1. Religion and World View
Overview
I. Anthropology of religion
II. Expressions of religion
III. Religion & social change
World religion symbols
Buddhist temple in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

2. I. Anthropology of religion
A. Wallace: “religion is belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers and forces.”
Anthropologists focus on the collective, shared nature of religion and the meanings it embodies
Durkheim: religious “effervescence”- collective emotional intensity
Turner: “communitas”- intense community spirit and solidarity
Emile Durkheim,
(French sociologist and author of Elementary Forms of Religious Life)

3. What is Religion? Seeking a Working Definition
1) a belief in some form of supernatural power
2) myths and stories about the meaning and purpose of life
3) A set of ritual activities that reinforce or instill these collective beliefs
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4. What is Religion? Seeking a Working Definition
4) A symbol system used in religious practice
5) Identifiable specialists (i.e. priests)
6) Institutions
7) A community of believers
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5. Anthropology of religion
Religion is a cultural universal but societies have unique ways of conceptualizing divinity, spirituality, and religious practice
Codes of ethics and morality
Associated with social divisions
Means to establish social order,
resolve conflict, and promote
peaceful coexistence
Ancient spiral symbol used in pre-Christian
Gaelic and Druid religions in northern Europe and Wiccan revival traditions

6. II. Expressions of religion
E.B. Tylor: early anthropologist of religion
Proposed 3 stages of religious development:
Animism = belief in spiritual beings found in nature and objects
Polytheism = belief in multiple gods
Monotheism = belief in 1 deity/God
Ancient Egyptian tombs
Buddhist monk in Sarnath, India

7. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
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8. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane
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9. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane
Religion and Ritual
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10. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane
Religion and Ritual
Karl Marx: Religion as “The Opiate of the Masses”
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11. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Émile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane
Religion and Ritual
Karl Marx: Religion as “The Opiate of the Masses”
Religion and Cultural Materialism
Religion and Cultural Materialism
Marx’s views on religion were particularly influential on the famous anthropologist Marvin Harris.
In his book, Cows, Pigs, Wars, & Witches, Harris explored Marx’s idea that the infrastructure creates social institutions.
That is, that your environment affects the way in which your culture develops.
Harris used this idea to ask specific questions about religion:
For example, why are cows sacred in Hinduism?
Hindus practice vegetarianism as part of their religious rituals in general, holding that it is profane to eat meat.
But in particular, they elevate cows to a sacred status.
Even in times of great famine, cows are found wandering through Hindu villages without hindrance, despite the fact that they could be a simple and easy food source that could save a family from starvation.
Harris asked, how could a religious prescription be so strong as to let a family starve?
Sticking with an infrastructure-style argument, Harris looked at the economic value of a cow.
In the short term, a cow can be eaten as food.
There is a specific food value involved, but once eaten the cow is gone and cannot provide any more for a family.
A living cow, however, can give birth to more cows, which can be used as beasts of burden.
Harris noted that the ox was the work engine of Indian agriculture.
Farmers used oxen to plow their fields for planting, to haul carts of that food during harvest time, and to haul goods to market for trade.
A farmer without living oxen was at a considerable disadvantage.
Living cows also produce manure, which can be a powerful fertilizer for agricultural fields.
Again, if a farmers has no cows, they cannot fertilize their fields.
Harris suggested that the prohibition against eating cows came about based on an analysis of relative economic benefits.
A cow could be eaten in the short term, but would leave a family hungry next week, whereas if cows were maintained alive they could be used to plow and fertilize fields, thus keeping a family in food year round.
Harris’ approach to culture became known as Cultural Materialism.
Those anthropologists who favor Cultural Materialism suggest that the infrastructure or base environment dictates cultural decisions.
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12. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic
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13. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic
Shamanism
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14. Shamanic religion Often associated with foragers and agriculturalists
Examples: healers, mediums, astrologers, diviners, herbalists
Shamans sometimes assume a different or ambiguous sex/gender role to set them apart from others
Shamans in Nepal (l.) & Thailand (r.)

15. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic
Shamanism
Religion and Magic
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16. Magic and religion
Magic - supernatural techniques to accomplish specific aims
Malinowski viewed magic as a means of control in situations of uncertainty or danger (like kula expeditions)
In many contemporary societies, forms of magic and superstition persist as a means of reducing psych. anxiety (examples?)
Magician card
in tarot deck

17. What Tools do Anthropologists Use to Understand How Religion Works?
Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic
Shamanism
Religion and Magic
E.E. Evans-Pritchard
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18. Rituals
Ritual = behavior that is formal (stylized and repetitive) and performed in sacred places at set times
Performers of the ritual accept a common moral and social order
Customs associated with a transition from one stage of life to another
3 Phases of Rites of Passage (Victor Turner):
1. Separation from the group
2. Liminality: in-between state, ambiguous
3. Incorporation: re-enter society with a new status after completing the rite

19. Totemism
Native Australian (aboriginal) societies and in N. American groups in N. Pacific coast (U.S./Canada)
Totem represented origin of descent group
Members of totemic group did not kill or eat their totem, except at special annual ceremonies
People related to nature through their totemic associations with species
Totem pole designs in N. America
Australian aboriginals carving a totem pole

20. Monotheistic religions
Belief in a single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God.
Judaism (14 mill.), Christianity (2.1 bill.), Islam (1.5 bill.) share a common religious lineage back to Prophet Abraham
Islam is the fastest growing religion (2.9% per year)

21. III. Religion & social change
Revitalization movements
Nongqawuse (c )
occur in times of change
Religious leaders emerge and direct people to alter/revitalize society
Examples:
beginnings of Christianity
Protestant Reformation
Liberation theology
Xhosa cattle killings (1857)
Ghost dance movement (1890)

22. Cargo cults
Revitalization movements that occur when traditional communities come into contact with industrial societies and attempt to achieve similar wealth and power through magic by imitating European behavior and symbols
Common in the South Pacific
Cargo cults on the Pacific Island of Vanuatu

23. How is Globalization Changing Religion?
[Closing Discussion, advise students to read the final section on Globalization closely]
With the increases in globalization, we have seen increased contacts between people of different faiths.
Thus people have an increased awareness of the existence of other religions.
The forces of time-space compression, uneven development, and conflicts between nation-states all affect religions around the world.
Discussion Question: In what ways do you think Globalization has changed religion?
[Encourage students to share personal experiences or thoughts]
Discussion Question: How have the migrations of Mexicans into the United States affected the practice of Catholicism?
Increase in the prevalence of the Virgin of Guadalupe
Multi-lingual masses
The uniting of one people under two nations?
Referring to the torch runners of the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Discussion Question: How has traditional Chinese religion adapted to the migration process?
Immigrant religious groups coming together for services and support
The summoning of deities from the home country by spirit mediums
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