Course: Ilmu Sosial Untuk Psikologi

Human Diversities 2: Religion and Arts

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This chapter discusses the role of religion in a variety of societies. It focuses on the types of religion and the situations in which religions can change rapidly. It concludes with a discussion of secular rituals and the way in which a trip to Walt Disney World might be studied as a secular ritual.

ReligionReligionReligionReligion

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IntroductionIntroductionReligion is defined, according to Wallace, as belief and

ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces.

So defined, religion is a cultural universal.Neanderthal mortuary remains provide the earliest evidence

of what probably was religious activity.

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AnimismAnimismTylor first studied religion anthropologically, and developed

a taxonomy of religions.Animism was seen as the most primitive, and is defined as a

belief in souls that derives from the first attempt to explain dreams and like phenomena.

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Mana and TabooMana and TabooMana is defined as belief in an immanent supernatural

domain or life-force, potentially subject to human manipulation.

The Polynesian and Melanesian concepts of mana are contrasted. Melanesian mana is defined as a sacred impersonal force that

is much like the Western concept of luck. Polynesian mana and the related concept of taboo are related

to the more hierarchical nature of Polynesian society.

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Mana and TabooMana and Taboo

Map of Melanesia and Polynesia.

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Mana and TabooMana and Taboo

This member of the Iban tribe of Malaysia believes that the skull held here possesses mana.

Photo Credit: David Alan Harvey/ Woodfin Camp & Associates

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Magic and ReligionMagic and ReligionMagic refers to supernatural techniques intended to

accomplish specific aims.Magic may be imitative (as with voodoo dolls) or

contagious (accomplished through contact).

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Anxiety, Control, SolaceAnxiety, Control, SolaceMagic is an instrument of control, but religion serves to

provide stability when no control or understanding is possible.

Malinowski saw tribal religions as being focused on life crises.

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RitualsRitualsRituals are formal, performed in sacred contexts.Rituals convey information about the culture of the

participants and, hence, the participants themselves.Rituals are inherently social, and participation in them

necessarily implies social commitment.

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Rites of PassageRites of PassageRites of passage are religious rituals which mark and

facilitate a persons movement from one (social) state of being to another (e.g. Plains Indians’ vision quests).

Rites of passage have three phases: Separation – the participant(s) withdraws from the group and

begin moving from one place to another. Liminality – the period between states, during which the

participant(s) has left one place but has not yet entered the next.

Incorporation – the participant(s) reenters society with a new status having completed the rite.

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Rites of PassageRites of PassageLiminality is part of every rite of passage, and involves the

temporary suspension and even reversal of everyday social distinctions.

Communitas refers to collective liminality, characterized by enhanced feelings of social solidarity and minimized distinctions.

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TotemismTotemismRituals play an important role in creating and maintaining

group solidarity.In totemic societies, each descent group has an animal,

plant, of geographical feature from which they claim descent. Totems are the apical ancestor of clans. The members of a clan do not kill or eat their totem, except

once a year when the members of the clan gather for ceremonies dedicated to the totem.

See discussion of clans and lineages in Chapter 15. Totemism is a religion in which elements of nature act as

sacred templates for society by means of symbolic association.

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TotemismTotemismTotemism uses nature as a model for society.Each descent group has a totem, which occupies a specific

niche in nature. Social differences mirror the natural order of the

environment.The unity of the human social order is enhanced by

symbolic association with and imitation of the natural order.

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Sacred Cattle in IndiaSacred Cattle in India Ahimsa is the Hindu doctrine of nonviolence that forbids the killing of

animals. Western economic development experts often use this principle as an

example of how religion can stand in the way of development. Hindus seem to irrationally ignore a valuable food source (beef). Hindus also raise scraggly, thin cows, unlike the bigger cattle of

Europe and the US. These views are ethnocentric and wrong as cattle play an important

adaptive role in an Indian ecosystem that has evolved over thousands of years Hindus use cattle for transportation, traction, and manure. Bigger cattle eat more, making them more expensive to keep.

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Sacred Cattle in IndiaSacred Cattle in India

India’s zebu cattle are protected by a doctrine of ahimsa.

