Religion

Anthropology of Religion

• Anthropologists treat religion as a component of human culture.

• Is not concerned with the “truth” or “falsehood” of religions.

• Attempts to connect religion to other aspects of society (holism).

What is religion?

• How do we define religion as a phenomenon? What is true of all religions?

• Anthropologists use a number of different definitions to understand religion cross-culturally.

Religion is…

• A social phenomenon. It involves collective practices.

• An individual phenomenon. It involves the psychic experiences of individuals.

• A system of meaning. It answers “big questions.”

Religion…

• is composed of practices: rituals and ceremonies…

• as well as beliefs and perspectives.

God(s) and Spirits

• Animism is the belief in spirits or spiritual beings.

• This term is sometimes also used for the belief that all things have a spirit.

• Animism, in some form or another, is a hallmark of most religious systems.

God(s) and Spirits

• Gods refer to powerful spiritual beings that have personal characteristics (i.e. characteristics like gender, personalities, motivations…etc.)

• Theism refers to the belief in the existence of one or more gods.

God(s) and Spirits

• Polytheism: the belief in many gods.

• Pantheon: the collection of deities worshipped by a particular people.

• Monotheism: the belief in only one god.

Myths and Cosmologies

• Myth: a sacred story, one that often describes the nature or origin of the universe or some element of human existence.

• Myths are involved in building the cosmology of a religion: its model of the universe and humanity’s place in it.

The Nine Worlds

Religion and Philosophy

• Religion tends to answer “big questions” relating to the meaning of live, the nature of good and evil…etc.

• The question of what falls into the “religious” category and what falls into the “philosophical” category sometimes confuses people.

Religion and Philosophy• Some forms of Buddhism reject the idea

of a Creator or God in the Jewish, Christian or Muslim sense and thus see Buddhism as a philosopy…

• However, like all religions, Buddhism provides rituals and practices that are designed to integrate people into a particular world view and lead them to particular spiritual goals.

The original “Shamans”

• The term “Shaman” refers to a particular religious practitioner amongst indigenous Siberian people.

The “other” Shaman

• The term “Shaman”, however, is also used by anthropologists to refer to collection of spiritual practitioners throughout the rest of the world.

The people we call shamans typically:

• Act as intermediaries between this world and the “other world.”

• Divine the future

• Function as healers

Altered States of Consciousness

• Shamans typically use some means to enter a shamanic state: a state of altered consciousness to do their work.

Methods

• Drumming/Rhythmic Music

• Dancing

• Chanting

• Consumption of psychoactive substances…etc.

Entheogens

• An entheogen is a pschoactive drug used for spiritual/religious purposes.

Questions about The Sound or Sushing Water.

• What is real to the Jivaro Shaman? What is unreal?

• How does one become a shaman?

• How does the shaman uses his powers to heal…and harm?