The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, andWitchcraft

This concise and accessible textbook introduces students to theanthropological study of religion. Stein and Stein examine religious expressionfrom a cross-cultural perspective and expose students to the varyingcomplexity of world religions. The chapters incorporate key theoreticalconcepts and a rich range of ethnographic material.

The fourth edition of The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraftoffers:

increased coverage of new religious movements, fundamentalism, andreligion and conflict/violence;fresh case study material with examples drawn from around the globe;further resources via a comprehensive companion website.

This is an essential guide for students encountering anthropology of religionfor the first time.

Rebecca L. Stein is Professor of Anthropology and Department Chair at LosAngeles Valley College, USA.

Philip L. Stein is Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus) at Los Angeles PierceCollege, USA. He is a fellow of the American Anthropological Association anda past president of the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges.

The Anthropology of Religion, Magic,and Witchcraft

Fourth Edition

Rebecca L. Stein and Philip L. Stein

Fourth edition published 2017by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2017 Rebecca L. Stein and Philip L. Stein

The right of Rebecca L. Stein and Philip L. Stein to be identified as authors of this work hasbeen asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs andPatents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in anyform or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First published 2005 by Prentice HallThird edition published 2011 by Prentice Hall

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataNames: Stein, Rebecca L., 1970- author. | Stein, Philip L., author.Title: The anthropology of religion, magic, and witchcraft / Rebecca L.Stein, Philip L. Stein.Description: Fourth edition. | Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY :Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016050966 (print) | LCCN 2017007888 (ebook) |ISBN 9781138719972 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138692527(pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315532172 (e-book)Subjects: LCSH: Religion. | Anthropology of religion. | Religion andculture.Classification: LCC GN470. S73 2017 (print) | LCC GN470 (ebook) |DDC 306.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016050966

ISBN: 978-1-138-71997-2 (hbk)ISBN: 978-1-138-69252-7 (pbk)ISBN: 978-1-315-53217-2 (ebk)

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Visit the companion website:www.routledge.com/cw/stein

For Elijah

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 The anthropological study of religion

The anthropological perspective

The holistic approach

The study of human societies

The Fore of New Guinea: an ethnographic example

Two ways of viewing culture

Cultural relativism

Box 1.1 Karen McCarthy Brown and Vodou

The concept of culture

The study of religion

Attempts at defining religion

The domain of religion

Theoretical approaches to the study of religion

Box 1.2 Malinowski and the Trobriand Islands

Box 1.3 Evans-Pritchard and the Azande

The biological basis of religious behavior

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

2 Mythology

The nature of myths

Worldview

Stories of the supernatural

The nature of oral texts

Box 2.1 Genesis

Box 2.2 The gender-neutral Christian Bible

Understanding myths

Approaches to the analysis of myths

Box 2.3 The Gururumba creation story

Common themes in myths

Box 2.4 The power of storytelling

Box 2.5 The Navaho creation story: Diné Bahane’

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

3 Religious symbols

What is a symbol?

Religious symbols

Box 3.1 Religious toys and games

Sacred art

The sarcophagus of Lord Pakal

The meaning of color

Sacred time and sacred space

The meaning of time

Box 3.2 The end of time

Sacred time and space in Australia

The symbolism of music and dance

The symbolism of music

The symbolism of dance

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

4 Ritual

The basics of ritual performance

Prescriptive and situational rituals

Periodic and occasional rituals

A classification of rituals

A survey of rituals

Technological rituals

Social rites of intensification

Therapy rituals and healing

Revitalization rituals

Rites of passage

Alterations of the human body

Pilgrimages

Box 4.1 The Hajj

The Huichol pilgrimage

Religious obligations

Tabu

Jewish food laws

Box 4.2 Menstrual tabus

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

5 Altered states of consciousness

The nature of altered states of consciousness

Entering an altered state of consciousness

The biological basis of altered states of consciousness

Box 5.1 Altered states in Upper Paleolithic art

Ethnographic examples of altered states of consciousness

San healing rituals

The Sun Dance of the Cheyenne

The Holiness Churches

Drug-induced altered states of consciousness

Hallucinogenic snuff among the Yanomamö

Tobacco in South America

Peyote in the Native American Church

Marijuana among the Rastafarians

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

6 Religious specialists

Shamans

Defining shamanism

Siberian shamanism

Korean shamanism

Pentecostal healers as shamans

Box 6.1 Clown doctors as shamans

Neoshamanism

Priests

Zuni priests

Okinawan priestesses

Eastern Orthodox priests

Other specialists

Healers and diviners

Box 6.2 African healers meet Western medicine

Prophets

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

7 Magic and divination

The nature of magic

Magic and religion

Rules of magic

Magic in society

Magic in the Trobriand Islands

Magic among the Azande

Sorcery among the Fore

Wiccan magic

Divination

Forms of divination

A survey of divination techniques

Box 7.1 I Ching: The Book of Changes

Box 7.2 Spiritualism and séances

Astrology

Fore divination

Oracles of the Azande

Divination in Ancient Greece: the oracle at Delphi

Magical behavior and the human mind

Magical thinking

Why magic works

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

8 Souls, ghosts, and death

Souls and ancestors

Variation in the concept of the soul

Box 8.1 How do you get to heaven?

Souls, death, and the afterlife

Examples of concepts of the soul

Ancestors

Box 8.2 Determining death

Bodies and souls

Ghosts

The living dead: vampires and zombies

Death rituals

Funeral rituals

Disposal of the body

U.S. death rituals in the nineteenth century

U.S. funeral rituals today

Days of death

Box 8.3 Roadside memorials

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

9 Gods and spirits

Spirits

The Dani view of the supernatural

Guardian spirits and the Native American vision quest

Jinn

Christian angels and demons

Box 9.1 Christian demonic exorcism in the United States

Gods

Types of gods

Gods and society

Box 9.2 Games and gods

The gods of the Yoruba

The gods of the Ifugao

Goddesses

Monotheism: conceptions of god in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Atheism

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

10 Witchcraft

The concept of witchcraft in small-scale societies

Witchcraft among the Azande

Witchcraft among the Navaho

Witchcraft reflects human culture

Witchcraft and AIDS

Euro-American witchcraft beliefs

The connection with pagan religions

The Witchcraze in Europe

The Witchcraze in England and the United States

Box 10.1: The evil eye

Modern-day witch hunts

Box 10.2 Satanism

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

11 The search for new meaning

Adaptation and change

Mechanisms of culture change

Haitian Vodou

Santeria

Revitalization movements

The origins of revitalization movements

Types of revitalization movements

Cargo cults

Box 11.1 The John Frum cult

The Ghost Dance of 1890

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)

Neo-Paganism and revival

The Wiccan movement

High demand religions

The “cult” question

Characteristics of high demand religions

Examples of high demand religions

UFO religions

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

12 Religion, conflict, and peace

Religion and conflict

Role of religion in conflict and violence

Box 12.1 Nationalism as religion

Fundamentalism

Characteristics of fundamentalist groups

Case studies of religion and conflict

The Iranian Revolution

Box 12.2 The veil in Islam

The Arab Spring

The Hobby Lobby case in the United States

Religion, terrorism, and peace

Religious conflict and terrorism

Religion and peace

Conclusion

Summary

Study questions

Suggested readings

Suggested websites

Notes

Glossary

Index

Illustrations

Maps

1 Map showing location of societies discussed in text: Western Hemisphere2 Map showing location of societies discussed in text: Eastern Hemisphere

Figures

1.1 Holism1.2 Brain scans. Courtesy of Andrew Newberg3.1 Navaho blanket with swastika. Arizona State Museum, University of

Arizona, Helga Teiwes, photographer3.2 The pentagram3.3 Some Christian symbols3.4 The mayan cosmos. D. Donne BryantDDB Stock Photography, LLC3.5 Yin-yang4.1 Alterations of the human body. 4.1a © Bettman/CORBIS All Rights

Reserved; 4.1b © Westend61 GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo; 4.1c © RobertEstall photo agency / Alamy Stock Photo

4.2 Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Granger Collection, New York5.1 Mayan carving. 5.1a © The Trustees of the British Museum; 5.1b © The

Trustees of the British Museum5.2 San healing ceremony. © Peter Johnson/CORBIS All Rights Reserved6.1 Shaman. Photo by Tao Zhang/Nur Photo. Sipa USA via AP

