1. The Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion
The Study of Religion

2. anthropology
ánthrōpos (Greek) = human
lógos (Greek) = word
= the “word about humans”, the study of humans, the organized and systemized body of knowledge about humans

3. The “Study of Human Cultures”
As interesting in their own right
Ethnography = a description of a specific culture
For purposes of comparison
Ethnology = the comparative study of different cultures

4. Herodotus Born in Halicarnassus, then a part of the Persian Empire
Traveled to Egypt, Babylon, Athens, and other locales
Wrote “The History”
Herodotus (?) c c. 425 B.C.

5. Opening Lines of The History
I, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, am here setting forth my history, that time may not draw the color from what man has brought into being, nor those great and wonderful deeds, manifested by both Greeks and barbarians, fail of their report, and, together with all this, the reason why they fought one another.

7. Herodotus by Jean-Guillaume Moitte, 1806. Louvre palace, Paris
Herodotus’ Work
Accounts not always accurate
Appears to have had “an agenda”
“Father of History”
“Father of Ethnology”
Herodotus by Jean-Guillaume Moitte, Louvre palace, Paris

8. And the desire to understand the “other”
The Age of Discovery
And the desire to understand the “other”

9. Whose agenda was to dominate rather than understand
“first contact”
Missionaries
Soldiers
Politicians and bureaucrats
Whose agenda was to dominate rather than understand

10. The Confusion of Tongues
Genesis 11
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. … 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children built. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth…
The Confusion of Tongues
(by Gustave Doré 1865)

11. “Degenerationist” Ideas
An attempt to understand newly discovered peoples in light of the Bible and other European sources of knowledge
Non –Europeans had “fallen” or degenerated from an earlier, more perfect state

12. Lewis Henry Morgan
Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization
(1877)
Lewis Henry Morgan

13. posits that human societies evolve in a “unilineal” fashion
Morgan’s Model
Civilization
Barbarism
Savagery
posits that human societies evolve in a “unilineal” fashion

14. The Beginnings of Ethnology
The comparative study of societies
But based upon inadequate and/or biased data
Posited that one’s own culture was the standard which others should try to attain

15. Edward Burnett Tylor
Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Edward Burnett Tylor

16. human religions similarly evolve in a “unilineal” fashion
Tylor’s Model
monotheism
polytheism
animism
human religions similarly evolve in a “unilineal” fashion

17. Franz Boas Physicist and geographer by training
Encountered the Inuit in Baffinland
Became interested in establishing a “science of humankind”
Franz Boas

18. The Study of Cultures
Should proceed on an “objective” (= scientific) basis
Avoid ethnocentrism
Use the methodology of cultural relativism
“salvage” anthropology
Franz Boas c. 1915

19. four field approach cultural anthropology linguistic anthropology
archaeology
biological anthropology
plus: applied anthropology

20. cultural anthropology studies “culture”
learned by individual as part of a group
passed on from generation to generation
three components
material (artifacts)
behavioral (actions)
ideational (cognitive, affective elements)

21. cultural manifestations of “religion”
objects
activities
beliefs and emotions
His Holiness Vazgen I Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians
( )

22. cultural anthropology and the study of religious systems
investigates the functions of religion, both for the individual and for the group
looks at how religions change through time, and why

23. linguistic anthropology studies the role of language in culture
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
does language mirror reality? OR
does language shape reality?
language as a human universal
deep (biological) meanings  surface (social) structures

24. linguistic anthropology historical linguistics
evolution of languages
relationships between languages
how has “religious” language changed over time and why are their linguistic similarities in different cultures?

25. archaeology the study of humans of the past
based on evidence preserved in the ground (and elsewhere)
emphasizes material aspect of culture, but also looks to behavior and ideation

26. archaeology
aims at reconstructing the past, both as an end in itself and as a way to understand the present

27. archaeology and the study of religious systems
Chauvet Cave, France
(app. 30,000 yBP ?)

28. biological anthropology
a.k.a. physical anthropology
considers humans as animals
how do modern humans differ? = variation
how did humans arise? = evolution

29. biological anthropology
studies behaviors in non-human species
what is the relationship between biology and culture?
how does our biology shape us?
how does our culture affect our biology?

30. biological anthropology looks for genetic bases
of belief (“gullibility gene”)
of “trance” and other altered states
of human need to be in a group
“neurotheology”

31.  anthropology is a biocultural discipline
four field approach
cultural studies
cultural anthropology
anthropological linguistics
archaeology
biological studies
biological anthropology (aka physical anthropology)
 anthropology is a biocultural discipline

32. Applied Anthropology the “fifth field”
Using anthropological insights to improve people’s lives
Promoting understanding between members of different religions
Bridging differences in healing traditions to increase health and well-being
Drawing upon basic insights about the human brain and mind to minimize negative consequences and maximize positive outcomes of different states of consciousness

33. anthropology is “holistic” in its approach
views its phenomena as interrelated and integrated
views societies both in their own rights and from a comparative perspective

34. anthropology eschews ethnocentrism
(the practice of using one culture as the standard to evaluate another)
based upon cultural relativism
(the idea that cultures can only be evaluated and understood on their own terms)

35. Anthropology views Religiosity
as a function of “hard-wired” components of our mental hardware
whose products are interpreted within cultural systems
 religious systems are (or once were) adaptive mechanisms

36. Key Terms
Religiosity: an inclusive term for all aspects of concepts and experiences of the supernatural – a biological capacity of Homo sapiens
Religion: a group phenomenon – social and cultural beliefs and practices about spirits and the supernatural
Spirituality: an individual phenomenon – a person’s experiences of spirit entities and supernatural realities