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Religion and Society Flashcards

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1
Q

Anthropology Definition

A

Anthropology is the study of humankind

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2
Q

Religion Defined

A
  • The realm of culture that concerns the sacred supernatural
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3
Q

4 Major Fields in Anthropology

A
  1. Cultural (largest)
  2. Linguistic
  3. Archaeological
  4. Physical
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4
Q

possible work for anthropologist

A
  1. surveying land, history
  2. government research - homeless, cultural issues
  3. study of sacred land and water (Dakota pipeline issue)
  4. immigration - how to make canadian society more inclusive to incoming immigrents
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5
Q

Etic Perspective

A

Term for “the study of a society using concepts that were developed outside of the culture”

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6
Q

Ethnography

A

Term to describe “the descriptive study of human societies”

researchers observe and/or interact with a study’s participants in their real-life environment.

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7
Q

Ethnocentrism

A
  • judging and intrpreting another culture with one’s own cultural lens
  • to be avoided as it brings bias into understanding other cultures
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8
Q

Emic Perspective

A
  • Study society through the eyes of the people being studied
  • fewer key understandings overlooked
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9
Q

Cultural Relativism - definition

A
  • way to study cultures without a biased lens, from a neutral perspective that does not pronounce societies as immoral or primitive
  • beliefs as being appropriate for those people in that society
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10
Q

Definition of Culture

A

human beliefs, customs and behaviours of a society that are learned, transmitted from one generation to the next, and shared by a group of people

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11
Q

Smart’s 6 dimensions of religion

A
  1. Ritual (e.g. rites of passage)
  2. Institututional (organization, leadership)
  3. Narrative (myths, creations stories..)
  4. Social (religion as group bonding activity)
  5. Experiential (e.g. Altered State Consciousness)
  6. Ethical (customs, moral rules)
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12
Q

Definition Holism

A

Study of human societies as sytematic sums of their parts, integrated wholes

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13
Q

Animism, Definition

A

Belief in spirit beings, supernatural powers and souls in plants, objects as well

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14
Q

Characteristics of Religion (6)

A
  1. supernatural beings
  2. supernatural power
  3. rituals
  4. Worldview
  5. Sacred supernatural
  6. Social Bond or Social Control
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15
Q

Evolutionary Approach - define

A
  • spirits&ghosts/Gods&Souls/Science
  • linear approach
  • religion as evolving from “primitive” societal” beliefs in spirits and ghosts to a more “evolved” belief in Gods and Souls and then to a more scientific view
  • Tyler
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16
Q

Problem with evolutionary approach

A
  • thinking it begins and ends somewhere can lead to superiority (i.e. “primitive” then, now more “rational”)
  • can be demeaning to other cultures
  • supremist
  • ethnocentric
  • specultative - don’t know how religion or magic began or where religion is going
  • BUT: do see evolution
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17
Q

Functional Approach

A

Relgion serves a purpose

(Durkheim saw that pupose as bringing people together for common goal)

  1. Individualism vs. clan - too much choice, if something goes wrong only blame self
  2. Excessive hope - anyone can be the boss
  3. Too much freedom - fewer social norms, society doesn’t care what you do
  4. Atheism - thought religion had become implausible but appreciated the inclusivness
  5. Weakening of nation and family - less tied to parents as adult, no larger sense of belonging

Durkheim

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18
Q

Limits Funtional Approach

A
  • not all the same religion so harder in multicultural society
  • doesn’t address the extraordinary experiences associated with religion
  • crutch for reality
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19
Q

Interpretive Approach

A
  • religion as made up of symbols that, when interpreted or studied will represent the culture of the society and their beliefs and practives
  • 2 stages: a) symbols that supposedly make up a charter for culture’s ideas, values, way of life then b) see how relates to social structure
  • Geertz
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20
Q

Criticism of Interpretive Approacch

A

Not much time spent on stage 2 - seeing how the symbols relate to the social structure

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21
Q

Psychological Approach:

