ANTH 010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Edward Burnett Tylor, Marvin Harris, Polytheism

• School: College of The Sequoias
• Department: Anthropology (ANTH)
• Course: ANTH 010
• Professor: Gaddis

Document Summary

Originally people were afraid of the dead. As society became accumulating wealth they became interested in inheritance. Placed greater importance on ancestors for reasons of inheritance and property. It is a universal idea so it must have come from a universal experience. The universal experience of dreams and trances and such. If the body is still here after someone dies there must be another part (the soul) Take offerings from everyone (wealthier give more, poor give less) and divide them evenly after god is done consuming the spiritual part of the offering. Meat was a prized and ideal sacrifice. Human meat was even more valuable (especially children) Prisoners of war were frequently sacrificed by tribes (ex: aztec) If there were no prisoners of war the aztecs would force conquered people to be subjects in faux wars and would then sacrifice them. If the king of a tribe died, often the wives, servants, and concubines would be sacrificed.