Is Judaism boring?

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Is Judaism boring?

• Tamás Biró
• ACLC,
• University of Amsterdam
• Groningen Centre for Religion Cognition

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E. Thomas Lawson Robert N. McCauley

• Lawson McCauley, 1990. Rethinking Religion,
  Connecting Cognition and Culture
• Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion
• Model of rituals, based on Chomskyan syntax
• McCauley Lawson, 2002 Bringing Ritual to Mind,
  Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms
• Which predicts better the arousal connected to
  rituals? Ritual form (LMcC, 1990) or frequency
  (Whitehouse, 1995)?

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The fate of a scientific theory/model
first observations
background philosophy
model
Details, concreteexamples
prediction
new observations
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• A model without an example is like a car without
  an engine it might look great, but it wont take
  you anywhere.

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Overview

• Introduction to / own reading of / elaboration on
  LawsonMcCauleys model of ritual form
• LMcC Implementation to religious rituals
• Implementation to Judaism
• Corroborate or refute the McCL theory?
• NB This talk aims at contributing to a CSR
  theory, and not to the study of Judaism.

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Linguistics syntaxsemantics interface

John broke the window.
The hammer broke the window.
The window was broken by John.
The window was broken by the hammer.
The window broke.
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Linguistics syntaxsemantics interface
subject verb object by-phrase
John broke the window.
The hammer broke the window.
The window was broken by John.
The window was broken by the hammer.
The window broke.
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Further linguistic observations

• John broke the window.
• Mary broke the window.
• John and Mary broke the window.
• John and the hammer broke the window.
• John broke the window using the hammer.
• The hammer broke the window using John.
• John agent ? hammer instrument.

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Linguistics syntaxsemantics interface
subject verb object by-phrase
John broke the window.
The hammer broke the window
The window was broken by John.
The window was broken by the hammer.
The window broke.
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Thematic roles (Theta-roles)

• Semantic arguments of the action
• Agent (logical subject)
• Patient (logical direct object)
• Instrument
• Further semantic roles
• Recipient (logical indirect/dative object
  LMcC p125)
• Location, time
• Experiencer
• Etc.

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Frequent confusion ontological categories
thematic roles
human (incl. CIA) agent
natural force agentive categories agentive roles natural force
animal patient
plant recipientlocation
artefactnatural object instrument
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Thematic roles for action representation

• So far linguistic arguments to introduce them
  (arguments from specific languages and from
  cross-linguistic comparison).
• My hypothesis Linguistic observations reflect a
  deeper cognitive phenomenon the mental
  representation of actions and states-of-affair in
  the world.
• Need to be demonstrated even beyond religion.

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Axioms of Human Cognition 1

• Axiom AHC 1
• (1a) (Object Agency Filter) Agentive roles can
  be filled only by (some!) agentive categories.
• (1a) Only agentive categories can bring about
  changes in the world.
• (1b) (Agent Overdetection) Agentive roles are
  preferably filled by ontological agents (humans
  and CIAs, but not by natural forces).

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Axioms of Human Cognition 2

• The hammer broke the window.
• The window was broken by the hammer.
• John broke the window using the hammer.
• Axiom AHC 2
• (2a) Agentive categories being able to perform
  action X can enable other categories to act as
  instrument, or as secondary agents in performing
  action X.
• (2b) Otherwise, non-agentive categories cannot
  act as instruments.

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Halfway summary

• Action representation system
• Agent action ( patient, instrument, time,
  location, recipient)
• John broke the window in the house with a hammer.
• The wind broke the window yesterday.
• Instrument action ( patient, instrument)
• prior enabling action
• The hammer moved by John broke the window.

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Lawson McCauley on religious rituals

• Religious ritual if and only if at least one slot
  is filled by a counterintuitive agent (CIA)
• CIA in agent-role
• The gods declare you a married man.
• CIA in recipient-role
• We offer the sacrifice to the gods.
• or an agent/instrument enabled by a CIA.
• The priest ordained by gods declare you a
  married man..

