Ritual and Belief

1. Ritual and Belief

2. Ritual (Practice) and Belief: Geertz • belief & practice - "a group's ethos is rendered intellectually reasonable by being shown to represent a way of life ... rendered emotionally convincing by being presented as an image of the actual state of affairs...”

3. 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

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

6. 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)

8. 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

9. What is Magic?

11. 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.”

13. 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

14. What does religion do?

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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."

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Ashanti Priest

25. Balinese Balian

26. Balinese Grandmother

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. Types of ritual

31. Rites of Passage • Van Gennep and Victor Turner • rites include three stages • Separation • marginality or liminality • Communitas and anti-structure • incorporation or re-aggregation

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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