Monday, July 28, 2008

Basic Anthropology

BASIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Religion:
Religion: a set of rituals rationalized by myth which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of preventing/achieving transformations of state in people and nature. (Haviland, 363)
Reasons for religion:
1. Reduces anxiety (i.e.: Prayer in any religion brings comfort)
2. Provides comfort (i.e.: Promise of the afterlife)
3. Defines behavior (i.e.: Rule of 3 x3)
4. Defines the sacred vs. the profane
5. Sanctions societal behavior (i.e.: Ten Commandments)
6. Punishes detrimental; behavior (i.e.: Belief in Karma)
7. Satisfies the psychological need for power (i.e.: “For the glory of God”)



General Anthopological Consistancies:
1. Most Cultures feel a natural affinity between themselves and the land. (Lee, Magick , Myth & Religion)
2. Almost all cultures have a entity they refer to as a supreme being (Haviland, 363)
3. All cultures have name for the “power” of the supernatural. Such as … (Lee, Magick, Myth & Religion)
4. The equality of men and women within a culture is conversely related to the sex of the deity they worship (Haviland, 363).
5. Man as a creature must define its role within nature (Lee, Magick, Myth & Religion)
6. Religion is always present in man’s view of his place in the universe, in his relatedness to Man and non-human nature. (Lee , Magick, Myth, & Religion)

Purpose of Myth: (Malinowski, 1931, pp 640-1)
-to convey information vital to survival
IE: Prometheus and bringing fire to man.
-a model for behavior that also explains the origins of the world, life on earth, death, and /or the existence of all things in human material existence.
IE: Ten Commandments or Aesop’s fables.
-to strengthen traditions and endow them with greater prestige by tracing things back to higher supernatural beings. (Lewis, 31, Magick, Myth, & Religion)
IE: people in ancient Greece claiming relation to ancient heroes of Greek myth such as Theseus or Herackles.
** Myths are considered within a culture (Origin of the myth), as a truthful account of the past. (Lewis, 32, Magick, Myth & Religion) (Malinowski, 1931, 640-1)



Functions of the Gods:
1. To explain earthly occurrences.
IE: Why nature works, Zeus controls the storms or thunder is angels bowling in heaven.
2. To explain the emotions or desires of humanity ( love , anger)
IE: Aphrodite Greek goddess of love, Bridget goddess of Justice
3. To give comfort to humanity.
IE: Opportunity for eternal life in the afterlife.



Cultural ecology: (according to Julian Steward) the interaction between specific cultures and their environment. (Haviland, 158)
IE: The Mayans worshipping the sun god and the rain god due to agrigarian culture.
Cultural Core: The idea that the features of a culture are related to how the culture makes it’s living.
IE: Agrigarian level of culture will worship the sun, a culture that lives off fish will have a water deity prominent within their pantheon.



LANGUAGE:
3 Parts
1. Verbal Component 2.Physical Language: Body language
3. Written component: A. Script (Arabic Letters) B. Pictograph (IE: Egyptian Hieroglyphs & Japanese)



What creates a language boundary?
1. Geography: isolation can create two dialects that are so different that people have a hard time understanding. It can also make it so that the speakers of the language never encounter each other to attempt to understand the foreign language.
2. Physical limitations: Moreover often seen in fantastical environments, but also seen in real life, such as the deaf: sign language. Is there a physical difference that prevents or changes communication between two entities?



How and what causes Language to change:
1. Grammar and or vocabulary (aka: the Vernacular) can change based on stresses within a culture such as generational gap, introduction of new technology, or contact with other cultures.
2. Phonetics is the sounds present within the physical aspect of speaking and can be unique to a language.
3. Pronunciation can also change based on contact with outside sources, physical changes within a species, and can be influenced by vernacular speech.
4. Syntax is how the words are put together, and is usually related directly to the usage of grammar.

**Observations:
-Over time language will change. Languages that are isolated are less likely to change as quickly.
-Languages that are sacred are less likely to change than ones that are profane.
-New words will find their way into languages, via technology, interaction with other cultures, slang, and many other ways.
Economics : Economics can make or break a civilization.
Type of Trade 1.Trade and Barter 2. Silent Trade 3.Market/ Commercial
Conspicuous Consumption: The idea of displaying wealth for social prestige. (Havilland, 201)
Leveling Mechanism: A societal obligation to redistribute personal wealth or goods so that no one person has more than any other. (Havilland, 195)
Types of Labor: (Havilland, 188-193)
1. Age division: to divide labor among a community of people by biological age.
2. Sexual division: to divide the labor of a community or household by biological sex of the workers.
3. Craft Specialization: to divide work in a community by the knowledge of the job.
4. Co-operation: This is found in all levels of culture, and the entire community takes part in the work.
Organization & Leadership
Organization: the way a group works together and relates to itself.
These are some of the things that are detailed under this part of culture:
1. Political structure (Democracy, Monarchy, etc)
2. Religious structure (Theocracy inside or outside religion)
3. Economic structure
4. Ethnic descent
5. Species descent *(fantasy based concept)



Types of political organization: (Havilland, 329-339)
1. Band: a group of households that come together though need or want.
2. Tribe: a group of independent communities brought together by common language & culture to occupy a specific region, integrated by a unifying factor.
3. Chiefdom: a regional polity where two or more local groups are organized under a single individual. This hierarch sits above all other groups’ hierarchy.
4. State: a centralized power or political system with the power to coerce.
5. Nation: a group of people that are bound together by language, ancestry, history, society, ideology, territory, and/ or religion.
· Gender can determine leadership within the cultural stratification.
· Age and sex can also force organization within the above stratifications
· Political unions can also come about through lineage.



