Download Anthropology 5 Magic, Science & Religion

Magic, Science & Religion
Anthropology 5
Winter 2013
Katherine Schaefers, Instructor
Office: 3102
OH: 10:00-11:00am Mondays
7:15-7:45am Tuesday/Thursday
The Anthropological Study
of Religion
Chapter 1
• Film: “Inventing Reality”
– We use Religion/Science/Spirituality for the
same goal:
• The attempt to comprehend and control our
circumstances and our world
Anthropology
• The study of humanity
– Greek: Anthropos (“Man”) logy (“study of”)
• Also, an integrated study of humanity
– Holism: Integrating as many different aspects of
human society (like psychology, politics, religion,
customs, institutions like marriage, funerary
rituals, gender, subsistence economy, etc.) to
create the most complete picture possible.
• Goal of Anthropology?
– Why do we study other people? What can be
gained?
“To make the strange familiar, and the
familiar strange”
• Strangeness, the unfamiliar is scary and
can lead to misguided feelings of anger
and hate, which may eventually lead to
warfare and death.
– Most interpersonal or inter-group conflicts are
caused by a lack of understanding.
– Discovering similarities between one’s own
culture and that of others leads to more
harmonious relationships.
Anthropology’s
Traditional Fields
• Physical
– Human Biology and Evolution
• Genetics, DNA studies, evolutionary theory, primate behavior, paleontology, fossil
record.
• Evolutionary origins & the neurobiology of religious experience
• Archaeology
– Physical and Cultural remains
– Religion in remains of temples, art, ritual, artifacts, ancient texts.
• Linguistics
– Origins and distribution of language
– Many religious beliefs are passed down orally in the form of myths or other
narratives.
• Cultural
– Social organization, economics, technology, political organization, marriage,
family life.
– The study of Magic, Science and Religion falls under this sub-category.
• These 4 fields are rarely mutually exclusive & today’s anthropology
scene is very fluid, often incorporating techniques from outside
disciplines like psychology (study of the human psyche/mind) and
sociology (study of human society).
Terms and techniques used by
Cultural Anthropologists
• Participant Observation: To truly
understand a culture, an anthropologist will
usually study a culture for an extended
period of time, sometimes taking many years.
Oftentimes, the anthropologist will live
within the community and partake in daily
life and activities.
• Ethnography: A Cultural Anthropologist’s
work usually culminates into something
called an Ethnography, or a written
description of the studied society. These are
usually published in books and journals.
Terms and techniques used by
Cultural Anthropologists
cont.
• Culture Area: This class will make use of
ethnographic material from around the world from
locations that are termed “Culture Areas” or
geographical areas where societies tend to share
many traits, either because of similar responses to
the environment or because of cultural diffusion
(sharing of culture) between these groups.
– Chart: pgs. 4-6 in book. Look through and make sure you
can identify the different culture areas and which groups
inhabit them.
– Ethnographic present: Cultures which may no longer exist
(like some Native American groups) will still be referred to
in the present tense by Cultural Anthropologists.
A question of perspective:
The Fore of New Guinea
• Problem: The Fore are a group of ~14,000
horticulturalists (cultivators of domesticated plants
without the use of modern agricultural techniques) from
the Melanesia Culture Area who have had about 200 of
their members die from mysterious causes each year. The
locals call it Kuru or “to tremble with fear.”
Jerking/shaking/unable to coordinate are the main
symptoms. After 9 months, the individual is no longer
able to eat or drink and soon dies. Women and children
are mainly afflicted.
• Solution? If you were asked to look into this case, what would
your first hypothesis be as to the cause of the affliction?
– Think back to our film “Inventing Reality” and the interplay
between modern western medicine and traditional beliefs.
Holism
solves it
• We must look to all aspects of the Fore’s
society for the answer, specifically, their
religious and funerary practices…
• Kuru is caused by an infectious agent that is
ingested by family members when they consume
the remains of their dead loved ones. To the Fore,
the holiest, most sacred resting place for the
deceased is within the bodies of their loved ones.
The deceased’s remains would be cooked and
distributed amongst family as a form of utmost
respect. Women and children, having lower social
status, were more likely to ingest the brain (the
seat of the infectious agent).
Etic/Emic
Analysis
• Etic Analysis: Viewing and labeling a culture with our own words and
terms.
– Advantages: Finding patterns that the studied group may be unaware of. Applying an
Etic Analysis to all cultures that you study makes it easier to identify Human Universals.
Terms and categories can be made for new information to be nicely organized. Etic
Analysis is mainly used in Anthropological studies.
– Etic Analysis: Kuru is caused by a virus in the afflicted’s bloodstream that is later
ingested by family members.
• But what are bacteria, germs, diseases, a virus to the Fore? These are not
only foreign words, but also foreign ideas.
• Emic Analysis: Viewing a culture through the eyes of the people being
studied.
– Advantages: Better understanding of the studied culture, but much, much harder to
attain. Argument: is it even possible to see through the eyes of another culture? To
undo and place aside one’s own worldview and wholly adopt another? (HW question).
– Emic Analysis: Kuru is caused by Sorcery. The Sorcerer will obtain a personal
belonging of the individual’s, combine it in a bundle with leaves, bark and stones and
bury it in the cold muddy earth. The Sorcerer will then recite a spell and let the bundle
rot. The individual then develops Kuru.
