Ch. 9 Religion

Question 1

What is Religion?

Answer 1

ANTHONY WALLACE – religion as belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces.

• Focused on Iroquois Indians (Handsome Lake) and the idea of REVITALIZATION MOVEMENTS.
• CODE of HANDSOME LAKE – Hansome Lake was a leader of the Seneca Indians (Iroquois) who played a major role in the revival of the Senecas.
  
  • He combined traditional Iroquois religious beliefs with some White-Man values – eventually published as the Code of Handsome Lake.
• PANTHEONS (collection of deities) prominent in many nonindustrial nation-states
• Religions of stratified societies are ECCLESIASTICAL – relating to the Christian Church

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE – religion focuses on bodies of people who:

• …gather together regularly for worship
• …who accept a set of doctrines involving the relationship between the individual and divinity, the supernatural, or whatever is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.

ANTHROPOLOGISTS focus on the shared nature of religion, the emotions, and the meanings.

• DURKHEIM stressed RELIGIOUS EFFERVESCENCE, the bubbling up of collective emotional intensity generated by worship.
• VICTOR TURNER used the term COMMUNITAS to refer to an intense community spirit, a feeling of great social solidarity, equality, and togetherness.

RELIGION IN DIFFERENT SOCIETIES:

• Like ethnicity and language, religion also is associated with social divisions within and between societies and nations.
• Religion is a CULTURAL UNIVERSAL, although different societies conceptualize divinity, supernatural entities, and ultimate realities very differently.

Question 2

Expressions of Religion: Tyler (Animism, Polytheism, Monotheism), Malinowski (Magic and the Trobriand Islanders), Rituals, Rites of Passage, and Totemism

Answer 2

ORIGINS OF RELIGION

• NEANDERTHAL burials and European cave paintings may be evidence of early religious activity.
• TYLOR – said that a belief in a soul originated from peoples’ attempts to explain dreams and trances. Said that religion evolved through three stages:

1. ANIMISM is a belief in spiritual beings.
2. POLYTHEISM is the belief in multiple gods.
3. MONOTHEISM is the belief in a single, all-powerful deity.

• MALINOWSKI – said that people turn to Religion/magic as a means of control when they face uncertainty and danger.
  
  • Religion and magic can help reduce anxiety (e.g., facing death, enduring life crises) by giving people a sense of control over reality.
  • The TROBRIAND ISLANDERS turned to magic only in situations (e.g., sailing) that they could not control and that therefore were psychologically stressful.
  • In contemporary societies, Religion/magic persists as a means of reducing psychological anxiety in situations of uncertainty (e.g., baseball pitching superstition).

RITUALS – Formal, stylized, repetitive, stereotyped—and performed in sacred places at set times.

• Rituals include LITURGICAL ORDERS – sequences of words and actions invented prior to the current performance of the ritual in which they occur.
• Rituals convey information about the participants and their traditions and translate enduring messages, values, and sentiments into action.
• Rituals are inherently social, and by participating in them, performers signal that they accept a common social and moral order.

RITES of PASSAGE – customs associated with the transition from one stage of life to another (e.g., Native American VISION QUESTS).

• RITES of PASSAGE have three phases:
  
  1. SEPARATION – when participants withdraw from their current group and begin moving from one place or status to another
  2. LIMINALITY – the period between states, during which the participants have left one state but have not yet entered the next.
     
     • Involves the temporary suspension or reversal of ordinary social distinctions, behaviors, and expectations.
     • COMMUNITAS refers to an intense feeling of great social solidarity and togetherness during COLLECTIVE LIMINALITY.
  3. INCORPORATION – when participants reenter society with a new status, having completed the rite
• In certain societies, there are “PERMANENT LIMINAL GROUPS” (e.g., sects, brotherhoods, cults) whose members adopt LIMINAL FEATURES such as humility, poverty, equality, obedience, sexual abstinence, and silence.
• Not all collective rites are rites of passage; some may be considered RITES of INTENSIFICATION, which enhance social solidarity.

TOTEMISM – In TOTEMIC SOCIETIES, each DESCENT GROUP had a totem—an animal, plant, or geographical feature—from which they claimed descent.

• Totemism can promote social solidarity among the descent group.
• Important in Native Australian religions.
• The members of a totemic group did not kill or eat their totem, except once a year when people gathered for ceremonies dedicated to the totem.
• Totemism uses nature as a model for society:
  
  • ​People relate to nature through their totemic association with natural species.
  • Because each group has a different totem, diversity in the NATURAL ORDER becomes a model for diversity in the SOCIAL ORDER.
  • Because all totems are part of nature, the unity of the HUMAN social order is ENHANCED by symbolic association with the NATURAL order.

Question 3

Religion and Social Control

Answer 3

RELIGION is OFTEN USED to CONTROL SOCIETIES:

• The power of religion affects action.
• Throughout history, political leaders have used religion to promote and justify their views and policies (eg. Kings and Queens have claimed divine right. George W. Bush used biblical references and fearmongering to rationalize war)
• WITCH HUNTS can be a powerful means of social control by creating a climate of danger and insecurity that affects everyone, not just the people who are likely targets. (eg. Salem Witch Trials, Red Scare of Communism, Anti-Muslim sentiment)
  
  • Witch hunts often take aim at people who can be accused and punished with the least chance of retaliation.
  • Witchcraft accusations directed at socially marginal individuals.
  • Witchcraft accusation may serve as a LEVELING MECHANISM, a social action that reduces status differences and bring standouts in line with community norms.
• To ensure proper behavior, religions offer rewards and punishments and may prescribe a code of ethics and morality.

