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ANTH 363 > Week 8-11 > Flashcards

Week 8-11 Flashcards

1
Q

How did religion and health interconnect in the historical context?

A
  • prior to modern medicine healers, most societies had relgious specialists
  • concepts of health and illness were fundementally religious or moral
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2
Q

What was a common cultural idea about health and religion?

A

sickness was the result of sin or evil spirits

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3
Q

History of Medical Anthropology

A
  • before 1950s, study of illnesses and healing done within cultural/social studies, and in ethnologies of far away societies and cultures
  • focused on religion and medicine to deal with sickness
  • early medical anthropologists had training in medicine
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4
Q

W. H. R. Rivers

A
  • participated in the Torres Strait Expeditions
  • wrote “Medicine, Magic, and Religion”
  • argued for long immersion in the field
  • one of the earliest examples of using ethnography as method
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5
Q

Medical Anthropology

A

not any one “official” class of medical system, but any and all practices that are intended to address an affliction in need of attention

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6
Q

Medicine

A

the various curing and health-upholding practices found around the world

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7
Q

What are medical anthropologists interested in?

A

health, disease and illness, but also sickness and suffering

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8
Q

Medical anthropplogist and sickness and suffering?

A

sickness and suffering are subjective -> anthropologists interested in whether or not medical experts find a physical source for the experience

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9
Q

Biomedicine

A
  • medicine of hospitals and mainstream doctors - synonymous w/ Western medical concepts and practices
  • a specific medical tradition
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10
Q

Bio

A

views disease as havinf a unique physical cause w/i the body -> whether it’s a micro-organism causing infection, growth of malignant cells or failure of an organ due to repeated insults (ex: alcohol consumption)

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11
Q

Ethnomedicine

A
  • the health related beliefs, knowledge and practices of a cultural group
  • all medical systems constitute ethnomedicines i that they developed from and are embedded in particular sociocultural systems, regqrdless of whether they are small scale or state societies
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12
Q

Ethnomedicine vs Biomedicine

A
  • biomedicine assumes illness and medical theory, science and practice, are acultural and have universal validity
  • ethnomedicine was applied to other, non-western medical systems, and reffered to biomedicine as scientific, modern, cosmopolitan or simply medicine due to ethnocentricism
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13
Q

Medical Pluralism

A
  • availability of different approaches, treatments, and institutions that people use to maintain health or treat illness
  • coexistance of more than 1 meidcal tradition or system within a society
  • commonly entails combined use of biomedicine and nonbiomedical approaches
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14
Q

Examples of Medical Pluralism

A
  • cancer patients might complement chemotherapy with accupuncture and religious healing
  • women who want to get pregnant might combine hormonal treatments with home remedies and yoga
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15
Q

Disease

A

physiological or psychological dysfunction; biological process that doctors use to explain and understand illness

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16
Q

disease in biomedical paradigm

A
  • indicates abnormalities or malfunctions of the body, organs, or systems that can be materially detected; measurable, pathological
  • conception of disease not exclusive to Western medicine
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17
Q

Illness

A

subjective to experience of feeling unwell (individual’s experience)

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18
Q

Examples of illnesses

A

can include: emergence of physical symptoms along with experiences of changes involving feelings, ideas, values, language, non verbal communication, symbolic behaviour, etc. -> includes social concerns, identity, and negotiation

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19
Q

2 medical systems

A
  • Foster and Anderson (1978) -> what all medical systems have
  • Allan Young (1976b) -> how medical systems organize knowledge
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20
Q

Foster and Anderson (1978): Disease Theory System

A

ideas about the nature of health and ideas about the causes of disease or illness

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21
Q

3 types of Disease Theory System

A
  • Personalistic Theory
  • Naturalistic Theory
  • Emotionalistic Theory
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22
Q

Foster and Anderson (1978): Health Care System

A

refers to the social relationships and interactions between the healers and their paitents

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23
Q

example of healthcare system

A

healers may be assisted by various assistants and in the case of complex societies may work in an elaborate bureaucratic structure, such as a clinic, health maitenance organization, or hospital

