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Development of Religion in State Societies

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By 600 B.C. when Jainism and Buddhism arose: ... Buddhism. Spread throughout India and into the far east via 1000 years of war. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Development of Religion in State Societies


1
Development of Religion in State Societies
  • Text extracted from
  • Our Kind
  • By Marvin Harris

2
Role of Priests
  • Humans wish for goods and services from the gods
  • It was the job of ecclesiastical specialists
    (priests) to obtain these

3
Obtaining favors from gods
  • Aggressive approach Threaten to harm the gods
    who do not cooperate. 
  • Does not work with supreme beings.
  • Exchange goods and services with the gods
  • Offerings

4
Obtaining favor from the gods
  • Appeal to the gods' mercy and generosity
  • promising love and devotion in return
  • Sacrifice as an expression of devotion
  • destruction of ones property,
  • self mutilation,
  • slaying a loved one.

5
The gods want food
  • For exchange with gods, what do gods want?
  • Answer gods want what people value most -- food
    and drink
  • Without gods help, humans cannot feed themselves
  • Must feed the gods to get that help.

Offering of food to the gods
6
Redistribution
  • But gods only require spiritual essence of food
    set out for them
  • The material food itself can be redistributed to
    the people.
  • Gifts of food and donations to the gods became
    taxes for the church in larger state societies.

Ziggarut (Mesopotamia)
7
Meat offerings
  • Meat central focus of food sacrifices to the
    gods
  • Meat is the most prestigious and desired food
    among humans and therefore also gods
  • Thus animal slaughter and religious ritual
    closely intertwined

Hebrew animal sacrifice
8
Solomons Temple
  • At  the dedication of first temple in Jerusalem,
    King Solomon sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000
    sheep as a peace offering.
  • Meat was not left to rot, but was redistributed
    to people in feasting.

Solomons Temple
9
Human Sacrifice
  • Human flesh was not generally viewed as meat the
    gods liked to eat.
  • Human sacrifice in most instances was intended to
    win the sympathy of the gods.
  • Usually children were sacrificed buried beneath
    foundations of buildings or burned in Biblical
    times.

Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
10
Human Sacrifice
  • In Carthage, 20,000 children were sacrificed
  • 400-200 B.C.
  • Buried in urns.

11
Human Sacrifice
  • Prisoners of war also sacrificed.
  • Most widespread human sacrifice occurred at the
    death and burial of kings. 
  • Often all wives, concubines, cooks, grooms and
    other servants killed when king died.  

Zhou Dynasty, China
12
The gods who would not eat people
  • Why did the gods not like to eat people?
  • Not an ethical impulse of humans to protect human
    life
  • humans readily slaughtered on battlefield.
  • Did people not prefer to eat humans?
  • Not likely
  • Cannibalism practiced in many band-and-village
    societies and chiefdoms
  • often prisoners of war eaten

13
Large State Societies
  • It was more cost effective to turn prisoners of
    war into slaves.
  • Each farmer and worker in a state society can
    produce a surplus of goods and services.
  • The larger the population, the more surplus, and
    the more powerful the governing class becomes.

14
Band and Village Societies
  • Cannot produce large surpluses
  • Have no large central government to unite
    defeated enemies
  • Have no governing class to benefit from taxation.
  • Bringing a captive home to be a slave is just one
    more mouth to feed.
  • Therefore, more benefit derived from eating a
    captive

15
The gods who ate people
  • Aztecs had a large state society
  • Their gods craved human flesh, especially human
    hearts.
  • Big question why cannibalism here and not in
    other state societies?

http//www.gnosticassociationny.org/AC_Complete.jp
g
16
Job of Aztec Priests
  • To satisfy craving of gods for human flesh
  • If craving not satisfied, gods would destroy the
    world.
  • Prisoners held down on top of pyramid temples,
    heart cut out still beating, offered to gods.

17
Redistribution
  • Body of prisoner rolled down pyramid
  • Head cut off and displayed
  • Flesh redistributed for meat.
  • Cortez found 136,000 heads of sacrificial victims

18
Why Aztec prisoners eaten, not slaves?
  • Lack of domesticated animals for meat in new
    world.
  • No other way Aztec rulers could play the role of
    being great providers by redistributive feasting
  • Also satisfy human physiological dietary needs
    for protein, vitamins and minerals found in meat

Aztec ritual sacrifice
19
The Non-killing Religions
  • In the 1000 years before birth of Christ
  • New charismatic leaders arose in the
    Mediterranean, Middle East, Persia, India
  • New leaders denounced ritual killing of people or
    animals as way to win favors from gods.

