1. Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Serena Nanda
Richard L. Warms

2. Chapter 11
Religion

3. Chapter Outline Cargo Cults Defining Religion
Some Functions of Religion
Characteristics of Religion
Religion and Change
Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art, and Censorship

4. Melanesia
Cargo Cult
in Melanesia

5. Cargo Cults
Cargo cults often began with a prophet who announced that the world would end in catastrophe, after which God would appear and bring a paradise on earth.

6. 31.50% Christian
22.74% Muslim
13.8% Hindu
6.77% Buddhist
0.35% Sikh
0.22% Jewish
0.11% Baha'i
10.95% Other
9.66% Non-religious
2.01% Atheist

8. Questions What is religion?
What tools do anthropologists use to understand how religion works?
In what ways is religion both a system of power and system of meaning?
How is globalization is changing religion?

9. Religion A social process that helps to order society
and provide its members
with meaning, unity, peace of mind,
and the degree of control over events they believe is possible

10. Characteristics of Religion
Sacred stories that members believe are important
Extensive use of symbols and symbolism
The existence of beings, powers, states, places, and qualities that can not be measured scientifically
Include rituals and specific means of addressing the supernatural

11. Sacred Narratives
Stories of historical events, heroes, gods, spirits, and the origin of all things.

12. Sacred Narratives
Have a sacred power that is evoked by telling them or acting them out ritually
Validate or legitimize beliefs, values, and customs

13. Sacred Stories
Video on the purpose of stories
What do stories do?

14. Religious Symbols
Religious symbols include many different and sometimes contradictory meanings in a single word, idea, or object.
Example: The Christian cross

15. Religious Symbols
Some religious symbols may have supernatural power in and of themselves, such as the masks used in African ceremonies. What symbols do you know that contain supernatural power?

16. God (Deity) Term used for a named spirit believed
to have created or to
control some aspect
of the world.

17. God (Deity)
High gods, gods understood as the creator of the world, are present in only about half of all societies.
In about 1/3 of these societies, such gods are distant and withdrawn, having little interest in people.

18. Polytheism The belief in many gods
In India, there are millions of gods; yet all Indians understand that in some way they are all aspects of one divine essence.

19. Monotheism Belief in a single god
In monotheistic religions, one god may have several aspects.
In Roman Catholicism: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all part of a single, unitary god.

20. Mana
Mana is religious power or energy that is concentrated in individuals or objects.
Mana gives one spiritual power, but it can also be dangerous.

21. Ritual Act involving the manipulation of religious symbols
Certain patterns of religious behavior are extremely widespread, if not universal.

22. Addressing the Supernatural
Prayer
Sacrifice
Magic
Divination

23. Prayer Communication between people and spirits or gods
People believe results depend on the spirit world rather than on actions humans perform.
Prayer may involve a request, a pleading, or merely praise for the deity.

24. Sacrifice
People try to increase their spiritual purity or the efficacy of their prayers by making offerings to gods or spirits.
People may sacrifice the first fruits of a harvest, animal lives, or — on occasion — human lives.
Example: Lent

25. Magic An attempt to mechanistically control supernatural forces
When people do magic, they believe that their words and actions compel the spirit world to behave in certain ways.

26. Magic
In imitative magic, the procedure performed resembles the result desired.
Example: Voodoo doll
Contagious magic is the belief that things once in contact with a person or object retain an invisible connection with that person or object.
Example: A person’s hair or clothing added to a voodoo doll to make it more effective

27. Divination
A religious ritual performed to find hidden objects or information

28. Religious Practitioners
Shamans
Priests
Witches and sorcerers

29. Shaman
Recognized as having the ability to mediate between the world of humanity and the world of gods or spirits
Not a recognized official of any religious organization

30. Priest
One who is formally elected or appointed to a full-time religious office

31. Witchcraft
The ability to harm others by harboring malevolent thoughts about them; the practice of sorcery
May be done unconsciously
Wiccan: A member of a new religion that claims descent from pre-Christian nature worship;
a modern day witch

32. Sorcery
The conscious and intentional use of magic with the intent of causing harm or good

33. In Class Activity Research the religion
Where did the religion originate?
What is its origin story?
Who is the founder?
Who is/are the God/Gods/Deities?
What are some major rituals?

34. Tools to understand religion
Theories influenced by 19th and 20th century philosophers.
Emile Durkheim
Karl Marx
Max Weber

35. Emile Durkheim -French Sociologist -Sacred (holy) and Profane (unholy)
-Saw religion as social
-Through collective action (rituals) members clarify and define what is sacred and profane.
Anomie: Alienation experienced when
faced with physical dislocation and
disruption of social networks.
-Religion, especially ritual, is the glue that
holds society together.

