Chapter 11: Religion Flashcards
Animatism
A religious system organized around a belief in an impersonal supernatural force.
Animism
A religious system organized around a belief that plants, animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena have a spiritual or supernatural element.
Anthropomorphic
An object or being that has human characteristics.
Cargo Cult
A term sometimes used to describe rituals that seek to attract material prosperity.
Collective Effervescence
The passion or energy that arises when groups of people share the same thoughts and emotions.
Cosmology
An explanation for the origin or history of the world.
Cultural Appropriation
The act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning.
Filial Piety
A tradition requiring that the young provide care for the elderly and in some cases ancestral spirits.
Magic
Practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one’s personal control.
Millennarians
People who believe that major transformations of the world are imminent.
Monotheistic
Religious systems that recognize a single supreme God
Polytheistic
Religious systems that recognize several gods.
Priests
Full-time religious practitioners.
Profane
Objects or ideas are ordinary and can be treated with disregard or contempt.
Prophet
A person who claims to have direct communication with the supernatural realm and who can communicate divine messages to others.
Reincarnations
The idea that living beings can begin another life in a new body after death.
Religion
The extension of human society and culture to include the supernatural.
Revitalization Rituals
Attempts to resolve serious problems, such as war, famine, or poverty through a spiritual or supernatural intervention.
Rite of Intensification
Actions designed to bring a community together, often following a period of crisis.
Rite of Passage
A ceremony designed to transition individuals between life stages.
Sacred
Objects or ideas are set apart from the ordinary and treated with great respect or care.
Shaman
A part time religious practitioner who carries out religious rituals when needed, but also participated in the normal work of the community.
Sorcerer
An individual who seeks to use magic for his or her own purposes.
Supernatural
Describes entities or forces not governed by natural laws.
Zoomorphic
An object or being that has animal characteristics.
