Sacred Narratives: Understanding Religion through Stories, Symbols, and Practices

1. Culture Counts A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Serena Nanda Richard L. Warms

2. Chapter 11 Religion

3. Chapter Outline • Cargo Cults • Defining Religion • Some Functions of Religion • Characteristics of Religion • Religion and Change • Bringing it Back Home: Religion, Art, and Censorship

4. Melanesia Cargo Cult in Melanesia

5. Cargo Cults • Cargo cults often began with a prophet who announced that the world would end in catastrophe, after which God would appear and bring a paradise on earth.

6. 31.50% Christian 22.74% Muslim 13.8% Hindu 6.77% Buddhist 0.35% Sikh 0.22% Jewish 0.11% Baha'i 10.95% Other 9.66% Non-religious 2.01% Atheist

8. Questions • What is religion? • What tools do anthropologists use to understand how religion works? • In what ways is religion both a system of power and system of meaning? • How is globalization is changing religion?

9. Religion • A social process that helps to order society • and provide its members • with meaning, unity, peace of mind, • and the degree of control over events they believe is possible

10. Characteristics of Religion • Sacred stories that members believe are important • Extensive use of symbols and symbolism • The existence of beings, powers, states, places, and qualities that can not be measured scientifically • Include rituals and specific means of addressing the supernatural

11. Sacred Narratives • Stories of historical events, heroes, gods, spirits, and the origin of all things.

12. Sacred Narratives • Have a sacred power that is evoked by telling them or acting them out ritually • Validate or legitimize beliefs, values, and customs

13. Sacred Stories • Video on the purpose of stories • What do stories do?

14. Religious Symbols • Religious symbols include many different and sometimes contradictory meanings in a single word, idea, or object. • Example: The Christian cross

15. Religious Symbols • Some religious symbols may have supernatural power in and of themselves, such as the masks used in African ceremonies. What symbols do you know that contain supernatural power?

16. God (Deity) Term used for a named spirit believed to have created or to control some aspect of the world.

17. God (Deity) • High gods, gods understood as the creator of the world, are present in only about half of all societies. • In about 1/3 of these societies, such gods are distant and withdrawn, having little interest in people.

18. Polytheism • The belief in many gods • In India, there are millions of gods; yet all Indians understand that in some way they are all aspects of one divine essence.

19. Monotheism • Belief in a single god • In monotheistic religions, one god may have several aspects. • In Roman Catholicism: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all part of a single, unitary god.

20. Mana • Mana is religious power or energy that is concentrated in individuals or objects. • Mana gives one spiritual power, but it can also be dangerous.

21. Ritual • Act involving the manipulation of religious symbols • Certain patterns of religious behavior are extremely widespread, if not universal.

22. Addressing the Supernatural • Prayer • Sacrifice • Magic • Divination

23. Prayer • Communication between people and spirits or gods • People believe results depend on the spirit world rather than on actions humans perform. • Prayer may involve a request, a pleading, or merely praise for the deity.

24. Sacrifice • People try to increase their spiritual purity or the efficacy of their prayers by making offerings to gods or spirits. • People may sacrifice the first fruits of a harvest, animal lives, or — on occasion — human lives. • Example: Lent

25. Magic • An attempt to mechanistically control supernatural forces • When people do magic, they believe that their words and actions compel the spirit world to behave in certain ways.

26. Magic • In imitative magic, the procedure performed resembles the result desired. • Example: Voodoo doll • Contagious magic is the belief that things once in contact with a person or object retain an invisible connection with that person or object. • Example: A person’s hair or clothing added to a voodoo doll to make it more effective

27. Divination • A religious ritual performed to find hidden objects or information

28. Religious Practitioners • Shamans • Priests • Witches and sorcerers

29. Shaman • Recognized as having the ability to mediate between the world of humanity and the world of gods or spirits • Not a recognized official of any religious organization

30. Priest • One who is formally elected or appointed to a full-time religious office

31. Witchcraft • The ability to harm others by harboring malevolent thoughts about them; the practice of sorcery • May be done unconsciously • Wiccan: A member of a new religion that claims descent from pre-Christian nature worship; a modern day witch

32. Sorcery • The conscious and intentional use of magic with the intent of causing harm or good

33. In Class Activity • Research the religion • Where did the religion originate? • What is its origin story? • Who is the founder? • Who is/are the God/Gods/Deities? • What are some major rituals?

