Ch 12 Religion in Comparative Perspective — Comprehensive Study Notes

What Is Religion?

• Early Definitions
  • Sir Edward Tylor (late 1800s): religion = “belief in spirits.”
  • Contemporary anthropological definition: “beliefs and behaviors related to supernatural beings and forces.”
  • Avoids specifying a supreme deity ➔ accommodates non-theistic (e.g., some Buddhist) and polytheistic traditions.
• Relation to Worldview
  • Religion ⊂ worldview.
  • Worldview = total cultural understanding of origins, design, humans’ place in universe.
  • Atheists have worldview but no religion.

Magic, Religion, Science

• Tylor (1871): magic, religion, science are successive explanatory systems; science = most rational.
• Sir James Frazer (1890)
  • Magic = attempt to compel supernaturals.
  • Religion = attempt to please supernaturals.
  • Two principles of magic:
  • Law of Similarity (imitative magic) → e.g., voodoo doll.
  • Law of Contagion (contagious magic) → e.g., using hair, nails.
• Evolutionary Model: magic → religion → science (predicted disappearance of magic; disproved by modern Wicca, sports magic, etc.).
• Contemporary Examples
  • Wicca/Neo-Paganism; pentacle added to U.S. VA grave symbols (2007).
  • Sports magic (baseball pitchers/hitters).
  • Farming, fishing, military, love rituals.

Varieties of Religious Beliefs

• Transmission Modes
  • Myth (narratives) and Doctrine (formal statements).

Myth

• Narrative with plot, motifs.
• Functions:
  • Malinowski: charter for society, moral guide.
  • Lévi-Strauss: resolves binary contradictions via mediating elements (e.g., Pueblo raven between herbivores/carnivores).
  • Cultural materialism: stores environmental/economic knowledge (Klamath & Modoc myths emphasize food uncertainty, storage, reciprocity).

Doctrine

• Written, formal; links wrong belief/behavior to punishment.
• Dynamic (e.g., papal 1854 Immaculate Conception; Sisters in Islam debating ulama in Malaysia).
• Common in large, institutional religions.

Supernatural Forces & Beings

• Animatism: impersonal power (mana in Pacific).
• Zoomorphic Deities: animal forms (Greek, Roman, Hindu).
• Anthropomorphic Deities: human form; responsive to praise, gifts; possess hierarchies, marital/sexual relations, divisions of labor.
• Ancestor Spirits: Africa, Asia, American Indians; Japan’s Obon and equinox holidays.

Sacred Space

• Natural sites (Saami rock formations; Aboriginal Dreamtime territories).
• Domestic rituals creating temporary sacred space (khatam quran among Pakistani women in Manchester).
• Legal/ethical issues (gender-restricted sacred knowledge in Australian land-claim cases).

Ritual Practices

• Definition: patterned, repetitive behavior focused on supernatural.
• Timing Categories
  • Periodic (e.g., Buddha’s Day, Thanksgiving as hybrid).
  • Non-periodic (drought, illness, life events).

Life-Cycle (Rites of Passage) – Victor Turner

1. Separation (physical/social) – special dress, seclusion.
2. Transition/Liminality – learning, ambiguity.
3. Reintegration – new status recognized.

• Gender variation: girls’ puberty rites correlate with female labor value (Bemba mushroom knowledge example).

Pilgrimage

• Round-trip to sacred site; involves hardship ➔ merit.
• Turner’s three phases applied; status enhancement.

Rituals of Inversion (Carnival, Sardinia example)

• Temporary role reversal releases tension, reinforces norms.
• Bosa carnival: street theater, widow mourning parody, Giolzi search.

Sacrifice

• Offerings → animals, humans, plants, flowers.
• Interpretations: symbolic replacement (flowers as former animal substitutes).
• Aztec human sacrifice debate
  • Marvin Harris: \approx 100{,}000 victims; protein source; state power.
  • Peggy Sanday: emic view—pleasing gods, not materialist.

Religious Specialists

• Shaman/Shamanka: direct supernatural contact; trance; nonstate, nonperiodic rituals; open role.
• Priest/Priestess: full-time, formally trained or hereditary; perform state & periodic rituals; possess secular power.
• Other Roles
  • Diviners (entrails, tarot, palm).
  • Prophets (visions, charisma, miracle-workers).
  • Witches (positive healing vs. harmful).

World Religions & Local Variations

• Term “world religion” (19th c.) criteria: written texts, transnational, salvation.
• Original trio: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism; expanded to include Judaism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto; plus African diaspora traditions.
• Globalization Forces: colonialism, migration, media.
• Outcomes: religious pluralism vs. syncretism.

Hinduism

• >900\text{ million} adherents (≈15\% world). 97\% in India.
• Core texts: four Vedas (1200–900 BCE) + epics Mahabharata, Ramayana.
• Polytheism + philosophical monism; practice of darshan, mantras.
• Caste-based ritual differences (lower caste meat/alcohol vs. upper caste flowers/rice).
• Nayar serpent-curse fertility ritual (Kerala): matrilineal context; trance medium accuses lineage of disharmony.
• Karma concept among Hindu women in Leeds, UK: range from fatalism to agency; challenges to marital destiny show resistance.

