Religion and Society Final Exam Flashcards

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1
Q

Def’n ASC: BALDCHIC+

A
  1. Body image: distorted
  2. Altered thinking - concentration, memory
  3. Loss of Control - helplessness
  4. Disturbed time sense - time slows or speeds
  5. Change meaning - significance
  6. Hallucinations
  7. Ineffable - can’t put into words
  8. Change in emotions- moods
  9. Rejuvenation - feel as if reborn
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2
Q

Cause ASC: RAID +CI

A
  • Reduced stimulation - sleep, solitary confine
  • Altered body chemistry - fasting, drugs
  • Increased sensory stimulation - possession
  • Decreased alertness - watch tv, daydream
  • Cleansing - alters body chemistry
  • Increased mental alertness -concentration

Examples: fasting, dancing, drumming, pain, peyote,

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3
Q

Fasting and ASC

A
  • alters body chemistry
  • disciplines mind
  • cleanses
  • leads to hallucinations
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4
Q

Meditation and ASC

A
  • Meditation increases: myelin sheath, gaba, melatonin, seratonin, lower cortisol
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5
Q

def’n mysticism

A
  • internal thing that borders on “union or absorption with a deity”
  • ineffable - cannot be put into words - e.g. ecstatic utterances by people in trances, ASC’s
  • mysticism: the unitative experience of the One
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6
Q

def’n ecstasy

A
  1. Mindlessness - lack of thought
  2. Inebriation - regious intoxication
  3. Madness - acutally mystic thought most sane
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7
Q

Unitary State

A
  • one with the universe, or supernatural beings or God
  • orientation association structure shuts down; feel as one with the universe/supernatural
  • loss of separation or distinction
  • blurring of body/space
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8
Q

James’s 4 Characteristics mystical experience

A
  • Passive: surrender
  • Ineffable: cannot express it in words - music
  • Noetic: states of insight into the truth
  • Transiency: mystical states cannot be sustained
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9
Q

Perennialist School

A
  • all mystical traditions access same universal truth then interpret it within the framework of their own religion
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10
Q

Constructivist View

A
  • mystic can’t access universal truth, only what they have constructed for themself within their own religious framework
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11
Q

Forman’s Pure Consciousness

A
  • content-less experience
  • state of pure bliss
  • similar to thoughtlessness
  • goes AGAINST constructivism
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12
Q

Def’n religious specialist

A
  • those who communicate with the supernatural
  • full or part time jobs
  • 2 major categories: shaman and priest
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13
Q

Definition Shamanism

A
  • communicate with supernatural through trance
  • spirit helpers - meet them in ASC
  • use culturally specific symbols and paraphernalia
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14
Q

How to become a shaman

A
  • chosen by the spirits
  • have a calling (usually through stress/illness) through an ASC or dream
  • candidate tested by spirits and must “die” before being reborn as a shaman
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15
Q

Characteristics of Shaman

A
  1. Transform into other beings / genders (Therianthrope: part human/animal)
  2. Enter ASC to communicate with spirit world
  3. Successfully maintain and control ASC (hard to do as obstacles)
  4. Travel to spirit world through Axis Mundi (tree ladder or pole) - links our world to higher and lower realms
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16
Q

Neoshaman/ Tensegrity

A
  • focuses on the individual (self-help style) vs community
  • Tensegrity - increase awareness of energy fields within humans (said to be fiction)
  • Core Shamanism: (Harner) - no cultural perspective, uses ayahuasca and repetitive drumming to achieve ASC
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17
Q

Priests Def’n

A
  • Full time religious specialist (key: memorize rituals and perform them properly)
  • Larger, complex societies
  • perform rituals - periodic, rites of passage, occasional, etc.
  • formal training (versus shaman)
  • can be inherited (Levi)
  • Heriarchies
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18
Q

Shaman/Priest Similar

A
  • both religious specialists
  • both connect normal to supernatural world
  • both sought out for rituals
  • both serve community
  • both have divine callings
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19
Q

Shaman/Priest Different

A
  • Shaman: part time, training not formal, smaller culture, work alone, called by spirits, power through Spirit
  • Priest: full time, formal training, industrial culture, hierarchy, personal choice OR divine calling, power through institution
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20
Q

Okinawan Priestess

A
  • please Kami (supernatural beings) through rituals to avoid misfortune
  • All speciaists women
  • Kaminchu: no rituals but emit good energy
  • Yuta: rituals and healings, divination
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21
Q

Herbalist

A
  • use plants and other materials to heal and cure
  • may prescribe or provide the plant (much healing based on magic)
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22
Q

Diviner

A
  • specializes in divination (supernatural technique for obtaining information about things unknown - e.g. future events)
  • sometimes enters an ASC, some use cards or oracles
  • usually focus on practical questions (cause illness, identification of a witch, etc.)
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23
Q

