MALEFIJT CHAPTER 12 — Functions of Religion
BE SURE TO KNOW THE FOLLOWING TERMS:
double descent _______________________________________________________________
sanctions ____________________________________________________________________
organized sanctions __________________________________________________________
diffuse sanctions ____________________________________________________________
moral (or ethical) religions _________________________________________________
ethics _______________________________________________________________________
the magic of kings ___________________________________________________________
monastic landlordism _________________________________________________________
potlatch _____________________________________________________________________
ahisma _____________________________________________________________________
BE ABLE TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
Q: The study of functions in the social sciences is the study of the
______________________________ of an institution. In this sense, the
function of religion is the relationship it bears to
____________________, ______________________________,
____________________, and ______________________________.
Q: In societies in which religious worship is basically a family affair,
the household religion is generally of the nature of
______________________________.
Q: What five societies does Malefijt give as examples of family-centered
religion? (Caution: she lists two under the same heading.)
Q: Family structure among the ancient Greeks and Romans was __________
and __________. Upon marriage, a daughter had to abandon her childhood
allegiance to the hearth and fire, thus breaking her emotional ties with
______________________________. The husband had to bring a stranger to
the sacred hearth and share with her the ceremonies of his lineage
ancestors. The resultant sacred ties between husband and wife meant that
marriage ______________________________. Only in later years, when
____________________ became powerful, was this stable system disrupted.
Q: The Dobu stand in great contrast to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
They are __________ rather than patrilineal. However, a much greater
difference is that each marriage partner among the Dobu clings
tenaciously to ____________________
________________________________________. This Dobu practice weakens
_______________ ties but supports _______________ cohesion.
Q: The Yakö practice ____________________, which means that each
individual belongs to both his father's patrilineage and his mother's
matrilineage. However, the religious structure among the Yakö functions
to __________ the lineages rather than __________ them. The Yakö are
polygynous and ____________. The spirits of the patrilineage function
primarily as _______________, while those of the matrilineage also
promote _______________. The authority of the _______________ priests is
greater in both the secular and religious realms. A man inherits
_______________ property from his mother's brother and _______________
property from his father.
Q: Among the Manus, religious is strongly __________-centered. Every
house has its own supernatural ancestor, called "_____ _____." When he
observes moral violations, his punishments are not necessarily visited
upon the offender, but may be on any ______________________________.
Likewise, he may punish a visitor or one of the visitor's
_______________. To determine who is responsible, a _______________ goes
to all the households to question each household's supernatural ancestor.
Once he determines the culprit, he makes his findings public and demands
______________________________.
Q: Some religious systems impinge on nearly every important form of
social interaction, while others leave punishment of deviant behavior
largely to ______________________________.
Q: Malefijt observes that there is no one-to-one correlation between a
society's technological development and the moral extent of its religion.
However, ____________________ held that the moral constraint of society
and its religious system were one and the same.
Q: Eskimo social organization has no ______________________________, no
______________________________ with political authority. Leaders are
recognized for specific tasks but have no power to
______________________________. In cases of morally deviant behavior
such as murder and theft, supernatural punishment is likewise not
expected. Religious sanctions in Eskimo society operate in relation to
______________________________. Perhaps the most important taboo is that
forbidding ____________________________________________. If the rules
based on that taboo are violated, it is thought that the individual will
___________________________ and that the supernatural powers would
withhold
_________________________________________________________________________
______.
Q: The Nuer, like the Eskimo, lack ______________________________.
However, there are individuals called ______________________________ whom
the Nuer can go to mediate disputes. This kind of "chief" finds out how
much the offender's kin are willing to pay in
______________________________, and attempts to persuade the relatives of
the offended person to accept the payment. Serious crimes are thought to
automatically result in supernatural, physical ____________________ of
the wrongdoer and his kin, which can only be redressed by
_______________, _______________, and _______________.
Q: In general, it may be noted that in societies where _______________ is
prominent that religious sanctions can be expected to function strongly.
Religious sanctions can likewise be expected to function strongly in
societies that practice ______________________________, provided that
living parents usually punish their errant children.
Q: Religious systems may also function to maintain social order by
______________________________ the offices of those whose task it is to
regulate and maintain social order.
Q: Malefijt mentions four ways that religious systems validate political
power. 1) __________ may relate how the social and political order came
into existence. 2) Another powerful sanction, found most often in
politically complex societies, is the belief that the ruler is
____________________ of a god. (The Egyptian pharaoh was given as an
example.) However, failure of the ruler to live up to the ideal behavior
can lead to his removal by ____________________. 3) Another religious
concept sometimes upholding political power is the belief that the ruler
has ______________________________ to supernatural powers; Frazer called
this phenomenon ______________________________. There is evidence that
rulers were sometimes ____________________ as soon as they showed signs
of failing strength. 4) Finally, ____________________ functionaries tend
to have a stabilizing influence on the political equilibrium. They
__________ and __________ the ruler's actions, often wielding a
considerable amount of political influence.
Q: Malefijt points out how the three traditional subdivisions of economy
— _______________, _______________, and _______________ — relate to
religious beliefs and actions. She notes that the majority of the
rituals in the __________ and __________ societies appear to be carried
out to produce rain and thus ensure or increase crop yields.
Q: The support of religious specialists is accomplished in a variety of
ways. When the number of specialists is small and their duties include
household services,
____________________________________________________________ constitutes
the major part of their income. However, full-time specialists are
usually in charge of shrines and have communal ritual duties. They may
then be __________________________________________________.
Alternatively, ________________________________________ may form a
substantial part of the priests' income; ancient Hebrew, Roman, and Greek
practices were given as examples. Religious specialists may also be
partially or totally supported by the __________.
Q: Religious ritual not only involves offerings to gods and payments to
priests, but is frequently accompanied by ______________________________
among the participants. The function of ritual as a convenient setting
for exchange is particularly important in
_____________________________________________________.
Q: There is also a relationship between religion and markets. In
______________________________, rulers and bishops protected merchants on
their way to and from markets. _______________ markets were often
religiously founded.
Q: In societies that are organized along the lines of status equality,
the culture provides means for liquidating property that might otherwise
upset the economic status balance. Quite frequently, this siphoning off
of extra goods takes the form of ______________________________. One
example is that of the ____________________; every year, the eight most
affluent men are chosen to sponsor the annual harvest ceremony. Another
example is that of the Kwakiutl, who were famous for their ritual
destruction of property in ceremonies called __________. Finally,
Malefijt mentions many instances in which goods are destroyed or
considered unfit for further use after ______________________________;
the Kazaks, Crow Indians, and ancient Egyptians were given as examples.
Q: Although the orthodox Hindu treatment of cattle as sacred has been
criticized as a case of religiously inspired resource mismanagement,
Harris suggests that the relationship between human and bovine
populations is _______________ rather than competitive.