Thursday 22 April 2010

4-22-10

Sociolinguistics
pidgin dialect
colonialism
diffusion

creole language
no longer a dialect
linguistic relativity

american standard english


john bah stanford
apartments for rent in bay area

try midwest dialect
call back in afrc am vernac
then latino

proved discrimination
racism in chicago

bush years
dumbed down

popular
hide edu

voice recognition technology
grants in silicon valley

did not recognize the southern dialect
computers recognize lang

language imperialism

camaroon
signs at uni
say
NO PIDGIN

endangered languages
enviro crisis

species irreplacable
speaker dies

1996
oakland school board declared ebonics the official language of african-americans

caused a big debate

sociological issues


teaching ebonics
argue
inhibits higher education

disadvantaged by linguistic prejudice

religion
next week
camaroon week
films speaker
viktor turner ritual analysis

types of rituals
sybols
break down into
convoluted

witchcraft
divination—central focus of research
represents foundation of the african world view
deeper realities than what the eye sees
find what is the cause of what afflicts
how to divine answers to exam

liminality
characterizes---the liminal stage a transitory stage---the diviner will be in the liminal state existing
btw every day life and the mystical world

binary divination systems— yes no cowrie shells twigs cola shells
direction points two sides

basket divination
assembly things—takes 20 years---key, piece of glass shake basket, certain things come up
refers to event in the world---every object

open ended divination systems

spirit medium
sorcery
shamanism

get rid of bush
need a personal object relating to him

western views of
witchcraft tend to be psychologizing phenomenon

world religions
witchcraft is real

concept of witchcraft occurs in the context in which supernatural powers are said to influence society
understood in personal

break free from your illusions
break free
break free remix

prior to capitalist expansion

as inequality arose
the more witchcraft grows
fears beliefs

deaths attriuted to witchcraft
second leading cause of death next to HIV

harry potter
age
magic
sorcery
witchcraft more broad encompasses majic and sorcery

kyon kyofushu
njemte
keyoi
juju

good bad

sorcery---the anti-social employment of mystical powers

NYONGO
zombie worker cult---wealth gained by various means

shamanism—a technique

shamans
35000 caves in france shamanic
shamanism is a technique of ecstasy
achieve ecstatic trance
to achieve the state
it involves mind training

teaches unity of all things
shamanism

western culture doesn't get it
some without any psychotropic substances
in africa

from ayahuasca culture
amazing to look at a culture w/ strong tradtion of


newer shamans
get express shot to upper levels of consciousness
thru drugs

africa mysticism already there

Thursday 15 April 2010

visual anthropology coming soon to LACC
still photography submit
excellent
use in presentation

day of silence
for GLBT oppression

denim day rape film
contest
short
make it and submit

worried the iceland volcano will mess up
and airport moratorium
euro and UK travel to coachella

now today
religion

syncretic nature of voodoo and catholicism
western and african cultures colliding in haiti
belief system

religious phenomemen
broken down to symbols
acc to viktor turnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Turner

symbols rituals and action
symbols are storehouses of information
symbology

def of ritual

ceremony
do not confuse with ritual
what is diff?

lucrezia borgia sarah bradford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia

olivia is reading this.
http://books.google.com/books?id=wohoAAAAMAAJ&q=lucretia+borgia+bradford&dq=lucretia+borgia+bradford&ei=GD_HS-eOMIHMlQTp_cS4Bw&cd=1

eric is reading this
http://books.google.com/books?id=cvwn6JDrTeoC&q=huxley+seeing&dq=huxley+seeing&ei=Qz_HS5q_J4SEkASo_8WqBw&cd=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

cool huxley and jung both are july 26 leos!!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung

rites of passage
social status change
rite of passage
rituals
rites

separation

separated fm former status
transitional
stage
the liminal----stage of transition
what is up is down
what is down is up


final stage is incorporation
incorporated

into new phase of life in
newly acquired state of life


ritual performances involving manip of symbols that refer to relig beliefs

teacher never set foot in a church until africa

amish documentary
the devil

funeral

burial is the liminal
also the wake

rituals of affliction

eg malevolent spirits
like an illness afflicted

blood rituals
holds information
water holds information
a great conductor

words emotion and energy can affect the molecular structure of water
imagine blood
words very powerful

blood connects to the ancestors
why bushfowl
cheaper than a goat

birthday
rt of passage


chicken dog goat

in nigeria
acc to the type of illness one mightneed a higher animal
a water buffalo

rts of affliction

how do we know that the bad spirit went inside the fowl
a lot of rituals
at anthills

or spiderholes
tarantula holes
analogy based

chicken bath
cleansed with the chicken
so no one can curse you---the beak
then eat the chicken

ritual
then the members of the society
eat it


the chicken absorbed the negativity
heterocylic amines

a few
society of loom

twins ggod material for a healer
mengele

twins in subsaharan africa
mystical ritual immediate to make sure they dont become witches

specialize in epilepsy
seizures
loom
eat chicken
protected
if someone else ate the chicken whoa!

young age a calling
get lost in the forest
then comes back
been with the spirits

healers transfer
david nchinda
son of most pwrful healer in oku
wanted to be an acctant
dad called him back fm university

transfers all healing to you
dad fm deathbed.
we will meet david nchinda
next week

he can recognize
herbs due to visions and his father speaks to him
combines herbs to treat affliction

third type
rites of reversal
halloween
celebrates a rite of reversal
liminal
characterizes the whole thing
death not discussed in our society

other cultures have a relationship with death

halloween our day to celebrate death
what we fear most
classic rite of reversal

in america
we cannot go to neighbors
this is the only day possible
to discuss
they give food

favorite day
dias de los muertos
all saints day

is it a rite of reversal
with the aztec influences
the jubilance is joyful relation w/death
not a rite of reversal to people with a relation with death

but for us yes maybe

western v. indig death view
we are linear they are cyclic
dichotomy

re relation with food
turned over to specialists

indig navaho
dont call professionals
we do it ourselves

blame the french
for meat's euphemization

home birth
mellow empowered
sweeping and doing dishes until
birth
not fearful empowered
water broke they
came in ten minutes
urgency

justifies the staff and hospital machine

induced
you were off by an hour
anatomy question
western v. indig. where do eastern traditions fit????

rep an interesting mix of the two.
pockets of western influence

capital
linear
dominate nature
china?

asia an anomoly
yet say in japan

shinto
hong kong
very modern
yet in touch with traditions
south aerica cent america and africa
extensive field work
not in asia

mardi gras
journal! get ethnography going guys!!!

