• Explain Geertz’s definition of religion using examples from any two traditions.

• What is ideology? Explain using examples from today’s song, the Parkland high school students, and the Star Trek religion from Futurama.

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• 3rd online discussion comment:

➡ Due tonight!

• Film Analysis: congratulations!!!

➡ Grades available end of next week (= before drop date of March 14)

• Thursday this week: no office hours

• Next week: class will be in IB1102

Course Stuff

• Field Research Outline + group photo:

➡ Due March 16➡ Graded for completion only

➡ Outline instructions coming soon!!

• Film Research Analysis

➡ Due April 4➡ Instructions and Advice on Bb

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Field Research

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Application deadline: March 16!

Pink Shirt?

pinktshirtday.ca

Belief

Ritual

Text

Culture

Power

Gender

7. Power

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Today

• Finish: Culture

1. Clifford Geertz

2. Popular religion vs. hybridity

• Power

1. General overview

2. Specific theories

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Culture!

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• What is “culture”?

➡ Everything!

• What do we study (when we study culture)?

➡ Everything!

• Religions change over time, culture, etc.

➡ Three Christianities; Muslim bride in Bulgaria

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Culture: Review Culture

• Probably non-useful theories for assignment:

➡ Culture is what people do (Hall)

➡ Each group has its own culture (Tylor)

➡ Religion can also create divisions (Nye)

➡ Religion as “social glue” (Durkheim)

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Culture

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• Possibly useful theories for assignment:

➡ Sub-cultures and resistance (Hebdige)

➡ Power: popular vs. elite (Williams/Hall)

➡ Change/hybridity/syncretism (various)

➡ Religion = society (Durkheim)

➡ Religion = symbols, factuality, etc. (Geertz)

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Clifford Geertz: Religion is a “system of symbols, which acts to establish powerful,

pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations in men [people] by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those

conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely

realistic.” (Nye p. 47)

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Man: “And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship, where they would be no tribble at all.”

Everyone: “All power to the engines.”

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naturalistic anecdote it’s the details that sell your story

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

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Bhagavad Gita

Jesus: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out

demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.”

(Mark 16:17-18)

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Syncretism/Hybridity

• Your field research: which elements seem “traditional” and which seem “Canadian”?

➡ What might this mean?

• Examples of possible “Canadian” cultural elements?

➡ Use your judgement, make a reasonable case why something might not be “traditional” to the religion

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Popular Religion

• Steven Sutcliffe (Nye p. 36-39)

• Popular culture

➡ Music, videos, technology, etc.

➡ Different from “elite” culture

• In what ways is this religion open to change? In what ways is it not open to change?

• Note: Popular religion is NOT the same as cultural/religious hybridity

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Indigenous? Non-Indigenous?language? language?

drum clothing

blankets coffee cup + water bottles

natural items on blanket jar on blanket

feather video camera

plants in pan + bowl frying pan

location folding chair

Power!

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Power1. General

• Overview

2. Theories:

• Concern with social justice; work towards greater equity

• Marx, Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault

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Power

• Power: social, political, economic

• Power relations exist in all human communities and institutions

➡ Including religion!

➡ (No special treatment by scholars)

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Power

• Field Research Analysis:

1. Power relations WITHIN a religion (always apparent)

2. Power relations BETWEEN religion and larger society (sometimes apparent)

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Power

• Power relations are complex➡ Power is not inherently “bad”

➡ Create, sustain power

➡ Subvert, resist power

➡ People / institutions with power in some contexts may NOT have power in others

➡ RLG101H?

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Power

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• Not so useful theories for assignment:

➡ Althusser: interpellation (66-67)

➡ Weber: economics (69-70)

Power

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• Possibly useful theories for assignment:

➡ Marx: religion as ideology (58-60)

➡ Gramsci: hegemony and counter-hegemony (60-65)

➡ Althusser: repressive and ideological state apparatuses (65-66)

➡ Foucault: panopticon (71-73) and power, knowledge, discourse (74-76)

Marx

• Ideology: “makes the rule by one group over another appear ‘natural’ and unquestionable” (p. 59)

• Power as natural / obvious

➡ Examples?

➡ Markers: e.g., spaces, buildings, clothing, titles, age, gender, etc.

➡ Theories of ideology: critique/expose it31 32

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Song!

• “Everything is Everything” by Lauryn Hill (1998)

“Everything is Everything”

I wrote these words for everyoneWho struggles in their youth

Who won’t accept deceptionInstead of what is truth

It seems we lose the game,Before we even start to playWho made these rules?

We’re so confusedEasily led astray

“Everything is Everything”

And the ones on top, won’t make it stopSo convinced that they might fall

Now hear this mixtureWhere hip hop meets scripture

Develop a negative into a positive picture

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Late Night With Seth Meyers (26 Feb. 2018)

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Sophomore = 2nd year student

Junior = 3rd year student

Marx

• Marx and Engels, On Religion

• Religion CAN be an ideology (p. 59)

• Leads us to accept (unjust) system:

1. Comfort / illusion

2. Teachings

• Need to critique / remove religion before we can change the unjust system

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1. Comfort / Illusion

• Religion as “opium” / “imaginary flowers”

• Comforts us, masks suffering

• Reward after death (vs. conditions of life)

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Religion as opiate of the people

2. Teachings• Support the (unjust) system

• New Testament (Christianity):

➡ Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39)

➡ “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1)

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Not Marx

• Religion: may oppose the (unjust) system (not Marx’s view!)

• Christianity:

➡ Martin Luther King (USA)

➡ Desmond Tutu (South Africa)

➡ Stan McKay (Canada)

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