Religion

What Does Religion Do?:

• One important function of religion cross-culturally is to provide an explanation of how things came to be and why things happen as they do

Back to Morgan:

• Recall his evolutionary scheme: savage, barbarian, civilized
• This was also applied to religion
• Animism -> polytheism -> monotheism (Tylor)
• Magic -> religion -> science (Frazer)
• Structural functionalism (Durkheim)

o Religion always takes place in a social context

o Maintain and protect the social order

o God is a reflection of society

o “God is society writ large” - Durkheim

Science:

• In modern society, science offers an alternative and powerful framework for understand reality

What is Religion?:

• Beliefs and practices about spirit beings and supranormal and superhuman forces and their relationship to everyday life
• Beliefs:

o Ideas about spirit world

o Creation of universe and first humans

o World view

• The way we look at the world and the way we think it should be
• Ex: conservative world view
• Also world views based on religion (Islamic, Christian, etc)
• Connecting their beliefs and practices dealing with the supernatural with the happenings of our everyday lives
• Religious belief system influence the way we see the world
• Practices:

o Sacred rituals

o Religious speech

o Practical and symbolic action

The Raven and the First Man:

• Bill Reid - 1980
• UBC Museum of Anthropology
• Creation story/myth
• Legend of the first hyda

Spirit Beings and Forces:

• Animism and Animatism:

o Animism: belief in souls that animate living and non-living things

• People, rivers, trees, rocks - all have soul like natures

o Animatism: belief in generalized, pervasive spiritual power

• Holy place possesses animatism
• Idea that God is everywhere
• Gods and Heroes:

o Spirit beings in human form

• Polytheism - belief in many gods

ⁿ Ex: ancient Rome and Greece (God of war, love, etc)

• Monotheism - belief in one god

ⁿ Many variations

ⁿ Ex: Judaism, Islam, Christianity

ⁿ Catholicism?

• Important Mortal Heroes - ex: saints

o Sufism - pirs

o Christianity - saints

o Some Hindus and Muslims in India worship Sai Baba of Shirdi (holy person that took on the status of almost a god)

o Role models for us

• Ancestors, Ghosts, and Demons:

o Ancestor worship - pay respect to your deceased ancestors

o Spirits of deceased - coming back in the form of ghosts

o Demons: negative/not so nice spirit of the deceased (do harm to the living)

• Totems and Taboos:

o Totemism - people believe they are descendants of spirit beings

o Secret societies

o Ritual restrictions and prohibitions

• Ex: Judaism: kosher (chew cud, hooves, scales, fins)
• Ex: Hinduism: vegetarian - favored way of eating
• Ex: Catholicism: no meat during lent

Religious Practitioners:

• Mediums, Diviners, and Healers:

o Mediums: persons having special gifts to make contact with the spirit world

• Going between the two worlds

o Diviners: persons with the power to predict the future through messages and omens

• Ex: reading tea leaves, taro cards

o Healers: religious practitioners who acquire spirit power to diagnose and cure illness

• Shamans and Priests:

o More authoritative

o Shamans: religious practitioners believed to make contact with the spirit world through prayer, ritual, and trance

• Ex: pope

o Priests: full-time religious practitioners who lead a religious organization and officiate at rituals, but are not expected to communicate directly with spirit world

Religious Practice:

• Rituals: activities, ceremonies, and behaviours that are demonstrations of belief

o Rituals put belief into action

o Usually involve visual and performing arts

• Religious rituals - ex: baptism, bar mitzvah

Sacred and Secular Rituals:

• Sacred rituals:

o Dedicated to spirit realm and expression of religious faith

• Secular rituals:

o May be important culturally

o Ex: hockey night in Canada

• Rites of renewal:

o May have both sacred and secular elements

Prayer and Sacrifice:

• Prayer:

o Religious speech or thought to transmit messages to spirit beings

o Comes in many different forms - individual, group, silent, aloud, songs, etc

o Mental way of worshiping

• Sacrifice:

o Offerings that honour spirit beings by giving up something important

• Blood sacrifice

o Ex: fasting - can focus more on prayer, not food

Rites of Passage:

• Rituals to celebrate socially significant transitions in an individuals life cycle

o Puberty rites

• Religious rites at puberty - ex: bar mitzvah

o Funerary rites

• Ex: put coins on the eyes so that when they are crossing into the other world they can pay
• Ex: Viking funeral - burn and float in the ocean

Healing or Curing:

