anthropology meaning essay

What is Anthropology?

Anthropology is the study of what makes us human..

To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and physical sciences.

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Anthropology takes a broad approach to understanding the many different aspects of the human experience. Some anthropologists consider what makes up our biological bodies and genetics, as well as our bones, diet, and health. Others look to the past to see how human groups lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and what was important to them. Around the world, they observe communities as they exist today, to understand the practices of different groups of people from an insider’s perspective. And they study how people use language, make meaning, and organize social action in all social groups and contexts.

In the community of anthropologists in the United States, these four fields—human biology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics—are understood to be the pillars on which the whole discipline rests. Any individual anthropologist will probably specialize in one or two of these areas but have general familiarity with them all.

We understand these varied approaches to complement one another and give a well-rounded picture not only of what we all share as humans, but also of our rich diversity across time, space, and social settings. For example, everyone needs to eat, but people eat different foods and get food in different ways, so anthropologists look at how different groups of people get food, prepare it, and share it. They look at the meaning of different food traditions, such as what makes a dish appropriate for a special occasion. They focus on the intersection of culture and biology to understand what food is available in a community, why people make the choices they do, and how these choices relate to health and well-being. They compare these practices with others around the world, as well as what they can learn from the ancient archaeological record. And they use these insights to work toward a world where everyone has enough to eat and traditional foodways are celebrated and maintained.

The video below highlights a few anthropologists who have done very different kinds of things with their anthropological knowledge and approach. We highlight the diverse fields of technology innovation, urban planning, historic preservation, communications strategy, and forensic investigation to illustrate how, whatever people are doing, it’s all anthropology .

Anthropology

What this handout is about.

This handout briefly situates anthropology as a discipline of study within the social sciences. It provides an introduction to the kinds of writing that you might encounter in your anthropology courses, describes some of the expectations that your instructors may have, and suggests some ways to approach your assignments. It also includes links to information on citation practices in anthropology and resources for writing anthropological research papers.

What is anthropology, and what do anthropologists study?

Anthropology is the study of human groups and cultures, both past and present. Anthropology shares this focus on the study of human groups with other social science disciplines like political science, sociology, and economics. What makes anthropology unique is its commitment to examining claims about human ‘nature’ using a four-field approach. The four major subfields within anthropology are linguistic anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology (sometimes called ethnology), archaeology, and physical anthropology. Each of these subfields takes a different approach to the study of humans; together, they provide a holistic view. So, for example, physical anthropologists are interested in humans as an evolving biological species. Linguistic anthropologists are concerned with the physical and historical development of human language, as well as contemporary issues related to culture and language. Archaeologists examine human cultures of the past through systematic examinations of artifactual evidence. And cultural anthropologists study contemporary human groups or cultures.

What kinds of writing assignments might I encounter in my anthropology courses?

The types of writing that you do in your anthropology course will depend on your instructor’s learning and writing goals for the class, as well as which subfield of anthropology you are studying. Each writing exercise is intended to help you to develop particular skills. Most introductory and intermediate level anthropology writing assignments ask for a critical assessment of a group of readings, course lectures, or concepts. Here are three common types of anthropology writing assignments:

Critical essays

This is the type of assignment most often given in anthropology courses (and many other college courses). Your anthropology courses will often require you to evaluate how successfully or persuasively a particular anthropological theory addresses, explains, or illuminates a particular ethnographic or archaeological example. When your instructor tells you to “argue,” “evaluate,” or “assess,” they are probably asking for some sort of critical essay. (For more help with deciphering your assignments, see our handout on understanding assignments .)

Writing a “critical” essay does not mean focusing only on the most negative aspects of a particular reading or theory. Instead, a critical essay should evaluate or assess both the weaknesses and the merits of a given set of readings, theories, methods, or arguments.

Sample assignment:

Assess the cultural evolutionary ideas of late 19th century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan in terms of recent anthropological writings on globalization (select one recent author to compare with Morgan). What kinds of anthropological concerns or questions did Morgan have? What kinds of anthropological concerns underlie the current anthropological work on globalization that you have selected? And what assumptions, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies inform these questions or projects?

Ethnographic projects

Another common type of research and writing activity in anthropology is the ethnographic assignment. Your anthropology instructor might expect you to engage in a semester-long ethnographic project or something shorter and less involved (for example, a two-week mini-ethnography).

So what is an ethnography? “Ethnography” means, literally, a portrait (graph) of a group of people (ethnos). An ethnography is a social, political, and/or historical portrait of a particular group of people or a particular situation or practice, at a particular period in time, and within a particular context or space. Ethnographies have traditionally been based on an anthropologist’s long-term, firsthand research (called fieldwork) in the place and among the people or activities they are studying. If your instructor asks you to do an ethnographic project, that project will likely require some fieldwork.

Because they are so important to anthropological writing and because they may be an unfamiliar form for many writers, ethnographies will be described in more detail later in this handout.

Spend two hours riding the Chapel Hill Transit bus. Take detailed notes on your observations, documenting the setting of your fieldwork, the time of day or night during which you observed and anything that you feel will help paint a picture of your experience. For example, how many people were on the bus? Which route was it? What time? How did the bus smell? What kinds of things did you see while you were riding? What did people do while riding? Where were people going? Did people talk? What did they say? What were people doing? Did anything happen that seemed unusual, ordinary, or interesting to you? Why? Write down any thoughts, self-reflections, and reactions you have during your two hours of fieldwork. At the end of your observation period, type up your fieldnotes, including your personal thoughts (labeling them as such to separate them from your more descriptive notes). Then write a reflective response about your experience that answers this question: how is riding a bus about more than transportation?

Analyses using fossil and material evidence

In some assignments, you might be asked to evaluate the claims different researchers have made about the emergence and effects of particular human phenomena, such as the advantages of bipedalism, the origins of agriculture, or the appearance of human language. To complete these assignments, you must understand and evaluate the claims being made by the authors of the sources you are reading, as well as the fossil or material evidence used to support those claims. Fossil evidence might include things like carbon dated bone remains; material evidence might include things like stone tools or pottery shards. You will usually learn about these kinds of evidence by reviewing scholarly studies, course readings, and photographs, rather than by studying fossils and artifacts directly.

The emergence of bipedalism (the ability to walk on two feet) is considered one of the most important adaptive shifts in the evolution of the human species, but its origins in space and time are debated. Using course materials and outside readings, examine three authors’ hypotheses for the origins of bipedalism. Compare the supporting points (such as fossil evidence and experimental data) that each author uses to support their claims. Based on your examination of the claims and the supporting data being used, construct an argument for why you think bipedal locomotion emerged where and when it did.

How should I approach anthropology papers?

Writing an essay in anthropology is very similar to writing an argumentative essay in other disciplines. In most cases, the only difference is in the kind of evidence you use to support your argument. In an English essay, you might use textual evidence from novels or literary theory to support your claims; in an anthropology essay, you will most often be using textual evidence from ethnographies, artifactual evidence, or other support from anthropological theories to make your arguments.

Here are some tips for approaching your anthropology writing assignments:

• Make sure that you understand what the prompt or question is asking you to do. It is a good idea to consult with your instructor or teaching assistant if the prompt is unclear to you. See our handout on arguments and handout on college writing for help understanding what many college instructors look for in a typical paper.
• Review the materials that you will be writing with and about. One way to start is to set aside the readings or lecture notes that are not relevant to the argument you will make in your paper. This will help you focus on the most important arguments, issues, and behavioral and/or material data that you will be critically assessing. Once you have reviewed your evidence and course materials, you might decide to have a brainstorming session. Our handouts on reading in preparation for writing and brainstorming might be useful for you at this point.
• Develop a working thesis and begin to organize your evidence (class lectures, texts, research materials) to support it. Our handouts on constructing thesis statements and paragraph development will help you generate a thesis and develop your ideas and arguments into clearly defined paragraphs.

What is an ethnography? What is ethnographic evidence?

Many introductory anthropology courses involve reading and evaluating a particular kind of text called an ethnography. To understand and assess ethnographies, you will need to know what counts as ethnographic data or evidence.

You’ll recall from earlier in this handout that an ethnography is a portrait—a description of a particular human situation, practice, or group as it exists (or existed) in a particular time, at a particular place, etc. So what kinds of things might be used as evidence or data in an ethnography (or in your discussion of an ethnography someone else has written)? Here are a few of the most common:

• Things said by informants (people who are being studied or interviewed). When you are trying to illustrate someone’s point of view, it is very helpful to appeal to their own words. In addition to using verbatim excerpts taken from interviews, you can also paraphrase an informant’s response to a particular question.
• Observations and descriptions of events, human activities, behaviors, or situations.
• Relevant historical background information.
• Statistical data.

Remember that “evidence” is not something that exists on its own. A fact or observation becomes evidence when it is clearly connected to an argument in order to support that argument. It is your job to help your reader understand the connection you are making: you must clearly explain why statements x, y, and z are evidence for a particular claim and why they are important to your overall claim or position.

Citation practices in anthropology

In anthropology, as in other fields of study, it is very important that you cite the sources that you use to form and articulate your ideas. (Please refer to our handout on plagiarism for information on how to avoid plagiarizing). Anthropologists follow the Chicago Manual of Style when they document their sources. The basic rules for anthropological citation practices can be found in the AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style Guide. Note that anthropologists generally use in-text citations, rather than footnotes. This means that when you are using someone else’s ideas (whether it’s a word-for-word quote or something you have restated in your own words), you should include the author’s last name and the date the source text was published in parentheses at the end of the sentence, like this: (Author 1983).

If your anthropology or archaeology instructor asks you to follow the style requirements of a particular academic journal, the journal’s website should contain the information you will need to format your citations. Examples of such journals include The American Journal of Physical Anthropology and American Antiquity . If the style requirements for a particular journal are not explicitly stated, many instructors will be satisfied if you consistently use the citation style of your choice.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Scupin, Raymond, and Christopher DeCorse. 2016. Anthropology: A Global Perspective , 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Solis, Jacqueline. 2020. “A to Z Databases: Anthropology.” Subject Research Guides, University of North Carolina. Last updated November 2, 2020. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/az.php?s=1107 .

University of Chicago Press. 2017. The Chicago Manual of Style , 17th ed. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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History and Branches of Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of the origin and development of human societies and cultures.

Anthropology, Archaeology, Sociology, Earth Science, Geology, Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations, World History

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Anthropology  is the study of the origin and development of human societies and cultures . Culture is the learned behavior of people, including their languages , belief systems, social structures, institutions, and material goods. Anthropologists study the  characteristics of past and present human communities through a variety of techniques. In doing so, they investigate and describe how different peoples of our world lived throughout history. Anthropologists aim to study and present their human subjects in a clear and un biased way. They attempt to achieve this by observing subjects in their local environment. Anthropologists then describe interactions and customs, a process known as  ethnography . By participating in the everyday life of their subjects, anthropologists can better understand and explain the purpose of local institutions, culture, and practices. This process is known as  participant-observation . As anthropologists study societies and cultures different from their own, they must evaluate their interpretations to make sure they aren’t biased. This bias is known as  ethnocentrism , or the habit of viewing all groups as inferior to another, usually their own, cultural group. Taken as a whole, these steps enable anthropologists to describe people through the people's own terms. Subdisciplines of Anthropology Anthropology’s diverse topics of study are generally categorized in four subdisciplines. A subdiscipline is a specialized field of study within a broader subject or discipline. Anthropologists specialize in cultural or social anthropology ,  linguistic anthropology , biological or physical anthropology, and archaeology . While subdisciplines can overlap and are not always seen by  scholars as  distinct , each tends to use different techniques and methods. Cultural Anthropology Cultural anthropology, also known as social anthropology, is the study of the learned behavior of groups of people in specific environments. Cultural anthropologists base their work in ethnography, a research method that uses field work and participant-observation to study individual cultures and customs. Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey is a National Geographic Fellow in anthropology. As a doctoral student, she documented rare and nearly lost traditions of the  palu , Micronesian navigators who don’t use maps or instruments. Among the traditions she studied were the chants and practices of the Satawalese, a tiny cultural group native to a single coral  atoll  in the Federated States of Micronesia. Cultural anthropologists who analyze and compare different cultures are known as ethnologists. Ethnologists may observe how specific customs develop differently in different cultures and interpret why these differences exist. National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis is an ethnobotanist . He spent more than three years in Latin America , collecting and studying plants that different indigenous groups use in their daily lives. His work compares how these groups understand and use plants as food, medicine, and in religious ceremonies. Linguistic Anthropology Linguistic anthropology is the study of how language influences social life. Linguistic anthropologists say language provides people with the intellectual tools for thinking and acting in the world. Linguistic anthropologists focus on how language shapes societies and their social networks, cultural beliefs, and understanding of themselves and their environments. To understand how people use language for social and cultural purposes, linguistic anthropologists closely document what people say as they engage in daily social activities. This documentation relies on participant-observation and other methods, including audiovisual recording and interviews with participants. Lera Boroditsky, a  cognitive scientist , studies forms of communication among the Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal community in Australia. Boroditsky found that almost all daily activities and conversations were placed within the context of  cardinal directions . For example, when greeting someone in Pormpuraaw, one asks, “Where are you going?” A response may be: “A long way to the south-southwest.” A person might warn another, “There is a snake near your northwest foot.” This language enables the Pormpuraaw to locate and navigate themselves in landscapes with extreme precision, but makes communication nearly impossible for those without an absolute knowledge of cardinal directions. Linguistic anthropologists may document native languages that are in danger of  extinction . The Enduring Voices Project at National Geographic aimed to prevent language extinction by embarking on expeditions that create textual, visual, and auditory records of threatened languages. The project also assisted indigenous communities in their efforts to revitalize and maintain their languages. Enduring Voices has documented the Chipaya language of Bolivia, the Yshyr Chamacoco language of Paraguay, and the Matugar Panau language of Papua New Guinea, among many others. Biological Anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is the study of the  evolution  of human beings and their living and  fossil  relatives. Biological anthropology places human evolution within the context of human culture and behavior. This means biological anthropologists look at how physical developments, such as changes in our skeletal or genetic makeup, are interconnected with social and cultural behaviors throughout history.

To understand how humans evolved from earlier life forms, some biological anthropologists study  primates , such as monkeys and apes. Primates are considered our closest living relatives. Analyzing the similarities and differences between human beings and the “ great apes ” helps biological anthropologists understand human evolution. Jane Goodall , a primatologist , has studied wild chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) in Tanzania for more than 40 years. By living with these primates for extended periods of time, Goodall discovered a number of similarities between humans and chimpanzees. One of the most notable of Goodall’s discoveries was that chimpanzees use basic tools, such as sticks. Toolmaking is considered a key juncture in human evolution. Biological anthropologists link the evolution of the human hand, with a longer thumb and stronger gripping muscles, to our ancient ancestors ’ focus on toolmaking. Other biological anthropologists examine the skeletal remains of our human ancestors to see how we have adapted to different physical environments and social structures over time. This specialty is known as human paleontology , or  paleoanthropology . Zeresenay Alemseged, a National Geographic Explorer, examines  hominid  fossils found at the Busidima-Dikika anthropological site in Ethiopia. Alemseged’s work aims to prove that a wide diversity of early hominid species existed three million to four million years ago. Paleoanthropologists study why some hominid species were able to survive for thousands of years, while others were not. Biological anthropology may focus on how the biological characteristics of living people are related to their social or cultural practices. The Ju/’hoansi, a foraging society of Namibia, for example, have developed unique physical characteristics in response to cold weather and a lack of high-calorie foods. A thick layer of fat protects vital organs of the chest and abdomen , and veins shrink at night. This reduces the Ju/’hoansi’s heat loss and keeps their core body temperature at normal levels. Archaeology Archaeology is the study of the human past using material remains. These remains can be any objects that people created, modified, or used. Archaeologists carefully uncover and examine these objects in order to interpret the experiences and activities of peoples and  civilizations throughout history. Archaeologists often focus their work on a specific period of history. Archaeologists may study  prehistoric  cultures—cultures that existed before the invention of writing. These studies are important because reconstructing a prehistoric culture’s way of life can only be done through interpreting the  artifacts they left behind. For example, macaw eggshells, skeletal remains, and ceramic imagery recovered at archaeological sites in the United States Southwest suggest the important role macaws played as exotic trade items and objects of worship for prehistoric peoples in that area. Other archaeologists may focus their studies on a specific culture or aspect of cultural life. Constanza Ceruti, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, is a high-altitude archaeologist specializing in artifacts and features of the Incan Empire. Along with archaeological evidence, Ceruti analyzes historical sources and traditional Andean beliefs. These data help her reconstruct what ancient sites looked like, the symbolic meaning behind each artifact, and how ceremonies took place. History of Anthropology Throughout history, the study of anthropology has reflected our evolving relationships with other people and cultures. These relationships are deeply connected to political,  economic , and social forces present at different points in history. The study of history was an important aspect of ancient Greek and Roman cultures, which focused on using reason and  inquiry  to understand and create just societies.  Herodotus , a Greek historian, traveled through regions as far-flung as present-day Libya, Ukraine, Egypt, and Syria during the fifth century B.C.E. Herodotus traveled to these places to understand the origins of conflict between Greeks and Persians. Along with historical accounts, Herodotus described the customs and social structures of the peoples he visited. These detailed observations are considered one of the world’s first exercises in ethnography. The establishment of exchange routes was also an important development in expanding an interest in societies and cultures. Zhang Qian was a diplomat who negotiated trade agreements and treaties between China and communities throughout Central Asia, for instance. Zhang’s  diplomacy  and interest in Central Asia helped spur the development of the  Silk Road , one of history’s greatest networks for trade, communication, and exchange. The Silk Road provided a vital link between Asia, East Africa, and Eastern Europe for thousands of years. Medieval scholars and explorers, who traveled the world to develop new trading partnerships, continued to keep accounts of cultures they encountered. Marco Polo, a Venetian  merchant , wrote the first detailed descriptions of Central Asia and China, where he traveled for 24 years. Polo’s writings greatly elaborated Europe’s early understandings of Asia, its peoples, and practices. Ibn Battuta traveled much more extensively than Marco Polo. Battuta was a Moroccan scholar who regularly traveled throughout North Africa and the Middle East. His expeditions, as far east as India and China, and as far south as Kenya, are recorded in his memoir, the  Rihla .

