religion & ritual. religion a western concept like work/economy/politics/technology. in western...
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Religion
A Western concept like work/economy/politics/technology. In western society, Religion is mostly seen as a clearly
delineated aspect of society, separate from the other terms above. Not the case within all cultures. Ex: Ancient Egypt
ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION
DEFINITION OF RELIGION: Any set of beliefs and practices involving the supernatural.
Many cultures do not make a sharp distinction between the “natural” and the “supernatural.”
ULURU,SACRED TO THE
ABORIGINAL
PEOPLES OF
AUSTRALIA
Religious Perspectives in Anthropology
Religious perspectives vary among Western and “primitive” societies
In Western societies: Nature was ordained by heaven to be dominated
and exploited to human’s desires and needs.In “primitive” societies:
“Religion is present in human’s view of his/her place in the universe”
“Human’s relatedness to the universe, nonhuman nature, reality & circumstance” Religion is evident in daily life, agriculture, hunting,
health measures, arts, and crafts.
CULTURAL RELATIVISMThere are no “universal” standards by
which all social and cultural groups can be evaluated.
No one religion is superior to another.People’s religious beliefs and practices
must be studied within the framework of their own culture and history.
All religions are equally meaningful to their adherents.
This is in contrast to ETHNOCENTRISM: The concept that one’s own culture or religion is superior to others and should be judged from that perspective.
ANTHROPOLOGY SEEKS TO UNDERSTAND
• The range and diversity of human beliefs and practices.
• What makes beliefs and practices meaningful to people.
• What the roles religion plays in the organization of cultures and societies.
Defining Religion within a Society3 good basic questions to start with:
1. Functional: What function (or role) does religion have in society?
– Does it provide a moral code? Explanations for natural events?
2. Analytic: How is religion manifested in society?
– Through Narratives? Rituals? Ethics?
3. Essentialist: What is the relationship between society and the supernatural?
INDIGENOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
• Many indigenous groups have distinct religious systems of beliefs and practices in the same way that they have their own languages and cultures.
Syncretism
Combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought.
RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISMThrough time a culture’s
religious beliefs and practices persist, but also change through incorporating new elements.
Religions are adopted and transformed.
FOR EXAMPLE: Early Christianity incorporated European paganism so that “Christ’s Mass” became integrated with pre Christian symbols and practices.
The Native American Church
Peyote as a sacramentCombines Christian symbolism with traditional Native American symbolism
They provide meaning in peoples’ lives.
They help people manage anxiety and increase their sense of personal order.
They reinforce the social order.
They instigate social and cultural change.
RELIGIONS FULFILL SOCIAL NEEDS
RELIGIONS PROVIDE A “COSMOLOGY”
A COSMOLOGY is a set of principles and/or beliefs about: The nature of life and death. How the universe was created. The origin of society. The relationship of individuals and groups to one another. The relationship of humans to nature.
CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGION
SACRED NARRATIVES
SYMBOLSSPIRITSSACRED POWERSRITUALSADDRESSING THE
SUPERNATURAL
SACRED NARRATIVES
“Myths” that recount historical events, heroes, gods, spirits, and the origin of all things.
Anthropology defines “myth” as realities lived and stories told.Sacred narratives are integral to a society’s rituals, moral code, and
organization.
S P I R I T SMost religions assert the world
is filled with beings and powers that have life and consciousness separate from humans’, but whose existence cannot be scientifically validated.
GOD: A spirit that is believed to have created the world, or who exerts control over the world.
SACRED POWERSMANA: A special kind
of sacred power or energy that infuses the universe.
Mana can be concentrated in humans, other creatures, spirits, and objects.
Integral to many different religions across cultures.
RITUALSRituals are ceremonial
acts with repeated, stylized gestures that manipulate religious symbols for specific purposes.
People enact and reinforce their religious beliefs through these ritualized practices.
Symbols are Central to Rituals
Dominant Symbols They are condensed, many different phenomena are
given common expression Dominant symbol amounts to a fusion of divergent
meanings Dominant ritual symbols entail a polarization of
meaning
COMMUNING WITH THE SUPERNATURAL
• The majority of rituals are designed to commune with and/or control supernatural spirits and powers through a combination of:– PRAYER– SACRIFICE– MAGIC
RELIGIOUS PRACTITIONERS
SHAMAN: An average member of a community who is socially recognized as having the ability to mediate between humans and spirits.
