1. Religion – Key Question #1 What is religion, and what role does it play in culture?

2. Both religion and language lie at the foundation of culture. Like languages, religions are constantly in flux. Interaction among people can cause one language to become extinct, and another to thrive. The same is true with religion.

3. The cultural landscape is marked by religion. The most obvious examples of this are churches and mosques, cemeteries, and shrines, statues and symbols. There are other, more subtle, markers of religion as well.

4. The presence or absence of stores selling alcohol or of signs depicting the human form in particular ways. It is also proclaimed in modes of dress (veils and turbans) and personal habits (beards, ritual scars). In many countries, overt religious displays have declined, but they are still common in more traditional societies.

5. In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the government proclaimed in 1991 that possessing a beard would be a condition for the appointment of judges. This displayed to Islamic beliefs… First, that men should be bearded. Second, that women had no role in government.

6. Religion is a very difficult concept to define. Robert Stoddard and Carolyn Prorak define religion as “a system of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of culturally perceived ultimate priorities”. What do they mean by that?

7. They further explain that by “perceived ultimate authority”, people actually mean “should”… People explain and justify how they and others “should” behave based on their religious beliefs. Is there anything missing from their definition?

8. While “shouldness” goes beyond religion to other belief systems, we are going to focus on religion. We focus on formal religions, their distribution, and their role in making and shaping places and cultures. The idea that a “good” life has rewards and that “bad” behavior risks punishment has an enormous influence on cultures.

9. Religion manifests itself in many different ways. We can see religion in the worship of the souls of ancestors who are thought to inhabit natural objects such as mountains, animals, or trees; …in the belief that a certain living person possesses special abilities granted by a supernatural power;

10. …in the belief in a deity or deities, as in the great world religions. In some places, societies are so infused with religion that religious tradition strongly influences behaviors during waking hours through ritual and practice and even during periods of sleep in prescribing the orientation of the body.

11. Across many religions, some religious practices such as ritual and prayer are common. Rituals may mark important events in people’s lives: birth and death, attainment of adulthood, or marriage. Rituals are typically expressed at regular intervals in a routine manner, as in the Christian and Jewish worlds…

12. … certain times of the day in the Muslim world, or according to certain astronomical events in the Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian worlds. Prayer is common as well, whether at mealtime, at sunrise and sundown, at night upon retiring, or in the morning when arising.

13. Although religious beliefs influence many societies, secularism now prevails in some societies. In these places, religion, at least in its organized form, has become less significant in the lives of most people. Even in secular societies, religion still may permeate art, history, customs, and beliefs.

14. Indeed, no matter what society you come from, what you eat, when you work, when you shop, and what you are allowed to do are influenced by religion. Organized religion has a powerful effect on human societies. It has been a major force in combating social ills, sustaining the poor, promoting the arts, educating the deprived, and advancing medical knowledge.

15. Religion has also blocked scientific study, encouraged the oppression of dissidents, supported colonialism and exploitation, and condemned women to an inferior status in many societies. Religion is, if nothing else, one of the most complex, and often controversial, aspects of the human condition.