RELIGION Chapter 21

Religion Belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces Supernatural refers to the non-material Supernatural beings: ghosts, deities, demons, souls, spirits Cannot be verified or falsified empirically True cultural universal Often involves regular gatherings for worship Religion is collective, social, shared, and enacted Communitas – intense feeling of social solidarity resulting from collective emotional intensity associated with worship Religious manifestation Prayers, chants, myths, texts, ethics, and morality Unity and division

Spiritual Beings Edward Tylor Religion as explanation Death and dreaming Soul is active at night Or doubles Death when soul leaves body Animism – Belief in souls or doubles Likely earliest forms of religion According to Tylor, religion evolves through stages Animism Polytheism Worship in multiple deities Usually control forces of nature Monothesim Worship of one eternal, omnipotent, supreme being Interest will decline as science grows

Powers, Forces and Magic Mana – impersonal sacred force Often coexists with animism Can reside in people, animals, plants or objects Correlates to western “luck” Sometimes only present in “unordinary” people or objects The sacred Taboo – Sacred and/or forbidden Prohibition backed by supernatural sanctions Magic – use of the supernatural to accomplish specific aims Actions, offerings, spells, formulas and incantations Initiative magic – magic through imitation Ex: Voodoo dolls Contagious magic – magic through contact Ex: Protective charms

Rituals and Rites of Passage Ritual – Formal, repetitive, stereotyped behavior performed in special places and at set times Often translate enduring messages and values Social acts May produce stress that is relieved by completion Enhances the solidarity of the participants Rites of passage – mark transition between stages of life, or places Can be individual or collective Ex: Bar Mitzvah, Baptism, Confirmation, Social Security All rites of passage consist of three stages; Withdrawal, Liminlaity, and Reentry Liminality – the in-between phase Exist apart from normal social status

Totemism Totems – an animal, plant, or feature associated with a social group The totem is sacred or symbolic Descendants of the totem Consumption taboos Uses nature as a model for society Relate to nature through the totem A form of cosmology – a religious system for imagining and understanding the universe Totems today Sport teams Political affiliations

Cultural Ecology Behavior is impacted by supernatural beliefs Sacred Cattle Indian zebus and the Hindu doctrine of ahimsa Indian ecological evolution Cattle to pull plows Scrawny cattle eat less Manure for the fields and cooking fuel

Religious figures Cultural universal Mediators between the worlds All societies have medico-magico-religious specialists Modern societies have the ability for both priests and medical practitioners Foragers have part time medico-religious practitioners called Shamans Mediums, spiritualists, astrologers, palm readers, etc. Complex societies can support full-time priests Hierarchal and bureaucratic

World Religions Christianity 2.1 billion Islam 1.3 billion Hinduism 900 million Confucianism 394 million Buddhism 376 million Christianity Includes Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, LDS, Evangelical, etc. Islam Includes Sunni, Shiite, etc. Nonreligious/agnostic/atheist 1.1 Billion Non-religious not necessarily growing Less attachment to a church New Age Influence of Native Religions in the United States and Australia Appropriate religious symbols and beliefs Indigenous religion 300 million Traditional African 100 million Sikhism 23 million Juche 19 million Spiritism 15 million Judaism 14 million

Religion and Change Religions help maintain social order Energy can be harnessed for change or revolution Fundamentalists seek order based on tradition, yet also contribute to change Revitalization movements – movements aimed at altering or revitalizing society Christianity’s origins Jesus under Roman rule Syncretisms – socio-religious mixes resulting from acculturation Ex: Santeria African, Native American, Roman Catholic mixes in the Caribbean Cargo cults Belief based around the expected arrival of ancestral spirits in ships Postcolonial adaptation

Antimodernism and Fundamentalism Antimodernsim – rejecting the modern in favor of a presumed better, earlier, purer way of life Disillusionment with industrialization Technology is overused, or over relied upon Fundamentalism – advocating strict fidelity to presumed founding principles of a religion A modern phenomena Type of antimodernism Strive to protect a distinctive doctrine and way of life