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Religion
A Luba diviner and her client, performing a divination ritual, jointly hold a friction oracle known as a kakishi on a woven mat on the ground between them..
(John Pemberton)
Albrecht Durer 1504
Genesis Ch 3 v 6-7
“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food…. she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons”
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II Westminster Abbey
2 June 1953.
Shoshone “Water baby”
PetroglyphDinwoody area Wyoming
The water babies (pa:unha) or children of the water live in creeks and lakes and are about 1 – 1 ½ half feet tall.
They sound like babies crying and are known for stealing babies if left unattended near the water.
Sometimes they will attract the mother with their cry. If the mother tries to stop the water baby from crying by letting it nurse, the water baby will attach itself to her breast and suck the blood from her body until she dies
(The wavy lines are an indication of a being that is under water)
The Major Features of Religion• Texts
• A means of explanation
• Stress/Anxiety Relief
• Body of myth
• Rituals
• Magic and witchcraft
• supernatural Beings and powers
• Specially skilled individuals
• Belief in the supernatural
• Symbolic
• Moral code
• Sacred vs. profane
• Emotional Experience
• Group membership/identity
• System
• A philosophy
What makes these religious?
“a set of beliefs, in supernatural forces that functions to provide meaning, and a sense of control over unexplainable phenomena (Ferraro 2005)”
What is considered the supernatural varies from one society to the next.
Defining Religion
Many societies don’t have a separate word for religion--it is so integrated into politics, or cultural identity
Explanations for the Universality of Religion
Psychological Sociological
Intellectual Emotional
InterpretativeFunctional
primitive man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopherthe notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational thinkingpreliterate religious beliefs and practices were not “ridiculous” or a “rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly”they were essentially consistent and logical, based on rational thinking and empirical knowledge.Tylor’s minimal definition of religion “belief in spiritual beings” = animisfrom the Latin word anima meaning breath or soul.)
Intellectual approach
E. B. Tylor
(
1. “what is it that makes the difference between a living body and a dead one and what causes sleep, trance, disease, death?”
“ancient savage “philosophers” - impressed by two groups of biological problems:
2. “what are these human shapes which appear in dreams and visions?”
a spirit or soul, derived from the experience of human souls or spirits in `dreams and waking hallucinations' is thought to `animate' lifeless objects such as sticks or stones, trees, mountains, rivers, etc.
Animism
the idea that the world and everything in it is filled with souls or spirits.
These spirits can be communicated with.
Spirits “feel” and therefore, can be harmed, flattered, offended and can also hurt or help.
Psychological Approach Gives meaning to life – Yes there is life after death
a means for dealing with crises death and illness, famine, flood, failure
Reduces anxiety
provides comfort
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
A man sleeps on an ancestral skull to ward off evil spirits in Asmat area of Irian Jaya, Indonesia
Sociological Approach religion stems from society and provides for societal needs
religions validate the social: they posit controlling forces in the universe that sustain the moral and social order
provide notions of right and wrong acceptable behaviour, group norms
provides moral sanctions for individual conduct
education function through ritual used to learn oral traditionseg. puberty rites provide information about tribal lore.
1. Social Control
2. Conflict Resolution
3. Group solidarity
"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”
Interpretative Sees religion as a set of symbols and stresses the meaning of those symbols, as referents and creators of meaningful life.
Concerned with interpretation of rituals
Coping with Uncertainty
Magic, divination, oracles, & witchcraft
MAGIC
Nature is understood to be controlled by forces which can be manipulated
Magic is a way of controlling the natural elements. Magicians attempt to control the elements for the benefit
of their society or for the detriment of their enemies.
Rain Dance by Tom Philllips
Contagious Magic
Standing Bison, Altamira (Spain) c. 15,000-10,000 B.C
Cave art used for rituals of this sort?
Playoff Beard
Stephane Yelle
Jarome Iginla
Miikka Kiprusoff
Louis Van Zelst (c.1896-1915)
Philadelphia Athletics hunchback mascot and bat boy (1910-1914)
“better rub my hump for a hit”
Athletics won World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913 (top of league 1914)
Credited for the wins as much as the coach
1915 Athletics finished dead last
National Post
What is divination?
" the practice of foreseeing future events or acquiring hidden knowledge through supernatural means"
bronze model of sheep liver with Etruscan writing used for divination (hepatomancy)
The Piacenza Liver
Modern Examples?
