Week 10: Religion and Supernatural Belief Systems Flashcards

1
Q

Religion as a Symbolic System

A
  • Faith in spirits, gods, or unseen forces guides individual behaviour in powerful ways
  • It serves important functions for individuals and groups in society
  • Other non-religious value systems serve similar functions
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2
Q

Defining Religion

A
  • Religion is a set of beliefs that pertain to supernatural forces or beings that transcend the observable world
  • The term supernaturalism is used to refer to the broadest range of belief systems
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3
Q

Religion has four characteristics:

A
  • Belief in supernatural beings or forces
  • Ritual
  • Guided by myths
  • Symbolic
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4
Q

Communal Religions

A
  • Horticulture and pastoralism
  • Groups perform rites
  • Totemistic
  • Durkheim
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5
Q

Ecclesiastical Religions

A
  • Agricultural and Industrial States
  • Full-time specialization
  • Examples include Christianity and Buddhism
  • Found in food-producing states
  • Once in surplus, not everyone has to be involved
  • All the major world religions usually have a certain full-time specialist
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6
Q

Religions of the Oppressed

A
  • Vittorio Lanternari
    -Millenarian Movements that arise under specific conditions and share certain elements of belief and practice
  • Colonialism, rapid economic change, racial or ethnic discrimination and inequality, the introduction of a new religion
    Examples: Cargo Cults, Ghost Dance, Rastafarianism, Zionist Churches in South Africa
  • Number of examples of revitalization
  • Colonial officials had ideas that were very racist and ethnocentric
  • Reasonable responses to circumstaines
  • Some of the Cargo Cults because of political standpoints
  • Cargo cults: (in the Melanesian Islands) a system of belief based around the expected arrival of ancestral spirits in ships bringing cargoes of food and other goods
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7
Q

Revitalization Movements: Ghost Dance

A
  • Nations of the Great Plains
  • Buffalo slaughtered to force Nations onto reservations
  • Wovoka prophesized the need to dance to change their lives.
  • Ended with the slaughter at Wounded Knee
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8
Q

Durkheim

A

There were various means by which individuals and society could be connected. Among these are education, social programs through the state, occupational groups, and laws. Together these could assist in regulating individuals and integrating individuals with society.

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9
Q

Malinowski

A

Social anthropologist, traveller, ethnologist, religion scholar, sociologist and writer. He is the creator of the school of functionalism, an advocate for intense fieldwork, and a forerunner of new methods in social theory.

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10
Q

Weber

A

Employees in a non-personal organization should be linked with organizational responsibilities through division of labour and job specialization

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11
Q

Evans-Pritchard

A

Broke new ground on questions of rationality, social accountability, kinship, social and political organization, and religion, as well as influentially moving the discipline in Britain away from the natural sciences and towards history

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12
Q

Geertz

A

A system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life

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13
Q

Functionalist

A

Social solidarity and psychological

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14
Q

Economic

A

The Spirit of Capitalism

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15
Q

Interpretive

A

Symbols and meaning

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16
Q

Functions of Supernatural Belief Systems

A
  • Creating community: Sense of order
  • Instilling values
  • Renewing faith: Use the solar eclipse
  • Providing reasons
  • Solving problems
  • The reasons for these belief systems involve creating community, instilling values, renewing faith, providing reasons, and solving problems. Worship occurs in many forms, including the veneration of deities, ancestors, or spirits in nature
17
Q

Sacred Roles

A

Deities (gods/goddesses)
Ancestral spirits
Spirits in nature

18
Q

Spirits in nature

A
  • Animism: attributing sentience to other beings that may include persons, animals, plants, spirits, the environment, or even items of technology, such as cars, robots, or computers

-Antisemitism

19
Q

Religious Practitioners

A
  • Full-time for all major world religions
  • Shaman—part-time religious practitioner
20
Q

Revitalization movements

A

a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture.

21
Q

Ghost Dance

A

used as a social dance as well as for healing practices.

22
Q

Cargo cults

A

some groups cleared out plots of land to create improvised airstrips, believing airplanes would arrive one day to bring cargo for devoted followers

23
Q

Supernatural Beliefs and Cultural Expression

A
  • Belief systems are embedded in cultural practices
  • Body piercing, tattooing
24
Q

Animism

A

Spirit reside in the natural world, the example in the textbook is the volcano/moutine in Hawaii Pele

25
Q

Animatism

A

there is a force of power that is diffuse, the example in the textbook is mana