Prophet

A
  • mouthpiece of the God(s)
  • communicate divine messages to common ppl
  • e.g. Moses, Mohammed
  • Ngundeng: 19C prophet - born with supernatural power, lifegiver & god of death)
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24
Q

Huichol Pilgrimage to Wirikuta

A
  • religious specialist prepared them for journey and was healer, sang, chanted, received myths from fire
  • Sacrifices and offerings: chicken sacrificed for blood, coins offered for good life, deer offered for the heart, peyote is shared to become one, of one heart
  • prayer arrows: feather take prayers to universe
  • purification: no salt, celibacy, fire cleansing,
  • offerings left at ocean - respect where ancestors came from
  • confessed transgression into fire
  • peyote: leave roots in earth for future pilgrimages, so can regrow
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25
Q

Definition of Magic

A
  • ability to compel the supernatural to behave in a certain way
  • rituals that can produce results: e.g. rain dance
  • divination, astrology, incantations, alchemy, sorcery, spirit mediation, and necromancy.
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26
Q

Magic -Tyler, Frazer, Malinowski

A

Tyler: said NOT religion cuz no spirits involved

Frazer: (evol) - magic first then religion

Malinowski: used when human beings can’t control something important in their lives; find magic where the element of danger is conspicuous

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27
Q

Law of Sympathy

A

Magic depends on the association or agreement between things

  1. Law of Similarity - (things that are alike are the same) homeopathy/imitative
  2. Law of Contagion - (things that were once in contact continue to be connected after the connection is severed) contagious magic
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28
Q

Law of Similarity

A
  • things that are alike are the same
  • Imitative or Homeopathic Magic (voodoo doll) - assumes a causal relationship between similar things
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29
Q

What are the 2 types of magic

A
  • Imitative and Contagious magic
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30
Q

Contagious Magic

A
  • things that were once in contact continue to be connected after the connection is severed
  • e.g. rabbit’s foot for luck
  • rub wart with penny - transfer disease to object
  • Fore thought contagious magic (burying someone’s things and saying spell) caused the Kuru
  • more personal objects better
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31
Q

Image Magic

A
  • make image to represent living person or animal/can be harmed by doing things to the image
  • vision board
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32
Q

Increase Rite

A
  • fertility rituals to facilitate the reproduction of totem animal
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33
Q

Doctrine of Signatures

A
  • signs that tell of plant’s use are imbedded in the plant (red clover for blood problem, yellow plants for digestion, carrots for eyes,)
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34
Q

Why does magic work?

A
  • coincidence seen as causation if good result
  • justify failures
  • used to bring things that would happen anyway
  • fault with magician not magic
  • selective memory
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35
Q

Magic - Azande, Trobriand Islands

A
  • Azande:
    • use plants (medicines) in which supernatural power resides - ritual changes the plant into medicine; burned or made into paste or drunk
    • power in medicine not the spell
  • Trobriand
    • learn magic from ancestors or purchase from owner through gifts;if person dies before passing it on magic can be lost
    • spell the key & any deviation and may not work
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36
Q

Wicca

A

Perceived revival of pre-Christian religious practices

Magic central element of ritual

  1. identify the goal
  2. manipulate the objects
  3. do it in a sacred space
  4. move energy from practitioner to achieve goal

based on worldview that there is power in all things and it can be moved

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37
Q

Divination types

A

Based on interconnectedness of things & events - divination observes connections

  • Fortuitous: no effort needed
  • Deliberate: set out to do it (read tarot cards)
  • Inspirational: direct contact with supernatural being through an ASC or possession (prophecy - fortuitous, psychic - deliberate)
  • Non-inspirational: read natural events, manipulate oracle devices
  • Prophecy: fortuitous as receive info through vision unexpectedly
  • Possession: can be fortuitous or deliberate
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38
Q

Dreams and Oneiromancy

A
  • common form of divination
  • individual connects with supernatural world during sleep; much is symbolic so:
  • Oneiromancy: Specialty of reading dreams
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39
Q

Presentiment

A
  • feeling that something is about to happen
  • ex: dread or body action (twitch/sneeze)
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40
Q

Necromancy

A
  • divination through contact with the dead or ancestors
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41
Q

Ornithomancy

A
  • read the path and form of flight of birds
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42
Q

Apatomancy/Haruspication

A
  • apatomancy: crossing paths with an animal by chance
  • haruspication: examine entrails of sacrificed animal to find answer to question
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43
Q

graphology/palmistry

A
  • graphology: handwriting analysis
  • palmistry: read lines of palm
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44
Q

Astrology

A
  • influence of stars, planets and sun and moon on human beings and destiny; movement of celestial bodies thought to represent will of Gods
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45
Q

