Definitions-1 Flashcards
Any given culture must be evaluated in terms of its own belief system
Cultural relativity
Belief that one’s own culture is superior in every way to all others, looking at a set of beliefs through your cultural lenses
Ethnocentrism
Sacred prohibition put upon certain people/things/acts that makes them untouchable/unmentionable
Taboo
Strychnine, lye and water, true faithful believe and drink
Salvation cocktail
Concepts of general order of existence
Cosmology
Impersonal supernatural force
Mana
Secular or sacred formal, solemn act, observance or procedure in accordance w/prescribed rules or customs
Ritual
Process of contacting the supernatural to answer a question
Divination
Trance state where malevolent or curative spirits enter a person’s body
Possession
Social occasions marking transition of group members from one life stage to the next
Rites of passage
Ritual leaders oriented to some sort of personalized supernatural being, often come from designated families, skills learned through intensive study, usually apart from the community
Priest/ess
Personal call, authority founded on revelations and personal charisma, religion a force for dynamic social change
Prophet
Religious specialist and healer w/power derived directly from supernatural sources, may have call to faith or certain physical characteristics
Shaman
Integrated total of learned behavior that is characteristic of members of a society, society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, perceptions
Culture
Group of people sharing a territory, language, and culture, act together for collective survival and well being
Society
