McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1 Introduction Religion is defined, following Wallace, as belief and ritual concerned with supernatural

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

1 Introduction

• Religion is defined, following Wallace, as belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces.

• So defined, religion is a cultural universal.

• Neanderthal mortuary remains provide the earliest evidence of what probably was religious activity.


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7 Animism

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

• Animism was seen as the most primitive and is defined as a belief in souls that derives from the first attempt to explain dreams and like phenomena.


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9 Mana and Taboo

• Mana is defined as belief in an immanent supernatural domain or life-force, potentially subject to human manipulation.

• The Polynesian and Melanesian concepts of mana are contrasted.

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

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


10 Magic and Religion

• Magic refers to supernatural techniques intended to accomplish specific aims.

• Magic may be imitative (as with voodoo dolls) or contagious (accomplished through contact).


11 Anxiety, Control, Solace

• Magic is an instrument of control, but religion serves to provide stability when no control or understanding is possible.

• Malinowski saw tribal religions as being focused on life crises.


12 Rituals

• Rituals are formal, performed in sacred contexts.

• Rituals convey information about the culture of the participants and, hence, the participants themselves.

• Rituals are inherently social, and participation in them necessarily implies social commitment.


13 Rites of Passage

• Rites of passage are religious rituals which mark and facilitate a person's movement from one (social) state of being to another (e.g., Plains Indians’ vision quests).

• Rites of passage have three phases: – Separation – the participant(s) withdraws from the

group and begins moving from one place to another.– Liminality – the period between states, during which

the participant(s) has left one place but has not yet entered the next.

– Incorporation – the participant(s) reenters society with a new status having completed the rite.


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• Liminality is part of every rite of passage and involves the temporary suspension and even reversal of everyday social distinctions.

• Communitas refers to collective liminality, characterized by enhanced feelings of social solidarity and minimized distinctions.


15 Totemism

• Rituals play an important role in creating and maintaining group solidarity.

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

– Totems are the apical ancestor of clans.

– The members of a 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.


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• Totemism is a religion in which elements of nature act as sacred templates for society by means of symbolic association.

• Totemism uses nature as a model for society.

– Each descent group has a totem, which occupies a specific niche in nature.

– Social differences mirror the natural order of the environment.

– The unity of the human social order is enhanced by symbolic association with and imitation of the natural order.


17Religion and Cultural Ecology:

Sacred Cattle in India• Ahimsa is the Hindu doctrine of nonviolence that forbids the

killing of animals.

• Western economic development experts often use this principle as an example of how religion can stand in the way of development.

– Hindus seem to irrationally ignore a valuable food source (beef).

– Hindus also raise scraggly and thin cows, unlike the bigger cattle of Europe and the U.S.


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• These views are ethnocentric and wrong as cattle play an important adaptive role in an Indian ecosystem that has evolved over thousands of years

– Hindus use cattle for transportation, traction, and manure.

– Bigger cattle eat more, making them more expensive to keep.


19 Social Control

• The power of religion affects action.

• Religion can be used to mobilize large segments of society through systems of real and perceived rewards and punishments.

• Witch hunts play an important role in limiting social deviancy in addition to functioning as leveling mechanisms to reduce differences in wealth and status between members of society.

• Many religions have a formal code of ethics that prohibit certain behavior while promoting other kinds of behavior.

• Religions also maintain social control by stressing the fleeting nature of life.


20Religion and Social Control in

Afghanistan• This article describes the social conditions in

Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

• The Taliban are invoking a very strict interpretation of the Koran as the basis for social behavior.

• Women are required to wear veils, remain indoors, and are not allowed to be with males who are not blood relatives.

• Men are required to grow bushy beards and are barred from playing cards, flying kites, and keeping pigeons.


21 Kinds of Religion

• Religious forms vary from culture to culture, but there are correlations between political organization and religious type.


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• Religious Practitioners and Types– Wallace defined religion as consisting of all a society’s cult

institutions (rituals and associated beliefs) and developed four categories from this.

– In Shamanic religions, shamans are part-time religious intermediaries who may act as curers--these religions are most characteristic of foragers.

