Cultural Anthropology Ritual Observance Project

In 1956 a professor from the University of Michigan, Horace Miner, wrote an article in The American Anthropologist that has become a mainstay of learning for anthropology students. Miner published the article to show a fictional exotic society called “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” as an example of how one’s own limited perspective might affect the perception of a foreign culture (Miner, 1956, p. 503). The article uses subtle humor to make the reader more comfortable in examining cultural behaviors, physical appearance, and health as the reader soon discovers that the actual society being examined is the American society. To the reader, the article begins to sound very familiar after each paragraph is

The rabbi began the service fairly casually, greeting the congregation in English. After the English greeting came a more traditional greeting in Hebrew, and then a song to greet the Sabbath, or Shabbat, which is the word that was used at the synagogue. The Hebrew might have been strange to me, but there were English translations for just about everything in the prayer book, along with the prayers and songs written out in Hebrew. My personal favorite part of the service was the singing. There were two singers, one male and one female. All of the songs were beautiful, and caused me to consider the fact that many religions use songs and music in order to convey their messages. I believe that this is a good practice, because music is a common language, one that everybody can understand regardless of whether they speak Hebrew, or any other tongue. Although I’m

What is anthropology? This is a question that can be answered in numerous ways, but we are going to define it as simple as possible. If we break the word down into its two components it means the study of human beings. “Anthropo” means human beings or human kind and “logy” or “logia” is Greek for the study or knowledge of something. When we put it all together, it is the study of human beings which can be very broad. Anthropology can be broken down into four subfields: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

When given the opportunity, I am usually open to and enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone. This project allowed me to do just that. For my religious visit, I visited Shaare Emeth, Reformed Jewish Synagogue on Saturday June 20, 2015 for their Shabbat Morning Worship Service at 11 a.m. It is located at 11645 Ladue Rd, St. Louis, MO 63141.

The people there were very welcoming and kind. The shook every single person hand and greeted them genially when they walked in. As I sat down, there was a countdown till when it begins. There were seats all around and in the center they had a stage, where there were people preparing to sing. They began their ceremony exactly at 8:30 with singing 3 songs. When we sang, everyone stood up for respect. Followed by that, the pastor recited a prayer with everyone to make this week better than the last. He welcomed everyone, including the people who are new, and told them more about what they do at Kennedy Road Tabernacle Church. The priest then talked about the Provision of Vision from the bible. There was a sheet that was handed out so as you listen you fill in the blanks. ( I attached the sheet I completed) I thought this was very convenient because it makes you pay attention and have something to do other than sitting down. He was reading about the Provision of the Vision and relating it to financial difficulties and how God is always there for you. After, I talked to one priest to get a better background of Christianity. I related what he said to the reading of ‘Christianity’ we did earlier in September. When he spoke to me, he said that they believe in one god, but that includes the father, son, holy spirit, He said Jesus died for us on a cross for the sins of the

For an observation of an AA meeting my classmate and I made arrangements to go to an open meeting at Our Lady Star Of The Sea Church, which was held in a basement during a Tuesday afternoon session at 4:00 p.m. I first looked up the sessions online on a website where it held all the meetings on Staten Island and this one fit my schedule well. Its not unusual for me to be attending or visiting churches but for this assignment it did feel a little out of my comfort zone, because I didn’t know what to expect or what others would think of me. I chose a seat in the back corner that wouldn’t be too obvious yet it seemed like a typical seat for a newbie to sit at. The room was fairly large and I was surprised at how big the crowd got at least 30 plus people attended.

The story relates to how we seek perfection on our bodies. It demonstrates how people will perform extreme procedures to achieve perfection, and even after this they will still feel they are ugly and not perfect. The rituals performed by the Nacirema tribe may seem inhumane, but if compared to our current culture and the procedures people perform on their bodies there is no much difference. I viewed the things they did as bizarre, but on close analysis of our culture, I realized they are no different from the things we do to achieve bodily perfection. I believe that other people who look or read about the things we do think if them as been inhumane.

pipe bowl is made of stone or clay, because the Earth and all things Earthen are

The three of us arrived at the church about 30 minutes before the service started. I noticed as I waited for everything to start that this church had a phenomenally diverse range of attendees. There was your typical grandmother with her

Aboriginal Religion Aboriginal Ceremony. PH 413/86, Karilyn Brown Collection, Northern Territory Library. Aboriginal Ceremony. Aboriginal religion, like many other religions, is characterised by having a god or gods who created people and the surrounding environment during a particular creation period at the beginning of time. Aboriginal people are very religious and spiritual, but rather than praying to a single god they cannot see, each group generally believes in a number of different deities, whose image is often depicted in some tangible, recognisable form.

First, how do people look at the Shabbat and what is its significance. Further, people who are not Jewish look at the Shabbat as a day of intense restrictions and a great deal of praying. However, for those who are Jewish and observe the Shabbat it is a very joyful day and eagerly awaited the

Unfortunately, I arrived late, and thus the service had already begun. What was most intriguing about the service to me was the fact that it was bilingual, as it was done in both English and Hebrew. I was also impressed by the manner in which music corresponded into the service. Many of the prayer were chanted, and were accompanied by a hand-beaten rhythm that was provided by the cantor who was performing the service in the absence of the Rabbi, as was explained to me later. Many prayers were done, both out loud and solemnly in the silence of the parishioners’ hearts, and passages from the Torah were also read aloud in both English and Hebrew. Men and women sat together in the small place of worship, as no clear separation was in place as far as I could tell. I sat in the back and merely observed, along with rising and sitting when I was told as well as reading and praying what was asked of me.

For my site visit project, I visited Kesher Israel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is an Orthodox synagogue. I attended a worship service on Shabbat, which is the Jewish Sabbath.

When the service started it began with prayer, during the service there were moments of prayer, and the service ended with prayer. Something that I found very entertaining was the form of worship that they used which was singing. They sang a lot of different songs that worshiped God. You could tell who went to church a lot because they knew all the songs by heart. For those like me that didn’t know the songs, the words were projected on to the wall so you could sing along with everyone else. There was also a live band that played the music to sing to. This part of the service was really entertaining to me and I really enjoyed it.

From what I could surmise, language played a large methodological role in the observed Shabbat celebration. The two primary languages were Hebrew and English. English was utilized for general conversation to the community, including: the greeting, the proceedings, the spiritual framework of worship, and the various stories of Jewish lore. Whereas Hebrew was more so used to convey ceremonial importance and to emphasize ritualistic practice. Those who have studied the Torah via rabbinical interpretation and gone through the Jewish rites of passage (Bar and Bat mitzvah) could understand this language when used in context, thus giving greater importance to its usage in ceremonial practice. As an outsider, I found the passages spoken in Hebrew to