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24
Q

Personalistic Theory

A

views disease as resulting from the actions of a “sensate who may be a supernatural being (a deity or god), a nonhuman being (ghost, ancestor, or evil spirit), or a human being (witch or sorcerer)

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25
Q

The Black Plague (1347-1352)

A
  • cause unknown; attributed to supernatural forces and, primarily, the will or wrath of God
  • ppl reacted w/ hopeful cures and responses based on religious belief, folklore and supersition, and medical knowledge, all of which were informed by Catholic Christianity in the West and Islam in the Near East
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26
Q

Christian view of The Black Plague

A
  • punishment form God for humanity’s sins; or “bad air,” witchcraft and sorcery, individual life choices like lack of piety
  • contagious and could be passed btw ppl
  • could leave a plague stricken region for one with better air which was not infected
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27
Q

Chrisitan Respose to The Black Plague

A
  • could protect oneself through prayer, penitence (penitential processions), charms, and amulets, mass, fasts
  • supposed cures and fumigation of “bad air”
  • flight from infected areas
  • persecution of marginalized commuities, especially Jews
  • The Flagellant Movement
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28
Q

Flagellant Movement

A

group of zellous Christians, led by a Master, who roamed from town to city to countryside whipping themselves for their sins and the sins of humanity; led communities in persecution and slaughter of minority groups

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29
Q

Muslim view of The Black Plague

A
  • plague a merciful gift from God which provided martyrdom for the faithful whose souls were instantly transported to paradise
  • Muslims shouldn’t enter or flee from plague-stricken regions but should stay in place
  • plague not contagious bc came directly from God to specific individuals accordig to God’s will
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30
Q

Muslim Response to The Black Plague

A
  • prayer and supplication at mosques, processions, mass funerals, orations, fasting
  • increased belief in supernatural visions, signs, and wonders
  • magic, amulets, and charms used as cures
    flight from infected areas
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31
Q

Jinns (Djinns, Genii)

A
  • spirits that aren’t innately good or evil
  • some attributed illnesses to Jinns during black plague
  • belief gave rise to increase in folk magic and use of charms and amulets to ward off evil spirits
  • charm or amulet would be inscribed w/ one of the divine names or epithets of God
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32
Q

Naturalistic Theory

A

views disease as emanating from imbalance of certian inanimate elements in the body, such as the male and female prinicples of yin and yang in Chinese medicine

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33
Q

Emotionalistic Theory

A

views disease as emanating from emotional experiences

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34
Q

Susto

A
  • illness found in Latin American cultures defined as “chronic somatic suffereing stemming from emotional trauma or from witnessing traumatic experiences lived by others”
  • sometimes described as a “spirit attack”
  • prayer and other healing rituals are big part of treatment
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35
Q

Allan Young (1976b): Accumulatinf Medical Systems

A

consists of accumulates, formalized teachings, generally i written form, that are shared w/ prospective practitioners in training institutions or w/ colleagues at coferecnes or in professional associations

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36
Q

Allan Young (1976b): Diffusing Medical Systems

A

practitioners generally don’t share medical knowledge (making it rather diffuse or unsystematic) w/ one another and regard it to be secret -> Shamans and Healers

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37
Q

5 causes of illness and their healing methods to restore harmony

A
  • Anger of the Gods -> Appeasement
  • Human Agents (witchcraft) -> Counter-Witchcraft
  • Intrusion -> Removal or Deemed Harmless
  • Spirit Possession -> Exorcism/Demonic Deliverance
  • Soul Loss -> Soul Retrieval
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38
Q

Spirits

A
  • a supernatural being that is less powerful than a god and is usually more localized
  • can be individually recognized (guardian spirit, an ancerstral spirit, and a shaman’s spirit helper
  • non-individualized are often a collection of beings not given specific names and identities (Leprechauns, Jinns, Kami)
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39
Q

