The Anthropology of Magic Witchcraft and Religion Sacred

The Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion Sacred Spaces

the “sacred” is defined in opposition to the “profane”

The “Profane” • The everyday • The normal • The “here” and “now”

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

Peak Experiences Involve: "feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being simultaneously more powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of great ecstasy and wonder and awe, and the loss of placing in time and space“ (Maslow 1970, p. 164)

Peak Experiences • Altered sense of self • Altered sense of time • Wonder/awe • Labile affect • Loosening of associations • Ego disintegration • “Everything is connected” Abraham Maslow (1908 -1970)

The Basic Structure of Sacred Space “sacred” “profane”

Mount Meru World System (the Buddhist cosmology) Macrocosm the structure of the cosmos Microcosm the structure of each person’s heart-mind

“rite of passage” sacred world separation liminality (the threshold) initial social status reintegration subsequent social status profane world

The Hajj • The largest annual pilgrimage on the planet • Islamic calendar begins in (the Christian) year 622 • Timing based on lunar calendar

Route of the Hajj

Stages of the Hajj