6.2 Okinawan priestesses. © Chris Willson / Alamy Stock Photo7.1 Divination. © Earl and Nazima Kowall/CORBIS All Rights Reserved7.2 Painting of the Pythia. Bpk, Berlin/Antikensammlung, Staatliche

Museen/Johannes Laurentius/Art Resource, NY8.1 The Wheel of Life. © Getty Images/Time Life Pictures8.2 Vampire burial. Courtesy of the Slavia Project and the Slavia Field School

in Mortuary Archaeology, Drawsko, Poland8.3 The Day of the Dead. © Danny Lehman/CORBIS All Rights Reserved9.1 The Greek pantheon9.2 Venus of Willendorf. INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo9.3 The Hindu goddess Kali. © Earl and Nazima Kowall/CORBIS All Rights

Reserved10.1 Execution of English witches. The Granger Collection, New York11.1 Vodou altar. AP Photo/Lynsey Addiaro11.2 Wiccan ritual. © Jim Cartier/Science Photo Library11.3 Mass wedding of the Unification Church. CORBIS-NY12.1 Hobby Lobby. Mark Wilson/Getty Images12.2 Terrorist attacks in Paris. Patrick Kovarik/Getty Images

Tables

1.1 Culture areas of the world1.2 Food-getting strategies2.1 Forms of narrative2.2 The monomyth in cinema: a sampling of common features4.1 A classification of rituals4.2 Causes and treatment of supernatural illnesses4.3 Characteristics of liminality5.1 Characteristics of altered states of consciousness5.2 Factors bringing about an altered state of consciousness5.3 Drugs that produce an altered state of consciousness7.1 A classification of methods of divination with examples9.1 The supernatural world of the Dani

9.2 The Roman gods and goddesses of agriculture9.3 Some of the Yoruba orisha11.1 The lwa of Haitian Vodou

Preface

Although courses in the anthropology of religion are usually upper-divisioncourses taught at four-year institutions to anthropology majors, the course isincreasingly being taught at the lower-division level, especially at communitycolleges. Here the emphasis is not on the training of majors, of whom thereare few, but on meeting a general education requirement in the social sciencesor humanities. Most significantly, this course is probably the onlyanthropology course that such students will take. Therefore the instructor hasthe obligation not only to discuss the topics of religion, but also to teach thestudent about the nature of anthropology and to present its basic principles.

We had great difficulty in finding a textbook that is appropriate for thistype of course. Three types of books exist. First is the reader, which oftenincludes articles that are too advanced for the introductory student. A majorproblem is the inconsistency of terminology and concepts as the studentmoves from article to article. The second is the general textbook on theanthropology of religion; but these appear to be written for upper-divisionstudents who have already been introduced to the field and often heavilyemphasize theory. Third, there are abundant books on the more familiarworld religions but few that discuss religions in small-scale societies, wheremuch of the anthropological studies have been conducted. Our goal in writingthis text has been to introduce the beginning student to the basic conceptsinvolved in the anthropological study of religion, including an introduction toethnographical information from a wide range of societies and a basicintroduction to the field of anthropology.

One of the most difficult decisions we have had to make in writing this textis the organization and order of presentation of topics. The range of topics islarge, and they overlap in myriad ways—everyone has his or her ownapproach. We have attempted to present the material beginning with basicconcepts and proceeding to the more complex. For example, we begin with

myth, symbolism, and ritual before moving on to magic and witchcraft laterin the text.

We have attempted to include a number of ethnographic examples with agood geographical distribution. Societies discussed in the text are included inTable 1.1, “Culture areas of the world,” and the locations of many of these areshown on the maps at the front of the book. Of course, many topics areassociated with classic ethnographic studies, which have been included. Wehave also attempted to balance the presentation of a wide variety of cultureswith the inclusion of certain key societies that reappear as examples of severaltopics throughout the text, to give students some continuity and a deeperunderstanding of a small group of societies. These societies include theNavaho of North America, the Yanomamö of South America, the Azande andYoruba of Africa, the Murngin of Australia, and the Trobriand Islanders offthe coast of New Guinea.

The writing of a manuscript is a major and complex undertaking. It is athrill to see the book in print, but when reading it in book form and using it inclass, the authors often see things that could have been done a littledifferently, as well as having ideas for new avenues to explore. We havecontinued to make a number of changes in this fourth edition. Some of thesechanges are minor: a little reorganization, an expansion or contraction of aparticular topic, the introduction of a new example or elimination of an oldone, and a little rewording to make the point a little clearer. Other changes aremore substantial. For example, we have added a new Chapter 12 in which wediscuss fundamentalism, formerly in Chapter 11, and new material on religionand conflict, violence and peace. We have added small sections on apotropaicfeatures found in archaeological context, vampire beliefs in New English, biggods, and witchcraft in Soweto, South Africa. We have also added four newboxes on “The Power of Storytelling,” “Spiritualism and Séances,”“Nationalism as Religion,” and “The Veil in Islam.”

To assist the student in learning the material, we have divided each chapterinto several sections with different levels of headings. Terms that appear inthe Glossary have been set in bold. Each chapter concludes with a summary,study questions, suggested reading, and suggested websites. Additionalmaterials for students and instructors are available on the companion websitewww.routledge.com/cw/stein

Acknowledgements

We want to take this opportunity to thank the many faculty members whohave aided us in the writing of this text by reviewing the manuscript andoffering advice and suggestions.

Katherine Bradford, Los Angeles Mission CollegeNicola Denzey, Bowdoin CollegeCharles O. Ellenbaum, College of DuPageKaren Fjelstad, Cabrillo CollegeWendy Fonarow, Glendale CollegeArthur Gribben, Los Angeles Mission CollegeAmy Harper, Central Oregon Community CollegeBarbara Hornum, Drexel UniversityWilliam Jankowiak, University of Nevada, Las VegasTheresa Kintz, Wilkes UniversityDebra L. Klein, Gavilan CollegeChristopher Kovats-Bernat, Muhlenberg CollegeLilly M. Langer, Florida International UniversityPhillip Naftaly, Adirondack Community CollegeLesley Northup, Florida International UniversityRobin O’Brian, Elmira CollegeLisa Raskind, Los Angeles Valley CollegeCheryle Ross, Rio Hondo CollegeTerry N. Simmons, Paradise Valley Community College

As well as the many anonymous reviewers for both Prentice Hall andRoutledge.

We would like to thank everyone at Routledge for their assistance andsupport in the writing of this book. We also want to thank our students for

their assistance. After all, this book was written for them. The text wasoriginally based on our lecture notes for an anthropology of religion coursewhich developed over many years with student dialogue. The manuscript wasthen used as a textbook, which provided an opportunity for student feedback.

Finally, we wish to thank our respective spouses, Robert Frankle and CarolStein, for their patience and support, and assistance.

Map 1 Map showing location of societies discussed in text: Western Hemisphere

Map 2 Map showing location of societies discussed in text: Eastern Hemisphere

Chapter 1The anthropological study of religion

Human beings pose questions about nearly everything in the world, includingthemselves. The most fundamental of these questions are answered by apeople’s religious beliefs and practices, which are the subject of this book. Wewill examine the religious lives of a broad range of human communities froman anthropological perspective.

The term anthropological perspective means many things. It is a theoreticalorientation that will be discussed later in the chapter. It is also an approachthat compares human societies throughout the world—contemporary andhistorical, industrial and tribal. Many college courses and textbooks focus onthe best-known religions, those that are practiced by millions upon millions ofpeople and are often referred to as the “world’s great religions”—Judaism,Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, among others. This book willexpand the subject matter to include and focus on lesser-known religioussystems, especially those that are found in small-scale, traditionalcommunities. As we do this, we want to look for commonalities as well as tocelebrate diversity.

This book will not simply describe a series of religious systems. We willapproach the study of religion by looking at particular topics that are usuallyincluded in the anthropological definition of religion and providing examplesto illustrate these topics from the anthropological literature. We obviously areunable to present the thousands of religious systems that exist or have existedin the world, but we can provide a sample.

The anthropological perspective

The subject of this book is religion as seen from an anthropologicalperspective. What does this mean? The term anthropology refers to the studyof humanity. However, anthropology shares this subject matter with manyother disciplines—sociology, psychology, history, and political science, toname a few. So how is anthropology different from these other disciplines?

One way in which anthropology differs from other subjects is thatanthropology is an integrated study of humanity. Anthropologists studyhuman societies as systematic sums of their parts, as integrated wholes. Wecall this approach holism. For example, many disciplines study marriage. Theanthropologist believes that a true understanding of marriage requires anunderstanding of all aspects of the society. Marriage is profoundly influencedby politics and law, economics, ethics, and theology; in turn, marriageinfluences history, literature, art, and music. The same is true of religiouspractices and beliefs.

