Transcript Religion A Luba diviner and her client, performing a divination ritual, jointly hold a friction oracle known as a kakishi on a woven mat on the ground between them.. (John Pemberton)

Religion
A Luba diviner
and her client,
performing a
divination ritual,
jointly hold a
friction oracle
known as a
kakishi on a
woven mat on
the ground
between them..
(John Pemberton)
Albrecht
Durer 1504
What makes these religious?
The Major Features of Religion
• Belief in the supernatural
• Texts
• Symbolic
• A means of explanation
• Moral code
• Stress/Anxiety Relief
• Sacred vs. profane
• Body of myth
• Emotional Experience
• Rituals
• Group membership/identity
• Magic and witchcraft
• System
• supernatural Beings and
powers
• A philosophy
• Specially skilled individuals
Defining Religion
“a
set of beliefs, in supernatural
forces that functions to provide
meaning, and a sense of control
over unexplainable phenomena
(Ferraro 2005)”
What
is considered the
supernatural varies from one
society to the next.
Many
societies don’t have a
separate word for religion--it is so
integrated into politics, or cultural
identity
Explanations for the Universality of Religion
Functional
Psychological
Intellectual
Interpretative
Sociological
Emotional
Intellectual approach
primitive
(
E. B. Tylor
man was a rationalist and a
scientific philosopher
the notion of spirits was not the
outcome of irrational thinking
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.
Tylor’s minimal definition of religion
“belief in spiritual beings” = animis
from the Latin word anima meaning
breath or soul.)
“ancient savage “philosophers” - impressed by
two groups of biological problems:
1. “what is it that makes the difference
between a living body and a dead one and
what causes sleep, trance, disease, death?”
2. “what are these
human shapes
which appear in
dreams and
visions?”
a spirit or soul,
derived from the
experience of human
souls or spirits in
`dreams and waking
hallucinations' is
thought to `animate'
lifeless objects such as
sticks or stones, trees,
mountains, rivers, etc.
Animism
the
idea that the world and everything in it is filled
with souls or spirits.
These
spirits can be communicated with.
Spirits
“feel” and therefore, can be harmed, flattered,
offended and can also hurt or help.
Psychological Approach
 Gives meaning to life – Yes there is life after death
 a means for dealing with crises death and illness,
famine, flood, failure
Reduces anxiety
 provides comfort
 helps people cope with reality.
 Tells them how to behave
 Removes burden of responsibility
A man sleeps on an ancestral
skull to ward off evil spirits in
Asmat area of Irian Jaya,
Indonesia
 Participation in religious ceremonies provides
reassurance security, and even ecstasy, closeness etc
Sociological Approach
religion stems from society and societal needs and provides
for them
religions validate the social: they posit controlling forces in
the universe that sustain the moral and social order of a
people
sanction human conduct by providing notions of right and
wrong
setting precedents for acceptable behaviour, group norms
provides moral sanctions for individual conduct
education function through ritual used to learn oral
traditions
eg. puberty rites provide information about tribal lore.
Interpretative
Sees religion as a set of symbols and
stresses the meaning of those symbols, as
referents and creators of meaningful life.
"a religion is a system of symbols
which acts to establish powerful,
pervasive and long-lasting moods and
motivations by formulating conceptions
of a general order of existence and
clothing these conceptions with such an
aura of factuality that the moods and
motivations seem uniquely realistic."
“Clifford Geertz”
Concerned with interpretation of
rituals
Coping with
Uncertainty
Magic, divination,
oracles, and witchcraft
MAGIC

Nature is understood to be controlled by forces which
can be manipulated
 Magic is a way of controlling the natural elements.
 Magicians attempt to control the elements for the benefit
of their society or for the detriment of their enemies.
Rain Dance by
Tom Philllips
Contagious Magic
Sympathetic Magic
Cave art used for rituals of this sort?
Standing Bison, Altamira
(Spain) c. 15,000-10,000 B.C
Jarome
Iginla
Playoff Beard
Miikka Kiprusoff
Stephane Yelle
Louis Van Zelst
(c.1896-1915)
Philadelphia Athletics
hunchback mascot and bat boy
(1910-1914)
“better rub my hump for a hit”
Athletics won World Series in
1910, 1911, 1913 (top of league
1914)
Credited for the wins as much
as the coach
1915 Athletics finished dead last
National Post
What is divination?
" the practice of foreseeing
future events or acquiring
hidden knowledge through
supernatural means"
The Piacenza Liver
bronze model of sheep liver with Etruscan
writing used for divination (hepatomancy)
Modern Examples?
Ordeals
Omens
Oracles
An Azande diviner
uses a friction
oracle (iwa), holding
his foot against the
lower part to keep
the instrument in
place and rubbing
the upper part
against it.
