Religion

1
Chapter 14

• Religion

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Chapter Outline

• What Religion Does in Society
• Characteristics of Religion

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Religion

• A social process that helps to order society and
  provide its members with meaning, unity, peace of
  mind, and the degree of control over events they
  believe is possible.

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A Human Universal

• Religion dates back to the beginnings of the
  human species.
• No religion is more evolved than another.
• E. B. Tylor,one of the founders of anthropology,
  saw religion as beginning with animism, animism,
  the notion that all objects, living and
  non-living are imbued with spirits.

5
Question

• Trying to develop a definition of "religion" is
  complicated by all except which one of the
  following factors?
• a distinction between "natural" and
  "supernatural" varies across societies
• ideas on the nature of life itself vary, for
  example, whether we live once or repeatedly
• noting that all peoples have beliefs and/or
  engage in processes that provide meaning to their
  lives and the world
• significant variation in the ways in which humans
  are engaged in what might be considered religion

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Answer c

• Trying to develop a definition of "religion" is
  not complicated by the following factor
• noting that all peoples have beliefs and/or
  engage in processes that provide meaning to their
  lives and the world.

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Functions of Religion in Society

1. Explains aspects of the physical and social
   environment.
2. Helps people understand the world.
3. Preserves the social order.
4. Includes practices aimed at ensuring success.

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Cosmology

• A system of beliefs that deals with fundamental
  questions in the religious and social order.

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Natural (secular or profane) andthe Supernatural
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Religion Preserves Social Order

• Sacred stories and rituals provide a rationale
  for the present social order.
• Ritual creates an atmosphere in which people
  experience their common identity in emotionally
  moving ways.
• Religion is an important educational institution.

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Sacred Narratives

• Stories of historical events, heroes, gods,
  spirits, and the origin of all things.
• Have a sacred power that is evoked by telling
  them or acting them out ritually.
• Validate or legitimize beliefs, values, and
  customs.

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Ritual

• Act involving the manipulation of religious
  symbols.
• Certain patterns of religious behavior are
  extremely widespread, if not universal.

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Religious Symbols

• Religious symbols are multivalent, they include
  many different and sometimes contradictory
  meanings into a single word, idea, or object.
• The Christian cross.
• The cross means life, death, love, sacrifice,
  identity, history, power, weakness, wealth,
  poverty, and much more besides.
• Because it carries so many meanings, it has
  enormous emotional and intellectual power for
  Christians.

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Religious Spirits

• Most religions populate the world with
  nonempirical beings or spirits.
• Types of spirits
• Anthropomorphic - Having human shape.
• Zoomorphic - Having an animal shape.
• Naturalistic - Associated with the natural world.
• Anthropopsychic - Having thought processes and
  emotions similar to humans.

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God

• A named spirit who is believed to have created or
  to control some aspect of the world.
• Gods understood as the creator of the world and
  as the ultimate power in it are present in only
  about half of all societies.
• In about 1/3 of these societies, such gods are
  distant and withdrawn, having little interest in
  people, and prayer to them is unnecessary.

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God

• Religions may be polytheistic (many gods) or
  monotheistic (one god).
• Polytheistic religions - many gods may be
  different aspects of one god.
• In India, there are millions of gods yet all
  Indians understand that in some way they are all
  aspects of one divine essence.
• Monotheistic religions - one god may have several
  aspects.
• In Roman Catholicism God the Father, God the
  Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all part of a
  single, unitary god.

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The Trickster Spirit

• Trickster spirits come in many guises, but their
  key characteristic is that they are interested in
  their own benefit, not that of human beings.
• Some tricksters, such as the Christian Devil, are
  personifications of evil.
• They often combine attributessuch as greed,
  lust, and envy with humor and wisdom.

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Mana

• Mana is religious power or energy that is
  concentrated in individuals or objects.
• Mana gives one spiritual power, but it can also
  be dangerous.
• Belief in mana is often associated with an
  elaborate system of taboos, or prohibitions.

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Addressing the Supernatural

• Prayer
• Sacrifice
• Magic
• Divination

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Rite of Passage

• Three phases
• Separation - individuals are removed from their
  community or status.
• Liminal - stage when one has passed out of an old
  status but not yet entered a new one.
• Reincorporation - participants are returned to
  their community with a new status.

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Prayer

• Communication between people and spirits or gods.
• People believe results depend on the spirit world
  rather than on actions humans perform.
• Prayer may involve a request, a pleading, or
  merely praise for the deity.

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Rites of Intensification

• Rituals directed toward the welfare of the group
  or community rather than the individual.
• Structured to reinforce the values and norms of
  the community and to strengthen group identity.
• In some groups, they are connected with totems.

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Totems

• An object, an animal species, or a feature of the
  natural world that is associated with a
  particular descent group.
• Totemism is a prominent feature of the religions
  of the Australian aborigines.

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Sacrifice

• When people make offerings to gods or spirits to
  increase their spiritual purity or the efficacy
  of their prayers.
• People may sacrifice the first fruits of a
  harvest, animal lives or, on occasion, human
  lives.
• Many Americans are familiar with the practice of
  giving up something for the Christian holiday of
  Lent, a form of sacrifice intended to help the
  worshipper identify with Jesus, show devotion,
  and increase purity.

