The Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion

1. The Anthropology ofMagic, Witchcraft,and Religion Anthropology and The Study of Religion

2. anthropology • ánthrōpos (Greek)= human • lógos (Greek)= word = the “word about humans”, the study of humans, the organized and systemized body of knowledge about humans

3. The “Study of Human Cultures” • As interesting in their own right • Ethnography = a description of a specific culture • For purposes of comparison • Ethnology = the comparative study of different cultures

4. Herodotus • Born in Halicarnassus, then a part of the Persian Empire • Traveled to Egypt, Babylon, Athens, and other locales • Wrote “The History” Herodotus (?)c. 484 - c. 425 B.C.

5. Opening Lines of The History I, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, am here setting forth my history, that time may not draw the color from what man has brought into being, nor those great and wonderful deeds, manifested by both Greeks and barbarians, fail of their report, and, together with all this, the reason why they fought one another.

7. Herodotus’ Work • Accounts not always accurate • Appears to have had “an agenda” • “Father of History” • “Father of Ethnology” Herodotusby Jean-Guillaume Moitte, 1806. Louvre palace, Paris

8. The Age of Discovery And the desire to understand the “other”

9. “first contact” • Missionaries • Soldiers • Politicians and bureaucrats Whose agenda was to dominate rather than understand

10. Genesis 11 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. … 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children built. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth… The Confusion of Tongues (by Gustave Doré 1865)

11. “Degenerationist” Ideas • An attempt to understand newly discovered peoples in light of the Bible and other European sources of knowledge • Non –Europeans had “fallen” or degenerated from an earlier, more perfect state

12. Lewis Henry Morgan Ancient Society,or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization (1877) Lewis Henry Morgan1818-1881

13. Morgan’s Model Civilization Barbarism Savagery posits that human societies evolve in a “unilineal” fashion

14. The Beginnings of Ethnology • The comparative study of societies • But based upon inadequate and/or biased data • Posited that one’s own culture was the standard which others should try to attain

15. Edward Burnett Tylor Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Edward Burnett Tylor1832-1917

16. Tylor’s Model monotheism polytheism animism human religions similarly evolve in a “unilineal” fashion

17. Franz Boas • Physicist and geographer by training • Encountered the Inuit in Baffinland • Became interested in establishing a“science of humankind” Franz Boas1858-1942

18. The Study of Cultures • Should proceed on an “objective” (= scientific) basis • Avoid ethnocentrism • Use the methodology of cultural relativism • “salvage” anthropology Franz Boasc. 1915

19. four field approach • cultural anthropology • linguistic anthropology • archaeology • biological anthropology • plus: applied anthropology

20. cultural anthropologystudies “culture” • learned by individual as part of a group • passed on from generation to generation • three components • material (artifacts) • behavioral (actions) • ideational (cognitive, affective elements)

21. cultural manifestations of “religion” • objects • activities • beliefs and emotions His Holiness Vazgen ISupreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians (1955-1994)

22. cultural anthropologyand the study of religious systems • investigates the functions of religion, both for the individual and for the group • looks at how religions change through time, and why

23. linguistic anthropology studies the role of language in culture • Sapir-Whorf hypothesis • does language mirror reality? OR • does language shape reality? • language as a human universal deep (biological) meanings  surface (social) structures

24. linguistic anthropology historical linguistics • evolution of languages • relationships between languages • how has “religious” language changed over time and why are their linguistic similarities in different cultures?

25. archaeologythe study of humans of the past • based on evidence preserved in the ground (and elsewhere) • emphasizes material aspect of culture, but also looks to behavior and ideation

26. archaeology • aims at reconstructing the past,both as an end in itself andas a way to understand the present

27. archaeologyand the study of religious systems Chauvet Cave, France (app. 30,000 yBP ?)

28. biological anthropology a.k.a. physical anthropology • considers humans as animals • how do modern humans differ? = variation • how did humans arise? = evolution

29. biological anthropology • studies behaviors in non-human species • what is the relationship between biology and culture? • how does our biology shape us? • how does our culture affect our biology?

30. biological anthropologylooks for genetic bases • of belief (“gullibility gene”) • of “trance” and other altered states • of human need to be in a group • “neurotheology”

31. four field approach • cultural studies • cultural anthropology • anthropological linguistics • archaeology • biological studies • biological anthropology (aka physical anthropology)  anthropology is a biocultural discipline

32. Applied Anthropologythe “fifth field” Using anthropological insights to improve people’s lives • Promoting understanding between members of different religions • Bridging differences in healing traditions to increase health and well-being • Drawing upon basic insights about the human brain and mind to minimize negative consequences and maximize positive outcomes of different states of consciousness

33. anthropology • is “holistic” in its approach • views its phenomena as interrelated and integrated • views societies both in their own rights and from a comparative perspective

34. anthropology • eschews ethnocentrism (the practice of using one culture as the standard to evaluate another) • based upon cultural relativism (the idea that cultures can only be evaluated and understood on their own terms)

35. Anthropology views Religiosity • as a function of “hard-wired” components of our mental hardware • whose products are interpreted within cultural systems  religious systems are (or once were) adaptive mechanisms

36. Key Terms Religiosity: an inclusive term for all aspects of concepts and experiences of the supernatural – a biological capacity of Homo sapiens Religion: a group phenomenon – social and cultural beliefs and practices about spirits and the supernatural Spirituality: an individual phenomenon – a person’s experiences of spirit entities and supernatural realities