Religion

Religion is Notoriously difficult to define.

But we have no difficulty in deciding whether something

is Religious or not

Or do we

A Luba diviner and her client, performing a divination ritual, jointly hold a friction oracle known as a kakishi on a woven mat on the ground between them..

(John Pemberton)

Albrecht Durer 1504

The Major Features of Religion• Texts

• A means of explanation

• Stress/Anxiety Relief

• Body of myth

• Rituals

• Magic and witchcraft

• supernatural Beings and powers

• Specially skilled individuals

• Belief in the supernatural

• Symbolic

• Moral code

• Sacred vs. profane

• Emotional Experience

• Group membership/identity

• System

• A philosophy

What makes these religious?

Religion can be defined as any set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons.

What is considered the supernatural varies from one society to the next.

Many societies don’t have a separate word for religion--it is so integrated into politics, or cultural identity

Defining Religion

Explanations for the Universality of Religion

Psychological Sociological

Intellectual Emotional

InterpretativeFunctional

primitive man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopherthe notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational thinkingpreliterate religious beliefs and practices were not “ridiculous” or a “rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly”they were essentially consistent and logical, based on rational thinking and empirical knowledge.

Intellectual approach

E. B. Tylor

1. “what is it that makes the difference between a living body and a dead one and what causes sleep, trance, disease, death?”

“ancient savage “philosophers” - impressed by two groups of biological problems:

2. “what are these human shapes which appear in dreams and visions?”

a spirit or soul, derived from the experience of human souls or spirits in `dreams and waking hallucinations' is thought to `animate' lifeless objects such as sticks or stones, trees, mountains, rivers, etc.

Animism

the idea that the world and everything in it is filled with souls or spirits.

These spirits can be communicated with.

Spirits “feel” and therefore, can be harmed, flattered, offended and can also hurt or help.

“belief in spiritual beings” = animism

Tylor’s minimal definition of religion

primitive man was a rationalist and a scientific philosopher

the notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational thinking

preliterate religious beliefs and practices were not “ridiculous” or a “rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly”

they were essentially consistent and logical, based on rational thinking and empirical knowledge.

(from the Latin word anima meaning breath or soul.)

Psychological Approach Reduces anxiety

provides comfort

Gives meaning to life – Yes there is life after death

a means for dealing with crises death and illness, famine, flood, failure

helps people cope with reality.

Tells them how to behave

Removes burden of responsibility

Participation in religious ceremonies provides reassurance security, and even ecstasy, closeness etc

Sociological Approachreligion stems from society and societal needs and provides for them

religions validate the social: they posit controlling forces in the universe that sustain the moral and social order of a people

sanction human conduct by providing notions of right and wrong

setting precedents for acceptable behaviour, group norms

provides moral sanctions for individual conduct

education function through ritual used to learn oral traditions

eg. puberty rites provide information about tribal lore.

Sees religion as a set of symbols and stresses the meaning of those symbols, as referents and creators of meaningful life.

"a religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive 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." “Clifford Geertz”

Claude Levi-Strauss structuralism -- Analysis of symbolic forms of mythic

Through the work of Douglas and Victor Turner, as well as performance theory, a new emphasis on ritual was established.

Concerned with the act

Interpretative

Coping with Uncertainty

Magic, divination, oracles, and witchcraft

MAGIC

Nature is understood to be controlled by forces which can be manipulated

Magic is a way of controlling the natural elements.

Magicians attempt to control the elements for the benefit of their society or for the detriment of their enemies.

Contagious Magic

Sympathetic Magic

                                             

Standing Bison, Altamira (Spain) c. 15,000-10,000 B.C

Cave art used for rituals of this sort?

Playoff Beard

Stephane Yelle

Jarome Iginla

Miikka Kiprusoff

Louis Van Zelst (c.1896-1915)

Philadelphia Athletics hunchback mascot and bat boy (1910-1914)

“better rub my hump for a hit”

Athletics won World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913 (top of league 1914)

Credited for the wins as much as the coach

1915 Athletics finished dead last

National Post

What is divination?

" the practice of foreseeing future events or acquiring hidden knowledge through supernatural means"

bronze model of sheep liver with Etruscan writing used for divination (hepatomancy)

The Piacenza Liver

Modern Examples?

http://www.mystery-games.com/ridtardec.html

http://www.channelone.com/games/numerology/?location=games

Omens

Ordeals

Oracles

An Azande diviner uses a friction oracle (iwa), holding his foot against the lower part to keep the instrument in place and rubbing the upper part against it.

Men always carry an iwa with them for consultation on questions ranging from whether or not to take a journey to identification of the witch who has made him suddenly and violently sick.

The small table-like portion is thought of as the female part. The rubber is considered male.

Rubbing Board oracles (iwa)

A diviner operating the rubbing-board oracle.