Question 4

Types of Religion

Answer 4

ANIMISM: The belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct SPIRITUAL ESSENCE. Potentially, animism perceives all things–animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words–as animated and alive.

• The belief system of many indigenous peoples.
• SHAMANS – are part-time religious figures often found in foraging societies.
  
  • ​Wealthier, more populated societies support a full-time, professional priest.

POLYTHEISM: The worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals.

• In most of these religions, the different gods and goddesses are representations of forces of nature or ancestral principles.
• OLYMPIAN RELIGIONS are polytheistic, characterized by pantheons of powerful anthropomorphic gods with specialized functions.

Monotheism: The belief in one god that created the world, is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.

Question 5

Rituals

Answer 5

Rituals are formal—stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped—and performed in sacred places at set times

• Rituals include liturgical orders—sequence of words and actions invented prior to the ritual in which they occur
• Rituals convey information about the participants and their traditions and translate enduring messages, values, and sentiments into action
• Rituals are inherently social, and by participating in them, performers signal that they accept a common social and moral order

Question 6

Rites of Passage

Answer 6

Customs associated with the transition from one place or stage of life to another. (Native American vision quests and Mitzvahs in Judaism)

3 Stages:

1. Separation—When participants withdraw from the group and begin moving forward from one place or status to another
2. Liminality—The period between states, during which participants have left one stage but have not yet entered the next one
3. Incorporation—When participants reenter society with a new status, having completed the rite

• Liminality involves the temporary suspension and even reversal of ordinary social distinctions, behaviors, and expectations
• Communitas refers to an intense community spirit, a feeling of great solidarity, equality, and togetherness during collective liminality.
• In certain societies, there are “permanent liminal groups” (sects/brotherhoods/cults) whose members adopt liminal features such as humility, poverty, equality, obedience, sexual abstinence, and silence
• Not all collective rites are rites of passage; some may be considered rites of intensification, which enhance social solidarity.

Question 7

World Religions

Answer 7

TOP FOUR GLOBAL RELIGIOUS CLASSIFICATIONS:

• CHRISTIANITY – has more than 2.1 billion members. – Growing 2.3%
  
  • Within Christianity, there is variation in growth
• ISLAM – has 1.5 billion members – Growing FASTER – 2.9%
• NO OFFICIAL RELIGION – 1.1 billion people
• HINDUISM – 900 million

Question 8

Revitalization, Cargo Cults, New Age Movements

Answer 8

REVITALIZATION MOVEMENTS – Religious movements are social movements that occur in times of change, in which religious leaders emerge to alter or REVITALIZE a society.

• CHRISTIANITY originated as a REVITALIZATION movement.
• The colonial-era IROQUOIS REFORMATION led by HANDSOME LAKE is another example of a REVITALIZATION movement.

CARGO CULTS – are REVITALIZATION MOVEMENTS that emerge when traditional communities have regular contact with industrial societies but lack their wealth, technology, and living standards.

• NATIVE COMMUNITIES attempt to explain European domination and wealth and to ACHIEVE SIMILAR SUCCESS MAGICALLY by mimicking European behavior and manipulating symbols of the desired lifestyle.
  
  • The CARGO CULTS of MELANESIA and PAPUA NEW GUINEA blended Christian doctrine with aboriginal beliefs and practices.
  • CARGO CULTS take their NAME from their FOCUS on CARGO, European goods that have been brought to the region by cargo planes and ships.
  • Because of their experience with BIG-MAN SYSTEMS, MELANESIANS believed that all wealthy people eventually had to give their wealth away.
  • Cargo cults emerged as a means of magically leveling Europeans, who refused to distribute their wealth or even to let natives know the secret of its production and distribution.
  • Cargo cults paved the way for unified political action through which indigenous communities eventually regained their autonomy.

ALTERNATIVE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS:

• NEW AGE MOVEMENTS draws on Native American and Native Australian symbols, and religious practices by non-Native Americans/Australians.
  
  • Blends cultural elements from multiple traditions to advocate change through personal transformation.
• YORUBA** is a **SYNCRETIC** or **BLENDED REGION, combining elements of Catholicism with African spiritism.
• RAELIAN MOVEMENT – is an example of a religious group evolving in tandem with science.
• Many nations contain unofficial religions

Question 9

Secular (Non-Religious) Rituals

Answer 9

SECULAR means NOT RELIGIOUS. (NON-SECULAR means RELIGIOUS) – so kind of confusing.

• Even the Non-Religious can embrace Ritual-like behavior’
  
  • If the distinction between the supernatural and the natural is not consistently made in a society, it can be difficult to define what constitutes religion and what does not.
  • The behavior considered appropriate for religious occasions varies tremendously from culture to culture.
  • It is possible for secular settings and things to acquire intense meaning for individuals (People are symbolic beings).
  • The distinction between sacred and profane doesn’t depend on intrinsic qualities