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...”
Symbolic anthropology
Emile Durkheim -- religion, & collective representations
Victor Turner & anthro study of ritual
–Symbols & social action
–Symbols in action
Claude Levi-Strauss
–understand symbolic forms in terms of internal structure
Clifford Geertz
–Culture is a symbolic system
symbols
culture as symbolic system arranged around core symbols
it is through the flow of behavior, social action, that cultural forms (symbols) find
articulation
social behavior (transactions that take place between individuals) is always conducted
by reference to a conceptual scheme
symbols are triggers to social action
symbols
Multi-vocality of symbols, cultural productions
arbitrariness of symbols
dynamic systems of signifiers, signifieds, & changing modes of signification
Anthropology of religion
symbolic system arranged around core symbols
the flow of behavior, social action, that cultural forms (symbols) find articulation
social behavior always conducted by reference to a conceptual scheme
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
Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, W. Africa (Evans-Pritchard)
rational explanations about the world given basic assumptions about the world by the
Azande
–witchcraft as an explanation for the misfortune
termites and granaries
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
early theory of religion
Tylor (19th cent.)
evolutionary movement from animism, polytheism, monotheism
animism = belief in soul stuff in “inanimate” objects
polytheism = belief in many gods
monotheism = belief in one god
Frazer (19th cent.), The Golden Bough
again an evolutionary view: from magic, religion, science
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
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
Role of myth
myth = a sacred narrative explaining how the world came to be in its present form
two classical viewpoints on myth
Malinowski - myth as social charter
Levi-Strauss – “mythology is static, we find the same mythical elements combined
over and over again, but they are in a closed system, let us say, in contradistinction
with history, which is of course an open system”
myth and a society’s cosmology
cosmology = a symbolic description of the universe
describes a landscape and the beings (animal, human, and spirit) that inhabit it
relationship to the kinds of society that produces it and lives by it
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
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
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
Revitalization movements
aimed at an identity crisis of an entire community
–nativistic movements
–millenarian movements
cargo cults
Native American church - late 1800s
peyote & ritual
begins in Apache becomes pan-Indian
celebrates family values, not addictive (alcohol), collective gathering, strong middle
class values
at once accommodation at once resistance
belief & ritual (religion) reinforce social ties between people
“stresses 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.” (Geertz: 142)
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