Any individual may make an iwa so long as he observes the appropriate taboos, such as abstaining from sexual relations for two days and not eating certain foods,

He must also follow prescribed procedures which include burning the surface of the wood with a red-hot spear, preparing and anointing the object with a mixture of boiled root juices and oil over which he has prayed:

‘the inherent power to harm other persons by supernatural means’ Evans-Pritchard

Witchcraft

The image of the Witch

When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?When the hurly-burly's done. When the battle's lost and won.That will be ere the set of sun...Fair is foul, and foul is fairHover through the fog and filthy air." Macbeth, Act I, Scene I

Christian Witch

White predominant color Black dominant (Black Mass)

Chastity Orgie

Heterosexual norm Homosexual norm

Holy Communion Cannibalism

Daytime Mass Night time Mass

Prayers said normally Prayers said backward

Worship God Worship devil

authority divinely ordained Authority from the devil (Eve)

Witches represent a reversal of normal behaviour

Where does this concept come from

Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger

first published in 1486

> 20 editions next 200 years

The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer)

Pope Innocent VIII issued a Papal Bull in 1484. It’s inclusion made it appear that the whole book enjoyed papal sanction

Swearing allegiance to the Devil, by trampling the Cross... And kissing his behind

Swearing allegiance to the Devil, by trampling the Cross... And kissing his behind

                                 

“He must not be too quick to subject a witch to examination, but must pay attention to certain signs which will follow.

And he must not be too quick for this reason: unless God, through a holy Angel, compels the devilto withold his help from the witch,she will be so insensible to the pains of torture that she will sooner be torn limb from limb than confess any of the truth.”

-- Kramer and Sprenger, the Malleus Maleficarum

One 'foolproof' way to establish whether a suspect was a witch was ducking. With right thumb bound to left toe, the accused was plunged into a convenient pond. If she floated it proved an association with the black arts, with the body rejecting the baptismal water. If the victim drowned they were innocent. Given the position of the prisoner, it was more likely they would float

Matthew Hopkins, England's Witch-Finder General, explains how to identify witches and their familiars

In England, torture was not allowed against witches because witches were not believed to be conspirators. Torture by sleeplessness, (Tormentum insomniae) was allowable perhaps because it did not seem to be a real torture. Matthew Hopkins used it for his advantage in Essex. In one instance, John Lowe, 70-year-old vicar of Brandeston, was "swum in the moat," kept awake for three days and nights, and then forced to walk without rest until his feet were blistered.

Some statistics:

Between c.1450 and c.1650, about 60,000 to 100,000 people were executed by legal authorities for witchcraft in Europe.

75%-90% of those accused were female.

The majority of those accused were over the age of 50.

When torture was used to extract confessions, 95% of suspects were convicted.

When torture was not used, only 50% were convicted.

“What else is a woman …but a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, and an evil of nature painted with fair colors [she is, furthermore ]by her nature quicker to waiver in her faith which is the root of witchcraft.”

Kramer and Sprenger, the Malleus Maleficarum

Who were the witches?

“While this tradition of blaming unexpected misfortunes on black magic is found throughout rural Africa, in few places has it taken more victims than in South Africa's rural Northern Province. More than 500 people, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and killed by mobs here between 1990 and 1995. Even more lost their homes and their possessions when they were either run out of town or had their homes torched.”

Christian Science Monitor Dec. 6, 2000

Sabrina Bewitched

Practical MagicWorst witch ever

Charmed

Ritual

Ritual Bathing in the Ganges on the ghats of Varanasi (formerly Banaras)

Hindu pilgrims, standing waist high in the water, pray to cleanse their souls as they face the rising sun to ensure a good rebirth

When people bathe in the holy Ganges, they scoop the water and pour it into the river as an offering.

“a ritual is a stereotyped sequence of activities involving gestures, words, or objects, performed in a sequestered place and designed to influence preternatural [magical] entities or forces on behalf of the actor’s goals or interests”

Victor Turner

• Sometimes ritual reenact myths and stories.

• sometimes involve particular kind of attire, or a specific location.

• They could be the reliving of an important event.

• a patterned form of behavior, generally communal and consisting of prescribed actions and words

• usually deeply meaningful for us

Rituals

Tibetan Llamas

1. They are by definition religious –involve magic, the supernatural

2. They are highly formalized or structured patterns of behaviour

3. rituals are belief in action

4. Out of the ordinary actions i.e. sacred

5. usually performed in a sequestered place

6. They have a goal or aim

7. They serve a function for the people concerned

8. They serve to provide a sense of solidarity

9. symbolic

10. multivocalic

Ten characteristics of rituals

Types of Rituals

•concerned with the natural world•seasonal•should guarantee success and wealth•raindance

•Rites of transition or passage, life cycle•concerned with the social world•changes in the individual’s status, role or position

•Critical or life-crisis rites

•Curing and magic

•Concerned with the individual

•Ritual For Group Welfare

1. Mass2. Communion3. Feast Days

•Calendrical rites

Contact the Ultimate RealityCommunicate with the Ultimate RealityCommunicate to others (public vs. private)Help to develop relationship with the Ultimate RealityEffect human transformation

Role and Function of Rituals

Solomon Grundy,Born on Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,Married on Wednesday,Took ill on Thursday,

Worse on Friday,Died on Saturday,Buried on Sunday:

This is the endOf Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy

What is a rite of passage?