– Communal religions have shamans, community rituals, multiple nature gods, and are more characteristic of food producers than foragers.


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– Olympian religions first appeared with states, have full-time religious specialists whose organization may mimic the states, and have potent anthropomorphic gods who may exist as a pantheon.

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


24 Christian Values

• Max Weber linked the spread of capitalism to the values central to the Protestant faith: independent, entrepreneurial, hard working, future-oriented, and free thinking.

• The emphasis Catholics placed on immediate happiness and security, and the notion that salvation was attainable only when a priest mediated on one’s behalf, did not fit well with capitalism.


25 World Religions

• In the U.S. Protestants outnumber Catholics, but in Canada the reverse is true.

• Religious affiliation in North America varies with ethnic background, age, and geography.


26 Revitalization Movements

• Religious movements that act as mediums for social change are called revitalization movements.

• The colonial-era Iroquois reformation led by Handsome Lake is an example of a revitalization movement.


27 Syncretisms

• A syncretism is a cultural mix, including religious blends, that emerge when two or more cultural traditions come into contact.

– Examples include voodoo, santeria, and candomlé.

– The cargo cults of Melanesia and Papua New Guinea are syncretisms of Christian doctrine with aboriginal beliefs.

• Syncretisms often emerge when traditional, non-Western societies have regular contact with industrialized societies.

• Syncretisms attempt to explain European domination and wealth and to achieve similar success magically by mimicking European behavior and symbols.


28 A New Age

• Since the 1960s, there has been a decline in formal organized religions.

• New Age religions have appropriated ideas, themes, symbols, and ways of life from the religious practices of Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and east Asian religions.


29 A Pilgrimage to Walt Disney World

• Walt Disney World functions much like a sacred shrine that is a major pilgrimage destination– It has an inner, sacred center surrounded by an outer

more secular domain.– Parking lot designations are distinguished with totemlike

images of the Disney cast of characters.• The monorail provides travelers with a brief liminal period

as they cross between the outer, secular world into the inner, sacred center of the Magic Kingdom.


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• Within the Magic Kingdom

– Spending time in the Magic Kingdom reaffirms, maintains, and solidifies the world of Disney as all of the pilgrims share a common status as visitors while experiencing the same adventures.

– Most of the structures and attractions at the Magic Kingdom are designed to reaffirm and recall a traditional set of American values.


31 Recognizing Religion

• It is difficult to distinguish between sacred and secular rituals as behavior can simultaneously have sacred and secular aspects.

• Americans try to maintain a strict division between the sacred and the profane, but many other societies like the Betsileo do not.


32 What is Art?


33 What Is Art?

• Art is very difficult to define, but it generally refers to the manifestations of human creativity through which people express themselves in dance, music, song, painting, sculpture, pottery, cloth, storytelling, verse, prose, drama, and comedy.


34 Art and Religion

• Definitions of both art and religion focus on the more than ordinary aspects of each with regard to how they are different from the ordinary and profane/secular.

• A lot of Western and non-Western art has been done in association with religion, but it is important to remember that not all non-Western art has ritual or religious importance.


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• Art and religion both have formal (museums and churches, temples) and informal (parks, homes, and regular gathering places) venues of expression.

– State-level societies have permanent structures for religion and art.

– Non-state-level societies lack permanent structures for religion and art.


36 Locating Art

• In states, art is housed in special buildings like museums, concert halls, and theaters.

• In nonstates, artistic expression takes place in public spaces that have been set aside for art.

• In states, critics, judges, and experts determine what is art and what is not.

• The Kalabari example demonstrates that not all sculpture is art because wooden carvings are manufactured exclusively for religious reasons.


37 Art and Individuality

• Some anthropologists have criticized that the study of non-Western art ignores the individual and focuses too much on the group.

• However, in many non-Western societies, there is more collective production of art than in Western cultures.

• Bohannan argued that among the Tiv, the emphasis should be on the critics rather than the artists because the Tiv do not recognize the same connection between artists and their art.

• The degree to which artists can be separated from their work varies cross-culturally.


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39 The Work of Art

• In all societies art is work.

– In nonstate societies, artists cannot work on their art all of the time as they still must hunt, gather, fish, herd, or farm to eat.