Aleuromancy/Tasseography

A
  • aleuromancy: use flour (fortune cookes)
  • tasseography: read tea leaves
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46
Q

Phrenology

A
  • study of shape and structure of the head
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47
Q

Ordeals

A
  • painful tests person does who is suspected of guilt (hand in hot oil example)
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48
Q

Iwa or Ouija board

A
  • oracle of Azande - non-inspirational divination
  • Iwa: rub with medicine, bury in ground first for it to work; female and male side (dakpa - termite oracle thought more reliable)
  • Ouija: can go either way - some think do contact spirits - deliberate inspirational and others think deliberate non-inspirational
  • Delphi Oracle: Pythia inhaled gas (ASC) then spoke the “word” of Apollo, priest interprets
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49
Q

Yoruba divination beads

A
  • chant the esse for guidance - manipulate the seeds, many permutations; memorize them all
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50
Q

Omen

A

example of fortuitous divination

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51
Q

Definition Soul

A
  • non-corporeal spiritual component of individual
  • it animates the body (otherwise Zombie)
  • exist after death
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52
Q

Souls in Dreams

A
  • during dreams the soul leaves the body
  • thought that illness can be due to soul leaving body and getting lost
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53
Q

3 Spiritual components in Haitian Voodo

A
  1. Met tet: master of the head (holy guardian angel)- are born with it, separated from person at death
  2. Ti-bonaj (little angel) - personality, individuality
  3. Bwo-bonaj (big angel) - character and intelligence (from ancestral spirits)
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54
Q

Jivaro 3 Souls

A
  1. Nekas - life force
  2. Aruntam - acquired in vision, power/intelligence
  3. Miuisak - avenging soul (if the aruntam is killed, the miuisk will avenge the death)
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55
Q

Ruh / Naf - Islam

A
  • Ruh: soul when not connected to body
  • Naf: soul when connected to body
  • 3 stages:
    • inciting soul (self that is inclined to evil)
    • self-accusing soul (jihad of soul)
    • soul when it is at peace
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56
Q

Soul after death

A
  • migrates to another world (heaven, hell, valhalla, ancestral world)
  • can reincarnate or transmigrate
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57
Q

Yup’ik and Soul

A
  • Yupik:
    • cycle of rebirth, immortal soul based on reciprocal relationship humans/animals
    • newborn name of recently deceased
    • keep seal bladder, dry it and put it back in water to show reciprocity, know seal gave life and want it to be reborn for more food
  • Hmong: placenta buried under floor house, at death soul travels back to it and puts on its “placenta jacket” to travel to land ancestors
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58
Q

Soul and Yanomamo

A
  • main part of soul a no borebö at death
  • If soul generous it goes to meet the ancestors
  • If soul stingy sent to a place of fire
  • “bore” released during cremation
  • “Moamo” lives near liver - shamans try to remove moamo to make people sick
  • “nonoshi” - everyone has one (spirit double) and what happens to one happens to other
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59
Q

Soul and Roman Catholicism

A
  • destiny of soul determined by God
  • Heaven for pure soul
  • Hell for soul of those who have sinned
  • Purgatory for those who die with lesser faults that need to be purified
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60
Q

Soul and Hinduism

A
  • soul reincarnates, depending on Karma from past life
  • Samsara: cycle of rebirth
  • only escape Samsara upon finding Moksha
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61
Q

Soul and Buddhism

A
  • NO belief in immortal soul or soul at all (anatman)
  • do believe in karma
  • 5 aspects of mental and physical aggregates:
    • consciousness
    • understanding
    • physical body
    • feelings
    • will
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62
Q

Buddhist 4 Noble Truths

A
  1. Suffering is a part of life
  2. Suffering arises from attachment and desires
  3. Suffering ceases when one becomes non- attached to thoughts, behaviours, and desires
  4. Practicing the eightfold path ceases suffering and ends Samsara (Nirvana)
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63
Q

Ancestors

A
  • deceased family members who have a continued existence and the potential to impact the lives of living descendants
  • are respected and attended to
  • can act as moral authority and punish family for misbehavior
64
Q

Yoruba Ancestors

A
  • Family and Deified
  • Family: led noteworthy lives, descendants perform required rituals
  • Deified: great power, worshipped at shrines, Gods with human origins
  • Wrugbe: land of ancestors - go there during day, at night live with family
  • Every person born is reincarnation of ancestor
65
Q

Toraja Ancestors

A
  • Smoke descending / Smoke ascending worlds
  • Ascending: health, fertility, nature
  • Descending: bombo(souls of dead) ⇒”nene” (ancestors) ⇒deata
  • dead person “sleeping” or “sick” till bombo separates from body then pronounced “dead” (corpse kept with family in house) journey to land of ancestors (Puya) and effigy put on ledge then last ritual to transform to deata
66
Q