Zoroaster
20
The Non-killing Religions
  • Gods demand lifetime devoted to
  • good deeds,
  • love,
  • kindness to people
  • and all living things
  • If
  • Defend the poor and weak
  • Restrain appetites and ego
  • Then
  • expect reward in heaven
  • immortality or eternal peace.

21
Zoroastrianism
  • Ancient Iran and Persian Empire, then died out.
  • Founded by Zoroaster (Zarathrustra)
  • 7th century B.C.
  • after a vision of Ahura Mazda,
  • Lord of Enlightenment
  • Cosmic struggle between
  • god of Good (Ahura Mazda) and
  • god of Evil (Ahariman)
  • Dualism
  • good versus bad

22
Zoroastrianism
  • Humans free to choose one side or other
  • If choose Ahura Mazda,
  • must give up intoxicants,
  • ritual slaughter of animals,
  • and shedding of blood
  • go to heaven when die
  • If choose Ahairman,
  • go to hell when die.

Ahura Mazda
23
Jainism
  • Arose in India, still practiced by 2 million
    followers
  • Founded by Mahavira in 6th century B.C.
  • after he achieved spiritual fulfillment
  • opposing Vedic traditions of animal slaughter and
    redistribution.
  • Accepted rebirth,
  • but denounced caste system and Brahmin rituals

Mahavira
24
Jainism
  • Path of liberation involves 5 vows
  • do not kill, tell lies, steal, fornicate,
  • or acquire excessive riches
  • Animals, even insects not killed.
  • Adepts had higher standards
  • complete chastity,
  • self mortification including exposure to hunger,
    thirst, cold, insect bites and intense heat.

http//www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/h
utchinson/images/71034.jpg
25
Buddhism
  • Arose in India, spread to far east
  • Founded by Guatama Siddhartha
  • 6th century B.C. after enlightenment
  • He realized that
  • he must give up self-inflicted fasting and
    punishment
  • and find a middle way.
  • Opposed
  • caste system and
  • animal -killing religion of the Vedas

Enlightenment of Buddha
26
Buddhism
  • Eight-fold way to achieve nirvana
  • (deliverance from cycle of reincarnation and
    pain)
  • mental and physical discipline to avoid
  • lying,
  • lusting,
  • killing of animals or people,
  • stealing, or
  • bringing harm to others.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageKamakura_Budda_
Daibutsu_front_1885.jpg
27
Hinduism
  • Evolved in India from Vedas
  • Vedic Brahmans gave up killing of animals
  • and instead became guardians of animal life
  • All Hindu castes work to
  • prevent slaughter of cattle, and
  • consumption of beef
  • Ahimsa, or reverence for all living beings
  • became central ethical component.

Krishna
http//www.guruji.it/galleria/krishna/krishna1.jpg
28
Judaism
  • Judiasm was not an otherworldly, soul-saving
    religion
  • Israelites followed Yahweh's commandments to be
  • blessed with progeny,
  • free from disease,
  • victorious in battle, and
  • Have abundant wheat, wine, oil, cattle, and
    sheep.
  • Animal sacrifice occurred on a large scale in
    ancient Judaism.
  • Not really a non-killing religion
  • despite commandment "Thou shall not kill"

Moses
http//metamedia.stanford.edu/imagebin/moses.jpg
29
Christianity
  • Arose from Judaism
  • One of the more recent non-killing religions
  • Christianity removed animal sacrifice and
    redistribution of meat
  • and replaced it with symbolic meal Eucharist
    Ritual (last supper).
  • Apostle Paul said that the blood of animals
    cannot take away sin
  • God had sacrificed his only son to remove human
    sin, and those without sin would have eternal
    life.

Jesus Christ
http//www.heart-cry.com/love/Jesus_ws.jpg
30
Origin of Non-Killing Religions
  • Why did Non-killing religions arise, replacing
    redistributive feasting?
  • States were being ravaged by brutal and costly
    wars
  • Environmental depletions, population growth, and
    the rise of cities created food shortages
  • Thus difficult to maintain a steady supply of
    meat for redistributive feasting
  • The class system produced widespread poverty
    among the common people

Jesus and the poor
31
Zoroaster
  • Zoroaster lived in a time of political
    instability and cultural change

http//www.wga.hu/art/r/raphael/4stanze/1segnatu/1
/athens7.jpg
32
1500-500 BC India
  • Vedic meat-redistributive religions (Ganges
    Valley) thrived
  • Populations were small and spread out in villages
  • There were dense forests, and fodder for animals.
  • No conflict between raising animals and plowing
    fields.

