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Religion and World View • Overview I. Anthropology of religion II. Expressions of religion III. Religion & social change World religion symbols Buddhist temple in Phnom Penh, Cambodia I. Anthropology of religion • A. Wallace: “religion is belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers and forces.” • Anthropologists focus on the collective, shared nature of religion and the meanings it embodies – Durkheim: religious “effervescence”- collective emotional intensity – Turner: “communitas”- intense community spirit and solidarity Emile Durkheim, 1858-1917 (French sociologist and author of Elementary Forms of Religious Life) What is Religion? Seeking a Working Definition 1) a belief in some form of supernatural power 2) myths and stories about the meaning and purpose of life 3) A set of ritual activities that reinforce or instill these collective beliefs Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What is Religion? Seeking a Working Definition 4) A symbol system used in religious practice 5) Identifiable specialists (i.e. priests) 6) Institutions Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company 7) A community of believers Anthropology of religion • Religion is a cultural universal but societies have unique ways of conceptualizing divinity, spirituality, and religious practice • Codes of ethics and morality • Associated with social divisions • Means to establish social order, resolve conflict, and promote peaceful coexistence Ancient spiral symbol used in pre-Christian Gaelic and Druid religions in northern Europe and Wiccan revival traditions II. Expressions of religion • E.B. Tylor: early anthropologist of religion – Proposed 3 stages of religious development: – Animism = belief in spiritual beings found in nature and objects – Polytheism = belief in multiple gods – Monotheism = belief in 1 deity/God Ancient Egyptian tombs Buddhist monk in Sarnath, India What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane Religion and Ritual Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane Religion and Ritual Karl Marx: Religion as “The Opiate of the Masses” Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane Religion and Ritual Karl Marx: Religion as “The Opiate of the Masses” Religion and Cultural Materialism Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic Shamanism Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company Shamanic religion • Often associated with foragers and agriculturalists • Examples: healers, mediums, astrologers, diviners, herbalists • Shamans sometimes assume a different or ambiguous sex/gender role to set them apart from others Shamans in Nepal (l.) & Thailand (r.) What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic Shamanism Religion and Magic Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company Magic and religion • Magic - supernatural techniques to accomplish specific aims • Malinowski viewed magic as a means of control in situations of uncertainty or danger (like kula expeditions) • In many contemporary societies, forms of magic and superstition persist as a means of reducing psych. anxiety (examples?) Magician card in tarot deck What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works? Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic Shamanism Religion and Magic E.E. Evans-Pritchard Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company Rituals • Ritual = behavior that is formal (stylized and repetitive) and performed in sacred places at set times • Performers of the ritual accept a common moral and social order • Customs associated with a transition from one stage of life to another • 3 Phases of Rites of Passage (Victor Turner): – 1. Separation from the group – 2. Liminality: in-between state, ambiguous – 3. Incorporation: re-enter society with a new status after completing the rite Totemism • Native Australian (aboriginal) societies and in N. American groups in N. Pacific coast (U.S./Canada) • Totem represented origin of descent group • Members of totemic group did not kill or eat their totem, except at special annual ceremonies • People related to nature through their totemic associations with species Totem pole designs in N. America Australian aboriginals carving a totem pole Monotheistic religions • Belief in a single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God. • Judaism (14 mill.), Christianity (2.1 bill.), Islam (1.5 bill.) share a common religious lineage back to Prophet Abraham • Islam is the fastest growing religion (2.9% per year) III. Religion & social change Revitalization movements Nongqawuse (c1842-1898) • occur in times of change • Religious leaders emerge and direct people to alter/revitalize society • Examples: – – – – – beginnings of Christianity Protestant Reformation Liberation theology Xhosa cattle killings (1857) Ghost dance movement (1890) Cargo cults • Revitalization movements that occur when traditional communities come into contact with industrial societies and attempt to achieve similar wealth and power through magic by imitating European behavior and symbols • Common in the South Pacific Cargo cults on the Pacific Island of Vanuatu How is Globalization Changing Religion? Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company