ANTH10001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Rationality, Anathema, Relativism
13 Aug 2020
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Working definitions of key terms in the rationality debate. Relativism: cultures can only be understood in their own terms. Ethnocentrism: the practice of attempting to evaluate and understand cultures according to criteria from beyond those cultures themselves. Evans-pritchard (professor of anthropology at uni of oxford) Wrote the book witchcraft oracles and magic among the azande" - published in 1937. Azande worldview governed by belief in witchcraft. Azande recognize ostensible causes of phenomenon (eg. barn was destroyed by charging elephants). Guilt not determined by weighing evidence and counterevidence. Rather by oracular consultation (oracle: a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity) Therefore, given that some people are found guilty of crimes and others now, every person must be simultaneously guilty and not guilty. What should the anthropological endeavour consist of? evaluation. Yes, on the basis of logic and scientism, because it accords with objective reality.
