Lecture 16: Religion

Question 1

Religion

Answer 1

all definitions of religion are problematic

• Anthony F.C. Wallace, points to “belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces”
• This approach emphasizes “the supernatural,” as if to imply that spirits, divinities, magic, gods, and souls are not real, are not really parts of nature, are imaginary or make believe
• In many societies around the world a distinction between supernatural and natural realms is not relevant
• at best, attempts to equate religion with the supernatural are ethnocentric and biased toward what we think is real and what is not
• You consider voting/democracy to be part of the real world, not a supernatural one, and therefore they cannot be about religion

Question 2

Religion as Speculative

Answer 2

-In this framework religion is “bad science” or “primitive thought” most prevalent amongst less advanced, “primitive” cultures
-E.B. Tylor and animism (belief in souls or doubles):
-argues that it grew out of a need to explain
experiences
-one comes out during the day, other at night
-earliest form of human religion

Question 3

Mana

Answer 3

a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe, that is potentially subject to human manipulation (transferable)

Melanesian mana—much like the Western concept of luck
Polynesian mana—attached to political office

Question 4

Taboo

Answer 4

setting mana-filled things apart as sacred, inaccessible, extraordinary, powerful, and dangerous

Question 5

Religion as Speculative, cont.

Answer 5

• Treating religion as a speculative enterprise presumes that religion is illogical, false, or can be dismissed as primitive or superstitious
• Such a view cannot explain why religious belief and practice persist long after “better” explanations arise
• The success of science as a way of explaining the universe has not caused religion to disappear

Question 6

Azande Witchcraft

Answer 6

Witchcraft and Sorcery
-every death/injury is attributed to a witch or sorcerer
•These beliefs are not illogical and, in fact, are highly logical
•The Sudanese Azande are a classical anthropological case of witchcraft and cultural logic
Granary example: it fell over due to termites eating the legs. What makes it witchcraft? they thought it fell at that precise moment on two people specifically

Question 7

Religion as Practice

Answer 7

focuses not only on the explanatory function of religion, but also how such explanations can serve our emotional and cognitive needs

Question 8

magic

Answer 8

use of supernatural techniques to accomplish specific aims
•Magic may be *IMITATIVE (producing a desired effect by imitating it: voodoo doll) or CONTAGIOUS (accomplished through contact)
-The use of magic can give practitioners a sense of control over situations in which they have little control
-the *Evil Eye in Jordan: sports cars clean except a bloody red handprint, protects against the evil eye
-Sailing Magic among the Trobriand Islanders: Malinowski noticed they used magic to get a sense of control over uncertain seas. In shallow lagoons, there was not such magic

Question 9

superstition

Answer 9

• ritualized acts that we adhere to in order to promote (or prevent) good or bad luck
• knock on wood/cross fingers/break mirror 7yrs bad luck

Question 10

Baseball Magic

Answer 10

Gmelch took anthro classes at night while playing baseball
• ‘giving’ control to the uncontrollable
• hitting and pitching have greater degrees of
uncertainty compared to fielding, therefore magic is
more prominent in those disciplines

Question 11

Magic and Control examples

Answer 11

free throw routine in basketball

listening to music at a certain volume on the way to football games

Question 12

Rites of Passage

Answer 12

culturally defined activities (often rituals) that mark and facilitate a person’s movement from one state to being another

Question 13

3 stages of Rites of Passage

Answer 13

SEPARATION: withdraws from one group and begins moving from one place to another
LIMINALITY: Period during which participant(s) has left one status but not yet entered the next
INCORPORATION: Participant(s) reenters society with a new status having completed the rite

Question 14

Communitas

Answer 14

collective liminality, characterized by enhanced feelings of social solidarity and minimized distinctions

permanent liminality: example third genders always considered betwixt and between

Question 15

Maasai Circumcision

Answer 15

collective experience marks transition from boy to man

Question 16

Vanuatu Land Divers

Answer 16

another boy-man

Question 17

Quinceañera

Answer 17

girl-woman

**exam Q

Question 18

Religion as Regulator

Answer 18

has the power to affect action through systems of real and perceived rewards and punishments (social control)
-we internalize this system
-Emile Durkheim
-Totems: Lizard vs Kangaroo groups
-often regulates diet (McDonald’s in India does not serve beef)
-see Table 21.2 and know **WALLACE typology of religion,
MONOTHEISTIC,OLYMPIAN,COMMUNAL,SHAMANIC

Question 19

Revitalization movements

Answer 19

social movements that occur in times of change, in which religious leaders emerge and undertake to alter or revitalize a society

• Wallace, “deliberate, organized, conscious efforts to construct a more satisfying culture
  ex: Handsome Lake (person) among Iriquois in New York, preached against drunkenness, did not speak to tradition

Question 20

Can religion be secular?

Answer 20

ex: nationalism(pledge allegiance), ethnicity, football(chants, shared belief)