Michael Lambek | |
---|---|
Born | Michael Joshua Lambek 11 June 1950 |
Nationality | Canadian |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Anthropology |
Sub-discipline | Anthropology of religion |
Institutions | University of Toronto Scarborough |
Michael Joshua Lambek FRSC (born 11 June 1950) is Canadian anthropologist who serves as professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. [1] [2] He is a specialist in the anthropology of religion. [3] Lambek is known for his works on Mayotte and its people.
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity,concerned with human behavior,human biology,cultures,societies,and linguistics,in both the present and past,including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavior,while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning,including norms and values. The term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans.
Animism is the belief that objects,places,and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals,plants,rocks,rivers,weather systems,human handiwork,and in some cases words—as being animated,having agency and free will. Animism is used in anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many Indigenous peoples in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Animism is a metaphysical belief which focuses on the supernatural universe:specifically,on the concept of the immaterial soul.
Mayotte,officially the Department of Mayotte,is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is located in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeastern Africa,between Northwestern Madagascar and Northeastern Mozambique. Mayotte consists of a main island,Grande-Terre,a smaller island,Petite-Terre,as well as several islets around these two. Mayotte is the most prosperous territory in the Mozambique Channel,making it a major destination for immigration.
Victoria University is a federated college of the University of Toronto. The school was founded in 1836 by the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada as a nonsectarian literary institution. From 1841 to 1890,Victoria operated as an independent degree-granting university,before federating with the University of Toronto in 1890,relocating from Cobourg to Toronto.
Spirit possession is an unusual or an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by spirits,ghosts,demons,angels,or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and religions,including Buddhism,Christianity,Haitian Vodou,Dominican Vudú,Hinduism,Islam,Judaism,Wicca,and Southeast Asian,African,and Native American traditions. Depending on the cultural context in which it is found,possession may be thought of as voluntary or involuntary and may be considered to have beneficial or detrimental effects on the host. The experience of spirit possession sometimes serves as evidence in support of belief in the existence of spirits,deities or demons. In a 1969 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health,spirit-possession beliefs were found to exist in 74% of a sample of 488 societies in all parts of the world,with the highest numbers of believing societies in Pacific cultures and the lowest incidence among Native Americans of both North and South America. As Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian churches move into both African and Oceanic areas,a merger of belief can take place,with demons becoming representative of the "old" indigenous religions,which Christian ministers attempt to exorcise.
Anthropology of religion is the study of religion in relation to other social institutions,and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures. The anthropology of religion,as a field,overlaps with but is distinct from the field of Religious Studies. The history of anthropology of religion is a history of striving to understand how other people view and navigate the world. This history involves deciding what religion is,what it does,and how it functions. Today,one of the main concerns of anthropologists of religion is defining religion,which is a theoretical undertaking in and of itself. Scholars such as Edward Tylor,Emile Durkheim,E.E. Evans Pritchard,Mary Douglas,Victor Turner,Clifford Geertz,and Talal Asad have all grappled with defining and characterizing religion anthropologically.
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor was an English anthropologist,and professor of anthropology.
The University of Toronto Scarborough is a satellite campus of the University of Toronto located in Scarborough district,Toronto,Ontario,Canada.
Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades... the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until his death as professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study,Princeton.
Pascal Robert Boyer is a Franco-American cognitive anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist,mostly known for his work in the cognitive science of religion. He studied at universitéParis-Nanterre,and taught at the University of Cambridge for eight years,before taking up the position of Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory at Washington University in St. Louis,where he teaches classes on evolutionary psychology and anthropology. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and a visiting professor at the University of California,Santa Barbara and the University of Lyon,France. He studied philosophy and anthropology at University of Paris and Cambridge,with Jack Goody,working on memory constraints on the transmission of oral literature. Boyer is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hantu is the Malay and Indonesian word for spirit or ghost. In modern usage it generally means spirits of the dead but has also come to refer to any legendary invisible being,such as demons. In its traditional context the term also referred to animistic nature spirits or ancestral souls. The word is derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qanitu and Proto-Austronesian *qaNiCu. Cognates in other Austronesian languages include the Micronesian aniti,Lio language nitu,Yami anito,Taivoan alid,Seediq and Atayal utux,Bunun hanitu or hanidu,Polynesian aitu or atua,and Tsou hicu among the Formosan languages. In terms of concept and place in traditional folklore,it is most similar to the Filipino anito.
The University of Toronto Mississauga is a satellite campus of the University of Toronto located in Mississauga,Ontario,Canada.
Psychological anthropology is an interdisciplinary subfield of anthropology that studies the interaction of cultural and mental processes. This subfield tends to focus on ways in which humans' development and enculturation within a particular cultural group—with its own history,language,practices,and conceptual categories—shape processes of human cognition,emotion,perception,motivation,and mental health. It also examines how the understanding of cognition,emotion,motivation,and similar psychological processes inform or constrain our models of cultural and social processes. Each school within psychological anthropology has its own approach.
Elaine Fantham was a British-Canadian classicist whose expertise lay particularly in Latin literature,especially comedy,epic poetry and rhetoric,and in the social history of Roman women. Much of her work was concerned with the intersection of literature and Greek and Roman history. She spoke fluent Italian,German and French and presented lectures and conference papers around the world—including in Germany,Italy,the Netherlands,Norway,Argentina,and Australia.
Jain Canadians number 8,275,composing 0.02% of Canada's population. Adherents of Jainism first settled in Canada in small numbers in the late 19th century. The number of Jains in Canada later increased,leading to the establishment of Jain temples in Canada. The type of Jainism in Canada later exhibited several differences from Jainism in India.
Janice Boddy is a Canadian anthropologist. As Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto,Boddy specializes in medical anthropology,religion,gender issues,and colonialism in Sudan and the Middle East. She is the author or co-author of Wombs and Alien Spirits (1990),Aman:The Story of a Somali Girl (1995),and Civilizing Women:British Crusades in Colonial Sudan (2007).
The Tsingoni Mosque is a mosque in Tsingoni,Mayotte. It is considered the earliest established mosque in France.
Ana Mariella Bacigalupo is a Peruvian anthropologist. She is a full professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and has previously taught throughout the USA and in Chile. Her research primarily focuses on the shamans or machis of the Mapuche community of Chile,and the ways shamanic practices and beliefs are affected by and influence communal experiences of state power,mythical history,ethics,gender,justice,and identity.
Doris Leanna Bergen is a Canadian academic and Holocaust historian. She is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto,the only endowed chair in Canada in Holocaust history. Bergen is also a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2018.
Pamela E. Klassen is a Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto,co-appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. In 2019,Klassen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.