Japanese Ancestors

A
  • 4 household roles for living
    • master, mistress, heir, his bride
  • body disposed of few days after death
  • soul in period of uncertainty, polluted, 49 days thought purified then goes to land ancestors
  • tablet put on shelf in house and anniversary marked till nobody left who remembers them
67
Q

Ghost

A
  • soul of dead that stays near the community
  • ghosts are evil/bad
  • soul that never reached its final destination
  • bring illness and misfortune
68
Q

4 cases body/soul disconnected

A
  1. Dreams
  2. Comas
  3. Faints
  4. Trances
69
Q

Bunyoro / Japanese Ghosts

A
  • Bunyoro:
    • think ghosts only seen in dreams
    • bring illness
    • seek diviner to determine illness, ghost
    • belief in ghosts reinforces good behavior
  • Japanese:
    • 7 years of purification rituals to prevent “ghost” from hovering around family
    • stay ghost if die under emotional stress
70
Q

Living Dead

A
  • Vampires and Zombies
71
Q

Zombies

A
  • connected to Haitian Voodo
  • soulless, back to life for slavery on plantations
  • not feared but pitied (said priest captures ti-bonaj and held as slave
  • popular as they play on our fears about:
    • Apocalypse
    • Trust
    • Social chaos
    • Pandemic
72
Q

Vampires

A
  • thought to bring death and disease
  • dug up the vampires and “re-killed” them with stakes or burned them
  • real dead ressembled description of vampires (blood from orifices, bloated, etc.)
  • Viking Draugr: animated corpse that wandered countryside, enormous size, strength; envies the living and can harm them; fight hand to hand then decapitate then burn it to kill it
73
Q

Death Ritual

A
  • Rite of passage performed when one passes from living to deceased
74
Q

Funeral ritual

A
  • allow people to channel their grief
  • In the US and the UK, people are expected to control their emotions
  • In other cultures dramatic wailing is seen as a sign of respect (Murngin: funeral begins before death wail around dying person,Toajan: only express grief at funeral and wailing helps move soul to land of the dead - want it to go)
75
Q

4 types of disposal of body

A
  1. Burial - cave, cemetery, can be segregated, or like Mesopotamians below house to appease them with offereings
  2. Cremation
  3. Mummification
  4. Exposure
76
Q

Secondary Burial

A
  • Dig up the body after a period of mourning then process and rebury it
  • Second burial marks the end of mourning
  • Relics, such as bones, are kept by close relatives
  • e.g.: Taiwanese: Hu family - dig up grandmother, clean bones then rebury her in family pagoda where can consolidate ancestral family remains at one sacred site; geomancer deems day to dig up and day to rebury
77
Q

Yanomamo and Cremation

A
  • body is decorated and then cremated
  • Children and ill leave during cremation to avoid contamination from the smoke
  • Bits of bones and teeth removed /kept in log
  • Endocannibalistic (eat one’s own people) anthropophagers (eating human bodies)
  • Yanamamö eat the ashes of the deceased so that the dead are always with them
78
Q

Mummification

A
  • body preserved
  • in Canada and U.S. body embalmed to preserve it for the funeral
  • In Egypt it was the next step in continuation of life but needed a preserved body
79
Q

Exposure of Body

A
  • Exposing the body to the elements or to be consumed by animals ( Sky Burial)
  • Inuit do it as frozen ground unsuitable for burial
80
Q

Special Days of Death

A
  • Halloween: based on Celtic Samhain, done on November 1st
  • The gates that separate our world/world of the dead open so souls can cross over; relabeled All Saints Day (Christians) then eventually Halloween: to honor saints
  • Day of the Dead: Mexican
  • day to honour the dead who are seen as intermediaries between us and God
81
Q

Spirits

A
  • supernatural being, less powerful than god, more localized
  • no specific names and identities
  • e.g. leprachauns, Jinns
  • focus is more on individuals
  • live in and interact with human world
  • can live in various objects (e.g. mountains, trees, rocks, man-made shrines)
82
Q

Recognized Spirits

A
  1. guardians
  2. ancestral
  3. spirit helpers
83
Q

The Dani / Complimentary Pairs

A
  • World is divided into complimentary pairs
  • Dani world: a) physical - humans, animals / spirit beings b) beneficent/malevolent beings) close/far spirits
  • ghosts: can cause trouble for community / or be beneficent - warn re raids, divine info
  • everyone has guardian spirit (only boys know their spirits - initiation rituals)
  • spirit restrainer: prevents entry of spirits from other territories
84
Q

Guardian Spirits (Ojibwe)

