Transcript Religion.ppt

Religion
Religion is Notoriously
difficult to define.
But we have no difficulty in
deciding whether something
is Religious or not
Or do we
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
What makes these religious?
The Major Features of Religion
• Belief in the supernatural
• Texts
• Symbolic
• A means of explanation
• Moral code
• Stress/Anxiety Relief
• Sacred vs. profane
• Body of myth
• Emotional Experience
• Rituals
• Group membership/identity
• Magic and witchcraft
• System
• supernatural Beings and
powers
• A philosophy
• Specially skilled individuals
Defining Religion
Religion
can be defined as any set of attitudes,
beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural
power, whether that power be forces, gods,
spirits, ghosts, or demons.
What
is considered the supernatural varies
from one society to the next.
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
Functional
Psychological
Intellectual
Interpretative
Sociological
Emotional
Intellectual approach
primitive
E. B. Tylor
man was a rationalist
and a scientific philosopher
the notion of spirits was not the
outcome of irrational thinking
preliterate 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.
“ancient savage “philosophers” - impressed by
two groups of biological problems:
1. “what is it that makes the difference
between a living body and a dead one and
what causes sleep, trance, disease, death?”
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.
Tylor’s minimal definition of religion
“belief in spiritual beings” = animism
(from the Latin word anima meaning breath or soul.)
primitive
man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopher
the
notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational
thinking
preliterate
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.
Psychological Approach
 Reduces anxiety
 provides comfort
 Gives meaning to life – Yes there is life after death
 a means for dealing with crises death and illness,
famine, flood, failure
 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
Sociological Approach
religion stems from society and societal needs and provides
for them
religions validate the social: they posit controlling forces in
the universe that sustain the moral and social order of a
people
sanction human conduct by providing notions of right and
wrong
setting precedents for acceptable behaviour, group norms
provides moral sanctions for individual conduct
education function through ritual used to learn oral
traditions
eg. puberty rites provide information about tribal lore.
Interpretative
Sees religion as a set of symbols and stresses the meaning of those
symbols, as referents and creators of meaningful life.
"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”
Claude Levi-Strauss structuralism -- Analysis of symbolic forms
of mythic
Through the work of Douglas and Victor Turner, as well as
performance theory, a new emphasis on ritual was established.
Concerned with the act
Coping with
Uncertainty
Magic, divination,
oracles, and 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.
Contagious Magic
Sympathetic Magic
Cave art used for rituals of this sort?
Standing Bison, Altamira
(Spain) c. 15,000-10,000 B.C
Jarome
Iginla
Playoff Beard
Miikka Kiprusoff
Stephane Yelle
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"
The Piacenza Liver
bronze model of sheep liver with Etruscan
writing used for divination (hepatomancy)
Modern Examples?
Ordeals
Omens
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.
Rubbing Board oracles (iwa)
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.
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
A diviner operating the rubbing- he has prayed:
board oracle.
Witchcraft
‘the inherent power to harm other persons by supernatural
means’ Evans-Pritchard
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 fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air." Macbeth, Act I, Scene I
Witches represent a reversal of normal behaviour
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)
Where does this concept come from
The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer)
Heinrich Kramer and James
Sprenger
first published in 1486
> 20 editions next 200 years
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
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 devil
to withold 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
an association with the black
arts, with the body rejecting
the baptismal water. If the
victim drowned they were
innocent. Given the position
of the prisoner, it was more
likely they would float
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
used it for his advantage in
Essex. In one instance, John
Lowe, 70-year-old vicar of
Brandeston, was "swum in the
moat," kept awake for three
days and nights, and then
Matthew Hopkins, England's Witch-Finder forced to walk without rest
General, explains how to identify witches
until his feet were blistered.
and their familiars
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.
Who were the witches?
“What else is a woman …but a foe to
friendship, an unescapable 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
“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
Worst witch ever
Bewitched
Charmed
Practical Magic
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
Rituals
• 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
Tibetan Llamas
Ten characteristics of rituals
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
Types of Rituals
•Calendrical rites
•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. Mass
2. Communion
3. Feast Days
Role and Function of Rituals
Contact
the Ultimate Reality
Communicate with the Ultimate Reality
Communicate to others (public vs. private)
Help to develop relationship with the Ultimate
Reality
Effect human transformation
What is a rite of passage?
Solomon Grundy
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 end
Of Solomon Grundy
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
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
Arnold van Gennep
(1873 - 1957)
–
–
–
–
Symbolically reborn
completes transition to a new status
lifting of restrictions
wear new clothes and insignia
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.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
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
Initiates during their ceremony in Borroloola; they are
looking at a long line of dancers that will dance closely
around them and take them to the ceremony ground.
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
that was put on him at the
start of his initiation.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
Boys are painted up for their
"Mandiwala" initiation
cermony, where the whole
night the men will dance for
them; their circumcision takes
place early in the morning.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
"Daru" initiates in Borroloola. They are carrying small bark
boomerangs with which they try to hit men who should later dance
for them in their "Mandiwala" ceremony.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
Young initiates during a "Djapi" circumcision ceremony in
Numbulwar, south eastern Arnhem Land, in which the boys are
painted with their clan totemic designs.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
An initiate during a southern Arnhem Land circumcision
ceremony; the boy is decorated with white clay and strings of
feathers.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
A man's dance during an initiation ceremony in the early
morning in Beswick, in the southern part of Arnhem Land.
Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services
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”
Communitas
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
Myth
The word myth often has three meanings.
1. “something widely accepted but is really false.”
2. Stories in early societies which tell of heroic actions
or forces of nature or gods or goddesses. usually
sacred,
3. Primitive belief about nature and the universe.
“Pre-scientific”
Usually a traditional story of ostensible historical
events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a
people or explain a practice, belief, or natural
phenomenon; parable, allegory; an ill-founded belief
held uncritically especially by an interested group.”
Webster's
Myths
are considered
•true sacred stories
•that occurred in the remote past
•and have non-humans (gods, monsters) as the
principal characters.
•“presents in the form of a
narrative the basic world
view of a society.” (Ellwood)
Subjects of myth
•Creation of world and humans
•Cosmic catastrophes
•Origins of institutions
•Phenomena of birth and death
•Relations of the gods with
each other and mortals
Functions of Myth

Gives meaning to life by answering questions like: 'Who made
the world? How will it end? Who was the first man? Where
do souls go after death?'. .
 Gives validity to and explains certain ideas and principles eg.
incest taboos, food taboos
 teaches morality and social behavior - what types of things
should and shouldn’t be done and the consequences for those
wrong doings
 validates the existing social order (e.g Trobriand myth)
 enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a
pedestal.
 It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the
sources of cultural attitudes and values.
The Four Functions of MYTH
1 The first is the mystical function...realizing what a wonder the
universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before
this mystery...
2 The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which
science is concerned--showing you what the shape of the universe is,
but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through...
3 The third function is the sociological one--supporting and
validating a certain social order...It is this sociological function of
myth that has taken over in our world--and it is out of date...
4 But there is a fourth function of myth, and this is
the one that I think everyone must try today to relate
to--and that is the pedagogical function, of how to
live a human lifetime under any circumstances.
Myths can teach you that.
Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth, page 31.
FORM
BELIEF
TIME
PLACE
Different
world:
other or
earlier
Myth
Fact
Remote
Past
Legend
Fact
Recent
Past
World
today
Any Time
Any
Place
Folktale
Fiction
ATTITUDE
Sacred
of Secular
sacred
Secular
(nonsacred)
PRINCIPAL
CHARACTERS
Non-human
(often
gods)
or Human
(heroes)
Human
or
non-human
Religion and Power
Priests versus Shamans
institutional
functionaries
Inspirational
functionaries
power inherited
or derived from
the body of
codified and
standardized –
from society
authority comes from his service in
a sacred tradition
efforts are individual and
occasional
must have competence in
conducting ritual -
deals with spirits and lesser
deities
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
Authority from
supernatural
powers come from
divine stroke and
personal ability
tends to dominate in foodgathering societies
most frequently performs a
curing rite
A shaman
of the SitkaQwan
Indians
(Alaska),
wearing a
ritual mask,
is doing a
healing.
The shamanistic complex
Source of power comes from
Belief in magic which has
three aspects
1. The sorcerers belief in the
effectiveness of his
techniques
an hamatsa (shaman) who has
become possessed by
supernatural madness after
spending many days in the
woods as part of the hamatsa
initiation ceremony.
2. The patient’s or victim’s
belief in the sorcerer’s
power
3. The faith and expectations
of the group,
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
The Ghost Dance
Wovoka
(Jack Wilson )
A wickiup January 1889
A wickiup
The Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance Shirt
Wounded Knee Massacre South Dakota Dec 29th 1890
Revitalization Movements
 NATIVISTIC: rejection of alien values and customs
 REVIVALISTIC: return to (presumed) ancient ways
 VITALISTIC: emphasis on importing alien elements
(e.g. Singer sewing machines, Gordon’s gin)
 MILLENARIAN: apocalyptic transformation of the
world, involving overturning of present social system,
predicted to occur in near future
 MESSIANIC: spiritual savior will appear, or is already
present, to transform the world through his personalized
power
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.
Gerald Gardner
1884-1964
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
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.
Spirit - symbolizes
spiritual love
Air - the mind
Water - the cycle of
life
Earth - the Mother
element
Fire - passion
The pentagram – five pointed star
pentacle--pentagram inscribed in a circle
Witchcraft Among the Azande
1.
How does consultation of oracles assist the Azande to
cope with social and cognitive uncertainty?
2.
Does oracle consultation help Azande society function
more smoothly? In what ways?
3.
Why did the oracle “work” in the case of the
adultery?
4.
How have Christian beliefs and values been
incorporated in the Azande system?
5.
How can witchcraft be seen as a form of social
control?
Witchcraft Among the Azande
What is the purpose of divination among the Azande?
What is Witchcraft and what do witches do
Who are the Witches
What do witches epitomize?
Who do you accuse of being a witch?
If you are accused of being a witch what’s the first thing you’re
going to do?
Who is the real victim in witchcraft accusations?
How do you prevent being accused of witchcraft
How are accusations of witchcraft a form of social control
What would happen if the benge either killed or spared the chicken
every time.