Many scholars argue that modern anthropology developed during the  Age of Enlightenment , a cultural movement of 18th century Europe that focused on the power of reason to advance society and knowledge. Enlightenment scholars aimed to understand human behavior and society as  phenomena  that followed defined  principles . This work was strongly influenced by the work of natural historians, such as Georges Buffon. Buffon studied humanity as a  zoological  species—a community of  Homo sapiens  was just one part of the  flora  and  fauna  of an area. Europeans applied the principles of natural history to document the inhabitants of newly  colonized territories and other indigenous cultures they came in contact with. Colonial scholars studied these cultures as “human primitives,” inferior to the advanced societies of Europe. These studies justified the colonial agenda by describing foreign territories and peoples as needing European reason and control. Today, we recognize these studies as racist. Colonial thought deeply affected the work of 19th century anthropologists. They followed two main theories in their studies:  evolutionism  and  diffusionism . Evolutionists argued that all societies develop in a predictable, universal sequence . Anthropologists who believed in evolutionism placed cultures within this sequence. They placed non-Eurocentric colonies into the “ savagery ” stage and only considered European powers to be in the “civilizations” stage. Evolutionists believed that all societies would reach the civilization stage when they adopted the traits of these powers. Conversely, they studied “savage” societies as a means of understanding the primitive origins of European civilizations. Diffusionists believed all societies stemmed from a set of “ culture circles ” that spread, or diffused , their practices throughout the world. By analyzing and comparing the cultural traits of a society, diffusionists could determine from which culture circle that society derived. W.J. Perry, a British anthropologist, believed all aspects of world cultures— agriculture ,  domesticated animals, pottery, civilization itself—developed from a single culture circle: Egypt. Diffusionists and evolutionists both argued that all cultures could be compared to one another. They also believed certain cultures (mostly their own) were superior to others. These theories were sharply criticized by 20th-century anthropologists who strived to understand particular cultures in those cultures’ own terms, not in comparison to European traditions. The theory of  cultural relativism , supported by pioneering German-American anthropologist Franz Boas , argued that one could only understand a person’s beliefs and behaviors in the context of his or her own culture. To put societies in cultural context, anthropologists began to live in these societies for long periods of time. They used the tools of participant-observation and ethnography to understand and describe the social and cultural life of a group more fully. Turning away from comparing cultures and finding universal laws about human behavior, modern anthropologists describe particular cultures or societies at a given place and time. Other anthropologists began to criticize the discipline’s focus on cultures from the developing world. These anthropologists turned to analyzing the practices of everyday life in the developed world. As a result, ethnographic work has been conducted on a wider variety of human societies, from university hierarchies to high school sports teams to residents of retirement homes. Anthropology Today New technologies and emerging fields of study enable contemporary anthropologists to uncover and analyze more complex information about peoples and cultures. Archaeologists and biological anthropologists use  CT scanners , which combine a series of  X-ray  views taken from different angles, to produce  cross-sectional images of the bones and  soft tissues inside human remains. Zahi Hawass, a former National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, has used CT scans on ancient Egyptian mummies to learn more about patterns of disease, health, and mortality in ancient Egypt. These scans revealed one  mummy  as an obese, 50-year-old woman who suffered from tooth decay. Hawass and his team were able to identify this mummy as Queen Hatshepsut, a major figure in Egyptian history, after finding one of her missing teeth in a ritual box inscribed with her name. The field of  genetics  uses elements of anthropology and biology. Genetics is the study of how characteristics are passed down from one generation to the next. Geneticists study  DNA , a chemical in every living cell of every organism. DNA studies suggest all human beings descend from a group of ancestors, some of whom began to  migrate  out of Central Africa about 60,000 years ago. Anthropologists also apply their skills and tools to understand how humans create new social connections and cultural identities. Michael Wesch, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, is studying how new media platforms and digital technologies, such as Facebook and YouTube, are changing how people communicate and relate to one another. As a “digital ethnographer,” Wesch’s findings about our relationships to new media are often presented as videos or interactive web experiences that incorporate hundreds of participant-observers. Wesch is one of many anthropologists expanding how we understand and navigate our digital environment and our approach to anthropological research.

Margaret Mead One of the most famous and controversial anthropologists of the 20th century is Margaret Mead. Mead was an American scientist who gained popular and academic success following the publication of her first book,  Coming of Age in Samoa , in 1928. Mead lived and interacted with the people of Tau, Samoa, for her research. She documented an open-minded society where young women and men regularly engaged in casual sex. This was troubling to many Westerners, who had much more conservative attitudes. However,  Coming of Age in Samoa  remains the most popular anthropology book ever published. Since her death in 1978, anthropologists have questioned Margaret Meads’ methods. Some of her conclusions may have been more a product of the time in which she studied, rather than an unbiased look at a unique culture. Some of the women interviewed for  Coming of Age in Samoa  accuse Mead of coaxing them in what to say. Meads problematic methodology has put many of her anthropological conclusions into doubt.

Cultural Variety Anthropology has dozens of specialties. Some sections listed by the American Anthropological Association are:

• Africanist Anthropology
• Anthropology and the Environment
• Anthropology of Food and Nutrition
• Anthropology of Religion
• Feminist Anthropology
• Medical Anthropology
• Museum Anthropology
• Political and Legal Anthropology
• Queer Anthropology

Zora Neale Hurston The short stories and novels of Zora Neale Hurston are an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement among African Americans during the 1920s and 1930s. Hurston was also an important anthropologist. Hurston graduated from Barnard College, where she was the only black student, before being awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and conducting field work throughout the Caribbean and Central America. Their Eyes Were Watching God , considered to be Hurston’s masterpiece, was written while she was conducting anthropological field work in Haiti.

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Writing anthropology pdf

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Writing is key in anthropology, as one of its main modes of communication. Teaching, research, publications, and outreach all build on, or consist of, writing. This entry traces how anthropological writing styles have evolved over time according to changing politics in the discipline. It starts out in the late nineteenth century, showing how early writings in the discipline aimed to be objective. While writing anthropology in a literary mode goes a long way back, it was not until the 1970s that writing began to be collectively acknowledged as a craft to be cultivated in the discipline. This led to a boom of experimental ethnographic writing from the 1980s, as part of the ‘writing culture’ debate. The idea behind experimental narratives was that they might convey social life more accurately than conventional academic writing. Today, literary production and culture continue to be a source of inspiration for anthropologists, as well as a topic of study. Anthropological writing ranges from creative nonfiction to memoirs, journalism, and travel writing. Writing in such non-academic genres can be a way to make anthropological approaches and findings more widely known, and can inspire academic writing to become more accessible. Recent developments in anthropological writings include collaborative text production with interlocutors and artists. However, the tendency for experimentation is also held in check, as publishing in academic publication formats and featuring in citation indices is crucial for anthropologists’ careers. Still, as our writing moves increasingly online, there is a growth of flexible formats for publishing, including online books, essays on current affairs, and conversations in journals.

Introduction

Writing is essential in anthropology. As a major way of communication, teaching, research, and outreach all draw on, or result in writing. But it was not until long after anthropology emerged in the late nineteenth century that writing was first recognised as a crucial craft that required careful training. This entry spans the changing politics of writing anthropology from the late nineteenth century, when Victorian natural science notions about texts as objective was the model for scholarship, to the 1970s, when a sensitivity to style was identified, developing into a movement in the 1980s around the idea of experimental ethnographic writing as initiated by the 'writing culture’ debate (Clifford & Marcus 1986). The protagonists of that debate argued in favour of more detailed accounts of research processes, including the role of the fieldworker in the composition of anthropological writing. Moving on to the twenty-first century, this entry suggests that the understanding that anthropologists are also writers has brought a new emphasis on writing in the discipline. It includes both writing accessible academic anthropology and writing in different genres, ranging from creative nonfiction to memoir, anthropological journalism, and travel writing. Anthropology has existed in a literary mode for quite some time, but as it underwent a ‘literary turn’ (Scholte 1987), literature has become an even stronger resource for the discipline: certainly as an influence to enhance writing styles, but also as a topic for research into literary production and culture. This is made obvious by increasing requests for writing workshops for students and young scholars. Yet, writing remains constrained insofar as publishing is a must when making an anthropological career. Here it is governed by academic publication formats, readership, and citation indices. This entry is organised chronologically, discussing the changing politics of writing academic anthropology over time in terms of styles, publishing, and careers, including the impact of the ‘literary turn’, which leads to a consideration of anthropological writing genres and more recent writings for digital channels.    

Changing politics of writing anthropology  

Classic anthropological monographs, written as the discipline was getting established, were influenced by lingering natural scientific notions of objectivity. These monographs generally left the anthropologist outside the text, at least when it came to personal experiences and feelings, such as revelations, which were assumed to inhibit their scientific value. This applies to the works by founding anthropologists such as Bronislaw Malinowski and Franz Boas. Malinowski’s academic work stands in particularly stark contrast to his controversial private diaries from fieldwork in New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands in 1914-1915 and 1917-1918 (Malinowski 1967). Published posthumously by his widow, the diaries revealed his personal prejudice against interlocutors as well as other problematic attitudes.

But it was the ideal of objectivity, with what would be regarded as its constrained style, that eventually provoked anthropologists to find freer forms of writing, hoping to provide more precise reflections of the richness and complexity of fieldwork. This entailed a shift to taking writing seriously, as identified in the introduction to the volume The anthropologist as writer (Wulff 2016: 1). Prefigured by the interest in narratives of Victor Turner and Edward Bruner in the 1950s and 1960s, a careful consideration of writing became a major feature of anthropology in the 1970s with Clifford Geertz’s work, especially The interpretation of cultures (1973). It was Geertz who developed the concept of ‘thick description’ for a detailed and engaging mode of writing that provides an understanding of human action in a wider context. Geertz’s seminal essay on this topic describes a cockfight in Bali and opens as follows: ‘Early in April of 1958, my wife and I arrived, malarial and diffident, in a Balinese village we intended, as anthropologists, to study’. In this uneasy stage, as newcomers among people who did not acknowledge their presence, they learn after about ten days that ‘a large cockfight was held in the public square’. Geertz goes on to note that cockfights are mostly illegal in Bali:

In this case, however, perhaps because they were raising money for a school that the government was unable to give them, perhaps because raids had been few recently, perhaps, as I gathered from subsequent discussion, there was a notion that necessary bribes had been paid, they thought they could take a chance on the central square and draw a larger and more enthusiastic crowd without attracting the attention of the law. They were wrong...A truck full of policemen armed with machine guns roared up (Geertz 1973b: 412-15). 

The policemen ‘began to swing their guns around like gangsters in a motion picture, though not going so far as to actually fire them’. People ran, and so did the Geertzes, who found themselves hiding from the police in a courtyard with a local couple, which was what made them accepted by the villagers. It is most likely the captivating style, built with suspense and surprise, that explains why this essay has become classic, and the way the Geertzes are included in the story as protagonists who are experiencing potential danger together with locals, but then are rescued by a local couple. This turned out to be an efficient way of conveying how an ethnographic event such as an illegal cockfight could be analysed as a kind of play that mirrored major power struggles in the village.

In the 1980s, a debate known as the ‘writing culture’ debate arose, which argued for more detailed accounts of the research process, including the role of the fieldworker, in anthropological writings than what had previously been the case (Clifford & Marcus 1986). There was an expectation that the fieldwork process should include great and intimate details, including the fieldworker’s feelings and relationships, as that promised to produce a more exact account of fieldwork. A critique levelled against ‘writing culture’ was that its proponents focused too much on the activities of fieldworkers rather than on the people the research is about. The legacy of that debate is a heightened awareness of the intellectual impact of writing style, the politics of representation, and the partial truth of any account. Connected to the ‘writing culture’ debate was the idea of anthropological writing as ‘cultural critique’. It suggested that anthropology should identify alternative ways of considering what is often taken for granted in society. Anthropological writing should be part of ‘a strategy for discovering diversity in what appears to be an ever more homogenous world’ and ‘making visible to others the critical perspectives and possibilities for alternatives that exist’ (Marcus & Fischer 1987: 133). Some of those alternatives concerned the role of women in social life – insisting, for instance, that women should be given opportunities for education and careers that had of course not always been regarded as a matter of importance. Supported by the second wave of feminism, the book Women writing culture (Behar & Gordon 1995) explored issues of identity and difference in relation to sexual politics, racial history, and moral predicaments of anthropology. But its mission was a direct critique of the claim by James Clifford and George E. Marcus (1986), that feminist anthropologists had not written in interesting and experimental ways. The volume challenged the male dominance in the discipline at the time (see also Abu-Lughod 1993).

What proponents of experimental forms of writing share is that a sensitivity to style and an openness to other writing genres may produce more than just a pleasant turn of phrase. ‘Narrative and related writing genres may actually offer more accurate – hence, more scientific – means for us as scholars to convey the full range of the human experience’ (Gottlieb 2015: 742) than conventional academic writing. A defining feature of experimental writings today is their argument for accessibility, even though this was not necessarily a characteristic of all different stages of this movement. There is a growing understanding that even anthropological texts about complicated issues can preferably be phrased in a lucid way, as exemplified by Ulf Hannerz (1992) and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (2018), among many others. This goes against the traditional academic norm to write in a convoluted style which can still be regarded as a marker of prestige, more so than being straight-forward. While some very complicated issues do require a more complex writing style and specialised vocabulary, many academic topics do not. This insight is gaining ground, but it also leads to the need for (re)training academics to write in a more transparent manner. Clarity and captivating narratives are more useful both in teaching and research than the writing style of some traditional ethnographies that have been referred to as ‘boring’ and ‘virtually unreadable’ (MacClancy 1996: 237). The desire for being not only clear but also more engaging has opened up space for experimental writing, such as the early In sorcery’s shadow (1987), a memoir of an apprenticeship among the Songhay people who live in Niger and Mali in West Africa. Written by Paul Stoller and Cheryl Olkes as a literary essay informed by theory, it did not include explicit academic references: there is no bibliography. The memoir has been appreciated for its well-crafted narrative that also includes methodological points as Stoller learnt about and understood a way of life which was at first alien to him. The different stages of his training to become an apprentice sorcerer are carefully conveyed.   

With the growth of global connections came the insight that interlocutors might, and indeed should, be able to read anthropological work about themselves without the risk of being harmed personally or politically. Such ethical issues are considered in When they read what we write (Brettell 1993), which mainly focuses on how this can impact the anthropologist and the writings. There is, for instance, the devastating experience of having one’s published work contested by those it is about. Such experiences can be unexpected, which makes them even more painful. In addition, they might impact negatively the possibility for future research in the community for other colleagues, who might have had nothing to do with this work. Newspaper accounts of anthropological writings add complexity to this problem, especially when they misrepresent findings and if interlocutors read the newspapers but not the actual text. Highly politicised contexts such as conflicts over national language and between ethnic groups may feed into resulting dilemmas. While awareness of the difficulty of doing justice to divided communities is important, the necessity of including the studied people as a potential audience, and not only academics, remains a primary concern in contemporary anthropological writing. Existing concerns are fuelled by the rise of digital online journals and e-books, which can reach a vast and worldwide audience in an instant, particularly when they are Open Access.

All of this raises questions regarding publication outlets in relation to making an academic career, and negotiations over whether a monograph or journal article ranks the most highly (Wulff 2019; Boyer 2016). This has been a concern since the natural sciences, where journal articles are the prime publication format, became the model for citation indices and research assessments. As part of ‘new public management’ of European universities since the 1980s (Shore & Wright 2017), ranking systems have been in place for publishers, their books, and journals. They attempt to emulate private sector management models and business-like approaches to improve research efficiency and results. At some universities, publishing with highly ranked publishers can thus impact positively a department’s funding, as well as the anthropologist’s salary. It certainly impacts hiring practices. Rankings have also reinforced the notion of ‘publish or perish’, meaning that, even in order to keep a job, academics sometimes have to publish a certain number of high-ranking publications per year, for if not, their careers may be in jeopardy. In spite of these measures, the politics of academic publishing remain elusive as criteria keep changing, not least because what one cohort of anthropologists was trained for is bound to be different once they are exposed to assessment. There is a debate over the extent to which the quality of academic writing is and should be tailored to research assessments and evaluation formats, and what the intellectual consequences of this might be (Strathern 2000).

Anthropological writing is increasingly influenced by these managerial trends. In our discipline, journal articles continue to be important, but there is an enduring notion that long-term fieldwork can best be justified in the space of a full-length monograph. While a number of substantial journal articles might work almost as well, it may be more cumbersome to find those articles rather than reading a book where the material and analysis are all in one place. As books, edited volumes, and book chapters are less prominent in the natural sciences and thus on the ranking lists, they become less prestigious on the citation indices where anthropology is included. Moreover, the amount of work it takes to write a monograph is not rewarded, as it is often treated as just another ‘item’. What is more, appreciative references are not distinguished in the citation indices from negative ones. [1] Anthropology, in so far as it is a critical science, can also not be captured by numerical metrics (Stein 2018). The logic of such ranking lists is not in accordance either with how certain edited volumes or at least notable introductions to volumes that were published before citation indices were set up keep having a major influence on anthropology. This aspect is obviously not indicated in citation indices or as impact factors, as they only take account of recent work that is available online. Fredrik Barth’s introduction to his edited Ethnic groups and boundaries (1969) is a case in point as it keeps being a standard reference in anthropology (see also Appadurai 1986) but was published too early to be included in indices. As to the fate of books, printed or electronic, fiction or nonfiction, John Thompson, in his sociological research of the publishing business, predicts that as long as it is attractive enough to readers, the book will ‘continue to play an important role as a means of expression and communication in our cultural and public life for the foreseeable future’ (2011: 399-400).

Writing anthropology in relation to literature

Though anthropology’s literary mode is nothing new, the ‘writing culture’ debate intensified the presence of literature in anthropology, which has been identified in terms of a ‘literary turn’ because of literature’s impact on anthropological writing (Scholte 1987). This was in line with the growing awareness of the writing process. As a part of the move away from the detached textual style, as well as when it came to narrative structure, anthropologists took inspiration from fiction. Geertz (1988) even identified the ‘anthropologist as author’. [2] An anthropology of writing and writers emerged. Local literary work from a field was read as ethnography and might be included in anthropological accounts. With his background as a student of literature at University College London, Victor Turner later connected African ritual and Western literature as ‘mutually elucidating’ (1976: 77-8). Jane Austen was identified by Richard Handler and Daniel Segal (1990) as an ethnographer of marriage, kinship, and class in early eighteenth century England. In the 1990s, Nigel Rapport (1994) organised his fieldwork in the village of Wanet in England in relation to the writer E.M. Forster as an imagined fellow fieldworker. Rapport’s technique was to ‘zigzag’ between the work of Forster and his own field experience. A similar way of combining anthropology and literature, of writing anthropology together with a literary companion, is Kirin Narayan’s Alive in the writing (2012). Narayan juxtaposes her experience of ethnographic writing with that of Anton Chekhov, the renowned playwright and short story writer, as he researched and wrote about Sakhalin Island, the Russian penal colony. Recognising Chekhov as her ethnographic muse releases Narayan’s writing creativity. Inspired by Chekhov’s letter about his journey to Sakhalin, his reflections on his research, and writing process, Narayan feels an affinity with him as she finds topics and texts to include in her book. Incidentally, Chekhov’s work on Sakhalin is nonfiction, and as Naryan gets to know his literary oeuvre , she learns that he is a literary writer with an ethnographic sensibility. [3] Included in Alive in the writing, at the end of the chapters, are writing exercises, and the book concludes with a postscript with advice for different stages of the writing process, ranging from getting started and moving forward to moving past writer’s block, and revising and finishing. In response to the upsurge of non-academic writing workshops and university programs in creative writing in Euro-America during the last decades, there is a plethora of writing manuals, also by fiction writers (cf. Wulff 2017). The daughter of Alfred Kroeber, and his writer-wife Theodora, Ursula Le Guin (2015: ix, xiii, xii) was not an anthropologist herself, but there are anthropological aspects in her fiction, referred to as science fiction or fantasy. Anthropologists appear in her writings, and the ‘other worlds’ she imagined resonate with an anthropological endeavour to study very different ways of living. Le Guin also wrote a ‘handbook for storytellers – writers of narrative prose’ to go with the writing workshops she taught. Her declaration that her ‘book is not for beginners’ attests to an awareness that writing is a skill that is never fully learnt, but ideally one to keep developing. Observing that some people have a gift for writing, she points out that writing is a skill to be learnt and mastered even for those who are gifted (cf. Wulff 2018). Le Guin emphasises that reading one’s own work also requires training. This would be what Brian Moeran refers to as ‘self-editing’, the process of making choices about style, grammar, organization, and of what to include and exclude (2016: 60-5). ‘Editing’, Moeran goes on, ‘is not writing but rewriting’ and this entails being ‘tough with yourself’ (2016: 60-5). Before submitting a text to an editor at a publishing house, Moeran’s advice is to get a sympathetic colleague’s stern comments on it.     