Photo Credit: Michele Burgess/The Stock Market

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Social ControlSocial ControlThe power of religion affects action.

Religion can be used to mobilize large segments of society through systems of real and perceived rewards and punishments.

Witch hunts play an important role in limiting social deviancy in addition to functioning as leveling mechanisms to reduce differences in wealth and status between members of society.

Many religions have a formal code of ethics that prohibit certain behavior while promoting other kinds of behavior.

Religions also maintain social control by stressing the fleeting nature of life.

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Religious Practitioners and TypesReligious Practitioners and Types Wallace defined religion as consisting of all a society’s cult institutions

(rituals and associated beliefs), and developed four categories from this. Shamanic religions shamans are part-time religious intermediaries who

may act as curers—these religions are most characteristic of foragers. Communal religions have shamans, community rituals, multiple nature

gods, and are more characteristic of food producers than foragers. Olympian religions first appeared with states, have full-time religious

specialists whose organization may mimic the states, have potent anthropomorphic gods who may exist as a pantheon.

Monotheistic religions have all the attributes of Olympian religions, except that the pantheon of gods is subsumed under a single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being.

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Religious Practitioners and TypesReligious Practitioners and Types

Type of Religion (Wallace)

Type of Practitioner

Conception of Supernatural

Type of Society

Monotheistic Priests, ministers, etc.

Supreme being States

Olympian Priesthood Hierarchical pantheon of deities

Chiefdoms and archaic states

Communal Part-time specialists; occasional community-sponsored events, including rites of passage

Several deities with some control over nature

Food-producing tribes

Shamanic Shaman = part-time practitioner

Zoomorphic Foraging bands

Anthony F. C. Wallace’s typology of religions.

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Religious Practitioners and TypesReligious Practitioners and Types

A San shaman falls into a trance as he heals.

Photo Credit: Noel Quidu/Gamma Liaison

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Christian ValuesChristian ValuesMax Weber linked the spread of Capitalism to the values

central to the Protestant faith: independent, entrepreneurial, hard working, future-oriented, and free thinking.

The emphasis Catholics placed on immediate happiness and security, and the notion that salvation was attainable only when a priest mediated on one’s behalf, did not fit well with capitalism.

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Religion in North America TodayReligion in North America TodayIn the US Protestants outnumber Catholics, but in Canada

the reverse is true.Religious affiliation in North America varies with ethnic

background, age, and geography.

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Revitalization MovementsRevitalization MovementsReligious movements that act as mediums for social change

are called revitalization movements.The colonial-era Iroquois reformation led by Handsome

Lake is an example of a revitalization movement.

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SyncretismsSyncretismsA syncretism is a cultural mix, including religious blends,

that emerge when two or more cultural traditions come into contact. Examples include voodoo, santeria, and candomlé. The cargo cults of Melanesia and Papua New Guinea are

syncretism of Christian doctrine with aboriginal beliefs.Syncretisms often emerge when traditional, non-Western

societies have regular contact with industrialized societies.Syncretisms attempt to explain European domination and

wealth and to achieve similar success magically by mimicking European behavior and symbols.

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SyncretismsSyncretisms

A cargo cult in Vanuatu. Boys and men march with spears, imitating British colonial soldiers.

Photo Credit: Kal Muller/Woodfin Camp & Associates

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A New AgeA New AgeSince the 1960s, there has been a decline in formal

organized religions.New Age religions have appropriated ideas, themes,

symbols, and ways of life from the religious practices of Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, east Asian religions.

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Secular Rituals: Walt Disney WorldSecular Rituals: Walt Disney WorldA Pilgrimage to Walt Disney WorldWalt Disney World functions much like a sacred shrine

which is a major pilgrimage destination It has an inner, sacred center surrounded by an outer more

secular domain. Parking lot designations are distinguished with totem-like

images of the Disney cast of characters.The monorail provides travelers with a brief liminal period

as they cross between the outer, secular world into the inner, sacred center of the Magic Kingdom.

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Secular Rituals: Walt Disney WorldSecular Rituals: Walt Disney World

Within the Magic Kingdom:Spending time in the Magic Kingdom reaffirms, maintains,

and solidifies the world of Disney as all of the pilgrims share a common status as visitors while experience the same adventures.

