Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is religion?
religion is often associated to be a ‘belief’
yet Religious individual often do not relate ‘belief’ to be a meaningful concept to them
many religious traditions also do not require partakers to be religious
practice vs belief?
Clifford Geertz definition of religion
essentialist approach
religion is a system of symbols
which establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivation in humans by
generating conceptions of a general order of existence
clothing these conceptions in an aura of factuality
so that these moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
What is a symbol?
A vehicle of meaning –> symbol represents a meaning
An abstraction of reality
ex. USA flag - stands for the nation
Concrete embodiment of attitudes, belief, judgements, etc
ex. USA flag - may represent American dream, democracy, freedom
Triggers specific attitudes
ex. USA flag - some will salute it while some would want to burn it
A social object, public, observable
A system of symbols is….
An extrinsic source of information, lies outside the boundary of the individual
the building blocks for the creation of meaningful worlds
Provides a model of reality;
descriptive - ‘what the world looks like’
prescriptive - ‘what the world should look like’
Symbols (in religion)
Symbols give worshipping a distinctive set of dispositions (capabilities, habits, skills, etc)
that produce motivations (inclination to engage in certain acts)
while also producing long-lasting moods
Conceptions of the general order of existence
Geertz sees religion as existential
Meaning is existential (to our own existence)
People create meaning to counter chaos / disorder in reality
Function is to be able to grasp what we cannot really grasp
ex. covid - religious interpretation on the reason for this crisis
View that everything has meaning
Anthropological study of religion is a two step operation
1) An analysis of the system of meaning embodied in symbols that make a religion proper
2) Relating the system to socio-structural and cultural systems
Talad Asad –> Specialist on early christianity (extensive work on Augustinus)
Rejects Geertz essentialist approach to defining religion –> religion cannot be defined by a single transcultural and transhistorical definition
Religion is a historical product
Religious imagination is formed through power and discipline (also through learning)
Definition is often rooted from specific religious tradition (ex. partisan understanding of religion)
Talad Asad approach to religion
Genealogical approach
Religion is a historical product - making a universal definition impossible
Religion and power are inseparable (hierarchy, truth, discipline)
Critique on the notion of symbols as a vehicle of meaning
the meaning of symbols is acquired knowledge
meaning is not something given - it is learned
meaning of symbol are / can be contested
each individual has their own separate experience / philosophy on the meaning of a particular symbol
meaning that we can only study the context / power relations which make some definition of symbol dominant or subordinate of others
Critique on the notion of symbols as a vehicle of meaning
the meaning of symbols is acquired knowledge
symbols do not have a pre-existing meaning - it needs to be learned
meaning of symbols are / can be contested
each individual has a different experience / philosophy on the meaning
means we can only study the context / power relations which can make some definitions of symbol dominant / subordinate of others
Summary of Asad critique on Geertz definition
there is no seperate domain of religion - no ‘religious proper’
religion is outside of the typical European domain of modernity