Writing about connections between anthropology, ethnographic writing, and literature, Caroline Brettell observes that:  

The experiments with forms of ethnographic writing that might enliven the ethnographic text represent just one dimension of the way in which anthropology has engaged with literature…Some anthropologists have drawn directly on works of literature as inspiration; others have subjected these literary works to an anthropological analytical and theoretical lens (2015: 73).

Yet others, she goes on to say, ‘have found the ethnographer or the autoethnographer in the novelist’. Anthropological interest in literary production certainly exists, such as in the ethnographic study of writing as craft and career in Ireland. Taking the question ‘How come the Irish are such great writers?’ as a point of departure, I have argued that this goes back to the oral storytelling tradition in Ireland, and a culture that cultivates this practice at social gatherings, also by teaching it to younger generations. Then, there is extensive training in creative writing at schools, as well as writing competitions, and an abundance of writing workshops for adults at literary festivals and other literary events. All this fosters a habit and an urge to write (Wulff 2017: ix). Ethnographies of writing are not limited to textual analysis. They can be based on live literature events and public readings of fiction at literary festivals. Drawing on a study of one of the major literary festivals in the UK called the Hay Festival and the small Polari Salon, an LGBT literary festival at the South Bank Centre in London, Ellen Wiles conveys the value of experiential literary ethnography not only to the academic world, but also to arts practitioners, curators, and producers (2021). It was through participant observation at literary festivals that Wiles learnt that, even in our digitalising world, such live events draw big audiences, not least because they provide appreciated opportunities for face-to-face connections between authors and readers.

Another take on how literature can relate to ethnography is the conceptualisation of fiction as a written text along with songs, poetry, essays, drama, and even newspapers and letters that are produced in a society under study (Archetti 1994a). This can reveal, on one level, interpersonal relationships and, on another level, cultural and social contexts such as history and the nation. It has been suggested that there are three types of fiction: ‘The realistic historical novel that attempts to ”reconstruct” a given period in a given society; the totally imagined story set in a historical period; and the essays devoted to an interpretation of a nation, its characteristics and creed’. In addition, ‘some kind of historical and sociological knowledge is important in fiction’, which makes it similar to writing anthropology. In line with much anthropology, in this volume fiction is treated as ‘ethnographic raw material, not . . . authoritative statements about, or interpretations of, a particular society’ (Archetti 1994b: 16-17).

Many anthropologists have expressed a sense of being confined by the rigidity of the academic style, which has led them to seek refuge in fiction writing. This has been a way to complement what has been found to be unsatisfactory with producing dissertations or other academic writing (Stankiewicz 2012). Reflecting on fiction versus anthropology, there is a common notion that ‘anthropology is unique in its specification of dimensions for comparison and its standards for ethnographic descriptions. Are such dimensions and standards straitjackets? If one thinks so, one might turn to fiction for consolation’ (Eriksen 1994: 192; see also Narayan 1999). This advice seems to be both about reading fiction, also from one’s field, and writing fiction by drawing on fieldwork, such as In an antique land (Ghosh 1992). It turns out that ethnographic novels abound. They were (and are) written by authors who were trained in anthropology, and in some cases pursued an academic career while others went into writing fiction full time. An early ethnographic novel is The delight makers (Bandelier 1890), making use of many years of fieldwork with Pueblo Indians. Their eyes were watching God (Hurston 1937) also has an anthropological perspective. In 1954, the bestseller Return to laughter was published by Laura Bohannan under the pseudonym Elenore Smith Bowen. This is a fictionalised story about Bohannan’s fieldwork in Africa, including aspects of tribal life such as the impact of witchcraft. The novel has been widely read not only by students and scholars, but also by a general audience. It is a testimony to the efficacy of conveying anthropological insights through fiction. It is common that social scientists and anthropologists, including those who drive their disciplines, appreciate fiction writers’ ‘capacity to depict the real and unveil truths’ (Fassin 2014: 52). It is even the case that ‘distinguished anthropologists and sociologists have admitted that they find, in the works of these authors, more compelling, more accurate, and more profound accounts of the social worlds they explore than in those proposed by the scholars who study them’ (Fassin 2014: 52; see also McLean 2017). In this spirit, a new brand of ethnographic writing has emerged, one that experiments with various literary styles, not just as embellishment, but also as a way of writing anthropology through creative writing and thereby conveying otherwise unconveyable truths. The volume Crumpled paper boat (Pandian & McLean 2017: 1-2), for example, is composed of ethnographic writing in the form of poetry, fiction, memoir, and scriptwriting, among others. The title is a line from a poem by Arthur Rimbaud and refers in the volume to ethnographic writing as a journey, ‘a transformative passage’ indicated by ‘a little lost boat’ and ‘the frustrations that lead writers to crumple and scrap the slips of paper on which they work’ until their texts will ‘float… to unforeseeable destinations’ (Pandian & McLean 2017: 1-2). Here, writing is about transformations of the author and saying the unsayable, rather merely conveying what social life is like.     

Anthropological writing genres                                                                   

It is obvious that academic scholarly writing is the major genre for anthropologists, and that it is supported by the art of writing field notes (Sanjek 1990, 2015; Andersen et al. 2020). Still, anthropologists do much writing in other genres, not only literary fiction, as discussed above, but also poetry (Rosaldo 2013, among many others). An anthropological career inevitably includes writing academic administrative texts such as a variety of reports and evaluations, but also writing grant proposals, yet another genre (Brenneis 2009; Finnström 2016). Contrary to many fiction writers, anthropologists tend to learn a certain writing style marked by academic strictness and cues such as aim, argument, engagement with debates and/or earlier research, theory, ethnography, method, conclusions, and bibliography. Anthropologists then tend to keep that style, rather than developing in new directions. Some of them, though, see an opportunity for changing track and tone as they move on to new research topics. Others switch between different genres, bringing back stylistic features from creative nonfiction, memoir, autoethnography, travel writing, journalism, and even fiction, poetry, and crime novel writing to their academic writing (Wulff 2016; Barton & Papen 2010).

Creative nonfiction, which tells stories about real events with fiction techniques, has been especially popular among anthropologists in the United States. This genre can be understood as ‘making the reading experience vivid, emotionally compelling, and enjoyable while sticking to the facts’ (Cheney 2001: 2). Originating in the 1960s New Journalism, this writing genre is often connected with the highly successful In cold blood (Capote 1965), a true crime story about the murder of a family on a farm in Kansas in the United States. The book builds on interviews with local people and police investigators, newspaper articles, and observation of the court case. Creative nonfiction has, since it was formulated, ‘gained momentum in subsequent years to inform assorted kinds of writing’ (Narayan 2007a: 130). The movement has come to include a variety of genres and is now established through ‘courses, grants, writing degree tracks, and journals’ (Narayan 2007a: 130). So what can ethnographers learn from creative nonfiction? One point is to strike a balance of writing about social life in an absorbing way without making things up. Another is to think of how to include and deal with situation, story, character, scenes, summaries, and so called ‘expository lumps’ (i.e. dense and heavy background information) when writing up their work (Narayan 2007a: 136-139). The advice to deal with the latter is to ‘break it up, spread it out, slip it into conversation’ (Le Guin 1998: 114).

Following up on writing anthropology in relation to literature, and in different genres, finding publishing outlets for work that is not strictly academic may be an issue. Yet some specialised journals for this exist, such as Anthropology & Humanism , the journal of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, which publishes traditional academic articles as well as other anthropological writing genres: poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction essays in every issue. [4] These essays often take ethnographic or personal experiences as points of departure and move into more or less imagined realms. The vulnerable observer (Behar 1996), for example, is the story of how a Cuban-American anthropologist was away doing fieldwork on funeral practices in Spain, when her own grandfather died back in Miami. This experience made her argue for the emotional, subjective nature of fieldwork: the ethnographer cannot be detached, nor fully objective, in relation to their field. Spanning different genres, this book is also a kind of memoir, which has itself become a substantial genre in anthropology, primarily recalling events from the field but often going back to the personal life of the anthropologist (Jackson 2006; Narayan 2007b; Stoller 2008; Collins & Gallinat 2010). While memoirs can be expected to be written by older people who have lived long and eventful lives, it turns out that many anthropological memoirs are composed by writers who are still relatively young, or at least middle aged in their 40s or 50s, such as The power of the between (Stoller 2008: 4), triggered by the turmoil of a cancer diagnosis, which entailed a space ‘in-between’ life and death.

My father’s wars (Waterston 2014) is a daughter’s account about her father’s fate as told to her mainly by him, but also by her mother. This was a life course that was driven by dramatic historical events: Alisse Waterston's father had to flee the Holocaust in Poland with his family to Cuba. Eventually he joins the US Army, meets and marries an American woman, and finds himself commuting between Havana and New York, until Castro’s revolution forces the family to leave Cuba for Puerto Rico. This memoir exemplifies how an eventful personal story defined by dangers can convey major political events. Another kind of memoir is My life as a spy (Verdery 2018). When the secret police files in Eastern Europe became available after 1989, Katherine Verdery, an American anthropologist who had spent frequent long research stints studying political economy of social inequality, ethnic relations, and nationalism in communist Romania, discovered in her file that she had been surveilled by the secret police, the Securitate, and accused of being a spy. In this case, the memoir was a way to correct and contextualise a faulty local image of an anthropologist. At the same time, it is an important piece of information about how Romania operated during communism.

Travel writing is yet another form of memoir, as heralded in the classic Tristes tropiques (Lévi-Strauss 1992 [1955]) which documents travels and fieldwork in Brazil. Its proximity to travel writing was later problematised, when travel accounts about the colonies were critiqued for conveying a Western imperial perspective (Pratt 1992). Even though early travel writing relied too much on exoticisation, this is now changing (Nyqvist 2018). Yet travel writing continues to be a way to explore the world on behalf of people ‘at home’, to tell them about places elsewhere, often far away, thereby mediating the world. In addition to describing places and people, as well as the travel itself, travel writing also tends to address the conditions of travel.

Related to anthropological memoir as a genre is the notion of ‘autoethnography’, defined as ‘referring either to the ethnography of one’s own group or to autobiographical writing that has ethnographic interest’ – indeed, the two types can be related (Reed-Danahay 1997: 2). An autoethnography of borders is ‘ Illegal’ traveller , which combines fieldwork on undocumented immigrants with descriptions of the personal experience of having to flee Iran during dangerous circumstances. The preface, dated 1987, begins:

One cold night in late February, in a barren land surrounded by huge rugged mountains, I stood on a gravel road, like any other road in this rural area. Midnight passed; the whole landscape was wrapped in silence. The road separated Iran from Afghanistan. It was the border. Shrouded in a deadly stillness was the road, one of the most sanguinary roads in the world laid in wait for its next prey. It was a moonless night. “Good! The darkness shelters us,” said my smuggler… “If I take this step, I will be an ‘illegal’ person and the world will never be the same again.” That night I took that step and my odyssey of “illegality” began (Khosravi 2010: ix).

There are, again, overlaps between memoirs and autoethnography, yet an anthropological autoethnography is usually distinguished by an explicit and systematic theoretical structure which is intended to explain how a personal story that acknowledges power and inequality has a general ethnographic interest. This has been referred to as critical autoethnography (Reed-Danahay 2019). The experiences in the quote above, and subsequent ones about what it is like to be a refugee in Stockholm, also go into opinion pieces for newspapers such as The Guardian and The New York Times (Khosravi 2020). Contrary to writing anthropology, writing journalism always requires an accessible style, short sentences, and a key point introduced early in the text. If anthropological ideas are used, they have to be explained to a general audience. More often than not, journalistic articles connect to an urgent event in the news. They tend to be much shorter and limited in scope than most academic ones. In addition, editors often decide on the headline, which is drastically different from what academics are used to. Again, the boundaries with anthropological writing are blurred, as some anthropologists who keep writing influential journalistic comments on current affairs become public intellectuals, thereby potentially enhancing their academic reputation. This is at times called public anthropology, considered by many to be crucial for an understanding of public life but requiring a refinement of the art of narrative as well as a relinquishing of dry analysis (Eriksen 2005). Moreover, anthropologists who write journalism can be seen to bring back stylistic traits such as lucidity to their anthropological writing. Journalism in anthropology is – as is so often the case – a twofold topic, comprising both anthropologists writing journalism, and the anthropological study of worlds of journalism and journalistic writing (Boyer 2005, 2013; Hannerz 2004; Boyer & Hannerz 2006). Writing future worlds (Hannerz 2016) investigates the new genre of speculative future scenarios, such as the idea of ‘the clash of civilizations’, having impact on global debate and understandings. As to ethnographies of journalism, there is, for instance, a study of former East German journalists and their attempts at explaining life in post-unification Germany which raises complicated issues about the nation and modernity (Boyer 2005). Still in Germany, another study focuses on news organizations, and how digital information and communication technologies have transformed how journalists work there (as elsewhere): they find themselves in a quickly changing landscape where social media is a major actor and contributes to the fact that their authority, expertise, and skills are challenged (Boyer 2013). More in line with travel writers, foreign correspondents, in a study conducted mainly in Jerusalem, Tokyo, and Johannesburg, report from one part of the world to another. It turns out that unique story lines emerge in different correspondent ‘beats’, yet what they write is also shaped by their home country and personal interest. One insight of this study is that both anthropologists and foreign correspondents have a lot to learn from each other when it comes to illuminating the general public about events and peoples in faraway places (Hannerz 2004).

The frequent blurring of writing genres has attracted a lot of attention. In fact ‘there has been an enormous amount of genre mixing in social science, as in intellectual life generally, and such blurring of kinds is continuing apace’ (Geertz 1980: 1659). One type of genre mixing is the monograph Lost in transition (Ghodsee 2011), on the downfall of communism in Bulgaria, where ethnographic chapters take turns with chapters written as ethnographic fiction. More often, genre mixing in anthropology takes the form of single texts, identified as combinations of ethnography and creative nonfiction, memoir and opinion pieces. Genre mixing has been pivotal for anthropology’s development both intellectually and methodologically. It fosters creativity, and suggests a language to approximate saying the unsayable as well as generating new approaches and ideas for research, even if that is often overlooked on academic ranking lists and citation indices.

Conclusions and looking ahead

As a discipline, anthropology builds on academic writing. Yet a focus on the craft of writing is relatively recent in the discipline’s history. Anthropologists continue to accentuate their identity as writers, drawing on literature, as well as different anthropological writing genres such as creative nonfiction, memoir, autoethnography, travel writing, and journalism. Our on-going sharpening of writing as a skill improves the knowledge that we are able to produce and convey, sometimes even providing more accurate accounts of social life than conventional academic work. Collaborative writing has increased both with the people we study, as an attempt to empower them and to draw on their expertise, and with colleagues from other disciplines, partly in response to requests from research funding agencies. There is also a growing interest in working with visual artists, especially graphic artists, as exemplified by Light in dark times (Waterston & Hollands 2020). Publication formats have equally become more flexible: featuring small books, essays on current affairs, and conversations in journals among many other types of outlets. The rise of digital publishing increases this flexibility, as anthropological discussions are now had on Twitter, and blogs such as AnthroDendum. [5] There is an upswing in honest accounts of how anthropological texts are actually composed that describe the role of personal creativity, academic training, and biography in the way arguments are formulated, as well as the impact of writing routines. They combine writing with a personal touch in combination with a scholarly responsibility, while calling for accessible styles (Nielsen & Rapport 2018; McGranahan 2020). With more diversity in anthropological writing styles, formats, and outlets in the future, questions of how to assess quality will be even more accentuated and debated. Importantly, there is a quickly-expanding realization that writing can and should be a driving force in the process of decolonising anthropology (Pandian 2017; Ulysse 2020; Tapsell 2020), indicating that this is a defining moment for reconsidering writing styles.

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——— & D.A. Gordon 1995. Women writing culture . Berkeley: University of California Press.

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——— 2013. The life informatic: newsmaking in the digital era . Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

——— 2016. The necessity of being a writer in anthropology today. In The anthropologist as writer (ed.) H. Wulff, 21-32. Oxford: Berghahn.

——— & U. Hannerz 2006. Introduction: worlds of journalism. Ethnography  7 (1), 5-17.

Brenneis, D. 2009. Anthropology in and of the academy: globalization, assessment and our field’s future. Social Anthropology 17 (3), 261–75.

Brettell, C.B. (ed.) 1993. When they read what we write:  the politics of ethnography . Westport: Bergin & Garvey.

Capote, T. 1965. In cold blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences. New York: Signet Books.

Cheney, T.A.R. 2001. Writing creative nonfiction: fiction techniques for crafting great nonfiction. Berkeley: Ten Speed.

Clifford, J. & G.E. Marcus (eds) 1986. Writing culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography . Berkeley: University of California Press.

Cohen, M. (ed.) 2013. Novel approaches to anthropology: contributions to literary anthropology. New York: Lexington Books.

Collins, P. & A. Gallinat (eds) 2010. The ethnographic self as resource: writing memory and experience into ethnography. Oxford: Berghahn.

Daniel, V. & J.M. Peck (eds) 1996. Culture/contexture : anthropology and literary studies. Berkeley: University of California Press.

De Angelis, R. (ed.) 2002. Between anthropology and literature: interdisciplinary discourse. London: Routledge.

Dennis, P.A. & W. Aycock (eds) 1989. Literature and anthropology. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press.

Dawson, A., J. Hockey & A. James (eds) 1997. After writing culture: epistemology and praxis in contemporary anthropology. London: Routledge.

Eriksen, T.H. 1994. The author as anthropologist: some West Indian lessons about the relevance of fiction for anthropology. In Exploring the written : anthropology and the multiplicity of writing (ed.) E.P. Archetti, 167-96. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.

——— 2005. Engaging anthropology: the case for a public anthropology . London: Bloomsbury.

——— (ed.) 2018.  An overheated world: an anthropological history of the early twenty-first century . London: Routledge.  

Fassin, D. 2014. True life, real lives: revisiting the boundaries between ethnography and fiction. American Ethnologist , 41 (1), 40-55.

Finnström, S. 2016. O anthropology, where art thou? An auto-ethnography of proposals. In The anthropologst as writer: genres and contexts in the twenty-first century (ed.) H. Wulff, 46-59. Oxford: Berghahn.  

Geertz, C. 1973a. The interpretation of cultures: selected essays. New York: Basic Books.

——— 1973b. Deep play: notes on the Balinese cockfight. In The interpretation of cultures: selected essays . C. Geertz, 412-53. New York: Basic Books.

——— 1980. Blurred genres: the refiguration of social thought. American Scholar  49 (2), 165-79.

——— 1988. Works and lives: the anthropologist as author. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Ghosh, A. 1992. In an antique land. New York: Vintage.

Ghodsee, K. 2011. Lost in transition: ethnographies of everyday life after communism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Gottlieb, A. 2015. Anthropological writing. In International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (ed.) J.D. Wright, 740-45. Oxford: Elsevier.  

Handler, R. & D.A. Segal 1990. Jane Austen and the fiction of culture . Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Hannerz, U. 1992. Cultural complexity: studies in the social organization of meaning . New York: Columbia University Press.

——— 2004. Foreign news: exploring the world of foreign correspondents . Chicago: University Press.