PRIEST: A person who is formally elected, appointed, or hired to a full-time religious office.
Characteristics of Priests
Training (by other priests) Hold authority of office Conservators of Tradition Hold scheduled ceremonies for congregations Role-Models for congregants Often full-time practitioners Perform scheduled rituals Organized into hierarchies
WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY
Witchcraft and sorcery are very common elements of religious beliefs and practices in many cultures.
Based in earlier anthropologists’ research among “non Western” cultures: WITCHCRAFT is The ability to harm others by
harboring malevolent thoughts about them.
SORCERY is the conscious and intentional use of magic.
Witchcraft based in “Western” cultures is the intentional use of magic to aid or harm others, society, and the environment, and thus comparable to sorcery.
AZANDE OF AFRICA
MAGICBelief that supernatural
powers can be influenced through the use of ritual formulas. Sympathetic magic uses
representational objects, such as dolls.
Contagious magic is a direct relationship between ritual and the body, such as use of the subject’s hair or fingernails.
Oral & Written Religions
Written Religions Based on a sacred text
‘Religions of the Book’ Believers expected to
have some knowledge of the texts
Since text bound, these religions can be spread throughout the world Islam
Nigeria, Java, Egypt, Iran
Religions of Conversion One has to affirm one’s
faith
Oral Religions Locally confined and
locally relevant Gods tend to be
associated with revered places in the tribal areas
Tend to be embedded in social practices of society
Religion and the Human Capacity for Language
Religion is made possible by our human ability to use language.
No other animal has language or religion.
Language:A System of Symbolic
CommunicationSymbol: An object or event that stands for some
other object or event, the relationship between them being determined solely by consensus.
- Helen Keller’s insight that “everything has a name”
Language and Culture
Culture itself is made possible by language. Religion is the purest example of culture as a
system of meaningful symbols. Religion provides a system of symbols which
explain how humans are related to the world around them.
In this, religion contrasts with science.
Religion and Science
Science and Religion are different approaches to understanding our place in nature.
Science is concerned with finding mundane, practical solutions to problems.
Scientific “truths” are always tentative and changeable. They are simply our currently most useful explanations of phenomena based on the information we have so far.
The Paradox of “Social Science”
In order to be useful for solving problems, scientists create mechanical models—models that help us understand how things work in terms of lawful, mechanistic relationships among the parts of the models.
When applied to human social and cultural life, such “objective” models fail to capture the meaningfulness that life has for human groups.
Science “thingifies” the universe—even when building models of the human condition
- e.g., “The heart is a pump. The lungs are like bellows. The brain is like a computer.” Such analogies may help us solve practical problems such as how to repair a leaky heart valve, but they may also be a source of alienation and anomie for human subjects.
Anthropomorphic versus Mechanomorphic Models
Humans do more than solve practical problems. We are not simply robots. Rather, we live in a world that is rife with existential meaningfulness. Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to
animals, non-living things, phenomena, objects, or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits, 0r deities.
Mechanomorphic is a doctrine that the universe if fully explicable in mechanistic terms
In addition to thinking in practical terms, humans also “humanize” the world around them by projecting human qualities into the non-human world. This is common in:
- Fantasy Play - Art - Courtship Love - Mental Disorders - Religion
Fantasy Play
Children are born without language. Their normal mental state is an “altered state of consciousness” in which they perceive the external world as an extension of their own egos.
In fantasy play, children spontaneously “project” human qualities into the world around them.
- A sheet becomes a ghost. - A broom becomes an embodiment of their concept of “horse.” Such fantasy play transforms an unknown and
potentially hostile environment into an extension of their own egos, making it seem safer and more controllable.
Engaging in fantasy play involves ritual-like behavior.
Art
Artistic reverie is similar to fantasy play. It too is an altered state of consciousness in which the external world is treated as an extension of the human ego rather than as something separate and independent.
Artistic performance, like fantasy play, involves role playing in which the boundaries between self and not-self are dissolved.
