ANTH18731GD

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

WEEK 6

Religion and the Supernatural

Dr. Anna K. Boshnakov

 AGENDA
1. What Do Anthropologists of Religion Do: Most
common questions.

2. How do Anthropologists of Religion do what they do?

(Methods and techniques)

3. The Language of Anthropology of Religion: The key

terms
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

 Explain the subject of Anthropology of Religion

 Analyze the anthropological approach to religion

 Apply the anthropological approach to

reconstruct religious beliefs and practices
 WHAT DO
ANTHROPOLOGISTS OF RELIGION DO?
Anthropology of Religion

 What is RELIGION? Why is Universal?

 When did religion begin?

 Expressions of Religion: Spiritual Beings,

Powers and Forces
 Religious Specialists: Shamans, Priests and
Priestesses
 Religion, Magic, And Witchcraft

 Rituals
HOW GOD
CREATED
THE
WORLD: 1
HOW GOD CREATED THE WORLD: 2
HOW GOD CREATED THE
WORLD: 3
 SCIENCE VS. RELIGION

The principal difference between science and

religion is:

 Scientific explanation is based on facts.

 Religion is based on faith.

 SCIENCE VS. RELIGION

 Scientific explanation is  Religion is a system of

based on evidence, beliefs. It is based on
experiments, analysis faith.
and interpretation.

 Life is chemistry.  Life is a miracle.

 DO WE NEED GOD NOW THAT WE HAVE
SCIENCE?

Many have felt that with the advance of technology and

the scientific investigation, “irrational” religious
beliefs gradually would fade away to be replaced by
“logical knowledge”.

Has this been the case?

Is it ever likely to occur?
Why or why not?
THE HUMAN PERSPECTIVE:
ANALOGICAL THINKING
WE NEED TO BELIEF IN SOMETHING…

WE WANT TO BELIEF IN THE CONTINUITY OF OUR

SPIRITUAL EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH.

The universality of religion

 Does God exist?

 Is there evidence for the existence of God?

 Why should I believe that God exists?

 Where do we go after death?

 What is the meaning of life?

 ….etc.
 VISIBLE VS. INVISIBLE WORLD

 Science is responsible  Religion is responsible

for the visible world for the invisible world

The nature of man:

body, soul and spirit

 THE INVISIBLE WORLD OR
THE QUESTION OF SUPERNATURAL

When did religion begin?

The supernatural is the extraordinary realm outside the

observable world:
it is nonempirical and inexplicable in ordinary terms.

It must be accepted on faith.

 THE EARLIEST FORM OF RELIGION:
A BELIEF IN SPIRITUAL BEINGS
Sir Edward Burnett
Tylor (1832 – 1917) –
the founder of the
Anthropology of Religion

He reintroduced the term

animism: the faith in the
individual soul of all
things.
He considered animism as
the first phase of
development of religions.
 SUPERNATURAL BEINGS,
POWERS AND FORCES: WHO ARE THEY?

All of them are not of the material

world:
 Supernatural beings: gods and goddesses,
ghosts, and souls

 Objects with sacred impersonal forces: rocks,

amulets

 Supernatural powers (techniques) intended to

accomplish specific aims (magic): spells,
formulas, and incantations
 THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH TO
RELIGION

 Universal: What will happen with us when we die?

 Reduces anxiety: Gives meaning to individual and

group life, drawing power “from the time of the gods in
the Beginning” and offers continuity of existence beyond
death.

 Religion may reinforce group norms and provide

moral sanctions for individual conduct.

 Not replaced by science.

 DEFINITION:
Religion (from Latin “religare” – “to tie, to bind”)
consists of beliefs and behavioural patterns by
which people try to control areas of their world otherwise
beyond their control.

Characteristic:
Belief in supernatural beings and forces.
 RELIGIOUS SPECIALISTS
 Shamans
 Part-time religious specialists
with exceptional abilities for
dealing with the supernatural
 Acquire power individually
 Act on the behalf of clients

 Priests and Priestesses

 Full-time religious specialists
 Members of a recognized religious
organization
 Source of power is the institution
 SHAMANISM
 Found in band
and tribal
societies but also
in “advanced”
industrial
societies.
 Whenever a
community faced
illness, or serious
problems , the
people called upon
their shamans who
were able to
contact the spirits.
SHAMANISM
 Each shaman had his
or her own spirit
helpers who would
offer assistance
during healing rituals
and problem solving.
 The helpers of the
shaman would also
help guiding the dead
who had left their
physical bodies for the
journey into the other
world.
 SHAMANISM

 In the past, it was the

dominant mode of
healing until medical
practice separated
itself from the
religious practice.

A young patient observes a medicine man (on the

right) and helper prepare a sandpainting as part of
her healing ceremony. (Courtesy of the National Library
of Medicine, Navajo Area Indian Health Service Today, IHS,
1980.)
WITCH DOCTOR HEALING A PATIENT IN
WESTERN AFRICA
 DOES SHAMANISM WORK?

Does the shaman/witch doctor actually

heal?