36. Emile Durkheim’s Influence
Rituals, repeated, create continuity and belonging
Rites of passage: Arnold Van Gennep
Religious rites of passage
Life transition rituals
Mark moments of intense change
Three stages in rites of passage- Victor Turner
Separation
Liminality
Reincorporation
Rites of passage- Communitas

37. Communitas A sense of camaraderie
A common vision of what is a good life
Commitment to take social action to move toward this vision of a good life

38. Karl Marx “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,
the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”- Marx.
-“Highly critical” of
religion
-During upheaval and
stratification, religion
dulls pain
-People don’t realize
seriousness of situation
-Keeps poor from
engaging in social
change

39. Karl Marx’s Influence Connection between religion and power
Religion and cultural materialism
Material conditions of a society shape the culture
Marvin Harris
why do Hindus venerate cows
Why do Jews and Muslims abstain from eating pork
Why do people believe in witches

40. Max Weber The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Considered religious ideas key to understanding societies worldwide
Why did capitalism emerge in Europe and not elsewhere?
Asian religions- beliefs and ethical systems stand in the way of capitalism
Western European Protestantism- expressed religious beliefs and values in daily life
Thrift
Discipline
Hard Work

41. Weber’s Influence “Evolution” of religion
religion based on magic and shamans
religion based on persuasive power of prophets such as Jesus, Moses, Buddha
religion based on legal codes of conduct, bureaucracy, and formally trained religious leaders
Warned of increase in secularism->decline in capitalistic spirit

42. Cosmology
A system of beliefs that deals with fundamental questions in the religious and social order

43. The Search for Order and Meaning
Religions provide a cosmology for interpreting events and experiences.
This may include the creation of the universe, the origin of society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relationship of humankind to nature.

44. The Social Order
Through religion, dominant cultural beliefs about good and evil are reinforced.
Sacred stories and rituals provide a rationale for social order.
Religious ritual intensifies social solidarity.

45. Religion and Change
To begin a new religion or modify an existing religion, prophets must have a code with three elements:
Identify what is wrong with the world.
Present a vision of what a better world to come might look like.
Describe a method of transition from the existing world to the better world.

46. Religious Movements
Nativistic movements aim to restore what its followers believe is a golden age of the past.
Vitalism is a religious movement that looks toward the creation of a utopian future that does not resemble a past golden age.

47. Cults Oxford English Dictionary
 A particular form or system of religious worship or veneration, esp. as expressed in ceremony or ritual directed towards a specified figure.
 A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members.

48. Cults
There are over 4,000 cults in the US, with approximately 4 million members. They fall into 4 basic types:
 RELIGIOUS: cults that use a belief system as their base
 COMMERCIAL: promise you that if you join them and follow their special program for success then you will become very rich (aka the "Pyramid Scheme")
 SELF-HELP: Offer expensive "enlightenment" seminars, people manipulated into spending more for "advancement"
 POLITICAL: Organized around a political dogma, like rebel extremists

49. In Class Activity Research the cult you have been assigned
Who is its founder?
What is the main story/message of the cult?
What are some of the characteristics of the cult?

50. Religious Views Messianic Millenarian
This view focuses on the coming of a messiah who will usher in a utopian world.
 Millenarian
The belief that a catastrophe will signal the beginning of a new age and the eventual establishment of paradise.

51. Syncretism
Merging two or more religious traditions and hiding the beliefs, symbols, and practices of one behind similar attributes of the other.
Example: Santeria
Slaves in Cuba combined African religion, Catholicism, and French spiritualism to create a new religion.
They identified African deities (called orichas) with Catholic saints.

52. Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art and Censorship
A painting by African artist, Chris Ofili, depicts a Black Madonna in a flowing robe, dabbed with a clump of elephant dung and surrounded with images of women’s buttocks and genitals clipped from pornographic magazines.

53. Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art and Censorship
A collage by artist Alma Lopez of the Virgin of Guadalupe clad in a floral garment resembling a bikini was included in the CyberArte exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe.
Singer Madonna staged a mock crucifixion, standing on a mirrored cross wearing a crown of thorns, as part of her concert in Rome in 2000.

55. Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art and Censorship
You decide:
Do you find this kind of art offensive?
Have you ever seen a representation of your religion that you found offensive?
What, if anything, did you do about it, and why?

56. Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art and Censorship
You decide:
Who should decide if the public representation of a religion is offensive?
If the majority in a community find a religious representation offensive, should it be censored?

57. Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art and Censorship
You decide:
Is it relevant that all the artists mentioned are Catholic?
What do you think might be the intent of the artists in their various representations of their religion?

58. Quick Quiz

59. Religions provide a ________, a set of principles or beliefs about the nature of life and death, the creation of the universe, the origin of society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relation of humankind to nature.
ritual practice
set of rules
cosmology
written sacred text

60. Answer : c
Religions provide a cosmology, a set of principles or beliefs about the nature of life and death, the creation of the universe, the origin of society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relation of humankind to nature.

61. The liminal stage of ritual is generally a temporary state that may be characterized by all EXCEPT which of the following?
Temporary state of equality amongst those of other castes, classes or kinship groups
Women and men acting in non-conventional manner
Behaviors that reflect and reinforce the status quo

62. Answer: c
The liminal stage of ritual is generally a temporary state that is not characterized by behaviors that reflect and reinforce the status quo.

63. Trying to develop a definition of “religion” is complicated by all EXCEPT which of the following factors?
The distinction between “natural” and “supernatural” varies across societies.
Ideas on the nature of life vary whether we live once or repeatedly.
All peoples have beliefs and/or engage in processes that provide meaning to their lives and the world.

64. Answer: c
Trying to develop a definition of “religion” is not complicated by the following factor:
All peoples have beliefs and/or engage in processes that provide meaning to their lives and the world.

65. Examples of contagious magic are illustrated by all EXCEPT which of the following?
The practice of the Asaro of New Guinea in burying the newborn’s umbilical cord
The reading of a chicken’s entrails in seeking a cause of illness
A sorcerer’s obtaining a fingernail clipping of someone he or she wishes to harm

66. Answer: b
The reading of a chicken's entrails in seeking a cause of illness is not an example of contagious magic.