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Plotting Reincarnation Beliefs

Plotting Reincarnation Beliefs. Eleanor Wynn Doug white. Rationale for the study. Reincarnation beliefs are still widespread Have even made it to new science claims ( Lanza ) Foundational to Indic religions Overlooked by early ethnographies Christian, atheist or agnostic ethnographers

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Plotting Reincarnation Beliefs

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  1. Plotting Reincarnation Beliefs Eleanor Wynn Doug white

  2. Rationale for the study • Reincarnation beliefs are still widespread • Have even made it to new science claims (Lanza) • Foundational to Indic religions • Overlooked by early ethnographies • Christian, atheist or agnostic ethnographers • No ready explanations as metaphors under a Freudian, Marxist, functionalist or structural/semiotic framework • Under-reported in early ethnographies, increase later • In same populations • Even when nominally Christian (native American)

  3. Intersubjectivity Gap • I.e. they became more “visible” over time • As a function of ethnographer • Sensitivity? • Cultural overlap? • Sophistication? • Methodologically/phenomenologically revealing • What can we “see”, even with immersion and good field methods? • What do informants feel free to tell us? • What do we inquire about? • Beliefs neither material nor quaint/metaphorical • Might fall into categorical gray area (speculation)

  4. Increase in Reporting Over Time • Regardless of why, more detected over time • Both ethnographic databases and new reports in ethnographies • Swanson 1960: 2% of 50 cases • Constants: small hamlet, extended family compounds, small nomadic bands, scattered rural neighborhoods, etc. • Rosenblatt, Walsh, Jackson (1976, SCCS): 18% of 78 cases • Levinson (1994) 25% of 98 cases (of which 10 North American Indian) • Obeyesekere (1994, 2004), Mills & Slobodin (1994, Culture Index), 203 out of 600 (33%), of which 150 North American Indian

  5. Interesting Pattern of distribution • Although spread across the globe, there is a traceable “route” from pre-Vedic societies • Mongolia to sub-Arctic and Pacific Northwest • Pacific Northwest down West Coast into South America • Some instances on East Coast • Interesting also is possible degradation of belief along the route • Incan is not reincarnation but persistence in a mummified body--???

  6. Map of Reincarnation Beliefs

  7. Types of Beliefs • Reincarnated within a family group • Random • Karmic reincarnation, i.e. merit determines next life • Increasing elaboration in Vedic and Buddhist texts over time • Animal or human preference • Native American, no preference • Indic, human preferred, animal is downward mobility • Many more subdivisions and variations

  8. Still seeking explanatory framework • So, do these beliefs correlate to other behaviors that might explain their existence? • This is the question we posed to Dow/Eff functions • Advantage of Dow/Eff already outlined by White • Missing data • Inconsistent categories

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