UCSP 13 - Lecture notes 13 PDF

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Summary

Politics comprises all the activities of co-operation, negotiation, and conflict within and between societies, whereby people go about organizing the use, production, or distribution of human, natural, and other resources in the course of the production and reproduction of their biological and socia...

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UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS RELIGION MAGIC  The Universality of Religion  Variation in Religious Beliefs  Variation in Religious Practices  Religion and Adaptations  Religious Change

2. VARIATION IN RELIGIOUS BELIEF  Types of Supernatural Forces and Beings  The Character of Supernatural Beings  Structure or Hierarchy of Supernatural Beings  Intervention of the Gods in Human Affairs  Life After Death

1. THE UNIVERSALITY OF RELIGION - Religion is defined as any set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons.

Types of Supernatural Forces and Beings

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Structure or Hierarchy of Supernatural Beings

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The Need to Understand Animism Animatism Reversion to Childhood Feelings Anxiety and Uncertainty The Need for Community

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Supernatural Forces Supernatural Beings Gods Spirits Ghosts Ancestor Spirits

Prayer, taking drugs, simulation, feasts, and sacrifices are some examples. Magic Sorcery may include the use of materials, objects, and medicines to invoke supernatural malevolence. Witchcraft may be said to accomplish the same ills by means of thought and emotion alone. Types of Practitioners    

 Monotheistic Religions  Polytheistic Religion Ways to Interact with the Supernatural

Various methods have been used to attempt communication with the supernatural.

The Shaman Sorcerers and Witches Mediums Priests

Practitioners and Social Complexity -

The number of types of practitioners seems to vary with degree of cultural complexity

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The more complex the society, the more types of practitioners.

3. RELIGION AND ADAPTIONS - Following Malinowski, many anthropologists take the view that religions are adaptive because they reduce the anxieties and uncertainties that afflict all peoples. 4. RELIGIOUS CHANGE - Religious Conversion - Conversion to one of the world religions has often been associated with colonization and the expansion of state societies. - The history of religion includes periods of strong resistance to change and periods of radical change. - Religious movements have been called revitalization movements.

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