Rites of passage are the mileposts or landmarks that guide travelers through the life cycle.

Quinceanera

Throughout our lives there are periods when not much seems to happen

Then there are times when our lives undergo dramatic change

After which nothing is quite the same as it was before.

These transitions are often marked by rituals

Arnold van Gennep(1873 - 1957)

The Rites of Passage (1908)1. separation - Preliminal

– purification rites– rituals symbolize cutting or

separating eg. removal of hair– seclusion

2. Transition - liminal – person symbolically placed

“outside” society – observes certain taboos or

restrictions– normal rules of the society

suspended– rite may be seen as a symbolic

death, leading to a rebirth

3. incorporation - postliminal – Symbolically reborn– completes transition to a new

status– lifting of restrictions– wear new clothes and insignia

Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

Young boys from Numbulwar with small spears; they will try to hit the men, who will then have to dance for them at their circumcision ceremony.

Young initiates are carried to their elders on the ceremonial ground and will stay with them during the all-night "Mandiwala" dance before their circumcision. Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

Initiates during their ceremony in Borroloola; they are looking at a long line of dancers that will dance closely around them and take them to the ceremony ground.Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

A boy is painted with red ochre for his "Mandiwala" initiation ceremony. He wears a belt of human hair that was put on him at the start of his initiation.

Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

Boys are painted up for their "Mandiwala" initiation cermony, where the whole night the men will dance for them; their circumcision takes place early in the morning.

Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

"Daru" initiates in Borroloola. They are carrying small bark boomerangs with which they try to hit men who should later dance for them in their "Mandiwala" ceremony.Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

Young initiates during a "Djapi" circumcision ceremony in Numbulwar, south eastern Arnhem Land, in which the boys are painted with their clan totemic designs.

Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

An initiate during a southern Arnhem Land circumcision ceremony; the boy is decorated with white clay and strings of feathers. Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

A man's dance during an initiation ceremony in the early morning in Beswick, in the southern part of Arnhem Land.

Photo by Ludo Kuipers © OzOutback Internet Services

Liminal period Initiate separated from normal life and secluded is in an ambiguous condition

Initiate has nothing – no status, property, rank or kinship position - sacred poverty state

initiates may be seen as sexless or bisexual, or considered unclean or polluting

treated as an embryo or a newborn infant, or thought of as “dead” (by and to his parents and community)

a suspension of normative obligations

stress on servility to absolute authority of the ritual elders

secret, esoteric knowledge – the sacra = the “crux of liminality”

unstructured and egalitarian bonds between people

Typical of the Liminal stage of a rite of passage

A communal bond that results from social leveling and shared experience of liminality

Among neophytes there is often complete equality

comradeship transcends distinctions of rank, age, kinship position

Communitas transgresses or dissolves norms that govern institutionalized relationships

Communitas emerges where structure is not

Communitas has an aspect of potentiality

Communitas

MythThe word myth often has three meanings.1. “something widely accepted but is really false.”2. Stories in early societies which tell of heroic actions

or forces of nature or gods or goddesses. usually sacred,

3. Primitive belief about nature and the universe. “Pre-scientific”

Usually a traditional story of ostensible historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon; parable, allegory; an ill-founded belief held uncritically especially by an interested group.” Webster's

Myths are considered •true sacred stories •that occurred in the remote past •and have non-humans (gods, monsters) as the principal characters. •“presents in the form of a narrative the basic world view of a society.” (Ellwood)

Subjects of myth •Creation of world and humans •Cosmic catastrophes •Origins of institutions•Phenomena of birth and death •Relations of the gods with each other and mortals

Gives meaning to life by answering questions like:   'Who made the world?  How will it end?  Who was the first man?  Where do souls go after death?'. .

Gives validity to and explains certain ideas and principles eg. incest taboos, food taboos

teaches morality and social behavior - what types of things should and shouldn’t be done and the consequences for those wrong doings

validates the existing social order (e.g Trobriand myth) enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the

sources of cultural attitudes and values.

Functions of Myth

1 The first is the mystical function...realizing what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before this mystery...2 The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which science is concerned--showing you what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through...3 The third function is the sociological one--supporting and validating a certain social order...It is this sociological function of myth that has taken over in our world--and it is out of date...