——— 2016. Writing future worlds: an anthropologist explores global scenarios . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hurston, Z.N. 1978 [1937]. Their eyes were watching God: a novel . Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Jackson, M. 2006.  The accidental anthropology: a memoir . Dunedin: Longacre Press. 

Khosravi, S. 2010. 'Illegal' traveller: an autoethnography of borders. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

——— 2020. In Iran, we try to be hopeful. But we're stalked by fear of war (10 January 2020). The Guardian  (available on-line: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/10/iran-stalked-war-s... ).

Le Guin, U.K. 2015.  Steering the craft: a 21 st century guide to sailing the sea of story . Boston: Mariner Books. 

Lévi-Strauss, C. 1992 [1955].  Tristes tropiques . New York: Penguin Books.

MacClancy, J. 1996. Fieldwork styles: Bohannan, Barley, and Gardner. In Popularizing anthropology (eds) J. MacClancy & C. McDonaugh, 225-44. London: Routledge.

McGranahan, C. (ed.) 2020. Writing anthropology: essays on craft and commitment . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

McLean, S. 2017. Fictionalizing anthropology: encounters and fabulations at the edges of the human . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Malinowski, B. 1967. A diary in the strict sense of the term . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Marcus, G.E. & M.M.J. Fischer. 1986. Anthropology as cultural critique: an experimental moment in the human sciences. Chicago: University Press.

Moeran, B. 2016. The craft of editing: anthropology’s prose and qualms. In The anthropologist as writer: genres and contexts in the twenty-first century (ed.) H. Wulff, 60-72. Oxford: Berghahn.

Narayan, K. 1999. Ethnography and fiction: where is the border? Anthropology and Humanism 24 (2), 134-47.

——— 2007a. Tools to shape texts: what creative nonfiction can offer ethnography. Anthropology and Humanism , 32 (2), 130-44.

——— 2007b. My family and other saints. Chicago: University Press.

——— 2012. Alive in the writing: crafting ethnography in the company of Chekhov. Chicago: University Press.

Nielsen, M. & N. Rapport (eds) 2018. The composition of anthropology: how anthropological texts are written . London: Routledge.

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Pandian, A. 2017. A possible anthropology: methods for uneasy times . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

——— & S. McLean (eds) 2017. Crumpled paper boat: experiments in ethnographic writing . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

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——— 2019. Autoethnography. In SAGE research methods foundations (eds) P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J.W. Sakshaug & R.A. Williams, 1-19. London: SAGE (available on-line: https://methods.sagepub.com/foundations/autoethnography ).

Rosaldo, R. 2013. The day of Shelly’s death: the poetry and ethnography of grief . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

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——— (ed.) 2015. eFieldnotes: the makings of anthropology in the digital world . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Scholte, B. 1987. The literary turn in contemporary anthropology: a review article. Critique of Anthropology 7 (1), 33-47.

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Stankiewicz, D. 2012. Anthropology and fiction: an interview with Amitav Ghosh. Cultural Anthropology (special issue on 25th anniversary of Writing Culture ) 27 (3), 535-41.

Stein, F. 2018. Anthropology’s ‘impact’: a comment on audit and the unmeasurable nature of critique. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 24 (1), 10-29.

Stoller, P. 2009. The power of the between: an anthroplogical odyssey . Chicago: University Press.

——— & C. Olkes 1987. In sorcery’s shadow:  a memoir of apprenticeship among the Songhay of Niger . Chicago: University Press.

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Tapsell, P. 2020. The anthropology of being (me). In Writing anthropology: essays on craft and commitment (ed.) C. McGranahan, 256-9. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 

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Ulysse, G.A. 2020. Writing anthropology and such, or ‘once more, with feeling.’ In Writing anthropology: essays on craft and commitment (ed.) C. McGranahan, 251-5. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.  

Verdery, K. 2018. My life as a spy: investigations in a secret police file . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Waterston, A. 2014. My father’s wars: migration, memory, and the violence of a century . New York: Routledge.

——— & C. Hollands 2020. Light in dark times: the human search for meaning . Toronto: University Press.

Wiles, E. 2021. Live literature: the experience and cultural value of literary performance events from salons to festivals. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wulff, H. 2016. Introducing the anthropologist as writer: across and within genres. In The anthropologist as writer: genres and contexts in the twenty-first century (ed.) H. Wulff, 1-18. Oxford: Berghahn.

——— 2017. Rhythms of writing: an anthropology of Irish literature . London: Bloomsbury.

——— 2018. Diversifying from within: diaspora writings in Sweden. In The composition of anthropology: how anthropological texts are written (eds) M. Nielsen & N. Rapport, 122-36. London: Routledge.

——— 2019. Rhythms of writing: craft, career, and context . Pro Futura Lecture. Uppsala: Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala University.

Note on Contributor

Helena Wulff is Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Her current research engages with migrant writing in Sweden. She is editor of The anthropologist as writer: genres and contexts in the twenty-first century (2016, Berghahn) and author of Rhythms of writing: an anthropology of Irish Literature (2017, Bloomsbury).

Professor Helena Wulff, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden. [email protected]

[1] Tichenor, M. 2020. Metrics. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology (eds) F. Stein, S. Lazar, M. Candea, H. Diemberger, J. Robbins, A. Sanchez & R. Stasch (available on-line: http://doi.org/10.29164/20metrics ).

[2] Clifford Geertz (1988) considered especially Bronislaw Malinowski, Ruth Benedict, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and Claude Lévi-Strauss as authors.

[3] A number of volumes combine anthropology with literature such as Dennis & Aycock 1989, Benson 1993, Daniel & Peck 1996, De Angelis 2002, and Cohen 2013.

[4] The Society for Humanistic Anthropology is a section of the American Anthropological Association. See also the online magazine, Otherwise ( https://www.otherwisemag.com/ ).

[5] https://anthrodendum.org/

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anthropology

Definition of anthropology

Did you know.

The Origin of Anthropology

The word anthropology dates back to the late 16th century, but it was not until the 19th century that it was applied to the academic discipline that now bears its name. In the United States, this field of study is typically divided into four distinct branches: physical (or biological) anthropology, archaeology, cultural (or social) anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.

Anthropology is from the New Latin word anthropologia (“the study of humanity”) and shares its ultimate root in Greek, anthrōpos (“human being”), with a number of other words in English, such as anthropomorphize , philanthropy , and misanthrope .

Examples of anthropology in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'anthropology.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

borrowed from New Latin anthropologia "study of humanity, science of human nature," from anthropo- anthropo- + -logia -logy

1593, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing anthropology

• cultural anthropology
• physical anthropology

Dictionary Entries Near anthropology

anthropolith

anthropomancy

Cite this Entry

“Anthropology.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthropology. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

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Kids definition of anthropology, medical definition, medical definition of anthropology, more from merriam-webster on anthropology.

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How to write an anthropology essay perfectly?

• Academic Writing Tips
• Essay Tips&Tricks

Stuck with an anthropology essay with no help in sight? Anthropology essay writing is not a simple task. Not many college students can handle such a paper. An anthropology essay is an academic paper that deals with the study of humans.

Anthropology is a scientific course program with many subtopics, including culture, human behaviors, and social relationships.

Writing an anthropology essay is quite challenging since it covers detailed analysis and interpretation of past historical events. It also entails predicting patterns of human behaviors while evaluating specific cultural aspects to reveal the occurrences at that particular period. Thus, such compositions need comprehensive research and a keen study of different cultures. Besides, you must identify a fascinating topic to compose a winning essay.

Due to the paper’s complexities, many students can’t craft anthropology papers. It could be because of poor writing skills or inadequate time to write. In such situations, you can seek professional help from our essay writing service . We hire top-rated experts who understand the entire writing process.

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In this article, you will gain insightful tips on writing anthropology papers. We have also listed captivating topic ideas to help you jumpstart your essay.

Writing Assignments You Will Deal with on Anthropology Courses

College students pursuing Anthropology courses often have many assignments to work on as part of the program assessment. You will encounter several disciplines like linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology, and biological anthropology. You will write many anthropology essays to measure your understanding of this subject’s subdisciplines.

To compose winning essays, you need to understand different cultures, evolutionary origins, and human distinctiveness, among other diverse social aspects. It is essential to be familiar with the subject you are writing on to avoid including inaccurate information.

Thus, you need to take time on the topic selection when writing such assignments. This entails an in-depth examination of historical records and information that will lead to a well-researched paper. Your preferred topic should neither be too broad nor too narrow. It helps you get acceptable content that will fit the required paper length.

Let us explore the approach you need when tackling anthropology papers. We have two effective strategies that can help you during essay compositions:

Writing depends on the target audience. You must follow the required academic standards to compose a comprehensible piece for your fellow students. Ensure your format is appropriate; incorporate proper grammar and no spelling errors. This is the personal approach for anthropology writing.

It is imperative to have flowing paragraphs and logical arguments for an exceptional essay. Pay extra attention to editing and proofreading to eliminate any mistakes that might result in poor grades. Not forgetting to cite renowned scientists in this field to make your paper more authoritative.

The general approach involves writing papers for the general audience. It does not cover a specific audience. For instance, you can take a general approach when composing an essay to lure students into studying anthropology.

Avoid technical jargon, complicated concepts, and citations. Instead, take a creative approach with compelling human experiences and less anthropological vocabularies that might scare them. But remember to use trusted sources for citations.

If you can’t find the best approach, hire one of our seasoned anthropologists to help you structure your paper flawlessly.

What Is Ethnography?

Ethnography is a discipline of the Anthropology course that deals with individual cultures. It deals with qualitative research that entails investigating a particular community to understand their life and interactions for a particular period.

Such types of anthropological writing require long-term research exercise. Your research can take up to three years to compose an excellent paper. This is because you live with the people to understand their culture and perspective towards life.

Today, most scientists use this approach to derive conclusive analysis about specific cultures. It can go beyond anthropology to other scientific fields of study.

Thus, you can get more insights from an anthropology essay example to format your paper appropriately.

How To Write An Anthropology Essay

Anthropological writing might seem simple, but many students get stuck due to the critical analysis of human life. The compositions will not be complicated if you have the correct format and guidance. First, you need to ensure you get an appropriate topic related to the research prompt. Therefore, take time to identify the best title for your paper before commencing the writing process.

First, make sure you read the prompt keenly to know what is expected from you. You will then brainstorm to identify the significant ideas relating to the topic that you will expound on your body.

Carry out a comprehensive research exercise to get reliable academic sources. This will help you when citing your work to avoid plagiarism claims.

Furthermore, it is imperative to note that the anthropological writing exercise follows the formal academic writing style. You must have the proper essay format that entails an introduction, main body, and conclusion.

The introduction should be attention-grabbing with the proper sentences and a compelling thesis statement. Let your readers know what your research paper entails by stating the main points. Proceed to explain the points in the main body. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that reveals the main idea. You must articulate your ideas in detailed explanations with a supporting example. Make sure the paragraphs flow logically and transitionally to avoid confusing the readers.

Finally, conclude your essay by restating the main ideas and revealing the significance of the study. Stick to the relevant ideas you captured in the body. Do not include any new information about the research.

One way of improving your writing is to sample an anthropology essay example from a trusted site. Check out the writing style and the format used and incorporate them into your composition.

However, if you are still experiencing difficulties with the paper’s complexities, we can help you compose impeccable content that fits your research question. Let us boost your academic performance with top-notch essays.

Anthropology Essay Topics

Topic selection is a confusing section for many students. You must pick a relevant topic that relates to the research question. Our experts have listed a few topic ideas to inspire your writing.

Let us explore compelling anthropology essay topics to get your writing on the right track.

• Discuss the effect of culture on modern society.
• A comprehensive analysis of folklore in ancient times.
• Explore the history of indigenous societies.
• How do social media platforms impact modern culture?
• Compare and contrast forensic science and anthropology.
• Explore different gender roles in prehistoric times.
• Polyandry and polygamy: An in-depth analysis.
• Ethnic cleansing: The influence on contemporary society.
• Importance of rituals and pagan ceremonies.
• Causes and effect of cultural stereotyping in today’s society.

Here are cultural anthropology topic ideas to inspire your compositions:

• Explore the role of politics in anthropology.
• How does culture influence human practices?
• Analyze the impact of cultural anthropologists on society.
• Causes and effects of cultural conflicts.
• The significance of literature on human culture.
• How does religion impact culture?
• Analyze agricultural practices in ancient times.
• A comprehensive analysis of the Romans.
• Causes and effects of cultural behaviors on cultural anthropology.
• Analyze growth and development in cultural anthropology.

Below are physical anthropology essay topics to help you select the proper title:

• The impact of mythologies in physical anthropology.
• The effects of an aging society in a developing nation.
• Analyze the impact of ancient piercing cultural behavior.
• Explore the challenges of human migration in the 20 th
• Discuss human evolution: A comprehensive analysis.
• Eugenics: The pros and cons.
• Preservation of dead bodies: The influence in Ancient Egypt.
• The effect of the environment on skin color.
• Evaluate physical labor and its effect on humans.
• An analysis of death rituals in African societies.

Below are medical anthropology topic ideas for your perusal:

• Explore the upsides and downsides of alternative medicine.
• Analyze the impact of ethno zoology in medicine.
• Discuss the importance of medical anthropology.
• How medical anthropology can improve human health.
•  What is ethnobotany?
• Discuss the history of Chinese medicine.
• Impact of drugs on medical anthropology.
• A comprehensive analysis of marijuana legalization in developed countries.
• Explore the controversies of abortion in modern society.
• An analysis of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

The above anthropology essay topics can help you craft remarkable papers that will score you top grades. Do not let fatigue and anxiety jeopardize your grades. We understand how demanding college life can get; that is why our service is at the forefront in ensuring we help needy students get top-quality papers.

Therefore, don’t hesitate to contact us if you need writing assistance.

Exsample #1

Endangered language in kundur and karez-i-mulla, southeast asia.

Southeast Asia present a number of endangered languages and one of such is what is found in the villages of Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla, Herat Province in Afghanistan. Mongolian language is the language that Moseley (2010) considers as ‘critically endangered.’ As a one of the three subfamilies of the Altaic language family, Mongol is considered critically endangered as it is currently spoken by almost 200 old men in the village.

From brief history, during the middle Mongolian period, history witnessed different dialects developing into separate language. The currently surviving language as Mongol in Afghanistan includes Santa (Dongxiang) and Bao’an (Bonan) in the south and Daur in the east. One key property of the language, specifically the aforementioned dialects is that they retained /h/ and /f/ from Proto-Altaic */p/ (this is an asterisk identifies that acts as a sound that is hypothetical or one which has been reconstructed). Furthermore, the language has unassimilated sequences of vowel. What Moseley (2010) gives as an example is the Middle Mongolian e’ü which can be regarded as classical Mongolian having a medial velar, egü. From the classical Mongolian, where other dialects of Mongolian have merged these vowels into a single, lengthy vowel referred to as ṻ.

In terms of the language demographics, this language is currently spoken by only the elderly totaling to about 200 people. Secondly, the 200 elderly speaking the language are among the handful ethnic Moghols found in Herāt in Afghanistan. Owing to the fact that the total numbers of families belonging to Moghols are just a few thousands justifies the language’s status of ‘critically endangered.’ One notable feature of the language that in fact separates it from other Afghanis languages is the fact that it is unique in the preservation of the high back unrounded vowel /ɯ/. The process of the language extinction has been termed as ‘rapid’ in the sense that it has lost its Proto-Altaic */p/ in as much it can be said to be preserving its unassimilated vowel sequences.

Additionally, the syntax and the phonology of the endangered language have been affected by Persian. Some of effects Persian has had on Mongol are that it has borrowed a large number of words from Persian, including some function words. For instance, there is the word ‘Daur’ which is not directly linked or related to those other extant Mongolian language.

Endangered Species in Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla, Southeast Asia

One of the species that has been marked endangered around Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla is the Tibetan Black Bear. This animal goes by several other names in the region including Moon Bear, Baluchistan Bear or Baluchistan Bear. One of the challenges facing the animal is habitat destruction as well as hunting for its paws, skin and gall bladder which has been found to be essential in Oriental medicine. Furthermore, people are Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla consider Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla to be nuisance and destructive because they feed on domestic livestock and crops. Unfortunately, there have been reports of the animal attacking people especially children and women in the regions bordering Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla.

On physical appearance the animal is black with distinctive white crescent marking on the chest. The species is smaller in size and appearance when compared with its better-known American black bear. One feature that makes that animal adaptive to its environment are its large and rounded ears, pointed snout, sharp claws and excellent swimmers and climbers making them feed on their prayers with a lot of ease.

At the moment, there are three distinctive activities that have threatened the continuity of the animal. First, Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla where Mongolian language is common is characterized by settlements in mountainous areas. This development has led to the increase in human caused or Mongolian caused mortality. That is, there have been increased human-caused rates of mortality for the species as a result of settlements in the forest. Secondly, Baluchistan Bear has been endangered by commercial trapping, livestock depredation control, unregulated hunting and habitat deterioration. The third concern for the continuously decreasing number of Baluchistan Bear has been the perception that Baluchistan Bear have been a threat to human life around Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla. As a matter of fact, this is the reason where the association between people and Baluchistan Bear has been minimal leading to its endangering.

How Specie and the Language are Endangered

On the other hand, Baluchistan Bear and Mongolian language have been endangered as a result of changes on human activities and migration. To conceptualise this point, recreational development, energy and mineral and road building are some of the issues that have been behind the decrease in number of Baluchistan Bear in Kundur and Karez-i-Mulla. Comparing the situation with the endangered Mongolian language the situation has been opposite. The spread of Mongolian language is going down as a result of the dying members of the family with little or no trace of documented or written language. This situation has brought the loss of essential ancestral knowledge that was once embedded in people’s culture.

Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version: http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas

Assignment 2

Institution:

The minorities in South East Asia comprise of the non-indigenous minorities including immigrants as well as their descendants who have adapted into the local culture. Ethnic minorities across Southeast Asia continue to face very real clashes with their nation states regarding sociocultural and political differences. Some indigenous political representatives try to covert ethnic/cultural specificity into some special collective rights at the national level and international fora regarding indigenous people (Swearer, 2012). Minorities’ communities within Southeast Asia have found democratic space to express and represent their cultures and values. Immigrants have shaped the political landscape in Southeast Asia. Authoritarian regimes have not given much space to minorities within their population.

There is an amazing persistence of poverty despite the rapid economic expansion in Southeast Asia. Poverty has declined largely in the last 30 years in most regions of Southeast Asia. The reduction in poverty has happened despite growing inequality. Long-term economic growth was been consistent in most parts of Southeast Asia despite the setbacks such as the financial crisis of 1997-98. Economic growth has not led to total reduction of poverty due to inequality. Absolute poverty has reduced over time due to economic growth. The overall record in poverty reduction and growth has not been uniform in Southeast Asia as experiences in states like Philippines, East Timor, Indonesia, Lao, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. Southeast Asia has performed well in poverty reduction and economic growth (Ananta & Barichello, 2012). The economic crisis in 1990s negatively affected the achievement of the Southeast Asia population. An obvious manifestation of poverty is malnutrition. Malnutrition reduces poverty alleviation efforts.

Southeast Asia concepts of kingship as well as traditional legitimacy were not incompatible with other autochthonous patterns that existed. Regarded as against their Buddhist and Brahmanic background, concepts of kingship in Southeast Asia are not separable cosmology of a man’s world. Kingship post 1800s is a thing of the past in the Southeast Asia as modern democracy and civilization takes place. Authoritarian regimes have transformed to democracies or allowed open economy. Monarchical tradition within Malaya presently indicates that even Islamization within Southeast Asia did not impact the Hindu vision of the King being the preserver of the balance system within the Universe (Swearer, 2012). Divinity intertwined with Kingship in Southeast Asia. The concepts of kingship are continually fading within the Southeast Asia region.

