Chapter 13
Spirituality, Religion, and Shamanism
What Will You Learn?
• Articulate how religion is related to other parts of
a cultural system
• Distinguish a cross-cultural variety of
supernatural beings and spiritual forces
• Compare rituals
• How do religions legitimize spiritual leadership
• How does a place become a sacred site
• Beliefs in evil, magic, witchcraft
• Interpret shamanic healing and why it is effective
• Analyze the connection between cultural
upheaval and new religious movements
Religion & Spirituality
• Religion plays an important role in
determining cultural identity in many
societies.
• Both spirituality and religion are considered to
be apart of a cultures superstructure.
• A cultures religion and spirituality can be
examined in light of their worldview
– the collective body of ideas that members of a
culture generally share concerning the ultimate
shape and substance of their reality.
Roles of Spirituality and Religion
• Religion and/or spiritual practices are to fulfill
numerous social and psychological needs
• Reduce anxiety
• Path for people to transcend the burdens of
mortal existence
• Reinforces community values and moral
guidelines
• Offers narrative and rituals used to conform a
social hierarchy
• Sanction Power
• Assist in reaching a specific goal
Major Religions of the World
• Do any of these statistics surprise you? Why or
why not?
Global Distributions of Predominant
Religions
Anthropological Approach to
Spirituality and Religion
• Religion is best defined in anthropology as an:
– Organized system of ideas about the spiritual
sphere or the supernatural.
– Often has associated ceremonial practices by
which people try to interpret or influence aspects
of their universe.
Spirituality
• Similar to religion, spirituality is concerned
with the supernatural as well.
– It is distinguished from material matters.
– Often individual as opposed to religion which is
collective in nature.
– Does not require organization.
Myth and the Mapping of a Sacred
Worldview
• Myths are sacred narratives that explain the
fundamentals of human existence-where we
and everything in our world came from, why
we are here, and where we are going.
• A hallmark of religion is the belief in spiritual
forces and supernatural beings.
• Typically myths involve these supernatural
forces or beings.
Monotheism
• The belief in only one supremely powerful
divinity as creator and master of the universe.
• What religion is an example of Monotheism?
Polytheism
• Polytheism, the oldest known religious belief
pattern is the belief in several gods and/or
goddesses.
• What religion (past or present) is an example
of polytheism?
• Pantheon
– several gods and goddesses of a people.
Ancestral Spirits
• A belief in spirits brings about a deeper belief
in the flesh body actually consisting of two
entities.
• This might often be referred to as a soul.
• The belief in ancestral spirits is commonly
found around the world most often with
unilineal descent patterns.
• Ancestors might be worshipped, be thought to
bring good or poor fortune, and make major
decisions in the lives of the living.
Animism
• A belief that nature is animated (energized) by
a distinct personalized spirit beings separable
from bodies.
• Thought to be the first form of religion.
• These spirit beings are closer to humans than
gods and goddesses and are concerned with
human activities.
• Animism is typical of peoples who see
themselves as a part of nature rather than
superior to it.
Animatism
• Animatism is a belief that the world is
animated by impersonal supernatural powers.
• Unlike animism, the form of power is
ambiguous it does not take a particular shape,
emotion, etc.
• Often found in similar cultures where animism
is found.
Religious Specialists
• Most cultures include individuals who guide and
supplement the religious practices of others.
• Religious specialists hold specific rights to
contact and influence supernatural beings and
manipulate supernatural forces.
• They will have undergone special training and
may display certain distinctive personality traits
that make them particularly well suited to
perform these tasks as determined by other
group members.
Priests and Priestesses
• These are full-time specialists who have been
formally recognized for their role in the
guiding of religious practices for others.
• He or she is the socially initiated, ceremonially
inducted member of a religious organization.
– Examples include: priest, minister, imam, lama,
rabbi, etc.
Priests and Priestesses
• Spiritual lineage - a principle of leadership in
which divine authority is passed down from a
spiritual founding figure, such as a prophet or
saint, to a chain of successors.
Shamans
• A shaman is considered a part-time specialist
who may enter into an altered state of
consciousness to contact and utilize an ordinarily
hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge,
power, and to help others.
• Skilled at contacting and manipulating
supernatural beings and powers through altered
states of consciousness.
• Provides a focal point of attention for society and
can help maintain social control.
• Benefits for the shaman are prestige, wealth, and
an outlet for artistic self-expression.
Shamanic Experience
• One can become a shaman by passing through
stages of learning and practical experience.
• May include psychological and emotional
ordeals such as isolation, fasting, physical
torture, sensory deprivation, and/or
hallucination.
Shamanic Healing
• Since a shaman is a spiritual go-between who
acts on behalf of some human client, often
they can bring about healing and foretell the
future.