The holistic nature of anthropology is seen in the various divisions of thefield. Traditional anthropologists speak of four-fields anthropology. These fourfields are physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, andcultural anthropology. Today, with the rapid increase and complexity ofanthropological studies, anthropologists are becoming more and morespecialized and focused on particular topics. The often-simplistic concept ofanthropology as being composed of the integrated study of these four fields israpidly breaking down, but a review of these four fields will acquaint thosewho are studying anthropology for the first time with the essential nature ofthe discipline.

Physical anthropology is the study of human biology and evolution.Physical anthropologists are interested in genetics and genomics; evolutionarytheory; the biology and behavior of the primates, the group of animals thatincludes monkeys, apes, and humans; and paleontology, the study of the fossilrecord. Anthropologists with a biological orientation discuss the evolutionaryorigins and the neurobiology of religious experience.

Archaeology is the study of people who are known only from theirphysical and cultural remains; it gives us insight into the lives of now extinctsocieties. Evidence of religious expression can be seen in the ruins of ancient

temples and in the art and writings of people who lived in societies that havefaded into history.

The field of linguistic anthropology is devoted to the study of language,which, according to many anthropologists, is a unique feature of humans.Much of religious practice is linguistic in nature, involving the recitation ofwords, and the religious beliefs of a people are expressed in their myths andliterature.

Cultural anthropology is the study of contemporary human societies andmakes up the largest area of anthropological study. Cultural anthropologistsstudy a people’s social organization, economics and technology, politicalorganization, marriage and family life, child-rearing practices, and so forth.The study of religion is a subject within the general field of culturalanthropology. However, we will be drawing on all four subfields in ourexamination of religion.

The holistic approach

Studying a society holistically is a very daunting task. It requires a great dealof time—time to observe human behavior and time to interview members of asociety. Because of the necessity of having to limit the scope of a researchproject, anthropologists are noted for their long-term studies of small, remotecommunities. However, as isolated small communities become increasinglyincorporated into larger political units, anthropologists are turning more andmore to the study of larger, more complex societies. Yet even within a morecomplex society, anthropologists maintain a limited focus. For example,within an urban setting, anthropologists study specific companies, hospitals,neighborhoods, gangs, clubs, and churches. Anthropological studies take placeover long periods of time and usually require the anthropologist to live withinthe community and to participate to a degree in the lives of the people understudy, while at the same time making objective observations. This techniqueof study is referred to as participant observation.

Students of anthropology are initially introduced to small communitiessuch as foraging bands, small horticultural villages, and groups of pastoralnomads. They become familiar with the lives of the Trobriand Islanders off

the coast of New Guinea, the Navaho of the American Southwest, theYanomamö of northern South America, the Murngin of northern Australia,and the San of southern Africa. Some people refer to these societies as being“primitive,” but primitive is a pejorative term, one laden with negativeconnotations such as inferior and “less than.” A better term is small-scale.When we say small-scale, we refer to relatively small communities, villages,and bands that practice foraging, herding, or technologically simplehorticulture.

We will also be examining aspects of what are often referred to as the“world’s great religions.” Like the term primitive, the term great involves avalue judgment. These familiar religions include Judaism, Christianity, Islam,and Buddhism. They are similar in that the origins of these religions are basedon the lives of a particular individual or founder, such as Moses, Christ,Mohammad, and the Buddha. These religions have spread into thousands ofdifferent societies, and their adherents number in the millions. The small-scalesocieties that are more traditionally studied by anthropologists, by contrast,are usually not based on the lives of particular prophets or founders. Theytend to be limited to one or a few societies, and their adherents might numberonly a few hundred or a few thousand.

If they involve only a very small number of people, then why study thesesmall-scale religions? Among the many questions that anthropologists askabout humanity are the following: Are there characteristics that are found inall human societies, what we might call human universals? And when welook at universals, or at least at very widespread features, what are the rangesof variation? Returning to the example of marriage, we could ask thefollowing questions: Is marriage found in all human societies? And what arethe various forms that marriage takes? We might ask similar questions aboutreligion. To answer these questions, anthropologists go out into the field,study particular communities, and write reports describing thesecommunities. Questions of universality and variability can be answered onthe basis of descriptions of hundreds of human societies.

In addition, the goal of anthropology is to study the broad range of humanbeliefs and behaviors, to discover what it means to be human. This is bestaccomplished by examining religious and other cultural phenomena in a widevariety of cultures of different sizes and structures, including our own. It isoften said that the aim of anthropology is to make the strange familiar and the

familiar strange. Only through cross-cultural comparisons is this possible.

The study of human societies

Ethnography is the descriptive study of human societies. People who studyhuman societies and write ethnographies about them are culturalanthropologists; they are sometimes referred to as ethnographers.

However, not all descriptions of human societies are written byethnographers. For example, an archaeologist is someone who studies thephysical and cultural remains of societies that existed in the past and areknown today only from their ruins, burials, and garbage. Yet archaeologistscan, to a limited degree, reconstruct the lives of people who lived in ancientsocieties. Sometimes the only descriptions we have of people’s lives are thosewritten in diaries and reports by explorers and colonial administrators.Although these descriptions are far from complete and objective, they doprovide us with some information.

Although we will visit a few societies that are known solely from theirarchaeological remains, most of the examples in this book are from societiesthat exist today or have existed in the recent past. Many of the societies wewill discuss were first visited and described by anthropologists in the early tomid-1900s. Although these societies have changed over time, as all groups do,and although many of these societies have passed out of existence,anthropologists speak of them in the ethnographic present; that is, wediscuss these groups in the present tense as they were first described byethnographers.

Throughout this book we will be presenting examples from theethnographic literature. These communities are found throughout the world,including some very remote areas. To better understand their nature anddistribution, we can organize these societies into culture areas. A culture areais a geographical area in which societies tend to share many cultural traits.This happens because these groups face similar challenges from theenvironment and often come up with similar solutions and because culturaltraits that develop in one group easily spread to other nearby groups.

Each human society—and even subgroups within the society—exhibits

unique characteristics. The common traits that define a culture area tend to liein the realm of subsistence activities and technology, a common response tothe challenges from the environment, although some similarity in other facetsof the society, including religion, may also be found. For example, theCalifornia culture area, whose boundaries are somewhat different from thepresent-day political unit, includes a group of communities that exploitacorns. Acorns require processing that involves many steps and muchequipment, but they provide a food resource that is plentiful and nutritiousand that can be stored. These features permit the development of permanentand semipermanent communities, unlike those developed by mostforagers.1Table 1.1 lists the major culture areas of the world along with thenames of representative groups. All of the groups used as examples in thisbook are included. Many are located on the maps at the front of this book.

Table 1.1 Culture areas of the world

Culture areaSocieties discussed

in textFeatures

North America

Arctic Coast Inuit, Yup’ik

Hunting of sea mammals and caribou,fishing; shelters made of snow blocks,

semisubterranean sod houses, summer tentsmade of skins; dog-drawn sledges, tailoredskin clothing; settlement in small family

groups.

NorthernSubarctic

Chipewyan,Winnebago

Hunting caribou, fishing; conical skin tents,bark or skin canoes, snowshoes, toboggans;

highly nomadic bands with chiefs.

Great Basin-Plateau

Paiute, ShoshoniAcorn collecting, fishing, hunting of smallgame; small brush windbreaks, elaborate

basketry; band organization.

CaliforniaCahuilla,

Acorn collecting, fishing, hunting of smallgame; simple brush dwellings,

semisubterranean lodges; basketry;

Chumash, Pomo multiplicity of small contrasting tribes,semipermanent villages.

NorthwestCoast

Haida,Kwakwaka’wakw,

Tlingit

Salmon and deep-sea fishing, hunting andcollecting; large rectangular plank

dwellings with gabled roofs, large canoes,lack pottery, elaborate development of

decorative art; permanent villages, chiefs,elaborate system of rank.

Plains

Arapaho,Blackfeet,

Cheyenne, Crow,Kiowa, Lakota,

Ojibwa

Hunting of bison, some horticulture; tipidwellings; transport by dog, later horse;absence of basketry and pottery, hide

utensils; large bands, competitive militaryand social societies, warfare important.