Spirit Possession

A

an altered state of consciousness (ASC) that is interpreted as a spirit taking over control of a human body and is either deliberately induced by a ritual performance or the consequence of an illness caused by a spirit taking control

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40
Q

ASC

A

Altered State of Consciousness

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41
Q

Religious Specialists

A
  • viewed as an authority on religious/spiritual life
  • often gatekeepers of the religious community -> the religious specialist is someon ehwo defines religious practice and spiritual life
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42
Q

4 types of Religious Specialists

A
  • Priests/Priestesses
  • Shamans
  • Herbalists
  • Diviners
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43
Q

Healers

A

term often used ot refre to a priest or shaman, especially when the individual is focused on the curing of illness or injury

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44
Q

Shamans (Part-Time Religious Practitioner)

A
  • ability to engage/communicate w/ spirits/gods/supernatural
  • transcend normal reality to communicate w/ or even manipulate supernatural forces in an alternate world
  • ASC acieved through dreams, hallucinogenic drugs, rhythmic music, exhaustion through dance, or other means
  • often a calling for those who have personality traits that see “abnormal” in the context of the community
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45
Q

Korean Shamans

A
  • most Shamans today are women
  • used to be considered social deviants; now an inportant part of Korean culture
  • chosen by spirits
  • women who have experienced psychological stress are especially valuable
  • spirits search for someone to possess, especially who’s soul has been fractured
  • selection through possession illness; main symptom is trance state
  • apprentice w/ experienced shaman
  • guide dead to underworld; medium; cure illnesses; divination
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46
Q

Priest/Priestess (full time religious practitioners)

A
  • have authority to set rules and control access to religous rites
  • Qualificiations Vary (ex: gender) -> knowledge: Christian priests typically complete higher education; Hindu pujaris must spend years learning Sanskrit
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47
Q

Okinawan Priestesses: Yuta

A
  • shaman like practitioners
  • mediate btw villagers and ancestor spirits/kami
  • practice divination and healing rituals
  • each yuta has one or more kami they regularly communicate w/
  • illness: serious psychological, physical or social dysfunction; long ilness makes them social outcasts; ability to heal themselves
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48
Q

Okinawan Priestesses: Kaminchu

A
  • priestess
  • believed to actually embody a particular kami associated w/ the clan
  • do little in rituals, their presence is most important; believed to emit good spiritual energy
  • illness - minor illnesses symbolic in nature considered a sign of what kaminchu is born to be
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49
Q

Soul

A

the noncorporeal, spiritual component of an individual

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50
Q

Soul Flight

A
  • technique used by shamans to enter a state of trance (ASC)
  • the shaman’s soul leaves the body and the corporeal world which allows them to travel realms (sometimes using axis mundi), enter a spiritual world and interact
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51
Q

Soul and Death

A
  • idea of soul is tied to death
  • soul may linger on
  • soul’s final place not in physical world: Heaven, Valhalla (Nordic Beliefs), reincarnation (Hinduism, etc.
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52
Q

Illness in the Hmong Community

A
  • believed ppl possessed many souls (~30)
  • health = balance btw physical body and its souls
  • when one or more souls lost or stolen, person falls ill
  • soul may be frightened out of the body by traumatic event, or may be stolen by a spirit (Quag Dab Peg -the spirit catches you)
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53
Q

Lia’s story with “The Spirit Catches You”

A
  • had epileptic seizure at 4 months old -> or was it Quag Dab Peg (a spirit), so a shaman was needed for the cure
  • her condition seen as honour/destined to be a shaman
  • to Hmong ppl “medicine was religion. Religion was society. Society was medicine”
  • highlights limitations of Western medicine in multicultural societies; cross sultural communication in healthcare; cultural awareness and empathy
54
Q

The secret war in Laos: Illness and History

A
  • mistrust
  • Agent Orange still impacts communitites in Vietnam and Laos (birth defects, cancers, Parkinsons)
  • Today in US, the Hmong still lag beadly behind most immigrants in nearly every category of health, wealth, and education
55
Q

