Anthropology exam

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ReligionMagicandWorldview3A1.pptx

Religion, Magic and Worldview

“From the time that man could wrap his (her) thumb around a tool,

(s)he wondered about her/ his existence.”

Ancient spirituality Celebration of events that “ruled” life…

the sun rising, the moon waxing and waning, birth and death…

life is miraculous: women and earth had power to sustain life

Interconnectedness of life

Little boundaries between the material and spiritual worlds.

Spirit as mother earth goddess.

Polytheistic, nature-worshipping…

About 3000 BC

Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Constructed 6000 years before Stonehenge

No one lived there.

Ceremonial site.

Anthropology…Sociology…19th C

Attention to role of religion

Historically

In the “modern” world

“World” religions

What purpose does religion serve?

Do forms of religion vary in industrialized and non-industrialized nations?

“Evolutionary” framework

Unilinear evolutionary framework

The “Secularization Thesis”

The “Secularization Thesis”

Animism Magic Religion Science

Do you think that science has replaced religion in the world?

Where would you get your “evidence” from?

Has science “replaced” religion in the 21st C?

Religion….Science..Opposites?

Or do they answer different questions?

Different ways of making sense?

Ilhan Omar, Michigan, Somalia

2015

Global Religious Landscape

Christianity 2.4 billion 33%

Islam 1.8 billion 24.1%

Secular ≤1.2 billion 16%

[a]/Nonreligious [b]/Agnostic/Atheist

Hinduism 1.15 billion 15%

Major Religions of the World

Religions of the World

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Religious expression is a basic right

Human needs/ rights

Cultural identity

Cultural rights

Human rights

Religion…one aspect of a multicultural, pluralistic societies

What factors shape religious pluralism in a 21st century?

Factors shaping multi-cultural societies including religious pluralism

Immigration

Conversion

UN Millenniel reforms

Do you think that people of an historically Christian nation such as the U.S. view people who are members of other world religions as cult members? (EG; Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Islam)? If so, how so? If not, why not? Do you think that people of different beliefs are embraced and supported in contemporary western societies, or discriminated against? Can you provide any examples to support your point of view?

Before organized religions…

Shamanism

What is shamanism?

Have we read anything this term that discussed shamanism?

How old is shamanism?

Cave Art of the Upper Paleolithic 17,000 y/a

Africa 25,000 y/a

Israel 12,000 y/a

Some viewpoints – 30,000 years old

10-20,000 y/o

Shamans…earliest “specialists”

Earliest specialists believed to control supernatural power.

They are often associated with curing through the use of magic.

The term shamanism comes from the Manchu-Tungus word šaman. The noun is formed from the verb ša- ‘to know’; thus, a shaman is … “one who knows.”

Anthropologist of note: Michael Harner (UC, Berkeley)

Mojave pottery to ethnography

Jivaro (Shuar)

Anthropologists have seriously underestimated the significance of the shamanistic experience on Amazonian Indian ideologies and practices

Shamanic experiences

One can become a shaman by passing through stages of learning and practical experience.

May include psychological and emotional ordeals such as isolation, fasting, physical torture, sensory deprivation, and/or hallucination.

Shamanic experience

Secularization thesis… magic….religion…science

Has science erased magic?

What even IS magic?

Magic

Magic, one way to cope with uncertainty (Malinowski)

Helps people function

“Strategic formulations” used by people

words / actions

to control (supernatural force) for desired ends.

Does rational thought replace magic thinking?

Or do they serve different situations, functions or needs?

Can magical thinking co-exist in a rational world?

What is a worldview?

Can you think of some ways that people have tried explaining a view of the world?

Worldview

Worldview is the way a people characteristically look upon the universe (255).

World as:

A machine

A system

A field of energy or consciousness

Worldview

Cosmology refers to the cultural views about the nature of the world.

Mythology refers to the cultural views about how the world came to be the way it is.

Myths embody cultural ideals

“Myth is not merely a story told, but a reality lived” (Bronislaw Malinowski)

Underlying stories of who we tell ourselves we are;

Where we came from;

Where we are going.