EasternWoodland

Iroquois, SenecaHorticulture, hunting; multiple-family

dwellings of bark (longhouses); matrilinealclans, village chiefs.

SoutheastCherokee,Natchez

Similar to Eastern Woodland withMesoamerican influence.

Southwest

Apache, Hopi,Navaho, AkimelO’odham, Tewa

Yaqui, Zuni

Intensive cultivation of beans, maize, andsquash; pueblos consisting of great

multifamily terraced apartments, single-family dwellings with more nomadic

groups; highly developed pottery and loomweaving; village as largest political unit.

MesoamericaAztec, Huichol,

Maya

Intensive agriculture; state societies withdeveloped technology including

monumental stone architecture, stonesculpture, system of writing, woventextiles, metallurgy; fully developed

dynastic empires, social classes.

South America

Marginal Siriono, Yahgan Hunting, fishing, and gathering; family asbasic social unit.

Tropical ForestJivaro, Mehinaku,

PirahãsYanomamö

Slash-and-burn horticulture; villages oftenconsist of one communal dwelling locatedon rivers; bark canoes and dugouts, clubsand shields, bows and arrows, blow guns,

bark cloth, hammock, tobacco; villagesettlements under chiefs, warfare strongly

developed with cannibalism present.

Circum-Caribbean

Arawak, Carib

Intensive farming, hunting and fishing; poleand thatch houses arranged in streets and

around plazas surrounded by palisade;hammocks, poisoned arrows, loom weaving

of domesticated cotton, highly developedceramics, gold and copper worked; largevillages, social classes, chiefs, extreme

development of warfare.

Andean Araucanian, Inca

Intensive irrigation agriculture; pavedroads, monumental architecture, highly

developed ceramics, weaving, andmetallurgy; large cities, divine ruler over

large empires.

Africa

Mediterranean BerbersAgriculture and sheep herding; marginalNear Eastern culture, towns and cities;

Islam.

Desert Tuareg

Livestock herding (horse and camel) andtent shelters; intensive fruit and cereal

cultivation, camels, sheep, goat herding,stone and plaster dwellings; Islam.

EgyptEgyptians,Nubians

Flood-irrigated agriculture (wheat andbarley); early civilization.

WesternSudan

Fulani, HausaAgriculture and cattle herding; urban

centers, dynastic rule and empires; Islamand animism.

Eastern Sudan Dinka, Nuer Cattle herders and scattered agriculturalists;Islam and animism.

East HornAbyssinians,

SomaliAgriculture and cattle herding; Coptic

Christianity.

East AfricanCattle

Bunyoro, Maasai,Swazi, Zulu

Cattle herding, dairying, hoe agriculture;iron work, age grades, warfare, ancestor

worship.

Madagascar TanalaMarginal Indonesian culture; wet rice

irrigation agriculture.

Khoisan Ju/’hoansi SanHunting and gathering; nomadic bands,

brush shelters.

Guinea CoastBeng, Bushongo,

Dogon, Fon,Kpelle, Yoruba

Hoe agriculture, root crops and maize; largedynastic kingdoms, city and towns, market

centers, judicial systems, craft guilds,artistic development.

CongoAzande, Kongo,

Mangbetu,Pygmies

Yam and banana cultivation; double-courtkingdoms, markets, native courts; iron and

brass work; Pygmies: hunting andgathering, trade with agriculturalists.

Eurasia

SouthwestAsia

BedouinCereal irrigation agriculture, plow, herding;

Islam.

Central AsianSteppe

MongolsHorse domesticated for transportation,

milk, hides; Islam.

SiberianTungus, Tuva,

Yakut

Fishing, hunting, reindeer domestication;conical skin dwellings; tailored skin

clothing.

East Asiancivilizations

Chinese, Japanese,Korean,

Okinawan

Intensive agriculture including wet rice andanimal husbandry; ancient civilizations;

urban centers and industrialization; severalreligious systems including Shinto and

Buddhism.

Wet and dry rice agriculture, water buffalo;

Southeast Asia Balinese, Hmong,Javanese

bamboo houses; Hinduism, Buddhism,Islam.

India Nayar, TodaPlow agriculture, wheat and barley; caste

system.

European Basques, VikingMixed agriculture and animal husbandry;urbanization and industrialization; mainly

Christian.

Oceania

Indonesia-Philippine

Berawan, Dyaks,Ifugao, Tana

Toraja

Irrigation and terracing, wet riceagriculture, water buffalo; large

multifamily dwellings on piles, betelchewing, elaborate textiles, blow guns;Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, animism.

AustraliaMurngin, Yir

Yoront

Hunting and gathering economy; simplewindbreaks, spears and spear-throwers,

bark containers; independent bands, highlyelaborate kin organization; totemism.

Melanesia

Asmat, Buka,Dani, Fore,

Gururumba,TrobriandIslanders

Yams and taro horticulture, fishing;elaborate ceremonial houses, high

development of wood carving, canoes,bows and arrows; isolated hamlets under

local chief, regional specialization ineconomic production, trading voyages;

chronic petty warfare.

Micronesia Palau, Truk

Yams and taro horticulture, fishing,collection of breadfruit and coconut; expert

navigation in sailing canoes; intertribalwarfare.

PolynesiaMaori, Samoan,

Tikopia

Taro, yams, coconut, breadfruit cultivation,fishing; large thatched dwellings, tapa

cloth, kava, tattooing, sculpture in woodand stone, outrigger canoes with sails;

hereditary social classes and divine chiefs;

mana, tabu.

Table 1.2 Food-getting strategies

Foragers Pastoralists HorticulturalistsIntensive

agriculturalists

ExamplesSan,

Murngin,Shoshoni

Nuer, MaasaiGururumba,Yanomamö,

Azande

Aztec, Korean,Amish

Food getting

Foodcollectors:gathering,hunting,fishing

Animalhusbandry

Farming withsimple hand

tools

Farming withadvanced

technology (e.g.,irrigation,

fertilization,plows)

Communityvariables

Lowpopulation

density,small

communitysize

Lowpopulation

density, smallto mediumcommunity

size

Moderatepopulation

density, mediumcommunity size

High populationdensity, large

community size

Settlementpatterns

Nomadic orseminomadic

Nomadic orsemi-nomadic

Basicallysedentary, may

move afterseveral years

Permanentsettlements

Specialization

No full-timespecialists,some part-

time

Few full-timespecialists,

some part-time

Few full-timespecialists, some

part-time

Many full-timespecialists

Socialstratification

Generallynone

Some Some Significant

Besides geographical distribution, there are other ways in which

anthropologists organize societies. One commonly used scheme is to organizesocieties in terms of their subsistence strategy, focusing on how they make aliving (Table 1.2). Commonly used categories are foragers, horticulturalists,pastoralists, and agriculturalists. Of course, these are not precisely delineatedcategories but divisions of a continuum. Foragers are peoples without anyform of plant or animal domestication. They tend to live in small, isolatedgroups that are found today primarily in areas that are difficult to farm.Horticulturalists are peoples who garden in the absence of fertilization,irrigation, and other advanced technologies. Pastoralists are peoples whoseprimary livelihood comes from the herding of domesticated animals. Peopleswho plow, fertilize, and irrigate their crops are termed agriculturalists. Thelatter develop relatively large communities with more complex technologies.Societies that have the same subsistence strategy generally have other featuresin common, such as settlement patterns, population density, and the presenceof specialists.

The Fore of New Guinea: an ethnographic example

In the preceding sections of this chapter we learned about some basic conceptsof anthropology, such as holism, and we were introduced to the concept ofethnography. Now let us turn our attention to a particular example toillustrate these ideas.

The holistic approach sees human behavior as a complex set of interactingbehaviors and ideas. In examining a society, we might begin with a particularproblem that interests us, but we soon realize that to truly understand thisproblem, we have to look at many other aspects of the society.

An example of this was a study of the Fore, a group of about 14,000horticulturalists living in the eastern highlands of New Guinea (Melanesiaculture area). The problem that brought the Fore to the attention of theWestern world was a medical one. The solution to the problem brought theNobel Prize in Medicine to one of the investigators.

When the Australian government first contacted the Fore in the 1950s, asignificant number of individuals were found to be suffering from a particularillness. The illness was having a major impact on the population: about 200

people were dying of the illness each year, the victims being primarily womenand children.

This illness is characterized by a variety of symptoms, but the most obviousones are jerking movements and shaking, which make planned motor activitydifficult. The course of the illness is about nine months. At the end the victimcan no longer stand or sit up and can no longer eat or drink water and soondies. The Fore call this illness kuru, which means “to tremble with fear” in theFore language.

