Anthropological Perspectives on Religion Recap The Major Features of Religion Anthropological Perspectives Religion Film: Religion and Magic

The Major Features of Religion Texts A means of explanation Stress/Anxiety Relief Body of myth Rituals Magic and witchcraft Beings and powers Specially skilled individuals Belief in the supernatural Symbolic Moral code Sacred vs. profane Emotional Experience Group membership/identity System A philosophy

Holistically Objectively Relativistically Comparatively Interdisciplinary Focus on Ethnography Emically Methodologically and theoretically diverse. Anthropological Perspectives on Religion

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Explanations for the Universality of Religion PsychologicalSociological IntellectualEmotional Interpretative Functional

Religion and Magic 1.How are religion and magic integrated into Mayan daily life? 2.How is this different from Western Society?

w primitive man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopher w the notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational thinking w preliterate religious beliefs and practices were not “ridiculous” or a “rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly” w they were essentially consistent and logical, based on rational thinking and empirical knowledge. Intellectual approach E. B. Tylor

Animism w the idea that the world and everything in it is filled with souls or spirits. w These spirits can be communicated with. w Spirits “feel” and therefore, can be harmed, flattered, offended and can also hurt or help.

Psychological Approach  Reduces anxiety  provides comfort  Gives meaning to life – Yes there is life after death  a means for dealing with crises death and illness, famine, flood, failure  helps people cope with reality.  Tells them how to behave  Removes burden of responsibility  Participation in religious ceremonies provides reassurance security, and even ecstasy, closeness etc

Sociological Approach  religion stems from society and societal needs and provides for them  religions validate the social: they posit controlling forces in the universe that sustain the moral and social order of a people  sanction human conduct by providing notions of right and wrong  setting precedents for acceptable behaviour, group norms  provides moral sanctions for individual conduct  education function through ritual used to learn oral traditions  eg. puberty rites provide information about tribal lore.

 Sees religion as a set of symbols and stresses the meaning of those symbols, as referents and creators of meaningful life.  "a religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." “Clifford Geertz”  Claude Levi-Strauss structuralism -- Analysis of symbolic forms of mythic  Through the work of Douglas and Victor Turner, as well as performance theory, a new emphasis on ritual was established.  Concerned with the act Interpretative

w Intellectual Definition Max Mueller wrote that religion is a mental factor independent of sense and reason to apprehend the infinite in different names

Anthropological study of religion 1) The study origin 2) The study of function 3) The study of meaning

History of the Anthropology of Religion 1) The study of origin 2) The study of function 3) The study of meaning