Leadership: How is the structure of the culture led by the authority figures within the structure?
Caste System: A social system that stratifies a group based on what social class you are born into is the social class you cannot rise above without the help of the caste above you.
Egalitarian System: All individuals are equal and wealth and power are distributed equally among the community.
*Types of leadership are often mimicked by types of Organization.
*Function of Law (according to anthropology): To define, regulate and punish crimes.
Stratified: has ranked classes and these people are together, lead and maintained by members of the group. (generally considered voluntary)
Involuntary: when a group is dictated by a circumstance that its members cannot alter.
IE: race, sex, age, heredity, innate magical ability (perceived or actual)
Kinship & Descent
Descent: how you track your blood relation through generations.
Lineage: tracing of the common ancestor. (Havilland, 286)
Common Types: (Havilland, 274-284)
1. Unilineal: exclusive descent via father or mother.
2. Matrilineal: exclusive descent via mother
3. Patrilineal: exclusive descent via father
4. Double descent: can claim descent from either depending on the reason.
5. Ambilineal: chance of descent via father, mother, or both



Totemism: the belief that people are descended from plants, animals, or natural objects by virtue of descent from common ancestral spirits (Haviland, 287) Teknonymous: referring to a person by their relation of kin, using the type of relation as part of their proper name. IE: son/daughter of…, sister/brother of… etc.

Basic terms: (not covered above that might be useful) Ethnocentric: this culture’s way is the only way, all other ways of the aspect of the culture they have encountered are wrong. (IE: The European explorer’s view towards less technologically advanced groups during the exploration period, such as Hernando Cortez and the Aztecs 1520 CE) Cultural Evolution: the development of similar adaptations to similar environmental conditions by peoples whose ancestral cultures were quite different. (Haviland, 154) (IE: archery in China, England, North America) Acculturation: when two or more cultures interact and one of the cultures usually the weaker one picks up traits of the other culture. (Haviland, 421) (Romans were known for this, both directions) Carrying capacity: the number of people that can be supported by the available resources at a given level of technology (Haviland, 162) (Carrying Capacity according to Webster’s 2001: The maximum number of species that can be supported in any given environment.)


Leadership/ Organization can affect:
1. Language: the spoken language of the aristocracy becomes the language to speak to gain social prestige (IE: French in England after William of Normandy’s Invasion 1066CE)
2. Religion: how the religion is organized, and what the religion’s power is within the
culture.
3. Economics: governmental bodies affect laws and tax which affects economics.
4. Kinship: entire types of organization are centered around kinship, and
marriage in a caste system becomes essential to changing your place within the
organizational system of the caste system.

Economics can affect
1. Religion: tithing’s, and offerings to the gods affect the households money and
there by affect the spending money of the household during certain times.
Holidays can also increase the amount of spending for goods for the holidays.
2. Language: language can be affect by commercialization of words or phrases.
Poverty breeds illiteracy.
3. Kinship: marriage for money has always been on the minds of parents and
brides. The future of the family can be secured by marriage to wealth, and
wealth can also get marriage via dowry or bride wealth.

Kinship Affects:
1. Language: teknonymous naming, the reference of someone by their relation rather
than their name. This is usually essential to identification within a culture.
2. Economics : Families often are involved as a whole within a trade, and they have
done it for generations. If the culture states only certain people can inherit
then if those family members are unavailable the business will die, and the
culture can be affected.
3. Organization: people naturally congregate in the family unit first, then by
another means of organizational system that may/ may not involve futher family
congregation past the nuclear family.

Language affects:
1. Economics: language barriers can damage trade, or can create it by presence
or lack of a common tongue.
2. Organization: people will tend to congregate with people that speak the same
language.

Religion Affects:
1. Language: sacred languages that are only used by religious specialists,
banned words or phrases.
2. Kinship: who you can and can’t marry, and rules of marriage.
3. Economics: holidays that increase market activity, banned goods, sacred goods.
4. Organization: the religion has to be organized somehow, and religion can be a
form of government.

Dealing with the Dead
1. Inhumation: aka burial of some kind.
2. Exposure: the remains are left to the natural elements to decompose. Some ways of doing this involve hanging the dead, laid on the ground, and all this involves being exposed to the weather. 3. Cremation: the process of burning physical remains to ash 4. Mummification: embalming or drying a corpse to preserve it. 5. Cannibalism: ritualistic consumption of human flesh or remains by a human being.

Bibliography:
Haviland, William.1996. Cultural Anthropology: Eight Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Publishing.
Lehman, Arthur &Myers, James.1997.Magic, Witchcraft, & Religion: Fourth Edition. Mt. View ,CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Other sources or ideas that might be useful:

The technology continuum by Anthony Wallace


www.anthropology.org
American Anthropology Association http://www.aaanet.org/
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm
European Anthropology:
http://www.h-net.org/~sae/sae/index.html
Perseus Dictionary:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu

Information gathered by:
Sabrina J. Klein 2007

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