Tuesday 13 April 2010

animal sacrifice to invoke the spirit world
social control
relationship btw
cath
syncretic relig
saints incorporated into the practice
originally done to outlaw

gods
interesting things about the catholicism
most ameneable to incorp nonwestern relig
bc of
focus on ritual

africa
 the catholic chchs allow the indig religion to synthesize

much more respectful
re ?sufi also synthetic


people's reactions
benin west africa
colonialism slave trade

film notes

deutsche bank sponsored namaqua herrera genocide and carl jung redbook expo at the hammer
horrors of passage
voodoo sustained

slave ship

espanola
old name for haiti
where voodoo took root
rebellion

18 yr reign of terror v. french brutality
voodoo panic
news reached paris

voodoo priestess

zombie
perpetual purgatory

nerve poison
form
fish

individuals nailed into coffin

rolled down hill into abyss in barrel with nailspikes inside

zombies haitian versioon of empty ghost phys there but empty of what makes a human
perpetual purgatory

social sanction
analygous to electric chair

voodoo invoked by haitian leaders
francois duvalier
exploited by leaders
embedded int the ordinary religious life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Duvalier
interp
religious phenomemon
western parameters

relision
anthro approach
exocticization of african traditions
justifies third world subordination

we think in west
entrenched
we are at the vanguard of the modern
modern and tradition
divides what is rational and mystical

existing theotretical frameworks
fetishism
3fold schemes
intellectual evolutionism
armchair anthro
magic---trad subsahar
religious explic
science

let us reflect

magic religion science
we are all prods of west world views
dualities
logic
scient meth
why?
industrilism
linear time
west wld view
blatant contradiction
magic and sci based on natural law
implicit contradiction

history of this thought first
schools of thought
colonizing

functionalism
religion is a reflex of the social order
phenomenological
rel as a phenomen of the people

focus on  symbols and rituals
viktor turner
rituals storehouses of symbols


theological approach
flawed
comparative approach
more impt
not enough time
any would take a comparative approach

taken apart from culturak approach

we christianize them

working def of relig

treat as etwas not sharply defined
class of metaphorical stmts.

consider religion as an exploratory view of the world

no surplus value

quote
william james
treat relig sentiment
for many sentiments
contains nothing  of psychological
relig fear
relig love
no one elementary emo
but a storehouse of relig emotions
no specific

postmodern
philosophical approach
relig not a phenomem
must take into acct culture itself

scietif
and mystic
are theoret schemes
both deserve respect
19602s berkely
psychadelic anthro
anthro of transpers
or of consciousness
maps
maria dobka del rios
old guard never took it
ayuasca

wade phillips
serpent and the rainbow
book
film 1st 20 min
zombies

stephen rea
power of voodoo
pasadena

Tuesday 6 April 2010

historical perspective

prim to complex---avoid this

political
complex state society
sustainability
in no way

1. informal leadership---inuit, eskimo

foraging
leader with no authority
non-sedentary ie nomadic

about humans
lets not speak of alpha male

2. Band-level  org
kin
family
no special status for leader
influence ability
non-sedentary ie nomadic

3. tribe
leaders on a part time basis
no permanent leader
loyalty there---no need to exert force
usually avoided


big man larger than life
achieved status (diff than ascribed status)
can be challenged by other aspiring big men

big woman society

4. chiefdom
fixed rank
fixed succession
powr
highrank

primogeniture
orig first seeds of class consciousness
arose aristoi
high class
and the lower commoners, common folk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristoi

division of society

5. confederacy
league of five nations
the iroquois
inspired our nation-style

fledgling us colonies so impressed they imitated and came up with colonies
stole articles of confederation from them
nothing united the colonies
allowed to keep autonomy

6. state
social stratification full blown
caste system
class
kinship consciousness---superceded by kinship
rest assured we have a class/caste
 system too
not just india

crypto-class system

resources not open to all
dreaded bureaucracy
control of resources orig
chiefdom and states
diff

we pay taxes
instead of tribute
police military courts

typology of political systems
either

egalitarian--high status as peeps capable of filling them
open to all
informal bands and tribes
substantivist economics--reciprocity, redistribution

ranked--economy--stratified redistribution

stratified system characterized---not = access
achievment or by birth
caste
patriarchal
exclude women from participation

why are things unequal
why patriarchal?
why state retrogressive?


states wit little or no military, have more women in power, prominent role in govt


the more militarized the more shut out women are from politics
costa rica
india has a lot of high ranking

peace keeping forces of women to dissolve war---scott speaks--
margaret thatcher anomoly

diff btw empire and state

empire
globalization
favorite topic

Saturday 3 April 2010

try a listen to C is for culture
about google books
from new york law
an anthropologist of book culture speaks, and someone speaks of cyber punk (anthropology)
http://nyls.mediasite.com/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=4f3acab65b424c17b0eeb26ec8be6bc2