The Anthropological Perspective on Religion
Religion is thought to date back 100,000 years or so to the Neanderthals who buried their dead with tools and other objects, signifying, perhaps, a belief in the afterlife. During the Paleolithic era, as far back as 30,000 years ago, cave art and other objects found seem to have religious significance. See the images of the and sites of . Thus the age of religion seems to coincide with the age of man.
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Cave of Lascaux, France, Shaman(?) and Bison
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Explore the definitions of magic, witchcraft and religion? How do they differ? How are they related?
Anthropologists study religion as they do culture by looking at two key elements: the material culture (physical elements) and the nonmaterial culture (symbolic elements).
Clifford Geertz on defining religion:
"A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."
Early Theories on Religion
Rationalist theory of religious development:societies progress from primitive to advanced civilization as they develop the use of reason and scientific thought.
E.B. Tylor, Primitive Religion, father of anthropology of religion, animism as earliest religious beliefs of primitive groups, next stage is polytheism, then monotheism in his theory of unilineal evolution of spirituality which could be compared to material advancement of social groups. He defined religion as "a belief in spiritual beings," a definition that still holds up in modern times.
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James Frazer, author of The Golden Bough, was a noted early scholar who wrote on world mythology based on the recorded observations of others. He theorized that imitative magic and contagious magic precedes religion.
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Edward B. Tylor
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| Karl Marx's theory of "historical materialism" describes human behavior and development. He states that an economically-deprived man is kept from revolting for equality by his beliefs in religion which passify him in hoping for a better life in the world to come. He said: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." |
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Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion, states that rationalization of society is the evolution from traditional beliefs and emotions to a state of rationality and higher thinking in religion. He also emphasized that the Calvinistic work ethic was responsible for development of major societal change as the value of work for work's sake was developed and the spirit of capitalism grew.
Antirationalist theory of religious development: emotions rather than rational thought govern formation and development of religion
Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, begins antirationalist theories, social environment supercedes and shapes the individual, discusses sacred vs. profane categories in human life, religion is functional for society, human reason based on religous shared beliefs and rituals
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Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, theorized that a deep subconcious psychological conflict within social groups was responsible for early development of religion and served to strengthen the group. He believed that religion is an attempt to grapple with the Oedipus complex. Overall he thought of religion as "infantile," yet he did much writing on the Bible, mythology and the development of religion. |
The early theorists, often called "armchair anthropologiests" relied on data collected from observations of others not trained to observe culture as a whole. They were often ethno-centric, viewing others from the perspective of their own experience and beliefs. Traditional societies were called "savage" and "primitive" and were thought to be farther down on the scale of cultural evolutionary development. Modern industrialized society was considered at the higher part of the scale of development and scientific thought and rationality was venerated as superior to traditional religion. The views tended to look at the society as a group and the theories of purpose tended to look at what was functional for the social group or what was psychologically expedient for the group at the stage of evolutionary development. Even antirationalist theory which begins to accept emotions as being key to religious development still emphasized function of social groups as the catalyst for development.
Observation of people's culture was documented from time of Greeks. Lack of information about women's lives continued on. Algonquin observation by Jesuits stated that women's prominent roles in tribe were an apparent abbheration. Matrilineal descent among the Iroquois also discounted. Later anthropologists have confirmed the strong matrilineal roles of the Algonquin and Iroquois.
Reading
Read chapters 3 and 4 prior to the next class
Terms to Know
Taboo = social prohibition against a certain action
Magic = a means of influencing the outcome of forces or an event. Magic is seen mostly in traditional societies, often later replaced and repressed by monotheistic religions
Sympathetic magic = Discussed by Frazer this magic is based on the assumption that things act on each other over a distance through a secret sympathy, this magic includes imitiative or homeopathic magic and contagious magic
Imitative Magic = By performing a similar act, a greater act will occur, such as sprinkling water in a magic act will produce rain
Contagious Magic = By performing an act on a similar object, the distant goal will receive a similar act, such as sticking pins in a doll will create pain in a human that the doll represents
Animism = conscious life is attributed to natural phenomena, animate and inanimate objects
Fetishism = a charm holds magical powers
Shaman = spiritual figure and healer, male or female, often self-appointed, with the ability to communicate with spirits and perhaps animals
Matriarchy = authority through the females
Matrilineal = children reckoned through the female line
Matrilocal = children live with the mother's family, upon marriage couple locates with mother's tribe
Unilineal evolution = popular early theory that religion in groups develops from simple social groups to complex civilizations containing more complex or developed religion
Rationalism = emphasis is away from emotion or tradition, as man becomes able to see order in his environment, he becomes able to reason about religon which is superior to and independent from emotional perceptions
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