Chapter 4 Flashcards
Define atheism
Refers to a lack of belief in supernatural forces or beings.
Define creole
A term used commonly to refer to the formation of slave societies in the Caribbean in which elements of African and European cultures were merged, blended, or combined into something uniquely Caribbean.
Define domain of experience
An area of human experience (e.g., business, war, science, family life) from which people borrow meaning to apply to other areas.
Define key metaphors
A term to identify metaphors that dominate the meanings that people in a specific culture attribute to their experience.
Define key scenarios
Dominant stories or myths that portray the values and beliefs of a specific society.
Define magic
Refers to the manipulation of words or substances to influence spiritual beings for good or evil purposes.
Define metaphors
Figures of speech in which linguistic expressions are taken from one area of experience and applied to another.
Define myth
A story or narrative that portrays the meanings people give to their experience.
Define revitilization movements
The term suggested by Anthony F.C. Wallace for attempts by a people to construct a more satisfying culture.
Define rites of passage
The term coined in 1908 by Arnold van Gennep to refer to the category of rituals that accompany changes in status, such as the transition from boyhood to manhood, living to dead, or student to graduate.
Define ritual
A dramatic rendering or social portrayal of meanings shared by a specific body of people in a way that makes them seem correct and proper. (See also symbolic actions.)
Define secularism
Refers to the separation of political and economic realms of society from religion or spirituality.
Define shamanism
Refers to a spiritual belief system whereby spiritual practitioners called “shamans” enter into an altered state of consciousness to seek guidance from spiritual forces.
Define symbolic actions
The activities—including ritual, myth, art, dance, and music—that dramatically depict the meanings shared by a specific body of people
Define syncretism
The term given to the combination of old beliefs or religions and new ones (often introduced during colonization) to create a new worldview.
Define totemism
The use of a symbol, generally an animal or a plant, as a physical representation for a group, generally a clan.
Define witchcraft
Refers to the belief that an individual (the witch) has the ability to cause harm to others through the manipulation of powerful substances.
Define worldview
An encompassing picture of reality based on shared cultural assumptions about how the world works.
