Mark
Turner, Professor, Department of English and affiliated with the Center
for Neural and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Maryland, author
of The Literary Mind: Argues
that metaphor is basic to the neurobiological architecture of the human
brain.
Metaphor
(Robbins p. 67): taking
language from one domain of experience and applying it to another domain
Key
Metaphor (Robbins p. 70):Metaphor
a particular society applies to a wide range of domains of experience
We
can think of a key metaphor as an organizing frame of reference, a way
of telling stories to explain things which happen or which should happen.
Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis (1930s):
language and language structure affects perception
Understanding
Ritual
Edward
Tylor (1832-1917): He believed that people in non-industrial societies
were more ‘primitive’ than people in industrial societies and that they
offered the key to understanding why people believe in god and other ‘irrational’
things.
Emile
Durkheim (1858-1917): He suggested that people created god as a way of
understanding the power of society.To
him, religious rituals served to bind people together and reproduce the
social order (keep the society going).
Roy
Rappaport (1926-1997): He extended some of Durkheim’s ideas and tried to
explain how rituals develop, how they do what they do.For
example, he suggested that rituals help to overcome the fact that people
can use language to lie to one another.Rituals
do not lie.They answer yes-no questions
like : Are you one of us? Do you support us?
Questions anthropologists ask about religious beliefs
·Where
do the beliefs come from?
·What
do they do for societies?
1.
How are they related to the societies in which they are found?
2.
Do they play any role in keeping communities (including at the level of
the society) together?
3.Do
they play a role in telling people how to behave in society, how to get
along, how to improve the world?
·What
do the beliefs do for people?
1.
What questions do they answer?
2.
What life transitions, moments, dothey
help people get through?
3.
What else do they do (emotional ‘highs’, etc.)
The ‘Second Spear’/Two levels of causation
1.What
natural forces afflicted you? (which is where we tend to stop)
2.And--Why?
(Why did it happen to YOU
in
particular?)
Possible features of Liminality
Contrasted to Everyday Social Structure
|
Liminality
|
Normal
Social Structure
|
|
transition
|
state
|
|
homogeneity
|
heterogeneity
|
|
communitas
|
structure
|
|
equality
|
inequality
|
|
anonymity
|
names
|
|
absence
of property
|
property
|
|
absence
of status
|
status
|
|
nakedness
or uniform dress
|
dress
distinctions
|
|
sexual
continence or excess
|
sexuality
|
|
minimization
of sex distinctions
|
maximization
of sex distinctions
|
|
absence
of rank
|
rank
|
|
humility
|
pride
|
|
disregard
of personal appearance
|
care
for personal appearance
|
|
unselfishness
|
selfishness
|
|
total
obedience
|
obedience
only to superior rank
|
|
sacredness
|
secularity
|
|
sacred
instruction
|
technical
knowledge
|
|
silence
|
speech
|
|
simplicity
|
complexity
|
|
acceptance
of pain and suffering
|
avoidance
of pain and suffering
|
(from
Conrad Kottak 1991, p. 338)
Questions to Ask Ourselves
Concerning Our Own Beliefs and Assumptions
1.Can there be explanations for why and how things happen,
in addition to scientific ones?
2. Can explanations that seem to contradict science also
be ‘true’?
3. Is science a way of explaining things not just so that we understand, but in a language we understand and according to beliefs we share and think are true?
Possibilities for Considering Other Worldviews
Explanation:
We can try to explain why it makes sense for people to believe and behave
as they do—in terms of maintaining a strong sense of community, of keeping
the community functioning, and so forth.
Translation: We can think of belief systems and their accompanying explanations for things as something we need to translate into terms we can understand.
Context-Specific
Truth: Explanations we ordinarily cannot accept may become true for
us if we actively participate in the context in which those explanations
arise.