Revitalization movement
Anthony Wallace
Anthony Wallace
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Anthony Wallace defines religion as "belief and ritual concerned with
supernatural beings, powers, and forces" (1966,p. 5) and developed four
categories from this.
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1. Shamanic religions shamans are part-time religious intermediaries who may act
as curers— mostly characterized by foragers.
Modern day shamans, Mama Lola, Gurus (preachers)
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2. Communal religions have shamans, community rituals, multiple nature gods,
more characteristic of agricultural society than foragers E.G., Zuni, Hopi, Iroquois,
Cherokee, Choctaw among others.
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3. Olympian religions developed with states, with full-time religious specialists
whose organization may mimic the states, have potent anthropomorphic gods who
may exist as a pantheon (Vedic, Greco- Roman, Zorastrian among others)
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4. Monotheistic religions have all the attributes of Olympian religions, except that
the pantheon of gods is subsumed under a single eternal, omniscient, omnipotent,
and omnipresent being.
Revitalization Movement: Outline
• Why do revitalization movements emerge
under certain circumstances but not others?
• What are the stages of emergence of a new
religion?
• What is the role of a prophet in a revitalization
movement?
• Examples of modern revitalization movements
Revitalization movement in
response to culture change
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Religious movements that act as mediums for social change are called revitalization
movements. They connect the past and present and give a vision for the future.
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Types of Revitalization Movements
– Cargo Cults ( South Pacific islands studied by Ken Burridge, New Heaven New Earth)
– The Ghost Dance of 1890 studied by James Mooney ( as an example of revitalizing the
community)
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New Religious Movements
– The “Cult” Question
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Examples of New Religious Movements, Sai Baba etc
– Branch Davidians (Students of the Seven Seals)
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UFO Religions
– Heaven’s Gate
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The colonial-era Iroquois reformation led by Handsome Lake is an example of a revitalization
movement. The seneca movement led by Handsome Lake ( Anthony Wallace in his book Death and
rebirth of Seneca)
Background: Acculturation and
religion
• When one group is forced or made to adapt to
another culture due to technological,
economic, and political factors (colonization)
Example, Hindu practice in the Carribbean
V.S. Naipaul ( colonized man as mimic man
based on Carribbean exp)
• Syncretism ( examples: Vodou, Santaria)
• Revitalization movements
Syncretisms
• A syncretism is a cultural mix, including religious
blends, that emerge when two or more cultural
traditions come into contact.
– Examples include Vodou, Santeria, and candomlé, Wicca,
Peyote cult among Native Americans
– The cargo cults of Melanesia and Papua New Guinea are
syncretism of Christian doctrine with aboriginal beliefs.
• Syncretisms often emerge when traditional, nonWestern societies came in to contact with
industrialized societies.
• Syncretisms attempt to explain European domination
and wealth and to achieve similar success magically by
mimicking European behavior and symbols.
Cargo cult in South Pacific
Cargo cult lives in South Pacific
• John Frum Movement in Vanuatu. Every
February they parade in old US army uniforms
with wooden weapons.
• Anthropologist Ralph Reganvalu: the sect was
a "cultural preservation movement" that was
born during a time of upheaval with the
importation of alien values, customs and
material in to the belief system.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asiapacific/6370991.stm
Revitalization movements
• one culture is able to establish economic and
political dominance and superimpose itself on
another, resulting into diffusion, assimilation.
• A reaction either religious or secular known as
a revitalization movement. Ex: Ghost dance
movement)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI0Jfdkq4z
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• It had to do with social change.
• Visions of a new way of life by individuals
Factors:
• Revitalization movements arise from a
number of perceived stressful and often
traumatic situations.
• These situations include political and
economic marginalization:
– loss of effective political participation
– economic deprivation and poverty
– malnutrition
– high levels of chronic or epidemic diseases
Stages: the development of a revitalization
movement.
– Steady state.
– The period of increased individual stress.
– This phase is characterized by an increase in
illness, alcoholism and drug use, and crime.
