Religion

1
Chapter 11

• Religion

2
Cargo Cults

• What conclusions about religion can be drawn from
  the development of cargo cults?

3
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

4
Characteristics of Religion

• Composed of sacred stories that members believe
  are important
• Make extensive use of symbols and symbolism
• Propose the existence of beings, powers, states,
  places, and qualities that can not be measured
  scientifically
• Include rituals and specific means of addressing
  the supernatural

5
Functions of Religion

• Provides meaning and order in peoples lives
• Sense of identity
• Belonging
• Standards of behavior
• Reduces anxiety and increases control
• Prayer, sacrifice and magic
• Reinforces or challenges the social order by
  transmitting cultural values and knowledge
• However, you may purchase male or female slaves
  from among the foreigners who live among you. 
  You may also purchase the children of such
  resident foreigners, including those who have
  been born in your land.  You may treat them as
  your property, passing them on to your children
  as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your
  slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your
  relatives, must never be treated this
  way.  (Leviticus 2544-46 NLT)

6
The Search for Order and Meaning

• Religions provide a cosmology for interpreting
  events and experiences.
• This may include the creation of the universe,
  the origin of society, the relationship of
  individuals and groups to one another, and the
  relationship of humankind to nature.

7
Reducing Anxiety and Increasing Control

• Religious practices, such as prayer, sacrifice,
  magic, and other rituals, call on the help of
  supernatural beings, particularly where forces
  appear unpredictable and risky.
• These practices can alter the emotional state of
  those who practice them and reduce or increase
  their anxiety.

8
The Social Order

• Through religion, dominant cultural beliefs about
  good and evil are reinforced.
• Sacred stories and rituals provide a rationale
  for social order and give social values
  religious authority.
• Religious ritual intensifies social solidarity by
  creating an atmosphere in which people experience
  their common identity in emotionally moving ways.

9
Religious Symbols

• Some religious symbols may have supernatural
  power in and of themselves, such as the masks
  used in African ceremonies.
• What symbols do you know that contain
  supernatural power?

10
God

• Term used for a named spirit believed to have
  created or to control some aspect of the world
• High gods, gods understood as the creator of the
  world, are present in only about half of all
  societies.
• In about one-third of these societies, such gods
  are distant and withdrawn, having little interest
  in people.

11
Polytheism

• The belief in many gods
• In India, there are millions of gods yet all
  Indians understand that in some way they are all
  aspects of one divine essence.

12
Monotheism

• Belief in a single god
• In 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.

13
Ritual

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

14
Totem

• 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.

15
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.

16
Sacrifice

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

17
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.

18
Shaman

• Recognized as having the ability to mediate
  between the world of humanity and the world of
  gods or spirits
• Not a recognized official of any religious
  organization

19
Shaman in Indonesia Reading Entrails
Why is shamanism such a powerful tool for curing
illness? What characteristics make it
convincing to the patient?
20
Priest

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

21
Witchcraft

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

22
Sorcery

• The conscious and intentional use of magic with
  the intent of causing harm or good

23
Syncretism

• Merging two or more religious traditions and
  hiding the beliefs, symbols, and practices of one
  behind similar attributes of the other.
• Example Santeria
• Slaves in Cuba combined African religion,
  Catholicism, and French spiritualism to create a
  new religion.
• They identified African deities, called orichas,
  with Catholic saints.