34. Tools to understand religion • Theories influenced by 19th and 20th century philosophers. • Emile Durkheim • Karl Marx • Max Weber

35. -French Sociologist -Sacred (holy) and Profane (unholy) -Saw religion as social -Through collective action (rituals) members clarify and define what is sacred and profane. Anomie: Alienation experienced when faced with physical dislocation and disruption of social networks. -Religion, especially ritual, is the glue that holds society together. Emile Durkheim

36. Emile Durkheim’s Influence • Rituals, repeated, create continuity and belonging • Rites of passage: Arnold Van Gennep • Religious rites of passage • Life transition rituals • Mark moments of intense change • Three stages in rites of passage- Victor Turner • Separation • Liminality • Reincorporation Rites of passage- Communitas

37. Communitas • A sense of camaraderie • A common vision of what is a good life • Commitment to take social action to move toward this vision of a good life

38. Karl Marx “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”- Marx. -“Highly critical” of religion -During upheaval and stratification, religion dulls pain -People don’t realize seriousness of situation -Keeps poor from engaging in social change

39. Karl Marx’s Influence • Connection between religion and power • Religion and cultural materialism • Material conditions of a society shape the culture • Marvin Harris • why do Hindus venerate cows • Why do Jews and Muslims abstain from eating pork • Why do people believe in witches

40. Max Weber • The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism • Considered religious ideas key to understanding societies worldwide • Why did capitalism emerge in Europe and not elsewhere? • Asian religions- beliefs and ethical systems stand in the way of capitalism • Western European Protestantism- expressed religious beliefs and values in daily life • Thrift • Discipline • Hard Work

41. Weber’s Influence • “Evolution” of religion • religion based on magic and shamans • religion based on persuasive power of prophets such as Jesus, Moses, Buddha • religion based on legal codes of conduct, bureaucracy, and formally trained religious leaders • Warned of increase in secularism->decline in capitalistic spirit

42. Cosmology • A system of beliefs that deals with fundamental questions in the religious and social order

43. The Search for Order and Meaning • Religions provide a cosmology for interpreting events and experiences. • This may include the creation of the universe, the origin of society, the relationship of individuals and groups to one another, and the relationship of humankind to nature.

44. The Social Order • Through religion, dominant cultural beliefs about good and evil are reinforced. • Sacred stories and rituals provide a rationale for social order. • Religious ritual intensifies social solidarity.

45. Religion and Change • To begin a new religion or modify an existing religion, prophets must have a code with three elements: • Identify what is wrong with the world. • Present a vision of what a better world to come might look like. • Describe a method of transition from the existing world to the better world.

46. Religious Movements • Nativistic movements aim to restore what its followers believe is a golden age of the past. • Vitalism is a religious movement that looks toward the creation of a utopian future that does not resemble a past golden age.

47. Cults • Oxford English Dictionary •  A particular form or system of religious worship or veneration, esp. as expressed in ceremony or ritual directed towards a specified figure. •  A relatively small group of people having (esp. religious) beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members.

48. Cults • There are over 4,000 cults in the US, with approximately 4 million members. They fall into 4 basic types: • RELIGIOUS: cults that use a belief system as their base •  COMMERCIAL: promise you that if you join them and follow their special program for success then you will become very rich (aka the "Pyramid Scheme") • SELF-HELP: Offer expensive "enlightenment" seminars, people manipulated into spending more for "advancement" • POLITICAL: Organized around a political dogma, like rebel extremists

49. In Class Activity • Research the cult you have been assigned • Who is its founder? • What is the main story/message of the cult? • What are some of the characteristics of the cult?

50. Religious Views • Messianic • This view focuses on the coming of a messiah who will usher in a utopian world. •  Millenarian • The belief that a catastrophe will signal the beginning of a new age and the eventual establishment of paradise.