Or is it all in the mind of the believer?

 HOW DO ANTHROPOLOGISTS OF
RELIGION DO WHAT THEY DO?
RITUAL AND BELIEF:
from the visible (material culture) to the invisible
(non-material culture)

Reconstruction of religious beliefs by analyses of

burial rite:

Graves with skeletons/or mummies

Graves without skeletons/or mummies
TYPES OF BURIAL
 BURIAL OF CLAY MASK
Type of burial

Symbolic burial
“Symbolic burial” is a grave where
no skeletons were found but the
burial objects were present.

The graves without skeletons

(symbolic burials) are of two types:

 cenotaph graves, where grave

goods are laid out as if the body
were present;
 and mask graves, where a life-
size clay mask represents the
body.
 CENOTAPH
 Etymology of CENOTAPH: An empty tomb or
monument to someone who is buried elsewhere.

 A cenotaph may be an empty tomb or simply a

memorial to the dead that is not placed over their
grave. Some have used today's noun as a verb, as
to cenotaph the memory of someone.

 Most often, cenotaphs commemorate fallen

soldiers whose bodies were not recovered from
the battleground.
 BODY BURIED IN HUDDLED POSITION
Type of burial

 “Hokers”
Etymology: German: hoker:
a person in a crouched or
huddled position

 It is believed that they

imitated the position of the
embrio in the womb. In this
way the prehistoric people
expressed the idea that a man
must leave this world in the
way he came into it.
 Many graves were egg-shaped;
bones placed in a fetal
position to symbolize rebirth.
 BONES BURIED IN A GRAVE
Type of burial

 Open-Sky/Air burial
 FUNCTION
 The OPEN-SKY/AIR BURIAL is a very ancient
custom among the nomads of Asia; it was already
in use at least 3000 years ago. Today we can see
this ancient type of burial in Tibet.
 Air burial is a disposal of a corpse by allowing it
to be eaten by birds. Three days after death, the
bodies of the departed are given to the care of
certain monks/priests.
 According to the beliefs in the rebirth, there is no
need to preserve the body, as it is now an empty
vessel. Birds may eat it, or nature may let it
decompose. So the function of the sky burial is
simply the disposal of the remains.
 CREMATION

Type of burial

 Cremation appearing
around the 12th
century B.C.
constitutes a new
practice of burial and
is probably an
influence from Minor
Asia.
Terracotta ash urn with lid
 OPEN-AIR CREMATION IN INDIA

 The Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism,

Sikhism, and Buddhism, mandate open-air cremation.
 In these religions, the body is seen as an instrument to
carry the soul.
 According to Hindu philosophy the human body is a
combination of five basic natural elements; namely
(fire), (water), (air), (earth) and (space/ether).
 When one dies, fire ceases, and that living form is sent
to its original state of creation. Fire (in the form of
cremation) is used to complete the fifth element.
 SITTING POSITION
Woman buried in sitting
Type of burial
position

 In classic Inca burials,

the dead were placed
in a crouched, sitting
position facing the
rising sun, a symbol of
rebirth.
 The Inca also believed
in mummifying
personages.
 BUDDHIST SELF-MUMMIFICATION

Type of burial

 Self-mummification
 SELF-MUMMIFICATION

 Self-mummification
was practiced until
the late 1800s in Asia,
by people who thought
being a mummy
looked so awesome
they couldn't wait
until actual death to
be one.
 To mummify yourself
properly, you'll need
over 2,000 days of Mummy of a Mongolian
preparation. monk, 200 years old
 THE PROCESS
 First they have got to get all of the fat off of the body.
They did this by changing their diet to just nuts and
seeds. The priest could eat nothing else for 1,000
days.
 Next, they need to remove as much moisture from the
body as possible.
 Next the person will be sealed in a small, stone room--
just big enough to sit in the lotus position. Now they
just have to wait to die!
 This was all tied to the Buddhist idea that to achieve
enlightenment, you must separate yourself from the
physical world entirely so that at death, instead of
being reborn, you become one with Buddha.
 THE LANGUAGE OF ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION:
THE KEY TERMS
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ANIMISM AND ANIMATISM
Animism is the faith in the individual soul of all
things. The oldest form of religion.

Animatism is a belief that the world is animated

by impersonal supernatural powers.

Objects with sacred impersonal forces: rocks, amulets

(mana).
 ANIMATISM
Belief in impersonal supernatural powers

 Mana

Example:
A warrior’s success in fighting is not attributed to his
own strength but to the mana contained in an amulet
that hangs around his neck.
RELIGION, MAGIC, AND WITCHCRAFT
 Magic
 Attempts to control the supernatural

Supernatural powers (techniques) intended to

accomplish specific aims (magic): spells, formulas,
and incantations.