A
  • religion as defense mechanism to avoid realities of society and life and to avoid anxieties
  • Freud
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22
Q

Marxist Approach

A
  • religion is a human construct with social function and a reaction to stress
  • religion as a way to keep people in check
  • obedience to authority
  • a group of ruling elite in power that led to an obedient and oppressed people
  • can be used to justify war (“holy war inspired by God)
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23
Q

Criticism of Marxist Approach

A
  • activists also religious but they challenge the societal norms
  • religion can be used for revolution (not always to keep people in check) e.g. 1979 Iranian Revolution
  • can be catalyst for social change - unites and directs people’s actions (Martin Luther King)
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24
Q

Essentialist Approach

A
  • system of beliefs and behaviors that deal with the relationship between humans and sacred supernatural - spirit guide, god, mysticism
  • looks at the essential nature of the religion
  • things beyond the commonplace / natural - e.g. mysticism
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25
Q

Postmodernist View

A
  • all knowledge is human construct that we have to try and deconstruct
  • emphasizes limitations of science
  • rejection of grand, universal schemes or theories which explain other cultures
  • whole is more than sum of parts
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26
Q

Collaborative Platform

A
  • Platform used to work on problems as they arise
  • used for Ebola - Ebola Response Anthropology Platform
  • 16,000 users
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27
Q

Ethnosphere

A
  • cultural web of life
  • sum total of all myths, ideas, dreams, thoughts, inspiration brought into being by human imagination
  • humanity’s great legacy - symbol of all that we are and all that we can be as a species
  • eroded at fast rate (used to have 6000 languages and only 1/2 still used & taught
  • destruction of cultural diversity on planet
  • Ethnocide: destruction of people’s way of life
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28
Q

Theory of Mind - define

A
  • when an individual is able to predict what another’s thoughts are, what they might do next
  • you can put yourself in the place of that person
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29
Q

Worldview - define

A
  • philosophy of life, concept of the world
  • the way a society perceives its reality
  • shapes our actions, thoughts and beliefs
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30
Q

Navaho Worldview

A
  • humans are part of nature
  • all the elements in the universe affect one another
  • failure to behave properly upsets the harmony in the universe
  • can lead to natural disasters
  • will try to resolve an illness with a ritual to re-establish the harmony
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31
Q

Myths - define

A
  • sacred story that provides the basis for religious beliefs and practices
  • they may include the supernatural
  • considered by many to be factual
  • may make up world views (resurrection)
  • usually in remote past, different world
  • often told in religions
  • sacred myths were later replaced by secular folktales till died out in “civilized” societies
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32
Q

How are myths disseminated

A
  • orally
  • music
  • dance
  • art - cave art
  • plays - Passion of Christ, nativity scene
  • written (bible)
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33
Q

Oral Myth

A
  • long and complex
  • not always recited all at once
  • frequently altered by each generation so different versions can exist in different families
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34
Q

Women in Myth - men as superior

A
  • Eve - original sin
  • Adam’s rib
  • Pandora made as punishmet for Promethius - made as kniving and untrustworthy
  • woman as having unleashed all the troubles on the world
  • death and disease all blamed on woman (Eve)
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35
Q

Structural Study of Myth

A
  • focus on the underlying structure of the myth and not the content
  • binary opposites - black/white, good/bad, day/night, heaven/earth
  • Levi-Strauss (structuralist)
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36
Q

Symbolic Study of Myth

A
  • psychoanalytical study of myths
  • Freud - myth as symbol and rooted in psychology - myths as a “shared dream” expressing the unconscious wish of many; relationship between early experience and later adult projection (Oedipus)
  • Jung - Myths are born of the projection of the collective unconscious, made up of archetypes, shared by all that relate meaninfully to all (Phoenix - rebirth of Christ - not really collective); Campbell favored Jung - compatible with science
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37
Q

Evolutionary Study of Myth

A
  • Myth to folktale to science (civilized)
  • no cross-cultural myths but similarities
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38
Q

