Religion and Healing in Human Culture

1. Religion and Healing in Human Culture Functions of Religion Types of Supernatural Forces Religious Practitioners Revitalization Movements Medical Anthropology Different Causes of Illnesses Variation in Illness across Culture Boundaries Culture-Bound Syndromes Medical Pluralism

2. What is Religion? • Belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces. • Probably existed since Neanderthal times, according to archaeological evidence.

3. Religions fill many social and psychological functions and needs: • to explain death • to give hope • to explain the natural realm and help cope with it • to offer enlightenment • as a survival function • as a boundary maintenance mechanism

4. Communication with the Divine • Prayer – to ask a supernatural for something. • Magic – to compel a supernatural to do something. • Sorcerers / witches

5. People communicate with the supernatural in many ways, • Spontaneous or rehearsed • Aloud or thought • Possession? • Divination • Seeking specific advice from the supernatural • Trance • physical trauma, hallucinogens and music • Over 90% of all cultures trance in worship.

6. Types of Supernatural Forces • Anthropologists group these forces into four major categories: • deities • ancestral spirits • animatism • animism

7. Deities • Always great, often remote beings who control the universe & its creation. • Few religions are monotheistic (one deity) in nature • Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all with similar roots. • Sikhism

8. Most deity religions are polytheistic (more than one god): • Hinduism, Shinto, Haitian vodoun, many ancient state religions, etc. • Some pantheons have overarching, all-important gods: • Zeus /Jupiter (Greco-Roman) • Ometeotl (Aztec) • Brahman (ब्रह्मन्, Hindu) • Dryghten (complementary Goddess and God, Wicca) ANTH 101

9. Ancestral Spirits • Souls of the deceased who intercede in human affairs • They may be prone to our problems • In some African religions, ancestral spirits can die a second time. • In China, the living must provide for the dead

10. We must not offend them • Ex.: the Zuni katsinas (provide rain) • Not all ancestors are worshiped • Ex.: Catholic saints.

11. Animism • Nature – and everything in it – is inhabited by all sorts of spirits. • The most widespread of all belief systems • Prevalent in foraging societies. • The spirits are less remote than deities • Good, bad, neutral.

12. Some familiar examples: • the Irish bean sidhe (banshee) • the English Lady of the Lake • faeries, gnomes, trolls, etc. • ghosts (esp. those of animals and things)

13. Animatism • Belief in impersonal, overarching energies / forces (luck, fate, karma and dharma, “The Force”)

14. Ex.: Māna and Tapu in the Pacific • Melanesians and Polynesians believe in māna, a “power just beyond the senses.” • Objects accumulate māna over time, becoming holier and more powerful. • Tapu (taboo) is a negative type of māna.

15. Different supernatural forces can intermingle in the same religion, such as: • Roman religion – gods (Jupiter), ancestral spirits (lares) • Vodoun – combination of Catholic monotheism & ancestor devotion (saints), Yoruba polytheism & animatism, and Taíno animism • Christianity – God, saints, holy relics ANTH 101

16. Life After Death? • Different religious systems have different beliefs about an afterlife. • Christian/Muslim concept of Heaven and Hell • Lugbaraancestors • Zuni katsinas • Hindu reincarnation • Chamula Maya blend Catholic and Maya beliefs • The dead go to the Underworld to live like they did before

17. Religious Practitioners • Anthropologists recognize four major groups of religions practitioners: • Shamans • Sorcerers / Witches • Mediums • Priests • Any of these positions can be ascribed or achieved, depending on the society.

18. Shamans • Part-time religious figures who are healers • Can use magic for good or bad • Christian evangelical faith healers may use elements of shamanism.

19. Mediums • Enter trance states to heal or to relate supernatural messages • Similar to shamans

20. Sorcery and Witchcraft • Sometimes low-status magic practitioners that are sometimes of low status in their culture • Use magic, not prayer; can use magic for good or harm • NB: A Wicca religious practitioner is a priest and not a witch.

21. Priests • Full-time religious practitioners who officiate at public events. • Have a high status in their society. • Often consulted as teachers.

22. Revitalization Movements • Bursts of radical change mixed with resistance to change are revitalization movements • Serve as boundary maintenance mechanisms, to “purify” a religion or unify a culture. • Ex.: the Ghost Dance movement of the Great Plains

23. Religion and Medicine • Many cultures use supernatural forces to heal. • Chinese chi, !Kung n/um • Even in industrial societies, the two sometimes mix.

24. Ethnomedicine • Study of a culture’s beliefs about medicine and how to practice it. • Is an important goal of medical anthropology. • Hot vs. cold forces, wet vs. dry forces, witchcraft or magic as causes of illness? • Plants used by indigenous peoples share many properties similar to Western chemicals.

25. Illness across Culture Boundaries • Different cultures recognize different illnesses and symptoms • They treat them in different ways. • In stratified societies, the wealthy have access to the best medicine and health conditions, and are in the best health.

26. Different Causes of Illness • Cultures recognize any of three main causes of illness • Naturalistic forces • Emotionalistic forces • Personalistic forces • Naturalistic forces cause illness impersonally (bacteria, viruses, genes, chemicals) • Body over mind/society • Ex. Western medicine • Emotionalisticforces cause illness through emotion • Ex. susto, induced by fright

27. Personalistic forces cause illness through supernatural means (sorcery, witchcraft, ghosts, animatism) • Most societies attribute some illness to personalistic forces. • Includes illness caused by an imbalance of forces in the body (more hot or cold, more wet or dry); to cure is to rebalance those forces.

28. Medical Anthropology • The study of sickness and medicine in their cultural contexts. • Is applied anthropology. • Includes: • community health • medical / nursing education • medical care for different populations • International demographics, epidemiology, etc.)

29. Worldwide Epidemics: AIDS • Anthropologists study different worldwide epidemics • Ex.: AIDS is among the most widely studied • Prevalent in much of the world, epidemic in Africa and India. • Different causes may be more prevalent in different regions. • US / Europe – IV drug use, male-to-male sexual contact are most common causes • Africa & Asia – male-to-female sexual contact, unsanitary health conditions are most common causes • 2001 - roughly 75 to 80% of all cases of HIV / AIDS worldwide caused by male-to-female sexual contact.

30. Example: Recent AIDS Statisticshttp://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm ANTH 101

31. Different cultures have different attitudes toward diseases, such as AIDS • Ex.: Farmer & Kleinman’s “AIDS as Human Suffering” • US - "Robert" - gay man about to die from AIDS • Doctors try to “fix” him • Haiti - "Anita" - young woman who got the disease from her husband • Dies very quickly, surrounded by family

32. Culture-Bound Syndromes • Diseases that exist in a specific cultural context • Are real diseases, but don’t exist outside of certain cultures • Exs.: • Anorexia (starvation) and bulimia (regular purging) • Susto (loss of the spirit due to fright) • Windigo (fear that you are becoming the legendary Canadian windigo monster)

33. Medical Pluralism • The coexistence of two or more medical systems • Exists in many societies, especially non-Western societies that have come into contact with Western medicine. • In China, both traditional and Western medicine are prevalent. • Many Westerners use non-Western medicine • holistic medicine • acupuncture • chiropractics • yoga / meditation

34. Medicine and Ritual • Rituals are followed in all medical systems • Ex.: Pearl Katz’s observation of "Ritual in the Operating Room” • Many rituals served specific functions, but some no longer seemed to • Each is integral to OR procedure – if broken, you must begin it all over again. • Also controls joking in an operation (when is it taboo)