Chapter 10: Religion

Question 1

Animism

Answer 1

• belief that everything has a soul (Edward Tylor – Primitive Culture, 1871)
• discrete spirit beings
• earliest form of religion?

ex. plants, animals, the weather, inanimate objects have souls

Question 2

Animatism

Answer 2

• belief in impersonal supernatural force, diffuse forces (R. R. Marett –The Threshold of Religion, 1909)
• Polynesia - mana
• Iroquois – orenda
• Hebrew - el
• Greek – dynamis

ex. worshiping inanimate objects to cast away evil bc it has spiritual energy

Question 3

James Frazer (1854-1941)

Answer 3

• the Golden Bough (1890)
• ancient cults, myths, and rites
• evolutionary theory of human thought: magic -> religion -> science

Question 4

3 Types of Magic

Answer 4

• sympathetic (law of sympathy)
• homeopathic (law of similarity)
• contagious (law of contact)

Question 5

2 Basic Elements of Religion

Answer 5

• myth
• ritual

Question 6

Myth

Answer 6

• the grand narratives of a culture
• explanations of origins, the universe, good/bad
• value systems

ex. Christmas has a story/narrative

Question 7

Ritual

Answer 7

• rites and ceremonies
• purpose to acquire benefit (ex. healing, express identity, gain wealth)
• collective (creates bonds)
• individual (to have more control, releases stress/anxiety)

ex. deep sea fishing, baseball rituals

Question 8

4 Social Organizations of Religion

Answer 8

1. Individualistic cults
2. Shamanistic cults
3. Communal cults
4. Ecclesiastical cults

Question 9

Individualistic Cults

Answer 9

controlled by the individual

ex. praying, vision quest

Question 10

Shamanistic Cults

Answer 10

religious specialist that has connection with the higher being

ex. Tsimshian shaman

Question 11

Communal Cults

Answer 11

community performing rituals

ex. Ramadan, Christmas, Hopi kachina

Question 12

Ecclesiastical Cults

Answer 12

full-time religious specialists who have a salary funded by community (offering)

ex. Roman Catholic cardinals

Question 13

Religion and Subsistence

Answer 13

• nature spirits (ex. Tataweri = fire)
• human spirits (ex. Watakame = clearer of the fields)
• syncretism (ex. Watakame: hunter gatherer and agricultural spirits together, Gnosticism)

Question 14

Religion and Kinship

Answer 14

• Weyewa (Sumba, Indonesia)
• nature spirits (elements, plants, animals)
• human spirits (ancestor spirits, ranked patrilineages)
• ancestor spirits could only communicate with nature spirits
• chief lineages have the highest ancestor spirits

Question 15

Religion and the State

Answer 15

• Monotheism: religion practiced across regions (ex. Aton trying to destroy gods)
• Sol Invictus: Sun god of late Roman Empire (before Romans worshiped ancestors but started this bc Christianity was a threat)
• Viracocha: Inca creator sun-god

Question 16

4 Revitalization Movements

Answer 16

• Weston LaBarre argued religions came from a crisis
  1. Nativistic
  2. Revival
  3. Millenarian
  4. Messianic

Question 17

Nativistic

Answer 17

getting rid of aliens (foreigners)

ex. Jack Wovoka and The Ghost Dance

Question 18

Revival

Answer 18

• great awakening of the USA to express freedom of religion
• second awakening came after salary
• alcoholism
• women’s rights

Question 19

Millenarian

Answer 19

apocalyptic scenarios to reveal the truth
ex. when Jesus comes back

Question 20

Messianic

Answer 20

divine saviours

ex. Jesus

Question 21

Cargo Cults

Answer 21

• The Vailala Madness 1917 (Papua New Guinea) - Tana Island
• natives close to colonists acted like soldiers bc they thought it would bring them food and supplies

Question 22

Religion and Revolution

Answer 22

• Thomas Münzer (1490?-1525): The German Peasant War, 1524-26
• Boukman (?-1791?) – vodun houngan: Haitian slave revolution, 1791+
• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900?-1989): Islamic Revolution of Iran, 1978-1979, theocracy