A
  • boy has coming of age ritual through a vision quest and through an ASC (trained to do this)
  • boy fasts at tall tree till he has his vision (journey into supernatural world)
  • in vision he meets his guardian spirit
85
Q

Guardian Spirits Shoshoni

A
  • vision quest throughout life (vs puberty)
  • ASC - fasting, cold, no sleep, tobacco
  • see trials to overcome before meeting spirit guide, can get gifts of powers, etc.
86
Q

Jinn

A
  • Muslim creation myth (created after angels but before humans)
  • made of smokless fire
  • have free will like humans (angels do not)
  • are invisible but can become visible
  • always something imperfect about them
  • live like humans / some good, some bad
  • will also be judged at day of judgment
87
Q

Jinn: Hofriyat (3)

A
  • 3 categories of Jin
    • White - no effect on humans
    • Black - can possess, cause illness, death
    • Red - (Zairan) common, cause illness
  • possess women of childbearing age so women have to remain in wall of compound (can cause infertility in women whose only purpose is to bear sons)
88
Q

Angels / Demons Christianity

A
  • Angels: Spirit beings that act as mediators between God and humans
    • In Christianity God’s helpers but can go against God (Satan)
    • In Islam they are made of light and do not have free-will
  • Demon: evil spirit beings that were angelic but then went against God, fallen angels
89
Q

Incubi / Succubae

A
  • Incubi: demons who have sex with human women while they sleep, causing birth of demons, witches, and deformed children
  • Succubae: demons who have sex with human men while they sleep, resulting in the damnation of the men’s soul
90
Q

God

A

God: (more for whole community vs spirit)

  • supernatural being; distinctive name, personality/attributes; control of a major aspect of nature (such as rain or fertility)
  • Anthropomorphic: nonhuman entities that have human characteristics (partly or all human or have human emotions - compassion, mercy, etc.)
  • Gods set codes of behavior and punish people who do not observe them
91
Q

Types of Gods (2)

A
  1. Pantheon: gods in a polytheistic system; have Supreme God at top and Attribute gods
  2. Creator Gods: responsible for the creation of the physical earth, nature, humans, animals, or supernatural entities (spirits) - more than one
    1. Otiose God: remote/uninterested in human activities; not worshipped; more in societies with no outside contact
92
Q

Attribute Gods

A
  • Gods that rule over narrowly defined domains
  • e.g. fertility, economics, war,
93
Q

Durkheim and Gods

A
  • Society shapes religious discourse (needs of society are mirrored in religion) and NOT the other way around
  • So…the values of a culture and society will be reflected in their gods and how humans relate to their gods shows their valued social behaviors
94
Q

Horton and Gods

A
  • humans should aspire to be like Gods
  • Otiose God: more in societies with no outside contact
  • Active God: has an achieved status (which needs to be earned)
95
Q

Swanson and Gods

A
  • Gods are more likely in societies with at least 3 levels of decision making hierarchies
  • (e.g. family ⇒lineage⇒clan)
  • positive correlation between societies that have attribute gods and degrees of specialization in society
96
Q

Yoruba / Ifugao and God

A
  • Yoruba: 2 realms:
    • Orun (Heaven/Sky)
      • Creator (Olodumare) & orisha (attribute gods) and ancestors
    • Aiye (Earth) - humans there
  • Ifugao: one of largest known pantheons BUT no supreme or creator deity; bribe their gods; largest class called “Paybackables”
97
Q

Ishtar/Isis/Kali

A
  • Ishtar: (Mesopotamia) Attribute Goddess - love, war, fertility, fate, sex
  • Isis: Egyptian - nature
  • Kali: Hindu - creation, destruction and nature (trees and rivers); transformation - she frees you from cycle of karma
98
Q

Mary

A
  • not a Goddess
  • BUT studied from etic perspective as a Goddess / parallels Goddess worship
  • considered Queen of Heaven
  • got revelations from Angel Gabriel
99
Q

Monotheism and Gods

A
  • recognition of ONE god who is:
    • Omnipotent: all-powerful
    • Omniscient: all-knowing
    • Omnibenevolent: all-good
  • versus polytheism: multiple gods
100
Q

Judaism and Gods

A
  • Moses
  • 2 Understandings of God
    • Yaweh - masculine warrior God - there were other Gods but were supposed to worship only Yaweh then…
    • evolution from polytheism to one god (Yaweh)
    • shown as both anthropomorphic (Abraham) and more transcendent / also as both cruel and compassionate
101
Q

Christianity and God

A
  • Jesus as son of God
  • Monotheism in the Trinity: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods, but one God”
102
Q

Islam and God

A
  • Allah
  • Mohammed receives 23 years messages = Qur’an
  • No god but God, God is impersonal
  • Evolution:
    • God is unknowable, will not know God until death, God is transcendent
    • God is knowable (at least to some extent)
103
Q

Atheism and God

A
  • not accepting the current conception of God
  • first used as insult till end 18th C then self described atheists
  • literal interpretation of Bible made it easier to dismiss God, as did scientific development
  • Agnosticism: the question of God is unsolvable, unprovable
104
Q

How are Gods and Spirits Different?

