RELIGION
WHAT IS RELIGION?
 Any
set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices
pertaining to supernatural power, e.g.
forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons

The supernatural elements are outside the
observable world
Non-empirical
 Accepted on faith


The supernatural elements differ within and
between societies
THE ETIC APPROACH
 Anthropology’s
concern is not which
religion is superior

Its concern is WHY religions exists and HOW
and WHY it varies from culture to culture
ORIGINS AND REASONS FOR
RELIGION

Neandertal & early Homo sapiens

Burial of the dead, art, decoration
REASON #1: THE NEED TO
UNDERSTAND
 Edward
Tylor & R.R. Marett
 Religion was born as people tried to
understand conditions and events that
normal experience could not explain

Dual existence: physical/visible and
psychic/invisible
Animism: the belief in souls
 Animatism: the belief in the impersonal supernatural
forces
 Preceded the creation of spirits

REASON #2: REVERSION TO
CHILDHOOD FEELINGS
Freud
 Totems and taboos represent projected oedipal
desires

REASON #3: COPING WITH ANXIETY
AND UNCERTAINTY
Bronislaw Malinowski
 Religion helps us deal with death, stress, and
anxiety
 Can be a very therapeutic, positive aspect


Jung, James, Maslow
REASON #4: THE NEED FOR
COMMUNITY
 Emile
Durkheim
 Communitas
 Religion is social
 It helps us feel part of a
community
Affirms our place in society
 Enhances feelings of
community
 Gives people confidence
 Fights alienation

REASON #5: SOCIAL CONTROL
 Religion
mobilizes
people and their
emotions
Crusades
 Jihad
 The Taliban
 Witch crazes

ELEMENTS AND VARIATION IN
RELIGION
 Supernatural





forces
Mana: a sacred,
impersonal force (i.e.,
luck, karma)
Taboo: things not to be
touched, places not to
be entered, animals not
to be killed, etc.
Gods: named
personalities, often
anthropomorphic
Spirits: beneath gods,
closer to humans
Ghosts: beings that
were once human
(ancestors)
MONOTHEISTIC VS. POLYTHEISTIC
Monotheistic Religion: One supreme god
 Polytheistic Religion: Many gods, none supreme
over all others

RITUALS AND RITES OF PASSAGE
 Rituals


Convey information
about the participants
and their traditions
Generally very formal
 Rites

of Passage
Customs associated
with transition from
one stage of life to
another
INTERACTING WITH THE
SUPERNATURAL
Prayer
 Physiological Experience
 Simulation/Divination


Getting the supernatural to
provide guidance

Ouija boards, fortune tellers
Feasts
 Sacrifices
 Magic


The belief that a person’s
action can compel the
supernatural to act in some
particular way
WITCHCRAFT
 Witchcraft:
using thought and emotion to
evoke supernatural malevolence
 Sorcery: using materials and objects to
evoke supernatural malevolence

i.e., voodoo doll
RELIGIOUS PRACTITIONERS
 Priests:



full-time, usually male
Highly educated and specialized
High standing in society
Can communicate with the supernatural
 Shamans:
healer

part-time specialist, generally a
Often enters into trances to communicate with
gods or spirits
 Mediums:
generally female, thought to
heal while possessed or in a trance
 Sorcerers and Witches: low economic or
social status, generally feared in society
RELIGION AND ADAPTATION
 Syncretisms:
cultural
mixes

Cargo Cults
 Fundamentalism
(or
anti-modernism)

i.e., the Taliban
 Revitalization

i.e., early Christianity, the
Protestant Reformation
RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD