Religion and Healing in
Human Culture
Functions of Religion
Types of Supernatural Forces
Religious Practitioners
Revitalization Movements
Medical Anthropology
Different Causes of Illnesses
Variation in Illness across Culture Boundaries
Culture-Bound Syndromes
Medical Pluralism
What is Religion?
• Belief and ritual
concerned with
supernatural
beings, powers,
and forces.
– Probably existed
since Neanderthal
times, according
to archaeological
evidence.
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• Religions fill many social
and psychological
functions and needs:
– to explain death
– to give hope
– to explain the natural realm
and help cope with it
– to offer enlightenment
– as a survival function
– as a boundary
maintenance mechanism
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Communication with the Divine
• Prayer – to ask a
supernatural for
something.
• Magic – to compel
a supernatural to
do something.
– Sorcerers / witches
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• People communicate
with the supernatural
in many ways,
– Spontaneous or
rehearsed
– Aloud or thought
– Possession?
– Divination
• Seeking specific advice
from the supernatural
– Trance
• physical trauma,
hallucinogens and music
• Over 90% of all cultures
trance in worship.
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Types of Supernatural Forces
• Anthropologists group these forces into four
major categories:
–
–
–
–
deities
ancestral spirits
animatism
animism
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Deities
• Always great, often
remote beings who
control the universe & its
creation.
• Few religions are
monotheistic (one deity)
in nature
– Judaism, Christianity and
Islam, all with similar roots.
– Sikhism
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• Most deity religions are polytheistic (more than one god):
– Hinduism, Shinto, Haitian vodoun, many ancient state religions,
etc.
• Some pantheons have overarching, all-important gods:
– Zeus /Jupiter (Greco-Roman)
– Ometeotl (Aztec)
– Brahman (ब्रह्मन ्, Hindu)
– Dryghten (complementary Goddess and God, Wicca)
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Ancestral Spirits
• Souls of the deceased
who intercede in human
affairs
• They may be prone to our
problems
– In some African religions,
ancestral spirits can die a
second time.
– In China, the living must
provide for the dead
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• We must not offend them
– Ex.: the Zuni katsinas (provide rain)
• Not all ancestors are worshiped
– Ex.: Catholic saints.
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Animism
• Nature – and
everything in it – is
inhabited by all sorts
of spirits.
– The most widespread
of all belief systems
– Prevalent in foraging
societies.
• The spirits are less
remote than deities
– Good, bad, neutral.
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• Some familiar
examples:
– the Irish bean sidhe
(banshee)
– the English Lady of the
Lake
– faeries, gnomes, trolls,
etc.
– ghosts (esp. those of
animals and things)
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Animatism
• Belief in impersonal,
overarching energies /
forces (luck, fate, karma
and dharma, “The
Force”)
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Ex.: Māna and Tapu in the Pacific
• Melanesians and
Polynesians believe
in māna, a “power just
beyond the senses.”
– Objects accumulate
māna over time,
becoming holier and
more powerful.
• Tapu (taboo) is a
negative type of
māna.
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• Different supernatural forces can intermingle in
the same religion, such as:
– Roman religion – gods (Jupiter), ancestral spirits
(lares)
– Vodoun – combination of Catholic monotheism &
ancestor devotion (saints), Yoruba polytheism &
animatism, and Taíno animism
– Christianity – God, saints, holy relics
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Life After Death?
• Different religious systems
have different beliefs about an
afterlife.
– Christian/Muslim concept of
Heaven and Hell
– Lugbara ancestors
– Zuni katsinas
– Hindu reincarnation
– Chamula Maya blend Catholic
and Maya beliefs
• The dead go to the Underworld to
live like they did before
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Religious Practitioners
• Anthropologists recognize four major
groups of religions practitioners:
– Shamans
– Sorcerers / Witches
– Mediums
– Priests
• Any of these positions can be ascribed or
achieved, depending on the society.
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Shamans
• Part-time religious
figures who are
healers
– Can use magic for
good or bad
• Christian evangelical
faith healers may use
elements of
shamanism.