Omens
Ordeals
Oracles
An Azande diviner uses a friction oracle (iwa), holding his foot against the lower part to keep the instrument in place and rubbing the upper part against it.
Men always carry an iwa with them for consultation on questions ranging from whether or not to take a journey to identification of the witch who has made him suddenly and violently sick.
The small table-like portion is thought of as the female part. The rubber is considered male.
Rubbing Board oracles (iwa)
A diviner operating the rubbing-board oracle.
Any individual may make an iwa so long as he observes the appropriate taboos, such as abstaining from sexual relations for two days and not eating certain foods,
He must also follow prescribed procedures which include burning the surface of the wood with a red-hot spear, preparing and anointing the object with a mixture of boiled root juices and oil over which he has prayed:
‘the inherent power to harm other persons by supernatural means’ Evans-Pritchard
Witchcraft
The image of the Witch
When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?When the hurly-burly's done. When the battle's lost and won.That will be ere the set of sun...Fair is foul, and foul is fairHover through the fog and filthy air." Macbeth, Act I, Scene I
Christian Witch
White predominant color Black dominant (Black Mass)
Chastity Orgie
Heterosexual norm Homosexual norm
Holy Communion Cannibalism
Daytime Mass Night time Mass
Prayers said normally Prayers said backward
Worship God Worship devil
authority divinely ordained Authority from the devil (Eve)
Witches represent a reversal of normal behaviour
Where does this concept come from
Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
first published in 1486
> 20 editions next 200 years
The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer)
Pope Innocent VIII issued a Papal Bull in 1484. It’s inclusion made it appear that the whole book enjoyed papal sanction
Swearing allegiance to the Devil, by trampling the Cross... And kissing his behind
“He must not be too quick to subject a witch to examination, but must pay attention to certain signs which will follow.
And he must not be too quick for this reason: unless God, through a holy Angel, compels the devilto withhold his help from the witch,she will be so insensible to the pains of torture that she will sooner be torn limb from limb than confess any of the truth.”
-- Kramer and Sprenger, the Malleus Maleficarum
One 'foolproof' way to establish whether a suspect was a witch was ducking.
With right thumb bound to left toe, the accused was plunged into a convenient pond.
If she floated it proved she was a witch. Having rejected the baptismal water the water was now rejecting her.
She could then be hanged as a witch
If the victim drowned they were innocent. Given the position of the prisoner, it was more likely they would float
Matthew Hopkins, England's Witch-Finder General, explains how to identify witches and their familiars
In England, torture was not allowed against witches because witches were not believed to be conspirators.
Torture by sleeplessness, (Tormentum insomniae) was allowable perhaps because it did not seem to be a real torture.
Matthew Hopkins, known as “The Witch-Finder General”. Was paid by local authorities to find witches. Between 1645-1646, Hopkins he was responsible for the condemnations and executions of some 230 alleged witches,
Some statistics:
Between c.1450 and c.1650, about 60,000 to 100,000 people were executed by legal authorities for witchcraft in Europe.
75%-90% of those accused were female.
The majority of those accused were over the age of 50.
When torture was used to extract confessions, 95% of suspects were convicted.
When torture was not used, only 50% were convicted.
“What else is a woman …but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, and an evil of nature painted with fair colors [she is, furthermore ]by her nature quicker to waiver in her faith which is the root of witchcraft.”
Kramer and Sprenger, the Malleus Maleficarum
Who were the witches?
“While this tradition of blaming unexpected misfortunes on black magic is found throughout rural Africa, in few places has it taken more victims than in South Africa's rural Northern Province. More than 500 people, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and killed by mobs here between 1990 and 1995. Even more lost their homes and their possessions when they were either run out of town or had their homes torched.”
Christian Science Monitor Dec. 6, 2000
Sabrina Bewitched
Practical MagicWorst witch ever
Charmed
Ritual
Ritual Bathing in the Ganges on the ghats of Varanasi (formerly Banaras)
Hindu pilgrims, standing waist high in the water, pray to cleanse their souls as they face the rising sun to ensure a good rebirth
When people bathe in the holy Ganges, they scoop the water and pour it into the river as an offering.
“a ritual is a stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures, words, or objects, performed in a sequestered place and designed to influence preternatural [magical] entities or forces on behalf of the actor’s goals or interests”
Victor Turner
• Sometimes ritual reenact myths and stories.