Functional Study of Myths

A
  • myths have function in society
  • ethnographic approach
  • Boas and Malinowski: literal interpretation; study one culture at a time (problem: not looking at competing narratives)
39
Q

Hero myth sequence of events

A
  1. departure
  2. task fulfillment
  3. return

Hero usually gives his life to something bigger (sacrifice?); spiritual hero experiences something supernatural then comes back and tells about it; can be thrown into it (drafted into army); Promethius brings fire to mankind; transformed through tests, trials and revelations; landscape matches the hero’s readiness

40
Q

Buddah/Moses/Christ as heroes

A
  • Christ: 3 temptations (turn stones to bread, throw himself from the mountain & to bow to the Devil) - he does none of them & lives for God instead of himself
  • Moses: climbs Sinai and brings back the commandments
  • Buddah - tree of illumination; 3 temptations of lust, fear and submission to public opinion; he passed and remained a teacher on the extinction of ego
41
Q

mythical symbols

A
  • dragon - binding of one’s self to one’s ego so slay dragon to remove what is holding you back in order to follow your bliss
  • rocks: (gold in rocks were her friends)
  • Chinese dragon: vitality of swamps, bounty in water
  • Quiet places: for athletes it is where the action comes from, for Buddah (Nirvana - only when not compelled by fear, desire or social commitment),
  • water - unconscious
42
Q

Folktale

A
  • supernatural
  • not religious
  • often a moral
  • fictional world
  • exist independent of time and space
43
Q

Common Themes in Myths

A
  1. Origin Myths - who are we/why are we here; creation myths most sacred of narratives; common element: birth metaphor; emergence myths (creation from under earth); often creation from chaos
  2. Apocalyptic: Noah’s Ark; often cycle creation and destruction (Aztecs Mexico - 4 previous worlds)
  3. Trickster: part human, part animal, often transformers, dishonest, impulsive (Raven wanted to steal light story)
  4. Hero: from common world to world of supernatural wonder (departure, fulfillment, return)
44
Q

Legend

A
  • represent events that have occurred, with embellishment
  • take place in recent past
  • may or may not include supernatural elements
  • may or may not be sacred
  • (King Arthur, Robin Hood)
45
Q

Urban Legend

A
  • telling as if really happened
  • usually in tabloids
  • (alligators in New York sewers)
  • Fake, not real
46
Q

Judeo-Christian Worldview - define

A
  • world created for the benefit of humankind
  • places humans above nature - have the right to exploit the natural world
  • expects nature to serve and provide for it, attempts to control it (e.g. dams)
  • anthropocentric view of world: MY room, apartment, etc. and nature is there to provide for me
47
Q

4 principles in the “paradigm of interconnectedness”

A
  1. reverence - part of larger ecosystem
  2. respect -maintain balance (hunt and share, acknowledge taking from ecosystem )
  3. responsibility - actions re intergenerationality
  4. reciprocity - how to rebalance ecosystem
48
Q

Nature as Wilderness

A
  • Judeo: dangerous, unpredictable, have to tame it to provide for our existence
  • Gender normative: man’s dominion over nature
49
Q

Religious Symbols - define

A
  • symbols that represent religious traditions or rituals
  • words - spoken and written are critical (Torah)
  • will have meaning to a particular religious tradition
50
Q

Arbitrary Symbol Define

A
  • symbols sthat is not connected with the thing it represents - a blue triangle to represent an apple
  • have to be learned
51
Q

Displacement

A

the ability to use symbols to refer to things and activities that are remote from the user

52
Q

Openness

A

creation of a new symbol to refer to something that no one has ever seen before

53
Q

Psychoduct

A
  • pipe made of brick, through which the person’s spirit moves from the tomb into the temple sanctuary during the rituals
54
Q

Pentagram

A
  • pentacle
  • used by many religions e.g. Star of David, (Wiccans) to represent fire, air, water, earth and spirit, Christ’s five wounds Christians), first 5 books of the Torah (Jews)
  • used on religious texts, jewellery, gravestones
55
Q