– In states, artists are full-time specialists whose career is their work.

• Artistic completeness or mastery is determined and maintained by both formal and informal standards.


40 Art, Society, and Culture

• Art is usually a public phenomenon that is exhibited, performed, evaluated, and appreciated in society.

• Ethnomusicology is the comparative study of the musics of the world and of music as an aspect of culture and society.

• Folk art, music, and lore refer to the expressive culture of ordinary people.

• Art is a form of social communication.


41 The Cultural Transmission of the Arts

• Art is a part of culture, and as a result, appreciation for the arts is internalized during enculturation.

• The appreciation of different art forms varies cross-culturally.

• In nonindustrialized societies, artistic traditions are generally transmitted through families and kin groups.

• The art of storytelling plays a critical role in the transmission, preservation, and expression of cultural traditions.


42 The Artistic Career

• In many non-Western societies children born into certain lineages are destined for a particular artistic career (e.g., leather working, wood carving, and making pottery).

• Full craft specialists find support through their kin ties in non-Western societies or through patrons in Western societies.

• The arts rely on individual talent that is shaped through socially approved directions.


43 Continuity and Change

• The arts are always changing.

• The arts incorporate a wide variety of media.


44 What Is Art?

• Art is very difficult to define, but it generally refers to the manifestations of human creativity through which people express themselves in dance, music, song, painting, sculpture, pottery, cloth, storytelling, verse, prose, drama, and comedy.


45 Art and Religion

• Definitions of both art and religion focus on the more than ordinary aspects of each with regard to how they are different from the ordinary and profane/secular.

• A lot of Western and non-Western art has been done in association with religion, but it is important to remember that not all non-Western art has ritual or religious importance.


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• Art and religion both have formal (museums and churches, temples) and informal (parks, homes, and regular gathering places) venues of expression.

– State-level societies have permanent structures for religion and art.

– Non-state-level societies lack permanent structures for religion and art.


47 Locating Art

• In states, art is housed in special buildings like museums, concert halls, and theaters.

• In nonstates, artistic expression takes place in public spaces that have been set aside for art.

• In states, critics, judges, and experts determine what is art and what is not.

• The Kalabari example demonstrates that not all sculpture is art because wooden carvings are manufactured exclusively for religious reasons.


48 Art and Individuality

• Some anthropologists have criticized that the study of non-Western art ignores the individual and focuses too much on the group.

• However, in many non-Western societies, there is more collective production of art than in Western cultures.

• Bohannan argued that among the Tiv, the emphasis should be on the critics rather than the artists because the Tiv do not recognize the same connection between artists and their art.

• The degree to which artists can be separated from their work varies cross-culturally.


49 The Work of Art

• In all societies art is work.

– In nonstate societies, artists cannot work on their art all of the time as they still must hunt, gather, fish, herd, or farm to eat.

– In states, artists are full-time specialists whose career is their work.

• Artistic completeness or mastery is determined and maintained by both formal and informal standards.


50 Art, Society, and Culture

• Art is usually a public phenomenon that is exhibited, performed, evaluated, and appreciated in society.

• Ethnomusicology is the comparative study of the musics of the world and of music as an aspect of culture and society.

• Folk art, music, and lore refer to the expressive culture of ordinary people.

• Art is a form of social communication.


51 The Cultural Transmission of the Arts

• Art is a part of culture, and as a result, appreciation for the arts is internalized during enculturation.

• The appreciation of different art forms varies cross-culturally.

• In nonindustrialized societies, artistic traditions are generally transmitted through families and kin groups.

• The art of storytelling plays a critical role in the transmission, preservation, and expression of cultural traditions.


52 The Artistic Career

• In many non-Western societies children born into certain lineages are destined for a particular artistic career (e.g., leather working, wood carving, and making pottery).

• Full craft specialists find support through their kin ties in non-Western societies or through patrons in Western societies.

• The arts rely on individual talent that is shaped through socially approved directions.


53 Continuity and Change

• The arts are always changing.

• The arts incorporate a wide variety of media.

Documents

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1 Introduction Religion is defined, following Wallace, as belief and ritual concerned with supernatural