Class notes

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Comments:
: Just a note to remind you that it really is necessary to read the text for classes from here on out, or you will be quite lost much of the time. : Here are some questions to help you retain what you have read in chapter one. I have kept them roughly in the order they are presented in the text to better help you study them. : What is anthropology? : What is comparative philology? : Who studied comparative philology, and talked about the "disease of language?" : What does he mean when he says that nomina became numina? : How did Tylor disagree with this theory? : Define ethnology and ethnography. : What are Tylor's two great laws of culture? : How do Tylor's laws minimize the theory of diffusion? : What is the "doctrine of survivals?" : How does Tylor think that the gender of language produces myths? : Who else proposed this theory? : Why does Tylor say that myths are actually exercises in rational thought? : What is Tylor's minimal definition of religion? : What kind of definition is it: substantive or functional? : What is the theoretical term Tylor gives his definition of religion? : What does Tylor say are the two things that make up the human soul/spirit? : What is Tylor's important literary work? : What was Tylor's position at Oxford? : Why is his choice for this appointment somewhat amazing? : What are the terms Tylor uses for primal and archaic cultures (stages)? : According to Tylor, which comes first, polytheism or monotheism? : What does Tylor say must be put away as humanity matures? : How does Frazier's social and religious upbringing differ from Tylor's? : How does Frazier's education differ from Tylor's? : What was Frazier's first interest? : What two unexpected encounters changed Frazier's course of study? : What is totemism? : What is exogamy? : What does Frazier's study of the goddess Diana have to do with Jonvon's old website? ;-) : Frazier says that primitive thinking is governed by what two different systems of ideas? : How is Frazier's view of magic more systematic and scientific than Tylor's? : What are the two main theoretical connections made by sympathetic magic? : How does Frazier think religion differs from magic? Which is the more advanced? Why? : How does Frazier illustrate the enduring use of magic within primitive religion? : How does Frazier go beyond Tylor in construing the social status of the magician or priest? : What is Frazier's most important literary work? : According to Frazier, how does the sacrifice of a god-king actually preserve his life? : What purpose did rituals of death and rebirth serve in agrarian societies? : Why did primitive peoples kill the sacred totem animal? : Frazer explains that Virbius and Balder were both human embodiments of what great spirit? : How did Frazier describe his book when it was finished? : Where did Frazier get his information on primitive cultures? : Where did Tylor get his? : Both scholars thought that religion must be assigned to the category of Tylor's survivals, and must now be replaced by what new third era of thought? : Why does Frazier call this a "new and better magic?" : As self-regarded "scientific theorists of religion," how do Tylor and Frazier deal with the concepts of miraculous events and spiritual revelations? : Tylor and Frazier are committed to explaining religion in terms of its _________ and _________. : Why are Tylor and Frazier considered to be advocates of the "intellectualist" approach to religion? : Does the intellectualist approach embrace a substantive or functional view of the origin of religion? : Explain which view of religion's origin they reject and why. : What is intellectual evolutionism? : Why do anthropologists today criticize the anthropological methods of Tylor and Frazier? : How did Lang and Schmidt criticize their theory of intellectual evolution? : What is meant by intellectualist individualism? : Why is this theory of Tylor and Frazier so easily criticized? : If these criticisms are indeed valid, what then is the point of studying the theories of Tylor and Frazier at all?

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