Cultural Relativism
• Cannibalism. Right/Wrong? Does
context matter? Who gets to make up the
rules?
Cultural Relativism
cont.
• The norms and values we grow up with seem right
and correct
• We use our own society as a base for judging others
• Thinking of others as simple, primitive, immoral,
less-than-human or somehow fundamentally
“wrong” is how wars start and propaganda is
spread.
Have you ever been in a situation where you found yourself
in the role of “the other”. Have you ever been stereotyped
or judged based on another group’s values?
Western Society’s past attempts at
getting to know other cultures
• Modernism: Began with the Renaissance
and the Enlightenment.
– A reaction to the superstition and hysteria of
Europe’s “Dark Ages” (The Witch hunt era
that we will get into later).
– Rationality, objectivity, reason can discover
knowledge and truth and lead to progress.
• We can understand everybody/thing everywhere if
we adhere to these principles of logic.
– This is where our modern thoughts of linearity
come from. Are we really more
advanced/improved than previous
generations?
For every movement, there is a
counter-movement!
• Post-Modernism: No “true” knowledge, only
subjective and objective knowledge.
– 1980s-Today
– Knowledge as a human construction that we must
“deconstruct.”
– Science is limited: it does not integrate multiple
viewpoints/truths. One must be aware of one’s own
biases.
– We cannot remove our cultural lens but we can become
more aware of it.
• Both Modernism and Post-Modernism are Western
Society’s Etic ways of viewing other cultures.
What is
Culture?
• The beliefs and behaviors of a society
• Culture is learned
• Culture is based on Symbols
Culture
Gives Meaning to Reality
• Culture is the lens through which we view
our world, it “invents” our reality
• Ex: What is a tree?
Exploration
• Yesterday’s in-class writing…
1. What does religion mean to you?
2. Do you hold any beliefs that you would
consider as being part of a
spirituality/religion?
3. How would you define religion? Why do
we need definitions?
Religion
Another Slippery term
• A Western concept like
work/economy/politics/technology.
– In western society, Religion is mostly seen as a
clearly delineated aspect of society, separate from
the other terms above. Not the case within all
cultures.
• Ex: the Fore, ancient Egypt
• Operant Definition
– As Anthropology is a Social Science we need to
make sure the terms we use are observable and
measureable and therefore can be studied.
Operant Definitions
How to define Religion within a Society
1. Functional: What function (or role) does
religion have in society?
–
Does it provide a moral code? Explanations for
natural events?
2. Analytic: How is religion manifested in
society?
–
Through Narratives? Rituals? Ethics?
3. Essentialist: What is the basic nature of
religion?
–
What realm is “religion” in? The natural? The
supernatural?
The
Sacred and Supernatural
• Sacred: Entitled to reverence and respect
• Supernatural: “above the natural”
– Not obeying the laws of nature as we know
them.
– Many times the supernatural is explained by
science, further blurring the line between
religion and science.
Religion
Theoretical Frameworks
preview
• Cultural Anthropologists will traditionally
pick one of the following 5 theoretical
approaches to work under.
• Evolutionary
• Marxist
• Functional
• Interpretive
• Psychosocial
• See pgs. 16-21
Evolutionary
• When/how religion began
• This theory was introduced in the 1800s and went hand
in hand with Modernism and the Enlightenment.
– Logic, science and Monotheism were the pinnacles of human
achievement
• Western Society represented this pinnacle
– Positivism
• The only real knowledge is scientific knowledge
• This approach generally carries a lot of negative baggage
and is seen as outdated.
– All other societies were seen as “primitive” compared to Western
Society.
• The quest for Religion’s origins is still ongoing and
many elements of Evolutionary Theory are now
combined under the Psychosocial Approach…
Psychosocial
• What is the connection between culture, personality,
society and the individual?
• Sigmund Freud
– Psychoanalysis
• ChildParents = Adult  Supernatural elements
– Nurturing/authority figure
The biological basis of religious behavior
Does our brain create realities that are indistinguishable
from “reality,” whatever that means?
Marxist
• Developed in the 1800s around same time
as the Evolutionary Approach
• Karl Marx
– Religion as a construction of those in control
of society
• Obey this religion & “us” and you will be happy
– A crutch for people too depressed by the
miseries of capitalism.
Functional
• What role does religion serve in society?
• Émile Durkheim
– Collective Conscious: Religion serves to hinder selfish
tendencies of the individual and promote social
cooperation. Symbols are a manifestation of the collective
conscious and, when brought up during religious rituals,
help to reinforce social cooperation.
• Radcliffe-Brown
– Need group solidarity (Religion) in order for society to
survive
• Bronislaw Malinowski
– Magic and religion as emotional and mental support
Interpretive
• Developed in response to the Functional
Approach.
• Clifford Geertz
– The goal of the anthropologist should be to
discover meaning, not to look for origins and
laws!
– Based on the work of Max Weber, who was
the first to propose looking at culture through
Emic Analysis.
For Tuesday
• Go over the Study Questions from the end
of Chapter 1 and be ready to discuss their
themes in class.
• Read Stein & Stein Ch 1