Anthropology: Chapter 13

Front 1

Animatism

Back 1

A belief that the world is animated by impersonal supernatural powers.

Front 2

Animism

Back 2

A belief in spirit beings thought to animate nature.

Front 3

Anthropomorphism

Back 3

The ascription of human attributes to nonhuman beings.

Front 4

Construal

Back 4

In the second stage of trance, the process by which the brain tries to "make sense" of entoptic images.

Front 5

Contagious magic

Back 5

Magic based on the principle that things once in contact can influence one another after separation.

Front 6

Divination

Back 6

A magical procedure for determining the cause of a particular event, such as illness, or foretelling the future.

Front 7

Imitative magic

Back 7

Magic based on the principle that like produces like. Sometimes called sympathetic magic.

Front 8

Incorporation

Back 8

In rites of passage, reincorporation of the individual into society in his or her new status.

Front 9

Pantheon

Back 9

The several gods and goddesses of a people.

Front 10

Polytheism

Back 10

Belief in several gods and/or goddesses (as contrasted with monotheism—belief in one god or goddess).

Front 11

Priest or Priestess

Back 11

A full-time religious specialist.

Front 12

Religion

Back 12

Organized beliefs in the supernatural that rationalize rituals aimed at interpreting and controlling aspects of the universe otherwise beyond human control.

Front 13

Revitalization movements

Back 13

Social movements, often of a religious nature, with the purpose of totally reforming a society.

Front 14

Rites of intensification

Back 14

Religious rituals enacted during a group's real or potential crisis.

Front 15

Rites of passage

Back 15

Rituals, often religious in nature, marking important stages in the lives of individuals, such as birth, marriage, and death.

Front 16

Separation

Back 16

In rites of passage, the ritual removal of the individual from society.

Front 17

Shaman

Back 17

A part-time religious specialist whose special power to contact and manipulate supernatural beings and forces in an altered state of consciousness comes to him or her through some personal experience.

Front 18

Transition

Back 18

In rites of passage, isolation of the individual following separation and prior to incorporation into society.

Front 19

Witchcraft

Back 19

An explanation of events based on the belief that certain individuals possess an innate psychic power capable of causing harm, including sickness and death.

Front 20

Worldviews

Back 20

The conceptions, explicit and implicit, an individual or society has of the limits and workings of its world.