Susto and Souls

A
  • happens bc the soul gets detatched from body causing illness
  • most common cause is fright, such as sudden encounter or accident (like startling effect or high stress)
56
Q

Curanderas/ros

A
  • Susto Healer
  • traditional healer/shaman in Latin America
57
Q

Steps to sure Susto

A
  • Limpia: have to diagnose and determine that a soul calling is needed
  • travelling in dreams to afflicted soul and negotiating with oppressive spirits that “retain the person’s souls, causing susto”
  • coaxing soul back into body
  • Mal Limpieza: Purge of Evil -> an involve substances like plants, sugar, liquor, holy water, chickens, dog skulls, dove blood, etc
  • family and community come together to support ill (social cure)
  • end of treatment and person reintergrated back into family and community
58
Q

Culture Bound Syndromes (CBS)

A

combination of psychiatric and comatic symptoms that are considered to be recognizable diseases only within specific societies or cultural areas

59
Q

Koro

A

an overwhelming belief that one’s sex organs are shrinking into their body -> moderate severe anxiety attacks along with a fear of imminent death

60
Q

Koro and Fox Spirits

A
  • epidemics bc of fears of losing one’s genitals, procreative ability and even one’s life, are triggered by rumors of genital disappearance supposedly caused in China by female fox spirits
  • in Chinese Myths, fox spirits were thought to disguise themselves as women
  • seduced young men who were willing scholars or merely intelligent to absorb “life essence through their semen”
61
Q

Bunyoro

A
  • live in East Africa Cattle culture areas and many of their religious activities center on relationships with ghosts
  • when illness strikes, a Bunyoro will use services of diviner to determine cause of illness and identify ghost
  • only seen in dreams
  • can captureit, keep it away or form relationship w/ ghosts: goat sacrifice, ghost hut
  • belief in ghosts has important role - explanation for events and behaviour towards the livign
62
Q

Ancestor Spirits

A
  • the essence of one’s family ancestors who have remian in contact with the mortal world
  • ancestor worship reinforces social values regarding damily and kinship
  • in China, filial piety requires the living to continue to care for the ancestors
63
Q

Minghun - afterlife/ghost marriage (China)

A
  • ancestor is someone to honour & soemone whose need must be maintained in the afterlife
  • Traditional Chinese Beliefs: an unmarried life is incomplete, so some parents worry that an unmarried dead son may be an unhappy one
  • to ensure son’s contentment in afterlife, some will search for a dead woman to be his bride
  • once a corpse obtained, pair are burried together as married couple
64
Q

Herbalist

A

specialists in use of plant and other material as cures, may prescribe the materials to be administered or may provide the material as prescribed by a healer or diviner

65
Q

Diviner

A

someone who practices divination (a series of techniques and activities used to obtain info about things that aren’t normally knowable -> in illness context, provide diagnosis and the healer will provide cure

66
Q

Humoral Healing

A

approach to helaing that seeks to treat medical ailments by achieving balance between forces or elements of the body (ex: in Ancient Greece, Medieval Europe, food and drink , various forms of purging (blood letting) were primary ways to restore balance to the humours

67
Q

Shen-k’uei (CBS)

A
  • “semen loss” syndrome = “vital weakness” in traditional Chinese medicine
  • weakness connotes loss of vital energy (chi); a healthy exchange or yin and yang occurs in sexual intercourse. Whereas following nocturnal emission, masterbation or loss in urine only yang is lost w/o gain of yin
68
Q

Communal Healing

A
  • directs the combined efforts of the community towards treating illness
  • ex: Ju’hoansi of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. energy known as num can be channeled by members of community during healing ritual and directed towards individuals suffering from illness
69
Q

2 basic processes on how do new religions arise?

