Roy Rappaport was an American anthropologist and a leading figure in ecological anthropology, known for his study of the Tsembaga Maring people of highland New Guinea in Pigs for the Ancestors (1968). He argued that the Tsembaga ritual cycle, in which pigs were raised, accumulated, and then ceremonially slaughtered and redistributed at a great feast, functioned as a homeostatic mechanism that regulated the relationship between human population, pig population, and the surrounding environment, periodically releasing ecological and social pressure that had built up between cycles. Rappaport's argument that religious ritual could serve a measurable ecological regulatory function, expressed in the technical language of systems ecology, became one of the most influential and debated attempts to give a materialist, functionalist account of religion within anthropology, and his later work turned to the broader theoretical question of ritual's role in maintaining the sanctity and stability of cultural systems generally.
Facts
Nationality / Culture Defining ContributionCoined the distinction between a people's cognized environment and their operational environment, founding ecological anthropology's study of ritual and ecology. 1 Notable WorkPigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People (1968) 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Roy Rappaport (Wikipedia)
Source Roy Rappaport (Wikipedia)
Practices Studied
Source Roy Rappaport (Wikipedia)
Source Roy Rappaport (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
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Source Roy Rappaport (Wikipedia)Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
Roy Abraham Rappaport (25 March 1926 – 9 October 1997) was an American anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.
Sources
1. Roy Rappaport (Wikipedia)
Wikipediaopening sentence
Roy Abraham Rappaport (25 March 1926-9 October 1997) was an American anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.
Biography section, birth
Rappaport was born in New York City on 25 March 1926.
Biography section, death
Rappaport died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on 9 October 1997.
Biography section, on Pigs for the Ancestors
In that book, and elaborated elsewhere, Rappaport coined the distinction between a people's cognized environment and their operational environment, that is, between how a people understand the effects of their actions in the world and how an anthropologist interprets the environment through measurement and observation.
Biography section, on his publications
One of his publications, Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People (1968), is an ecological account of ritual among the Tsembaga Maring of New Guinea.
Associated With: Columbia University, Article text
He received his Ph.D. at Columbia University and held a tenured position at the University of Michigan.
Associated With: University of Michigan, Article text
He received his Ph.D. at Columbia University and held a tenured position at the University of Michigan.
Practices Studied: Religion, Article text
"Ultimate sacred postulates" form the top of the hierarchy, which are the most fundamental elements of religion.
Practices Studied: Ritual, Article text
When persons take part in a ritual, they are able to signal that they are the authority of the ritual, thus reinforcing the social contract in place.
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