Religion

Monthly missive on saleAt local community fair. Photo: J. Fortier

Religion

What Is Religion?Origins, Functions, and Expressions of

ReligionReligion and Cultural EcologySocial Control

Definitions

Religion is any set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons

Image of Hindu demon-deity ‘Bhairav’Photo: J. Fortier

Definitions

Magic Sorcery Witchcraft

Greco-Roman magic figurine;Photo: Prof. E. Pollard, SDSU

Universality of Religion

Need to understand Reversion to

childhood feelingsAnxiety &

uncertaintyNeed for community

A Hindu astrologer; Photo J.Fortier

• Tylor first studied religion anthropologically and developed a taxonomy of religions

Animism

Animism is seen as basic tendency to dream of soul-others at night

Belief in souls that derives from the first attempt to explain dreams and like phenomena

Has come to be seen as a belief in soul-beings in others

Animism - A need to understand? E. B. Tylor

Early humans believed in souls

(false) Evolutionary progression:

animism>polytheism>

monotheism>science

Nurit Bird-David Relational Ontology- belief that all

beings are related

Raji woman collects Yam ‘Mother’

•Buddha attained enlightenment under Ficus religiosa

•Adam & Eve ate from the Fig tree

Courtesy Woody Moise at picasaweb.google.com

Animism of the Pleiades: “The 7 Sisters”

Animation of starFormations is Common acrosscultures

Types of Supernatural Forces & Beings

Supernatural forces Supernatural beings

Folk form of Siva, Nepal. Photo:J. Fortier

Supernatural forces

Inanimate Mana Taboo Winds Weather elements, Bad or good luck

Hail storm. Photo: ccc.atmos.colostate.edu/.../sheila_clouds2.htm

Mana and Taboo

Polynesian mana and related concept of taboo related to the more hierarchical nature of Polynesian society

Melanesian mana defined as sacred impersonal force that is much like the Western concept of luck

• Mana – belief in immanent supernatural domain or life-force, potentially subject to human manipulation

Weather as Supernatural

Ban Raji call weather forces ‘Hawa’a”

Batek of Malaysia call them ‘Hala’’

Thunder Windstorms Earthquake/’Big’

weather disasters

Ban Raji woman struck by Hawa’a

Supernatural beings

Animate Gods, goddesses Spirits, Fairies, sprites, ogres Ghosts Dead ancestors Totems

Totemism

Totems are apical ancestor of clans Members of clan did not kill or eat their

totem, except once a year when the members of the clan gathered for ceremonies dedicated to the totem

• In totemic societies, each descent group has an animal, plant, or geographical feature from which they claim descent

Religion and Cultural Ecology

• Sacred Cattle in India

Religion and Cultural Ecology

Cattle play important adaptive role in Indian ecosystem that evolved over thousands of years

Hindus use cattle for transportation, traction, and manure

Bigger cattle eat more, making them more expensive to keep

• Sacred Cattle in India– Views of Western experts are ethnocentric

and incorrect because:

Religions & Social Correlations

Deities mimic aspects of human society

Child-rearing practices

Complexity of the society

Degree of societal/governmental control

Greek Minotaur. Photo: www.historyforkids.org

Types of Religions

Shamanic - shamans part-time religious intermediaries who may act as curers – these religions are characteristic of foragers but found in farming societies too

Shaman Possessed; Photo: J. Fortier

Kinds of Religion

Olympian or Polytheistic religions –appeared with states, have full-time religious specialists and have potent anthropomorphic gods who may exist as a pantheon

Monotheistic religions – have attributes of Olympian religions, except pantheon of gods subsumed under a single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being

– Communal religions – have shamans, community rituals, multiple nature gods

Major World Religions by Percentage of World Population 2005

Source: Adherents.com. 2005. http://www.adherents.com/Religions_by_adherents.html.

TrendsMonotheistic

religions growing

Found in highly stratified state societies

Fundamentalism growing

Source: www.class.uh.edu

Religion and Change

Religious leaders also may seek to alter or revitalize their society

Nativistic or Revitalization Movements Social moments that occur in times of

change The colonial-era Iroquois reformation led

by Handsome Lake is example of revitalization movement

• Religion helps maintain social order

• Cultural mix, including religious blends, that emerge when two or more cultural traditions come into contact

Syncretisms

Voodoo, santeria Cargo cults of Melanesia and Papua New

Guinea are syncretisms of Christian doctrine with aboriginal beliefs

Often emerge when traditional, non-Western societies have regular contact with industrialized societies

Location of Melanesian Cargo Cults•Part of Revitalization Movements

Antimodernism and Fundamentalism

Tribalism, Fundamentalism, Parochialism all opposed in some ways to Globalism

• Antimodernism – rejection of the modern in favor of what is perceived as an earlier, purer, and better way of life

Antimodernism and Fundamentalism

Assert an identity separate from the larger religious group from which they arose

Seek to rescue religion from absorption into modern, Western culture

Strive to protect distinctive doctrine and way of life and of salvations

Many fundamentalists are politically aware citizens of nation-states

• Fundamentalism – antimodernist movements in various religions

A New Age

Number of Americans giving no religious preference grew from 7% to 13% between 1990 and 2001

A New Age

Exemption from taxation on income and property

Not all religions receive official recognition Scientology recognized as church in U.S. but

not in Germany

In U.S. official recognition of a religion entitles it to a modicum of respect

Secular Rituals

Include formal, invariant, stereotyped, earnest, repetitive behavior and rites of passage that take place in nonreligious settings

Many Americans seek in such apparently secular contexts as amusement parks, rock concerts, and sporting events what other people find in religious rites, beliefs, and ceremonies

Religious Composition (in Percentages) of the Populations of the U.S., 1990 and 2001, and Canada, 1991 and 2001