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Anthropology of Religion

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Analysis of a society through the lens of the sacred ... Typology of tales. Myth. Legend. Folktale/fairytale (M rchen) Bronislaw Malinowski ' ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Anthropology of Religion


1
Anthropology of Religion
  • Not an examination of one thing or a set of
    practices
  • Analysis of a society through the lens of the
    sacred
  • Sacred that which is set apart from the
    profane, mundane, everyday life

2
What is religion?
  • Explicit definitions chase away the implicit ones
  • Specific forms? Specific content? Certain
    functions?

3
Some poor definitions
  • Superstition
  • belief in any indwelling forces and powers
  • Belief in supernatural beings
  • Tylor Wherever people believe in the existence
    of one or more of these beings, that is where
    religion exists.
  • What about Buddhism or Confucianism

4
Realm of the sacred
  • Durkheim
  • A religion is a unified system of beliefs and
    practices relative to sacred things, that is to
    say, things set apart and forbiddenbeliefs and
    practices which unite into one single moral
    community called a Church, all those who adhere
    to them. ... religion should be an eminently
    collective thing.

5
Geertzs definition
  • A religion is a (1) system of symbols which acts
    to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and
    long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3)
    formulating conceptions of a general order of
    existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with
    such an aura of actuality that (5) the moods and
    motivations seem uniquely realistic.

6
Definition as heuristic
  • The total set of beliefs, practices, associated
    symbols, and interactions among persons concerned
    with
  • explanation of the cosmos and a persons place in
    it
  • channeling of emotions
  • sense of effectiveness and ability to cope with
    death, illness, and misfortune in general
  • maintenance of a sense of order by continual
    counteraction of powerlessness, randomness,
    meaninglessness, chaos

7
Anthropologies of religion
  • 19th century evolutionism
  • Tylor from animism to monotheism
  • Frazer from magic to religion to science
  • Durkheim from specific to general
  • Weber increasing rationalization

8
Boasian anthropology
  • Beliefs and practices we may want to call
    religion make sense only as part of a larger,
    coherent whole
  • Religions change through history, but there is no
    single narrative of change or evolution
  • Beliefs and practices are mutually reinforcing

9
Functions of religion
  • Sociological
  • Group solidarity, legitimacy
  • Psychological
  • Address anxieties, comfort
  • Cognitive
  • Explain, externalize and narrate profound
    problems and solutions

10
Sociological functions
  • Durkheim (sacred profane)
  • No religions are false
  • Reflect sociological realities
  • Creates and maintains the social order
  • Collective norms, morals
  • Legitimates established system
  • (Re)produces interpersonal bonds

11
Psychological functions
  • The world is a scary place, things go wrong
  • Fear of death
  • Dreams

12
Cognitive functions
  • Religion provides categories
  • Sacred symbols make implicit ideas explicit
  • Openings for discussion, challenges
  • The world is a meaningful place
  • Religion is a chief product of this meaning-making

13
Religion includes
  • attempts to explain, interpret, predict and
    control phenomena and events
  • emotional responses to the awesomeness of the
    universe and to the impact of illness, death and
    ones own mortality
  • mechanisms for the release of psychological
    stress
  • symbols of unity of a society and its distinction
    from other groups
  • models for explaining the world

14
Manifestations
  • Beliefs
  • Practices, routines
  • Rituals
  • Myths

15
MythThats a Myth
  • Lies, stories of Greek gods, urban legend
  • Foundation or reflection of ritual
  • Sacred narrative
  • Texts
  • Multivalent symbols, polysemic

16
Narratives of Truth Reality
  • Fundamental, essential Truths, Reality
  • Not always empirically or scientifically
    testable, verifiable
  • Narratives for our world, support our
    understandings
  • Direct action, legitimate social order

17
Sacred Narrative
  • Deep structures of a culture
  • Ultimate causes
  • No god, no hero ever revealed a profane act
    (Eliade)
  • Tricksters detachable penis?
  • Sacred Time

18
Typology of tales
  • Myth
  • Legend
  • Folktale/fairytale (Märchen)

19
Bronislaw Malinowski The Role of Myth in Life
  • Myth controls moral and social behaviour
  • Attacked Müller and his theory of
    nature-mythology
  • Myths solve practical problems
  • They fulfill functions

20
Trobriand tales
  • kukwanebu (fairy tales, humorous fictions, art)
  • libwogwo (true histories/legends, stories of
    personal experience told for edification about
    the world, not art)
  • liliu (sacred tales/myths, venerable and sacred,
    true)

21
Performance of Myth
  • Denis Tedlock, Dell Hymes, Julie Cruickshank
  • Oral literature, poetry
  • Narrating a myth is a ritual
  • Performative competence
  • Form and content intertwined

22
Capturing oral performance
  • Tape recorders, responsive audience
  • Translations which produce similar effects
  • Notate paralinguistic features (tone, volume,
    pitch, pause)

23
Guide to Reading Aloud
  • She went out and
  • went down to Waters End.
  • On she went until
  • she came to the bank
  • and washed her clothes

24
Guide to Reading Aloud
  • Up on the hills
  • HE SAW A HERD OF DEER.
  • The would sit king
  • On he went.
  • KERSPLASHHHHHH

girl wor
25
Guide to Reading Aloud
  • aaaaaaAAAAAAH
  • ta
  • (gently) Now come with me.

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26
not primitive but poetic
  • Our prose is realistic, poetry is evocative.
  • Repetition is poetic parallelism (common in epic
    poetry)
  • Dramatic stories
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