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Lawson McCauley on religious rituals

• The shortest chain of enabling counts (Principle
  of Superhuman Immediacy).
• Special agent rituals vs. others (Principle of
  Superhuman Agency)
• CIA connected to agent vs. other thematic roles
  (via the shortest chain of enabling rituals)
• Balanced ritual systems need both.
• Tedium effect if no special agent rituals.

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Application to post-Temple Judaism

• Special agent rituals in Judaism?
• Circumcision?
• Bar mitzvah?
• Wedding?
• Special patient rituals?
• Ritual bath? Torah scroll, mezuzah?
• (burning chametz, lighting Shabbat candles,
  havdalah)
• What about most commandments?
• Positive vs. negative commandments

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Circumcision

• Widespread belief
• Agent makes Patient a Jew by circumcision.
• BUT
• J. women, not circumcised Jews also Jews
• Gen. 17 who circumcised Abraham?
• Patient is minor obligation on father or on beit
  din
• Patient is major obligation on himself
• A Jewish man not circumcised may circumcise.

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Circumcision

• Gen. 17,13 êúéá ãéìé ìåîé ìåîä
• Targum Johanan ben Uziel ad Gen. 17,13
• The one who is circumcised should circumcise
• Bab. Talmud, Avoda Zara 27a
• Maimonides, Hilchot Milla 2,1
• Everybody is allowed to circumcise. Even the
  uncircumcised, the slave, the woman and the minor
  may circumcise, if there is no man present. But
  the gentile may not circumcise yet, if he did
  so, one does not need to circumcise again.

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Circumcision

• Not a special agent ritual
• The person performing the ritual neither is a CIA
  nor does he need to have undergone any enabling
  ritual connecting him to a CIA.
• Nor a special patient ritual
• The person undergoing the ritual
• Nor a special instrument ritual
• The instrument used during the ritual

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Wedding

• Contract, not sanctity
• No need for a rabbi
• Has the rabbi undergone any enabling ritual
  (ordination)?
• Action of the groom
• Witnesses

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Burial

• No need for rabbi, any Jew can (must) perform it,
  supposing he knows how to do it.

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Pidyon ha-ben

• The redeeming of the first born
• Need for a cohen
• Is the cohen a CIA? Certainly not.
• Has the cohen undergone any enabling ritual?
  Certainly not.

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Conversion

• The beit din (rabbinic court) as special agent?
• What enabling ritual has the court undergone?
• Court of ignorant Jews?

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Conversion

• Immersion is not a cleansing process, but one
  whereby states are changed through a Divine
  purification process. Therefore, once a convert
  emerges from the waters of the mikvah, he is a
  Jew in every way (Yevamot 47b). (Rabbi Yoel
  Schwartz Jewish Conversion, 1994, p. 55)

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Mikvah ritual bath

• No enabling ritual for the mikvah
• Must meet certain criteria quantity, source of
  water, etc.

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Mezuzah, Torah scrolls

• Are these special agents?
• In folk religiosity, handled as if they were
• Dancing with / clothing the Torah scrolls
• The mezuzah protecting the place
• But, are there enabling rituals?
• The way of writing them
• Fixing the mezuzah on the doorpost
• Who would be the special agent in these rituals?

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Conclusion is Judaism boring?

• Jewish ritual actions do not involve a CIA in
  any of their thematic roles.
• What they involve is
• A person who is halakhically Jewish
• Meeting conditions that have been specified by
  CIA

McCL No rituals at all in Judaism?Missing the
target!
A too simple, trivial modelInitial enabling
ritual is conversion or being born Jewish
Improve the LMcC model!
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Summary

• An overview of Lawson McCauley 1990 from a
  different perspective
• Thematic roles as elements of action
  representation system.
• Axioms of cognition
• Implementing L McC 1990 to Judaism serious
  need to improve the model!
• What about other religions?

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Thank you for your attention!

• Tamás Biró
• http//www.birot.hu
• Download this presentation from the Archive for
  Religion Cognition
• http//www.csr-arc.com