Chapter 15
Religion
Chapter Questions
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What is religion?
What does religion do in a society?
How are religious beliefs and rituals different in
various cultures?
What roles do sacred stories and symbols play
in relation?
Chapter Questions
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What are some common key elements in
religious rituals?
What are the differences between prayer,
sacrifice and magic?
How do priests differ from shamans?
Under what conditions do religions change,
and when do new religions form?
A Human Universal
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Religion dates back to the beginnings of the
human species.
No religion is more evolved than another.
Functions of Religion in Society
1.
2.
3.
4.
Explains aspects of the physical and social
environment.
Helps people understand the world.
Preserves the social order.
Includes practices aimed at ensuring success.
Religion Preserves Social Order
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Sacred stories and rituals provide a rationale
for the present social order.
Ritual creates an atmosphere in which people
experience their common identity in
emotionally moving ways.
Religion is an important educational institution.
Sacred Narratives
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Stories of historical events, heroes, gods,
spirits, and the origin of all things.
Have a sacred power that is evoked by telling
them or acting them out ritually.
Validate or legitimize beliefs, values, and
customs.
Ritual
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Act involving the manipulation of religious
symbols.
Certain patterns of religious behavior are
extremely widespread, if not universal.
Rite of Passage
Three phases:
 Separation - individuals are removed from their
community or status.
 Liminal - stage when one has passed out of an
old status but not yet entered a new one.
 Reincorporation - participants are returned to
their community with a new status.
Addressing the Supernatural
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Prayer
Sacrifice
Magic
Divination
Prayer
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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.
Magic Among the Asaro
Examples:
 When a child is born, its umbilical cord is
buried (so it can’t be used by a sorcerer to
cause the child harm).
 When a young boy kills his first animal, his
hand is magically “locked” into the position of
the successful kill.
Vision Quest
Individual, emotionally intense search for
a spirit that will provide protection,
knowledge, and power.
 Although the vision quest was an
intensely individual experience, it was
shaped by culture.
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Witch Craze of Europe
Plague swept through Europe, and the
medieval social and religious order
collapsed in war and chaos.
 People believed witches were the cause
of their misery.
 Thousands of suspected witches were
put to death.
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Religions and Change
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Revitalization movements are efforts to
construct a new culture and personal identity.
They arise when people have been oppressed
and suffered cultural loss and loss of identity.
Examples: Native American Ghost Dance and
Native American Church