A
  • Innovation: an individual or grp within society invents or discovers some new idea, object or practice (new myths, rituals, etc)
  • Diffusion: an idea, object or practice from one society introduced to another society through cultural processes
70
Q

8 Different Ways to Change a Religion

A
  • Addition or Deletion
  • Reinterpretation
  • Elaboration or Simplification
  • Purification
  • Schism/Fission
  • Abandonment
  • Extinction
  • Syncretism
71
Q

Syncretism

A
  • the blending of religious beliefs and practices into a new cohesive system
  • cultural interaction, colonization, conquest
  • hybridity, adaptation, reinterpretation
72
Q

Syncretism: Haitian Voudou

A
  • grew out of several religious indigenious to West Africa (Non, Kongo, and Yoruba
  • French Colony - wealth from sugar plantations
  • forced conversion to catholicism
  • slave revolt
  • Loa: pantheon of dieties; each Loa a has particular personality, domains which they rule, symbols
  • Syncretism: association of particular loa with Catholic saints, Virgin Mary
  • Enslaved Haitians under French colonists, disgused their deities as acceptable Catholic Saints
73
Q

Syncretism: Cao Dai

A
  • new religion that originated in Vietnam
  • overtly incorporated elements from Buddhism, Chinese Religions (Confucianism and Taoism), and Christianity (Catholicism)
74
Q

When Do New Religions Emerge?

A

often emerge during periods of great stress/crisis

75
Q

Denomination

A

when an NRM is still considered mainstream and differs on just a few points from mainstream religion (ex: Baptist, Lutheran - Christianity, Sunni, Shi’s - Islam)

76
Q

Sect

A

more different from the mainstream religion than a denomination, generally associated with a founder or leader and new revelations (ex: Mormonism)

77
Q

Cults

A
  • Orthodox religions began as new, often marginalized
  • Christianity was a “cult” in Ancient Rome
  • Early Protestanism seen as cult like by Catholic Church
  • New Chrisitan Sects (ex: Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses) labelled as cults
78
Q

New Religious Movements (NRMs)

A
  • a historically recent religious movement, often involving new leaders and new scriptures or new interpretations of older religious traditions, applied to all new faiths that have arisen worldwide over the past several centuries
  • arise as response/protests to unsatisfactory social circumstances
  • all “cults” are considered NRMs, NOT ALL NRMS ARE “CULTS”
79
Q

Characteristics of NRMs

A
  • CHARASMATIC LEADERSHIP: founder or prophet who claims or is endowed w/ supernatural authority and/or power
  • CONCREATE GOALS: or a program for improving individual or collective life
  • COMMUNITY IDENTIFICATION: often seeking recruits among “hopeless and lonley”, the “disheartened”, and forming them into a new group
  • HIGHLY CENTRALIZED ORGANIZATION: decision making in exclusively in hands of single leader or small leadership group
  • AMBITIOUS CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: such as headquarters for movement
  • MASS ACTIVITIES: usually aimed at proselytization
  • SYNCRETISM, MYSTERY, AND NOVELTY: such as sense of chosenness or possession of a special revalation or message or responsibility
80
Q

Mormonism (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS))

A
  • Joseph Smith (1805-1844)
  • first vision at 14
  • visited by angel Moroni - revealed location of golden tablets with additionalbiblical history to be translated by Smith using special stones
  • heavily persecuted
  • revalation: Brigham Young to be next leader
  • Move to Utah; polygamy eventually disallowed
81
Q

High Demand Religions

A
  • in which beliefs and behaviours of group memebers are strictly controlled
  • sometimes such groups can become dangerous to its members/society
82
Q

Eschatology

A

Notions about the end of the world

83
Q

Millenarianism

A
  • belief that a fundamental transformation of society is coming, one that will bring a golden age of peace and prosperity, possibly after a major cataclysm or event
  • often associated with apocolyptic event
84
Q

Ghost Dance

A
  • Millenarian NRM
  • Wovoka’s vision
  • spiritual dance ceremony would reunite spirits of the dead with the living, remove evil from the world, settlers would leave
    -Massacre at Wounded Knee
85
Q