Swastika

A
  • no inherant meaning
  • Sanskrit “good / to exist”
  • usually positive meaning - prosperity and good luck
  • “reverse swastika” - sauvastika stnads for darkness, misfortune and suffering
56
Q

Meaning of Color

A
  • can have cultural meaning - white for American bride or for Chinese death
  • Red for Chinese bride
  • Navaho turquoise as ideal blue - for celestial attainment, peace, happiness, success
57
Q

Yoruba Colors

A
  • Funfun - light and shimmering colors (wisdom, respect)
  • Pupa - bright colors (pride, quick temper)
  • Dudu - dark colors (hunting)
58
Q

Religious Symbolism in Dance

A
  • meaning transmitted through dance
  • FNI dance to tell stories, also Hula - story of Gods and Goddesses
  • Dances to heal / worship / praise / initiation
  • Khmer dance: curves - serpentine - mimic / inspire flow of water (4 hand gestures: tree, leaves, flowers, fruit - cycle of life)
  • Whirling Dervish: Islam, guided by Imam, whirl as gateway for divine reception, Qur’an recitations
  • Rain dances / Tewa dance to seek, renew or regain life - movements say which
59
Q

Religious Symbolism in Music

A
  • Can set the mood, affect way story told
  • used to invoke religious experience or produce an altered state of consciousness - beat drums
  • Churchbells / hymns / shofar / gong / drums
  • can give emotion (recitations to music - Qur’an)
  • Ginans: devotional hymns or poems recited by Shia Ismaili Muslims
  • How people communicated with the Gods
  • easier to memorize narratives, prayers
60
Q

Religious Architectural Symbols

A
  • Reflection pools: to receive divine guidance or blessing
  • Lights
  • Gardens: harmony with nature
  • Crystal dome - energy
  • Geometric patterns (Turkey) - divine order
61
Q

Syncretism

A
  • fusion of elements from two different cultures (e.g. importing tribal musical traditions into contemporary music)
62
Q

4 types Instruments

A
  1. Idiophones - rattles, bells, drums
  2. Membranophones - membrane or skin incorp.
  3. Cordophones - zither, violin
  4. Aerophones - pipes, whistles, didjeridu
63
Q

Totemism

A
  • religious system that assigns different plant and animal species to specific social groups
  • relationship between the group and the species formed during the period of creation
  • totems can be for bands, clans, genders or individuals
  • totemic affiliations can organize a society
  • On death, soul returns to totemic well which was thought to have housed the spirit that made the woman pregnant
64
Q

Dreamtime

A
  • Aboriginal understanding of the creation of the world
  • beginning of knowledge
  • Dreaming world - ancestral world
65
Q

Ritual - Definition

A
  • any repetitive sequence of acts
  • symbolize particular beliefs and values of the community
  • how basic ideas are imparted to a group
66
Q

Religious Ritual - define

A
  • involves the manipulation of religious symbols
    *
67
Q

Prescribed Ritual

A
  • ritual that a deity or religious authority requires to be performed
  • (set out in text or by deity or tradition)

e.g. circumcision, keeping kosher

68
Q

Situational Ritual

A
  • also called a crisis ritual
  • arises spontaneously
  • candle lightings after Bataclan e.g.
69
Q

Periodic Ritual

A
  • rituals that are performed temporally, on a schedule
  • Ramadan, High Holidays, daily prayers, Sabbath candles, Sunday Mass
70
Q

Occasional Ritual

A
  • performed for a specific purpose when a situation arises that requires the ritual to be performed (marriage, death, birth, bring rain)
71
Q

Technological Ritual

A
  • to influence and control nature
  • e.g. for hunting, fishing, farming
  • rain dance for crops, first fruit ceremonies for food gathering
72
Q

Protective Rituals

A
  • Usually accompany dangerous activities (to protect the safety of the one doing the task)
  • OR - in response to unexpected threat like a flood or drought or pests
  • OR birth rituals - fire burning for month to keep mothier warm, untying knots to symbolize an open uterus for easy delivery
73
Q