Development in Southeast Asia has been largely shaped by interaction with other more powerful regions. Southeast Asia has a long history of crucial economic and security ties with the United States and is a very good place of strategic interest. In the course of the Vietnam War, Southeast Asia countries were ideologically divided as well as feuding. There was a simmering feeling of reorganization that begun with economic development through forming a trading bloc. The United States has to maintain regional security through making sure it has a credible military presence, viable regional training as well as a support structure. The United States cannot ignore the region with its vast population and importance in regional balance and stability. The USA objective in the region is very complex and not merely balancing against China (Chou & Houben, 2006). The US alliances with Thailand and Philippines represent two outstanding stand of interest. The Philippines is important in the management of the downside risk while Thailand’s significance is in its potential in assisting in maximizing the upside of the order. Southeast Asia is very significant to the USA foreign policy.

Southeast Asia region represents an interesting as well as significant arena for democratization in the world. The transition from authoritarian rule within the region to democracy in some countries like the Philippines has attracted a lot of attention. Political systems within Southeast Asia range from democracies to single-party states as well as some societies controlled by the military. There are countries were democracy is established and state leadership is normally elected. Some democracy is still at its infancy stage but is gradually being established (Chou & Houben, 2006). Some countries in Southeast Asia have their government structure with combined characteristics from different societies and political structure operate between military rule and democracy. Some countries are single-party states but have opened up their economies like China and are undergoing economic reforms. Democracy in some countries is still a long way coming. They take strategic advantage regarding static ethnic stereotypes of the colonial kind as being part of the decolonization process.

Essay Question 1

Women within the Vietnamese culture are found in a disadvantaged position. The women do not have jobs outside of the house and up brought out more strictly as compared to men. Paradise for the Blind shows the resilience and power of women to be patient and ensure whatever they go through life. Mother to Hang lives in Hanoi for 10 years until the husbands shows up one day. Hang’s father kills himself out of shame since he cannot stand the repercussion of what he has done (Duong & McPherson, 2002). Women in Vietnamese culture structure to fend for their families by working hard. Hang mother despite the poverty level in Hanoi struggles to sell snacks to earn a living. Hang’s aunt does back-breaking work in rebuilding life for herself. She is much respected in the community since she has built herself a fortune through sheer hard work. Her uncle just wanted to take advantage of women and situation in life to make it but the women work hard to get what they have. In Re-branding Islam women’s resilience stands out despite the religious discrimination that they face. In both Re-branding Islam women play an important role in growing the economy of the country. Although women suffer because of how they are regarded in the society they play important part in bringing up their children and determining the destiny of men. In Indonesia where the Islam culture is prevalent, women are disadvantaged despite their struggles in everyday life. Family values play an important role in the two scenarios giving women the strong will to achieve in life (Hoesterey & Hoesterey, 2015). The family values make the women to be determined and sacrifice on behalf of their children and family. Family values bind the women to their goals and they struggle to make the family a success. The role of women as a bedrock of the society and family wellbeing cannot be disputed in both cases.

Ananta, A., & Barichello R.R. (2012), Poverty and Global Recession in Southeast Asia, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Chou, C., & Houben V. (2006), Southeast Asian Studies: Debates and New Directions Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Duong T.H., McPherson, N. (2002). Paradise of the Blind: A Novel, HarperCollins, 2002 Hoesterey, J.B., & Hoesterey, J. (2015) Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru, Stanford University Press. Swearer D.K. (2012). Buddhist World of Southeast Asia, The: Second Edition, SUNY Series in Religious Studies, Bangkok: SUNY Press.

The main finding in the subject chapter seems to indicate that reciprocity and exchange patterns in Japan are asymmetrical, while Americans showed more symmetrical exchange and reciprocity patterns. In other words, the old in Japan would accept gifts and/or help from family members and repay it in kind. However, their American counterparts could only accept gifts and/or help if they had the capacity to reciprocate the gesture with material resources, e.g. by re-gifting the giver or helper. The theme that emerges from Akiyama et al. (2009) however seems to indicate that reciprocity and exchange is a mechanism that the old people perceive as necessary in the creation of stable relationships.

The foregoing theme has been discussed elsewhere in literature where it is indicated that when old people become perennial receivers of gifts and help, they deem themselves as unbefitting of such handouts (Fyrand, 2010; Thompson, 2013). Specifically, the old people feel as if they owe people who help or give them material or moral support too much. Their inability to pay the material or moral debt to their younger givers or supporters leads to a situation where they (the old people), can no longer relate well with givers or helpers.

As Fyrand (2010) notes, the unbalanced relationship between the giver and the receiver (old people) can result in mental distress occasioned by feelings of unworthiness in the latter. Ultimately, the old recipients of gifts and/or help may discontinue the relationship. Interestingly, Akiyama et al. (2009) found out that while old people in Japan (especially women) readily accept support from their children, their counterparts in the US do not readily accept such support and/or gifts unless they are able to repay it in a similar manner.

For example, while the old in Japan accept the help offered by their daughters-in-law, they ‘repay’ the kindness through appreciation, affection, love, and elevating their supporter’s position in the society by talking positively about them.

In Jewish history for instance Abraham is the first recorded monotheist, but around him, other people were still at a magical/animistic/polytheistic stage. The same was still true in the time of Moses when Egypt worshipped many gods, and whose priests were often magicians, and even on into New Testament times when Jewish and Christian monotheism stood alongside Greek and Roman polytheism. The societies involved later moved to a scientific approach, especially in the Scientific Revolutionary period which began in the late medieval period and continued until the time of great thinkers such Isaac Newton, and of course in one sense has continued to the present day.

What Copernicus and others did was reject the then teaching of the Roman Catholic Church regarding astronomy etc, because by direct observation they were able to see that it was wrong. This did and does not necessarily mean that they rejected God. There are fundamentalists who believe in a literal 7 days creation story and other Christians who accept the scientific explanations of gradual evolution, but who still believe that God was the prime cause. For the latter, the two ‘stages’ of religion and science run in parallel with no apparent problem.

At what stage are they? In the late 1800s by Draper and White claimed religion and science are automatically enemies. Craig Rushbolt in his 2004 article ‘Relationships between Science and Religion: Conflict & Warfare?’ points out how their books:- Each painted a picture of history as a conflict between the rationality of science (earnestly searching for truth) opposed by the stubborn ignorance of religion (stubbornly trying to block scientific progress), with science fighting valiantly This he says is not a true picture because it is both over-simplistic and inaccurate.

It would perhaps be truer to say that there was a conflict between the authority of the church with its dogmatic ideas and those who thought independently.

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Table of contents

Anthropology: Definition and Purposes Essay

It goes without saying that all three fields in the social sciences, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, play a vital role in the understanding of human beings, and their examination is highly essential and engaging. However, for the moment, I am interested more in anthropology as I believe this science helps understand people more comprehensively. First of all, I may say that I prefer to examine individuals in groups.

Regardless of individual characteristics, social collectives may be characterized by particular common behavior, culture, values, and beliefs which, in turn, may influence every member of these groups. At the same time, the main advantage of anthropology that attracts me is the focus of this science on humans’ past and present (American Anthropological Association, 2021). Anthropology aims to understand what makes every person a human and creates culture. It explains how the world influences people and how people influence the world throughout history.

In general, anthropology includes several areas: archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. From a personal perspective, linguistic anthropology is the most attractive interdisciplinary study of social sciences. First of all, it is not covered by sociology or psychology as much as by anthropology. Moreover, I would like to learn more about how languages form cultures, and how different cultures impact languages. It goes without saying that one of the most important purposes of anthropology is the search for solutions for modern issues through the investigation of humans’ past.

Thus, I wish to contribute to common social wellbeing as well through the application of social, physical, and biological sciences. In particular, I am highly interested in whether any modern issues may be positively affected by languages and their connection with various cultures.

American Anthropological Association. (2021). What is anthropology? Web.

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Bibliography

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• Archaeological Theory Today
• Human Evolution and Archaeology
• Ethical Aspects of Archaeology
• Dendrochronology and Tree-Ring Studies in Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology & Misrepresentation of Past
• Archaeology: The Nan Madol and the Lapaha of Tonga as the Wonders of the World
• Death and Funeral Customs of the Ainu and Nuer Peoples
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11 Religion

Sashur henninger, pasadena city college [email protected].

Learning Objectives

Define religion and explain its significance in human cultures.

Summarize theories developed by anthropologists to explain the importance of supernatural beliefs in human communities.

Identify the four elements of religion (cosmology, belief in the supernatural, rules of behavior, and rituals) and explain how each element contributes to religious practices.

Define rites of passage, rites of intensification, and rites of revitalization and explain the purpose of each type of ritual.

Humans have always wondered about the meaning of the life, the nature of the universe, and the forces that shape our lives. While it is impossible to know for sure how the people who lived thousands of years ago answered these kinds of questions, there are some clues. Fifty thousand years ago, human communities buried the dead with stone tools, shells, animal bones, and other objects, a practice that suggests they were preparing the deceased for an afterlife, or a world beyond this one. Thirty thousand years ago, artists entered the Chauvet cave in France and painted dramatic scenes of animals on the cave walls along with abstract symbols that suggest the images were part of a supernatural belief system, possibly one focused on ensuring safety or success in hunting (Figure 1). [1] A few thousand years later, collections of small clay sculptures, known as Venus figurines, began appearing across Eurasia. They seem to express ideas about fertility or motherhood and may have been viewed as magical (Figure 2). [2]

DEFINING RELIGION

Because ideas about the supernatural are part of every human culture, understanding these beliefs is important to anthropologists. However, studying supernatural beliefs is challenging for several reasons. The first difficulty arises from the challenge of defining the topic itself. The word “religion,” which is commonly used in the United States to refer to participation in a distinct form of faith such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, is not a universally recognized idea. Many cultures have no word for “religion” at all and many societies do not make a clear distinction between beliefs or practices that are “religious,” or “spiritual” and other habits that are an ordinary part of daily life. For instance, leaving an incense offering in a household shrine dedicated to the spirits of the ancestors may be viewed as a simple part of the daily routine rather than a “religious” practice. There are societies that believe in supernatural beings, but do not call them “gods.” Some societies do not see a distinction between the natural and the supernatural observing, instead, that the spirits share the same physical world as humans. Concepts like “heaven,” “hell,” or even “prayer” do not exist in many societies. The divide between “religion” and related ideas like “spirituality” or even “magic” is also murky in some cultural contexts.

To study supernatural beliefs, anthropologists must cultivate a perspective of cultural relativism and strive to understand beliefs from an emic or insider’s perspective. Imposing the definitions or assumptions from one culture on another is likely to lead to misunderstandings. One example of this problem can be found in the early anthropological research of Sir James Frazer who attempted to compose the first comprehensive study of the world’s major magical and religious belief systems. Frazer was part of early generation of anthropologists whose work was based on reading and questionnaires mailed to missionaries and colonial officials rather than travel and participant-observation. As a result, he had only minimal information about the beliefs he wrote about and he was quick to apply his own opinions. In The Golden Bough (1890) he dismissed many of the spiritual beliefs he documented: “I look upon [them] not merely as false but as preposterous and absurd.” [3] His contemporary, Sir E.B. Tylor, was less dismissive of unfamiliar belief systems, but he defined religion minimally and, for some, in overly narrow terms as “the belief in supernatural beings.” This definition excludes much of what people around the world actually believe. [4] As researchers gained more information about other cultures, their ideas about religion became more complex. The sociologist Emile Durkheim recognized that religion was not simply a belief in “supernatural beings,” but a set of practices and social institutions that brought members of a community together. Religion, he said, was “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set aside and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.” [5]

Durkheim’s analysis of religion emphasized the significance of spiritual beliefs for relationships between people. Subsequent anthropological research in communities around the world has confirmed that rituals associated with beliefs in the supernatural play a significant role in structuring community life, providing rules or guidelines for behavior, and bonding members of a community to one another. Interestingly, religious “beings,” such as gods or spirits, also demonstrate social qualities. Most of the time, these beings are imagined in familiar terms as entities with personalities, desires, and “agency,” an ability to make decisions and take action. Supernatural beings, in other words, are not so different from people. [6] In keeping with this idea, religion can be defined as “the means by which human society and culture is extended to include the nonhuman.” [7] This definition is deliberately broad and can be used to encompass many different kinds of belief systems.

Many religions involve ideas or rituals that could be described as “magical” and the relationship between religion and magic is complex. In his book A General Theory of Magic (1902), Marcel Mauss suggested that religion and magic were two opposite poles on a spectrum of spiritual beliefs. Magic was at one end of the spectrum; it was private, secret, and individual. Religion was at the opposite end of the spectrum; it was public and oriented toward bringing the community together. [8] Although Mauss’ formulation presented religion and magic as part of the same general way of thinking, many contemporary anthropologists are convinced that making a distinction between religion and magic is artificial and usually not particularly useful. With this caution in mind, magic can be defined as practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one’s personal control. Sorcerers are individuals who seek to use magic for their own purposes. It is important to remember that both magic and sorcery are labels that have historically been used by outsiders, including anthropologists, to describe spiritual beliefs with which they are unfamiliar. Words from the local language are almost always preferable for representing how people think about themselves.

THEORIES OF RELIGION

Sir James Frazer’s effort to interpret religious mythology was the first of many attempts to understand the reasons why cultures develop various kinds of spiritual beliefs. In the early twentieth century, many anthropologists applied a functional approach to this problem by focusing on the ways religion addressed human needs. Bronislaw Malinowski (1931), who conducted research in the Trobriand Islands located near Papua New Guinea, believed that religious beliefs met psychological needs. He observed that religion “is not born out of speculation or reflection, still less out of illusion or apprehension, but rather, out of the real tragedies of human life, out of the conflict between human plans and realities.” [9]

At the time of Malinowski’s research, the Trobriand Islanders participated in an event called the kula ring, a tradition that required men to build canoes and sail on long and dangerous journeys between neighboring islands to exchange ritual items. Malinowski noticed that before these dangerous trips several complex rituals had to be performed, but ordinary sailing for fishing trips required no special preparations. What was the difference? Malinowski concluded that the longer trips were not only more dangerous, but also provoked more anxiety because the men felt they had less control over what might happen. On long voyages, there were many things that could go wrong, few of which could be planned for or avoided. He argued that religious rituals provided a way to reduce or control anxiety when anticipating these conditions. [10] The use of rituals to reduce anxiety has been documented in many other settings. George Gmelch (1971) documented forms of “baseball magic” among professional athletes. Baseball players, for instance, have rituals related to how they eat, dress, and even drive to the ballpark, rituals they believe contribute to good luck. [11]

As a functionalist, Malinowski believed that religion provided shared values and behavioral norms that created solidarity between people. The sociologist Emile Durkheim also believed that religion played an important role in building connections between people by creating shared definitions of the sacred and profane. Sacred objects or ideas are set apart from the ordinary and treated with great respect or care while profane objects or ideas are ordinary and can be treated with disregard or contempt. Sacred things could include a God or gods, a natural phenomenon, an animal or many other things. Religion, Durkheim concluded, was “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices that unite, into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.” [12] Once a person or a thing was designated as sacred, Durkheim believed that celebrating it through ritual was a powerful way to unite communities around shared values. [13] In addition, celebrating the sacred can create an intense emotional experience Durkheim referred to as collective effervescence , a passion or energy that arises when groups of people share the same thoughts and emotions. The experience of collective effervescence magnifies the emotional impact of an event and can create a sense of awe or wonder. [14]

Following Durkheim, many anthropologists, including Dame Mary Douglas, have found it useful to explore the ways in which definitions of sacred and profane structure religious beliefs. In her book Purity and Danger (1966), Douglas analyzed the way in which cultural ideas about things that were “dirty” or “impure” influenced religious beliefs. The kosher dietary rules observed by Jews were one prominent example of the application of this kind of thinking. [15]

The philosopher and historian Karl Marx famously called religion “the opium of the people.” [16] He viewed religion as an ideology, a way of thinking that attempts to justify inequalities in power and status. In his view, religion created an illusion of happiness that helped people cope with the economic difficulties of life under capitalism. As an institution, Marx believed that the Christian church helped to legitimize and support the political and economic inequality of the working class by encouraging ordinary people to orient themselves toward the afterlife, where they could expect to receive comfort and happiness. He argued that the obedience and conformity advocated by religious leaders as a means of reaching heaven also persuaded people not to fight for better economic or social conditions in their current lives. Numerous examples of the use of religion to legitimize or justify power differences have been documented cross-culturally including the existence of divine rulers, who were believed to be empowered by the Gods themselves, in ancient Egyptian and Incan societies. A glimpse of the legitimizing role of religion is also seen in the U.S. practice of having elected officials take an oath of office using the Bible or another holy book.

The psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that religion is the institution that prevents us from acting upon our deepest and most awful desires. One of his most famous examples is the Oedipal complex, the story of Oedipus who (unknowingly) had a sexual relationship with his mother and, once he discovered this, ripped out his own eyes in a violent and gory death. One possible interpretation of this story is that there is an unconscious sexual desire among males for their mothers and among females their fathers. These desires can never be acknowledged, let alone acted on, because of the damage they would cause to society. [17] In one of his most well-known works, Totem and Taboo, Freud proposes that religious beliefs provide rules or restrictions that keep the worst anti-social instincts, like the Oedipal complex, suppressed. He developed the idea of “totemic religions,” belief systems based on the worship of a particular animal or object, and suggested that the purpose of these religions was to regulate interactions with socially significant and potentially disruptive objects and relationships. [18]

One interesting interpretation of religious beliefs that builds on the work of Durkheim, Marx, and Freud is Marvin Harris’ analysis of the Hindu prohibition against killing cows. In Hinduism, the cow is honored and treated with respect because of its fertility, gentle nature, and association with some Hindu deities. In his book Cow, Pigs, Wars, and Witches (1974), Harris suggested that these religious ideas about the cow were actually based in an economic reality. In India, cows are more valuable alive as a source of milk or for doing work in the fields than they are dead as meat. For this reason, he argued, cows were defined as sacred and set apart from other kinds of animals that could be killed and eaten. The subsequent development of religious explanations for cows’ specialness reinforced and legitimated the special treatment. [19]

A symbolic approach to the study of religion developed in the mid-twentieth century and presented new ways of analyzing supernatural beliefs. Clifford Geertz, one of the anthropologists responsible for creating the symbolic approach, defined religion as “a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, persuasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations…. by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.” [20] Geertz suggested that religious practices were a way to enact or make visible important cultural ideas. The symbols used in any religion, such as a cross or even a cow, can be interpreted or “read” by anthropologists to discern important cultural values. At the same time, religious symbols reinforce values or aspirations in members of the religious community. The Christian cross, which is associated with both death and resurrection, demonstrates ideas about sacrifice and putting the needs of others in the community first. The cross also symbolizes deeper ideas about the nature of life itself: that suffering can have positive outcomes and that there is something beyond the current reality.

A symbolic approach to religion treats religious beliefs as a kind of “text” or “performance” that can be interpreted by outsiders. Like the other theories described in this section, symbolic approaches present some risk of misinterpretation. Religious beliefs involve complex combinations of personal and social values as well as embodied or visceral feelings that cannot always be appreciated or even recognized by outsiders. The persistently large gap between emic (insider) and etic (outsider) explanations for religious beliefs and practices makes the study of religion one of the most challenging topics in cultural anthropology.

