Magic, Science & Religion
Anthropology 5
Spring 2014
Katherine Schaefers, Instructor
Office: 3102
OH: 9:30-10:00am Monday/Wednesday
The Anthropological Study
of Religion
Chapter 1
• Film: “Inventing Reality”
– We use Religion/Science/Spirituality for the same
goal:
• The attempt to comprehend and control our
circumstances and our world
Anthropology
• The study of humanity
– Greek: Anthropos (“Man”) logy (“study of”)
• Also, an integrated study of humanity
– Holism: Integrating as many different aspects of
human society (like psychology, politics, religion,
customs, institutions like marriage, funerary rituals,
gender, subsistence economy, etc.) to create the most
complete picture possible.
• Goal of Anthropology?
– Why do we study other people? What can be gained?
“To make the strange familiar, and the
familiar strange”
• Strangeness, the unfamiliar is scary and can
lead to misguided feelings of anger and hate,
which may eventually lead to warfare and
death.
– Most interpersonal or inter-group conflicts are
caused by a lack of understanding.
– Discovering similarities between one’s own
culture and that of others leads to more
harmonious relationships.
Anthropology’s
• Physical
Traditional Fields
– Human Biology and Evolution
• Genetics, DNA studies, evolutionary theory, primate behavior, paleontology, fossil record.
• Evolutionary origins & the neurobiology of religious experience
• Archaeology
– Physical and Cultural remains
– Religion in remains of temples, art, ritual, artifacts, ancient texts.
• Linguistics
– Origins and distribution of language
– Many religious beliefs are passed down orally in the form of myths or other
narratives.
• Cultural
– Social organization, economics, technology, political organization, marriage,
family life.
– The study of Magic, Science and Religion falls under this sub-category.
• These 4 fields are rarely mutually exclusive & today’s anthropology scene is
very fluid, often incorporating techniques from outside disciplines like
psychology (study of the human psyche/mind) and sociology (study of
human society).
Terms and techniques used by
Cultural Anthropologists
 Participant Observation: To truly understand a
culture, an anthropologist will usually study a
culture for an extended period of time,
sometimes taking many years. Oftentimes, the
anthropologist will live within the community
and partake in daily life and activities.
 Ethnography: A Cultural Anthropologist’s work
usually culminates into something called an
Ethnography, or a written description of the
studied society. These are usually published in
books and journals.
Terms and techniques used by
Cultural Anthropologists
cont.
• Culture Area: This class will make use of ethnographic
material from around the world from locations that are
termed “Culture Areas” or geographical areas where
societies tend to share many traits, either because of
similar responses to the environment or because of
cultural diffusion (sharing of culture) between these
groups.
– Chart: pgs. 4-6 in book. Look through and make sure you
can identify the different culture areas and which groups
inhabit them.
– Ethnographic present: Cultures which may no longer exist
(like some Native American groups) will still be referred to
in the present tense by Cultural Anthropologists.
A question of perspective:
The Fore of New Guinea
• Problem: The Fore are a group of ~14,000 horticulturalists
(cultivators of domesticated plants without the use of
modern agricultural techniques) from the Melanesia Culture
Area who have had about 200 of their members die from
mysterious causes each year. The locals call it Kuru or “to
tremble with fear.” Jerking/shaking/unable to coordinate
are the main symptoms. After 9 months, the individual is
no longer able to eat or drink and soon dies. Women and
children are mainly afflicted.
• Solution? If you were asked to look into this case, what
would your first hypothesis be as to the cause of the
affliction?
– Think back to our film “Inventing Reality” and the interplay
between modern western medicine and traditional beliefs.
Holism
solves it
• We must look to all aspects of the Fore’s
society for the answer, specifically, their
religious and funerary practices…
• Kuru is caused by an infectious agent that is ingested by
family members when they consume the remains of
their dead loved ones. To the Fore, the holiest, most
sacred resting place for the deceased is within the
bodies of their loved ones. The deceased’s remains
would be cooked and distributed amongst family as a
form of utmost respect. Women and children, having
lower social status, were more likely to ingest the brain
(the seat of the infectious agent).
Etic/Emic
Analysis
• Etic Analysis: Viewing and labeling a culture with our own words and terms.
– Advantages: Finding patterns that the studied group may be unaware of. Applying an Etic
Analysis to all cultures that you study makes it easier to identify Human Universals. Terms and
categories can be made for new information to be nicely organized. Etic Analysis is mainly used
in Anthropological studies.
– Etic Analysis: Kuru is caused by a virus in the afflicted’s bloodstream that is later ingested by
family members.
• But what are bacteria, germs, diseases, a virus to the Fore? These are not only
foreign words, but also foreign ideas.
• Emic Analysis: Viewing a culture through the eyes of the people being studied.
– Advantages: Better understanding of the studied culture, but much, much harder to attain.
Argument: is it even possible to see through the eyes of another culture? To undo and place
aside one’s own worldview and wholly adopt another? (HW question).
– Emic Analysis: Kuru is caused by Sorcery. The Sorcerer will obtain a personal belonging of the
individual’s, combine it in a bundle with leaves, bark and stones and bury it in the cold muddy
earth. The Sorcerer will then recite a spell and let the bundle rot. The individual then develops
Kuru.
