Metcalf and Huntington: READING GUIDE FOR TEXT (Resource)

Questions to Guide Your Critical Reading

Preliminaries:

1.     Why is “death” an important part of “life” in all cultures?

2.     Give a brief history of the way that anthropologists have studied and analyzed death. 

·       Nineteenth century anthropology

·       Durkheim and the sociology of religion

·       Van Gennep’s Rites of Passage

·       Hertz and “secondary burial”

·       Other developments

3.     Make sure that you are able to describe the progression and complexities of these theoretical positions

4.     Make sure that you correctly present the study of RITUAL in anthropology.

Emotional Reactions To Death:

1.      What is the connection between ritual and emotion? Does ritual create emotions for the society? Does emotion create the ritual, or is something different happening according to the authors.

2.      Make sure that you explain the case study examples that they present. What point are the case studies illustrating?

3.      Describe Radcliffe-Brown’s Theory about “Sentiments and Society” are there “psychic universals”? Is ritual a universal way of dealing with strong emotions like “grief”?

4.      Durkheim’s famous Aborigine example

5.      Wilson’s description of Nyakyusa Funerals

6.      What is the connection between culture and emotion?

Symbolic Associations and Death:

1.      In this chapter, M&H discuss whether there are universal symbolic representations in death and its accompanying rituals. Discuss this.

2.      Discuss the major the symbols that they present. (COLOR, SOUND,DAILY ACTIVITIES, The PHYSICAL BODY,).

3.      Make sure that you explain and describe the examples.

4.      Discuss the notion of “liminality” as it pertains to a certain ritual “state” and how it is symbolically associated with the body.

5.      Draw conclusions about the universality of these symbolic representations.

Reexamination of Hertz:

1.      Discuss in detail Hertz’s analysis. What are the three states and how do they interconnect?

2.      Discuss the Berawan Death Rites. How do they shed light on Hertz’s analysis?

3.      How are notions of the body and of death expressed in these rituals?

4.      Discuss the other examples from South East Asia. How do they compare to the famous example by Hertz?

5.      What is “secondary” treatment of the body? Why is it important in the study of death rituals?

6.      What do these differing notions tell us about the notions of “life” in these cultures and our own?