Review Flashcards
What is religion? How can it be defined? Can it be defined?
There is no real definition of religion, people have tried to define it but there are too many variables at play.
Why study religion?
Studying religion helps you understand different cultures as you can’t have culture without religion. It is also sometimes common in politics because the separation of church and state is not always defined. The definition of religion is important because religion is a protected right under the US Constitution, and the same is true in other countries.
How has the study of religion changed?
Religion has shifted from theologically-centered belief to a more scientific approach.
According to Solomon in Flight from Death, what is the death anxiety? What does it have to do with religion?
Death anxiety is the fear about what will happen when we die. Ex: What will happen to our families? Where will we go? Etc
It is related to religion because some people turn to religion to cope with their death anxiety. It provides an explanation for what happens and explains some of the unknown.
According to Flight from Death, what is death anxiety and why does religion exist as its remedy? Is this a compelling argument? Why or why not?
Religion provides an explanation for what happens and explains some of the unknown. This is a compelling argument because religion can take away the “unknown” aspect of death, which is the Eason for most people’s anxiety. This is not entirely compelling because there are many instances where religion increases followers’ risks of death.
According to Flight from Death, what is the meaning/importance of death rituals? Religious rituals in general?
Death rituals serve as remembrance and puts a positive spin in grief. Religious rituals mark certain objects and times as sacred.
According to Flight from Death, what is the relationship between religion and culture?
They go hand in hand, can’t have one without the other.
According to Flight from Death, what is the difference between symbolic and literal immortality?
Symbolic- Showcased through famous works of art, literature, or contributions to society
Literal- an individual’s belief in the afterlife or the continuation of life beyond death
What does Tylor say about psychic unity? Why is this important to his theory?
Regardless of culture or race, we are all the same. We have the same mental capacity. Brought about the theory of evolution. In generations, each theorist would piggyback off the last and this theory connects us to today. Different peoples in different places independently develop similar ideas about the world, following a natural intellectual evolution. The current beliefs of a group reflect the level of advancement of their society.
What is the doctrine of survivals?
Certain customs, beliefs or practices persist in a culture even after their original significance has faded. Like saying “bless you”. Cultural remnants are like fossils, reflecting earlier stages of human intellectual development.
Explain Tylor’s theory of religion.
Sees religion as originating from primitive attempts to explain natural phenomena.
Three stage evolution- animism (belief in spirits), polytheism (worship of multiple gods), and monotheism (belief in a single, supreme deity)
Believes that only primitive religion is shaped by dreams, visions, and death.
What are totems? Why does Frazer find them important?
Totems are sacred objects that represent animals, plants, or other things that are deemed sacred. He finds them important because they provide insights into early religious and magical thinking, illustrating the close connection between humans and the natural world.
What is the argument of Frazer’s Golden Bough?
The concept of the dying god as a central motif in religious practices. Many myths and rituals involve a dying god.
What is animism?
The belief that natural objects, phenomena, and the environment possess spirits or souls. Tylor sees animism as an early stage in the evolution of religious thought, where humans attribute consciousness to inanimate objects.
What is magic?
Magic involves rituals and practices aimed at influencing supernatural forces to achieve desired outcomes
When the natural world wouldn’t do what people needed, they looked at other ways to change it (Ex. if there was a drought, they would do dances or draw rain so it would come)
Explain the three critiques of Tylor and Frazer’s works
- Evolutionary bias
- Believe that people go from primitive to civilized in religion
- Colonist ideology - Universalization of belief system
- Oversimplifying human spirituality
- Highlighted similarities across beliefs and religions instead of analyzing them individually (were very broad) - Community
- Fail to consider social/communal aspects of religion
What do you think of Tylor and Frazer’s approaches?
Benefits
- Comparative analysis, common patterns and themes in religion
- Shaped religious studies
- Historical significance
Drawbacks
- Eurocentric bias
- Generalization of belief systems (didn’t analyze them separately)
- Relied on interpretations of ethnographic data
Find an example of a totem in everyday life
Family heirlooms- jewelry, furniture, photographs
Sports team logos
National flags
Religious symbols- crosses, star of David
Company logos
What in Freud’s early life may have been relevant to his theories on religion?