 Imitative magic

 Contagious magic
IMITATIVE MAGIC/ SYMPATHETIC MAGIC
Imitative magic: Magic based on the belief that
similar actions produce similar results ("like produces
like" ):
For instance, whatever happens to an image of
someone will also happen to them. This is the basis
for use of Voodoo/Vodou dolls in the folk tradition of
Haiti.
If someone sticks a pin into the stomach of the doll, the
person of whom it is a likeness will be expected to
experience a simultaneous pain in his or her stomach.
Purpose: Magic that attempts to control the universe
through the mimicking of a desired event, as by
stabbing an image of an enemy in an effort to
destroy him or her or by performing a ritual dance
imitative of the growth of food in an effort to
secure an abundant supply.
 AFRICAN VOODOO AND HAITIAN VODUO
There are three places where people still largely practice
voodoo: West Africa, Haiti and Louisiana. Nearly 30 million
people practice African voodoo today.

Voodoo as a religion was born in the West African nation of

Benin.
Louisiana voodoo was brought in from West Africa, but was
shaped mostly by Spanish and French settlers.

Haitian vodou finds its influences from the French and in

Christianity. It is of popular belief that Vodou (particularly
Haitian voduo) is not simply a religion, but rather, an
experience that ties both body and soul together.
VOODOO/VODOU DOLLS
Real Vodou is all about
using the doll to represent
someone, and use that to
tell the spirits (Vodou
Spirits) to do whatever
pinned to the doll for them.
 CONTAGIOUS MAGIC
 Contagious magic: Magic based on the principle that
beings once in contact can influence one another after
separation. (hair, teeth)
 In other words, it is believed that there is a permanent
relationship between an individual and any part of
his or her body. As a consequence, believers must
take special precautions with their hair, fingernails,
teeth, clothes, and feces.
 If anyone obtained these objects, magic could be
performed on them, which would cause the person they
came from to be affected. For instance, someone could
use your fingernail clippings in a magical ritual that
would cause you to love them or to fall ill and die.
 WITCHCRAFT

 Belief that individuals may

possess psychic powers.
 WITCHCRAFT – A CROSS-CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE

The Navajo of the American Southwest: witches commit incest,

bestiality and necrophilia, they change themselves into animals;
cannibalize infants, etc.

The Nyakyusa of Tanzania and the Azande of southern Sudan

believe: witches dry the udders of people’s cattle and devour the
internal organs of their human neighbors while they sleep.

The Ibibio of Nigeria: witches remove the soul of their enemies

and placing it in an animal.

Many children are accused of being witches. They are victims of

abuse, torture and murder.
IBIBIO: WHO BECOMES A WITCH?
 Male and female who possess a special substance
acquired from another established witch.

 The substance is made up of red, white, and

black threads, needles, and other ingredients
that a person acquires by swallowing it.

 From it comes a special power that causes harm.

The power is purely psychic.

 It gives them the ability to change into animals,

to travel any distance to get at their victims,
whom they may torture or kill by transferring the
victim’s soul into an animal, which is then eaten.
THE FUNCTIONS OF WITCHCRAFT

 Provides explanations

 Serves as a mechanism of social control

 DIVINATION
Magical procedure to determine causes
or to foretell the future.

I see...
 UNCERTAINTY, ANXIETY, SOLACE
 Religion and magic serve emotional needs.

 Religion and magic serve cognitive needs.

 Religion helps people face death and endure life

crises.

 Magic can dispel doubts that arise when outcomes are

beyond human control.

 Religion and magic serve to reduce psychological

stress, creating an illusion of magical control when
real control is lacking.
 RITUALS
 Rituals are formal – stylized, repetitive, and
stereotyped.

 People perform them in a special (sacred) places

and at set times.

 Rituals include sequences of words and actions

invented prior to the current performance of the
ritual in which they occur.
 RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR RITUALS
 Religious rituals: formal – stylized, repetitive,
and stereotyped. People perform them in a
special (sacred) places and at set times. Rituals
include sequences of words and actions invented
prior to the current performance of the ritual in
which they occur.

 Secular rituals: formal, invariant, stereotyped,

repetitive behavior that take place in
nonreligious settings.
RITUALS AND CEREMONIES

 Two major types of

religious rituals:

 Rites of Passage

 Rites of
Intensification
 RITES OF INTENSIFICATION

A ritual or ceremony performed by a

community in a time of crisis that affects all
members, as a rain dance during a drought.
 RITES OF PASSAGE
 Rituals and ceremonies that mark important
transitional periods in a person's life, such as
birth, puberty, marriage, having children, and
death.

 Three stages
1. Separation: the individual is removed from his
or her former status.
2. Transition: here, several activities take place
that bring about change in status.
3. Incorporation: here, individuals re-enters the
normal society.
 NEO-PAGANISM
 Modern pagan religions are referred to collectively
as neo-paganism

 Display a great deal of variety, each possessing its

own set of beliefs, rituals, and standards

 Wicca: one of the better-known, recently revived

 Involves elements of polytheism and animism

 “Mystery” religion
 Ritual is an important component
 Sabbats, Esbats are Wiccan gatherings
Wicca
http://youtu.be/WgC21V4hWUM
UPCOMING CHAPTER 13

The Arts