Description
The aim of this paper is to connect the conceptual issues in this ethnographic material and to illustrate them with specific details from the ethnography. This reflection on Wombs and Alien Spirits is a deep reading of the text and it does not involve additional information about the society or time period. Extensive inclusion of such information will take away from the focus of this essay; it will not be counted in the grading process.
Be careful to answer all parts of the questions; each part contributes to the full explanation of the phenomenon. Make sure you generally balance your attention on each part (have at least 3 pages for each part, while possibly writing more in one part). When you use specific information from the book that you paraphrase, it is necessary to reference that page. If you have referred to a particular issue in the first part of a paragraph that continues in the rest of the paragraph it is not necessary to refer to it again in that paragraph unless it is a direct quotation. If it is a different issue it needs a separate reference. An example of a simple reference is the following: (Boddy, 34). This kind of simple reference is acceptable here because we all know the book we are using. As noted above, references to other texts are not encouraged, but if used require full references. Remember that quotations over 6 lines require single-space indentations. Long quotes are discouraged for this paper. Remember that any quotation is to be interpreted by you. They are not your sentences and they do not stand for your words. If not interpreted by you, they are part of an incomplete thought process. When you use quotations it is necessary to explain to the reader how you interpret these words of others.
THE QUESTIONS (Answer both parts A and B).
Conceptual Assumptions: A central point in Wombs and Alien Spirits is that a cultural system (including the religious system) “creates” personhood in specific ways. A central axis of personhood in this society is the gendering of humans into female persons and male persons, taught and encouraged through the formation and maintenance of particular social identities. This takes place through unconscious and conscious understandings developed during the enculturation process, including specific idea systems (rooted in symbols) about the relations among people in the social world, the relationships between humans and non-humans, as well as the structure of moral systems (especially taboos). As in all societies, human beings are encouraged to model their behavior and speech in particular ways, including their participation in rituals. There is an underlying logic to many of the divisions that realms of Hofriat life take, and the divisions and entities (both human and non-human) are treated as though they simply “are.” This naturalization process allows Hofriat people to then model themselves and their behaviors after the entities, guided by these structures and divisions. The circular workings of Geertz’ idea of the model for and model of can be seen in this ethnography.
Essay A. The cultural logic of enclosure underpins much of Hofriati symbolism. In this section discuss how the logic of enclosure operates in: 1) notions of women’s bodies, 2) the kinds of physical spaces and places women are supposed to live in and travel through. The task is to provide, in paragraph form, a discussion of 1) symbolism and ideals concerning womens bodies and 2) symbolism concerning women and space. Do this by providing and interpreting at least two examples EACH of symbols or symbolic dualities that illustrate your points about enclosure. Interpret these symbols/symbolic dualities for us. You are to engage/discuss at least two symbols/symbolic dualities concerning the body, and two concerning space.
Essay B. As we have discussed, religious action and ideas help to guide human behavior and “regulate” social relations. Religious practices and conceptualizations also can help people address existential dilemmas (their problems of being human), or socio-political dilemmas (the problems they face being a certain kind of person in a certain kind of society which is structured a certain way). For many people, the existential and the socio-political are mixed up in their experiences of living. As social scientists we are particularly interested in the socio-political dilemmas, for we know that the problems humans experience might be created and structured by their societys idea systems, social relations and prescribed actions (norms and moral guidelines). Frequently the problems individual subjects think they face can be viewed by a social scientist to be directly related to the structural challenges involving inequalities that this particular group of subjects experience in their society. Individual subjects often do not see, think of or view their lives through the lenses of inequality, but use the lenses and forms they were taught through enculturation and have come to consider to be natural.
Questions for Essay B: 1) How does the Zar cult help women to address various difficulties in their lives? 2) How can the Zar cult or its rituals be used as a form of empowerment? 3) Using a critical approach, explain how some of the problems Hofriat women experience are created by the very structure of society and shaped by the inequalities within the very social relations that are prescribed/expected in it. 4) Discuss the possibility that the Zar cult plays a hegemonic role in maintaining the social structures/rules/expectations that create problems for women and 5) Provide your view of the value or limitations of the concept of empowerment as an analytical concept in this particular study of Hofriat religious practice.