [people] by
(3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and
(4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that
(5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.”

Question 25

what does Interpretive Anthropology say the problem is

Answer 25

A problem: religious cultural systems need interpretation because they seem “odd” or “foreign”.

Question 26

R&H advise that religious cultural systems do what

Answer 26

“should be taken at face value … rather than attempting to suggest that people are manipulating beliefs in order to secure political power, gain social status, profit economically, and so on”

Question 27

A sub-issue is that the interpretive approach is what

Answer 27

“condescending and patronizing” when “a meaningful face” is put on “the odd belief systems” of other cultures. This suggests that Western ideas are true while others’ are merely functionally meaningful