What happens when small-scale societies are drawn into a larger, more complex world?

1
The Search for New Meaning

• What happens when small-scale societies are drawn
  into a larger, more complex world?
• What happens to their religion?
• Does it cease to exist, or does it adapt to
  survive?

2
Change

• Most religious practices will be conservative
• A societys belief system is often considered to
  be ancient and sacred.
• Rituals, the repetition of the same, ensures that
  religious meaning is preserved.
• Change is not often welcomed, but is necessary
  for a religious system to survive

3
Mechanisms for Change
Nothing in this world is stagnant. Everything
changes in one way or another. Think of the
most permanent thing you can. Perhaps a
mountain? The fact that humans breathe oxygen?
The Sun?

• In regards to culture, there are a few factors we
  can label as gentle agents of change
• Discovery A new awareness of something that
  exists in the environment
• Invention When a person, using the technology at
  hand, comes up with a solution to a particular
  problem.
• Diffusion The apparent movement of cultural
  traits from one society to another. When two
  groups, such as those within a culture area, face
  similar problems, solutions that are developed in
  one group through discovery and invention might
  be adopted by the other.
• Stimulus Diffusion A new trait invented by a
  culture based upon a similar trait introduced by
  a neighboring culture.

4
Mechanisms for Change cont.

• There are also more intense agents of change,
  change that comes from economic/political/social
  control of one society over another
• Acculturation The process whereby a culture
  received traits from a dominant society.
• When two technologically unequal societies come
  into contact with each other, the subordinate
  society will experience change as traits are
  accepted from the dominant society. (Often at a
  rate that is too rapid to properly integrate the
  traits into the culture.)
• Assimilation A condition whereby a dominated
  culture has changed so much because of outside
  influences that it ceases to have its own
  distinct identity.
• Ex Many Native American groups
• Syncretism A fusing of traits from two cultures
  to form something new and yet permitting the
  retention of the old by subsuming the old into a
  new form.
• Ex Sarapis, Trobriand Cricket, The influence of
  Western culture (Coke, McDonalds, Starbucks,
  Hollywood, etc.)

5
Haitian Vodou An example of syncretism

• Vodou is a concept often misunderstood in Western
  culture and conjures up images of evil, sorcery,
  dolls w/ pins, etc.
• Ex http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9SSUQxGjZZ4
  (Godsmack Vodoo)
• Arose in Haiti during the first half of the 19th
  century (1804-1860) centered around the symbols
  of music, art and dance.
• Chromolithographs Color printed posters of the
  saints used by early priests who attempted to
  bring Christianity to Haitian slaves. Seen as
  symbolic of West African deities.
• Mainly Yoruba (with some Fon, Kongo) beliefs of
  West Africa combined with Christian elements to
  form Vodou.
• Vodou means spirit or deity in the Fon
  language.
• Pantheon of deities called Lwa and are very
  similar to the Yoruba orisha that we have
  previously studied. 2 important sub-groups of
  Lwa The Rada nanchon which are similar to the
  Yoruba gods, and the Petwo nanchon,
  aggressive/assertive gods born out of the slave
  experience.
• Legba, or Papa Legba is the first Lwa to be
  contacted when trying to breach the threshold
  between the human and supernatural worlds. Same
  function as the Yoruba Orisha Esu-Elegba, but not
  so much of a trickster, rather seen as a more
  compassionate figure, hence the Papa. Papa
  Legba is often syncretised with the Catholic St.
  Peter (shown above).
• Fon, Kongo and Yoruba beliefs of West Africa
  combine with Christian elements to form Vodou.
• Vodou means spirit or deity in the Fon
  language.
• Haiti
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vkpeLdXeIbwAampfea
  turerelated
• Brooklyn and the diaspora (the movement of a
  population out of their homeland)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vzYWFL3Bj2LUfeature
  related
• Have pg. 247 (Table 11.1) open as a references
  while watching the above. Pay attention to
  mentions of Legba and Gede. The Lwa here are
  called spirits. Look for the Vede (sign) for Papa
  Legba (symbol shown here on the right).

6
Santeria

• Similar to Vodou. Developed in Cuba combining
  mostly Yoruba beliefs with Roman Catholicism.
• Deities are, as in Yoruba religion, referred to
  as Orisha
• Santeria name originally stemmed from a
  perceived over-concentration on the Saints
  (San). Proper name for the religion is Regla de
  Ocha or Rule of the Orisha.
• Similar to Vodou practitioners who refer to their
  religion as serving the spirits
• Animal sacrifice is used in ritual, which has
  caused conflict between religious freedom and
  animal rights