ANT 101: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology
Fall 2004, M,W,F 10:30 — 11:20, Chambers 1027
Prof. Eriberto P. Lozada Jr. Office Hours: M, W, F 9:30 – 10:30 am
Office: Carnegie 01 T, Th 9:30 – 11:15 am or by appointment
Telephone: 704-894-2035 Email: erlozada@davidson.edu
Web: http://www.davidson.edu/personal/erlozada
Lecture Notes, 27 October 2004
Continuation of Ritual Discussion
“We don’t wrap herring in a printed page” – title of chapter 3, indicating Jewish value of
the Great Tradition, textual learning (use of Hebrew in prayer, sacred study of the Torah);
contrast with use of Yiddish, the language of family (p. 96);
context of being a Jew in America: identity crisis, ambivalence; Shmuel’s response to the
graduation siyum: “Then they have to do it the right way, he answered. If they want a
siyum let them go to shul and study Torah. … In America, you go to school, you study,
that’s true, but that is not religious study, and when you end it, you are finished. You get
your diploma and get a job … So they put together two lies and call it a Graduation-
Siyum, thinking this makes it even better.” (p. 102)
“Rituals allow people to maneuver, fight on their own terms, choose the times, places,
conditions, and shape of their claims… such maneuvering may result in action,
encounter, and change, or may end in poetry, “where,” as anthropologist James
Fernandez puts it, “instead of being moved anywhere we are accommodated in many
subtle ways to our condition in all its contrarieties and complexities.” (p. 107)
In chapter “We Fight to Keep Warm,” the importance of text to the Jewish religious
tradition comes to the forefront again: “Words, among Jews and shtetl people, were no
mere neutral labels; indeed, they were so powerful that one might speak of word- magic.
Words could affect what they named, and names contained something of the identity of
that which they signified” (Meyerhoff p. 169); remember the fight between Anna and
Sadie, and the session with the psychologist and the Yiddish terms (yenta, etc.);
remember Turner’s perspective on society inherently in conflict: “Anger is a form of
social cohesion, and a strong and reliable one. To fight with each other, people must
share norms, rules, vocabulary, and knowledge. Fighting is a partnership, requiring
cooperation. A boundary-maintenance mechanism – for strangers cannot participate fully
– it is also above all a profoundly sociable activity.” (Myerhoff p. 184)
Cosmology, Order, and Identity
cosmology: our place in the universe, defining the boundaries (between nature and
culture, yes, but also between groups of people); Jews as “the chosen people”
(we will talk more about scientific and religious cosmology on Friday, through discussion
of Evans-Pritchard)
