Our Lady of Knock: Reflections of a Believing Anthropologist Edith L. Turner Late on the rainy evening on August 21, 1879, a vision of a lady and two saints appeared at the back of Knock church in the presence of fifteen villagers.1 These figures, bathed in light, remained for two hours without speaking and then disappeared.2 The religious excitement that arose from this event became widespread...
This article traces some important changes in anthropology during the last 100 years, especially with regard to the study of consciousness. Vignettes of the field material of a number of scholars given here exemplify that the philosophy under which we have studied in the past is now no longer limiting itself but is extending its provenance all the way to the study of spirituality. Earlier, the...
Abstract. Knowledge of the working of the brain is of prime importance to anthropologists studying ritual and symbol. The play between the neocortical hemispheres can be inferred from the varying styles at different stages of ritual: one can begin to hypothesize archetypes for general processes such as self-healing social dramas that are at the roots of ritual: the concept of preparedness as a...