ELEMENTS OF RELIGION

Despite the wide variety of supernatural beliefs found in cultures around the world, most belief systems do share some common elements. The first of these characteristic is cosmology , an explanation for the origin or history of the world. Religious cosmologies provide “big picture” explanations for how human life was created and provide a perspective on the forces or powers at work in the world. A second characteristic of religion is a belief in the supernatural , a realm beyond direct human experience. This belief could include a God or gods, but this is not a requirement. Quite a few religious beliefs, as discussed below, involve more abstract ideas about supernatural forces. Most religions also share a third characteristic: rules governing behavior . These rules define proper conduct for individuals and for society as a whole and are oriented toward bringing individual actions into harmony with spiritual beliefs. A fourth element is ritual , practices or ceremonies that serve a religious purpose and are usually supervised by religious specialists. Rituals may be oriented toward the supernatural, such as rituals designed to please the gods, but at the same time they address the needs of individuals or the community as a whole. Funeral rituals, for instance, may be designed to ensure the passage of a deceased person to the afterlife, but also simultaneously provide emotional comfort to those who are grieving and provide an outlet for the community to express care and support.

Religious Cosmologies

  Religious cosmologies are ways of explaining the origin of the universe and the principles or “order” that governs reality. In its simplest form, a cosmology can be an origin story, an explanation for the history, present state, and possible futures of the world and the origins of the people, spirits, divinities, and forces that populate it. The ancient Greeks had an origin story that began with an act of creation from Chaos, the first thing to exist. The deities Erebus, representing darkness, and Nyx, representing night, were born from Chaos. Nyx gave birth to Aether (light) and Hemera (day). Hemera and Nyx took turns exiting the underworld, creating the phenomenon of day and night. Aether and Hemera next created Gaia (Earth), the mother of all life, who gave birth to the sky, the mountains, the sea, and eventually to a pantheon of gods. One of these gods, Prometheus, shaped humans out of mud and gave them the gift of fire. This origin story reflects many significant cultural ideas. One of these is the depiction of a world organized into a hierarchy with gods at the top and humans obligated to honor them.

Traditional Navajo origin stories provide a different view of the organization of the universe. These stories suggested that the world is a set of fourteen stacked “plates” or “platters.” Creation began at the lowest levels and gradually spread to the top. The lower levels contained animals like insects as well as animal-people and bird-people who lived in their own fully-formed worlds with distinct cultures and societies. At the top level, First Man and First Woman eventually emerged and began making preparations for other humans, creating a sweat lodge, hoghan (traditional house), and preparing sacred medicine bundles. During a special ceremony, the first human men and women were formed and they created those who followed. [21] Like the Greek origin story, the Navajo cosmology explains human identity and emphasizes the debt humans owe to their supernatural ancestors.

The first two chapters of the Biblical Book of Genesis, which is the foundation for both Judaism and Christianity, describe the creation of the world and all living creatures. The exact words vary in different translations, but describe a God responsible for creating the world and everything in it: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The six-day process began with the division of light from darkness, land from water, and heaven from earth. On the fifth day, “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.” [22] On the sixth day, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” [23] This cosmology differs from the others in describing an act of creation by a single deity, God, but shares with the Greek and Navajo versions a description of creation that emphasizes the relationship between people and their creator.

Reading these cosmologies also raises the question of how they should be interpreted. Are these origin stories regarded as literal truth in the cultures in which they originated? Or, are the stories metaphorical and symbolic? There is no simple answer to this question. Within any culture, individuals may disagree about the nature of their own religious traditions. Christians, for instance, differ in the extent to which they view the contents of the Bible as fact. Cultural relativism requires that anthropologists avoid making judgments about whether any cultural idea, including religious beliefs, is “correct” or “true.” Instead, a more useful approach is to try to understand the multiple ways people interpret or make sense of their religious beliefs. In addition it is important to consider the function a religious cosmology has in the wider society. As Bronislaw Malinowski observed, a myth or origin story is not an “idle tale, but a hard-worked active force.” [24]

Belief in the Supernatural

Another characteristic shared by most religions is a concept of the supernatural, spirits, divinities, or forces not governed by natural laws. The supernatural can take many forms. Some supernatural entities are anthropomorphic , having human characteristics. Other supernatural forces are more generalized, seen in phenomena like the power of the wind. The amount of involvement that supernatural forces or entities have in the lives of humans varies cross-culturally.

Abstract Forces

Many cultures are organized around belief in an impersonal supernatural force, a type of religion known as animatism . The idea of mana is one example. The word itself comes from Oceania and may originally have meant “powerful wind,” “lightning” or “storm.” Today, it still refers to power, but in a more general sense. Aram Oroi, a pastor from the Solomon Islands, has compared mana to turning on a flashlight: “You sense something powerful but unseen, and then— click —its power is made manifest in the world.” [25] Traditionally, the ability to accumulate mana in certain locations, or in one’s own body, was to become potent or successful. [26] Certain locations such as mountains or ancient sites ( marae ) have particularly strong mana. Likewise, individual behaviors, including sexual or violent acts, were traditionally viewed as ways to accumulate mana for oneself.

Interestingly, the idea of mana has spread far beyond its original cultural context. In 1993, Richard Garfield incorporated the idea in the card game Magic: The Gathering. Players of the game, which has sold millions of copies since its introduction, use mana as a source of power to battle wizards and magical creatures. Mana is also a source of power in the immensely popular computer game World of Warcraft. [27] These examples do show cultural appropriation , the act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning. However, they also demonstrate how compelling animist ideas about abstract supernatural power are across cultures. Another well-known example of animatism in popular culture is “the Force” depicted in the George Lucas Star Wars films. The Force is depicted as flowing through everything and is used by Luke Skywalker as a source of potency and insight when he destroys the Death Star.

The line between the natural and the supernatural can be blurry. Many people believe that humans have a supernatural or spiritual element that coexists within their natural bodies. In Christianity, this element is called the soul. In Hinduism, it is the atman . [28] The Tausūg, a group who live in the Philippines, believe that the soul has four parts: a transcendent soul that stays in the spiritual realm even when a person is alive; a life-soul that is attached to the body, but can move through dreams; the breath, which is always attached to the body, and the spirit-soul, which is like a person’s shadow. [29]

Many people believe that the spirit survives after an individual dies, sometimes remaining on Earth and sometimes departing for a supernatural realm. Spirits, or “ghosts,” who remain on Earth may continue to play an active role in the lives of their families and communities. Some will be well-intentioned and others will be malevolent. Almost universally, spirits of the deceased are assumed to be needy and to make demands on the living. For this reason, many cultures have traditions for the veneration of the dead, rituals intended to honor the deceased, or to win their favor or cooperation. When treated properly, ancestor spirits can be messengers to gods, and can act on behalf of the living after receiving prayers or requests. If they are displeased, ancestor spirits can become aggravated and wreak havoc on the living through illness and suffering. To avoid these problems, offerings in the form of favorite foods, drinks, and gifts are made to appease the spirits. In China, as well as in many other countries, filial piety requires that the living continue to care for the ancestors. [30]  In Madagascar, where bad luck and misfortune can be attributed to spirits of the dead who believe they have been neglected, a body may be repeatedly exhumed and shown respect by cleaning the bones. [31]

If humans contain a supernatural spirit, essence, or soul, it is logical to think that non-human entities may have their own sparks of the divine. Religions based on the idea that plants, animals, inanimate objects, and even natural phenomena like weather have a spiritual or supernatural element are called animism . The first anthropological description of animism came from Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, who believed it was the earliest type of religious practice to develop in human societies. [32] Tylor suggested that ordinary parts of the human experience, such as dreaming, formed the basis for spiritual beliefs. When people dream, they may perceive that they have traveled to another place, or may be able to communicate with deceased members of their families. This sense of altered consciousness gives rise to ideas that the world is more than it seems. Tylor suggested that these experiences, combined with a pressing need to answer questions about the meaning of life, were the basis for all religious systems. [33] He also assumed that animist religions evolved into what he viewed as more sophisticated religious systems involving a God or gods.

Today, Tylor’s views about the evolution of religion are considered misguided. No belief system is inherently more sophisticated than another. Several animist religions exist today and have millions of adherents. One of the most well-known is Shintoism, the traditional religion of Japan. Shintoism recognizes spirits known as kami that exist in plants, animals, rocks, places and sometimes people. Certain locations have particularly strong connections to the kami, including mountains, forests, waterfalls, and shrines. Shinto shrines in Japan are marked by torii gates that mark the separation between ordinary reality and sacred space (Figure 4).

The most powerful non-human spirits are gods, though in practice there is no universal definition of a “god” that would be recognized by all people. In general, gods are extremely powerful and not part of nature—not human, or animal. Despite their unnaturalness, many gods have personalities or qualities that are recognizable and relatable to humans. They are often anthropomorphic, imagined in human form, or zoomorphic , imagined in animal form. In some religions, gods interact directly with humans while in others they are more remote.

Anthropologists categorize belief systems organized around a God or gods using the terms monotheism and polytheism. Monotheistic religions recognize a single supreme God. The largest monotheistic religions in the world today are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Together these religions have more than 3.8 billion adherents worldwide. [34] Polytheistic religions include several gods. Hinduism, one of the world’s largest polytheistic religions with more than 1 billion practitioners, has a pantheon of deities each with different capabilities and concerns. [35]

Rules of Behavior

Religious beliefs are an important element of social control because these beliefs help to define acceptable behaviors as well as punishments, including supernatural consequences, for misbehavior. One well-known example are the ideas expressed in the Ten Commandments, which are incorporated in the teachings of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism and prohibit behaviors such as theft, murder, adultery, dishonesty, and jealousy while also emphasizing the need for honor and respect between people. Behavior that violates the commandments brings both social disapproval from other members of the religious community and potential punishment from God.

Buddhism, the world’s fourth largest religion, demonstrates the strong connection between spiritual beliefs and rules for everyday behavior.  Buddhists follow the teachings of Buddha, who was an ordinary human who achieved wisdom through study and discipline. There is no God or gods in some forms of Buddhism. Instead, individuals who practice Buddhism use techniques like meditation to achieve the insight necessary to lead a meaningful life and ultimately, after many lifetimes, to achieve the goal of nirvana , release from suffering.

Although Buddhism defies easy categorization into any anthropological category, there is an element of animatism represented by karma , a moral force in the universe. Individual actions have effects on one’s karma. Kindness toward others, for instance, yields positive karma while acts that are disapproved in Buddhist teachings, such as killing an animal, create negative karma. The amount of positive karma a person builds-up in a lifetime is important because it will determine how the individual will be reborn. Reincarnation, the idea that a living being can begin another life in a new body after death, is a feature of several religions. In Buddhism, the form of a human’s reincarnation depends on the quality of the karma developed during life. Rebirth in a human form is considered good fortune because humans have the ability to control their own thoughts and behaviors. They can follow the Noble Eightfold Path, rules based on the teachings of Buddha that emphasize the need for discipline, restraint, humility, and kindness in every aspect of life. [36]

Rituals and Religious Practitioners

The most easily observed elements of any religious belief system are rituals. Victor Turner (1972) defined ritual as “a stereotyped sequence of activities … performed in a sequestered place, and designed to influence preternatural entities or forces on behalf of the actors’ goals and interests.” [37] Rituals have a concrete purpose or goal, such as a wedding ritual that results in a religiously sanctioned union between people, but rituals are also symbolic. The objects and activities involved in rituals “stand in for” or mean more than what they actually are. In a wedding ceremony in the United States, the white color of the wedding dress is a traditional symbol of purity.

A large amount of anthropological research has focused on identifying and interpreting religious rituals in a wide variety of communities. Although the details of these practices differ in various cultural settings, it is possible to categorize them into types based on their goals. One type of ritual is a rite of passage , a ceremony designed to transition individuals between life stages. [38] A second type of ritual is a rite of intensification , actions designed to bring a community together, often following a period of crisis. [39] Revitalization rituals , which also often follow periods of crisis in a community, are ambitious attempts to resolve serious problems, such as war, famine, or poverty through a spiritual or supernatural intervention. [40]

Rites of Passage

In his original description of rites of passage, Arnold Van Gennep (1909) noted that these rituals were carried out in three distinct stages: separation, liminality, and incorporation. During the first stage, individuals are removed from their current social identity and begin preparations to enter the next stage of life. The liminal period that follows is a time in which individuals often undergo tests, trials, or activities designed to prepare them for their new social roles. In the final stage of incorporation, individuals return to the community with a new socially recognized status. [41]

Rites of passage that transition children into a new status as adults are common around the world. In Xhosa communities in South Africa, teenage boys were traditionally transitioned to manhood using a series of acts that moved them through each of the three ritual stages. In the separation stage, the boys leave their homes and are circumcised; they cannot express distress or signs of pain during the procedure. Following the circumcision, they live in isolation while their wounds heal, a liminal phase during which they do not talk to anyone other than boys who are also undergoing the rite of passage. This stressful time helps to build bonds between the boys that will follow them through their lives as adult men. Before their journey home, the isolated living quarters are burned to the ground, symbolizing the loss of childhood. When the participants return to their community, the incorporation phase, they are recognized as men and allowed to learn the secret stories of the community. [42]

Rites of Intensification

Rites of intensification are also extremely common in communities worldwide. These rituals are used to bind members of the community together, to create a sense of communitas or unity that encourages people to see themselves as members of community. One particularly dramatic example of this ritual is the Nagol land diving ceremony held each spring on the island of Pentecost in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Like many rituals, land diving has several goals. One of these is to help ensure a good harvest by impressing the spirits with a dramatic display of bravery. To accomplish this, men from the community construct wooden towers sixty to eighty feet high, tie ropes made from tree vines around their ankles, and jump head-first toward the ground (Figure 5). Preparations for the land diving involve almost every member of the community. Men spend a month or more working together to build the tower and collect the vines. The women of the community prepare special costumes and dances for the occasion and everyone takes care of land divers who may be injured during the dive. Both the preparations for the land diving and the festivities that follow are a powerful rite of intensification. Interestingly, the ritual is simultaneously a rite of passage; boys can be recognized as men by jumping from high portions of the tower witnessed by elders of the community. [43]

Rites of Revitalization

All rites of revitalization originate in difficult or even catastrophic circumstances. One notable example is a ritual that developed on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific. During World War II, many islands in the South Pacific were used by the U.S. military as temporary bases. Tanna was one of these locations and this formerly isolated community experienced an extremely rapid transformation as the U.S. military introduced modern conveniences such as electricity and automobiles. In an attempt to make sense of these developments, the island’s residents developed a variety of theories about the reason for these changes. One possible explanation was that the foreign materials had been given to the islanders by a powerful deity or ancestral spirit, an entity who eventually acquired the name John Frum. The name may be based on a common name the islanders would have encountered while the military base was in operation: “John from America.”

When the war ended and the U.S. military departed, the residents of Tanna experienced a kind of trauma as the material goods they had enjoyed disappeared and the John Frum ritual began . Each year on February fifteenth, many of the island’s residents construct copies of U.S. airplanes, runways, or towers and march in military formation with replicas of military rifles and American blue jeans. The ritual is intended to attract John Frum, and the material wealth he controls, back to the island. Although the ritual has not yet had its intended transformative effect, the participants continue the ritual. When asked to explain his continued faith, one village elder explained: “You Christians have been waiting 2,000 years for Jesus to return to Earth, and you haven’t given up hope.” [44] This John Frum custom is sometimes called a cargo cult , a term used to describe rituals that seek to attract material prosperity. Although the John Frum ritual is focused on commodities, or “cargo,” the term cargo cult is generally not preferred by anthropologists because it oversimplifies the complex motivations involved in the ritual. The word “cult” also has connotations with fringe or dangerous beliefs and this association also distorts understanding of the practice.

Religious Practitioners

Since rituals can be extremely complicated and the outcome is of vital importance to the community, specialist practitioners are often charged with responsibility for supervising the details. In many settings, religious specialists have a high social status and are treated with great respect. Some may become relatively wealthy by charging for their services while others may be impoverished, sometimes deliberately as a rejection of the material world. There is no universal terminology for religious practitioners, but there are three important categories: priests, prophets, and shamans.

Priests , who may be of any gender, are full-time religious practitioners. The position of priest emerges only in societies with substantial occupational specialization. Priests are the intermediaries between God (or the gods) and humans. Religious traditions vary in terms of the qualifications required for individuals entering the priesthood. In Christian traditions, it is common for priests to complete a program of formal higher education. Hindu priests, known as pujari , must learn the sacred language Sanskrit and spend many years becoming proficient in Hindu ceremonies. They must also follow strict lifestyle restrictions such as a vegetarian diet. Traditionally, only men from the Brahmin caste were eligible to become pujari, but this is changing. Today, people from other castes, as well as women, are joining the priesthood. One notable feature of societies that utilize full-time spiritual practitioners is a separation between ordinary believers and the God or gods. As intermediaries, priests have substantial authority to set the rules associated with worship practice and to control access to religious rites. [45]

The term shaman has been used for hundreds of years to refer to a part time religious practitioner. Shamans carry out religious rituals when needed, but also participate in the normal work of the community. A shaman’s religious practice depends on an ability to engage in direct communication with the spirits, gods, or supernatural realm. An important quality of a shaman is the ability to transcend normal reality in order to communicate with and perhaps even manipulate supernatural forces in an alternate world. This ability can be inherited or learned. [46] Transcending from the ordinary to the spiritual realm gives shamans the ability to do many things such as locate lost people or animals or heal the sick by identifying the spiritual cause of illness.

Among the Chukchi, who live in northern Russia, the role of the shaman is thought to be a special calling, one that may be especially appropriate for people whose personality traits seem abnormal in the context of the community. Young people who suffer from nervousness, anxiety, or moodiness, for example may feel a call to take up shamanistic practice. [47] There has been some research suggesting that shamanism may be a culturally accepted way to deal with conditions like schizophrenia. [48] If true, this might be because achieving an altered state of consciousness is essential for shamanic work. Entering an altered state, which can be achieved through dreams, hallucinogenic drugs, rhythmic music, exhaustion through dance, or other means, makes it possible for shamans to directly engage with the supernatural realm.

Shamans of the upper Amazon in South America have been using ayahuasca , a drink made from plants that have hallucinogenic effects, for centuries. The effects of ayahuasca start with the nervous system:

One under the control of the narcotic sees unroll before him quite a spectacle: most lovely landscapes, monstrous animals, vipers which approach and wind down his body or are entwined like rolls of thick cable, at a few centimeters distance; as well, one sees who are true friends and those who betray him or who have done him ill; he observes the cause of the illness which he sustains, at the same time being presented with the most advantageous remedy; he takes part in fantastic hunts; the things which he most dearly loves or abhors acquire in these moments extraordinary vividness and color, and the scenes in which his life normally develop adopt the most beautiful and emotional expression. [49]

Among the Shipibo people of Peru, ayahuasca is thought to be the substance that allows the soul of a shaman to leave his body in order to retrieve a soul that has been lost or stolen. In many cultures, soul loss is the predominant explanation for illness. The Shipibo believe that the soul is a separate entity from the body, one that is capable of leaving and returning at will. Shamans can also steal souls. The community shaman, under the influence of ayahuasca, is able to find and retrieve a soul, perhaps even killing the enemy as revenge. [50]

Anthropologist Scott Hutson (2000) has described similarities between the altered state of consciousness achieved by shamans and the mental states induced during a rave, a large dance party characterized by loud music with repetitive patterns. In a rave, bright lights, exhausting dance, and sometimes the use of hallucinogenic drugs, induce similar psychological effects to shamanic trancing. Hutson argues that through the rave individuals are able to enter altered states of consciousness characterized by a “self-forgetfulness” and an ability to transcend the ordinary self. The DJ at these events is often called a “techno-shaman,” an interesting allusion to the guiding role traditional shamans play in their cultures. [51]

A prophet is a person who claims to have direct communication with the supernatural realm and who can communicate divine messages to others. Many religious communities originated with prophecies, including Islam which is based on teachings revealed to the prophet Muhammad by God. In Christianity and Judaism, Moses is an example of a prophet who received direct revelations from God. Another example of a historically significant prophet is Joseph Smith who founded the Church of Latter Day Saints, after receiving a prophecy from an angel named Moroni who guided him to the location of a buried set of golden plates. The information from the golden plates became the basis for the Book of Mormon.

