Week 4 Flashcards
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
not just standing and watching- youre ingaging in their daily lives:
why is it important: to get the emic and etic perspectic - inside and outside understanding of culture- breakdown our ethnocentric biasis
Worldview:
An encompassing picture of reality based on shared cultural assumptions about how the world works.
Worldviews differ greatly between cultures.
People tend to think that their worldview is the only correct way to interpret their reality.
Do not conflate worldview and culture!!!! They are different!
Traditionally the study of worldview has been connected to the anthropological study of religion.
Our understanding of TRUTH is shaped by our worldview.
What is real? What is true? What is fact?
What makes evolution a fact?
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We use several different mechanisms to assign meaning to experience:
Metaphors:
Figures of speech in which linguistic expressions are taken from one area of experience and applied to another.
Reinforce our understandings of realities.
relationship between two different things. using one thing to describe another
Domain of experience:
An area of human experience from which people borrow meaning to apply to other areas.
Key Metaphors:
A term to identify metaphors that dominate the meanings that people in a specific culture attribute to their experience.
time (wasting time), economics, war (they beet me, we had a fight, this is a battle), sport metaphors (you scored, bases, red carded)
vs other culture where theirs are hunger
Symbolic Actions:
The activities— including ritual, myth, art, dance, and music— that dramatically depict the meanings shared by a specific body of people.
Make particular beliefs and views of the world seem proper and correct.
reinforce our understanding of our worldview and metaphors and beliefs about how the world works.
symbolic action express particular understanding of the world proper and correct
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.
formal, repetitive, stylized
performed in special places and special times, actions that carry meaning, social acts,
not blowing your nose,
birth: go through a big change in your identity- going fromn women to mother/parent
myths
A story or narrative that portrays the meaning people give to their experience.
we no they are not true but it doesnt matter- the people telling the myth do believe
catalunia ritual exmaples
building human towers:
what to have control over their own government do rituals where people stand on their back- a have to express their identity
can happen at protests or fairs,
very young girl at the top
repetitive: rituals are repetitive
many definitions of rituals
A set of behaviours using words, gestures, and objects, performed in a prescribed sequence and manner.
Repetitive sets of behaviour that occur in essentially the same patterns every time they occur.
A repetitive social practice set off from everyday routine and composed of a sequence of symbolic activities that adhere to a culturally defined ritual schemes and are closely connected to a specific set of ideas significant to a culture.
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.
more on ritual
ritual may be something that i have only done once , ex birth, but i am not the only person within the cultural or social group to go through it
generally outside of our regualr routine. its something special.
culturally defined
repetive action: verbal, physical
for example, amen
they happen in a particular order meaning are culturally defined.
types of rituals
notes
secular: seperate from religious or supernatural beliefs
sacred: religious beliefs or supernatural beliefs
example of thanksgiving started as a christian sacred meal: gave gifts to god for the harvest. it is now a secular ritual- not religious-it is repetitive
weddings: they are always a bit different but the same things happen- at the end you are married- all the same format- repetitve set of actions-culturaly defined - as a culture we have decided how weddings take place
chinease wedding is very different- red dress but they are still rituals
in other places- a women staying the night means they are married
why do we have these rituals
what is social identity versus personal identity
a way we build a collective identity, brings peoples together on same values and behaviors. shapes the way we think the world works.
Rituals are:
Repetitive
Organized
Culturally defined
Rituals can be secular or sacred, or have elements of both.
Rituals define and shape our worldview, and help us create a shared and collective identity.
focusing on social identity- not personal identity. the way other others see you - you dont get to choose. for example we look at the teacher and place her in the hierarchy of what we know
tradition vs. ritual
repetitive set of actions . tradition is somthing we carry with us for example sourkraut is a traditional german food whereas october fest is a ritual