33
India 600 BC
  • By 600 B.C. when Jainism and Buddhism arose
  • Most people in the Ganges Valley lived in a state
    society
  • Population had risen to the millions
  • Towns and cities had sprung up
  • The Gangetic plain had become deforested

34
India 600 BC
  • There was a shortage of pasture and fodder
  • Oxen were too scarce to be consumed in feasts
  • (and were needed to plow fields)
  • Warfare was incessant
  • droughts produced dust bowls.

35
India 600 BC
  • Lakes, wells and springs were dried up...
    Sacrifices were in abeyance.  Agriculture and
    cattle-rearing were given up.  Markets and shops
    were abandoned... Festivals died out.  Everywhere
    heaps of bones were seen and cries of creatures
    heard.  The cities were depopulated, hamlets
    burnt down.  People fled from fear of one another
    or of robbers, weapons, and kings.  Places of
    worship were deserted.  The aged were turned out
    of their houses 
  • -- Hindu epic poem Mahabarata

36
India 600 BC
  • Kine, goats, sheep and buffalo fought and died
    in large numbers.  The Brahmans died without
    protection.  Herds and plants withered.  The
    earth looked like trees in a crematorium.  In
    that dreadful age when righteousness was at an
    end, men...began to eat one another"

-- Hindu epic poem Mahabarata
37
Christianity
  • Arose At a time of guerrilla wars aimed at
    overthrowing Roman power.
  • High priests, big landowners, and wealthy
    merchants lived in splendor, amidst
  • widespread unemployment,
  • landlessness, and
  • mistreatment of peasants and slaves.

Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea
http//www.forumancientcoins.com/forvm/Articles/Po
ntius20Pilate/images/fontanille1.jpg
38
Christianity
  • Throughout the Roman Empire one did not have to
    be a slave or peasant
  • to be appalled and to feel threatened by the
  • corruption,
  • brutality,
  • class antagonisms and
  • ceaseless wars

Roman Slave Market
39
Christianity
  • Apostle Paul preached that the promised kingdom
    was not on earth but in heaven.
  • Neither worldly riches nor worldly pain were
    important
  • because those who loved humankind,
  • lived in peace, and
  • believed in Jesus
  • would be rewarded with the gift of eternal life.

Apostle Paul
40
Religions of Love and Mercy
  • To become world religions, the religions of love
    and mercy
  • Sponsored and encouraged military conquest
  • Aided and abetted harsh forms of political
    repression
  • and control.

Catholics versus Protestants
41
How Non-killing Religions Spread
  • None of the non-killing religions has reduced the
    incidence or ferocity of war
  • Each is implicated in devastating inversions of
    the principle of non-killing and reverence for
    life.

42
Appeal to Founders of Empires
  • Concern with the soul's prospects in the next
    life
  • Advantages in preserving and incorporating
    defeated populations as as source of labor and
    wealth.
  • Non-killing religions reassured the enemy that
    they could survive capture, and made foreign rule
    easier
  • Promise of rewards in afterlife instead of
    rewards to the body in life was convenient

43
Appeal to Founders of Empires
  • Life on earth was painful,
  • but poverty and suffering improved ones chances
    of eternal bliss
  • Governing class did not have to provide wealth
    and happiness
  • to validate its right to govern.
  • Redistribution could not work anyway
  • in times of high population, environmental
    destruction, economic crisis
  • Killing justified by self-defense
  • or wars that were Just, Good and Holy
  • Soldiers went into battle convinced that their
    souls would be rewarded
  • if they died in combat

44
Buddhism
  • Spread throughout India and into the far east
    via 1000 years of war.
  • Kublai Khan converted to Buddhism, then conquered
    China
  • 1279 A.D.

Kublai Khan
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kublai_Khan
45
Spread of Buddhism
http//go.hrw.com/venus_images/0306MC06.gif
46
Hindus drive out Buddhists
  • Hindus battled Buddhists in India for hundreds of
    years
  • Buddhists eventually defeated, driven out of
    their homeland (India)

Buddhist Temple, Thailand
47
Christianity
  • Roman Emperor Constantine converted to
    Christianity in 312 A.D.
  • The Roman Empire became Christian
  • Christians were obliged to perform military
    service for the Empire
  • Rival Christian factions (Gnostics) were
    suppressed Roman Church dominated

Christian Gnostic Factions
48
Christianity
  • Pagan worship, Pagan temples, Judiasm, and
    Manichaeism all severely dealt with
  • Emperor Justinian (529 A.D.) ordered all who
    refused to become Christians to surrender their
    property and go into exile.

Justinian
49
Religions of Europe 1100-1200 A.D.
50
http//www.neiu.edu/ejhowens/104/religion.gif
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