Term
| Example from lecture of anthropologist Michael Kearney’s experience with witchcraft in Oaxaca – what happened, how did he “explain” it, how does this example demonstrate the difference in Western “rational” thought and non-Western magical thought? |
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Definition
-Michael fell ill to a disease of the arms, where he broke out in boils
The Oaxacan explanation: witchcraft
Kearney’s explanation: Oaxacan “reality” impinged on his own... causing him to fall prey to a delusion. Magic works if you believe it works |
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Term
| How is the idea/saying “magic works if you believe it works” both ethnocentric AND indicative of magical thinking? |
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Definition
Essentially ethnocentric: they believe in magic so it works for them (but I don’t believe because I’m smarter)
“Mind over matter”= magic! and is indicative of magical thinking |
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Term
| Coincidence as explanation vs. magic/supernatural as explanation? |
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Definition
Non-believers- Coincidence- Random Choice
Believers-Nothing is random- See causal relationships between events |
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Term
| Definition of reality, characteristics (is there one, for example), and link to worldview |
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Definition
-reality is a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions
-Worldview gives us a blueprint for living
-Worldview is an interpretation of “reality”
-Different cultures have different interpretations of “reality” and so have different world views
-Our Worldview: one reality, one truth, science can get at the truth |
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Term
| Know the difference between Western and non-Western explanations and remedies for illness/death/misfortune? |
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Definition
The Limits of Western Medicine
-money
-insurance
-science/medicine can alleviate the symptoms of illness... but can’t fix the SOURCE of illness
Western science: coincidence, or God’s Will- religion
Magic: can discover the culprit and can punish who is responsible
Illness and Misfortune
Source: Someone else
Remedy: Magic |
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Term
| How do users of magic explain when the magic doesn’t work? |
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Definition
| The magic wasn't performed properly or wasn't supposed to work but it leads to the releif of anxiety. |
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Term
| Video segments on the eka desa rudra ritual in Bali: be familiar with Bali’s religion, know what the ritual is for and what occurred the last time(s) it was held? |
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Definition
Indonesia
-Friendly and Regular Contact with Gods and Ghosts
-Eka Desa Rudra: The Feast of the 11 powers
-Art, performances, and rice is given- given to Gods
-demons are given blood sacrifice
-at the end of every century is when it is held |
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Term
| What characterizes scientific proof? |
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Definition
Scientific Proof
... is repeatable and verifiable |
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Term
| Is there any scientific proof that the supernatural exists or that magic works? Know examples of things that MAY qualify as evidence. |
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Definition
Kirlian Photopgraphy
-energy fields
-used to capture Or-as!
-chinese believe in Qi= Energy
Biofeedback- Manage Pain with Biofeedback |
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Term
| What’s the link between scientific theory and the development of apparatus/equipment/technology? |
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Definition
Why isn’t there proof?
-scientists aren’t looking for proof
-Scientific apparatus designed to prove the validity of magic/the supernatural does not exist. |
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Term
| Which American universities are investigating the supernatural? |
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Definition
| Dr. Gary E.R. Schwartz, Ph.D. University of Arizona |
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Term
| How do anthropologists study culture? |
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Definition
Anthropological Research: Fieldwork
-Involves living in another culture for a long period of time (minimum one year)
-Participant-observation method |
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Term
| Why does every ethnography have 2 explanations for the same practices? |
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Definition
Ethnography: Description of Culture
Description: Includes the indigenous explanation of cultural practices or beliefs
“we dance to make it rain.”
Analysis: The anthropologist’s explanation for the same cultural practices/ beliefs |
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Term
| What’s the difference between an ancestral spirit and an angry ghost in Vietnam? |
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Definition
Dying Well
-at home
-old
-many descendants
-proper funeral
-way to become an ancestral spirit
Dying Badly
-young
-no children
-far from home
-violently
-incomplete corpse
-this means they automatically become an angry ghost |
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Term
| Why are there so many angry ghosts there, and what do they do to the living? |
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Definition
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Term
| What can the living do to protect themselves? |
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Definition
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Term
| Carlos Castaneda: who was he, what happened to him, what’s the effect of his experience on anthropological investigation into the supernatural? |
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Definition
Carlos Castaneda- one of the godfathers of the New Age Movement: anthropologist who worked with Yagui
-wrote the “The Teachings of Dan Juan” 1968
-Book describes many magical moments and encounters with supernatural
-Castaneda slammed by the discipline and forced out
-Anthropologist today avoid talking about the “reality” of supernatural phenomena for fear of the same thing happening to them |
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Term
| What is ethnobotany? How does it relate (or not) to the bias against magic? |
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Definition
..is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants.
-it futher deepens the differences between western and traditional medicine and the dispute to whether one is better than the other.
