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⛲Religion
Class Anth 203
Type Lecture
Created time @April 25, 2023 4:20 PM
Last edited time @April 25, 2023 4:20 PM
Multipart Part 1 and Part 2
˚₊· ͟͞➳❥ Defining Religion
“Ideas and practices that postulate reality beyond that which is
immediately available to the senses”
Religion 1
, Religion
A system of beliefs and practices involving supernatural beings
and forces that function to provide meaning, peace of mind
and a sense of control over unexplainable phenomena.
Many societies don’t have a separate word for religion because it’s so integrated
into politics, kinship, economics and cultural tradition.
Sacrificing a goat in some societies means calling upon their ancestors to help
bring rain. The meat is later shared with the kin. This fulfills religious
functions simultaneously with economic and kinship functions.
What we consider as supernatural, it may be not in other societies. Even though
they may seem strange from our standpoint, by understanding religions in context
from an emic perspective, anthropologists attempt to avoid ethnocentrism.
Shoshone “Water baby”
The earliest form of religion is animism according to Edward Tylor. It is the belief
that animals, plants and inanimate objects are animated by spirits. He believed that
it then evolved into polytheism, a belief in many gods, and eventually into
monotheism, the belief in only one god.
Mana (a Melanesian term) is an impersonal and powerful supernatural force that
can reside in people, animals, plants and objects, acting in all kinds of ways for
good and evil, and which it is of the greatest advantage to possess or control. it was
what primitive people first believed in when natural phenomena occurred such as
thunderstorms, earthquakes, rainbows, floods and so on.
Totemism is a form of religion practiced by the Australian Aborigines and is a
mystical or spiritual relationship between an animal\plant (the totem) and a group of
people, which also serves as the symbol for the group.
Societies are believed to be divided into 2 categories; the sacred and the profane.
The profane refers to the everyday, utilitarian and secular world of work and routine
experience, while the sacred is aspects such as places, times, objects and people
Religion 2
, that are beyond sensation that make them special and thus, worthy of great respect.
Purification rituals (ex. wudu or baptism) are performed to remove uncleanliness
before worship or coming in contact with something sacred.
◌ೃ⁀➷ The major features of Religion
Rituals Posits existence of non-empirical
(supernatural) beings, powers,
Stress/Anxiety Relief
states, places, qualities
Texts/myths/stories
Use of Symbols
Magic and witchcraft
Moral code
Specially skilled individuals
Sacred vs. profane
System
Emotional (Personal) Experience
A philosophy
Group membership/community
A means of explanation
Self-definition
Ultimate Concern
Altered States of Consciousness
Belief in Immortality
◌ೃ⁀➷ Anthropological perspectives on Religion
Objectively Holistically
Comparatively Relativistically
Focus on Ethnography Interdisciplinary
Reflexively Emically
Methodologically and theoretically
diverse.
◌ೃ⁀➷ Towards a comprehensive definition
1. Ideological (Beliefs, values, feelings)
2. Behavioural
Religion 3
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