The Four Functions of MYTH

4 But there is a fourth function of myth, and this is the one that I think everyone must try today to relate to--and that is the pedagogical function, of how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. Myths can teach you that.Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth, page 31.

 

FORM  BELIEF TIME PLACE  ATTITUDEPRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

Myth FactRemote Past

Different world:  other or earlier

 Sacred Non-human (often gods)

Legend FactRecent Past

World of today 

Secular or sacred

Human (heroes)

Folktale  Fiction Any Time Any Place 

Secular (non-sacred)

Human or non-human

Priests versus Shamans

Religion and Power

authority comes from his service in a sacred tradition

must have competence in conducting ritual -

Symbols of a rite are sensorial perceptible to a congregation and have a permanence in that they are culturally transmissible

The priest is an actor in a culturally scripted drama

efforts are individual and occasional

deals with spirits and lesser deities

tends to dominate in food-gathering societies

most frequently performs a curing rite

institutional functionaries

power inherited or derived from the body of codified and standardized – from society

Inspirational functionaries

Authority from supernatural

powers come from divine stroke and personal ability

A shaman of the Sitka-Qwan Indians (Alaska), wearing a ritual mask, is doing a healing.

an hamatsa (shaman) who has become possessed by supernatural madness after spending many days in the woods as part of the hamatsa initiation ceremony.

Source of power comes from Belief in magic which has three aspects

1. The sorcerers belief in the effectiveness of his techniques

2. The patient’s or victim’s belief in the sorcerer’s power

3. The faith and expectations of the group,

The shamanistic complex

The Ghost Dance

Revitalization Movements

deliberate and organized attempts by some members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture by rapid acceptance of a pattern of multiple innovations

deliberate and organized attempts by some members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture by rapid acceptance of a pattern of multiple innovations

Wovoka

(Jack Wilson )

A wickiup January 1889

A wickiup

The Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance Shirt

Wounded Knee Massacre South Dakota Dec 29th 1890

NATIVISTIC: rejection of alien values and customs

REVIVALISTIC: return to (presumed) ancient ways

VITALISTIC: emphasis on importing alien elements (e.g. Singer sewing machines, Gordon’s gin)

MILLENARIAN: apocalyptic transformation of the world, involving overturning of present social system, predicted to occur in near future

MESSIANIC: spiritual savior will appear, or is already present, to transform the world through his personalized power

Revitalization Movements

Wicca: What is it? Witchcraft also called Wicca or the Craft a neo-pagan, nature-centered religion It worships a Goddess and usually a God uses magic as a tool of personal and

global transformation.

Gerald Gardner1884-1964

High Magic's Aid 1949 a fictional account of witches

1951 England repealed the witchcraft laws

Witchcraft Today 1954 a non-fictional account of modern witchcraft

The Meaning of Witchcraft 1959 A history of Wicca in Northern Europe.

These books formed the basis of modern Wicca

Central law of Wicca: An It Harm None, Do What Ye Will" I.e. as long as you don't do anything that will hurt anyone (including yourself) it is allowed.

Second rule: Everything you put out comes back to you Three fold. Good or bad, good spells or bad spells

Sabbats

Samhain (Halloween) Yule

(Winter Soltice) Candlemas (Feb 2) Ostara

(Spring Equinox) Beltane (May day) Midsummer

(Summer Soltice) Lammas (July 31) Mabon

(Autumn Equinox)

Rituals & Beliefs

• Most rituals take place in a circular formation

• Symbolizes boundary between outside world and the world of the goddesses

• Earth religion: primary beliefs revolve around environment

• Rituals also honor birth, death and reincarnation. Beliefs expressed through music, dancing and/or meditation as a way for members to experience their own power and connectedness.

The pentagram – five pointed star

pentacle--pentagram inscribed in a circle

Spirit - symbolizes spiritual love

Air - the mind

Water - the cycle of life

Earth - the Mother element

Fire - passion

1. How does consultation of oracles assist the Azande to cope with social and cognitive uncertainty?

2. Does oracle consultation help Azande society function more smoothly? In what ways?

3. Why did the oracle “work” in the case of the adultery?

4. How have Christian beliefs and values been incorporated in the Azande system?

5. How can witchcraft be seen as a form of social control?

Witchcraft Among the Azande

What is the purpose of divination among the Azande?

What is Witchcraft and what do witches do

Who are the Witches

What do witches epitomize?

Who do you accuse of being a witch?

If you are accused of being a witch what’s the first thing you’re going to do?

Who is the real victim in witchcraft accusations?

How do you prevent being accused of witchcraft

How are accusations of witchcraft a form of social control

What would happen if the benge either killed or spared the chicken every time.

Witchcraft Among the Azande