Three levels of Myth (Carol Delaney)

1. Personal/ family myths (stories of relatives / ancestors & you)

2) National or ethnic myths

Eg: Columbus “discovery”; Puritans at Plymouth Rock in 1620) even though first colony was established in Jamestown in 1607

Policies of “Manifest Destiny” removed Indians from their lands

Turkish taught that they are descendents of Ur Turks who migrated from Central Asia

Erases many people and cultures who came from elsewhere, occupied land since ancient times and whom many ethnic Turks “intermarried” with

3. Myths of Origin (world, humans, etc)

Provide beliefs about divine orientation & social position

Some most powerful myths…religious

“Genesis” (Children of Abraham)

Provides “rationalization” for who gets to do/have what

Religion…

What is it?

How would you define religion?

Religion

is the cultural knowledge of the supernatural that people use to cope with the ultimate problems of human existence.

Ultimate problems of human existence include life's meaning, death, evil, and transcendent values.

Transcendent values are values that override people's individual goals and desires.

Religion often provides transcendent values that unify a group.

Religion is best defined in anthropology as an:

Organized system of ideas about the spiritual sphere or the supernatural.

Often has associated ceremonial practices by which people try to interpret or influence aspects of their universe.

Beliefs

Practices

Beliefs…

Monotheism/ Polytheism

Pantheon…anthropmorsis

“Beings”…”Ideals” Transcendent ideals

Liberty, equality, justice

Ancestral spirits

Animism

Animitism

Supernatural refers to the realm beyond peoples' normal experience

Belief in gods, spirits, ghosts, or magical power defines the supernatural.

Practices

Rituals

Sacred

Secular

Rituals of purification (remove uncleanliness)

Rituals of intensification (crisis)

Rites of passage

“Rites of passage” -mark transitions from one stage of life to another

Rites of Passage:

Birth, puberty, marriage, death

Change of status

Three stages rites of passage (Arnold van Gennep, 1906)

1) separation

2) liminal period (transition…

“betwixt and between”

3) reaggregation (incorporation)

Initiation rites transform adolescents into adults.

Victor Turner – liminality “betwixt and between” (statuses)

Rites of Passage

What “rites of passage” are common in American culture (or another society with which you are familiar)?

Religion and/or spirituality

According to a recent PEW Survey on religion in the US population , 13 million people identified as “nones” that is, atheists or agnostics and , 33 million identify with no particular religion, but even though religiously unaffiliated the majority consider themselves religious or spiritual in other ways. What sense do you make of this?

Spirituality

Similar to religion, spirituality is concerned with the supernatural as well.

It is distinguished from material matters.

Often individual as opposed to religion which is collective in nature.

Does not require organization.

Religious Change

Anthropologists study and report on the formation of new religions, especially those that develop as a result of deprivation and stress.

Revitalization movements

In the words of Anthony F. C. Wallace, "deliberate, organized, conscious efforts by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture"

Five stages of Revitalization Movements

A Steady State

Period of Increased Individual Stress

Period of Cultural Distortion

Period of Revitalization

Mazeway reformulation

Communication of plan

Organization for wider dissemination

Adoption by many people

Cultural transformation of the society

Routinization in daily life

A New Steady State

Types of Revitalization Movements

Nativistic

Revivalistic

Messianic

Millenarian movements

These four types are not always clearly differentiated from one another, and elements of one may appear in another.

Nativistic: The Ghost Dance

Nativistic movements develop in tribal societies in which the cultural gap between the dominant and subordinate cultures is vast.

Revivalistic (Falon gong)

Revivalistic movements: attempt to revive what is often perceived as a past golden age in which ancient customs come to symbolize the noble features and le­gitimacy of the repressed culture.

Messianic movements

believe that a divine savior in human form will bring about the solution to the problems that exist within the society.

Millenarian movements

are based on a vision of change through an apocalyptic transformation.

Ecospiritual …Millenarian

Not all revitalization movements are religious…New Social Movements??

Example: Marxist doctrine and communist revolution in Russia

New “social movements like “religions”?

Environmentalism?

Global warming,

Earth charter,

Sustainability…

Health foods movement?

Like a religious experience?

Conversion experience?

“Slow Foods”

Other???

What do you think are some of the biggest questions regarding religion in the 21st Century

……………..for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, multi-religious “societies? And how do these shape the dynamics of our schools, workplaces, public places (the nation and our everyday lives)?