Problem 4:  Why do people believe different things, and why are they so certain that their view of the world is correct, and others are wrong?

Essay Assignment: Hunger and Sex

One of the central ideas in the anthropological study of belief and religion has to do with how values, beliefs, and religious convictions are expressed.  We will examine in class various examples of ceremony and ritual, and, most importantly, the role of metaphor in the construction and representation of belief.  One society that we will examine is the Kwakiutl of British Colombia.  The Kwakiult, as you’ll learn, place great emphasis on the metaphor of “eating” or “hunger.”  Much of their experience is interpreted through this natural act, and represented in their ceremony.  Some have suggested that Americans, also, interpret and express much of their experience through a natural act, that of sexual intercourse.  That is, much of our language, art, and the like, specifically apply sexual metaphors to other aspects of our lives.   Your task in this essay is to compare the way that the Kwakiutl apply the metaphor of eating or hunger to the way that Americans apply the metaphor of sexuality or sexual desire.  You will need to answer the following questions:

 

1.     What are some of the symbols of sexuality used in advertising?  That is, how is sex represented?

2.     The Kwakiutl represent eating as something to be controlled.  How is that the same or different from how sexuality is represented in commercials?

3.     Metaphors of eating or sexuality must also be "acted out" in the form of ritual or myth.   How is sexuality "acted out" in commercials?

4.     How are the metaphors of sexuality related to metaphors of love in the United States?

You will need to incorporate the readings and discussions on ritual and ceremony and their role in the creation and maintenance of belief.