Ritual and Belief

Ritual (Practice) and Belief: Geertz

belief & practice - "a group's ethos rendered intellectually reasonable by is being shown to represent a way of life ... rendered emotionally convincing by being presented as an image of the actual state of affairs...”

What is Belief ?

powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in people conceptions of a general order of existence auras of factuality moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic

What is religion?

a set of beliefs supernatural and practices ( ritual ) aimed at ordering the relation of human beings to the supernatural - powers believed to be not human or not subject to the laws of nature – not all societies clear distinction religion belief and (Anthony Wallace) ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces a basic congruence between a particular style of life and a specific metaphysic/cosmology (the nature of being & the universe as an orderly system)

Clifford Geertz on Religion

a religion is: "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in people by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." (Geertz:90)

explaining religions

anthropological perspective on religion: religion exists in all societies anthropology a place where all religions are equally accepted – and equally subjected to analysis rejection that magic is somehow an inferior and prior belief system before religion

What is Magic?

The “laws of sympathetic magic” (Sir James George Frazer 1890)

Law of contagion – Things that have once been in contact, but have ceased to be so, continue to act on each other as if the contact still persisted Law of similarity – Like produces like, an effect resembles its cause “From the first of these principles the savage infers that he can produce any desired effect merely by imitating it; from the second he concludes that he can influence at pleasure and at any distance any person of whom, or any thing of which, he possesses a particle.”

religion and science

systems of information: science and technology systems of meaning: religion and magic – religion = explanation – magic = manipulation/control intervention to compel supernatural beings to do something useful when the situation is unknown, uncontrollable, dangerous baseball magic

What does religion do?

psychological explanations

psychological explanation -how ritual & belief satisfy cognitive & affective/emotional demands for a stable, comprehensible, and coercible world for the

individual

provides an orderly model of the universe explains the unknown reduces anxiety and fear enabling the individual to maintain an inner security in the face of natural contingency

social explanations

sets precedents for appropriate behavior sanctions conduct a form of social control justifies perpetuates a social order maintains social solidarity educates believers in social knowledge provides a sense of control and a source of solace – alleviation of grief

social role of witchcraft accusations

accusations provide a socially proscribed way to deal with these problems allows for public hearing entire complex of social relationships investigated effects for the community of witchcraft accusations – evil outsider  community solidarity – evil insider  necessary societal realignment

religion and worldview

sacred symbols function to synthesize a people's ethos – the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, institution – a basic congruence between a particular style of life and a specific metaphysic/cosmology encompassing pictures of reality based on a set of shared assumptions about how the world works

Religion and society

belief & ritual reinforce

social

ties between people religion (ritual & spirituality) represents one form of

collective consciousness

Durkheim: shared representations that form the basis for religion

Religion and social structure

Geertz: "the way in which the social structure of a group is strengthened & perpetuated through the ritualistic or mythic symbolization of the underlying social values upon which it rests."

Religion and social structure

ancestor worship supports the jural authority of elders initiation rites establish sexual identity & adult status ritual groupings reflect political oppositions myths provide charters for social institutions & rationalizations of social privilege

Ritual specialists

Priests and priestesses – Full-time religious experts Shaman – Part-time religious experts Other practitioners: witches, sorcerers, spirit mediums – complex societies have more than one type

Supernatural beings and powers

gods and goddesses – pantheon: a collection of such beings animating spirits – souls – spirits of the dead ancestor spirits ghosts nature spirits – impersonal forces mana

Ashanti Priest

Balinese Balian

Balinese Grandmother

Ritual

in western thought - ritual as a mark of all that separates rational modernity from cultures of tradition – the opposite of practical reason ritual is a vital element in the processes that make and remake social facts and collective identities everywhere (Comaroff & Comaroff) the symbolic behavior through which religion comes alive

ritual is repetitive, sequential, non ordinary, and “powerful”

repetitive: innovation not tolerated sequential: amen is at the end non-ordinary: marked in time or space “powerful”: power to change the world – by intervention of supernatural entities – transformation of the participant

Functions of ritual

Reinforce social bonds Relieve social tension Deal with life crises Celebrate life cycle events ritual is also a way a society remembers – through habit – through bodily practices

Types of ritual

Rites of Passage

Van Gennep and Victor Turner rites include three stages – Separation – marginality or liminality Communitas and anti-structure – incorporation or re-aggregation

Other Types of Ritual

Rites of intensification – cyclical rituals that reinforce the solidarity of the group ritual inversion Divination rituals – predict future & gain hidden info Technological rituals – designed to control nature for the purpose of human exploitation Protective rites – aimed at coping with uncertainty of nature, seas, floods, crop diseases

More Types

therapy & anti-therapy rituals – designed to control human health; curative, witchcraft, sorcery ideological rituals – intended to control the behavior, mood, sentiments & values of groups for the sake of community as a whole salvation rituals – aimed at repairing self esteem & other forms of impaired identity

Possession and salvation

individual's identity altered by the presence of an alien spirit ritual encouragement to accept another identity mystic experience or loss of personal identity by abandoning the old self & achieving salvation by identifying with a sacred being

Geertz's def.- religion maintains social order – but also instrument of change religion & resistance Religious revitalization movements & resistance – efforts to save a culture by infusing it with new purpose and new life – invention of tradition