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Magic

• An attempt to mechanistically control
  supernatural forces.
• When people do magic, they believe that their
  words and actions compel the spirit world to
  behave in certain ways.

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Natural (secular or profane) andthe Supernatural
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Magic

• Two of the most common magical practices are
  imitation and contagion.
• In imitative magic, the procedure performed
  resembles the result desired. (voudou doll)
• Contagious magic is the belief that things once
  in contact with a person or object retain an
  invisible connection with that person or object.

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Question

• In terms of the importance placed upon carrying
  out the ceremony properly, Vodou and Christian
  baptism may both be considered forms of
• contagious magic.
• sacrifice.
• worship.
• divination.
• imitative magic.

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Answer e

• In terms of the importance placed upon carrying
  out the ceremony properly, Voudou and Christian
  baptism may both be considered forms of imitative
  magic.

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Question

• Examples of contagious magic are illustrated by
  all except which one of the following?
• the practice of the Asaro of New Guinea in
  burying the newborn's umbilical cord
• the reading of a chicken's entrails in seeking a
  cause of illness
• high value placed upon a document inscribed with
  the signature of a famous person
• attaching a strand of hair to a Voudou doll
• a sorcerer's obtaining a fingernail clipping of
  someone he or she wishes to harm

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Answer b

• Examples of contagious magic are not illustrated
  by the reading of a chicken's entrails in seeking
  a cause of illness.

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Divination

• A religious ritual performed to find hidden
  objects or information.
• Scalpulomancy - Divination using the shoulder
  blade of an animal.

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Shaman

• Individual who is recognized as having the
  ability to mediate between the world of humanity
  and the world of gods or spirits but who is not a
  recognized official of any religious organization.

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Vision Quest

• Individual, emotionally intense search for a
  spirit that will provide protection, knowledge,
  and power.
• Although the vision quest was an intensely
  individual experience, it was shaped by culture.

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Pharmacopeia

• A collection of preparations used as medications.

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Priest

• One who is formally elected or appointed to a
  full-time religious office.

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Witchcraft

• The ability to harm others by harboring
  malevolent thoughts about them the practice of
  sorcery.
• Wiccan - A member of a new religion that claims
  descent from pre-Christian nature worship a
  modern day witch.

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Religions and Change

• To begin a new religion or create a substantial
  modification in an existing religion, prophets
  must have a code that consists of at least three
  elements
• They must identify what is wrong with the world.
• Present a vision of what a better world to come
  might look like.
• Describe a method of transition from the existing
  world to the better world.

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Religious Movements

• Nativistic movements aim to restore what its
  followers believe is a golden age of the past.
• Example The Ghost Dance
• Vitalism is a religious movement that looks
  toward the creation of a utopian future that does
  not resemble a past golden age.

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Religious Views

• Messianic
• Focusing on the coming of a messiah who will
  usher in a utopian world.
•  Millenarian
• The belief that a coming catastrophe will signal
  the beginning of a new age and the eventual
  establishment of paradise.

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Syncretism

• Merging two or more religious traditions and
  hiding the beliefs, symbols, and practices of one
  behind similar attributes of the other.
• Example
• Slaves resisted attempts to suppress African
  religions by combining African religion,
  Catholicism, and French spiritualism to create a
  new religion, Santeria.
• They identified African deities, called orichas,
  with Catholic saints and used them for curing,
  casting spells, and influencing other aspects of
  the worshipers life.

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Native American Church

• A religious revitalization movement among Native
  Americans, also known as the Peyote religion.
• Peyote
• A small hallucinogenic cactus found in southern
  Texas and northern Mexico.
• Ghost Dance
• A Native American religious movement of the late
  nineteenth century.

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Quick Quiz
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• 1. The authors of the text provide a definition
  of religion as a ________ that helps to order
  society and provide its members with meaning,
  unity, peace of mind, and the degree of control
  over events they believe are possible.
• cultural process
• Universal
• rite of passage
• social process
• social ritual

45
Answer d

• The authors of the text provide a definition of
  religion as a social process that helps to order
  society and provide its members with meaning,
  unity, peace of mind, and the degree of control
  over events they believe are possible.

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• 2. Religions provide a(n) ________, which is
  defined as a "set of principles or beliefs about
  the nature of life and death, the creation of the
  universe, the origin of society, the relationship
  of individuals and groups to one another, and the
  relation of humankind to nature.
• ritual practice
• set of rules
• Cosmology
• written sacred text
• document

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Answer c

• Religions provide a cosmology which is defined as
  a "set of principles or beliefs about the nature
  of life and death, the creation of the universe,
  the origin of society, the relationship of
  individuals and groups to one another, and the
  relation of humankind to nature.

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• 3. The liminal stage of ritual is generally a
  temporary state that may be characterized by all
  except which one of the following?
• role reversals
• ritual transvestitism
• temporary state of equality amongst those of
  other castes, classes or kinship groups
• women and men acting in non-conventional manner
• behaviors that reflect and reinforce the status
  quo

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Answer e

• The liminal stage of ritual is generally a
  temporary state that is not characterized by
  behaviors that reflect and reinforce the status
  quo.