The major distinction between a priest and the prophet is the source of their authority. A priest gets his or her authority from the scripture and occupational position in a formally organized religious institution. A prophet derives authority from his or her direct connection to the divine and ability to convince others of his or her legitimacy through charisma . The kind of insight and guidance prophets offer can be extremely compelling, particularly in times of social upheaval or suffering.

One prophet who had enormous influence was David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians, a schism of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The Branch Davidians were millenarians, people who believe that major transformations of the world are imminent. David Koresh was extremely charismatic; he was handsome and an eloquent speaker. He offered refuge and solace to people in need and in the process he preached about the coming of an apocalypse, which he believed would be caused by the intrusion of the United States government on the Branch Davidian’s lifestyle. Koresh was so influential that when the United States government did eventually try to enter the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in 1993 to search for illegal weapons, members of the group resisted and exchanged gunfire with federal agents. Eventually, under circumstances that are still disputed, a fire erupted in the compound and eighty-six people, including Koresh, were killed. [52] Ultimately, the U.S. government helped to fulfill the apocalyptic vision of the group and David Koresh became a martyr. The Branch Davidians evolved into a new group, “Branch, Lord our Righteousness,” and today many await Koresh’s return. [53]

Religion is of central importance to the lives of people in the majority of the world’s cultures; more than eight-in-ten people worldwide identify with a religious group. [54] However, it is also true that the number of people who say that they have no religious affiliation is growing. There are now about as many people in the world who consider themselves religiously “unaffiliated” as there are Roman Catholics. [55] This is an important reminder that religions, like culture itself, are highly dynamic and subject to constant changes in interpretation and allegiance. Anthropology offers a unique perspective for the study of religious beliefs, the way people think about the supernatural, and how the values and behaviors these beliefs inspire contribute to the lives of individuals and communities. No single set of theories or vocabulary can completely capture the richness of the religious diversity that exists in the world today, but cultural anthropology provides a toolkit for understanding the emotional, social, and spiritual contributions that religion makes to the human experience.

Discussion Questions

This chapter describes theories about religion developed by Durkheim, Marx, and Freud. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each theory? Which theory would be the most useful if you were attempting to learn about the religious beliefs of another culture?

Rites of passage and rites of intensification are an important part of many religious traditions, but these same rituals also exist in secular (non-religious) contexts. What are some examples of these rituals in your own community? What role do these rituals play in bringing people together?

Durkheim argued that a distinction between the sacred and the profane was a key characteristic of religion. Thinking about your own culture, what are some examples of ideas or objects that are considered “sacred”? What are the rules concerning how these objects or ideas should be treated? What are the penalties for people who do not follow these rules?

Animatism : a religious system organized around a belief in an impersonal supernatural force. Animism: a religious system organized around a belief that plants, animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena have a spiritual or supernatural element. Anthropomorphic: an object or being that has human characteristics. C argo cult : a term sometimes used to describe rituals that seek to attract material prosperity. The term is generally not preferred by anthropologists. Collective effervescence: the passion or energy that arises when groups of people share the same thoughts and emotions. Cosmology : an explanation for the origin or history of the world. Cultural appropriation : the act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning. Filial piety : a tradition requiring that the young provide care for the elderly and in some cases ancestral spirits. Magic : practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one’s personal control. Millenarians: people who believe that major transformations of the world are imminent. Monotheistic : religious systems that recognize a single supreme God. Polytheistic : religious systems that recognize several gods. Priests : full-time religious practitioners. Profane : objects or ideas are ordinary and can be treated with disregard or contempt. Prophet: a person who claims to have direct communication with the supernatural realm and who can communicate divine messages to others. Reincarnation: the idea that a living being can begin another life in a new body after death. Religion : the extension of human society and culture to include the supernatural. Revitalization rituals : attempts to resolve serious problems, such as war, famine or poverty through a spiritual or supernatural intervention. Rite of intensification : actions designed to bring a community together, often following a period of crisis. Rite of passage : a ceremony designed to transition individuals between life stages. Sacred : objects or ideas are set apart from the ordinary and treated with great respect or care. Shaman : a part time religious practitioner who carries out religious rituals when needed, but also participates in the normal work of the community. Sorcerer : an individual who seeks to use magic for his or her own purposes. Supernatural: describes entities or forces not governed by natural laws. Zoomorphic : an object or being that has animal characteristics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sashur Henninger-Rener is an anthropologist with research in the fields of comparative religion and psychological anthropology. She received a Master of Arts from Columbia University in the City of New York in Anthropology and has since been researching and teaching. Currently, Sashur is an instructor at Pasadena City College teaching Cultural and Biological Anthropology. In her free time, Sashur enjoys traveling the world, visiting archaeological and cultural sites along the way. She and her husband are actively involved in animal rescuing, hoping to eventually found their own animal rescue for animals that are waiting to find homes.

• See Jean Clottes, Cave Art (London: Phaidon, 2010) ↵
• O. Soffer, J. M. Adovasio, and D. C. Hyland “The ‘Venus’ Figurines: Textiles, Basketry, Gender, and Status in the Upper Paleolithic” Current Anthropology 41 n. 4 (2000):511-537. ↵
• James Frazer, The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan and Company, 1958[1890]),vii. ↵
• Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (London: John Murray, 1871).  ↵
• Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life , tr. Joseph R. Swain (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1965[1915]), 62. ↵
• Jack David Eller, Introducing Anthropology of Religion (New York: Routledge, 2007), 9. ↵
• Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic (London, Routledge, 1972[1902]), 24. ↵
• Bronislaw Malinowski, Culture (New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1931). ↵
• Bronislaw Malinowski, “Rational Mastery by Man of his Surroundings,” in Magic, Science, & Religion (New York: McGraw Hill, 1955). ↵
• George Gmelch, “Baseball Magic” Transaction 8(1971): 39-41. ↵
• Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York: The Free Press , 1912). ↵
• Kenneth D. Allan, Explorations in Classic Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press , 2005). ↵
• Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (London: Routledge, 1966). ↵
• Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970[1844]). ↵
• Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (London: Puffin Press, 1995). ↵
• Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1950). ↵
• Marvin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture (New York: Random House, 1974). ↵
• Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System,” in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays , ed. Clifford Geertz, 87-125 (London: Fontana Press, 1993), 90-91. ↵
• Sam D. Gill, Sacred Words: A Study of Navajo Religion and Prayer (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1981), 52. ↵
• Gen. 1:21 NASB ↵
• Gen. 1:27 NASB ↵
• Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1984[1926]), 199 ↵
• The quote comes from Aram Oroi, “Press the button, mama!:”Mana and Christianity on Makira in the Solomon Islands” (paper presented at the Australia and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools Conference held in Auckland, June/July 2013). His work is cited in Alex Golub, “The History of Mana: How an Austronesian Concept Became a Video Game Mechanic” The Appendix 2 no. 2 (2014) http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/4/the-history-of-mana-how-an-austronesian-concept-became-a-video-game-mechanic ↵
• Roger M. Keesing, “Rethinking ‘Mana’” Journal of Anthropological Research 40 no. 1 (1984):137-156. ↵
• Alex Golub, “The History of Mana.” ↵
• Jack David Eller, I ntroducing Anthropology of Religion. ↵
• Thomas M. Kiefer, The Tausūg: Violence and Law in a Philippine Moslem Society (New York: Holt Rinehart, 1972). ↵
• Charles Ikels, Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.)   ↵
• “Madagascar’s Dance with the Dead,” BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7562898.stm . ↵
• Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture . ↵
• Edward B. Tylor, “The Limits of Savage Religion” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21(1892): 283–301. ↵
• Pew Research Center, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” April 2, 2015 http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/ ↵
• The characterization of Hinduism as polytheistic is contested. The deities in Hinduism can be viewed as a manifestation of Brahman, the most significant supernatural force. ↵
• Andrew Skilton,   A Concise History of Buddhism (New York: Barnes and Noble Publishing, 2000). ↵
• Victor Turner, “Symbols in African Ritual” Science 179 (1972): 1100-05. ↵
• Arnold Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 1960).   ↵
• Eliot Dismore Chapple and Carleton Stevens Coon, Principles of Anthropology (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953). ↵
• Anthony F.C. Wallace, “Revitalization Movements” American Anthropologist 58 (1956): 264-281. ↵
• Victor W. Turner, “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage,” The Proceedings of the New American Ethnological Society , 1964. ↵
• Casey Golomski, “Rites of Passage: 1900’s to Present: Africa,” in Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, & Africa: An Encyclopedia (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2012). ↵
• For more information see Marc Tabani, “The Carnival of Custom: Land Dives, Millenarian Parades and Other Spectacular Ritualizations in Vanuatu” Oceania 80 no. 3 (2010): 309–329. ↵
• Paul Raffaele, “In John They Trust,” Smithsonian Magazine , http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/in-john-they-trust-109294882/?no-ist=&page=1 . ↵
• Victor W. Turner, “Religious Specialists,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 13(1972): 437-444. ↵
• Piers Vitebsky, “Shamanism,” Indigenous Religions: A Companion, ed. Graham Harvey(New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2000).   ↵
• Waldemar G. Bogoras, The Chukchi of Northeastern Asia American Anthropologist 3 no. 1(1901):80-108. ↵
• Rick Strassman, DMT: The Spirit Molecule (South Paris, ME: Park Street Press, 2000).   ↵
• Avencio Villarejo, Asi es la selva (Lima, Peru: Centro de Estudios Teologicos de la Amazonia, 1988). ↵
• Robert L. Carneiro, “The Amahuaca and the Spirit World” Ethnology 3(1964): 6-11. ↵
• Scott R. Hutson, “The Rave: Spiritual Healing in Modern Western Subcultures,” Anthropological Quarterly 73(2000): 35-49. ↵
• Kenneth G.C. Newport, The Branch Davidians of Waco: The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Movement (London: Oxford University Press , 2006). ↵
• John Burnett, “Two Decades Later: Some Branch Davidians Still Believe,” National Public Radio http://www.npr.org/2013/04/20/178063471/two-decades-later-some-branch-davidians-still-believe . ↵
• Pew Research Center, “The Global Religious Landscape,” December 18, 2012. http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/ ↵

Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition Copyright © 2020 by American Anthropological Association is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

13.1 What Is Religion?

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Distinguish between religion, spirituality, and worldview.
• Describe the connections between witchcraft, sorcery, and magic.
• Identify differences between deities and spirits.
• Identify shamanism.
• Describe the institutionalization of religion in state societies.

Defining Religion, Spirituality, and Worldview

An anthropological inquiry into religion can easily become muddled and hazy because religion encompasses intangible things such as values, ideas, beliefs, and norms. It can be helpful to establish some shared signposts. Two researchers whose work has focused on religion offer definitions that point to diverse poles of thought about the subject. Frequently, anthropologists bookend their understanding of religion by citing these well-known definitions.

French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) utilized an anthropological approach to religion in his study of totemism among Indigenous Australian peoples in the early 20th century. In his work The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915), he argues that social scientists should begin with what he calls “simple religions” in their attempts to understand the structure and function of belief systems in general. His definition of religion takes an empirical approach and identifies key elements of a religion: “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them” (47). This definition breaks down religion into the components of beliefs, practices, and a social organization—what a shared group of people believe and do.

The other signpost used within anthropology to make sense of religion was crafted by American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) in his work The Interpretation of Cultures (1973). Geertz’s definition takes a very different approach: “A religion is: (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic” (90). Geertz’s definition, which is complex and holistic and addresses intangibles such as emotions and feelings, presents religion as a different paradigm , or overall model, for how we see systems of belief. Geertz views religion as an impetus to view and act upon the world in a certain manner. While still acknowledging that religion is a shared endeavor, Geertz focuses on religion’s role as a potent cultural symbol. Elusive, ambiguous, and hard to define, religion in Geertz’s conception is primarily a feeling that motivates and unites groups of people with shared beliefs. In the next section, we will examine the meanings of symbols and how they function within cultures, which will deepen your understanding of Geertz’s definition. For Geertz, religion is intensely symbolic.

When anthropologists study religion, it can be helpful to consider both of these definitions because religion includes such varied human constructs and experiences as social structures, sets of beliefs, a feeling of awe, and an aura of mystery. While different religious groups and practices sometimes extend beyond what can be covered by a simple definition, we can broadly define religion as a shared system of beliefs and practices regarding the interaction of natural and supernatural phenomena. And yet as soon as we ascribe a meaning to religion, we must distinguish some related concepts, such as spirituality and worldview.

Over the last few years, a growing number of Americans have been choosing to define themselves as spiritual rather than religious. A 2017 Pew Research Center study found that 27 percent of Americans identify as “spiritual but not religious,” which is 8 percentage points higher than it was in 2012 (Lipka and Gecewicz 2017). There are different factors that can distinguish religion and spirituality, and individuals will define and use these terms in specific ways; however, in general, while religion usually refers to shared affiliation with a particular structure or organization, spirituality normally refers to loosely structured beliefs and feelings about relationships between the natural and supernatural worlds. Spirituality can be very adaptable to changing circumstances and is often built upon an individual’s perception of the surrounding environment.

Many Americans with religious affiliation also use the term spirituality and distinguish it from their religion. Pew found in 2017 that 48 percent of respondents said they were both religious and spiritual. Pew also found that 27 percent of people say religion is very important to them (Lipka and Gecewicz 2017).

Another trend pertaining to religion in the United States is the growth of those defining themselves as nones , or people with no religious affiliation. In a 2014 survey of 35,000 Americans from 50 states, Pew found that nearly a quarter of Americans assigned themselves to this category (Pew Research Center 2015). The percentage of adults assigning themselves to the “none” category had grown substantially, from 16 percent in 2007 to 23 percent in 2014; among millennials, the percentage of nones was even higher, at 35 percent (Lipka 2015). In a follow-up survey, participants were asked to identity their major reasons for choosing to be nonaffiliated; the most common responses pointed to the growing politicization of American churches and a more critical and questioning stance toward the institutional structure of all religions (Pew Research Center 2018). It is important, however, to point out that nones are not the same as agnostics or atheists. Nones may hold traditional and/or nontraditional religious beliefs outside of membership in a religious institution. Agnosticism is the belief that God or the divine is unknowable and therefore skepticism of belief is appropriate, and atheism is a stance that denies the existence of a god or collection of gods. Nones, agnostics, and atheists can hold spiritual beliefs, however. When anthropologists study religion, it is very important for them to define the terms they are using because these terms can have different meanings when used outside of academic studies. In addition, the meaning of terms may change. As the social and political landscape in a society changes, it affects all social institutions, including religion.

Even those who consider themselves neither spiritual nor religious hold secular, or nonreligious, beliefs that structure how they view themselves and the world they live in. The term worldview refers to a person’s outlook or orientation; it is a learned perspective, which has both individual and collective components, on the nature of life itself. Individuals frequently conflate and intermingle their religious and spiritual beliefs and their worldviews as they experience change within their lives. When studying religion, anthropologists need to remain aware of these various dimensions of belief. The word religion is not always adequate to identify an individual’s belief systems.

Like all social institutions, religion evolves within and across time and cultures—even across early human species! Adapting to changes in population size and the reality of people’s daily lives, religions and religious/spiritual practices reflect life on the ground . Interestingly, though, while some institutions (such as economics) tend to change radically from one era to another, often because of technological changes, religion tends to be more viscous , meaning it tends to change at a much slower pace and mix together various beliefs and practices. While religion can be a factor in promoting rapid social change, it more commonly changes slowly and retains older features while adding new ones. In effect, religion contains within it many of its earlier iterations and can thus be quite complex.

Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Magic

People in Western cultures too often think of religion as a belief system associated with a church, temple, or mosque, but religion is much more diverse. In the 1960s, anthropologists typically used an evolutionary model for religion that associated less structured religious systems with simple societies and more complex forms of religion with more complex political systems. Anthropologists noticed that as populations grew, all forms of organization—political, economic, social, and religious—became more complex as well. For example, with the emergence of tribal societies, religion expanded to become not only a system of healing and connection with both animate and inanimate things in the environment but also a mechanism for addressing desire and conflict. Witchcraft and sorcery, both forms of magic, are more visible in larger-scale, more complex societies.

The terms witchcraft and sorcery are variously defined across disciplines and from one researcher to another, yet there is some agreement about common elements associated with each. Witchcraft involves the use of intangible (not material) means to cause a change in circumstances to another person. It is normally associated with practices such as incantations, spells, blessings, and other types of formulaic language that, when pronounced, causes a transformation. Sorcery is similar to witchcraft but involves the use of material elements to cause a change in circumstances to another person. It is normally associated with such practices as magical bundles, love potions, and any specific action that uses another person’s personal leavings (such as their hair, nails, or even excreta). While some scholars argue that witchcraft and sorcery are “dark,” negative, antisocial actions that seek to punish others, ethnographic research is filled with examples of more ambiguous or even positive uses as well. Cultural anthropologist Alma Gottlieb , who did fieldwork among the Beng people of Côte d’Ivoire in Africa, describes how the king that the Beng choose as their leader must always be a witch himself, not because of his ability to harm others but because his mystical powers allow him to protect the Beng people that he rules (2008). His knowledge and abilities allow him to be a capable ruler.

Some scholars argue that witchcraft and sorcery may be later developments in religion and not part of the earliest rituals because they can be used to express social conflict. What is the relationship between conflict, religion, and political organization? Consider what you learned in Social Inequalities . As a society’s population rises, individuals within that society have less familiarity and personal experience with each other and must instead rely on family reputation or rank as the basis for establishing trust. Also, as social diversity increases, people find themselves interacting with those who have different behaviors and beliefs from their own. Frequently, we trust those who are most like ourselves, and diversity can create a sense of mistrust. This sense of not knowing or understanding the people one lives, works, and trades with creates social stress and forces people to put themselves into what can feel like risky situations when interacting with one another. In such a setting, witchcraft and sorcery provide a feeling of security and control over other people. Historically, as populations increased and sociocultural institutions became larger and more complex, religion evolved to provide mechanisms such as witchcraft and sorcery that helped individuals establish a sense of social control over their lives.