- e.g., the dancer “becomes one with the music.”
Like the rituals of religion, artistic performance can be highly choreographed.
Courtship Love
In courtship love, we do not perceive our partner objectively either.
- e.g., our beloved’s face becomes an embodiment of our concept of beauty.
The rules of courtship also involve highly predictable patterns of behavior—i.e., “rituals.”
Mental Disorders
Mental Disorders also involve both trance states (states in which the normal boundary between self and not-self) is dissolved and ritual behavior (aka “symptoms”).
Like the trance states and rituals of fantasy play, artistic reverie and performance, courtship love, and religion, they provide short-term relief from stress.
Religion
Religion too makes use of trance states and rituals that reduce our subjective experience of stress.
As the most highly socialized system for entering trances and engaging in rituals, participants learn to channel both into appropriate times and settings.
- In this, religion contrasts markedly with mental disorders.
Religion: A Definition
Religion is a socially shared system of anthropomorphic beliefs and attendant feelings, both of which are expressed in words and in rituals by means of which nonhuman parts of the universe are thought to be influenced.
No other animal can be described as “religious.”
Evolutionary
When/how religion beganThis theory was introduced in the 1800s and went hand
in hand with Modernism and the Enlightenment. Logic, science and Monotheism were the pinnacles of
human achievement Western Society represented this pinnacle
Positivism The only real knowledge is scientific knowledge
This approach generally carries a lot of negative baggage and is seen as outdated. All other societies were seen as “primitive” compared to
Western Society.The quest for Religion’s origins is still ongoing and
many elements of Evolutionary Theory are now combined under the Psychosocial Approach…
SIR EDWARD B. TYLOR1832-1917
A social evolutionist.He asserted that the development of
religions from one stage to the next is universal throughout the world’s cultures: ANIMISM: Belief in souls, and that all
things in the world are endowed with a soul.
TOTEMISM: Religious practices centered around animals, plants, or other aspects of the natural world held to be ancestral or closely identified with a group and its individuals.
POLYTHEISM: Belief in more than one, or many gods.
MONOTHEISM: Belief in one god.
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1871)
Religion: the belief in spiritual beingsFunctions of religion: provides answers to
perplexing questions about such phenomena as sleep, dreams, fainting, and death.
TYLOR’S MINIMALIST DEFINITION OF RELIGION
“BELIEF IN SPIRITUAL BEINGS” – ANIMISM
Primitive people were rationalists and scientific
philosophers.
The notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational
thought.
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.
SIR JAMES FRAZER1854-1941
A Scottish ethnologist.The Golden Bough (1890-1915):
compares the myths, magical practices, and religions of the world’s cultures throughout history.
Frazer developed the social evolutionary model of:MAGIC > RELIGION > SCIENCE
He asserted Australian Aborigines were the most primitive of all because they practiced only, what he defined their spirituality as, magic.
Marxist
Developed in the 1800s around same time as the Evolutionary Approach
Karl Marx Religion as a construction of those in control of
society Obey this religion & “us” and you will be happy
A crutch for people too depressed by the miseries of capitalism.
“Opiate of society” Religion functioned as a drug and diverted interest from
the real political issues to silly fantasies about a happy afterlife and the pious and obedient.
MARX’S CRITIQUEMID 1800s: The history of the
world is a history of class struggle between the “haves” and “have nots.”
Every aspect of society is part of a superstructure determined by its economic base.
Religion is part of the superstructure, and a false ideology that provides excuses for the oppressors to maintain the inequitable status quo.
Belief in god or gods is an oppressive by-product of class struggle and should be dismissed.
Functional
What role does religion serve in society?Émile Durkheim
Collective Conscious: Religion serves to hinder selfish tendencies of the individual and promote social cooperation. Symbols are a manifestation of the collective conscious and, when brought up during religious rituals, help to reinforce social cooperation.
Radcliffe-Brown Need group solidarity (Religion) in order for
society to surviveBronislaw Malinowski
Magic and religion as emotional and mental support
Emile Durkheim (1858)
“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e., things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”
—Émile Durkheim
Durkheim, cont.
The primary function of religion is to inspire respect for customs and institutions that must be respected if society is to survive.
