(in Polish) Kultura duchowa dawnych społeczeństw 2800-PC-KUL
Spiritual culture of former societies
Assumptions:
The aim of the seminar is to acquaint students with selected issues concerning symbolic culture in pre-modern (pre-industrial) societies and methods of religious and anthropological research with regard to their application in archaeological research.
Short description:
The following definition of culture is the starting point for further reflection:
Culture is a genre-based, socially organised system of conscious adaptation of mankind to its environment, implemented through the products in question and aimed at satisfying its various needs, which are the driving force behind it. (Andrzej Wierciński).
Man shares part of his needs with animals, these are self-preservation and reproductive needs, satisfied with the greatest participation of innate (instinctive) reflexes. However, unlike our animal relatives, we are also equipped with specific human needs: the need for a generalised knowledge of the world and the meaning of life. These are the base of our humanity (Andrzej Wierciński).
In pre-industrial communities, the two element of environment of a human being were nature and other people The dominant cognitive paradigm in these communities was as follows the so-called animistic vision of the world, i.e. the assignment of personality and spiritual components all elements of the environment, including those we consider 'inanimate'. By means of .
contact with this hidden dimension of reality was, among others, the interpretation of dreams and entering into different (trans) states of consciousness through various techniques psychosensory deprivation, including the use of hallucinogenic agents. It was believed that this type of contact, available for selected members of the community (e.g. shamans),
combined with the use of ritual-magical treatments, allows to control various
processes of both human and non-human reality. However, what is important for understanding the functioning of these communities, not so characteristic of
of our civilisation a sharp line between "secular and religious-magical":
the manufacture of tools, weapons, clothing, construction technology, as well as art had its distinct sacral-magical component. The classes will therefore take the form of a series of meetings, during which the specific examples of interpretation of cultural phenomena in the above mentioned spirit, as well as those discussed classic works by history of religion and cultural researchers such as Mircea Eliade, George Frazer and Arnold van Gennep.
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Knowledge:
Students have knowledge of the state of research on selected issues from anthropology of religion, particularly with regard to the role of ideological and religious systems in the functioning of social organisms, from the least complex egalitarian communities collectors - hunters for early-state organisations (K_W10)
Students know and understand advanced methods of analysis and interpretation of problems research in archaeology, appropriate to tradition, theory and the research school associated with Professor A. Wierciński (K_W12)
Students know and understand advanced methods of analysis and interpretation of the information contained in scientific publications (K_W13)
Students know and understand advanced methods of analysis of various old products communities using methods applied in religious studies and cultural anthropology (K_W14)
Skills:
Students are able to detect complex relationships between artifacts and ecofacts and former cultural processes (K_U07)
Students have the ability to conduct scientific polemics (K_U08)
Competence:
Students are ready to critically assess the interpretation of archaeological sources and historical and aware of the multifaceted nature of the interpretation (K_K04)
Students are ready to use their knowledge about the complex nature of culture and the need to analyse the various source categories for the restoration of the human past (K_K05)
Students are ready to recognise and respect different points of view
determined by different cultural backgrounds (K_K12)
Assessment criteria
Oral examination in the form of a conversation about a selected book from the list.
Practical placement
not applicable
Bibliography
Participants are bound by a reading list related to each meeting. In addition
the following items:
1. Antropologia kultury. Zagadnienia i wybór tekstów, Wydawnictwa UW, Warszawa 2005 ( i wznowienia). Rozdziały:
- Mircea Eliade „Czas święty i mity”
- Mircea Eliade „ Święty obszar i sakralizacja świata”
- José Ortega y Gasset „Bunt mas”
2. Renfrew, Colin i Paul Bahn, ARCHEOLOGIA. Teorie i metody, Prószynski I S-ka,
Warszawa 2002
- rozdział 5 — Jak wyglądała organizacja dawnych społeczeństw? Archeologia społeczna ss.
165–210;
- rozdział 10 — Co myśleli? Archeologia kognitywna
3. Wasilewski J.S., Podróże do piekieł, LSW, Warszawa 1979 ( i kolejne wznowienia)
4. Wierciński A., Magia i religia, Wydawnictwo Nomos, Kraków 2010 (i wznowienia)
- rozdz. VII - „O pojęciu magii”
- rozdz. IX - „Model postaci szamana”
5. van Gennep, Arnold „Obrzędy przejścia. Systematyczne studium ceremonii.”, PIW
Warszawa 2006 (i wznowienia, również pod nazwą „Rytuały przejścia”)
6. Lem, Stanisław „Profesor A. Dońda (Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego) – szereg wydań, dostępne również online
Literatura dodatkowa:
Buliński, T., „Ludzie, zwierzęta i duchy w świecie Indian Amazonii. Wstęp do perspektywizmu”, w: A. Mica, P. Łuczeczko (red.) Ludzie i nie-ludzie. Perspektywa socjologiczno- antropologiczna, Pszczółki: Orbis Exterior, ss. 89-113, 2011.
Eliade, Mircea, (tłum. Jan Wierusz-Kowalski). Traktat o historii religii. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo “Aletheia,” 2009.
Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan (tłum. i red. Sebastian Szymański i Joanna Tokarska-Bakir).
Czary, wyrocznie i magia u Azande: wersja skrócona. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut
Wydawniczy, 2008.
Szyjewski, Andrzej. Szamanizm. Kraków: Wydaw. WAM, 2005.
Wierciński Andrzej, Magia i religia, Wydawnictwo Nomos, Kraków 2010
all chapters in addition to those mentioned in Compulsory Literature
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: