Religion/Shamanism
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Transcript of Religion/Shamanism
Religion
Anthropology of Religion
• Anthropologists treat religion as a component of human culture.
• Is not concerned with the “truth” or “falsehood” of religions.
• Attempts to connect religion to other aspects of society (holism).
What is religion?
• How do we define religion as a phenomenon? What is true of all religions?
• Anthropologists use a number of different definitions to understand religion cross-culturally.
Religion is…
• A social phenomenon. It involves collective practices.
• An individual phenomenon. It involves the psychic experiences of individuals.
• A system of meaning. It answers “big questions.”
Religion…
• is composed of practices: rituals and ceremonies…
• as well as beliefs and perspectives.
God(s) and Spirits
• Animism is the belief in spirits or spiritual beings.
• This term is sometimes also used for the belief that all things have a spirit.
• Animism, in some form or another, is a hallmark of most religious systems.
God(s) and Spirits
• Gods refer to powerful spiritual beings that have personal characteristics (i.e. characteristics like gender, personalities, motivations…etc.)
• Theism refers to the belief in the existence of one or more gods.
God(s) and Spirits
• Polytheism: the belief in many gods.
• Pantheon: the collection of deities worshipped by a particular people.
• Monotheism: the belief in only one god.
Myths and Cosmologies
• Myth: a sacred story, one that often describes the nature or origin of the universe or some element of human existence.
• Myths are involved in building the cosmology of a religion: its model of the universe and humanity’s place in it.
The Nine Worlds
Religion and Philosophy
• Religion tends to answer “big questions” relating to the meaning of live, the nature of good and evil…etc.
• The question of what falls into the “religious” category and what falls into the “philosophical” category sometimes confuses people.
Religion and Philosophy• Some forms of Buddhism reject the idea
of a Creator or God in the Jewish, Christian or Muslim sense and thus see Buddhism as a philosopy…
• However, like all religions, Buddhism provides rituals and practices that are designed to integrate people into a particular world view and lead them to particular spiritual goals.
The original “Shamans”
• The term “Shaman” refers to a particular religious practitioner amongst indigenous Siberian people.
The “other” Shaman
• The term “Shaman”, however, is also used by anthropologists to refer to collection of spiritual practitioners throughout the rest of the world.
The people we call shamans typically:
• Act as intermediaries between this world and the “other world.”
• Divine the future
• Function as healers
Altered States of Consciousness
• Shamans typically use some means to enter a shamanic state: a state of altered consciousness to do their work.
Methods
• Drumming/Rhythmic Music
• Dancing
• Chanting
• Consumption of psychoactive substances…etc.
Entheogens
• An entheogen is a pschoactive drug used for spiritual/religious purposes.
Questions about The Sound or Sushing Water.
• What is real to the Jivaro Shaman? What is unreal?
• How does one become a shaman?
• How does the shaman uses his powers to heal…and harm?