How to analyze supernatural phenomena anthropologically

1. What is the nature of the power? Internal/external/transitional
2. What is the source of power?
3. How is it channeled?
4. How is it used? What area is it effective in?
5. Note how the power is activated/requested e.g invocations
6. What is its magical nature? E.g. Imitative/contagious/infectious

Magic

3 ways to categorize it

• Transitional - power only there for a while - possession, mediums, trances, altered states etc. 
• Internal - power coming from within the person that is always there - psychic, evil eye, prophecy, visions, witchcraft. 
• External - power through manipulating objects - spells, formulas, invocations, sorcery.

Types of magic

• Sympathetic - imitative ritual e.g. Rain dances, hunting rituals
• Contagious - power transferred through physical contact with objects in ritual e.g voodoo
• Infectious- power transferred through rituals that send results over distances e.g. Sending curses, Pointing the bone

The problem with magic

1. It's delusional

2. It's illusional

3. It's demonic based - promotes Satans' lies, inspires faith in false gods, represents levels of power in Satans' hierarchy. Example in scripture - divination being lies (1 kings 22)

Life cycle rituals

Life cycle rituals in all cultures 

• Birth ceremonies - acknowledge new member of society
• Initiation ceremonies - prepare people for new role and responsibilities in society e.g quests to prepare young warriors to see if they can endure pain, (Jesus visiting Jerusalem was probably part of his Bar Mitzvah)
• Marriage ceremony- defines sexual access and the transfer of reproductive potential, as well as the responsibility for care of that woman. There is no natural culture in the world where promiscuous sex is allowed with no rules, though there are some that allow polyandry (multiple brothers marrying one woman) etc. In PNG, you make a little payment to get to sleep with your bride, but you are only officially married once the first child has been born and they make the final payment. 
• Funerals - most complicated because the ceremony tries to give a fuller understanding about death - causes, attitudes towards death, beliefs of afterlife, relationship between living and dead, grieving, treatment of corpse, adjusting to living with the absence of the dead.