ANTH1220 Week 12

Religion

A world view that postulates reality beyond that which is available to the senses. The components of religion include beliefs about the nature and character of supernatural powers, oral or written stories about supernatural powers and cultural heroes, and rituals intended to include or direct these powers for the benefit of the group.

Intellectual explanation of why religion exists

Religion explains puzzling things and events. Sir James Frazer and Clifford Geertz saw religion this way

Psychological explanation of why religion exists

Religion helps people cope. Bronislaw Malinowski thought that religion helped people handle situations otherwise out of their control

Sociological explanation of why religion exists

Religion keeps people in line. Emile Durkheim thought that the purpose of religion was to promote social solidarity

Animism

The belief in spiritual beings. Examples include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the supreme being is all-knowing, all-powerful, expects sacrifices or worship, and pays attention to human behaviour and morality

Animatism

The belief in spiritual forces. An example being mana in Polynesia making chiefs powerful.

Sympathetic or imitative magic

Magic in the principle of “like produces like”

Contagious magic

Magic where power comes from contact

What is the difference between witchcraft and sorcery?

Sorcery involves rites or spells, however witchcraft involves supernatural powers alone, innate skill to do spells

What is Azande witchcraft?

The Azande believed in both sorcerers and witches. Witchcraft was an inherited ability in unilinear fashion: father → son, mother → daughter. They only cared about witches when they’re suffering. Kin never bewitch one another, high status commoners are not often accused, while poor men and women are the most likely to be accused of witchcraft. Witchcraft explains unfortunate events and witches are your enemies

Intellectual explanation of witchcraft

Witchcraft explains unfortunate events and provides scapegoats

Psychological explanation of witchcraft

People can do something about their misfortunes by accusing and punishing witches

Sociological explanation of witchcraft

Witchcraft promotes social harmony and provides an outlet for aggression

Myth

Stories whose truth seems self-evident because they integrate personal experiences with a wider set of assumptions about how the world works. They’re often, but not necessarily sacred, validate power relations, and provide clues to the good life

Orthodoxy

When myths are codified and deviation from the code is treated harshly, societies vary in their expectations of orthodoxy.

What did Bronislaw Malinowski believe about myths?

He believed that myths were a charter for social arrangements. Myths can change to explain new developments. Clan origin myths in the Trobriands legitimized matrimony and clan rankings but were not set in stone. To fully understand a myth, you need to understand the social context

What did Claude Levi-Strauss believe about myths?

He believed that myths are tools for overcoming logical contradictions. He explored binary oppositions in myth: life/death, day/night, man/woman, etc. Myths relate opposing pairs to overcome the contradiction. They talk about the way the world is, but also propose alternatives. However, the alternatives are generally rejected as impossible or undesirable

Ritual

A repetitive social practice composed of a sequence of symbolic activities, set off from the social routines of everyday life, adhering to a culturally defined ritual schema, and closely connected to a specific set of ideas that are often encoded in myth. Can be split into calendrical and crisis ones. Not all of them are sacred, such as children’s birthday parties.

Calendrical ritual

Rituals that are scheduled, recurring ceremonies that strengthen social solidarity

Crisis ritual

Rituals that are unscheduled, spontaneous actions taken in response to emergencies or threats

Rites of passage

A ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone's life, especially birth, puberty, marriage, and death. They’re associated with movement from one status to another. There are three stages: separation, limen, and reincorporation. The middle stage is associated with liminality, which is characterized by ambiguity. Liminality produces communities, an intense sense of camaraderie between participants

How is religion organized?

Individualistic organization (vision quest), Shamanistic organization (shamans), Communal organization (ancestor cults and totemism), Ecclesiastical organization (priests)

Shamans

Part-time religious practitioners, they contact supernatural forces on behalf of others, usually in trance. Training is arduous and permanent, they’re viewed with ambivalence. They’re marked out by invisible forces through sickness, trauma, or unusual experiences. They specialize in crisis rituals

Priests

Full-time religious practitioners, they practice rituals for the benefit of the group and may not have direct contact with supernatural forces. Associated with hierarchical societies. High status, subsidized by the government. They perform more calendrical rituals

Syncretism

When different religious practices come into contact, sometimes the two are merged. Examples include Afro-Brazilian candomble practices, and Ancient Roman incorporation of local gods into the Roman pantheon

Revitalization movement

A religious movement explicitly intended to create a new way of life for a society or group. Preconditions include rapid change, foreign domination, and perception of relative deprivation. They sometimes incorporate syncretism, but often embrace nativism, a return to the old ways. Usually a prophet would have a dream that explains what is wrong with the world and offers a vision of the new world. Often a set of instructions for those who wish to attain the new world.

Ghost Dance

A revitalization movement among the Great Plains First Peoples of the US. They lost bison, so the prophet Wovoka said he predicted the end times. Plains natives who lived free of settler ways and danced the ghost dance would be saved, and the bisons and ancestors would return. It led to the massacre at Wounded Knee.