Messianiam

A
  • a messiah (“anointed one”) will appear (or has appeared) to guide the society to salvation and happiness
  • often tied to millenarianism
  • prohets -> person who claims to have direct communication with the supernatural realm
86
Q

Charisma and Max Weber’s Concept of Charisma

A
  • Greek word; biblical origin; gift of divine orgin
  • Max Weber: charisma as exceptional personal qualities inspiring devotion -> distinct from traditional and legal-rational authority -> central in charismatic authority
87
Q

Charisma in NRMs

A
  • founders seen as divinely inspired
  • Charismatic leadership attracts ans retains followers
  • Routinization: transformation into institutionalized forms over time -> becoming a stable religion depends on routinization
88
Q

NRM Characteristics: Charismatic Leadership

A
  • presence of a founder or prophet w/ claimed or endowed supernatural authority and/or power
  • Cult of personality, devotion, abuse of power
  • Example: Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones -> claimed prophetic abilities, led to Jonestown tragedy
89
Q

NRM Characteristics: Concrete Goals

A
  • a program for improving individual or collective life, including health, happiness, success, and wealth
  • extreme utopian/millenarian promises, often justify unethical practoces for the greater good
  • Example: Aum Shinrikyo, led by Shoko Asahara -> sought to overthrow the gov/world domination; infamous for the Tokyo Subway Sarin attack
90
Q

NRM Characteristics: Community Identification

A
  • seeking recruits among the disheartened, forming them into a new group
  • members targeted, isolated, controlled, and manipulated
  • Example: The Manson Family, led by Charles Manson -> targeted disillusioned youth, creating a new communal identity; Tate/La Bianca murders
91
Q

NRM Characteristics: Highly Concentrated Organization

A
  • decision making exclusively in hands of a single leader or a small leadership group
  • totalitarian control, absolute authority, no accountability
  • Example: Fundementalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), under Warren Jeffs -> sole authority performing marriages, assigning wives, expelling members, extreme abuse
92
Q

NRM Characteristics: Ambitious Construction Projects

A
  • undertaking significant construction projects, such as headquarters or communal living spaces
  • often at expense of members well being/finances; larger society
  • Example: Rajneesh Movement, led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh -> creation of Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, a utopian city project
93
Q

NRM Characteristics: Mass Activities

A
  • engagement in activities aimed at proselytization, often on a large scale
  • can lead to mass hysteria or collective harm
  • Example: Unification Church, founded by Sun Myung Moon -> known for mass wedding ceremonies of “Moonies” and widespread proselytization efforts, highly politically active
94
Q

NRM Characteristics: Syncretism, Mystery, and Novelty

A
  • a mix of different religious or spiritual beliefs, often with a sense of chosenness or possession of a special revelation
  • creates a sense of superiority, separation, specialness and disillusionment from outside world
  • Example: Church of Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard
95
Q

UFO Religions

A
  • combine belief in extraterrestial life with spiritual/religious elements = aliens are higher beings or messengers
  • interpret ancient texts and artifacts as evidence of early alien contact
  • preparation for alien contact or ascension to higher planes of existence
  • ex: Scientology, Heaven’s Gate, the Unarius Academy of Science
96
Q

QAnon and Religion

A
  • syncretic
  • Millenarian -> Messianism
  • “Conspirituality” -> complex mis of spirituality and conspitacy culture
  • religion and nationalism
  • Christian Nationalism
97
Q

Popular (Pop) Culture

A
  • high (or elite) culture vs. folk culture vs. popular culture
  • Forbes (2005): “high culture is a gourmet meal, folk culture is grandma’s casserole, and popular culture is a McDonald’s hamburger”
  • “that which is (or has been) accepted or approved of by large groups of ppl”; most often becomes widespread, and thus popular, through mass media
98
Q

Why Study Religion and Popular Culture?

