7.2 Case Studies

Question 1

Study of Arunta Tribe

Durkheim

Answer 1

Durkheim conducted a study of the Arunta, an Australian aboriginal tribe’s religious beliefs in order to establish the function of the beliefs and ceremonies and what it really signified.

Durkheim deliberately chose what he considered to be a very primitive religion in order to focus on the essential elements of belief and its functions. He argued that society divided objects and activities into the sacred and the profane. The profane were everyday experiences with a clear function, while the sacred had a greater, collective significance. In the religion Durkheim studied, various “totems” were considered sacred.

Totemism- simplest form of religion. Clan members join together to grieve. Join together for revenge.

• Each clan has a totem by which it distinguishes itself. The totem is sacred, a visible form of God. Totem is a symbol of society, people are actually worshipping society
• Studied Totemism among Australian Aboriginal (Arunta Tribe) clans in which the sacred totem represented different clans.
• Religious symbols are simultaneously symbols of God and Society, and thus when people worship religion they are also ‘worshipping society’, religious symbols serve as a simplified representation of a more complex whole, reminded individuals that they are merely small and part of a much ‘bigger picture’.
• Religion acts as a constraining (conservative) force: through religious worship (ceremonies) the ‘collective conscience’ is imprinted on the individual: they literally ‘feel’ the weight of the community on them.

From his detailed study of “primitive religion” he identified four key functions of religion in society:

Discipline - Religious rituals impose self-discipline, which encourages individuals to behave sociably and not simply pursue their own selfish course of action, which would be anti-social and destabilising.
Cohesion - The key function is social cohesion: worship brought the community together. Through worship people reaffirm and reinforce the bonds that keep them together.
Vitalising - Durkheim also argued that religious belief maintained traditions, ensuring that the values that are passed down from generation to generation are kept vital and at the heart of the society.
Euphoric - Finally, if members of society were ever to become frustrated or lose their faith, the religion serves to remind them of their place in something much bigger. Again it prevents individuals from becoming anti-social.

Durkheim concluded that when a society came together to worship collectively, what they were really worshipping was society itself. Durkheim recognised that society was becoming less religious and more secular, but he argued that there was still this secular function for religious belief.

Criticism: Worsley criticised Durkheim’s study of the Arunta from an anthropological and theological perspective, suggesting that he misunderstood certain aspects of the religion, particularly the idea of the separation between the sacred and profane and the significance of totems.

Question 2

Study of Trobriand Islanders

Answer 2

Studied the religious practices of the Trobriand islanders. What he noted was that when the islanders were fishing on inshore, safe waters they did not practice religious ceremonies, but they did so when fishing in more dangerous waters.

He concluded that religion had a psychological function: it helped individuals to deal with an anxious and stressful situation. These sorts of unpredictable events can cause instability and disruption in society, so by performing this psychological function religion also helped preserve the stability of society.

The equivalent of the dangerous fishing expeditions, in contemporary society and religion, is events like births and deaths. Religious ceremonies accompany these events in order to preserve stability. In this way religion performs psychological functions for the individual.

Criticism: Malinowski’s study was unusual for a functionalist in that it was a participant observation. This was high in validity and was very detailed, conducted over four years. However, from a positivist perspective, it was unreliable and the conclusions could not be generalised to other tribes or societies.

Question 3

Americanism

Bellah

Answer 3

The concept of civil religion has been utilised effectively particularly by those on the political right to appeal to American voters. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan boasted of American exceptionalism seeing the USA as a beacon of freedom and liberty(IJBOL) in the midst of the cold war. Reagan’s view was that God was an American and the actions of the government were to protect the American people and the rest of the world from the tyranny of communism(WHAT). This message was also utilised by Donald Trump in his campaign focusing on the idea of Making America Great Again(ew) criticising his predecessors for falling from the path of Americanism by being too liberal and focusing on internationalism rather than the will of the American people. Both campaigns were successful however, Trump’s use of civil was often criticised as being outdated and excluding many minority groups in USA.

Bellah’s work can be applied to other societies specifically those with totalitarian leadership such as Nazi Germany and Communist Russia with both of these societies being focused on the glory of the nation, often at the expense of the freedom of the individual.

Criticism: Civil religion has also been criticised for failing to see all men as equal under the law despite its outward expression of inclusivity: american society has a history of racial segregation, including the Jim Crow laws and to this day is often accused of socially and economically excluding minority groups.