Rubbing Board oracles (iwa)
Men always carry an iwa with them for consultation on
questions ranging from whether or not to take a journey to
identification of the witch who has made him suddenly and
violently sick.
The small table-like portion is thought of as the female
part. The rubber is considered male.
Any individual may make an
iwa so long as he observes the
appropriate taboos, such as
abstaining from sexual
relations for two days and not
eating certain foods,
He must also follow
prescribed procedures which
include burning the surface of
the wood with a red-hot spear,
preparing and anointing the
object with a mixture of boiled
root juices and oil over which
A diviner operating the rubbing- he has prayed:
board oracle.
Witchcraft
‘the inherent power to harm other persons by supernatural
means’ Evans-Pritchard
The
image
of the
Witch
When shall we three meet again? In
thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the hurly-burly's done. When the
battle's lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun...
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air." Macbeth, Act I, Scene I
Witches represent a reversal of normal behaviour
Christian
Witch
White predominant color
Black dominant (Black Mass)
Chastity
Orgie
Heterosexual norm
Homosexual norm
Holy Communion
Cannibalism
Daytime Mass
Night time Mass
Prayers said normally
Prayers said backward
Worship God
Worship devil
authority divinely ordained
Authority from the devil (Eve)
Where does this concept come from
The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer)
Heinrich Kramer and James
Sprenger
first published in 1486
> 20 editions next 200 years
Pope Innocent VIII issued a Papal
Bull in 1484. It’s inclusion made it
appear that the whole book
enjoyed papal sanction
Swearing allegiance to the Devil, by
trampling the Cross... And kissing his behind
“He must not be too quick to
subject a witch to examination, but
must pay attention to certain signs
which will follow.
And he must not be too quick for
this reason: unless God, through a
holy Angel, compels the devil
to withold his help from the witch,
she will be so insensible to the pains
of torture that she will sooner be
torn limb from limb than confess
any of the truth.”
-- Kramer and Sprenger, the
Malleus Maleficarum
One 'foolproof' way to
establish whether a suspect
was a witch was ducking.
With right thumb bound to
left toe, the accused was
plunged into a convenient
pond. If she floated it proved
an association with the black
arts, with the body rejecting
the baptismal water. If the
victim drowned they were
innocent. Given the position
of the prisoner, it was more
likely they would float
In England, torture was not
allowed against witches
because witches were not
believed to be conspirators.
Torture by sleeplessness,
(Tormentum insomniae) was
allowable perhaps because it
did not seem to be a real
torture. Matthew Hopkins
used it for his advantage in
Essex. In one instance, John
Lowe, 70-year-old vicar of
Brandeston, was "swum in the
moat," kept awake for three
days and nights, and then
Matthew Hopkins, England's Witch-Finder forced to walk without rest
General, explains how to identify witches
until his feet were blistered.
and their familiars
Some statistics:
Between c.1450 and c.1650,
about 60,000 to 100,000 people
were executed by legal
authorities for witchcraft in
Europe.
75%-90% of those accused
were female.
The majority of those accused
were over the age of 50.
When torture was used to
extract confessions, 95% of
suspects were convicted.
When torture was not used,
only 50% were convicted.
Who were the witches?
“What else is a woman …but a foe to
friendship, an unescapable punishment, a
necessary evil, a natural temptation, a
desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a
delectable detriment, and an evil of nature
painted with fair colors [she is,
furthermore ]by her nature quicker to
waiver in her faith which is the root of
witchcraft.”
Kramer and Sprenger, the Malleus Maleficarum
“While this tradition of blaming unexpected
misfortunes on black magic is found
throughout rural Africa, in few places has it
taken more victims than in South Africa's
rural Northern Province. More than 500
people, mostly women, were accused of
witchcraft and killed by mobs here between
1990 and 1995. Even more lost their homes and
their possessions when they were either run out
of town or had their homes torched.”
Christian Science Monitor Dec. 6, 2000
Sabrina
Worst witch ever
Bewitched
Charmed
Practical Magic
Religion and Power
Priests versus Shamans
institutional
functionaries
Inspirational
functionaries
power inherited
or derived from
the body of
codified and
standardized –
from society
authority comes from his service in
a sacred tradition
efforts are individual and
occasional
must have competence in
conducting ritual -
deals with spirits and lesser
deities
Symbols of a rite are sensorial
perceptible to a congregation and
have a permanence in that they are
culturally transmissible
The priest is an actor in a culturally
scripted drama
Authority from
supernatural
powers come from
divine stroke and
personal ability
tends to dominate in foodgathering societies
most frequently performs a
curing rite
A shaman
of the SitkaQwan
Indians
(Alaska),
wearing a
ritual mask,
is doing a
healing.