Freud was brought up Jewish in the largely Catholic city of Vienna, which may have played a part in his dismissal of religion at large.
What is Freud’s theory of religion?
Religion is an illusion, a form of neurosis. It derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.
According to Freud, what are the basic human drives? Why is this important?
We are driven by contradictory feelings of both love and aggression directed towards the same people. Evidence divided emotions that come from the unconscious.
What is the Oedipus complex? Why is this significant in terms of Freud’s religious theories?
The Oedipus complex describes the sexual desire for the parent of the opposite gender as a child, see the other parent as their rival. This desire is repressed so it plays a role in the development of the child. This explains how people believe in things based off the neurotic aspects of society.
What does Freud argue in Totem and Taboo?
Both form civilization. Taboo is anything off limits or forbidden. Totemic rituals seem to reverse the original crime of humanity. Totemic religion rose from guilt. This tells the story of the brothers who killed their father because he ruled all the women. They felt so guilty that in his honor, they made a totem to worship (start of the totem, start of religion).
What does Freud argue in The Future of an Illusion? How is this important for understanding Freud’s theories? The intersections of religion and psychoanalysis?
Illusion- as we know, religion evolves.
We have to protect ourselves from the natural world so we join a community and are forced to restrain our id impulses. Now have to suppress natural urges (hunger, sex, aggression). These urges intersect with psychoanalysis, religion becomes a defense mechanism.
What does Freud argue in Moses and Monotheism?
Claims that Moses wasn’t Jewish, was likely a follower of the pharaoh Akhenaten. The Israelites rebelled against Moses’ idea of monotheism and killed him. They were burdened by guilt after killing him and adopted a strict form of monotheism. Moses was then reimagined as a Jewish leader who brought them monotheism.
Explain critiques on Freud’s theory of religion
The problem of theistic and non theistic religions
- Freud’s ideas only apply to religions with 1 all-powerful god, does not address monotheistic religions
Position of psychoanalysis has been criticized
The Problem of circularity: reason why religion is neurotic is because it is from unconscious motives
The comparison between neurotics of a person vs. of an entire community may not be valid.
Who is Emile Durkheim?
A French sociologist writing during the time for the French Revolution. Focused his theories around society and group religion.
What is Durkheim’s argument in terms of the relationship between religion and society?
Religion is important and it constitutes sacred products of human nature. Religion is a product of society. Mechanical solidarity (everyone is the same), organic solidarity (we all need each other)
According to Durkheim, what is society?
Society is made up of social structures, relationships, and institutions. If one part is moved, everything else in the society will too.
For Durkheim, what are the significance of industrialization and the French Revolution on society and religion?
Made people suicidal, increased urbanization.
He believed that people were becoming too independent and could no longer find group connections they needed to thrive.
What is anomie? How does this relate to religion?
The idea that everything has been destabilized, people are separated from community. Means more suicide. State of deregulation where traditional roles lost their authority. Increase division of labor can lead to rapid change in society (people are not working with their families anymore).
What does Durkheim argue in his book The Division of Labor?
People have been changed and shifted from mechanical society to an organic society.
Mechanical solidarity (pre modern)- Everyone farms for potatoes, solidarity from collective consciousness.
Organic solidarity (modern) Everyone does a different job that contributes to the whole, solidarity from inter-dependedness
What does Durkheim argue in his work Suicide?
Suicide rates have increased exponentially as people have shifted from a mechanical society to an organic society. People are still very dependent on each other, but no longer have groups/social ties. Forced to make decisions independently, control their own life.
What does Durkheim argue in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life? How does this inform his views on religion and society?
Brings up the sacred and the profane here.
Influence of society on the individual. Connection of society and the sacred which Durkheim believes is the basic religious category. Argued that the dichotomy at the heart of religion is the sacred and the profane. The idea of society is the soul of religion.
What are the sacred and the profane?
Profane: Mundane, ordinary, everyday life.