• sometimes involve particular kind of attire, or a specific location.
• They could be the reliving of an important event.
• a patterned form of behavior, generally communal and consisting of prescribed actions and words
• usually deeply meaningful for us
Rituals
Tibetan Llamas
1. They are by definition religious –involve magic, the supernatural
2. They are highly formalized or structured patterns of behaviour
3. rituals are belief in action
4. Out of the ordinary actions i.e. sacred
5. usually performed in a sequestered place
6. They have a goal or aim
7. They serve a function for the people concerned
8. They serve to provide a sense of solidarity
9. symbolic
10. multivocalic
Ten characteristics of rituals
Types of Rituals
•concerned with the natural world•seasonal•should guarantee success and wealth•raindance
•Rites of transition or passage, life cycle•concerned with the social world•changes in the individual’s status, role or position
•Critical or life-crisis rites
•Curing and magic
•Concerned with the individual
•Ritual For Group Welfare
1. Mass2. Communion3. Feast Days
•Calendrical rites
Solomon Grundy,Born on Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,Married on Wednesday,Took ill on Thursday,
Worse on Friday,Died on Saturday,Buried on Sunday:
This is the endOf Solomon Grundy
Solomon Grundy
What is a rite of passage?
Rites of passage are the mileposts or landmarks that guide travelers through the life cycle.
Quinceanera
Throughout our lives there are periods when not much seems to happen
Then there are times when our lives undergo dramatic change
After which nothing is quite the same as it was before.
These transitions are often marked by rituals
Arnold van Gennep(1873 - 1957)
The Rites of Passage (1908)1. separation - Preliminal
– purification rites– rituals symbolize cutting or
separating eg. removal of hair– seclusion
2. Transition - liminal – person symbolically placed
“outside” society – observes certain taboos or
restrictions– normal rules of the society
suspended– rite may be seen as a symbolic
death, leading to a rebirth
3. incorporation - postliminal 1. Symbolically reborn2. completes transition to a new
status3. lifting of restrictions4. wear new clothes and insignia
Initiation ceremonies for young boys culminate in circumcision.
The ceremonies are held at a special ceremonial grounds.
The final rituals are only open to men.
Australian Aborigine Initiation Rites
Young initiates are carried to their elders on the ceremonial ground and will stay with them during the all-night "Mandiwala" dance before their circumcision. Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
Boys are painted up for their "Mandiwala" initiation ceremony Their circumcision takes place early in the morning.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
Initiates during their ceremony in Borroloola; they are looking at a long line of dancers that will dance closely around them at the ceremony ground.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
the initiates act as though they were dead
about an hour before sunset, the instructors take their charges to an appointed place for a “surprise”
Several men emerge from the bush swinging their bull roarers
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
Young boys from Numbulwar with small spears; they will try to hit the men, who will then have to dance for them at their circumcision ceremony.
"Daru" initiates in Borroloola. They are carrying small bark boomerangs with which they try to hit men
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
A boy is painted with red ochre for his "Mandiwala" initiation ceremony. He wears a belt of human hair.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
When the neophytes wake, they are Invested with a 'belt of manhood' and their instruction begins
Making fire with fire stick
ancestral beliefs about a great Being, who lived on the earth, and who taught the men how to make implements revealed to the novices
The Power of Myth Joseph Campbell, p. 81, Doubleday, New York, 1988
Initiation scars
Photo Andreas Lommel 1938
What is do these rituals do?
• What are some of the powerful messages that these rituals send to the boys (and girls) and to their communities?
• How do they use spiritual power to change to state of human beings?
