Ritual and Belief

1. Ritual and Belief

2. 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

3. 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)

4. Psych Anthro and the Study of Emotion • patterns of affect – how people feel about themselves and others • Emotion as cultural construct • emotional feeling is structured by particular cultural systems and particular social and material environments • emotions are appraisals, judgments based on cultural beliefs and values • emotions involve the self in relationships to others • emotions are learned or acquired rather than naturally given

5. 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...”

6. What does religion do?

7. functional, psychological explanations • 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

8. social, structural 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

9. i.e. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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."

13. Ritual • 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Types of ritual

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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Violence as ritual practice? • Violence, its forms and controls, is fundamental to human social existence and is central to theories regarding the nature of society. • Violence as cultural expression and/or performance • Scripted • From anthropology of identity (pol. org.) to experience, emotive forces, bodily practices • A discursive practice with rituals and symbols • Violence as cultural practice • Not just instrumental • A way of affirming and subverting “culture”