Key Terms

10 Points, 2 Paragraphs

Term
Significance
Example
Scholars
Where you’ll find it

Agency by default

o Conflict about how ritual is performed

o People bickering about how best to do a ritual
o Ritual authority
o Quality that keeps a ritual going
o Ex. A wedding: People complaining about food, centerpieces, etc
o Parkin

Askeses

o The idea of self-formation

o We can transform ourselves through thinking/thought
o Functions as a practice of freedom
o Form of strict self-discipline/self-control
o A way you can control your actions/beliefs
o Form of resistance that celebrates individuality and leaves you open to change
o Ex. Prayer: Way you pray can be reinterpreted and individualized (change
religion to suit you personally)
o McWhorter

British Royal Ceremony this is really broad—not sure exactly what she wants? We should
discuss this when we get together..

o Invented traditions around Royal ceremonies

o Create a sense of national belonging
o As the monarchy weakened, ceremonial symbolism was more important
o 4 Epochs around
o Cannadine

Bullfight
 o A public spectacle, particularly in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, at which a bull is
baited in a highly stylized manner and then usually killed
o Occurs in a bullring for a 20 minute period
o Bullfighting about masculinity: symbolizes power dynamics between the genders
(women not allowed), bull = woman, matador = man, sword = penis?
o Non-civilized ritual (barbaric)
o On TV: commentators characterize the bullfight, it is more accessible, allows for
close-ups
 BUT: watching it on film changes perception of ritual (slows it down,
makes it less exciting, causes discomfort)
o Pink
o Bullfight video watched in class

Carnivalesque

o Term defined by Mikhail Bakhtin

o Subverts the social order through humour and chaos
o Inversion of hierarchies
o Sites of excess (food, sex)
o Can reinforce community (lets of steam, makes you feel better about your
neighbours)
o Ex. Company party: Forming Group Cohesion- do things that at other times
would be seen as irresponsible, disgusting
 But reinforces social order: by briefly giving a boice to people who are
less powerful it ultimately reinforces social order (the next day the boss
goes back to being the boss)
o Lherm

Communitas

o Society as communitas
o S series of individuals who are equal
 Takes us out of everyday social roles
 Beyond hierarchy
 Equal understanding/bond
 Ex. Canada Day: everyone has an equal feeling of Canadianness
 Relates to rituals of status reversal: individuals who are lower down have a
increase in status, everyone is functioning as equally values and important
individuals
o Turner (believes this is a model of society)

Cybershamanism

o Shamanism that takes place over the internet

o Arguments for:
  Can reach more people from further away
 Can be anonymous
 Can survival the test of time and find new age group (youth)
 Can allow for lower fees
o Arguments against:
 Can be a scam (not a real shaman, or they have a lack of
qualifications/training)
 Removed from roots
 Lack of spiritual connect
 Quality of online? Physical presence necessary?
 Distracted? Less personal?
o Kim

Dichotomy

o Opposition of two things

o Many are intuitive to us (we know black and white as opposite)
o Dichotomy of thought/action in ritual studies
 Thought (everyday) vs. Action (Ritual)(
 Idea that they are opposed
 BUT Bell believes ritual can bring thought and action together and
that these traditional approaches are problematic
o Bell