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Term
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Definition
-Telepathy
-Jaytee the psychic dog: always knows when her mom is leaving for work
-Clairvoyance- second sight: precognition, seeing the future before it happens
-Psychokinesis: The ability to move of affect physical objects with your mind
-Clairaudience- hearing things from the beyond- John Edward
-Remote Viewing- Also called astral projection |
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Term
| What is Project Stargate? |
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Definition
| CIA’s “Project Stargate” - U.S. Federal Government to investigate claims of psychic phenomena with potential military and domestic applications, particularly "remote viewing": the purported ability to psychically "see" events, sites, or information from a great distance. |
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Term
| What are indigo children? |
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Definition
| - children diagnosed with A.D.D 10-50% of children in this country, these children are the next step in evolution for human beings. Their gifts need to be protected because they are the next step into a more spiritual world. |
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Term
| ESP – how is it tested, what are some of the theories about it, how do symbols possibly relate to testing for ESP? |
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Definition
ESP Testing using Zener Cards
ESP
-extrasensory perception
-Term coined in 1870
-1st documented in biblical times
Who has ESP?
-ESP is independent of such factors as age, ethnicity, intelligence, and education
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Term
| What are the origins of Halloween? How is it a ritual of reversal? |
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Definition
Halloween
-Appears in America in 1930
-Brought to this country by Irish, Scottish, and English immigrants in the 1800s.
Origins of Halloween
-Samhain was the Celtic New Year
-Celebrated the harvest
-Evil was believed to roam the land on Samhain’s eve
-The Celts made peace offerings to the spirits
Rituals of Reversal
-women clown as men in the wedding Kalai
-running of the bulls in Spain
-Martigras |
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Term
| Who was Prince Vlad Dracula? |
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Definition
Vampires
-Prince Vlad Dracula III of Walachia (1431-1476)
-Brutal Hungarian prince
-Vlad Tepes- “Vlad the Impaler” |
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Term
| How can disease possibly account for vampire and werewolf myths? |
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Definition
From 1576- Venice, Italy
Origins of the Vampire?
-Xeroderma pigmentosum
-a rare genetic disorder with symptoms mimicking vampirism
-Medieval remedy; drink blood
Porphyria: the key to lycanthropy? (Disease)
-can’t go out in daylight and they grow excessive amounts of hair |
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Term
| Know the origin of the European werewolf myth? |
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Definition
Werewolves- Origins
--Bedburg, Germany 1591
-Villagers corner a wolf, it turns into a man
-Peter Stubbe, serial killer who murdered his victims as a wolf
-16th and 17th centuries: 30,000 accused werewolves
-Evil man-beast or tripping on bad bread? (ergot infected rye)!!! |
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Term
| What primate might be the source of the Bigfoot stories? |
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Definition
-Gigantopithecus- linked to big foot
-largest primate that ever lived |
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Term
| From lecture, what did Wade Davis learn about zombies? |
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Definition
Zombies and Vodou
-Wade Davis
-Tetrodotoxin- poison found in puffer fish
-slowing of the heart and respiration so that your appear dead |
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Term
| What accounts for the strange Nazca skulls? |
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Definition
| -The shaping and molding of the skull at birth |
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Term
| What’s the Mothman myth? Slender Man? Black Eyed Kids? |
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Definition
Mothman prophecies- movies
-Silver Bridge Tumblers- tragedy follows
SlenderMan: very tall and very thin, face is blank and he has tentacles out of his back- causes slender sickness- IT IS FAKE- ALL A HOAX FOR A PARANORMAL PHOTOSHOP CONTEST.
-BEKs- black eyed kids
-portray themselves as kids and have an evil ora, also goes along with the Vampire theme that they can not be allowed into your house unless invited |
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Term
| What is the significance of the Homo floresiensis (Hobbit Man) find in Indonesia? |
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Definition
Homor floresiensis
-Hobbit Man
-dated to 18,000 years ago |
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Term
| Why are ghoulish girls so terrifying in parts of Asia? |
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Definition
Reasons why Asian think these girls are so scary!
-the oldest son or daughter is supposed to upkeep the worship of the dead ancestors
-died young means your have no one there to worship and pray for you, doomed to stay in the dreadful limbo
-Children
-suicide maidens: commit suicide after being jaded
-youthful mothers and wives who are miserable
-only young girls where there hair down long and loose
-the white night gown represents death in Asia
-white also represents pure, illness, innocence
-shouts young, innocence, powerless
-An Asian Phenomenon |
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Term
| What’s the function of urban legends? What themes are present in the most popular American urban legends? |
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Definition
Function: To warn us against potentially dangerous situations and behaviors
Themes: Urban legends reflect a soceities fears and anxieites
American Urban legends: reflect our lives as modern, industrialized, culturally diverse, free people |
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Term
| Know the history of and connection between the leprechaun legend of frontier days and post WWII UFO legends |
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Definition
-Immigrants travel west; lephrachauns trick traverlors to their doom (warned against get rich schemes)
-dangers from ground and forest
-Aliens, human- like, little green men, mass sighting in the 40s and 50s; also has to do with the final frontier
-people believed in abduction, experiment, examine sex organs, take egg and sperm
-demonstrates danger of science and technology |
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Term
| What characterizes UFO legends today? How does this reflect contemporary fears? What are the religious dimensions of contemporary UFO legends? |
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Definition
-Aliens, human- like, little green men, mass sighting in the 40s and 50s; also has to do with the final frontier
-people believed in abduction, experiment, examine sex organs, take egg and sperm
-contemporary fears/themes: Impersonal, strangers everywhere, nuclear family the exception, highly mobile, technology-dependent, free lvoe, career oriented, powerful corporations, uneasy multicultuarilsm.
