"I was learning about these people in Africa, and this strange coming of age ritual where the older men of the village cut grooves into the young men’s heads... The grooves are so deep... they show up in the fossil record."
"It didn’t puzzle me... It was another culture.
My explanation of things were - it feels good. If it doesn’t feel good, it’s another culture."
"This film was the first thing I couldn't explain. Some of the people in this film look like my grandparents. This is my culture."
"This film is a big part of why I became an anthropologist."
"I read some different explanations of this. One of them was Freudian. Wanna guess what it said? I mean, it's Freudian, come on. Yeah, the snakes are phallic symbols. I thought... yes, sex is important. Yes, symbols, mhmm.... but... why not just use a banana? Or if you just really liked the idea of snakes, why not a non-poisonous snake? Why the serpents?"
"Another explanation was sort of like Malinowski. It said throwing the snakes around relieves tension. Uh huh. You come home after a long day in the coal mine and throw the snake around. Gee honey, you seem tense, wanna go downstairs and throw snakes at the wall?"
- Craig Palmer, our Anthropological Theories of Religion professor, about the film The Holy Ghost People
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