Buddhism

• Founded by Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 566–486\,\text{BCE}).
• \approx400\text{ million} adherents (≈6\% world).
• Diversity; no single canon; goal = nirvana; compassion & karma.
• Declined in India; spread to Asia, West.
• Myanmar case: coexistence with nat spirit beliefs; pluralism (spirits handle daily problems, Buddhism handles ultimate truths).

Judaism

• Formed post-Temple destruction (586–500 BCE).
• Population \approx15\text{ million} (½ N. America, ¼ Israel).
• Torah/Pentateuch central; exile–return paradigm.
• Dietary (kosher), Sabbath, monotheism.
• Varieties: Hasidic → Reform (matrilineal vs. patrilineal descent debates).
• Kotel (Western Wall): communitas among diverse visitors; gender partitions; social heterogeneity.
• Kochi Passover (Kerala) syncretism: austerity, no child questions, heightened purity (Hindu influence).

Christianity

• Origin 1st c. CE; Jesus as Messiah.
• Largest religion: \approx2\text{ billion} (≈33\% world).
• Branches: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox; rapid growth in sub-Saharan Africa, India, Indonesia, E. Europe.
• Appalachian Protestant variants
  • Old Regulars: footwashing + communion + baptism → emotional cohesion.
  • Holiness snake-handling: Mark 16 legitimation; risk reflects socioeconomic insecurity; practitioners psychologically healthy.
• Fiji Last Supper tapestry: seating parallels kava ritual hierarchy ➔ syncretism.

Islam

• Founded by Prophet Muhammad (570–632 CE).
• \approx1.4\text{ billion} adherents (≈22\% world) ➔ second largest.
• Sects: Sunni (\approx85\%), Shi’a (\approx15\%), Sufism (mystical minority).
• Five Pillars (faith, prayer, fasting, alms, Hajj).
• Stereotype of monolithic Islam contradicted by diversity.
• Eid-ul-Adha comparison
  • Morocco: king’s public ram sacrifice; male power symbolism; henna, blood rituals.
  • Isak, Sumatra: family-based, many animal types, gender-inclusive sponsorship, no political centrality.
  • Shows local kinship & political structures shaping ritual.

African Religions & Diaspora

• Common features: creator rupture myth, high god + lesser spirits, initiation, animal sacrifice, shrines/altars, healing links.
• Influenced by Islam, Christianity; revitalized abroad (e.g., Oyotunji Village, SC; roots tourism).
• Syncretic New World forms: umbanda, santería, candomblé (Brazil) offering stress relief & support.
• Ras Tafari (Rastafarianism)
  • Emerged Jamaica, 20th c.; Ethiopia = heaven, Haile Selassie = living god; protest ideology; reggae, dreadlocks, ganja; variations from militant to pacifist.

Directions of Religious Change

• Revitalization Movements (Anthony F.C. Wallace concept)

  • Ghost Dance (Paiute Wodziwob & Wovoka): destruction-renewal prophecy; Sioux adaptation ➔ Wounded Knee massacre; revived by AIM in 1970s.
  • Cargo Cults (Melanesia): prophetic leaders promise Western goods arrival (ship → plane); response to disrupted exchange/economy.

• Contested Sacred Sites

  • Jerusalem (Islam/Judaism/Christianity; intra-Christian rivalry).
  • India Hindu–Muslim site disputes.
  • U.S. burning of Black churches; Israeli archaeology vs. burial sanctity.
  • Indigenous land claims vs. development (mining, tourism); anthropology used as expert testimony.

• Religious Freedom as Human Right (UN Declaration)

  • Tibetan Buddhist diaspora post-PRC takeover; cultural preservation in exile.
  • Post-9/11 U.S. policies stigmatizing Islam → anthropological critique (Mamdani).

Ethical, Philosophical, Practical Implications

• Evaluating magic/religion hierarchy reflects ethnocentrism; persistence of magical thought challenges “progress” narratives.
• Syncretism shows cultural agency, negotiation, and adaptation rather than simple replacement.
• Rituals of inversion and sacrifice illustrate functionalist ideas of tension release and social integration but also carry power/political dimensions.
• Gendered access to sacred knowledge (Australian Aboriginal case) raises questions of legal evidence vs. cultural secrecy.
• Conversion violence (Christianity & Islam) demonstrates ethical issues in proselytizing.
• Anthropological involvement (court testimony, human rights advocacy) highlights discipline’s applied significance.

Numerical & Statistical References (Selected)

• Hinduism: \text{adherents} \approx 900{,}000{,}000 (15\%); 97\% reside in India.
• Buddhism: \approx 400{,}000{,}000 (6\%) globally.
• Judaism: \approx 15{,}000{,}000; 50\% N. America, 25\% Israel.
• Christianity: \approx 2{,}000{,}000{,}000 (33\%).
• Islam: \approx 1{,}400{,}000{,}000 (22\%); Sunnis \approx 85\%, Shi’a \approx 15\%.
• Aztec sacrifice debate: Harris estimates up to 100{,}000 victims at some sites.

Key Terms Glossary (selected)

• \textbf{Animatism}: belief in impersonal supernatural force.
• \textbf{Liminality}: transitional phase in rite of passage.
• \textbf{Pilgrimage}: ritual journey to sacred site.
• \textbf{Syncretism}: blending of elements from two or more religions.
• \textbf{Revitalization Movement}: deliberate, organized effort to create a more satisfying culture.
• \textbf{Cargo Cult}: Melanesian movement anticipating Western goods through supernatural means.