Divination Ritual

A
  • seek information
  • e.g. best time to plant, best place to fish
74
Q

Therapy Ritual

A
  • Deals with illness, accident or death
  • used to cure these
75
Q

Anti-Therapy Rituals

A
  • Used to bring about death, illness
  • e.g. bury something of the person in the ground after reciting a spell, hoping to cause illness or death for that person
76
Q

Cursing Rituals

A
  • Used by e.g. Aborigines - point bone at a victim in public (bone has person’s hair entwined in it)
  • if not counter charm used it curses the person to die
77
Q

Salvation Ritual

A
  • The person is “changed” in some way
  • Can be temporary: spirit possession
  • Can be permanent: Shaman initiation
  • Can be used to counter breaking a tabu
78
Q

Revitalization Ritual

A
  • Return to the traditional way of doing things
  • revitalize founding values, beliefs, structure
  • e.g. Presidential Inauguration
79
Q

Coming of Age Ritual

A
  • Marks the transition from Childhood to Adulthood
  • e.g. crocodile scars from the video or the strength tasks the girls had to do (dancing for hours)
80
Q

Communitas

A
  • sense of community achieved by going through the stages of some initiation or other ritual together (hajj)
81
Q

Rite of Passage - Define

A
  • Person changes their status (position in society)
  • Alter relationship with other members of society
  • Rite of passage imprints the change in status on the minds of the participants
  • get community approval/legitimacy for change
82
Q

3 Phases of the Rites of Passage Ritual

A
  1. Separation - removed from former status
  2. Transition - activities to bring about the change (e.g. engagment party)
  3. Incorporation - conclusion of the transition stage (e.g. presen the Mr. & Mrs. to a congregation of people)
83
Q

Liminality

A
  • Stage during which the metamorphosis takes place
  • state of ambiguous marginality
  • marked by uniform clothes, nakedness, anonymity
  • this is the stage between separation and incorporation
84
Q

Secular Rite of Passage

A
  • military training
  • Hair cuts, uniforms, elements of “communitas”
  • off at a base so “separated from family”
85
Q

Cicatrization

A
  • Scarring, branding
86
Q

Social Rites of Intensification

A
  • familiar rituals, usually prescribed and periodic
  • delineates codes of proper behavior and articulates the community’s worldview - e.g. Sunday Mass, Jewish Sabbath, Daily Salaht of Islam (often involve reading of the sacred texts and sermons about moral issues)
87
Q

Offering

A
  • Gift or a bribe designed to influence the supernatural
  • Can be reciprocated with a healing, rain, economic success
88
Q

Sacrifice

A
  • For a sacrifice, blood is shed, an animal (can be human) is killed
89
Q

Ethnobotony

A
  • anthropological study of medicinal plants (has led to genuine medical treatments like using foxglove to make digitalis) - heart med
90
Q

Navaho Diagnosis/Treatment of Illness

A
  • Women diagnose - hand tremblers
  • Men treat - they heal, often with community present
  • use prayers, song, dance, sand paintings
  • Ikaah: summoning of the gods to help to restore balance and harmony, cure the illness
91
Q

Pilgrimage

A
  • Journey to a sacred place
  • travel to sacred places associated with events from the past in that religion
  • Muslim: Ka’aba in Mecca (have rituals at each sacred place along the way)
  • Jews: to the wailing wall
92
Q

Tabu

A
  • Objects, people and practices that are off limits
  • would bring dishonor or bad luck to break a tabu
  • Menstrual Tabus: Jews (consider it unclean, can’t have sex and have to go to Mikvah after)
  • Muslim: menstruating women can’t recite from Qur’an, have sex, pray, fast, go to mosque
93
Q

Mana

A
  • Things that possess supernatural power
94
Q

Difference between atheism / agnosticism

A
  • atheism: disbelief in the existence of any god or gods
  • Agnosticism: the existence of a god(s) is not knowable and has not been proven

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