ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Ghost Dance, Cargo Cult, Syncretism
Document Summary
Religion is often conceived as something about the heart or mind, a faith. Religion is thought of as old, comes from the ancient times. Not just about ideas or beliefs, actually a material thing in the world. Religion connected to everyday activities such as agriculture. Religion is actively produced and reproduced in the present day condition in which we live. These are religious movements based on long standing religious ideas that are produced in context of active social change. Very noble, stand out as different from everyday religious practices. Produced in conditions of dramatic and rapid social change. Syncretism: taking religious ideas we already have and melding it with ideas we already have. Ancestors die but they will revive and come back. Material wealth washed on the shore of these islands. Took what they knew about material culture and assigned it to their lives. Cargo cult: huge plane or boat would land and ancestors would come off the boats carrying.
