Week 1 Info

Question 1

cultural relatavism

Answer 1

not projecting our cultural categories; all cultures logical and rational in own terms

Question 2

cultural context

Answer 2

interpret something as part of larger cultural whole

Question 3

death

Answer 3

biological fact. culturally constructed category

Question 4

death (6)

Answer 4

1. physical death does not equal social death
2. death not the only alternative to life
3. death is a process, not an event (no clear moment of death)
4. death is not the end (not “dead and gone”)
5. degrees of death
6. good vs bad death (good death eg. someone recognizing they’re going to die –> friends and family by their side)

Question 5

3 models of death

Answer 5

Hertz (8)
van Gennep (6)
Turner (3)

Question 6

all models (5)

Answer 6

1. focus on deathways
2. based on study of many cultures
3. general, abstract frameworks
4. link beliefs to practices
5. explain the “wierd”

Question 7

Hertz 8

Answer 7

1. death is a process
2. condition of body linked to state of spirit
3. spirit of dead is dangerous in intermediary period
4. death is a tear in fabric of society
5. scale of funeral reflects tear in society
6. funeral ceremonies resemble birth, initiation, marriage ceremonies
7. reunion of bones
8. sacrifice

Question 8

death is a process

Answer 8

intermediary period (neither dead nor alive); secondary burial

Question 9

condition of body matches state of spirit

Answer 9

as corpse rots to dry bones, spirit slowly transformed into final spirit form; intermediary period –> time it takes for body to decay

Question 10

spirit of dead is dangerous in intermediary period

Answer 10

spirit is sad/ lonely/ jealous in limbo; appeased through food

Question 11

death is a tear in the fabric of society

Answer 11

loss to social collective; social emotional, legal roles of dead must be adjusted –> deathways: disaggregation - removal of dead from society, re-establishing social order (for dead and loved ones)

Question 12

scale of funeral reflects tear in fabric of society

Answer 12

funerals vary, deathways express social standing –> different for people of different statuses

Question 13

funeral ceremonies resemble birth, initiation, marriage ceremonies

Answer 13

exclusion –> integration
individuals status changes and become member of new social category (living/ intermediary/ dead); can’t go from one social category to another w/o transitional period

Question 14

reunion of bones

Answer 14

grave setting symbolizes living social order, dead society parallel the living; where kinship is strong –> collective burial (ossuaries - collective burial place—2ndry—of many bodies

Question 15

sacrifice

Answer 15

things must disappear from this world to appear in the next (burning something in the living world)

Question 16

Arnold Van Gennep (Liminal period 6)

Answer 16

1. transitional –> rites move individual from one period to another
2. in between normal social roles (neither here nor there)
3. ambiguous - paradoxical behaviors not socially acceptable at other times (liminal behaviors)
4. dangerous - (to) individual outside of customary social rules
5. strange symbolisms
6. time of communication of the sacred (tests, seclusion, marked w/ special objects, adornment

Question 17

Turner (3 cross culture symbolisms)

Answer 17

1. journey (often across water)
2. sex
3. rebirth (womb –> tomb –> womb) (dead are usually in fetal position)