Anthropology and the study of Religion

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Anthropology and the study of Religion
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Sir Edward Burnett Tylor/ANIMISM

• Tylor was a founder of the anthropology of
  religion
• Tylor thought, religion was born as a people
  tried to understand conditions and events they
  could not explain

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Tylor(cont)

• Tylor believed that our ancestors were
  particularly intrigued with death, dreaming and
  trance
• Tylor believed that attempts to explain dreams
  and trances led early humans to believe that two
  entities inhabit the body, one active during the
  day and the other-a double or soul active during
  sleep and trance states
• Tylor named this belief animism

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Tylor, animism and polytheism

• Animism is generally, belief in spiritual beings
• Tylor believed that religion had evolved through
  stages, beginning with animism

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Tyler-cont

• Polytheism
• Monotheism
• Tylor thought religion would decline as science
  offered better explanations

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Mana and Taboo

• An alternative to Tylors theories related to
  animism is that humans first saw the supernatural
  as a domain of impersonal power or force(MANA),
  that people could control under certain conditions

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MANA AND TABOO

• In some places MANA was attached to political
  offices
• In some populations, the MANA of a given official
  was so powerful that their bodies were TABOO (set
  apart as sacred and off-limits to ordinary people)

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MAGIC AND RELIGION

• MAGIC-supernatural techniques intended to
  accomplish specific aims

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MAGIC AND RELIGION

• TYPES OF MAGIC
• Imitative magic
• Contagious magic

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MAGIC AND RELIGION

• We find magic in cultures with diverse religious
  beliefs
• Magic can be associated with animism, polytheism
  and monotheism

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RELIGION AND MAGIC- ANXIETY, CONTROL AND
COMFORT/SOLACE

• Supernatural beliefs and practices can help
  reduce anxiety
• Magical techniques can dispel doubts that arise
  when outcomes are beyond human control
• Supernatural beliefs help people face death and
  endure crises

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Malinowski, religion and magic

• Bronislaw Malinowski conducted research among the
  Trobriand Islanders
• He noted the use of magic during sailing
• He suggested that people turn to magic for
  matters they cant control or when there is a gap
  in their knowledge or power while an
  activity/pursuit must be continued
• He argued that religion is born out of the real
  tragedies of human life

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RITES OF PASSAGE

• Separation
• Transition
• Reincorporation
• LIMINALITY
• COMMUNITAS

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TOTEMISM

• Totemism is a religion that uses nature as a
  model for society
• Totems can be animals, plants or geographic
  features
• People relate to nature through their totemic
  association with natural species
• Totems are sacred emblems symbolizing common
  identity

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Myth, Levi-Strauss and structuralism
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Claude Levi-Strauss and Myth

• Anthropology is also interested in religious and
  quasi-religious stories about supernatural
  entities or MYTHS
• Myths often include peoples own account of their
  creation, of the beginning of their world and the
  extraordinary events that affected ancestors
• Myths tell of continuing exploits and activites
  of deities or spirtis either in an alternative
  world or as they come into contact with mortals
• Myths express cultural beliefs and values

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Levi-Strauss and Myth

• A way of studying myth is structural analysis
  (structuralism)
• Structuralism does not attempt to explain
  relations, themes and connections among aspects
  of culture but at DISCOVERING them
• Structuralist method differs from methods of
  gathering and interpreting data ussually used in
  sciences

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Levi-Strauss and Myth

• Structuralism rests on the belief that human
  minds have certain characteristics which
  originate in features of the homo sapien brain
• These common mental structures lead people
  everywhere to think similarly regardless of their
  society or cultural background

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Common features of myth and human mental
structure (according to Levi-Strauss)

• Need to classify
• Need to impose order on aspects of nature, on
  peoples relationship to nature, and on relations
  between people
• Binary Oppositions-although many things in our
  lives are similar, we treat them as being more
  different than they are things that are
  quantitatively different are made to seem
  absolutely dissimilar
• there is a need to convert differences of degree
  into differences of kind

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Application of Levi-Strauss structuralism

• Myths have simple building blocks (mythems)
• One myth can be converted to another by
• Converting the positive element of a myth into
  its negative
• Reversing the order of the elements
• Replacing a male hero with a female hero
• Preserving or repeating certain key elements

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Religion and culture

• Religions are parts of particular cultures and
  cultural differnces show of systematically in
  religious beliefs, practices and institutions
• Shamanic religions
• Communal
• Olympian
• monotheistic