The medical team that was sent in to deal with the disease sought the cause.Because it appeared to be largely confined to the Fore, the team thought itmight be genetic or due to a toxin in the environment. However, kuru wasfinally determined to be the result of an infectious agent called a prion. Themajor question was how the kuru prion was passed from one person toanother. Was it passed on through contaminated water, through the air, orthrough sexual activity? The answer to the puzzle was proposed byanthropologists: cannibalism.

It was the custom of the Fore to eat the body as part of the funeral rituals—one aspect of their religious practices. The body of the deceased was carrieddown to an abandoned field, where kin dismembered and cooked it. Closerelatives then consumed the pieces. Because cooking does not destroy theprions, some of them entered the bloodstream through cuts and open soresand eventually entered the brain, where, many years later, the person beganto show symptoms of the disease. Because women and children, who havelower social status, were more likely to eat the brain, they were the mostlikely to develop the disease.

The modern medical community now had an explanation for what causedthe disease and knew how it was transmitted from one individual to another.The government had a “cure” to the epidemic: eliminate the practice ofcannibalism. As a result, cannibalism stopped, and kuru eventuallydisappeared, although this took some time because the disease has a longincubation period. However, the Fore themselves did not understand thisexplanation and stopped eating the bodies of their dead only because not to doso would mean spending time in jail. The Fore did not accept the scientificexplanation of the disease. Think about how difficult it would be for thedoctors to convince the Fore that kuru was caused by tiny prions that no onecould see. One might as well be talking about tiny evil spirits that also cannot

be seen.The Fore knew the cause of kuru, at least in their world. It was the result of

sorcery. Sorcery is the evil form of magic, which we will discuss in Chapter 7.The sorcerer, the person who practices sorcery, would steal something thatwas once a part of or in contact with the victim, such as a piece of clothing ora lock of hair. The material was then made into a bundle along with someleaves, bark, and stones and was bound up into a package. After reciting aspell, the sorcerer would place the bundle into muddy ground, and as thebundle rotted, the victim would develop the symptoms of the disease. Thisbelief influenced everyday behavior, as individuals were careful to hide thingsthat could be retrieved and used by a sorcerer.

In spite of this caution, people still developed kuru. In this case, adivination ritual was used to reveal the identity of the sorcerer causing theillness. As we will see in Chapter 7, many people use such techniques to revealthings that are difficult or impossible to discover by other means. Once thesorcerer was identified, the Fore had many options to counter the activity ofthe evildoer. A person with kuru might also have consulted a healer.

The fact that kuru struck primarily women had significant socialconsequences. Many men lost wives through kuru, and the shortage ofwomen meant that many men were unable to find wives. In addition, menwith children who had lost their wives had to perform many domestic choresnormally reserved for women, including farming.

Figure 1.1 Holism. A complete understanding of the disease kuru among the Fore of NewGuinea requires an understanding of the relationship of kuru to other aspects of Foreculture, some of which are shown in this diagram.

The ethnography of the Fore and the description of kuru illustrate theconcept of holism (Figure 1.1). From the Western point of view, we begin witha medical problem: a disease. Then we see how this fatal disease affectsvarious aspects of the society because of the death of women of childbearingage. This includes marriage, the family, the raising of children, farming, andso forth. Also, we see how the society attempts to explain and deal with thedisease through religion. A description of kuru among the Fore as only amedical problem fails to provide us with a complete understanding of thatdisease.

Two ways of viewing culture

We can ask the question: What causes kuru among the Fore? From ourviewpoint a complete answer to that question includes both biological factors(the disease-causing organism) and cultural factors (the practice ofcannibalism). However, the Fore themselves would give another answer tothis question: Kuru is caused by sorcery. Another aspect to the holisticapproach is to consider both insider and outsider perspectives.

An anthropologist—or any scholar, for that matter—cannot be completelyneutral and objective when describing a culture. Observation, recording, andanalysis involve processing data in one’s mind. One’s own culturalbackground, education, training, and other factors will act as a filter or lensthat colors what are thought of as objective observations. Physicians, using amedical model, searched for the cause of kuru through techniques learned inmedical school that are based on a set of postulates developed through thescientific method. Although the physicians were able to discover thebiological cause of kuru, the disease-causing protein, they were unable todiscover the mode of transmission. Medical science identifies a series oftransmission pathways, and none of them offered a valid explanation. It tookanthropologists, viewing the situation from a holistic, anthropologicalviewpoint, to make the connection between kuru and cannibalism, althoughthis had to be confirmed through a set of procedures mandated by thescientific method.

The physician and the anthropologist are outsiders looking in. They seeFore culture in terms of Western philosophy and theory. They speak of theFore using words that categorize experience in a particular way. This isreferred to as an etic perspective. There are advantages to an etic perspective.Just as a friend or therapist might see patterns to a person’s life that theperson might overlook, an outside analyst might see patterns of behaviors orbeliefs in a culture that the members of that group might be unaware of.Another advantage is that the anthropologist can apply a consistent form ofanalysis to many different societies that are being studied. This permitsanthropologists to make comparisons between societies and perhaps todiscover some universal principles about human behavior.

Yet the Fore see their world from an altogether different perspective, using

linguistic categories and basic assumptions about their world that differprofoundly from ours. To the Fore, sorcery is the ultimate cause of kuru, andthis makes sense in their culture. An emic perspective is one that attempts tosee the world through the eyes of the people being studied. Of course, the bigquestion is, how successful can we really be at this?

Cultural relativism

How do you feel about the Fore practice of cannibalism? In the course oflooking at different societies, anthropologists often observe behaviors thatseem strange and sometimes disturbing. We have grown up in a particularsociety, and the behaviors and ideas of our own society seem to us to benatural and correct. It is also natural to use our own society as the basis forinterpreting and judging other societies. This tendency is calledethnocentrism.

Anthropologists realize, however, that a true understanding of otherpeoples cannot develop through ethnocentric interpretations. Thinking ofother people as primitive, superstitious, and immoral only colors ourobservations and prevents us from reaching any kind of true understandingabout human behavior and thought. Anthropologists attempt to remainneutral and to accept the ways of life of other communities as appropriate forthose who live in these communities. Anthropologists attempt to describe andunderstand people’s customs and ideas but do not judge them. This approachis known as cultural relativism. The goal is to study what people believe, notwhether or not what they believe is true.

For example, funeral rituals differ from other rituals in one major respect:there is a dead body. All societies have ways of disposing of the corpse in oneway or another. Burial is quite common, but there are a number of variablessuch as where the grave is located, what the body is buried in, what objectsare buried with the body, and so on. Bodies can also be placed in trees todecay, and later the bones may be cleaned and buried. Bodies can becremated, and the remains kept in a container, buried, or scattered at sea.Among the Yanomamö of Venezuela and Brazil, the cremated remains areground into a powder. At various times after a person’s death, the family

gathers together and prepares a banana stew into which some of the crematedashes are mixed. Then they drink the mixture. And, of course, as we saw withthe Fore, there is the custom of eating the body.

The practice of drinking cremated remains or eating human flesh wouldprobably horrify most North Americans, and its practice in U.S. society wouldprobably lead to some type of reaction on the part of the society—most likelypsychiatric confinement. On the other hand, the Yanomamö are horrified bythe U.S. practice of burial because it leads to the decay of the body in theground. They believe that the finest expression of love is for close relatives toprovide a final resting place for their loved ones within their own bodies. Isthis practice wrong, immoral, or dangerous? The answer to this question, ofcourse, lies within the cultural practices of the group and how that groupdefines correct and appropriate behaviors.

Postmodernism

We may wonder if it is at all possible for someone from one society to trulyget to know and understand people living in another society. Beginning withthe Renaissance, scholars based their knowledge on the ideals of rationality,objectivity, and reason. Science was seen as the means for the discovery ofknowledge, truth, and progress. This way of approaching an understanding ofthe world is termed modernity. It was thought that through modernity ordercould be created out of chaos. Based on the principles of modernity, scholarsbelieved that it was possible to gain a true understanding of all peoples and allsocieties.