A
  • Pop Culture as both Mirror of and influence on Society
  • “the popularity of a given cultural element (object, person or event) is directly proportional to the degree to which that element is reflective of audience beliefs and values
  • popularity is an indication of what the public values -> pop culture then, “reflects values we already hold
  • examine elements of pop culture “not as ends in themselves but as means of unlocking their meaning in the culture as a whole”
99
Q

4 relationships between religion and pop culture

A
  • Religion in Pop Culture
  • Pop Culture in Religion
  • Pop Culture as Religion
  • Religion and Pop Culture in Dialogue
100
Q

Religion IN Pop Culture

A

Movies illustrate how religion might appear on several different levels through: Explicit Representations, Allegorical Parallels, and Implicit Theological Themes

101
Q

Religious Allegories

A
  • films can be examined for “cross-cultural forms, including myth, ritual, systems of purity, and gods,” and studied for “the ways Hollywood reinterprets, appropriates, invents, or rejects” these archetypes
  • cinema is premier form of cultural mythmaking
102
Q

Religious Allegories: Christ-like Figures in Movies

A
  • special being
  • suffering and persecution
  • leadership and influence
  • sacrifice
  • redemption
  • resurrection/rebirth
  • moral attributes (ex: integrity, compassion, forgiveness)
  • challenging the status quo
103
Q

Christian Themes (Bible) in Superman (1978)

A
  • Jor-El, as “Heavenly Father”: The son becomes the father, and the father the son.” -> Jor-El’s farewell to Kal-El
  • Kal-El = the “only son” sent w/ a “divine mission”
  • Clark as Christ-like figure
104
Q

Jewish Themes (Torah) in Superman (1978)

A
  • cataclysm know to/believed by only one man and his family
  • decide that Kal-El should be placed in “flier” and then sent to Earth
  • “El” - the “godlike” nature of Superman’s family name
  • immigration for the sake of survival, including adopting a “dual identity” -> Clark = “the supreme metaphor for the Jewish experience”
105
Q

What can Superman tell about religion and pop culture?

A
  • Superman is religiously multivalent - different interpreters find various kinds of symbols and themes when examining the same aesthetic product
  • meaning not found exclusively in a text or in the reader, but, rather is constructed between text and the reader
106
Q

Implicit Theological Themes

A
  • implicit theological themes in film: love, meaning, forgiveness, sin, and death and resurrection
  • through the arts and the responses of their audiences, human beings ask questions of identity and purpose and wrestle with possible answers to these questions
107
Q

Issues with Religion in Pop Culture

A
  • some people find it inherently trivializing to see any sacred matters treated as entertainment (profane)
  • others are offended by particular portrayals of religion, espescially of their own religion
108
Q

Pop Culture IN Religion

A
  • the appropriation of aspects of pop culture by religious groups and institutions
  • the impact of pop culture upon traditionally recognized religious grps, influencing what they believe and how they operate
109
Q

Televangelism

A

the use of media, specifically radio and television, to preach religion, and most prominently Christianity -> Evangelical Christianity

110
Q

Media and Religion

A
  • the medium is the message
  • shift from print -> radio -> age of television
  • television as Show Business - the portrayal of religion as entertainment may fundamentally change its content and character
111
Q

Megachurches

A
  • a Protestant church with a weekly congregation over 2,000 in a weekend that typically runs on a business model of offering in-demand religious commodities (goods and services) to religious customers
  • more than 10,000 people gathering every Sunday = “gigachurch”
  • “dynamic”, “robust congregational identity”, and “high levels of commitment”
112
Q

How Do Megachurches Grow and Sustain itself

A
  • the Christian Booksellers Association, representing 1,700 Christian stores, sells $4.63 billion worth of merchandise
  • Evangelical Market
  • People Involved: Celebrity Preachers, Christian Publishers, Growth Meterics, Marketing, Volunteer Labour
113
Q

Evangelical Industrial Complex

A

the idea that megachurches are part of a profit-driven economy whereby the Christian media promote and support a small number of elite celebrity evangelical pastors, authors and musicians -> celebrity pastors sustained by capitalist model not (necessarily) their character/skill