• Upon entering into a trance then can see,
interact, and impose their will onto spirits.
Ritual Performances
• Rituals are culturally prescribed symbolic acts
of procedures designed to guide members of a
community.
– Personal or collective transitions
• Taboos or a prohibition, which, if not
observed, leads to a penalty inflicted by
magic, spiritual force, or religion.
• When a taboo is violated, believers expect
supernatural punishment will follow.
Rites of Purification
• Rites that establish or restore purity.
• May involved one person, but usually group or
community affairs.
• Symbolic act with spiritual or religious
meaning.
– Cleansing by water such as in a baptism is an
example of this.
Rites of Passage
• Rites of passage that individuals may enter at
differing times in their lives. These ritual stages
mark important periods in ones life such as birth,
marriage, and death.
• Important to note that men and women may
have differing rites of passages.
• It is useful to examine rites of passage by
breaking them down into three stages.
– Separation
– Transition
– Incorporation
Rites of Passage
• Separation- the ritual removal of the
individual from society.
• Transition- isolation of the individual following
separation and prior to incorporation into
society.
• Incorporation- reincorporation of the
individual into society in his or her new status.
Critical Thought
• Identify in what ways a western marriage is a
rite of passage?
• Identify the separation, transition, and
incorporation of this passage?
Rites of Intensification
• Rites of intensification which is a ritual that
takes place during a crisis in the life of the
group and serves to bind individuals together.
• Does not have to be limited to times of crisis.
• In regions where human activities change
along with the seasons they can take the form
of annual ceremonies.
Magical Rituals
• Magic- specific formulas and actions used to
compel supernatural powers to act in certain
ways for good or evil purposes.
• A possible way to gain control over
uncontrollable situations; good crops, fertility
of livestock, replenishment of hunted game,
prevention of accidents, healing of illness,
protection, etc.
Magic
• Imitative magic (sympathetic magic)
– Magic based on the principle that like produces
like.
• The use of voodoo dolls would be an example of this.
• Contagious magic
– Magic based on the principle that things or
persons once in contact can influence each other
after the contact is broken.
• The usage of fingernail clippings or hair would be
examples of this.
Divination: Omens and Oracles
• A method to prepare for the unknown and/or
not yet present.
• Divination- a magical procedure for
determining the cause of a particular event,
such as illness, or foretelling the future.
– Do we practice this in our society?
Witchcraft
• Witchcraft is an explanation of events based on the
belief that certain individuals possess an innate psychic
power capable of causing harm, including sickness and
death.
• Serves to offer an explanation for events that can not
otherwise be explained by the logic of the group.
• Effective way for people to explain away personal
misfortune without having to shoulder any of the
blame themselves.
• Provides an outlet for feelings of hostility and
frustration without disturbing the norms of the larger
group.
Sacred Sites: Saints, Shrines, and
Miracles
• Thousands of people make pilgrimage to
sights for religious purposes.
• Geographical places usually hold significant
meaning in the religion as an ancestral sight
where an important event took place.
• Burial locations can also be considered a
sacred site.
– Pilgrimage- a devotion in motion. Traveling often
on foot, to a sacred or holy site to reach for
enlightenment prove devotion, and/or experience
a miracle.
HAJI
• World’s largest pilgrimage performed by over
1.8 million Muslims
• Travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia
• Annually about 300,000 people from all over
the world
Desecration: Ruining Sacred Sites
• Since shrines are built by believers they
become potential targets by non-believers.
• Desecration-ideologically inspired violation of
a sacred site intended to inflict harm, if only
symbolically, on people judged to have
impure, false, or even evil beliefs and ritual
practices.
Revitalization Movements
• As deliberate efforts to construct a more
satisfying culture, revitalization movements
aim to reform not just the religious sphere of
activity but may also impact an entire cultural
system.
• Revitalization movements are great examples
of religious change. They are characterized by
social movements, often of a religious nature,
with the purpose of totally reforming a
society.
Revitalization Movements
• These movements can be in response to a
widespread social disruption.
• Often radical in nature they collect the
societies feelings of stress and despair.
• Surprisingly can be quite effective in the
drastic change of the religion and the culture.
Syncretic Religions
• Syncretism is the creative blending of
indigenous and foreign beliefs and practices
into new cultural forms.
• Vodou is an example of a syncretic religion as
it combines both Christian and African belief
systems.
Religious Pluralism and Secularization
• Secularization is a process of cultural change
in which a population tends towards a
nonreligious worldview, ignoring or rejecting
institutionalized spiritual beliefs and rituals.
• More common among wealthy industrialized
societies such as the United States and many
Western European countries.