Liminal period Initiate separated from normal life and secluded is in an ambiguous condition
Initiate has nothing – no status, property, rank or kinship position - sacred poverty state
initiates may be seen as sexless or bisexual, or considered unclean or polluting
treated as an embryo or a newborn infant, or thought of as “dead” (by and to his parents and community)
a suspension of normative obligations
stress on servility to absolute authority of the ritual elders
secret, esoteric knowledge – the sacra = the “crux of liminality”
unstructured and egalitarian bonds between people
Typical of the Liminal stage of a rite of passage
A communal bond that results from social leveling and shared experience of liminality
Among neophytes there is often complete equality
comradeship transcends distinctions of rank, age, kinship position
Communitas transgresses or dissolves norms that govern institutionalized relationships
Communitas emerges where structure is not
Communitas has an aspect of potentiality
Communitas
institutional functionaries vs. Inspirational functionaries
Religious Specialists
authority comes from his service in a sacred tradition
must have competence in conducting ritual -
Symbols of a rite are sensorial perceptible to a congregation and have a permanence in that they are culturally transmissible
The priest is an actor in a culturally scripted drama
efforts are individual and occasional
deals with spirits and lesser deities
tends to dominate in food-gathering societies
most frequently performs a curing rite
institutional functionaries
power inherited or derived from the body of codified and standardized – from society
Inspirational functionaries
Authority from supernatural
powers come from divine stroke and personal ability
Source of power comes from Belief in magic which has three aspects
1. The sorcerers belief in the effectiveness of his techniques
2. The patient’s or victim’s belief in the sorcerer’s power
3. The faith and expectations of the group,
The shamanistic complex
A shaman of the Sitka-Qwan Indians (Alaska), wearing a ritual mask, is doing a healing.
The Ghost Dance
Revitalization Movements
Revitalization Movements
deliberate and organized attempts by some members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture by rapid acceptance of a pattern of multiple innovations
political-religious movement
promising deliverance from deprivation,
the elimination of foreign domination
new interpretation of the human condition
common in societies undergoing severe stress
The traditional way of life had disappeared
Wovoka (= Jack Wilson)
Paiute Prophet
c. 1858–1932
A wickiup January 1889
A wickiup
central precept of the Ghost Dance involved the reuniting of the living and the dead accompanied by a glorious return of traditional Indian cultureLike many millenarian visions, Wovoka's prophecies stressed the link between righteous behavior and imminent salvation.Wovoka charged his followers to "not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always... Do not refuse to work for the whites and do not make any trouble with them.“
Arapaho Ghost Dance
Salvation was not to be passively awaited but welcomed by a regime of ritual dancing and upright moral conduct.
Artwork based on photographs of James Mooney.
Ghost Dance Shirt
Wounded Knee Massacre South Dakota Dec 29th 1890
I Steady StateII Period of increased Individual StressIII Period of Cultural DistortionIV Period of Revitalization
1. Mazeway Reformulation 2. Communication 3. Organization 4. Adaptation 5. Cultural Transformation 6. Routinization
V New Steady State
Revitalization movements (Wallace)
Characteristic structure
cargo – pidgin English, for trade goods
religious movements that have as their most characteristic feature ~ the belief in a future Golden Age of prosperity and power conceptualized as the delivery and distribution of a cargo of consumer goods.
Cargo Cults
Messianic: i.e. often concerned with a utopian future brought about by the intervention of a Messiah.
syncretism between indigenous and colonial religious symbols and doctrines
Most common in New Guinea and the islands of Melanesia after WWII
Some recruiters or blackbirders with the crew of their boat. The rifles the crew are holding are to protect them when they go to find labourers to work in Queensland or Fiji.
Coast Guard landing craft and barges deliver
supplies in late-1942.
Although known since the 19th century most arose since WWII
A time of plenty had arrived
plane traffic flying over the islands carrying great loads of goods in the cargo bays of the airplanes
Scenes from Gualtiero Jacopetti’s pop documentary Mondo Cane, filmed in New Guinea in 1959
Cargo cults generally contain some ritual in imitation of the mysterious European customs
Model airplanes used in cargo cults
Another still from Mondo cane. This airstrip consists of a cleared mountain top overlooking the “real” airport at Port Moresby. The ritualists hope one night to entice a cargo plane to land at their airstrip, and thus help usher in the millennium
Planes come from paradise sent by their ancestors. The crafty white man (pirates) however, manages to get his hands on them by attracting them into a big trap of an airport.
You build your plane too, and wait with faith. Sooner of later, your ancestors will discover the white man's trap and will guide the planes onto your landing strip.
Then you will be rich and happy.
Field of Dreams 1989
"If we build it, they will come."
JOHN FRUM MOVEMENT
John Frum Effigy Remind you of anyone?
At the heart of the movement is a mythic messianic figure called Jon Frum
A spirit messiah who had come to change the people back to their traditional ways before corruption from the British missionaries and empower the people by giving them cargo wealth
Yasur Volcano Tanna
John Frum is believed to live in the crater of the Yasur volcano with an army of 20,000 men.