A
  • Spirits: inhabit the human realm / are more individual and family focused
  • Gods are more for the community at large, more powerful
105
Q

Functional approach to women under Zar possession

A
  • used religion to scare women into remaining “captive” in the villages - used the possession (function) to police women
106
Q

God as Supernatural & Anthropomorphic

A
  • Non-human entity with human characteristics (e.g. emotions)
  • does not have to look human (generosity is a human characteristic so if benevolent…)
107
Q

All 3 gods same?

A
  • problematic to say that they all have the same god (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) - had the holy wars so how can it be the same God
  • When you see (e.g.) Israel and Palestine attack each other or Muslims try and force conversion on other Muslims to “their” interpretation then not possible all same God
108
Q

Definition Witchcraft

A
  • ability of witch to cause harm based on personal power that resides within
  • will it and it will happen
  • NOT same as magic - with magic you influence the supernatural, often using tools, oracles etc.
109
Q

Witchcraft Small Scale Societies

A
  • witches seen as evil
  • used to explain bad luck, illness, death
  • witches exhibit antisocial behavior
110
Q

Witches vs Sorcerers

A
  • Sorcerers use magic to cause illness, death
  • Witches only have to will it to happen
  • both associated with invoking spirits
    • spirits = demons
    • witchcraft=working with Satan
111
Q

Witch Characteristics

A
  • immoral
  • practice cannibalism and incest
  • hateful, jealous, greedy, antisocial
112
Q

Witches and Azande (S. Sudan)

A
  • witchcraft everyday reality
  • witchcraft called Mangu -
    • blackish oval mass found in witches
    • soul of witchcraft, psychic element
    • leaves body in sleep and enters victim
    • bright light (night), day: specialist only see
    • passed down to family of same sex
    • may not know you have it
113
Q

Azande Witchcraft Accusations

A
  • based on social tensions
  • Azande practice polygyny, tension between co-wives
  • if one wife ill, other accused
  • seek oracle for divination (Dakpa) will determine if witchcraft used; Iwa will determine how to treat illness; Benge (poison oracle) will determine the witch - poison chicken for yes/no answer (if it lives,dies)
114
Q

Azande Etic Perspective

A
  1. Witch must know victim
  2. Show greed, envy, hatred or other
  3. Poisoned chicken will live half the time
  4. 50/50 chance of being accused as witch
115
Q

Benge

A
  • determines which witch
  • husband gets help of chief who accuses witch
  • witch claims innocence
  • agrees to “cool” her mangu (drink water &spit)
  • wife gets better
  • Witch has no stigma afterwards
  • used to regulate human conduct and explain misfortune; NO belief in coincidence
116
Q

Gwari, Nupe and Witchcraft

A
  • Gwari: both men and women can be witches but little tension
  • Nupe:
    • only women can be witches - need man to help them
    • women can refuse to have children
    • men resent success of women witches
    • men often in debt to wives
    • men control women in supernatural realm; women control real world
117
Q

Sorcery, Witchcraft and Aids

A
  • use divination if witchcraft suspected
  • Aids thought to be caused by jealousy
  • If witch identified thought to be curable
118
Q

Euro-American Witchcraft

A
  • influenced by Christian ideas about evil
  • only legitimate magic - Jesus; anything else crime against God or pact with the Devil
  • witches burned - go against God
  • rarely a “just” trial - one and done
  • 200 year craze, made $ to bring witches in
  • England hung (vs burned) witches; no inquisition, persecuted under Civil Law (why hanged not burned, not religious persecution
119
Q

Malleus Maleficarum

A
  • written to show how to identify witches, deal with them - arrest, torture and execute
  • if deny witch then seen as atheist (no better re Church)
120
Q

Witchcraft and U.S.A.