Cultural Relativism
• Cannibalism. Right/Wrong? Does context
matter? Who gets to make up the rules?
Cultural Relativism
cont.
 The norms and values we grow up with seem right
and correct
 We use our own society as a base for judging others
 Thinking of others as simple, primitive, immoral, lessthan-human or somehow fundamentally “wrong” is
how wars start and propaganda is spread.
Have you ever been in a situation where you found
yourself in the role of “the other”. Have you ever
been stereotyped or judged based on another group’s
values?
Western Society’s past attempts at
getting to know other cultures
• Modernism: Began with the Renaissance and the
Enlightenment.
– A reaction to the superstition and hysteria of Europe’s
“Dark Ages” (The Witch hunt era that we will get into
later).
– Rationality, objectivity, reason can discover knowledge
and truth and lead to progress.
• We can understand everybody/thing everywhere if we adhere
to these principles of logic.
– This is where our modern thoughts of linearity come
from. Are we really more advanced/improved than
previous generations?
For every movement, there is a
counter-movement!
• Post-Modernism: No “true” knowledge, only subjective
and objective knowledge.
– 1980s-Today
– Knowledge as a human construction that we must
“deconstruct.”
– Science is limited: it does not integrate multiple
viewpoints/truths. One must be aware of one’s own biases.
– We cannot remove our cultural lens but we can become
more aware of it.
• Both Modernism and Post-Modernism are Western
Society’s Etic ways of viewing other cultures.
What is
Culture?
• The beliefs and behaviors of a society
• Culture is learned
• Culture is based on Symbols
Culture
Gives Meaning to Reality
• Culture is the lens through which we view our
world, it “invents” our reality
• Ex: What is a tree?
Exploration
• Yesterday’s in-class writing…
1. What does religion mean to you?
2. Do you hold any beliefs that you would consider
as being part of a spirituality/religion?
3. How would you define religion? Why do we
need definitions?
Religion
Another Slippery term
• A Western concept like
work/economy/politics/technology.
– In western society, Religion is mostly seen as a clearly
delineated aspect of society, separate from the other
terms above. Not the case within all cultures.
• Ex: the Fore, ancient Egypt
• Operant Definition
– As Anthropology is a Social Science we need to make
sure the terms we use are observable and
measureable and therefore can be studied.
Operant Definitions
How to define Religion within a Society
1. Functional: What function (or role) does religion
have in society?
–
Does it provide a moral code? Explanations for
natural events?
2. Analytic: How is religion manifested in society?
–
Through Narratives? Rituals? Ethics?
3. Essentialist: What is the basic nature of religion?
–
What realm is “religion” in? The natural? The
supernatural?
The
Sacred and Supernatural
• Sacred: Entitled to reverence and respect
• Supernatural: “above the natural”
– Not obeying the laws of nature as we know them.
– Many times the supernatural is explained by
science, further blurring the line between religion
and science.
Religion
Theoretical Frameworks
preview
• Cultural Anthropologists will traditionally pick one
of the following 5 theoretical approaches to work
under.
• Evolutionary
• Marxist
• Functional
• Interpretive
• Psychosocial
• See pgs. 16-21
Evolutionary
• When/how religion began
• This theory was introduced in the 1800s and went hand in hand with
Modernism and the Enlightenment.
– Logic, science and Monotheism were the pinnacles of human
achievement
• Western Society represented this pinnacle
– Positivism
• The only real knowledge is scientific knowledge
• This approach generally carries a lot of negative baggage and is seen
as outdated.
– All other societies were seen as “primitive” compared to Western
Society.
• The quest for Religion’s origins is still ongoing and many elements of
Evolutionary Theory are now combined under the Psychosocial
Approach…
Psychosocial
 What is the connection between culture, personality,
society and the individual?
 Sigmund Freud
 Psychoanalysis
 ChildParents = Adult  Supernatural elements
 Nurturing/authority figure
The biological basis of religious behavior
Does our brain create realities that are indistinguishable
from “reality,” whatever that means?
Marxist
• Developed in the 1800s around same time as
the Evolutionary Approach
• Karl Marx
– Religion as a construction of those in control of
society
• Obey this religion & “us” and you will be happy
– A crutch for people too depressed by the miseries
of capitalism.
Functional
• What role does religion serve in society?
• Émile Durkheim
– Collective Conscious: Religion serves to hinder selfish
tendencies of the individual and promote social
cooperation. Symbols are a manifestation of the
collective conscious and, when brought up during
religious rituals, help to reinforce social cooperation.
• Radcliffe-Brown
– Need group solidarity (Religion) in order for society to
survive
• Bronislaw Malinowski
– Magic and religion as emotional and mental support
Interpretive
• Developed in response to the Functional
Approach.
• Clifford Geertz
– The goal of the anthropologist should be to
discover meaning, not to look for origins and laws!
– Based on the work of Max Weber, who was the
first to propose looking at culture through Emic
Analysis.
For Monday
• Read Stein & Stein Ch 1