Thus, religion reinforces the unity and integrity of society.
RELIGIONS GENERATE SOCIAL COHESION. BELIEFS: All religious beliefs presuppose a classification of all things, real
and ideal, into two opposed groups: the sacred and the profane. This distinction is the foundation of religions, not sacred spirits.
The SACRED encompasses the social community. The PROFANE encompasses the personal and private.
RITUALS: Rules of conduct that prescribe how people should behave in the presence of sacred things, and that reinforce social behaviors:
POSITIVE: The individual renews her/his commitment to the community. NEGATIVE: Reinforces taboos to maintain communal order. PIACULAR: Performed during a crisis to repair and solidify the community.
The TOTEMIC PRINCIPLE: He focused on Australian aborigines in which each clan has a sacred, totemic animal or plant. Totemism provides systems of order and classification. The totem or “god” of the clan IS the CLAN itself.
THUS: For Durkheim, GOD and SOCIETY are the same: Both are superior to individuals Individuals depend on both All must submit to the rules
EMILE DURKHEIM’S (1858-1917) FUNCTIONALIST THEORY OF RELIGION
EARLY 20th CENTURY ANTHROPOLOGY
Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) and Franz Boas (1858-1942) developed the method of “participant observation,” and lived among other cultures for extended periods.
They were both emphatically opposed to social evolution.Anthropology becomes more grounded in cultural relativism.Anthropologists stop focusing on the origins of religions to:
How religions spread through DIFFUSION, the mixing of cultural elements from one society to another through contact over time.
What FUNCTIONS religions serve in society.
MALINOWSKI’S FUNCTIONALIST THEORY OF
RELIGION
He set out to prove that “savages” were rational and not the “living fossils” of a social evolutionary paradigm.
The Trobrianders hunted and gardened with empirically-honed skills.
They turned to magic when practical knowledge had reached its limits.
Religion functions in conjunction with practicality.
His model focuses on how social institutions serve the biological and psychological needs of individuals.
Through comparative methods, he focused on how society functions at the macro, structural level.
A society’s “fixed” religious beliefs and practices (those that remain over time) maintain social order.
This was a time when anthropology was attempting to validate itself as a science.
Structural processes can be observed and documented with greater scientific validity then the psychologically oriented processes of Malinowski’s model of functionalism.
RADCLIFFE-BROWN’S (1881-1955) STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
Social institutions function to support the structure of society and social needs.
Society functions to become something greater than the sum total of its institutional parts.
Stratification and inequity function to maintain social cohesion.
CRITIQUE: Functionalism is a macro approach that focuses on the status quo, and cannot adequately theorize social conflict or change.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL USE OF THEORIES OF FUNCTIONALISM
Interpretive
Developed in response to the Functional Approach.
Clifford Geertz The goal of the anthropologist should be to discover
meaning, not to look for origins and laws! Based on the work of Max Weber, who was the first to
propose looking at culture through Emic Analysis.
CLIFFORD GEERTZ(1926-2006)
Geertz focused on interpreting the symbols that give meaning to peoples’ lives.
He asserted that anthropologists must deeply analyze and thickly describe cultures and their symbols through the interpretive model in order to make difference understandable.
He argued that religions are too particularistic with regard to events, individuals, and groups to be understood through functionalist theories.
GEERTZ ON RELIGION AS A CULTURAL SYSTEM
Geertz’s definition of culture: "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.”
Geertz’s theory of religion as a cultural system: A symbolic system, religion is a social construct that--through social interaction--
creates reality, and provides people with a blueprint for how to live. Generates powerful and lasting moods and motivations in people. The moods are
in and of themselves, and the motivations are directed towards goals. Infuses these moods and motivations with the sense that they are uniquely real. Provides an overall ordering for existence that gives life meaning, and provides
explanations for why problems and tragedies occur. Infuses the overall explanations and ordering for existence with the sense that it is
factual. Together, these dynamics seem so powerful to believers that religion becomes the
only sensible explanation for reality. Belief is fortified through ritual, and then taken into the world to transform it to conform with religion.
POST-STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Post-structuralism emerged as a critique of structuralism, and the array of post-structural theories are numerous and eclectic.
