week 9

Question 1

Four Universal Rites of Passage

Answer 1

birth
death
coming of age
marriage

Question 2

why do we mark a birth

Answer 2

• risk of death
• ceremonies reinforce the support of the immediate community of the parents
• improves social solidarity
• emphasizes support network
• El Salto del Colacho aka “the devil’s jump” to cleanse babies of “original sin” (contraception) and to protect from illness
• chrisitan baptism (drowning and rebirth ceremony)

Question 3

To become full members of their society, adolescents must understand

Answer 3

1.) when childhood ends
2.) when adulthood begins
3.) what is expected from them by society

Question 4

passage into adulthood/coming of age

Answer 4

typically marked by the onset of sexual maturity

defines by reaching a specific age or stage of development

Question 5

t/f seclusion is an almost universal response to the onset of menstration in non-industrial societies

Answer 5

true

Question 6

what are dysphoric rituals

Answer 6

modification/mutilation of body

ex.) sexual organs (circumcision, penile subincision)

frequently used to mark the transition to adulthood

Question 7

what is it called when members of a group identify with one another as if they are kin

Answer 7

identity fusion

Question 8

Initiation fits well with one of the
major hypotheses concerning the
nature of ______ namely,
that they are remnants of
religious rituals for affirming
membership of a social group.

Answer 8

Upper paleolithic rock art

Question 9

Donna Winslow 1999. Rites of Passage and
Group Bonding in the Canadian Airborne.
Armed Forces & Society

Answer 9

1.) initiate’s identity is stripped, levelled into homogeneous group to suppress individuality
2.) enter liminal phase; events become parodies and inversions of real life. group bonding is reinforced and undergo similar processes of testing and humiliation
3.) initiates are reincorporated into group members of the regiment

Question 10

Scarification, abraded skin, and open wounds
are used as

Answer 10

proximate hypothesis:
- rite of passage
- hardening/trauma

ultimate hypothesis:
- non-adaptive sexual selection
- susceptibility to infection by pathogens
- the extent to which male mutilations are expressed should correlate positively with pathogen prevalence

Question 11

ritual slitting of the penis including urethrotomy

Answer 11

subincision

Question 12

Power to

Answer 12

physically enforced.
(The police have the power to arrest you)

Question 13

Power over

Answer 13

socially enforced.
(Your parents have the power to ground you)

Question 14

There are three principal lines of archaeological
evidence for tattooing in ancient and pre-literate societies:

Answer 14

• Anthropomorphic art;
• Tattoo tools;
• Preserved human skin

Question 15

how early do we think the practice of tattooing may have originated

Answer 15

upper paleolithic

Question 16

less ambiguous facial tattoo evidence

Answer 16

• remains of a chinchorro man (south america)
• early fishing society of chile and southern peru (7000 and 1100 BC)
• sequence of dots on upper lip of male adult (2280 BC)

Question 17

Ötzi “The Iceman”

Answer 17

• Found in 1991
• melting out of glacier
• between Austria and Italy
• Died in approximately 3250 BC
• 61 tattoo marks across his body
• The greatest concentration of markings is found on his legs
• treat rheumatic illness

Question 18

t/f tattooing was strongly associated with magical practices and widely used as medicine

Answer 18

t

Question 19

Polynesia role of the tattoo

Answer 19

• relates to stratification, mythology, and ideas about the sacred
• Status is not necessarily emboied in: tattooing creates and signifies difference (high or low) but is also a way of protecting the self and controlling the sacred
• high-status persons might have tattoos, but these were so powerful that in some contexts after death their skins had to be removed in order for them to safely enter the realm of the gods

Question 20

European Tattooing 1800s

Answer 20

• In 1547, King Edward VI declared vagabonds
  were to be branded ‘ V’ on the chest, fighters
  (fraymakers) ‘ F’, and runaway slaves ‘ S’ on the
  cheek or forehead. The law was repealed in
  1550
• Convicts tried in London were branded on the
  thumb with ‘ T’ for theft, ‘ F’ for felon or ‘M’ for
  murder until the late 1700s
• Between 1699 and 1707, convicts could also be
  branded on the cheek. Prisoners transported
  from Britain to Australian penal colonies
  between 1787 and 1867 bore the tattoo “D,” for
  deserter, on their foreheads or other marks
  intended to signify disgrace and social
  ostracism.
• Branding was outlawed in 1829 but persisted in the British army until 1871.

Question 21

Two myths concerning tattooing in nineteenth century Europe:

Answer 21

1. that tattooing in Europe was imported, the result of encounters between explorers, merchants, and other European itinerants and the “primitive” peoples they met on their journeys
2. the conviction, among Europeans, that tattooing was intrinsically bound up with deviance and criminality

Question 22

the iconic dagger-through-the-heart tattoo,
indicates

Answer 22

betrayal in love, a broken heart, or
emotional sacrifice or suffering.

Question 23

Prisoners’ tattoos functioned as a

Answer 23

passport, an autobiography, an index
of social standing, a uniform hung with
medals and ribbons, and also as a
political or emotional statemen

any initiate could ‘read’ a
fellow prisoner simply by witnessing
him or her undress.

Question 24

the crucified Christ is a rank as

Answer 24

“a prince of thieves”

Question 25

the church and cupolas indicate

Answer 25

three prison terms

Question 26

stars signal a

Answer 26

refusal on the wearer’s part to bow to any
authority outside Thieves’ Law

Question 27

a skull means

Answer 27

authority and/or death, but when combined with a crown, it signals a desire for power, and if pierced by a knife, it unambiguously identifies its wearer as a murderer.

Question 28

a snake represents a

Answer 28

a deadly fate, but also the wisdom of thieves’ laws.

Question 29

crosses denote the

Answer 29

thief, whereas others inscribe vows of revenge, while still others fulfil the standard role of a religious talisman

Question 30

Images of Lenin, Marx, Engels or Stalin
functioned as

Answer 30

bullet-proof vests, for prisoners knew that guards would not risk shooting at one of the Marxist leaders

Question 31

European sailors in the past reportedly
tattooed the

Answer 31

e crucifixion on their backs to avoid logging, since that punishment would entail defacing the image of Christ—in itself a crime