Chapter 15, Religion
Key Terms

Religion
A social process that helps to order society and
provide its members with meaning, unity,
peace of mind, and the degree of control over
events they believe is possible.

Cosmology
A system of beliefs that deals with fundamental
questions in the religious and social order.

Sacred narratives
Stories held to be holy and true by members of
a religious tradition.

Anthropomorphic
Having human shape.

Zoomorphic
Having an animal shape.

Naturalism
Endowing features of the natural world with
spirit, soul, or other supernatural
characteristics.

Anthropopsychic
Having thought processes and emotions
similar to humans.

God
A named spirit who is believed to have created
or to control some aspect of the world.

Polytheism
Believe in many gods.

Monotheism
Belief in a single god.

Trickster
A supernatural entity that does not act in the
best interests of humans.

Mana
Religious power or energy that is concentrated
in individuals or objects.

Ritual
A patterned act that involves the manipulation
of religious symbols.

Rite of passage
A ritual that marks a person’s transition from
one status to another.

Separation
The first stage of a rite of passage in which
individuals are removed from their community
or status.

Liminal
The stage of a ritual, particularly of a rite of
passage, in which one has passed out of an
old status but not yet entered a new one.

Reincorporation
The third phase of a rite of passage during
which participants are returned to their
community with a new status.

Communitas
A state of perceived solidarity, equality, and
unity among people sharing a religious ritual,
often characterized by intense emotion.

Antistructure
The socially sanctioned use of behavior that
radically violates social norms.

Rite of intensification
A ritual structured to reinforce the values and
norms of a community and to strengthen group
identity.

Totem
An animal, plant, or other aspect of the natural
world held to be ancestral or to have other
intimate relationships with members of a group.

Totemism
Religious practices centered around animals,
plants, or other aspects of the natural world
held to be ancestral or to have other intimate
relationships with members of a group.

Prayer
Any communication between people and spirits
or gods in which people praise, plead, or
request without assurance of results.

Sacrifice
An offering made to increase the efficacy of a
prayer or the religious purity of an individual.

Magic
A religious ritual believed to produce a
mechanical effect by supernatural means.

Imitative magic
The belief that imitating an action in a religious
ritual will cause the action to happen in the
material world.

Contagious magic
That belief that things once in contact with a
person or object retain an invisible connection
with that person or object.

Divination
A religious ritual performed to find hidden
objects or information.

Scalpulomancy
Divination using the shoulder blade of an
animal.

Shaman
Individual who is recognized as having the
ability to mediate between the world of
humanity and the world of gods or spirits but
who is not a recognized official of any religious
organization.

Vision quest
An individual, emotionally intense search for a
special relationship with a particular spirit that
will provide protection, knowledge, and power.

Pharmacopeia
A collection of preparations used as
medications.

Priest
One who is formally elected or appointed to a
full-time religious office.

Witchcraft
The ability to harm others by harboring
malevolent thoughts about them; the practice
of sorcery.

Wiccan
A member of a new religion that claims descent
from pre-Christian nature worship; a modern
day witch.

Nativism
A religious movement that aims to restore a
golden age believed to have existed in the
past.

Vitalism
A religious movement that looks toward the
creation of a utopian future that does not
resemble a past golden age.

Messianic
Focusing on the coming of a messiah who will
usher in a utopian world.

Millenarian
The belief that a coming catastrophe will signal
the beginning of a new age and the eventual
establishment of paradise.

Syncretism
The merging of elements of two or more
religious traditions to produce a new religion.

Oricha
A Yoruba deity identified with a Catholic saint in
Vodou and Santeria.

Ghost Dance
A Native American religious movement of the
late nineteenth century.

Native American Church
A religious revitalization movement among
Native Americans, also known as the Peyote
religion.

Peyote
A small hallucinogenic cactus found in
southern Texas and northern Mexico.