The post-structural moment occurred when it was recognized that people participate in the creation of knowledge and power, and are not mere pawns of cultural and social structural practices and processes.
Post-structuralism asserts that the study of underlying structures is itself a product of culture, and therefore subject to biases and misinterpretations.
To understand culture, it is necessary to study the systems of knowledge which produce culture.
THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES:Meaning is always shifting.Individuals’ perceptions of meaning is always shifting.Power attempts to fix meaning, but this is impossible.
Basic Concepts
Theism: Belief in the existence of God(s). Includes Mono and Poly.
Atheism: Belief that God(s) does not exist. Agnosticism: View that nothing can be
conclusively or definitively known about the existence or non-existence of God(s).
Characteristics of Religion
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim stated that religion involves “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge”.
Beliefs Ideas, based upon faith, that people consider true
The sacred and profane Sacred: that which has supernatural qualities Profane: that which is the ordinary
Rituals Routines that reinforce the faith
Moral communities People who share a religious belief
Personal experience Grants meaning to life
Sects and Cults
Sects: Loosely organized
religious group Non professional
leadership Actively rejects social
environment Breaks away from a
larger religious group Deny beliefs of others
Cults Non-conventional religious
group Largely outside a society’s
cultural traditions Social conditions demand
separation Members required to
withdraw from normal life Full-time communal
obligation for members Many long standing
religions – Judaism, Islam, Christianity – began as cults
Charismatic leader is needed
Word ‘cult’ is used by sociologists with no prejudice
Religion in Pre-Industrial Societies
Animism- the belief that elements of the natural world are conscious life forms that affect humans.
Animistic people view forests, oceans, mountains, and even wind as spiritual forces. Many Native American and African societies are animistic.
Hunters and gathers might have singled out someone to be the Shaman with special religious skills, but they have no full time religious leader.
Among pastoral and horticultural people, there arose a belief in a single divine power responsible for creating the world.
In agrarian societies, religion becomes more important, with a specialized priesthood in charge of religious organizations.
Religions that are not tied to a particular culture or location. Colonialism, trade, missionaries, migration, etc., have spread world religions throughout the globe.
There are many localized variations of the world religions, and vernacular or folk beliefs and practices that are closely connected to a specific culture or location. Buddhism Hinduism Islam Judaism Christianity
World Religions
Christianity: 2 billion Islam: 1.3 billion Hinduism: 900 million Secular/Nonreligious/
Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million Buddhism: 360 million Chinese traditional religion:
225 million Primal-indigenous: 150 million African Traditional &
Diasporic: 95 million Sikhism: 23 million Juche: 19 million Spiritism: 14 million
Judaism: 14 million Baha'i: 6 million Jainism: 4 million Shinto: 4 million Cao Dai: 3 million Tenrikyo: 2.4 million Neo-Paganism: 1 million Unitarian-Universalism: 800
thousand Rastafarianism: 700 thousand Scientology: 600 thousand Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand
Christianity
World’s largest religionThree main branches
Roman Catholic Protestant
Luther breaks away from Roman Catholic Church in 16th century
Orthodox Christian Division of Christianity in 10th century Serves eastern Europe
Islam
Second largest religion in worldSignificant beliefs and practices
Only one god that all must recognize Daily prayer, share wealth, pilgrimage
No centralized authority Local clerics rule often with close state ties Two major sects
Sunni Shiite
Judaism
Numerically smallest of world religionsImportant beliefs:
God’s chosen people Torah: first 5 books of the Bible; oldest truths from
GodMajor divisions
Orthodox: strictly traditional Reform: liberal and worldly Conservative: middle ground between Orthodox
and Reform
Hinduism
Largest of the Eastern religions Concentrated largely in India
Important beliefs Dharma: special force makes daily demands and
sacred obligations Karma: spirit remains through life, death, rebirth
Organization Caste membership
Buddhism
Large religion throughout Asia Includes southeast Asian countries and China
Based upon teachings of the Buddha, the enlightened one Monks and lay people spread his teachings
Important beliefs To relieve human suffering one must follow a path
that ultimately leads to enlightenment “Right” thoughts and actions must be daily
performed and evaluated through meditation
Confucianism
Originated with Confucius attempting to solve practical problems of daily living Wisdom summarized guides management of society
Jen: human sympathy that binds people in 5 basic relationships Sovereign and subject Parent and child Older brother and younger brother Husband and wife Friend and friend
Proper etiquette and ritual help these relationships
Religious Fundamentals
Fundamentalism- a conservative religious doctrine that opposes intellectualism and worldly accommodation in favor of restoring traditional otherworldly religion.