Magic is essential to both witchcraft and sorcery, and the principles of magic are part of every religion. The anthropological study of magic is considered to have begun in the late 19th century with the 1890 publication of The Golden Bough , by Scottish social anthropologist Sir James G. Frazer . This work, published in several volumes, details the rituals and beliefs of a diverse range of societies, all collected by Frazer from the accounts of missionaries and travelers. Frazer was an armchair anthropologist, meaning that he did not practice fieldwork. In his work, he provided one of the earliest definitions of magic, describing it as “a spurious system of natural law as well as a fallacious guide of conduct” (Frazer [1922] 1925, 11). A more precise and neutral definition depicts magic as a supposed system of natural law whose practice causes a transformation to occur. In the natural world—the world of our senses and the things we hear, see, smell, taste, and touch—we operate with evidence of observable cause and effect. Magic is a system in which the actions or causes are not always empirical. Speaking a spell or other magical formula does not provide observable (empirical) effects. For practitioners of magic, however, this abstract cause and effect is just as consequential and just as true.

Frazer refers to magic as “sympathetic magic” because it is based on the idea of sympathy, or common feeling, and he argued that there are two principles of sympathetic magic: the law of similarity and the law of contagion. The law of similarity is the belief that a magician can create a desired change by imitating that change. This is associated with actions or charms that mimic or look like the effects one desires, such as the use of an effigy that looks like another person or even the Venus figurine associated with the Upper Paleolithic period, whose voluptuous female body parts may have been used as part of a fertility ritual. By taking actions on the stand-in figure, the magician is able to cause an effect on the person believed to be represented by this figure. The law of contagion is the belief that things that have once been in contact with each other remain connected always, such as a piece of jewelry owned by someone you love, a locket of hair or baby tooth kept as a keepsake, or personal leavings to be used in acts of sorcery.

This classification of magic broadens our understanding of how magic can be used and how common it is across all religions. Prayers and special mortuary artifacts ( grave goods ) indicate that the concept of magic is an innately human practice and not associated solely with tribal societies. In most cultures and across religious traditions, people bury or cremate loved ones with meaningful clothing, jewelry, or even a photo. These practices and sentimental acts are magical bonds and connections among acts, artifacts, and people. Even prayers and shamanic journeying (a form of metaphysical travel) to spirits and deities, practiced in almost all religious traditions, are magical contracts within people’s belief systems that strengthen practitioners’ faith. Instead of seeing magic as something outside of religion that diminishes seriousness, anthropologists see magic as a profound human act of faith.

Supernatural Forces and Beings

As stated earlier, religion typically regards the interaction of natural and supernatural phenomena. Put simply, a supernatural force is a figure or energy that does not follow natural law. In other words, it is nonempirical and cannot be measured or observed by normal means. Religious practices rely on contact and interaction with a wide range of supernatural forces of varying degrees of complexity and specificity.

In many religious traditions, there are both supernatural deities, or gods who are named and have the ability to change human fortunes, and spirits, who are less powerful and not always identified by name. Spirit or spirits can be diffuse and perceived as a field of energy or an unnamed force.

Practitioners of witchcraft and sorcery manipulate a supposed supernatural force that is often referred to by the term mana , first identified in Polynesia among the Maori of New Zealand ( mana is a Maori word). Anthropologists see a similar supposed sacred energy field in many different religious traditions and now use this word to refer to that energy force. Mana is an impersonal (unnamed and unidentified) force that can adhere for varying periods of time to people or animate and inanimate objects to make them sacred. One example is in the biblical story that appears in Mark 5:25–30, in which a woman suffering an illness simply touches Jesus’s cloak and is healed. Jesus asks, “Who touched my clothes?” because he recognizes that some of this force has passed from him to the woman who was ill in order to heal her. Many Christians see the person of Jesus as sacred and holy from the time of his baptism by the Holy Spirit. Christian baptism in many traditions is meant as a duplication or repetition of Christ’s baptism.

There are also named and known supernatural deities. A deity is a god or goddess. Most often conceived as humanlike, gods (male) and goddesses (female) are typically named beings with individual personalities and interests. Monotheistic religions focus on a single named god or goddess, and polytheistic religions are built around a pantheon, or group, of gods and/or goddesses, each usually specializing in a specific sort of behavior or action. And there are spirits , which tend to be associated with very specific (and narrower) activities, such as earth spirits or guardian spirits (or angels). Some spirits emanate from or are connected directly to humans, such as ghosts and ancestor spirits , which may be attached to specific individuals, families, or places. In some patrilineal societies, ancestor spirits require a great deal of sacrifice from the living. This veneration of the dead can consume large quantities of resources. In the Philippines, the practice of venerating the ancestor spirits involves elaborate house shrines, altars, and food offerings. In central Madagascar, the Merino people practice a regular “turning of the bones,” called famidihana . Every five to seven years, a family will disinter some of their deceased family members and replace their burial clothing with new, expensive silk garments as a form of remembrance and to honor all of their ancestors. In both of these cases, ancestor spirits are believed to continue to have an effect on their living relatives, and failure to carry out these rituals is believed to put the living at risk of harm from the dead.

Religious Specialists

Religious groups typically have some type of leadership, whether formal or informal. Some religious leaders occupy a specific role or status within a larger organization, representing the rules and regulations of the institution, including norms of behavior. In anthropology, these individuals are called priests , even though they may have other titles within their religious groups. Anthropology defines priests as full-time practitioners, meaning they occupy a religious rank at all times, whether or not they are officiating at rituals or ceremonies, and they have leadership over groups of people. They serve as mediators or guides between individuals or groups of people and the deity or deities. In religion-specific terms, anthropological priests may be called by various names, including titles such as priest, pastor, preacher, teacher, imam (Islam), and rabbi (Judaism).

Another category of specialists is prophets . These individuals are associated with religious change and transformation, calling for a renewal of beliefs or a restructuring of the status quo. Their leadership is usually temporary or indirect, and sometimes the prophet is on the margins of a larger religious organization. German sociologist Max Weber (1947) identified prophets as having charisma , a personality trait that conveys authority:

Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader. (358–359)

A third type of specialist is shamans . Shamans are part-time religious specialists who work with clients to address very specific and individual needs by making direct contact with deities or supernatural forces. While priests will officiate at recurring ritual events, a shaman, much like a medical psychologist, addresses each individual need. One exception to this is the shaman’s role in subsistence, usually hunting. In societies where the shaman is responsible for “calling up the animals” so that hunters will have success, the ritual may be calendrical , or occurring on a cyclical basis. While shamans are medical and religious specialists within shamanic societies, there are other religions that practice forms of shamanism as part of their own belief systems. Sometimes, these shamanic practitioners will be known by terms such as pastor or preacher , or even layperson . And some religious specialists serve as both part-time priests and part-time shamans, occupying more than one role as needed within a group of practitioners. You will read more about shamanism in the next section.

One early form of religion is shamanism , a practice of divination and healing that involves soul travel, also called shamanic journeying, to connect natural and supernatural realms in nonlinear time. Associated initially with small-scale societies, shamanic practices are now known to be embedded in many of the world’s religions. In some cultures, shamans are part-time specialists, usually drawn into the practice by a “calling” and trained in the necessary skills and rituals though an apprenticeship. In other cultures, all individuals are believed to be capable of shamanic journeying if properly trained. By journeying—an act frequently initiated by dance, trance, drumbeat, song, or hallucinogenic substances—the shaman is able to consult with a spiritual world populated by supernatural figures and deceased ancestors. The term itself, šamán , meaning “one who knows,” is an Evenki word, originating among the Evenk people of northern Siberia. Shamanism, found all over the world, was first studied by anthropologists in Siberia.

While shamanism is a healing practice, it conforms to the anthropological definition of religion as a shared set of beliefs and practices pertaining to the natural and supernatural. Cultures and societies that publicly affirm shamanism as a predominant and generally accepted practice often are referred to as shamanic cultures . Shamanism and shamanic activity, however, are found within most religions. The world’s two dominant mainstream religions both contain a type of shamanistic practice: the laying on of hands in Christianity, in which a mystical healing and blessing is passed from one person to another, and the mystical Islamic practice of Sufism, in which the practitioner, called a dervish, dances by whirling faster and faster in order to reach a trance state of communing with the divine. There are numerous other shared religious beliefs and practices among different religions besides shamanism. Given the physical and social evolution of our species, it is likely that we all share aspects of a fundamental religious orientation and that religious changes are added on to, rather than used to replace, earlier practices such as shamanism.

Indigenous shamanism continues to be a significant force for healing and prophecy today and is the predominant religious mode in small-scale, subsistence-based societies, such as bands of gatherers and hunters. Shamanism is valued by hunters as an intuitive way to locate wild animals, often depicted as “getting into the mind of the animal.” Shamanism is also valued as a means of healing, allowing individuals to discern and address sources of physical and social illness that may be affecting their health. One of the best-studied shamanic healing practices is that of the !Kung San in Central Africa. When individuals in that society suffer physical or socioemotional distress, they practice n/um tchai , a medicine dance, to draw up spiritual forces within themselves that can be used for shamanic self-healing (Marshall [1969] 2009).

Shamanistic practices remain an important part of the culture of modern Inuit people in the Canadian Arctic, particularly their practices pertaining to whale hunting. Although these traditional hunts were prohibited for a time, Inuit people were able to legally resume them in 1994. In a recent study of Inuit whaling communities in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, cultural anthropologists Frédéric Laugrand and Jarich Oosten (2013) found that although hunting technology has changed—whaling spears now include a grenade that, when aimed properly, allows for a quick and more humane death—many shamanistic beliefs and social practices pertaining to the hunt endure. The sharing of maktak or muktuk (whale skin and blubber) with elders is believed to lift their spirits and prolong their lives by connecting them to their ancestors and memories of their youth, the communal sharing of whale meat connects families to each other, and the relationship between hunter and hunted mystically sustains the populations of both. Inuit hunters believe that the whale “gives itself” to the hunter in order to establish this relationship, and when the hunter and community gratefully and humbly consume the catch, this ties the whales to the people and preserves them both. While Laugrand and Oosten found that most Inuit communities practice modern-day Christianity, the shamanistic values of their ancestors continue to play a major role in their understanding of both the whale hunt and what it means to be Inuit today. Their practice and understanding of religion incorporate both the church and their ancestral beliefs.

Above all, shamanism reflects the principles and practice of mutuality and balance, the belief that all living things are connected to each other and can have an effect on each other. This is a value that reverberates through almost all other religious systems as well. Concepts such as stewardship (caring for and nurturing resources), charity (providing for the needs of others), and justice (concern and respect for others and their rights) are all valued in shamanism.

The Institutionalization of Religion

Shamanism is classified as animism , a worldview in which spiritual agency is assigned to all things, including natural elements such as rocks and trees. Sometimes associated with the idea of dual souls—a day soul and a night soul, the latter of which can wander in dreams—and sometimes with unnamed and disembodied spirits believed to be associated with living and nonliving things, animism was at first understood by anthropologists as a primitive step toward more complex religions. In his work Primitive Culture (1871), British anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor , considered the first academic anthropologist, identified animism as a proto-religion, an evolutionary beginning point for all religions. As population densities increased and societies developed more complex forms of social organization, religion mirrored many of these changes.

With the advent of state societies, religion became institutionalized. As population densities increased and urban areas emerged, the structure and function of religion shifted into a bureaucracy, known as a state religion . State religions are formal institutions with full-time administrators (e.g., priests, pastors, rabbis, imams), a set doctrine of beliefs and regulations, and a policy of growth by seeking new practitioners through conversion. While state religions continued to exhibit characteristics of earlier forms, they were now structured as organizations with a hierarchy, including functionaries at different levels with different specializations. Religion was now administered as well as practiced. Similar to the use of mercenaries as paid soldiers in a state army, bureaucratic religions include paid positions that may not require subscribing to the belief system itself. Examples of early state religions include the pantheons of Egypt and Greece. Today, the most common state religions are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

Rather than part-time shamans, tribal and state religions are often headed by full-time religious leaders who administer higher levels within the religious bureaucracy. With institutionalization, religion began to develop formalized doctrines , or sets of specific and usually rigid principles or teachings, that would be applied through the codification of a formal system of laws. And, unlike earlier religious forms, state religions are usually defined not by birthright but by conversion. Using proselytization , a recruitment practice in which members actively seek converts to the group, state religions are powerful institutions in society. They bring diverse groups of people together and establish common value systems.

There are two common arrangements between political states and state religions. In some instances, such as contemporary Iran, the religious institution and the state are one, and religious leaders head the political structure. In other societies, there is an explicit separation between religion and state. The separation has been handled differently across nation-states. In some states, the political government supports a state religion (or several) as the official religion(s). In some of these cases, the religious institution will play a role in political decision-making from local to national levels. In other state societies with a separation between religion and state, religious institutions will receive favors, such as subsidies, from state governments. This may include tax or military exemptions and privileged access to resources. It is this latter arrangement that we see in the United States, where institutions such as the Department of Defense and the IRS keep lists of officially recognized religions with political and tax-exempt status.

Among the approximately 200 sovereign nation-states worldwide, there are many variations in the relationship between state and religion, including societies that have political religions, where the state or state rulers are considered divine and holy. In North Korea today, people practice an official policy of juche , which means self-reliance and independence. A highly nationalist policy, it has religious overtones, including reverence and obeisance to the state leader (Kim Jong Un) and unquestioning allegiance to the North Korean state. An extreme form of nationalism, juche functions as a political religion with the government and leader seen as deity and divine. Unlike in a theocracy, where the religious structure has political power, in North Korea, the political structure is the practiced religion.

Historically, relationships between religious institution and state have been extremely complex, with power arrangements shifting and changing over time. Today, Christian fundamentalism is playing an increasingly political role in U.S. society. Since its bureaucratization, religion has had a political role in almost every nation-state. In many state societies, religious institutions serve as charity organizations to meet the basic needs of many citizens, as educational institutions offering both mainstream and alternative pedagogies, and as community organizations to help mobilize groups of people for specific actions. Although some states—such as Cuba, China, Cambodia, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union—have declared atheism as their official policy during certain historical periods, religion has never fully disappeared in any of them. Religious groups, however, may face varying levels of oppression within state societies. The Uighurs are a mostly Muslim ethnic group of some 10 million people in northwestern China. Since 2017, when Chinese president Xi Jinping issued an order that all religions in China should be Chinese in their orientation, the Uighurs have faced mounting levels of oppression, including discrimination in state services. There have been recent accusations of mass sterilizations and genocide by the Chinese government against this ethnic minority (see BBC News 2021). During periods of state oppression, religion tends to break up into smaller units practiced at a local or even household level.

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Style and Meaning: Essays on the Anthropology of Art

Anthropology’s engagement with art has a complex and uneven history. While material culture, ‘decorative art’, and art styles were of major significance for founding figures such as Alfred Haddon and Franz Boas, art became marginal as the discipline turned towards social analysis in the 1920s. This book addresses a major moment of renewal in the anthropology of art in the 1960s and 1970s. British anthropologist Anthony Forge (1929-1991), trained in Cambridge, undertook fieldwork among the Abelam of Papua New Guinea in the late 1950s and 1960s, and wrote influentially, especially about issues of style and meaning in art. His powerful, question-raising arguments addressed basic issues, asking why so much art was produced in some regions, and why was it so socially important? Fifty years later, art has renewed global significance, and anthropologists are again considering both its local expressions among Indigenous peoples and its new global circulation. In this context, Forge’s arguments have renewed relevance: they help scholars and students understand the genealogies of current debates, and remind us of fundamental questions that remain unanswered. This volume brings together Forge’s most important writings on the anthropology of art, published over a thirty year period, together with six assessments of his legacy, including extended reappraisals of Sepik ethnography, by distinguished anthropologists from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Anthony Forge was born in London in 1929. A student at Downing College, Cambridge, he studied anthropology with Edmund Leach, and went on to undertake research with Raymond Firth at the London School of Economics. Over 1958-63 he undertook several periods of fieldwork among the Abelam of the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, made major collections for the Museum der Kulturen, Basel, and went on to write a series of essays which were enormously influential for the anthropology of art and for studies of Melanesia. He was appointed Foundation Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National University in 1974 and taught there until his death in 1991.

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Anthropology: essay on anthropology.

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Read this Essay to learn about Anthropology !

Anthropology is a discipline, which serves the infinite curiosity about human beings. Etymologically the term is derived from two distinct Greek words —’Anthropos’, the meaning of which is man and the ‘logos’ refers to science or study. Therefore, we define anthropology as a discipline which studies the human beings, scientifically. But this definition is incomplete for the reason that there are also several disciplines, which are concerned with man; they study one aspect of man or the other.

Sociology, psychology, political science, economics, history, human biology and even the humanistic disciplines like philosophy, literature, etc. form this group. Each of those disciplines is specialized to deal with a typical aspect of different groups of man.

They may also cling to specific cultures and their moorings. Therefore, none of these disciplines can cover the whole jurisdiction of anthropology. Rather anthropology is a larger whole where different disciplines unite together despite the diversity of their interest.

It possesses its own distinctiveness in the study of man. It is the only discipline, which strives to understand man and his actions in totality. Anthropologists believe in the integration of knowledge and realize the harmful effects of compartmentalization.

The index of anthropologists is man—wherever may he be whether on land, air or sea. They study the human beings in all climates and times. Men of the prehistoric as well as the historic past, men of the present generation and also of coming future come within the purview of anthropologists.

But obviously they are not concerned with a particular man as such; their attention centre on ‘men in group’. They perceive man not only as animal but also a social human having a history. People irrespective of their genders, ages and occupations are considered. Anthropologists deal with both male and female—old, middle-aged and young.

Doctors, lawyers, students, agriculturists, public administrators, bureaucrats, etc. all are taken into account. People with different ideologies (democrat, communist, socialist etc.) or different creeds (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain, Zoroastrian, pagan, ancestor worshipper, atheist, etc.) appear to them with same importance.

Even, the village folk and the city people are investigated with equal attention. Man has been conceived as the creator of his cultural destiny. Therefore, anthropology is concerned with a rounded study of man—it studies men at all levels of culture. None of the other disciplines can be so pervasive.

For example, the economists who are interested in economic behaviour of man, study man solely from the economic point of view. Political scientists work with that human behaviour, which are related only to the political affairs. A historian while is concerned with the past events of men, a geographer wants to project man in relation to his habitat and environment.

A human biologist or a physiologist similarly involves him for the determination of biological or physiological configuration of a body where a psychologist wholly deals with the mental behaviour of an individual. Thus, each of these disciplines segregates some of the aspects instead of studying them all at a time. Approach of anthropology is therefore unique in the study -of man. It never analyses human behaviour in piece meal manner. Rather it fries to cover all aspects; all possible range of human behaviour.

By dint of the very nature, anthropology is holistic and comparative. It is a holistic one because it offers a total study of all aspects of culture and society in an integrated and comprehensive manner. All aspects of culture, say for example, religion, politics, social life, family, kinship, economics, aesthetics, health, technology, etc. are combined into one whole.

It is believed that each aspect of culture, directly or indirectly, affects on the other aspects of culture, for better or for worse. Anthropology is said to be comparative because it takes an account of all human groups, all types of culture and society throughout the world for working out the similarities and differences in human body, behaviour and values. The ultimate goal is to evolve certain generalizations, which can be applied more or less to all human kind. The whole world is an anthropological laboratory; it is possible to deduce certain rules of human conduct.

Since the field of anthropology is vast and complicated, it is impossible for any scholar to acquire mastery over whole of the discipline. On the other hand, though specialization take place, discipline of anthropology does not at all fail to retain its holistic orientation.

It remains entangled with the organic factors in one side and on the other side it reacts with social factors. Both types of factors are equally relevant to the subject. In practice, anthropology accepts and uses the general principles of biology and proceeds further to formulate a scientific concept of culture. Its field of investigation is extremely dynamic. It intends to understand the whole development of man and the wide variation of culture as a result of change over long periods of time.

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Anthropology

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