Anthropology: Religion chapter

collective effervescence

Durkheim referred to this, it is a passion or energy that arises when groups of people share the same thoughts and emotions, this experience magnifies the emotional impact of an event and can create a sense of awe or wonder

supernatural

characteristic of religion, a realm beyond direct human experience, this includes a god or gods, but it is not a requirement

religion

commonly used in the US to refer to participation in a distant form of a faith such as christianity, islam, or judaism is not a universally recognized idea

George Gmelch

documented forms of "baseball magic" among professional athletes, baseball players, have rituals related to how they eat, dress, and even drive to the ballpark, rituals they believe, contribute to good luck

Religious cosmologies are a way of what?

explaining the origin of the universe and the principles or "order" that governs reality

cosmology

explanation for the origin or history of the world, religious blanks provide "big picture" explanations for how human life was created and provide a perspective on the forces or powers at work in the world

Edward Tylor

first anth description of animism, believed it was the earliest type of religious practice to develop in human societies , suggested that ordinary parts of the human experience, such as dreaming, formed the basis for spiritual beliefs

torii

gates that mark the separation between ordinary reality and sacred space (Japan)

zoomorphic

gods imagined in animal form

ritual

practices or ceremonies that serve a religious purpose are usually supervised by religious specialists, these may be oriented toward the supernatural

religious practitioners categories

priests, prophets, and shamans

David Koresh

prophet who made enormous influence and was the leader of the branch dravidians a schism of the 7th fay adventist church

nirvana

release from suffering, practiced by buddhism

Malinowski believed what about religion?

religion is not born out of speculation or reflection, still less out of illusion or apprehension, but rather, out of the real tragedies of human life, out of the conflict between human plans and realities, he also believed that religious rituals provided a way to reduce or control anxiety

what did Emile Durkheim recognize?

religion was not simply a belief in supernatural beliefs but a set of practices and social institutions that brought members of a community together, he said religion was a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set aside and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them

animism

religions based on the idea that plants, animals, inanimate objects and even natural phenomena like weather have a spiritual or supernatural element

polytheistic

religions include several gods

monotheistic

religions recognize a single supreme god, the largest of these id christianity, islam and judaism

Geert suggested what

religious practices were a way to enact or make visible important cultural ideas

What did Sir Jame Frazer attempt?

to compost the first comprehensive study of the world's major magical and religious belief systems, he was part of early generation anthropologists whose work was based on reading and questionaires mailed to missionaries and colonial officials rather than travel and participant-observation. As a result, he had only minimal information about the beliefs he wrote about and he was quick to apply his own opinions

shintoism

traditional religion of Japan, they recognize spirits that exist in plants, animals, rocks, places and sometimes people

revitalization rituals

type of ritual, often follow periods of crisis in a community, are ambitious attempts to resolve serious problems, such as war, famine, or poverty through a spiritual or supernatural intervention

communitas

unity that encourages people to see themselves as members of community

mana

word comes from oceania and may originally have meant powerful wind, lightening or storm, today it still refers to power

Marcel Mauss

wrote a book called a general theory of magic, he suggested that religion and magic were 2 opposite poles on a spectrum of spiritual beliefs, magic was at one end of the spectrum: it was private, secret and individual, religion was at the opposite end of the spectrum; it was public and oriented toward bringing the community together

kami

Japan spirits

The Tausug

a group that lives in the Philippines that believes the soul has four parts

prophet

a person who claims to have direct communication with the supernatural realm and who can communicate divine messages to others

Victor Turner defined ritual as what?

a stereotyped sequence of activities performed in a sequestered place and designed to influence preternatural entities or forces on behalf of the actors' goals and interests

Clifford Geertz defined religion as what?

a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, persuasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic

liminal stage

a time in which individuals often undergo tests, trials or activities designed to prepare them for their new social roles

rite of passage

a type of ritual, a ceremony designated to transition individuals between life stages

rite of intensification

a type of ritual, actions designed to bring a community together, often following a period of crisis

rules governing behavior

these rules define proper conduct for individuals and for society as a whole and are oriented toward bringing individual actions into harmony with spiritual beliefs

anthropomorphic

having human characteristics

How did Karl Marx view religion?

he famously called religion "the opium of the people", he viewed it as an ideology, a way of thinking that attempts to justify inequalities in power and status, in his view, religion created an illusion of happiness that helped people cope with the economic difficulties of life under capitalism, he believed the christian church helped to legitimize and support the political and economic inequality of the working class by encouraging ordinary people to orient themselves toward the afterlife, where they could expect to receive comfort and happiness, he argued that the obedience and conformity advocated by religious leaders as a means of reaching heaven also persuaded people not to fight for better economic or social conditions in their current lives

filial piety

in china and other countries, requires that the living continue to care for the ancestors

atman

in hinduism, the supernatural or spiritual element that coexists within someones natural body

separation stage

individuals are removed from their current social identity and being preparations to enter the next stage of life

incorporation

individuals return to the community with a new socially recognized status

sorcerers

individuals who seek to use magic for their own purposes

Durkheim concluded what about religion

it was a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices that unite, into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them, once a person was designated as sacred, he believed that celebrating it though ritual was a powerful way to unite communities around shared values

animalism

many cultures are organized around belief in an impersonal supernatural force

priests

may be of any gender, are full time practitioners, this position only emerges in societies with substantial occupational specialization, they are intermediaries between god and humans

profane objects or ideas are....

ordinary and can be treated with disregard or contempt

shaman

part time religious practitioner, they carry out religious rituals when needed, but also participate in thermal work of the community, an important quality is the ability to transcend normal reality in order to communicate with and perhaps even manipulate supernatural forces in an alternate world

millenarians

people who believe that major transformations of the world are imminent

magic

practices intended to bring supernatural forces under one's personal control

Arnold Van Gennep noted that we carried out three distinct stages

separation, liminality and incorporation

sacred objects or ideas are...

set apart from the ordinary and treated with great respect or care, could include god or gods, a natural phenomenon, an animal

cargo cult

term used to describe rituals that seek to attract material prosperity

cultural appropriation

the act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning

Freud developed what idea

the idea of totemic regions which were belief systems based on the worship of a particular animal or object and suggested that the purpose of these religions was to regulate interactions with socially significant and potentially disruptive objects and relationships

reincarnation

the idea that a living being can begin another life in a new body after death, a feature of several religions

religion can be defined as...

the means by which human society and culture is extended to include the nonhuman

Durkheim's analysis of religion emphasized what?

the significance of spiritual beliefs for relationships between people

soul

the supernatural or spiritual element that coexists within someones natural body (christian)

spirit soul

the tausug, a person's shadow

the breath soul

the tausug, always attached to the body

life soul

the tausug, attached to the body, but can move through dreams

transcendent soul

the tausug, stays in the spiritual realm even when a person is alive