The shamanistic complex
Source of power comes from
Belief in magic which has
three aspects
1. The sorcerers belief in the
effectiveness of his
techniques
an hamatsa (shaman) who has
become possessed by
supernatural madness after
spending many days in the
woods as part of the hamatsa
initiation ceremony.
2. The patient’s or victim’s
belief in the sorcerer’s
power
3. The faith and expectations
of the group,
Revitalization Movements
deliberate and organized attempts by
some members of a society to
construct a more satisfying culture by
rapid acceptance of a pattern of
multiple innovations
The Ghost Dance
Wovoka
(Jack Wilson )
A wickiup January 1889
A wickiup
The Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance Shirt
Wounded Knee Massacre South Dakota Dec 29th 1890
The traditional way of life had disappeared
How do you explain a radio to someone who has no
concept of electricity?
Cargo Cults
 cargo – pidgin English, for trade goods
 religious movements that have as their most
characteristic feature ~ the belief in a future Golden Age of
prosperity and power conceptualized as the delivery and
distribution of a cargo of consumer goods.
 Messianic: i.e. often concerned with a utopian future
brought about by the intervention of a Messiah.
 syncretism between indigenous and colonial religious
symbols and doctrines
Most common in New Guinea and the islands of Melanesia after WWII
Some recruiters or blackbirders with the crew of their boat.
The rifles the crew are holding are to protect them when they
go to find labourers to work in Queensland or Fiji.
Although known since
the 19th century most
arose since WWII
A time of plenty had
arrived
Coast Guard landing
craft and barges deliver
supplies in late-1942.
plane traffic flying over the islands carrying great loads
of goods in the cargo bays of the airplanes
Scenes from
Gualtiero Jacopetti’s
pop documentary
Mondo Cane, filmed
in New Guinea in
1959
Cargo cults generally
contain some ritual
in imitation of the
mysterious European
customs
Model airplanes used
in cargo cults
Another still from Mondo cane. This airstrip consists of a cleared mountain top
overlooking the “real” airport at Port Moresby. The ritualists hope one night to
entice a cargo plane to land at their airstrip, and thus help usher in the millennium
Planes come from
paradise sent by their
ancestors. The crafty
white man (pirates)
however, manages to get
his hands on them by
attracting them into a big
trap of an airport.
You build your plane too,
and wait with faith.
Sooner of later, your
ancestors will discover
the white man's trap and
will guide the planes onto
your landing strip.
Then you will be rich
and happy.
Field of Dreams 1989
"If we build it, they will come."
JOHN FRUM MOVEMENT
At the heart of the
movement is a mythic
messianic figure
called Jon Frum
A spirit messiah who
had come to change
the people back to
their traditional ways
before corruption
from the British
missionaries and
empower the people
by giving them cargo
wealth
John Frum Effigy
Remind you
of anyone?
Yasur Volcano Tanna
John Frum is believed to live in the
crater of the Yasur volcano with an
army of 20,000 men.
Flag Raising ceremony - Re-enactment of US Military
occupation from World War Two - still forms the ceremonial
centerpiece to John Frum Day (February 15th)
Red Crosses (from period of
war hospitals) worshipped
John Frum “army”, in jeans and bare torsos with 'USA' painted
on their chests and backs in day-glo pink magic marker, carry
four-foot lengths of bamboo at the "shoulder arms" position, the
tops cut to a bayonet point and colored red to evoke fire
John Frum Movement Flag
Cargo Cults
Wallace
Lanternari
Childish,
irrational
wishful
thinking
Worsley, Jarvie.
Viewed in terms
of situational
analysis. A
rational form of
action
Covert form of
revolutionary
consciousness.
Protonationalism
Berndt,
Wallace
kaleidoscope
of elements,
recombined to
build new
picture of
reality
Cargo Cult Interpretations
Revitalization Movements
 NATIVISTIC: rejection of alien values and customs
 REVIVALISTIC: return to (presumed) ancient ways
 VITALISTIC: emphasis on importing alien elements
(e.g. Singer sewing machines, Gordon’s gin)
 MILLENARIAN: apocalyptic transformation of the
world, involving overturning of present social system,
predicted to occur in near future
 MESSIANIC: spiritual savior will appear, or is already
present, to transform the world through his personalized
power
Witchcraft Among the Azande
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the purpose of divination among the Azande?
What is Witchcraft and what do witches do
Who are the Witches
What do witches epitomize?
5. Who do you accuse of being a witch?
6. what’s the first thing you do if you’re accused of being a witch
7. Why did the oracle “work” in the case of the adultery?
8. Who is the real victim in witchcraft accusations?
9. How do you prevent being accused of witchcraft
10. How are accusations of witchcraft a form of social control
11. How does consultation of oracles assist the Azande to cope with
social and cognitive uncertainty?
12. How have Christian beliefs and values been incorporated in
the Azande system?