Ritual and Belief
Ritual (Practice) and Belief: Geertz
belief & practice - "a
group's ethos is
rendered intellectually
reasonable by being
shown to represent a
way of life ...
rendered emotionally
convincing by being
presented as an
image of the actual
state of affairs...”
What is Belief?
powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting
moods and motivations in people
conceptions of a general order of
existence
auras of factuality
moods and motivations seem uniquely
realistic
What is religion?
a set of beliefs and practices (ritual) aimed at
ordering the relation of human beings to the
supernatural
supernatural - powers believed to be not human
or not subject to the laws of nature
– not all societies clear distinction
religion - belief and ritual concerned with
supernatural beings, powers, and forces
(Anthony Wallace)
a basic congruence between a particular style of
life and a specific metaphysic/cosmology (the
nature of being & the universe as an orderly
system)
Clifford Geertz on Religion
a religion is: "(1) a system of symbols
which acts to (2) establish powerful,
pervasive, and long-lasting moods and
motivations in people by (3) formulating
conceptions of a general order of
existence and (4) clothing these
conceptions with such an aura of factuality
that (5) the moods and motivations seem
uniquely realistic." (Geertz:90)
explaining religions
anthropological perspective on religion:
religion exists in all societies
anthropology a place where all religions
are equally accepted
– and equally subjected to analysis
rejection that magic is somehow an inferior
and prior belief system before religion
What is Magic?
The “laws of sympathetic magic”
(Sir James George Frazer 1890)
Law of contagion
– Things that have once been in contact, but have
ceased to be so, continue to act on each other as if
the contact still persisted
Law of similarity
– Like produces like, an effect resembles its cause
“From the first of these principles the savage
infers that he can produce any desired effect
merely by imitating it; from the second he
concludes that he can influence at pleasure and
at any distance any person of whom, or any
thing of which, he possesses a particle.”
religion and science
systems of information: science and
technology
systems of meaning: religion and magic
– religion = explanation
– magic = manipulation/control
intervention to compel supernatural beings to do
something
useful when the situation is unknown,
uncontrollable, dangerous
baseball magic
What does religion do?
psychological explanations
psychological explanation -how ritual & belief
satisfy cognitive & affective/emotional demands
for a stable, comprehensible, and coercible
world for the individual
provides an orderly model of the universe
explains the unknown
reduces anxiety and fear
enabling the individual to maintain an inner
security in the face of natural contingency
social explanations
sets precedents for appropriate behavior
sanctions conduct
a form of social control
justifies perpetuates a social order
maintains social solidarity
educates believers in social knowledge
provides a sense of control and a source of
solace
– alleviation of grief
social role of witchcraft accusations
accusations provide a socially proscribed
way to deal with these problems
allows for public hearing
entire complex of social relationships
investigated
effects for the community of witchcraft
accusations
– evil outsider  community solidarity
– evil insider  necessary societal realignment
religion and worldview
sacred symbols function to synthesize a
people's ethos
– the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral
nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group,
institution
– a basic congruence between a particular style
of life and a specific metaphysic/cosmology
encompassing pictures of reality based on
a set of shared assumptions about how
the world works
Religion and society
belief & ritual reinforce social ties between
people
religion (ritual & spirituality) represents one
form of collective consciousness
Durkheim: shared representations that
form the basis for religion
Religion and social structure
Geertz: "the way in which the social structure of
a group is strengthened & perpetuated through
the ritualistic or mythic symbolization of the
underlying social values upon which it rests."
Religion and social structure
ancestor worship supports the jural
authority of elders
initiation rites establish sexual identity &
adult status
ritual groupings reflect political oppositions
myths provide charters for social
institutions & rationalizations of social
privilege
Ritual specialists
Priests and priestesses
– Full-time religious experts
Shaman
– Part-time religious experts
Other practitioners: witches, sorcerers,
spirit mediums
– complex societies have more than one type
Supernatural beings and powers
gods and goddesses
– pantheon: a collection of such beings
animating spirits
– souls
– spirits of the dead
ancestor spirits
ghosts
nature spirits
– impersonal forces
mana
Ashanti Priest
Balinese Balian
Balinese Grandmother
Ritual
in western thought - ritual as a mark of all that
separates rational modernity from cultures of
tradition
– the opposite of practical reason
ritual is a vital element in the processes that
make and remake social facts and collective
identities everywhere (Comaroff & Comaroff)
the symbolic behavior through which religion
comes alive
ritual is repetitive, sequential,
non-ordinary, and “powerful”
repetitive: innovation not tolerated
sequential: amen is at the end
non-ordinary: marked in time or space
“powerful”: power to change the world
– by intervention of supernatural entities
– transformation of the participant
Functions of ritual
Reinforce social bonds
Relieve social tension
Deal with life crises
Celebrate life cycle events
ritual is also a way a society remembers
– through habit
– through bodily practices
Types of ritual
Rites of Passage
Van Gennep and Victor Turner
rites include three stages
– Separation
– marginality or liminality
Communitas and anti-structure
– incorporation or re-aggregation
Other Types of Ritual
Rites of intensification
– cyclical rituals that reinforce the solidarity of the group
ritual inversion
Divination rituals
– predict future & gain hidden info
Technological rituals
– designed to control nature for the purpose of human
exploitation
Protective rites
– aimed at coping with uncertainty of nature, seas, floods,
crop diseases
More Types
therapy & anti-therapy rituals
– designed to control human health; curative, witchcraft,
sorcery
ideological rituals
– intended to control the behavior, mood, sentiments &
values of groups for the sake of community as a
whole
salvation rituals
– aimed at repairing self esteem & other forms of
impaired identity
Possession and salvation
individual's identity altered by the
presence of an alien spirit
ritual encouragement to accept another
identity
mystic experience or loss of personal
identity by abandoning the old self &
achieving salvation by identifying with a
sacred being
Geertz's def.- religion maintains social order
– but also instrument of change
religion & resistance
Religious revitalization movements & resistance
– efforts to save a culture by infusing it with new
purpose and new life
– invention of tradition