Sacred: Superior, powerful, deserving of respect.
The purpose of sacred things is to unite into a moral community of the church. Sacred things involve large concerns (groups of people) while profane things are day-to-day business of individuals (smaller activities of immediate family and personal life)
According to Durkheim, what is a totem? Why is a totem important for society? What is the relationship between totem and ritual?
Totem is the clan itself, represents collective identity. If you are a member of the crow clan, you are also a crow. Totemic beliefs shape everything that is important to a society. The totemic principle is society itself.
What is the importance of the cult for Durkheim? What are the cult/cults?
Believes that the cult is important because they are important and include people in a clan. Ceremonies of worship.
The negative cult consists of prohibitions or taboos, certain days for sacred festivals.
The positive cult is when the clan moves into the realm of the sacred (rituals)
Why are rituals important for society?
Society cannot function without some type of ceremony. Need ritual to create and shape community.
Durkheim argues that society needs to maintain status. How is this achieved? What are challenges to this?
Status in a society is maintained by no one ever leaving the society. It will never be this way because people are always moving around.
What is functionalism? Why is it important to Durkheim’s theories?
Functionalism is the ideology that societal structures like religion are necessary to maintain societal equilibrium. If one thing changes, then everything is out of balance in society.
Explain critiques of Durkheim.
Assumptions
- Claims that religion is nothing more than the expression of social needs
Primitive religion did not believe in the supernatural
- Research shows that this is wrong
Reductionism
- Believes that religion’s only purpose is for society
How do Durkheim’s theories differ from Freud’s?
He reached a conclusion before researching it like Freud. Freud focused on innate psychology and the individual approach on the reliance on religion while Durkheim focused on the societal impact and its function in society.
Freud focuses on individual motivations, Durkheim on collective or social motivations
Additionally, Freud saw religion as neurosis and unhealthy, while Durkheim saw it as an innate positive force that brought belonging and collective identity.
Karl Marx views history as the history of class struggle. Explain.
He tried to show that throughout history, one economic class is always oppressed by another. People fall into divisions of labor, once private property was introduced, relations of production are changed.
(The maker of the boat claims it as his own property, as does the maker of the net).
What are modes of production?
Labor that results in us obtaining our needs like food, clothing, shelter and material desires and demands.
For Marx how does production change from an original tribal communism to that type of production that is seen in modern capitalism? Why is this significant? Explain.
Original tribal communism was when people worked for the collective benefit of the community. Ex:
People share a net and a boat with the community. There are no ownership rights to the boat and the net, it is used based on need (to get fish).
Now we work as individuals for our own benefit, creates a society of self-interest where everyone is competing for themselves.
For Marx, what is alienation? Why is it important? Explain.
Alienation begins once I think of the product of my labor as an object apart, or something other than the natural expression of my personality for the benefit of community. Simply trading objects/producing capital, not happy with work.
This allows capitalist environments to profit from your work because it could be worth more than you know (Cacao farmers)
Workers are separated from the results of their labor. Workers lose creative ownership over their products and care less about them, more about earning money so they can provide for themselves/family.
For Marx, what is modern capitalism? What are the modes of production associated with modern capitalism? Why are there tensions in this system?
There is never a stopping point in capital- in how much money is enough.
There are tensions in this system because workers are paid just enough so they cannot revolt (cannot find any work elsewhere).
People benefitted from modern capitalism never have enough money, continue to exacerbate cycle of capitalism.
Explain what Marx is saying when he talks about the idea of profit in capitalist societies? What is profit? How is it different from earlier societal models?
Profit is money. Profit before used to be based on the value of work/goods. People contributed what they could.
For Marx, what is surplus value?
The existence of surplus value, in Marx’s eyes, means that the core of capitalism is exploitation. The value of the product produced by labor is greater than the actual price of labor as paid out in wages.
What is Marx’s critique of religion?
Religion is a byproduct of class struggle. It is the opium of the people.
Religion is escapism. People will not try to change their existing world because religion claims that they will be rewarded in the afterlife. Religion as a narcotic.