– Cultural distortion, that serve as a temporary
adjustment to change.
– Revitalization begins when an individual or a small
group constructs a new, utopian image of society
and establishes a model of this image to introduce
change in the society.
Types of Revitalization Movements
• Nativistic movements develop in tribal societies in which the
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cultural gap between the dominant and subordinate cultures is vast.
Revivalistic movements: attempt to revive what is often perceived
as a past golden age in which ancient customs come to symbolize
the noble features and legitimacy of the repressed culture.
Millenarian movements are based on a vision of change through an
apocalyptic transformation.
messianic movements believe that a divine savior in human form
will bring about the solution to the problems that exist within the
society.
Of course, these four types are not always clearly differentiated
from one another, and elements of one may appear in another.
We will examine examples of these types below.
Cargo Cults
• The term cargo cult comes from the word cargo,
which in the pidgin English spoken in New Guinea
and the islands of Melanesia means "trade
goods."
– The culture area of Melanesia includes New Guinea
and the islands to the east, including the Trobriand
Islands.
• These movements began along the coast in the
late nineteenth century but reached their peak
during and after World War II, when the U.S.
military brought in large quantities of
manufactured goods.
The Ghost Dance of 1890
• The policies of the U.S. government toward
Native Americans in the late 19th century
were those of forced assimilation.
• Genocide and ethnocide
• destruction of traditional food resources,
restriction of communities to small tracts of
land and reservations, and forced education at
boarding schools for children
Prophets: Wovoka (1858-1932)
• Early in 1889 a Paiute named Wovoka who lived
in Nevada, had a vision.
• Wovoka received a "Great Revelation" on New
Year's Day in 1889.
– He moved into an altered state of consciousness for a
period of time, awakening during an eclipse of the
sun.
– This was interpreted by some as death followed by
rebirth.
– The Indians would inherit this land, and the dead
would return to the earth—hence the name the Ghost
Dance.
Prophets
• Sai Baba
• David Koresh (Branch Davidians)
• Jerry Falwell (Evangelical fundamentalist
Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist)
• Why are they called prophets?
New Religious Movements
• “religions which have been found, from the
perspective of the dominant religious
community, not just different but unacceptably
different.” J. G. Melton, "The Changing Scene
of New Religious Movements,"
• Generally branched off from older.
• Examples: the protestant movement in 16th
Century, Mormons from 18th –
• Bhakti movements, Guru Nanak (Sikhism)
ISKON, Sai Baba among others
A New Age
• Since the 1960s, there has been a decline in
formal organized religions.
• Separation between organized Religion and
spirituality
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5MudTn
1wYM&feature=related (Sikhism in USA)
• New Age religions have appropriated ideas,
themes, symbols, and ways of life from the
religious practices every where specially from
Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, East
Asian religions.
Secular Rituals: Walt Disney World
• A Pilgrimage to Walt Disney World
• Walt Disney World functions much like a sacred
shrine which is a major pilgrimage destination
– It has an inner, sacred center surrounded by an outer
more secular domain.
– Parking lot designations are distinguished with totemlike images of the Disney cast of characters.
• The monorail provides travelers with a brief
liminal period as they cross between the outer,
secular world into the inner, sacred center of the
Magic Kingdom.
Modern Movement: Secular rituals
Within the Magic Kingdom:
• Spending time in the Magic Kingdom
reaffirms, maintains, and solidifies the world
of Disney as all of the pilgrims share a
common status as visitors while experience
the same adventures.
• Most of the structures and attractions at the
Magic Kingdom are designed to reaffirm and
recall a traditional set of American values.
Religion changes with Society
• It is difficult to distinguish between sacred and
secular rituals as behavior can simultaneously
have sacred and secular aspects.
• Economic situation in important with the rise
of Hinu, Sikh, Christian fundamentalism
• Martin Marty: Fundamentalism examined
• Susan Harding: The book of Jerry Falwell
• Some Online Resources
• The Religious Movements Homepage
• CESNUR: Center for the Study on New
Religions
• Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
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