Discipline And The Arts Of Respect In Chimborazo

Martin discusses the uses of the hermeneutics of suspicion for his second step in his approach. He believes it is important to remain suspicious of the cultural element being examined and presume it is false. Geertz, in the second part of his definition, states that a system of symbols “acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men” (Geertz, 1993). This statement is in agreeance with the suspicious mindset provided by Martin, as Geertz also does not confirm any religious beliefs to be true. He uses the word “acts” to show that the cultural elements function in a specific way, not to prove their factual accuracy. His definition demonstrates the unity of individual components in a culture and how they function. Both methods do not approach religion with yes or no questions but rather seek the answer to why it functions in particular ways and how it continues to exist.

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris divulges into some difference and components of culture around the world. He answers question as to why individuals perform and act the way they do in relation to culture. He looks at sexual hierarchies among Yanomamo culture as well as the Hindu’s respect for cows in India.

In Purity and Danger, Mary Douglas weaves her analysis of religion and society around a very simple topic, one of which I honestly took for granted: dirt. Dirt, Douglas argues, plays a massive role in the formation of society and how societies understand their worldviews and conceptions of sacredness. With this constant pushing and pulling of purity and impurity, meanings can be assigned to all patterns inside and outside the symbolic classification system of a society. Unity of the sacred and the filthy is then achieved through these purity and impurity rituals (3). In this essay, I will discuss the paradoxes of her book, modern approaches with understanding ritual, and my insecurities over the “Primitive Worlds” chapter.

In order to understand Confucius’s teachings, Fingarette asserts that one must first recognize each human social interaction as a form of sacred ritual through the metaphor of Human Community as Holy Right. Fingarette exemplifies Confucius’s use of the term li to mean a holy rite through an analogy about handshaking. Two people hold each other’s hands and know how and when to move them up and down in a ritualized way that indicates a formal greeting (9). This example is analogous to the social ritual described by Confucius in the Analects where a ruler “merely placed himself gravely and reverently with his face due South…that was all,” indicating that all

The rituals of a society must be analyzed as well to further understand the actions of the society and its people. Huxley writes about two religious ceremonies, one celebrated by the `civilized' society and the other by the `savage' society. The `civilized' people hold a Solidarity Service where twelve people get together and chant and shout out songs about topics such as the promiscuous idea of "orgy porgy" (84) and the idea that "I am you and you are I." (82) In order to continue ingraining the ideas of a stability and community as an adult, these services are held to continue conditioning the people. In this case, religion is used more as a tool than as a way to grow spiritually. For this society, we can understand that stability and community are very important to them and this ceremony shows this aspect.

The wide array of ritual behaviors in word and deed reveals both the creativity of those who had different lines of access to honor resources, as well as the conditionality of the code of honor itself.

Karen Armstrong, author of “Homo Religiosus,” claimed that without the physical rituals and traditions, religion morphed into a belief. Simply put, Armstrong argued that religion requires not only blind faith but also customs and practices that affect one’s physical and mental behaviors. It is through these rituals and taboos that the religions grows and forms, and yet also changes when deemed necessary. Additionally, Armstrong constantly compares religion to different art forms. She does this to convey the message that much like art, one must focus and study religion for lengthy periods of time to be properly understood. However, this connection also suggests that art and religion can perform an analogous role to humankind when required, as they both evolve and change when a society 's infrastructure does. Throughout her essay “Homo Religiosus,” Armstrong focuses on the similar role that both art and religion play in society to discuss her claim that religion is not just a belief, but rather has to do with changes in physical and mental behaviors that in return create change in society and the religion one needs.

Every Culture has a set of rituals that they partake in, that are often constructed over a long period of time. Simple Actions, and special moments contain so much meaning and make everlasting memories. All rituals despite the locations they originate from, or the location they are carried out in contain the same components, they are repetitive, symbolic, remind a certain group of people about their values and beliefs, and these rituals commemorate a significant moment. For example christians commemorate the birth of christ by attending mass, and many other cultures celebrate this moment in many different ways that have in depth symbolic meaning. In the book “Guests of the Sheik” by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea rituals play a major role. Fernea’s husband Bob is an anthropologist studying the occupants of a small village named El Nahra and their culture. Fernea has documented her experiences, and adventures, and her perspective of the many rituals that the townspeople participate in such as, Ramadan, Muharram, weddings, and pilgrimages. In Muslim culture pilgrimages are immensely important and can even lead to an elevated status. Such as the pilgrimage to Mecca. Fernea is able to participate in a pilgrimage to Karbala with a couple of the towns women she had befriended. The Pilgrimage to Karbala is a symbolic, and cultural ritual in the aspect that it is reenacted every year, and is full of symbolic meaning, commemorates an important occasion and reminds a culture about their

To do the latter, we must investigate the meanings the custom has for those who practice it and the functions it may fulfill in their society. (Section 1.4, “Cultural Differences: Cultural Relativism,” para. 3).

The theme of the story is that people may sometimes follow traditions just to continue them, without really taking the time to understand the dangers. It is stated that the ritual takes place annually,

After reading the article, I think rituals have some basic structures of meaning, and there are number of ways to show that rituals are meaningful. In the following thesis I choose Hinduism as an example to show how rituals are meaningful, how it relates to the living context of the Indian people, how the Indians enact the Hindu rituals, and so on.

The aspects of a carnival, when taken away from the original setting and applied elsewhere, such as in a horror movie, create a breeding ground for nightmares; with their hellish red lights and displays of the abject, they are able to twist our reality into something that disgusts us. One does not know real from fake. Horror films use special effects and character in the same manner of a carnival in order to scare and confuse the viewer. Tim Burton’s 1988 film, Beetlejuice, uses these his characters to not only disturb his audience but also inform them on the social ineffectiveness of the current systems. This movie was classified as a horror comedy, a genre that mixes the two emotions together using scary elements while adding moments of light-heartedness

Kelman, shares how people are influenced by his theory “process of Opinion change. Collins, shares and explain 's his theory “A Culture of Discipline” how it takes discipline with a passion to become a hedgehog person with an economic drive.

Magic and ritual are often associated with vengeful gods and bloody sacrifices, possibly due to their representation in book, movies, and other forms of entertainment. One might think that they have no power to bring a community together, other than through fear. However, through the lives of the Trobriand islanders, well observed by the polish anthropologist and ethnographer Bronisław Malinowski, we see that rituals and customs maintained by a powerful connection to magic is a mechanism of social order and betterment where a traditional government does not exist. Magic, therefore, is a power handed to man via tradition to control his creation and its nature is that of “a social force” (Malinowski 1922: 397).

Contemporary Civilizations is a course intended to provoke conversation and thought on an individual’s role in a community. We see this premise outlined in Columbia University 's description of the course, which states, “the central purpose of Contemporary Civilization is to introduce students to a range of issues concerning the kinds of communities ... that human beings construct for themselves” (Contemporary Civilizations Home Page). While analyzing the types of communities different texts discuss, we have come across the conversation relating an individual’s inner nature and his (or her) external circumstances. Up to the point of Teresa de Cartagena’s texts, writers argue that an individual’s highest level of achievement is primarily