• Cultural beliefs about:

o Illness and health

o Causes of disease

o Strategies for treatment

• Religious healing

o Illnesses believed to be caused by spirit beings or forces

o Ritual diagnosis

• Praying, etc

o Spirit possession

Magic and Witchcraft:

• Imitative magic

o Also called sympathetic magic

o Like causes like

o Ex: voodoo doll

• Contagious magic

o Touching something is going to cause something to happen

o Ex: communion, Jesus turning water to wine

• Witches

o Mostly associated with women

o A woman too powerful for her own good

The Origins and Functions of Religious:

• Explaining the World:

o Gain sense of order and control

o Religion tries to explain why bad things happen to good people

o Helps us make sense of a world that is very nonsensical

• Ex: Tsunami, Holocaust, Earthquake, etc

o Legitimate social or political system

• Solace, Healing, and Emotional Release:

o Psychological support

o Catharsis (emotional release) - helps work through something and come out in one piece

• Social Cohesion:

o Unite communities through rituals

o Justify existing social order

• Cosmology
• Social Control:

o Formal and informal mechanisms

o Ritual role reversals

• Economic Adaptations:

o Management of environment and resources

• Ex: Rapaport - killing the pigs not for fun/food, but because there were too many to manage

Religion and Culture Change:

• Syncretism

Revitalization movements:
o	Prophets
o	Nativistic
o	Revivalistic
o	Millenarian
o	Messianic

 

• Cargo cults:

o Melanesian revitalization movements

o Early 20^th century

o Imitative magic

Role of Founders in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam:

• Began in revitalization movements
• Founders: individuals with divine inspiration

o Buddhism: Siddartha Geutama - 6^th century BCE o Christianity: Jesus - 1^st century CE

o Islam: Muhammad - 6^th century CE

• After death of founders, disciples spread faith to others
• Eventually, religious doctrines standardized

Religion and Globalization:

• Proselytism:

o Attempt to convert a person or group from one religion to another

o Buddhism, Christianity, Islam

• Fundamentalism:

o Commitment to defend traditional religious beliefs

o Christian

o Islamic

Professor's Research:

• Hyderabad (Rangareddy) and Andhra Pradesh - cities
• South Asia (South, Central India)
• Goddesses (Hinduism) - characteristics their share: fair skin
• Village goddesses vs. classical goddesses
• Focus: looking at a non-Hindu festival called Bonalu (means meals) - the idea of offering meals to a goddess
• How did the festival go from a small family village level festival to a major festival in the center city (hundreds of thousands of people)

o Rural -> urban migration (when they come to the cities they bring their rituals with)

• Village goddess - (amma = mother)

o Ammoru

• Carves out of a tree trunk, no body

o Maiasamma

• No body or face - roadside shrine

o Mutalayamma - Professor studied this one (Hyderabad)

• Original goddess' image replaced
• Pulled them out of a well - made offerings to the stone
• Eyes - human appearance
• Silk wrapped around stone
• First stage in this piece of stone becoming a goddess of worship
• Now associated with Sheba (pitchfork symbol) - classical god

Anthropomorphism: the goddess in the form of a tree and a protector in the form of a stone

o Tree (mother), stone (brothers - "potturaja") - symbols of nature

• Story of the goddess born in a graveyard

o If we don't worship her, for her power, small pox and paralysis will come

o Also worship for the well-being of children, fertility and householders

o "God is society writ large" - pray for nature, production (farming), procreation, freedom from disease

• Not asking for money, etc - praying for basic things/needs
• God is a reflection of the people and their needs
• Village goddesses vs. classical (Hindu) goddesses

o Village:

• Non-vegetarian
• Meat
• Want blood
• Love liquor
• Always single
• Want them to pray in a vernacular language
• No priest

o Classical (Hindu):

• Vegetarian
• Fruit
• No-blood
• No liquor
• Consort - pair up
• Sanskrit language
• Priest
• Toddy tappers:

o Toddy = sap of the palm tree

o Drain the sap of the tree by tapping it, but not to the point of killing the tree

o Make liquor out of the sap (Arack)

• Women wear "pots" on their heads - the offerings to the goddesses

o Yellow and red

o Leaves

o Cooling substances - offering the goddess cooling foods to make the goddess happy

o Offering these things to hope the goddess keeps you free of small pox

o Marking the steps on the way up to the temple - yellow and red markings

o Sacrifice animals on the way up too (Goats, chickens, etc)

Adaptation:

• Classicization: take a folk idea and link it to the greater tradition (classical tradition)
• Catholic church has adapted to a Christian church