Beginning in the 1980s, the postmodern movement had a broad academicimpact across many disciplines. In stark contrast to the ideas of modernity,postmodernism denies the possibility of acquiring, or even the existence of“true” knowledge about the world. All knowledge is seen as being a human“construction” that we must try to “deconstruct.” The postmodern movementemphasizes the limitations of science, that the whole is more than the sum ofthe parts, that there are multiple viewpoints and truths, and the importance ofbeing aware of our own viewpoints and biases. In contrast to modernity’semphasis on order, postmodernism sees contradictions and instabilities as

being inherent in any social group or practice.The value of postmodernism for anthropology has been to reinforce the

idea of multiple ways of seeing the world—that there is no one right way tothink or to do things. This is an extension of the concept of cultural relativism.Postmodernism serves as a reminder of how the ethnographer herself caninfluence the fieldwork situation. As a result, ethnographers are more self-conscious and more aware of their own positions and biases (Box 1.1). Everyperson sees the world through the lens of his or her own culture. We cannotremove the lens, but we can become more aware of it.

Postmodernism, taken to its logical extreme, says that it is impossible for aperson from one culture to understand someone from another culture. Perhapsit is even impossible for any one person to truly understand any other person.Given all this, could anthropology as a discipline even exist? Mostanthropologists have taken a middle ground approach—appreciating thelessons of postmodernism while attempting to avoid this extreme point ofview.

Box 1.1 Karen McCarthy Brown and Vodou

Karen McCarthy Brown first met Mama Lola in 1978. On the basis of adozen years of research and writing, Brown would write the classicethnography Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn.2 This book wasat the forefront of many important trends in anthropology. It wascentered on the experiences of a single individual and was influenced byfeminist and postmodern ideologies. In the book, Brown speaks candidlyof her own experiences doing participant observation research and howshe became involved in the religion of Vodou to a degree that perhapseven goes beyond that standard—becoming a Vodou priestess herself.(The Vodou religion will be discussed in Chapter 11.)

The book focuses on the life and practices of Mama Lola, a Haitianimmigrant living in New York City. Among the themes of the book is thepersecution experienced by Haitians in the United States and thedifficulties they face in trying to practice their religion. Brown continuesto focus on religious practices that take place outside of standard

religious institutions. This kind of activity has become a major part ofreligious life in modern urban cultures. This is especially true in theUnited States, where religious pluralism is on the rise, partly owing torecent immigration patterns.

Universal human rights

Some anthropologists, however, question the approach of complete neutralityrepresented by cultural relativism and the approach of complete subjectivityof postmodernism and ask: Are there any basic human rights and universalstandards of behavior? This is an area of debate, one that often focuses on thereligious practices of other peoples that may include such customs as physicalalterations of the genitalia or cannibalism.

Cultural relativism is one of the basic concepts necessary to anthropology,and it should not be put aside lightly. Our first approach to any culturalpractice should be to try to understand it in context—to understand themeaning it has for people in that culture. After doing so, however, is itpossible to say, “I understand this practice and why this culture does it, but itis still wrong”? The difficulty in this is knowing where to draw the line, andstrict criteria must be used. One such set of criteria was proposed by RobertEdgerton:

I shall first define [maladaptation] as the failure of a population or its culture to survivebecause of the inadequacy or harmfulness of one or more of its beliefs or institutions.Second, maladaptation will be said to exist when enough members of a population aresufficiently dissatisfied with one or more of their social institutions or cultural beliefsthat the viability of their society is threatened. Finally, it will be considered to bemaladaptive when a population maintains beliefs or practices that so seriously impairthe physical or mental health of its members that they cannot adequately meet theirown needs or maintain their social and cultural system.3

It is important to note that the criteria are based on the survival of the societyand its ability to function—not on an outsider’s perception of morality.Edgerton includes as an example the high levels of stress and fear related towitchcraft beliefs in some cultures, a topic to which we will return in Chapter

10.The Aztec practice of cannibalism is another example. The prehistoric

Aztecs were an agricultural society located in the Mesoamerica culture area.In Aztec society a small elite used religious and military power to conquerneighboring groups. They took tribute in the form of gold and other valuablesfrom the people they conquered. Both slaves and captured prisoners of warwere sacrificed and eaten. The benefits of the conquest went almostexclusively to the elite. One analytical approach to the practice of cannibalismby the Aztecs argues that it was an adaptation to a protein-poor environment.A culturally relativistic approach would also point out that the sacrifices weredone to please the Aztec gods. Edgerton argues against both of theseinterpretations.

Edgerton points out that sacrifice and cannibalism were conducted withvery little ritual preparation—bodies were rolled down steeply sloped templesteps to be butchered below. The bodies were dealt with in much the sameway as a side of beef might be. Human flesh was considered a delicacy andgreatly desired, to such an extent that wars were fought with the primary goalof gaining human captives for sacrifice.

The negative impacts were not only on the neighboring groups. The Aztecelite did not share the wealth with the commoners. Even commoners whoserved in the army did not do so as equals. While the nobles wore helmets,armor, and shields, the commoners had none of this equipment. As Edgertonwrites, “The splendors of Aztec culture cannot be denied, but they wereachieved at great cost by the many largely for the benefit of the ruling few.”4

Despite this questioning, cultural relativism remains of utmost importanceto anthropologists. Our first approach should always be to try to understand aculture’s beliefs and behaviors in context, to learn what meaning the worldhas through their eyes.

The concept of culture

In the previous examples of the Aztec and the Fore, we observed a number ofspecific behaviors and beliefs. For example, an anthropologist living amongthe Fore for a period of time would, of course, record descriptions of Fore life

in much more detail and cover many other aspects of their lives—marriageand family, child rearing, hunting and farming, trade, technology, politicalorganization, folklore, and so on. It is obvious that the body of behaviors andbeliefs of the Fore are quite different from ours. These behaviors and beliefsmake up Fore culture.

In anthropology the term culture is used as a technical term. It does notrefer to the arts or the “finer things of life.” Although the term is widely usedand discussed, finding a definition that is acceptable to all anthropologists is adifficult task.

The British anthropologist Edward B. Tylor (1832–1917) first used the termculture in its anthropological sense. In 1871, Tylor wrote, “Culture … is thatcomplex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs,and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member ofsociety.”5 In this definition Tylor recognized that culture is a “complexwhole,” which is a reference to the holistic concept. And he noted that cultureincludes customs that people acquire by growing up in a particular society;that is, culture is learned.

When we look at a group of social insects, such as ants, we see a society inwhich individuals behave in certain stereotypic ways. When we look at agroup of humans, we also see certain behaviors that appear to be stereotyped,repetitive, or customary. Yet besides the much greater complexity of humanbehavior, there is a major difference between ant and human behavior. Antbehavior is innate; that is, it is coded in the genes—it is a part of the ant’sbiological heredity. Although some aspects of human behavior are likely to beinnate, the preponderance of human behavior is learned, handed down fromone generation to the next, and is shared by a group of people. Culture is seenin the way people dress, how they greet one another, how they go about theirchores, and how they worship their gods. For example, the actions that areperformed in a ritual are actions that are learned from someone else, perhapsa parent or a priest, and thus they are passed down from one generation to thenext.

One of the consequences of the social transmission of culture is that humanbehavior is complex and variable. Unlike biological inheritance, in whichchange occurs slowly through the mechanisms of biological evolution, learnedbehavioral patterns can change very rapidly in response to changing

conditions. Also, the human species, which is very homogenous biologically,exhibits a great many different cultures.

Another important feature of culture is that it is based on the use ofsymbols. Symbols are shared understandings about the meaning of certainwords, attributes, or objects, such as the color red symbolizing stop in trafficsignals. The connection between the two is arbitrary; there is no obvious,natural, or necessary connection. For example, in most Western societies blackis the color associated with mourning. However in other cultures, the colorassociated with mourning may be white, red, or even green.

Culture is learned primarily through symbols. Language can be thought ofas a string of symbols, and we learn, communicate, and even think throughthe use of these symbols. Symbols are obviously an important area ofdiscussion for the study of religion. The Christian cross, for example,symbolizes not just the religion itself, but a particular philosophy and history.Chapter 3 discusses the nature of symbols and their role in religious practice.

Viewing the world

The idea of culture involves much more than describing human activity.People also have different belief systems and different perceptions andunderstandings of their world and their lives.

Culture gives meaning to reality. We live in a real, physical world, yet thisworld is translated through the human mind onto a different plane. We lookout a window and see a mountain rising above us. To the geologist themountain is a structure made of rock formed through natural processes. Tothe hydrologist concerned with bringing water to a desert town, the mountainis the place where snowfields are found. To the biologist it is the home of agreat many plants and animals, many of them perhaps endangered.

