THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF
RELIGION
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
 People like to make sense of their world and explain
occurrences
 They often use religious beliefs to do this
 We will study different religions using
 The comparative approach
 No judgment
 An open mind
 Cultural relativity
 A method that tries to find similarities
 Anthropology studies all aspects of being human
 It uses different perspectives
 Holism (or being holistic): looks at integrated parts to get
the whole picture
ANTHROPOLOGY
 Definition: the study of humankind
 Four branches:
 Cultural
 Studies culture, or learned, transmitted behavior of
living people
 Archaeology
 Studies culture of past societies by analyzing artifacts
 Linguistic
 Studies study construction and evolution of language
 Physical/biological
 Studies relationship of biology and culture
HOLISTIC APPROACH
 Anthropologist study a narrow focus of a population for
long periods of time
 They use participant observation
 We call small, traditional groups of people small-scale
instead of primitive
 Examples: hunter/gatherers, nomads
 We study smaller populations to look for human
universals and to study the range of variation in humans
VARIATION
 How many religions are there in the world?
 Is there variation within religions?
THE STUDY OF SOCIETIES
 How do anthropologists collect data?
 Fieldwork: moving to the society under study and immersing
yourself in that culture
 Involves participant observation
 Ethnography: a written account of how a human population
lives
 We organize societies into cultural areas: geographic areas in
which societies tend to share cultural traits
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Examples: subsistence or technology
Hunting and Gathering (aka HG or foraging)
Agriculture (cultivation)
Pastoralism (herding)
Industrialism
ETHNOGRAPHIC EXAMPLE
 The Fore of New Guinea
 New Guinea, horticulturalists, 1950s
 Many suffered from unknown disease called kuru or
shaking disease
 Affected women more
ETHNOGRAPHIC EXAMPLE
 Medical team needed to take holistic approach
 Discovered that disease was caused by prions
 Fore contracted prions by eating their relative’s remains
(especially brains) at funeral ceremonies
 Fore thought disease was from sorcery
 Do the Kore and Western doctors view this disease in the
same way?
 How would this affect those with the disease?
WAYS TO VIEW CULTURE
 An anthropologist (or any researcher) cannot be 100%
objective
 Anthropology unlocked the answer of kuru, not medical
knowledge
 Holism involves viewing something from the insider
(emic) and outsider (etic) perspectives
 Both views provide a holistic picture
 Keep this in mind while reading the novel for this class
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
 It is difficult to not judge others’ cultural practices
 We have to be careful of ethnocentrism
 Belief that one’s own culture is superior
 Can cultures or beliefs be superior/inferior?
 Take the stance of cultural relativism
POSTMODERNISM
 Is it possible to understand the “true” meaning of
another's culture or about the world?
 Cultural knowledge and viewpoints are social
constructions
 There are multiple ways to see the world
 There are no right or wrong practices or beliefs
 We take a middle approach:
 Non-judgment is objective
 Postmodernism is subjective
NOVEL
 While reading the novel, work on the study guide (posted
on portal)
 You want to pay attention to the different ways the family
and Western doctors explain and treat the child’s disease
 Look for examples of ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism
 Try to see the story from both sides
 Ask yourself what you would do in that situation
 Quiz #1 is on March 13
HUMAN RIGHTS
 One main goal of
anthropology is to study
things in context
 What about human
rights?
 Can we view a practice
and understand its
meaning but still think
it is wrong?
 Cannibalism
 Revenge killings
 Infanticide
 Female genital mutilation
WHAT IS CULTURE?
 It is a “complex whole”
 Culture gives meaning to reality
 Culture
 Is not biological
 Is learned by living in that group
 Is shared by members of a group
 Accounts for differences between groups of people
 Based on symbolism
 Culture is highly variable and changes quickly
DEFINING RELIGION
 How do we define religion?
 Discuss with your group and come up with a simple
definition of religion
DEFINING RELIGION
 How do we define religion?
 Use operant definitions so we can observe and study
religion
 We use analytic definitions to explain how it is expressed
 We use functional definitions to explain social functions
 We us essentialist definitions to show that much of the
core parts of religion are extraordinary
 We use supernatural classifications to explain things not
explained in the natural world
DEFINING RELIGION
So, religion deals
with
 The supernatural
 Not of this world
 The sacred
 Things to be respected
 Animism
 Belief in spirits
 Ritual
 Symbolic and repeated
behavior
 Worldview
 Perception of reality
 Explanations
 Social control
 Concept of right and
wrong/good and evil
VIDEOS
Next we’ll watch two short videos on ancient
religions
As you watch, practice cultural relativity and
comparative approach
What aspects are similar between the two
ancient religions?
EXAMPLES OF ANCIENT RELIGIONS
 Hammurabi
 Ancient Egypt
 https://www.khanaca
demy.org/testprep/ap-arthistory/ancientmediterraneanAP/ancient-near-eastAP/v/law-code-steleof-king-hammurabi-792-1750-b-c-e
 https://www.khanaca
demy.org/testprep/ap-arthistory/ancientmediterraneanAP/ancient-egyptAP/v/judgement-inthe-presence-of-osiris-hunefer-s-book-ofthe-dead
THE STUDY OF RELIGION
 One aspect of studying religion is to try to see what
purpose the religion has
THEORETICAL APPROACHES
 1. Evolutionary approach
 Evolution of culture (simple to complex)
 Animism
 Judgment and ethnocentrism
 2. Marxist approach
 Religion is created by those in power
 “opiate of the masses”
THEORETICAL APPROACHES
 3. Functional approach
 What is religion’s role in society?
 Collective conscious, promotes social cooperation
 Gives society rules to be integrative
 Gives comfort or reason during hard times
THEORETICAL APPROACHES
 4. Interpretive approach
 Make sense of culture by studying meaning
 Symbols represent things and direct human
behaviors
 5. Psychosocial approach
 Connection between society and the individual
 Freudian
BIOLOGICAL BASIS
 What we think is real is really a creation of our
brains
 We get cues from the environment and our brains
 Can certain religious experiences be created by
brain?
 Out of body experience,
 Talking in tongues
 Need to consider all aspects to be holistic
BELIEFS IN SPIRITS
 Most cultures believe in spirits
 Anthropomorphic means treating non-human things in a
human way
 Theory of mind allows us to think we understand what
other beings are feeling
 Empathy
 Critical for living in social systems
 This may lead into the supernatural
 Maybe a way to control or understand nature
EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
 Maybe it evolve as a way to ensure cooperation
 Or to enforce kinship
 Or to stabilize society and people’s behavior
 Our cognition sees two representations of the world:
 The physical
 The psychological
 We impose our hopes and desires onto things and can
“see” what we want to see (even if it is not there)
RELIGIOUS BEGINNINGS?
 There is evidence that
human ancestors had
religious thought
 Homo heidelbergensis
 At least 600,000 years ago
 Buried dead
 Symbolic pink handaxe
 Homo neanderthalensis
 At least 250,000 years ago
 Buried dead
 Used flowers in graves
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
 1. Describe what it means to be holistic
 2. Describe why it is important to have cultural relativism
 3. Identify three religious ceremonies you have
participated in
 4. Do you think there is a biological basis for religious
beliefs? Or is religion entirely social?
ASSIGNMENT
 Read “Body Ritual of the Nacirema” and work on
questions in group