114
Q

Issues with pop culture in religion

A
  • preaching the prosperity gospel
  • the financial practices of many telecangelists are unclear
  • “the dangeris not that religion has become the content of television shows, but that television shows may become the content of religion”
  • significant personal wealth of many preachers and televangelist
  • unconfirmed claims about reach and popularity
115
Q

McDonaldization (George Ritzer)

A
  • the process by which the principles of most fast food resturants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world
  • Principles of Fast Food: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, The Replacement of Humans by Non-Human Technology
  • seen in almost every aspect of society (education, work, health care, travel, and religion)
116
Q

McDonaldization of Religion: Efficiency

A

religion as “fast food” = streamlined to accommodate schedules (live streams, text donations)

117
Q

McDonaldization of Religion: Calculability

A

success measured by # of attendees, donations, social media followers

118
Q

McDonaldization of Religion: Predictability

A

standardized services, services, sermons, and formats across “franchises”

119
Q

McDonaldization of Religion: Control Through Non-Human Technology

A

apps for prayer, online streaming, automated donation = minimal need for human interaction

120
Q

Disneyfication

A
  • the transformation of something to resemble the Disney theme parks, often characterized by sanitation, commercialization, and the packaging of experiences into more entertaining, palatable, and family-friendly formats
121
Q

Secularization Theory

A

the idea that religion is waning in public sphere, that it’s losing its social significance w/i advanced capitalist societies

122
Q

What does the Secularization Theory Argue?

A

that traditional community structures that maintained religious practice breakdown due to industrialization, urbanization, diversification and the new social structure leads away from traditional religious practice

123
Q

Is the Secularization Theory Valid?

A
  • resurgence of evangelicalism, e-churches, fundamentalist religions globally
  • religion becoming more individualized, nondenominational = construction of an individualized faith based on ideas from a variety of sources
  • religion is changing, not dying -> changing bc the seeker mentality treats religion as a commodity that can be shopped for, tried on, purchased, or returned
124
Q

Religious Economy

A

the concept that there is a market of religious consumers (demand) who choose goods and services from the available religious (or similar) organizations (supply)
- demand = seekers, supply = religious organizations/cultures

125
Q

Pop Culture AS Religion

A

pop culture serves as religon or functions like religion for many people depending on how you define religion

126
Q

Substantive Definition of Religion

A

emphasize inner core or essence of religion especially relationship with higher being(s)

127
Q

Functional Denfinition of Religion

A

empahsize effect of religon in actual life -> meaning-making; how it helps ppl deal with life, etc

128
Q

Formal Definition of Religion

A

identify religion based on religious forms = sacred stories, rituals, moral codes, communities, etc

129
Q

Fandoms as religion

A

religion is “a system of symbols (creed, code, cultus) by means of which people (a community) orient themselves in the world w/ reference to ordinary and extraordinary meanings and values”

130
Q

Disney as Religion

A
  • Disney markets pseudo religion by providing meaning to its audience; its value system is a set of rules to live by that offer comfort for when times are hard
  • Disney Theme parks even act as pilgrimage sites for Disney adherents
  • sells fetish objects that connect consumer with the magic world of Disney
  • offers religious symbols and meaning without commitment to organized religion
  • pop culture “as good a place as a cathedral” to find comfort, community, morality, and even enlightenment
131
Q

Pop Culture and Religion in Dialogue

A
  • there is dialogue btw the 2 “sides,” when they (a) talk to and about the other side, and (b) when they engage in conversation about issues in which they have a shared interest
  • “Dialogue” meant broadly, including affirmations, denunciations, observations, and shared concerns
  • Ex: when religious leaders speak on/about pop culture and vice versa; movies/songwriters commenting on religion
132
Q

Rap Music and Religion

A
  • black religious leaders argue rap music erodes moral values and religious sensibilities; the artists respond that they are speaking of reality and are misunderstood and disrespected
  • one message of rap is that black churches fail to deal adequately w/ the history of suffering by African Americans thus avoiding the hard realities of life
  • rap music meets needs in the black community unmet by black churches

ANTH 363 (8 decks)

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