Folk Religion and Magic

post is of three assignments

1) How does a cenotaph of a former military hero, in the logic of Taussig’s argument in The Magic of the State
increase the symbolic capital of the state? What are the processes by which nothing is converted to extra value? How does
this align with our discussion and definition of the process of Mythologization from earlier in the quarter?
2) Over and over again, from testimonies from the survivors of Jonestown, to Messinger’s article, we’ve seen the
description of members of religious break-away groups as ordinary, well-meaning, middle-class, “average” people….not
monsters, not kooks, not cultists. Discuss the rise of cults and so-called fringe Christian religions in the U.S. – Methodists,
Amish, Puritans, Pentecostals, People’s Temple, Branch Davidians, the FLDS, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehova’s Witnesses. All
these have broken away from the “mainstream” and made a claim – what was this claim(s)? What is the appeal of these
break-away religions to the followers, and how does this again emphasize the relationship between practice and belief?
3) In “Cultural Diversity, Alternative Medicine, and FolkMedicine,” by David J. Hufford, Ph.D., Hufford shows that
popular beliefs about those who practice “alternative Medicine” consider these practitioners to be:
1. are recent immigrants to the mainland United States,
2. who live in ethnic enclaves,
3. who prefer to use their native tongue,
4. who were educated in their country of origin,
5. who migrate back and forth to the country of origin, and
6. who are in constant contact with older individuals whomaintain a high degree of ethnic identity. AND YET, most studies
show that it is American-born, English-speaking,
middle class people with college educations who are the LARGEST group using Alternative practices. Please comment in
this, including our discussion in class on CAMs (complementary alternative medicine), the video on “Vaccine Wars” and our
resultant class discussion, andHufford’s lecture (http://vimeo.com/11990755 assigned on the syllabus) on “The Explosion
of Interest in Spirituality in Health.” Comment on his claim that “consciousness did not get secularized along with
medicine,” i.e., 89% of Americans believe that god answers prayers!!!! And link this to the claim that MAGIC IS AN ASPECT OF
CONSCIOUSNESS. (Seems as if the first part of the question, with the popular construction of alternative med practitioners
as “those guys” is a response to the secularization of the institution of medicine, whereas the second half deals with the
actual persistence of spirituality in daily practice and belief.)

4) What is a millennial movement. How is the apocalypse or apocalyptic beliefs central to these and how does this effect a
notion of exceptionalism in the group and group members? Apply this to the American Experience (historically), and to its
“match” with the notion of “American Exceptionalism.”
5) Homeopathy – “an alternative medical practice that is based on “curing by duplicating the symptoms.”” For example:
using a dilution of stinging nettle to help with stings and insect bites. Homeopathy arose in the 1880s in America because
of people’s dissatisfaction with conventional medicine. Clearly, at some level this is a form of “Homeopathic Magic” –
operating on the principle of “like produces like”. And yet, many vaccines, such as the vaccine for smallpox, in which a
person is infected with a small dose of cowpox to provoke the body into producing its own immunity, are proven, fact-
based preventative medicine, embraced by the public health establishment. How do these two examples demonstrate an
intersection between science and magic, and how does this overlap again point to the impossibility of the divisions
between religion-magic-science that we have become so accustomed to?
6)Comment on how Taussig argues that spirit Possession is central to the operations of the modern state, deriving power
from possession of the dead. (include how notions of possession, Pilgrimage, trance, overlain onto the terrain of the
indigenous, the female, the “underdeveloped,” the colonized, have long been the focus and the object of anthropological
studies and public fascination). Further argue how this possession occurs at both the monumental and quotidian level, its
ubiquity “Naturalizing” the phenomenon in the popular mind. Finally demonstrate how in this process – materializing the
abstract, negation, and then RE-abstracting it as a symbol — the state gains power and value (the circulation of money is a
great analogy).

2:Money and Banking

1. Chef X wants to start a restaurant in Exeter, and asks local bank Y for a loan of £40. X has no liquid assets and is risk
neutral. X and Y cannot agree on the type and name of the restaurant. X wants to start a fancy sea food restaurant and call
it Exeter Fish.
In case of the fish restaurant, X earns £80 with probability 2/3 and £38 with probability with 1/3.And Y gets £60 with
probability 2/3 and £0 with probability with 1/3. While Y wants to open a restaurant specializing in sandwiches called
McExe. If McExe opens then Y gets £60 and X gets £40.
a. If you are the social planner who wants to maximize the social welfare, who should get to decide the type and the name
of the restaurant? If the probability of success of the fish restaurant is 1/3 and the probability of failure is 2/3 what would
you recommend? (30 points)
b. Now assume that there is a third option to start a Sushi restaurant, X and Y may consider. This gives X £55 and Y £55.
Discuss what kind of restaurant you would recommend and who should own the restaurant? (10 points)
2. Here is the following extension of the three date Diamond-Dybvig model: agents can invest in following three possible
technologies
– a short-term investment at date 0, that yields a return r1 =1 at date 1.
– a long term investment at date 0, that yields a return R > 1 as of date 2 but can also be liquidated at date 1 for a return L
< 1:
– a short-term investment at date 1, that yields a return r2 at date 2. However, r2 is observed only at date 1.
It is assumed that :1< r2Note the consumption profile (C1;C2) will depend on r2; as depending on r2 agents may choose to
invest in the short-term investment in date 1.
a.Describe and discuss how consumption planning C1 and C2 may change in comparison with the standard Diamond-
Dybvig model without the short-investment available at date 1. (20 points)
b.The short-term investment opportunity with r2; means that the agents are exposed to interest rate risk. Discuss, why, if r2
is low, the agents will not invest in date 1 in the short-term investment, and will not be exposed to any interest rate risk. (20
points)
c. Now assume that all the agents deposit their endowments to form a bank. The bank has the same three investment
technologies described above. Discuss if the exposure to interest rate risk of r2 increases or decreases the stability of the
bank. (20 points)

3:write a 5-7 page write-up of your small scale qualitative research project. Write-up should include the problem statement,
purpose statement, theoretical/conceptual framework, and should focus on the draft literature review in chronological
order, starting with the history of your topic. . The primary purpose of this assignment is to give you experience writing up
qualitative research literature reviews, using the Doctoral Study Rubric. This exercise will help prepare you for writing your
doctoral study and research-based articles for scholarly publication.
In your paper, also include a final draft of the theme analysis and coding you began last week. Be sure to incorporate any
feedback received from last week’s Discussion. If you choose, you may review the optional Bernard readings Chapters 3, 4,
and 5 as a reference when you are completing your coding and theme analysis.
Use the Doctoral Study Template located at http://researchcenter.waldenu.edu/DBA-Doctoral-Study-Process-and-
Documents.htm for your write-up.

military hero