anth 1220 - week 12, religion

World View

An encompassing picture of reality created by the members of a society

Religion

A world view that postulates reality beyond that which is available to the senses

Components of religion

Beliefs about supernatural powers, stories about supernatural powers and cultural heroes, and rituals to influence these powers

Intellectual theory of religion

Religion explains puzzling things and events

Who supported the intellectual theory?

Sir James Frazer and Clifford Geertz

Psychological theory of religion

Religion helps people cope with situations outside their control

Who supported the psychological theory?

Bronislaw Malinowski

Sociological theory of religion

Religion promotes social solidarity and keeps people in line

Who supported the sociological theory?

Emile Durkheim

Animism

Belief in spiritual beings

Example of animism

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam belief in an all-powerful supreme being

Animatism

Belief in spiritual forces

Example of animatism

Mana in Polynesia and spiritual pollution causing sickness

Sorcery

Evil magic involving rites or spells

Sympathetic or imitative magic

Like produces like, such as voodoo dolls

Contagious magic

Power comes from contact

Witchcraft

Evil caused by supernatural powers alone without spells or rituals

Navaho view of witches

Witches are the worst people and are blamed for terrible harm

Azande view of witchcraft

Witchcraft is an innate inherited ability

How is witchcraft inherited among Azande?

Father to son or mother to daughter

Can an Azande be a witch unknowingly?

Yes

Who do Azande suspect as witches?

Enemies and people with bad social relationships

What is the first spear?

Natural causation of misfortune

What is the second spear?

Witchcraft explaining why misfortune happened at that time

Can witchcraft force adultery or lying?

No

What are oracles used for?

To identify witches and explain illness or bad luck

Why does witchcraft promote harmony?

It corrects anger, spite, and antisocial behaviour

Myth

Stories whose truth seems self-evident because they explain how the world works

Do myths have to be sacred?

No, often but not always

What do myths often validate?

Power relations and social arrangements

Orthodoxy

When myths are codified and deviation is punished harshly

Malinowski’s view of myth

Myths are a charter for social arrangements

Can myths change?

Yes, they change to explain new social developments

Lévi-Strauss’ view of myth

Myths help resolve logical contradictions through binary oppositions

Examples of binary oppositions

Life and death, day and night, man and woman

Ritual

A repetitive symbolic social practice separated from everyday life and linked to myth

Calendrical rituals

Rituals that happen on fixed dates

Crisis rituals

Rituals performed when needed like weddings or baptisms

Are all rituals sacred?

No, some like birthday parties are not

Rites of passage

Rituals marking movement from one social status to another

Three stages of rites of passage

Separation, liminality, and reincorporation

Liminality

The ambiguous middle stage between statuses

Communitas

Intense camaraderie during liminality

Example of communitas

Military boot camp

Four religious organizations

Individualistic, shamanistic, communal, and ecclesiastical

Example of individualistic religion

Vision quests among Plains First Nations

Communal religion

Ancestor cults and totemism

Totemism

A special relationship between humans and animals or objects

Ecclesiastical religion

Religion organized around priests in state societies

Shaman

Part-time religious practitioner who contacts supernatural forces in trance

How are shamans marked?

Through sickness, trauma, or unusual experiences

Priest

Full-time religious practitioner who performs rituals for the group

Difference between priests and shamans

Priests perform calendrical rituals, shamans specialize in crisis rituals

Syncretism

The merging of different religious beliefs and practices

Example of syncretism

Afro-Brazilian Candomblé and Roman adoption of local gods

Candomblé ceremony

Music, drumming, and dance to raise axé and contact gods

Possession in Candomblé

Orixá possesses the practitioner’s body during trance

Feito de Santo

A major initiation involving purification and transformation

Who leads a terreiro?

Mãe de santo or pai de santo

Divination in Candomblé

Jogo de buzios or shell casting

Revitalization movement

A religious movement meant to create a new way of life

Preconditions for revitalization

Rapid change, foreign domination, and relative deprivation

Nativism

A return to traditional old ways

Pattern of revitalization

A prophet has a dream explaining the problem and offering a new vision

Ghost Dance

A revitalization movement among Great Plains First Peoples in the 1890s

Context of Ghost Dance

Loss of bison and forced reservation life

Who was Wovoka?

The prophet of the Ghost Dance movement

What did Wovoka predict?

End times where bison and ancestors would return

What led to Wounded Knee?

U.S. army mistrust of the Ghost Dance movement