Smells and Bells

  Web Blog Sensory Interpretation Blog Prompt or 6? 5 senses... Welcome!  Here is the Web post  Assignment for our class, and general guidelines for what to include in your posts Sensory Interpretation Web Blog Posts  (6 posts on each of the senses, 5% each, plus one summarizing blog post the last week of class 10%, for a total of 40%).  Short reflection writing assignments to be posted on a blog set up specifically for this class  here . Students will "log" what they are learning about the relationship between the senses and "religious" experience throughout the term, and be able to comment on one another's questions and insights.  You should make at least 7 posts, @one every two weeks. Make sure you have one post each tagged with "taste", "smell", "hearing", "sight", "touch" or "6th sense."  To assure you will get credit for covering each of the six senses in your blog posts, edit them to make sure th...

Throughout Religion in the Kitchen, Pérez explains how the religious practices of the Lacumi are more centralized around the idea of devotion rather than understanding or actual belief. She illustrates that the micropractices that the members of the Lacumi do on a daily basis maintain their devotion to the gods and keep them within the sphere of influence of the religion itself. To me, I see this as more of a cult than a religion because this organization prizes membership higher than actual faith. The ways that  the Lacumi are kept in line and a part of the religion are that they constantly follow what they are told to do without question and value the gods above all else. We referenced in class the man who was forced to quit his business job because it posed a threat to his devotion, thus showing that this religion demands quite a bit from its members. But what I believe is one of the more impactful ways that the Lacumi cultivate devotion is described in the Conclusion....

Just as cultures have their own unique preferences when it comes to what people consume, Religions apply preferences to what tastes please their god(s). This is especially noticeable in polytheistic religions and religions that use food as offerings. While reading Elizabeth Pérez's Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions , I was struck by a passage involving how the practitioners of Lucumí decide what food to prepare for the orishas, their form of gods or divine spirits. "By offering food in addimú to the orishas, whether on a festive occasion or somber ones, practitioners today attempt to cross the divide thought to separate divine other from human self. The food does not merely communicate a desire to build a relationship with the gods, it ‘can be held to constitute objects of devotion.’ Practitioners come to recognize the orishas through learning their preferences. They materialize the spirits by repeatedly try...

Web Blog Sensory Interpretation Blog Prompt or 6? 5 senses... Sensory Interpretation Web Blog Posts  (6 posts on each of the senses, 5% each, plus one summarizing blog post the last week of class 10%, for a total of 40%).  Short reflection writing assignments to be posted on a blog set up specifically for this class  here . Students will "log" what they are learning about the relationship between the senses and "religious" experience throughout the term, and be able to comment on one another's questions and insights.  You should make at least 7 posts, @one every two weeks. Make sure you have one post each tagged with "taste", "smell", "hearing", "sight", "touch" or "6th sense."  To assure you will get credit for covering each of the six senses in your blog posts, edit them to make sure they have these tags.   Also among your 7 or more posts you should respond specifically to ...