-9/11 and muslims/ Jewish |
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Term
| Be able to analyze a classic urban legend |
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Definition
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Term
| Know what diabolical witchcraft is and the purported behaviors of the diabolical witch? |
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Definition
Diabolical witchcraft: emerged in Europe in the 15th century
according to the church- pact with devil |
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Term
| How is this kind of witchcraft related to the Christianization of Europe? |
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Definition
The Witch craze
-1450-1700
-a time of great social upheaval in Europe
-Religious difference
-The Church= Holy Roman Church= Catholicism
-Discount with Church practice and doctrine grows through the 1400s
-Martin Luther ushers in the period of Reformation in 1517
-Protestantism
-The split happened
-Led to religious civil wars throughout Europe
-the only thing protestants and catholics agreed on: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live
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Term
| Know the relevant dates of and numbers killed during the Witchcraze? |
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Definition
-up to 9 million killed as witches
-85% were women
-”The women’s holocaust”
The Witch craze
-1450-1700 |
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Term
| How does the rise of Protestantism connect to the witchcraze ? |
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Definition
-Protestantism
-The split happened
-Led to religious civil wars throughout Europe
-the only thing protestants and catholics agreed on: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live
-up to 9 million killed as witches
-85% were women
-”The women’s holocaust” |
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Term
| Why was there a population shift in Europe right before the witchcraze got underway? What characterized that shift? |
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Definition
Population shift in medieval Europe
-the population of single women- widows and spinsters
-rises from 5% to 20-40% in this period.. why?
Plague
-1st outbreak 1347-1351 call the The Black Death
-25 million died
-Men were 600 times more likely to die- more likely to come in contact with the plague
-dead husbands, no men to marry= single women
-women inherited from their fathers and husbands if there were no sons
-40% of the population not under the control of men
Dangerous women-witches |
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Term
| Know the difference between men’s and women’s healing practices in pre-Christian Europe, and know the effects of the rise of the medical profession? |
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Definition
Local Traditions of Magic
-Healing magic
-women were herbalists and traditional healers
“crone” means wise woman
The rise of the medical profession
-women healers: Herbalists, midwives, magic healers**
Men healers: apothecaries, surgeons, barbers, physicians**
Traditional Gender Folklore
IN the Christian view, women are dangerous
The pre-christian view held that women were easily swayed by sexual impulses
Heresy Defined as Non-christian
-pagan= non- christian
-pagan became associated with the Devil in the 1400s |
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Term
| How was information pertaining to witchcraft and other heresy spread during the witchcraze? |
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Definition
The Inquisition
-A permanent tribunal established by Pope Gregory IX in 1231
The Processes by which heretics of all kinds were rooted out, tried, and punished
-The Sermon
-this became the primary method of religious education by the time of the witchcraze
-Priests disseminated the Church’s ideas about witchcraft to the uneducated masses
-The Printing Press 1437
The Malleus Maleficarum “The witch’s Hammer” 1486
guidebook to catching and killing witches
witch is used interchangeably with woman |
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Term
| Be able to describe the typical peasant’s life in Europe during the Middle Ages? |
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Definition
-Peasant life: 90% of Europeans lived in small communities of a few hundred, villages 15-20 miles apart
-Agricultural Labor
-fertility religion
-They had unnamed religious practice- respect nature- nature magic became herresy |
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Term
| Who is credited with starting the neopagan witchcraft movement? |
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Definition
Gerald Gardner 1884-1964
-created neopagan witchcraft in the 1940s |
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Term
| What is neopagan witchcraft? What do practicing neopagans claim is its history? What is the political significance of neopaganism? |
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Definition
Neopagan witchcraft
-goddess-centered
-reverence for nature
-claims to be the traditional pre Christian religious of europe
-many local traditions pertaining to the supernatural
Idealization: construction of a golden age that never was
-A powerful critique of modern society!! is what is thought of neopaganism |
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Term
Factors playing into the association of women with witchcraft
10 Factors |
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Definition
1. Plague
2. Protestantism
3. Local Traditions of Magic
4. The Rise of the Medical Profession
5. Traditional Gender Folklore
6. Heresy Defined as Non-Christian
7. The Inquistion
8. The Sermon
9. The Printing Press 1437
10. The Malleus Maleficarum “The witch’s Hammer” 1486 |
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