Belief Systems - Professor Cruz lecture notes PDF

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Belief Systems Belief Systems in Antiquity ● Origins of Belief systems are unknown but is ancient Does Ritual = Religion? ● Artifacts mean something but they are not necessarily religious Belief Systems ● Durkheim- Sacred and Profane ○ Sacred is set off from the ordinary ○ Profane is the ordinary ○ Every society has a sacred ○ But that domain is culturally constructed ● Lambek ○ “Good anthropology understands that religious worlds are real, vivid, and significant to those who construct and inhabit them” ● Durkheim and Later Turner ○ There is a religious effervescence, the bubbling up of collective emotional intensity generated by worship. ■ Communitas-an intense community spirit, solidarity, equality, togetherness Beliefs: Taylor ● Spiritual beings ○ Religion born as people tried to understand conditions and events they could not explain ○ Proposed that religion evolved through three stages ■ Animism: The earliest form of religion, was a belief in spiritual beings ■ Originated from peoples’ attempts to explain dreams and trances ■ Polytheism: Belief in multiple gods ■ Monotheism: Belief in a single, all powerful deity Beliefs: Wallace ● Shamanic religion simplest type ○ Shamans: Part time religious figures who mediate between people and supernatural beings and forces ○ Shamans sometimes assume a different or ambiguous sex or gender role, which sets them off symbolically from ordinary people ● Communal Religion: Shamans and community rituals ○ Community religions are polytheistic, their adherents believe in several deities who control aspects of nature ● Olympian Religions: Polytheistic with powerful anthropomorphic gods ○ First appeared in states ○ Full-time professional priesthoods hierarchically and bureaucratically organized ● Monotheistic religion

○ Priesthoods ○ All supernatural phenomena manifestations of or under the control of single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent supreme being ● Focus on presumed universals like beings, powers, and forces ● The Fore in New Guinea believe that all illness and misfortune stem from the supernatural and human agents ● Azande believed that witchcraft is everywhere and would limit how close their homes were in order to establish a safe distance from neighboring witches Characteristics ● Anthropomorphic- human shape ● Zoomorphic- animal shape ● Naturalism- Features of the natural world ● Anthropopyschic- Thought processes and emotions similar to humans Beliefs ● Powers and Forces ○ Mana: Sacred impersonal force that can reside in people, animals, plants, and objects ■ Prominent in Melanesia ■ Similar to our notion of efficacy or luck ○ Beliefs in mana-like forces widespread but specifics of religious doctrines vary ■ In Polynesia, Mana attached to political offices ■ Bodies and possessions of high chiefs were taboo: set apart as sacred and off-limits to ordinary people ● Magic and religion ○ Magic: supernatural techniques intended to accomplish specific aims ■ Imitative magic: magicians produce desired effect by imitating it ■ Contagious magic: whatever is done to object believed to affect person who once had contact with that object ○ Magic can be associated with animism, mana, polytheism, or monotheism ○ There is uncertainty, anxiety, and solace in many aspects of human life ■ Religion and magic can help reduce or control this ■ Malinowski: People turn to magic as means of control when they face uncertainty and danger ■ Trobriand Islanders: Used magic only in situations they could not control ■ In contemporary societies, magic persists as means of reducing psychological anxiety in situation of uncertainty ● Rituals ○ Ritual: Formal behavior performed in sacred places at set times ■ Formalized behavior ■ Regularly repeated

■ Symbolic content ● Convey information about the participants and their traditions ● Translate enduring messages, values, and sentiments into action ■ Sacred vs Secular rituals ■ Two main types of rituals ● Rites of passage ● Rites of intensification Rites of Passage: Van Gennep ● Mark culturally defined biological and social phases ● Mark changes in status and roles ● Phases ○ Separation ○ Liminality (Transition) ○ Re(incorporation) Rites of Intensification ● Focus on the group ● Reinforce ○ Group solidarity ○ Values of a culture ○ Social and political status relations within group Religion and change ● Revitalization movements: Social movements that occur in times of change ○ Religious leaders emerge and undertake to alter or revitalize a society ○ Christianity is a revitalization movement ○ Colonial-era Iroquois reformation led by Handsome Lake ● Cargo cults: revitalization movements that may emerge when traditional communities have regular contact with industrial societies but lack their wealth, technology, and living standards ○ Name derived from focus on European cargo ○ Indigenous communities attempt to: ■ Explain European domination and wealth ■ Achieve similar success magically by mimicking European behavior and manipulating symbols...