Most of the structures and attractions at the Magic Kingdom are designed to reaffirm and recall a traditional set of American values.

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Recognizing ReligionRecognizing ReligionIt is difficult to distinguish between sacred and secular

rituals as behavior can simultaneously have sacred and secular aspects.

Americans try to maintain a strict division between the sacred and the profane, but many other societies like the Betsileo do not.

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This chapter introduces students to the anthropological study of art. It shows how the appreciation, creation, transmission, and use of art are embedded in culture and are learned.

The ArtsThe ArtsThe ArtsThe Arts

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What is Art?What is Art?Art is very difficult to

define, but it generally refers to the manifestations of human creativity through which people express themselves in dance, music, song, painting, sculpture, pottery, cloth, story telling, verse, prose, drama, and comedy.

This photo, taken in Berlin, Germany, illustrates art within art. In the background, the experimental artist Christo has wrapped the Reichstag. Another man has wrapped himself and is now posing in front.

Photo Credit: Thomas Hoepker/ Magnum Photos

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Art and ReligionArt and Religion Definitions of both art and religion focus on the more than ordinary

aspects of each with regard to how they are different from the ordinary and profane/secular.

A lot of Western and non-Western art has been created in association with religion, but it is important to remember that not all non-Western art has ritual or religious importance.

Art and religion both have formal (museums and churches, temples) and informal (parks, homes, and regular gathering places) venues of expression. State-level societies have permanent structures for religion and art. Nonstate-level societies lack permanent structures for religion and

art.

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Art and ReligionArt and Religion

This artist carves a statue of the Buddha on the grounds of a temple in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1988.

Photo Credit: P.J. Griffiths/Magnum Photos

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Locating ArtLocating ArtIn states, art is housed in special buildings like museums,

concert halls, and theaters.In nonstates, artistic expression takes place in public spaces

that have been set aside for art.In states, critics, judges, and experts determine what is art

and what is not.The Kalabari example demonstrates that not all sculpture is

art because wooden carvings are manufactured exclusively for religious reasons.

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Locating ArtLocating Art

Map showing the location of the Kalabari.

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Art and IndividualityArt and IndividualitySome anthropologists have criticized that the study of non-

Western art ignores the individual and focuses too much on the group.

However, in many non-Western societies, there is more collective production of art than in Western cultures.

Bohannan argued that among the Tiv, the emphasis should be on the critics rather than the artists because the Tiv do not recognize the same connection between artists and their art.

The degree to which artists can be separated from their work varies cross-culturally.

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The Work of ArtThe Work of ArtIn all societies art is work.

In nonstate societies, artists cannot work on their art all of the time as they still must hunt, gather, fish, herd, or farm to eat.

In states, artists are full-time specialists whose career is their work.

Artistic completeness or mastery is determined and maintained by both formal and informal standards.

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Art, Society, and CultureArt, Society, and CultureArt is usually a public phenomena that is exhibited,

performed, evaluated, and appreciated in society. Ethnomusicology is the comparative study of the music of the

world and of music as an aspect of culture and society. Folk art, music, and lore refer to the expressive culture of

ordinary people. Art is a form of social communication.

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The Cultural Transmission of the ArtsThe Cultural Transmission of the ArtsArt is a part of culture and as a result appreciation for the

arts are internalized during enculturation.The appreciation of different art forms varies cross-

culturally.In nonindustrialized societies, artistic traditions are

generally transmitted through families and kin groups.The art of storytelling plays a critical role in the

transmission, preservation, and expression of cultural traditions.

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The Artistic CareerThe Artistic CareerIn many non-Western societies children born into certain

lineages are destined for a particular artistic career (e.g., leather working, wood carving, and making pottery)

Full craft specialists find support through their kin ties in non-Western societies or through patrons in Western societies.

The arts rely on individual talent which is shaped through socially approved directions.

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Continuity and ChangeContinuity and ChangeThe arts are always

changing.The arts incorporate

a wide variety of media.

In Athens, Greece, ancient Greek theater is being staged for a contemporary audience.

Photo Credit: James P. Blair/ National Geographic Society