To many people, however, a mountain is much more than a physical thing.The mountain might be the home of the gods or the place where the souls ofthe dead congregate after death. Mountains figure prominently in manyBiblical stories; for example, Mount Sinai was where Moses received the TenCommandments, and Mount Ararat was where Noah’s ark came to rest.Psalm 121 reads: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh

my help.”6 Other sacred mountains include Mount Olympus, where the godsof ancient Greece lived, and the four sacred mountains of the Navaho world.We may label these images as being part of the imagination of a people, yet tothe people the sacredness of a mountaintop may be as real as the presence ofrocks, snow, or plants.

The study of religion

The beginning point of any discourse is to define the object of study—in thisinstance, religion. Yet the task of defining this term is a challenging oneindeed. We must avoid using a definition that is too narrow or one that is toovague. Many definitions that have been proposed have been so narrow thatthey apply only to some cultures and only to some of the phenomena thatanthropologists traditionally place within the domain of religion. Suchdefinitions often are ethnocentric, including only those ideas that areconsidered “religious” for that culture. In such definitions many topics, suchas magic and witchcraft, are often excluded. On the other hand, a definitionthat is too inclusive and vague loses much of its meaning and usefulness.

In spite of the difficulties of defining religion, anthropology is a socialscience, and the methodology of science requires that we define our terms. Weneed to use an operant definition. This is one in which we define our termsso that they are observable and measurable and therefore can be studied. Sowhat would a good operant definition of religion be? We can start by lookingat the various ways in which scholars have attempted to define the term.

Attempts at defining religion

Many definitions of religion share many of the elements that we included inour definition of culture. Perhaps we can define a religion as a system ofbeliefs and behaviors, based on a system of symbols. But how can wedistinguish religious beliefs and behaviors from other aspects of culture? After

all, we can recognize, for example, particular beliefs, behaviors, and symbolsthat define political or economic processes.

Analytic definitions focus on the way religion manifests itself or isexpressed in a culture. An example would be defining religions by stating thatreligious practices generally include rituals.

Ninian Smart, for example, stated what he felt were the six dimensions ofreligion.7 These comprise the following:

the institutional dimension (organization and leadership);the narrative dimension (myths, creation stories, worldview);the ritual dimension (rites of passage and other important ritualactivities);the social dimension (religion being a group activity that binds peopletogether);the ethical dimension (customs, moral rules);the experiential dimension (religion involving experiences of a sacredreality that is beyond ordinary experience).

Functional definitions focus on what religion does either socially orpsychologically. For example, rituals would be seen as a means to bring agroup together and bring individuals comfort. Theorists who have used amore functional definition of religion include Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, andanthropologists Émile Durkheim and Clifford Geertz. Geertz wrote:

A religion is: (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, andlong-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a generalorder of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that(5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.8

One of the problems with functional definitions is that they could applyequally well to beliefs and behaviors that are not religious in nature. Othersfeel that functional approaches are reductionist, reducing religion to a fewfeelings and behaviors that are not, in and of themselves, religious. For boththese reasons, it can be difficult to separate religious and nonreligious systemsusing a functional definition. This does not mean that the social andpsychological functions are not important. They are, and functionalism as atheoretical approach to studying religion (discussed further below) has much

to offer. As a definition, however, it alone is not sufficient.An essentialist definition of religion looks at what is the essential nature

of religion. It emphasizes the fact that religion is the domain of theextraordinary—things beyond the commonplace and the natural. On the basisof this idea we would say that a religion is a system of beliefs and behaviorsthat deals with the relationship between humans and the sacred supernatural.

The term supernatural refers to things that are “above the natural.”Supernatural entities and actions transcend the normal world of cause andeffect as we know it. In the supernatural world, wondrous things occur.Supernatural beings defy the basic laws of nature. In the supernatural world,objects move faster than light, heavy objects fly, and creatures becomeinvisible.

However, not all supernatural phenomena are thought to be religious.Consider the folktale in which the handsome prince is turned into a frog. Thisis surely a supernatural occurrence—handsome princes do not turn into frogsin the natural world—but this occurrence is hardly a religious one. To addressthis problem, we add the term sacred to the definition of religion. Sacreddenotes an attitude wherein the subject is entitled to reverence and respect.

Many theorists have defined religion in terms of the supernatural as thecore religious beliefs of any religious system. In 1871, Edward Burnett Tylordefined religion as animism, a belief in spirit beings (gods, souls, ghosts,demons, etc.). Much later, Melford Spiro defined religion as an “institutionconsisting of culturally patterned interactions with culturally postulatedsuperhuman beings.”9

The problem with an essentialist definition is that such definitions oftenbecome too specific, focusing narrowly on spirit beings for example, or riskbeing too vague if they only reference the supernatural. As with otherdefinitions we have looked at, essentialist definitions by themselves may notbe enough but do point to areas of great importance in religion.

A true understanding of the breadth of religious practices among theworld’s societies will become clear as you progress through this text. Weencourage you to keep an open mind and settle on your own definition as yougain more knowledge and understanding. However, as was discussedpreviously, as an endeavor in the social sciences, this text needs an operantdefinition in order to proceed.

One would like to have a simple definition of the term religion. However,the search for a simple, yet useful definition remains elusive. Religion is aconcept constructed by the human mind that includes a particular set ofhuman beliefs and practices. As a cultural construct it is strongly influencedby culture and by philosophical and theoretical backgrounds. The practicesthat are included under the rubric of religion vary from scholar to scholar, anddefinitions that focus upon religious systems found in large, urban societiesdiffer considerably from those found in small-scale societies. Each definitionpreviously explored offers clues to important elements of religion, but each byitself is incomplete.

Perhaps it is best to think of religion as a set of cultural beliefs and practicesthat usually include some or all of a basic set of characteristics. While not anexhaustive list, it will provide us with an operant definition as we move aheadwith our studies of religious systems. These characteristics are as follows:

a belief in anthropomorphic supernatural beings, such as spirits andgods;a focus on the sacred supernatural, where sacred refers to a feeling ofreverence and awe;the presence of supernatural power or energy that is found insupernatural beings as well as physical beings and objects;the performance of ritual activities that involve the manipulation ofsacred objects to communicate with supernatural beings and/or toinfluence or control events;an articulation of a worldview and moral code through narratives andother means;provides for the creation and maintenance of social bonds andmechanisms of social control within a community;provides explanations for the unknown and a sense of control for theindividual.

The domain of religion

The discussion of definitions highlights the contrasting concepts of etic and

emic. The very concept of religion as a separate cultural category is a Westernone. Western cultures are divided into very distinct cultural domains, such aseconomics, politics, technology, and, of course, religion. As we move throughour day, we move from one domain to another, yet the domains do notoverlap, or they overlap to a small degree. For example, when we go to work,we might punch a clock or sign in, for “work” is a distinct segment of our life,which we can define in terms of location, activity, relationships to coworkers,and so forth. Religion as a domain may be restricted to very specific activitiesheld in special places during specific times—a Sunday morning church service,for example. When we use the term religion, we might immediately picturesuch things as special buildings dedicated to religious activities (churches,temples, and mosques) and full-time specialists who perform religious rituals(priests and rabbis).

Our analysis of religion becomes more difficult when we turn our attentionto more traditional societies. If we analyzed small-scale religious systems byapplying the definitions and concepts that have been developed in Westerncultures, we would likely find that certain elements that we consider to bevital parts of our religious systems simply do not exist—in our terms. For somepeople it follows from this that other religious systems are “defective,”“incomplete,” “primitive,” “false,” or “full of superstitions.” Clearly, this leadsus into highly ethnocentric conclusions that cloud our ability to understandthe religious systems of other peoples.

When we study traditional societies using an emic (insider) approach, theremight be no equivalent term to our concept of religion. Religion is notseparated out from other dimensions of life but is fully integrated into thefabric of beliefs and behavior. As Wilfred Cantwell Smith wrote, “To thebeliever, they are parts of the universe; to the observer, they are parts of areligion.”10

Theoretical approaches to the study of religion

Just as there are many definitions of religion, there are also many approachesto the study of religious phenomena. Here we will describe five approachesthat anthropologists have used to study religion: evolutionary, Marxist,

functional, interpretive, and psychosocial.

The evolutionary approach

The evolutionary approach was centered on the questions of when and howreligion began. This viewpoint developed in the late 1800s when the focus wason the concepts of science, logic, and monotheism as the pinnacles of humanachievement. Scholars of the time emphasized empiricism, or observing andmeasuring, saying that the only real knowledge is scientific knowledge; anyknowledge beyond that is impossible.