A
  • 1st hanging 1647
  • Salem witch trials in 1692
  • 19 executions and over 100 jailed
  • most witches were marginalized and powerless women, no husbands or male relatives to protect them, midwives too
121
Q

Women as Witches

A
  • women outnumbered men so more tried and executed as witches
  • Malleus Maleficarum said women more likely to be witches:
    • innate wickedness
    • unable to reject sexual advance of Devil
    • more women due to plague and war
    • midwives often target (to ease pain in labor seen as against God’s will)
    • infant mortality high- blamed midwives
122
Q

Concept of Evil Eye re witchcraft

A
  • look that can be given to will ill on person
123
Q

Society and Witchcraft

A
  • if smart thought a witch
  • witchcraft gives women back power removed by society
  • witches often isolated by society
  • traditions that predate Christianity were marked as “problems” -witches seen as evil and needing to be rid from society
124
Q

Satanism

A
  • each person is responsible for her own life
  • lusts & desires are to be experienced
  • no animal or human sacrifice
  • life is respected and valued
  • Church of Satan:
    • human beings are selfish, violent
    • hedonistic
    • gratification of all desires; indulgences
    • conformity is sin
    • 3 types rituals: sex magic, healing and happiness, destruction
    • will use magic to help AND harm
125
Q

“Burning Times” movie

A
  • religious beliefs and practices prior to Christianity:
    • religious specialists were women, (counsellors, medical); were replaced by men and religious practices
  • persecution of women as witches beause:
    • carrying on traditions & rituals
    • Church tried to replace Shamanism and other individual practices
    • “shut down” reverance of women as goddesses; seen instead cause of sin therefore inherantly evil
    • put women in place (were too independent, earning own $ etc.)
126
Q

Conformity

A
  • Religion demands a level of conformity and if that is not met, traditions can be used against people to demand conformity (e.g. the persecution of witches)
127
Q

Burning Times extra

A
  • after Roman times women still continued ancient tradition: called wise women (Europe)
  • Christian Church branded them witches and worshippers of the devil
  • Renaissance: “Witch Craze”
  • taught to fear witches instead of revere them
  • word “witchcraft” used to dismiss cultural traditions
128
Q

Burning Times Extra

A
  • Christianity - goddesses became saints
  • Joan of Arc - claimed her voice was more authoritative than church (seen as challenge and condemned as witch)
  • Church did not like women receiving gratitude as healers (reserved for god; barred women from univ.; male doctors
  • women as an obstacle to man’s holiness
  • many widows, spinsters and beggers charged with witchcraft
  • witch craze - answer for institution that felt threatened
  • witch: hag, devils agent, poisoner, one with evil eye (hag used to be term reverence)
  • witch hunts profitable - $ to capture one, bill witch for her capture, torture, confinement and execution; jobs for lawyers, judges, etc.
  • made witch walk backwards to inquisitor so could not give him evil eye; tortured 3x
  • folk culture turned to heresy
129
Q

Rel. Practices to preserve rel. norms

A
  • prayers
  • religious festivals
  • weddings
  • religious holidays
  • rites of passage
130
Q

Change in small sale societies

A
  • change of leadership
  • outsider contact
  • internal conflict - power struggles
  • new foods / no food
  • droughts, climate change
  • discovery and invention
131
Q

Discovery

A
  • New awareness of something that exists in present environment
  • examples: new food, new technology, new flower with healing properties
132
Q

Invention

A

Resolving a problem using the technology at hand

Ex: tools for hunting, modification of existing tool

133
Q

Diffusion

A
  • Move or spread of cultural traits from 1 society to another
  • the introduced trait has to be altered to fit the cultural system of other society
  • Example: woman living in Manhattan buys mala prayer beads to focus on a mantra; jazz started in the US as a blend of African and European musical traditions.
134
Q

Stimulus Diffusion

A
  • when an idea moves from one culture to another and is the cause of the invention of a new trait (more tech than social or relig)
  • an idea spreads to another culture or region and is then altered or changed in order to adapt to that culture.
  • examples: McDonald’s in different cities having their own menu ideas to be culturally appealing; small scale society takes machette and improves upon it with their own flair
135
Q

Transculturation

A
  • merging of different cultural elements; the two cultures exist harmoniously; neither dominates nor assimilates
  • example: current example is the spreading of American cultural values in other parts of the world. This can include dress, music, language, and other cultural elements; can be transmitted through media (movies, music, etc.)
136
Q

Acculturation

A
  • type of diffusion
  • culture receives traits from dominant society; traits are accepted by society; merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact
  • examples: Japanese people dressing in Western clothing; soda pop in tribal village
  • only works if it is true integration versus marginalization or assimilation (doinated society loses its uniqueness, identity)
137
Q

Assimilation

A
  • complete form of acculturation
  • dominated culture has ceased to have its own identity
  • example: residential schools - used when weren’t assimilating; metis who had to give up tribal elements for Christianity
138
Q

Control and Assimilation

A
  • Once control is established, it is possible for religious traits to flow from the dominant society to the dominated society
  • Dominant persons may use religion to justify superiority (purity movements - e.g. Wahabi Muslim movement)
139
Q

Syncretism

A
  • fuse traits from 2 cultures to form something new; permit retention of the old so no conflict
  • blending 2 or more relig. belief systems into new system
  • example: native americans in southern U.S. who practice Christianity but have maintained own rituals as well; Hinduism, Unitarisnism
140
Q

