ANT 111 Study Guide - Final Guide: Japanese Festivals, Liminality, Polytheism
Document Summary
Reduces social anxiety, gives people sense of control over destinies (or give them more fear) Originally, anthropologists believed religion began from animism (belief that all nonliving/living things had spirits) polytheism monotheism: believed this came from increasing levels of logic/rationality now discredited. There is no orderly progress of religion. Anthropologists are interested in understanding religion via its symbols, functions, social stability/change. Liminal = objects, places, people, statuses existing in indeterminate state (has passed out of old status, has not entered new one) Rituals generate liminal states that dissolve structure/hierarchical classifications: in rituals, people can behave in previously unacceptable ways, ex. Japanese festivals that allow transvestism (ritual role reversals: ex. Holi (hindu festival) lower castes throw colored powder at upper class males. Allow people to experience state of equality/oneness = communitas: people come together after great natural/man-made disaster, 9/11, hurricane sandy. Although wealthy people may claim oneness with the poor, the reverse is not always true.