Religious Fundamentals
Fundamentalists interpret sacred texts literally. Fundamentalists insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible and
other sacred texts.
Fundamentalists reject religious pluralism. They maintain that their religious beliefs are true and other beliefs
are not.
Fundamentalists pursue the personal experience of God’s presence.
Fundamentalism opposes “secular humanism.” Secular humanism is a general term that refers to our society’s
tendency to look to scientific experts rather than God for guidance about how to live.
Many political fundamentalists endorse conservative political goals. Fundamentalists oppose the “liberal agenda”
Religion and Functionalism
Religion, as a major social institution, provides many important functions Cohesion
Reduce social isolation Increase social solidarity Religion unites people through shared symbolism,
values, and norms Social control
Authority over significant events Social violations become moral offenses Religious ideas promote conformity
Purpose Reduction of anxiety regarding the unknown Religious belief offers the comforting sense that our brief
lives serve some greater purpose
Secularization
The declining influence of religion in daily lifeTransformation of a society from close identification with
religious values and institutions towards non-religious values and secular institutions. Combines with increasing influence of science
The American Religious Economy
More than 1,500 separate denominations exist in the United States.
22 American denominations enroll more than 1 million members each.
In any given week, about 40% of Americans attend services. Some have questioned this number
About 63% are official members of a local congregation or parish.
American Denominations and Literal Faith in the Bible
Percent who agree that “the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word”
Unitarian-Universalist 7
United Church of Christ 12
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 22
Episcopal Church 22
United Presbyterian Church 25
United Methodist Church 31
Jehovah's Witnesses 51
Church of Christ 56
Southern Baptist Convention 57
American Denominations and Literal Faith in the Bible
Percent who agree that “the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word”
Church of the Nazarene 58
Assemblies of God 68
United Pentecostal Church 69
Church of God 81
All Protestants 43
Roman Catholics 20
Declining American Denominations
Members per 1,000 U.S. Population
Denomination 1960 2000%
Change
Christian Church (Disciples) 10.0 2.7 –71
United Church of Christ 12.4 5.0 –60
Episcopal Church 18.1 8.2 –55
United Methodist Church 58.9 29.8 –49
Presbyterian Church (USA) 23.0 12.7 –45
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 29.3 18.2 –39
Unitarian-Universalist 1.0 0.8 –20
Roman Catholic 233.0 221.7 –5
Some Growing American Denominations
Members per 1,000 U.S. Population
Denomination 1960 2000%
Change
Southern Baptist Convention 53.8 56.3 +5
Church of the Nazarene 1.7 2.2 +35
Seventh-day Adventist 1.8 3.1 +72
Foursquare Gospel 0.5 0.9 +80
Mormons 8.2 18.2 +122
Jehovah’s Witnesses 1.4 3.5 +150
Assemblies of God 2.8 9.1 +225
Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) 0.9 3.1 +244
Church of God in Christ 2.2 19.5 +786
Why are women more religious?
Gender trends essentially universal
Women socialized to care for family/religious needs of family
Pascal’s wager: non-belief is risky behavior
But belief does involve costs – deny oneself… look to rewards in heaven
Men engage in more risky behavior, less willing to delay gratification
Gender and Religiousness in Selected Nations
Nation Women Men
Percent who attend church at least monthly.
United States 61 54
Canada 44 32
Mexico 70 57
Great Britain 30 17
Germany 36 23
Italy 62 42
Russia 9 3
Japan 16 11
Gender and Religiousness in Selected Nations
Nation Women Men
Percent who pray.
United States 94 87
Canada 88 75
Mexico 95 89
Great Britain 78 54
Germany 74 59
Italy 90 74
Russia 50 21
Japan 90 85
China 28 17