Haitian Voodoo as Syncretism

A
  • French government forced baptism of all slaves and conversion to Catholicism
  • Slaves continued practicing African religions
  • Syncretism of Lwa and Catholic saints
  • Saint Patrick = Danbala (spirit of peace, wisdom and Father of all Lwa seen as serpent and Saint Patrick serpent symbol too - drove them out of Ireland, Moses too - staff to snake)
141
Q

Revitalization Movement

A
  • forms to bring about change in society
  • Types: nativistic, revivalistic, millenarian, messianic
  • values, cultural identity threatened; retalitate against assimilation, after cultural genocide;
  • examples: Black Liberation Movement (Martin Luther King), Black Lives Matter; Rastafarian movement is revitalization movement - improve lives through adopting new religious beliefs
142
Q

Nativistic Movements

A
  • develops in traditional societies threatened by activities of more technologically advanced societies (big cultural gap between them)
  • primarily in tribal societies; return to “perceived past way” of doing things
  • example: Ghost Dance 1980 (lasts 3-5 nights; thought if successful land returned, whites defeated) - led to slaughter of 200 native ppl
143
Q

Revivalistic Movements

A
  • attempts to revive what is perceived as a golden age
  • ex: neo-pagan movements; Wiccan movement: practitioners identify as witches to reclaim the term and reaffirm their heritage; celtic revival in Ireland (rebel against occupied British)
  • Ex. of “bad”: neo-nazi movement
144
Q

Millenarian Movement

A
  • envisions change through apocalyptic transformation
  • Branch Davidians (Christian Sect) - David Koresh as self-proclaimed prophet: believed they had to prepare for the end of times and started to stockpile weapons; 75 ppl killed by Federal Officials; still followers today waiting the return of David Koresh (as messiah)
145
Q

Messianic Movement

A
  • belief that a divine saviour in human form will resolve societal problems
  • Rastafarian: see Haile Selassi as the second coming of Christ, was born to protest black oppression and slavery
  • Cargo cult: Believe in the return of Ancestors and that they will only get Manufactured goods if they perform certain practices (Believed that US cargo was made by ancestors but intercepted by Europeans) - tried to find way to get hold of the cargo
146
Q

Denomination

A
  • religious group that differs on just a few points from the mainstream religion
  • Ex. Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans
147
Q

Sect

A
  • branch of a mainstream religion, usually with new revelations, scriptures, and leader
  • Ex. Mormons, unification church
148
Q

Cult

A
  • form or system of religious worship
  • small, recently created, spiritually innovative group, often with a charismatic leader
  • Many cults “High Demand Religions” where strict adherence to rules is demanded
  • ex: Church of Latter Day Saints, Branch Davidians
149
Q

Fundamentalism

A
  • resistence to moderization/secularization; emphasis on certainty through a literal interpretation of scriptures
  • try to impose their way on others
  • not violent vs extremists who are
  • Types:
    • Totalism - fund. believe religion should be in all aspects of life
    • Scripturalism- justify beliefs/actions through scripture
    • Traditioning - think texts still applicable
150
Q

Muslim Fundamentalism

A
  • Sharia, Islamic Law, is understood to be a blueprint for how humankind should live
  • linked to colonialism through Westerization of Muslim countries
  • used to rid society of Western influence
151
Q

Affect of Missionaries on small scale societies

A
  • have to be careful to use emic perspective
  • imposed Christianity can force assimilation
  • need to see how that society’s myths influence the functioning of their society (e.g. harvest)
  • don’t want to rob them of their cultural rituals, norms
152
Q

Ex. Discovery, Invention, Diffusion in Cda

A
  • Discovery: cars, penicillin, hydro
  • Invention: farming machinery (after cars)
  • Diffusion: everyone uses cars, has become a norm; Chinatown, Little Italy, Holistic Medicine, naturopathy, Accupuncture
153
Q

Christianity as Revitalization Movement

A
  • During Reformation - Catholicism to Protestantism; more education for the masses
154
Q

Islam as Revitalization Movement

A
  • Pre-islamic times practiced female infanticide; with Islam, verse in Qur’an dedicated to banning this practice (said will go to hell); pre-Islam only elite wore veil and unveiled women subject to rape and assault; with Islam, any woman could veil so protected
155
Q

Santeria and Syncretism

A
  • religion that developed in Cuba (Regla de Ocha - Rule of the Orisha)
  • System of beliefs that merges aspects of Yoruba religion along with Christianity and the religions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas
  • The need to preserve their traditions and belief systems in a hostile cultural environment prompted those enslaved in Cuba to merge their customs with aspects of Roman Catholicism