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Mediums
• Enter trance states to
heal or to relate
supernatural
messages
• Similar to shamans
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Sorcery and Witchcraft
• Sometimes low-status magic practitioners that are
sometimes of low status in their culture
– Use magic, not prayer; can use magic for good or harm
• NB: A Wicca religious practitioner is a priest and not a
witch.
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Priests
• Full-time religious
practitioners who
officiate at public
events.
• Have a high status in
their society.
– Often consulted as
teachers.
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Revitalization Movements
• Bursts of radical change mixed with resistance
to change are revitalization movements
– Serve as boundary maintenance mechanisms, to
“purify” a religion or unify a culture.
– Ex.: the Ghost Dance movement of the Great Plains
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Religion and Medicine
• Many cultures use supernatural forces to heal.
– Chinese chi, !Kung n/um
• Even in industrial societies, the two sometimes
mix.
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Ethnomedicine
• Study of a culture’s beliefs about
medicine and how to practice it.
– Is an important goal of medical
anthropology.
– Hot vs. cold forces, wet vs. dry
forces, witchcraft or magic as
causes of illness?
– Plants used by indigenous peoples
share many properties similar to
Western chemicals.
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Illness across Culture Boundaries
• Different cultures
recognize different
illnesses and symptoms
– They treat them in different
ways.
• In stratified societies, the
wealthy have access to
the best medicine and
health conditions, and are
in the best health.
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Different Causes of Illness
• Cultures recognize any of
three main causes of illness
– Naturalistic forces
– Emotionalistic forces
– Personalistic forces
• Naturalistic forces cause
illness impersonally
(bacteria, viruses, genes,
chemicals)
– Body over mind/society
– Ex. Western medicine
• Emotionalistic forces cause
illness through emotion
– Ex. susto, induced by fright
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• Personalistic forces cause illness through
supernatural means (sorcery, witchcraft, ghosts,
animatism)
– Most societies attribute some illness to personalistic
forces.
• Includes illness caused by an imbalance of forces in the body
(more hot or cold, more wet or dry); to cure is to rebalance
those forces.
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Medical Anthropology
• The study of sickness and
medicine in their cultural
contexts.
• Is applied anthropology.
• Includes:
– community health
– medical / nursing education
– medical care for different
populations
– International demographics,
epidemiology, etc.)
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Worldwide Epidemics: AIDS
• Anthropologists study different worldwide epidemics
• Ex.: AIDS is among the most widely studied
– Prevalent in much of the world, epidemic in Africa and India.
• Different causes may be more prevalent in different
regions.
– US / Europe – IV drug use, male-to-male sexual contact are
most common causes
– Africa & Asia – male-to-female sexual contact, unsanitary health
conditions are most common causes
• 2001 - roughly 75 to 80% of all cases of HIV / AIDS
worldwide caused by male-to-female sexual contact.
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Example: Recent AIDS Statistics
http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm
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• Different cultures have
different attitudes toward
diseases, such as AIDS
• Ex.: Farmer & Kleinman’s
“AIDS as Human
Suffering”
– US - "Robert" - gay man
about to die from AIDS
• Doctors try to “fix” him
– Haiti - "Anita" - young
woman who got the disease
from her husband
• Dies very quickly, surrounded
by family
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Culture-Bound Syndromes
• Diseases that exist in a
specific cultural context
– Are real diseases, but don’t
exist outside of certain
cultures
• Exs.:
– Anorexia (starvation) and
bulimia (regular purging)
– Susto (loss of the spirit due to
fright)
– Windigo (fear that you are
becoming the legendary
Canadian windigo monster)
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Medical Pluralism
• The coexistence of two or more
medical systems
• Exists in many societies,
especially non-Western societies
that have come into contact with
Western medicine.
– In China, both traditional and
Western medicine are prevalent.
• Many Westerners use nonWestern medicine
–
–
–
–
holistic medicine
acupuncture
chiropractics
yoga / meditation
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Medicine and Ritual
• Rituals are followed in all
medical systems
• Ex.: Pearl Katz’s
observation of "Ritual in
the Operating Room”
– Many rituals served
specific functions, but
some no longer seemed to
– Each is integral to OR
procedure – if broken, you
must begin it all over again.
– Also controls joking in an
operation (when is it taboo)
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