Flag Raising ceremony - Re-enactment of US Military occupation from World War Two - still forms the
ceremonial centerpiece to John Frum Day (February 15th)
Red Crosses (from period of war hospitals) worshipped
John Frum “army”, in jeans and bare torsos with 'USA' painted on their chests and backs in day-glo pink magic marker, carry four-foot lengths of bamboo at the "shoulder arms" position, the tops cut to a bayonet point and colored red to evoke fire
Berndt, Wallace
kaleidoscope of elements,
recombined to build new picture of
reality
Wallace
Childish, irrational wishful thinking
Lanternari
Covert form of revolutionary consciousness.
Proto-nationalism
Worsley, Jarvie.
Viewed in terms of situational analysis. A
rational form of action
Cargo Cults
Cargo Cult Interpretations
NATIVISTIC: rejection of alien values, customs and peopleE.g. Ghost Dance
REVIVALISTIC: Revival of customs and values of previous generations return to (presumed) ancient ways
E.g. Neoshamanism in Siberia
VITALISTIC: emphasis on importing alien elements (e.g. Singer sewing machines, Gordon’s gin)
E.g. Cargo cults (Vailala Madness, Jon Frum cult)
MILLENARIAN: apocalyptic transformation of the world, involving overturning of present social system, predicted to occur in near future Rooted in Judeo Christian messianism
E.g. Christian doctrine revealed in the Book of Revelations, Christ's return and his rule on earth for a thousand years
MESSIANIC: spiritual savior will appear, or is already present, to transform the world through his personalized power
Revitalization Movements
Wicca: What is it? Witchcraft also called Wicca or the Craft a neo-pagan, nature-centered religion It worships a Goddess and usually a God uses magic as a tool of personal and global
transformation. The fastest growing religion in the USA and Canada?
Gerald Gardner1884-1964
High Magic's Aid 1949 a fictional account of witches
1951 England repealed the witchcraft laws
Witchcraft Today 1954 a non-fictional account of modern witchcraft
The Meaning of Witchcraft 1959 A history of Wicca in Northern Europe.
These books formed the basis of modern Wicca
LadyBear...Child of Mother Earth
Woodstock
1969
Central law of Wicca: An It Harm None, Do What Ye Will" I.e. as long as you don't do anything that will hurt anyone (including yourself) it is allowed.
Second rule: Everything you put out comes back to you Three fold. Good or bad, good spells or bad spells
Sabbats
Samhain (Halloween) Yule
(Winter Soltice) Candlemas (Feb 2) Ostara
(Spring Equinox) Beltane (May day) Midsummer
(Summer Soltice) Lammas (July 31) Mabon
(Autumn Equinox)
Rituals & Beliefs
• Most rituals take place in a circular formation
• Symbolizes boundary between outside world and the world of the goddesses
• Earth religion: primary beliefs revolve around environment
• Rituals also honor birth, death and reincarnation. Beliefs expressed through music, dancing and/or meditation as a way for members to experience their own power and connectedness.
The pentagram – five pointed star
pentacle--pentagram inscribed in a circle
Spirit - symbolizes spiritual love
Air - the mind
Water - the cycle of life
Earth - the Mother element
Fire - passion
Was the attack political or religious?
What did World Trade Centre symbolize
to Americans
to Terrorists
Religious Nationalism
Reactions to September 11
"If you raise an objection to some unlawful religious practice in a public place, the people who complain are not only labeled anti-religious, but anti-American.” ACLU
Religious Nationalism
Religion, Nationalism, Capitalism Combined: The American Way
Has the American Flag become a religious symbol for Americans?
1. What is the purpose of divination among the Azande?
2. What is Witchcraft and what do witches do
3. Who are the Witches
4. What do witches epitomize?
5. Who do you accuse of being a witch?
6. what’s the first thing you do if you’re accused of being a witch
7. Why did the oracle “work” in the case of the adultery?
8. Who is the real victim in witchcraft accusations?
9. How do you prevent being accused of witchcraft
10. How are accusations of witchcraft a form of social control
11. How does consultation of oracles assist the Azande to cope with social and cognitive uncertainty?
12. How have Christian beliefs and values been incorporated in the Azande system?
Witchcraft Among the Azande
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