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UNIV2001 / Professor Karrer, Text Lecture and Course Materials

Week #5: Race, Rituals and the role of the Cultural Anthropologist A brief review:

In Race: The Power Of An Illusion, we looked at historic false narratives of racial differences and inequalities in America, based on superficial elements such as outward appearance, skin color, fake and biased scientific claims, and justification of systematic abuse through extinction theories. By looking at this contrived narrative from multiple contemporary perspectives - factual studies, fact-based science and research, and expert testimonies from professionals in the field - we learn that the “idea" of race is a social construction, an illusion created by primarily white and colonial powers, in order to dominate and maintain authority and control over groups of people who are deemed “inferior”. Has the modern world transcended this false narrative? Does America practice equality among its many groups of rich and diverse ethnic communities?

Much of the information in this documentary is disturbing but also revelatory, and serves as a point of departure, giving us all the opportunity to QUESTION the stories and narratives we have grown up with, and that for the most part we accepted as “normal”. The phrase “question authority” would be well used here. All stories and narratives have multiple layers, perspectives, and points of view. It is our responsibility (in this course and in daily life) to consider ALL the aspects of each narrative we are given, and to consider each one from multiple perspectives. This, once again, is where Critical Thinking comes in to play.

For Week #5 Part 1 Course Work we look at the Anthropologist’s role, and

touch upon various aspects of Cultural Rituals

**Please note: Part 1 Coursework has two “Sections”

how do we define ritual?

RITUAL - a symbolic or ceremonial activity for religious or social purpose; a vehicle for tradition,

history, language, music, dance, collective wisdom.

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Section 1:

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST’S JOB IS TO MAKE OTHER CULTURES INTELLIGIBLE Anthropology is the study of humankind. Cultural or social anthropology involves the comparative study of human societies, and cultures, and their development. Anthropologist Renato Rosaldo and his wife Michelle lived among the Illongot tribe in the Philippines, from 1967 – 1969. Rosaldo returned again in 1974.

In Rosaldo’s book Culture and Truth, his introductory chapter focuses on this period of his life, what he learned from the Illongot, and the revelations he made as an anthropologist.

READ: Renato Rosaldo: Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage (in course readings folder)

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Section 2:

RITUAL Our lives are defined by rituals. We practice family rituals, cultural rituals, funerals, graduations, holidays, marriage rituals, religious rituals, and so on. You may not often think about it, but we profoundly depend upon and identify ourselves through our rituals. In every culture, rituals serve as rites of passage, and represent a crossroads to heightened awareness and revelatory experience. In this section we will focus on cultural rituals that involve magic, myth and superstition; the concept of “the crossroads”; religious ritual; ritual as performance; and the transitions and transformations that occur as direct results of ritual. A brief course review – linking rituals to course readings:

In his satiric essay Nacirema, Horace Miner calls his subjects “magic-ridden people”, when describing American culture from an “outsider’s” point of view. He illustrates strange-seeming rituals that these people (us) practice on a daily basis. But there is an important truth woven into Miner’s essay, which is that human beings ARE a magic-ridden people, and we demonstrate this magic, or superstition, or belief in the unknown, in our Cultural rituals.

In Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage, Renato Rosaldo describes the cultural rituals of the Illongot tribe, which for many of us may be difficult to accept or even imagine. Rosaldo’s role in studying Illongot culture as an anthropologist is to help his readers understand how and why these ritual practices came to be, based on the experiences and historic trajectory of a specific and established cultural group. Rosaldo narrates how his own personal tragedies brought him to an intimate understanding of how the Illongot people deal with anger and loss.

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“One can say that enthnographers reposition themselves as they go about understanding other cultures.”

“Ritual stands in contradiction to society, while at the same time being a part of it…

We might say that ritual embodies the principle of growth or dynamic process through which a society transcends itself.”

Rituals “hold the power to transform people not only into creatures of freedom

but also into destructive armies and mass murderers.”

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READ: Tom F. Driver, Magic of Ritual (in course readings folder)

HOW DO MAGIC AND SUPERSTITION GENERATE CULTURAL RITUALS?

(WATCH the video links below)

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Ritual as an “AGENT OF TRANSFORMATION” Click the links below (or copy and paste into your browser) to view the following videos:

______________________________________________________ VODUN RITUALS: “The Crossroads, where distinct life processes intersect.”

Maya Deren was an experimental filmmaker and choreographer who went to Haiti in the 1940’s to document vodun rituals. Watch excerpts from her documentary “Divine Horsemen” below.

Ritual knowledge is gained not through detachment but through engagement

WATCH: Divine Horsemen (Watch :50-2:12 & 3:07-4:15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx6SDc6MfAQ

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“RITUALS INVOKE THE PARTICIPATION OF SPIRITS, ANIMALS, DECEASED ANCESTORS, OR GODS, NOT SIMPLY AS OBJECTS OF RITUAL ATTENTION BUT AS

PERFORMERS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT”

“Revelation through performance is particularly potent.”

“The liminality of ritual is the power of transcendence…of expressing what society and culture deny, of unmasking pretension,

of elevating persons and things of “low degree…”

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A ritual is never fixed –

its meaning comes from its use

AMERICAN RELIGIOUS RITUALS: Snake Handlers in Appalachia

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBVcsWYJd8

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“Ritual knowledge is gained by and through the body…

Jennings uses dancing as an example…”

WATCH: Sufi Dance / Ensemble Al-Kindi (Watch from 3:15-6:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVykC5En59g

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“Transition and transformation are two basic elements of any ritual” (Colin Turnbull, British-American anthropologist)

Balinese Kecak: A dance and rhythmic chant narrating the Hindu epic Ramayana, where the god Rama fights the demon King Ravana with the help of the monkey god Hanuman.

WATCH: BALINESE KECAK (View from 1:45 - 4:14) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WHx2ITKtUg

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“It is the performance of an act in which people confront one kind of power with another, and rehearse their own future… the implication is that the world of which the

ritual is a part will also be changed.”