The latter half of the nineteenth century saw the rise of the concept of ageneral evolution of culture. It was thought that religion naturally evolvedfrom the simple to the complex and that this evolution was a naturalconsequence of human nature. An interest in the religion of “primitive”peoples arose from the supposition that “primitive” peoples represented anearly stage of cultural evolution and that one could learn about andunderstand the historical roots of the religion of “civilized” societies bystudying living “primitive” peoples.

Edward B. Tylor used this approach in his book Primitive Culture (1871).11

He concluded that all religions had a belief in spiritual beings. Whereas thereligions of “civilized” peoples included beliefs in gods and souls, those of“primitive” peoples focused on the belief in spirits and ghosts. He termed thisearly belief system animism.

Tylor thought that the belief in spirit beings was the natural and universalconclusion reached by all peoples through the observation of sleep anddreams, possession, and death, during which the soul is thought to leave thebody, temporarily or permanently. Because other animals are also living, theymust also have souls that leave the body when the animal dies. All livingthings are animated by souls, as are nonliving things such as waterfalls andmountains.

In attempting to find a common thread in all religious systems, Tylor failedto discover the great variability among the world’s religious systems. This wasin part because Tylor did not go into the field to become immersed in thecomplexity of a particular culture. Instead, he relied on reports of explorers,

missionaries, and colonial administrators who described, often in simplisticand biased ways, the peoples they encountered in their travels.

Robert R. Marett developed the concept of a simpler, more basic, and moreancient supernatural force that he labeled animatism.12 Marett thought thatthe idea of animatism simply grew out of human emotional reaction to thepower of nature. This belief in an impersonal supernatural power is wellarticulated in the religions of Polynesia and Melanesia, where it is referred toas mana. In Chapter 7 we will discuss the ideas of another scholar from theevolutionary school, James Frazer, who wrote extensively about magic, acategory that he considered to be separate from religion. Frazer saw a naturalprogression in cultures from magic to religion to science.13

The evolutionary approach has many critics. Many of the ideas found inthis school of thought are ethnocentric—for example, Tylor’s idea that thereligion of “primitive” peoples focused on spirits and ghosts while more“civilized” peoples focused on gods. In addition, any ideas about the origin ofa cultural practice are, of course, highly speculative. Although the idea ofcultural progression, with Western societies being more “evolved” thansmaller-scale traditional ones, is no longer used in anthropology, the generalquestion of the origins of religion has remained a concern.

However, many contemporary anthropologists use an evolutionaryapproach. After all, the history of human society has witnessed progressivechanges through time from foraging to horticultural to agricultural and,finally, industrial societies. Scholars look for correlations between thesechanges and various aspects of a society, including religious system. Forexample, foraging societies are often characterized by shamanic practices withpart-time religious practitioners while on the other hand, state societies arecharacterized by full-time religious specialists who may be members of ahighly organized priesthood.

The Marxist approach

Another influential theorist of the 1800s was Karl Marx. Like many of this era,Marx was critical of religion. However, Marx did not criticize the logic ofreligion as others had done. He felt that religion reflected society so that any

criticism of religion must therefore also be a criticism of society. Indeed theMarxist approach to religion cannot be understood without the framework ofhis approach to society. He saw religion as a human construction, morespecifically as a construction of those in power.

Marx felt that religion did not reflect the true consciousness of people but afalse consciousness designed to divert people’s attention from the miseries oftheir lives. This misery was seen as being the result of exploitation of themasses by those in power under the capitalist system. Of course, religionexisted before capitalism. Marx’s basic view is that religion is a naturalconsequence of the human experience of distress. In the past, this may havearisen as a result of the human struggle with nature. However, Marx’s focus ison the capitalist system in which this struggle has shifted to human conflictwith other humans. Religion is seen both as a means of compensation and as away of getting people to go along with a capitalist culture that is not in theirbest interests. For example, he felt that religion teaches people to be obedientto authority as a condition for achieving future happiness through salvation:

Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protestagainst real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of aheartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of thepeople. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required fortheir real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is thedemand to give up a condition which needs illusions.14

Critics of Marx point out that there usually is no single, dominant ideology ina society; instead, there are different ideologies that correspond to differentsubcultures and different classes.

The functional approach

In contrast to the evolutionary and Marxist schools, the functional approachasks the question: What does religion do? What role do religions play in asociety? For example, a religion might enforce social cohesion by bringingmembers together for rituals and providing a foundation for shared beliefs.Religions might also function on the individual level to relieve individualanxiety by providing explanations and meaning.

Émile Durkheim, for example, saw society as problematic.15 Althoughsanctions exist to keep people in line, Durkheim thought that these were notenough. He believed that the key lies in the collective conscious, a system ofbeliefs that act to contain natural selfishness of individuals and to promotesocial cooperation. Collective representations, or symbols, are a reflection ofthe collective conscious. During rituals, these collective representations aredisplayed, resulting in a reattachment to the value system of the group.

Both Durkheim and Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown saw society as being like anorganism in which the parts act to maintain the whole.16 Radcliffe-Brown alsothought that for society to survive, certain feelings need to be encouraged inpeople’s minds. He thought that anything of great social value is seen aspossessing supernatural power; the greater the value, the more powerful it is.Rituals, then, function to express the basic sentiments of a society and to passthese ideas down from generation to generation. Religion, in general, is seenas an integrative force in society.

Box 1.2 Malinowski and the Trobriand Islands

Bronislaw Malinowski was born into the nobility in Krakow, Poland, in1884. He studied mathematics and physical sciences and received hisPh.D. from the University of Krakow in 1908. However, illness preventedhim from continuing his research, and while recovering, he read TheGolden Bough by James Frazer, a classic anthropological work thatdescribes magical beliefs in cultures around the world. Malinowski laterwrote in 1926, “no sooner had I begun to read this great work than Ibecame immersed in it and enslaved by it.”17 Reading this book changedhis life. From then on, Malinowski devoted himself to the study ofanthropology, and he traveled to England to study at the London Schoolof Economics.

In 1914, Malinowski joined an expedition to the Pacific. He would notreturn to Europe until 1920 because, being a Polish subject, he wasconsidered to be an enemy alien by the British during World War I.However, during the war he was allowed to continue his research in thePacific and to spend the time between expeditions in Australia. Because

of these circumstances, Malinowski spent a greater amount of timeconducting field research than had ever been done before. This includeda total of twenty-six months spent in the Trobriand Islands, located offthe coast of New Guinea.

During his stay in the Trobriand Islands, Malinowski completed themost detailed anthropological study that had been done up to that time,and the Trobriand Islands remains one of the most fully described of anysmall-scale society. Unlike other anthropologists of his day, Malinowskiparticipated in the life of the society he was studying. He pitched his tentin the middle of the village and learned the language. Malinowski was apioneer of the participant observation method that became a hallmark ofthe field of anthropology.

Malinowski became a major figure in the development of Britishanthropology and influenced nearly everyone who trained in the fieldduring the 1920s and 1930s. Among his pioneering contributions was theconcept of functionalism. He thought that culture does something—thatsocial institutions exist to fulfill the needs of, and serve the interests of,members of a society.

Radcliffe-Brown’s approach to function was in terms of a part contributingto the maintenance of the whole society. Another important theorist in thefunctional school, Bronislaw Malinowski, had a different approach (Box 1.2).Malinowski looked at religion and other features of a society in terms of theirpurpose in meeting basic human needs. For example, in his analysis of magic,Malinowski stressed that magic is a logical system that people turn to in timesof uncertainty or emotional stress. Magic functions to provide control andcertainty in an otherwise uncertain world.

The functional approach is still used today and will be referred to in futurechapters. Researchers have recognized many phenomena that we will addressas contributing to the health and maintenance of the society or the individualsin that group. In general, religious phenomena function to provide answersand explanations and to provide a course of action.

The functional school is not without its critics. Some see functionalism ascommitting the error of reification (treating something abstract as if it wereconcrete and alive). Can we really talk about social institutions having needs

and purposes in the same way that humans do? Functionalism is also seen bysome as being tautological (a circular argument) because it argues that weknow that something must be functional because it exists; it exists because itis functional. Does every institution and cultural practice have a function?Historians of religion argue that analyzing religion in terms of functionalityimplies that religion is purely illusory, existing only to fulfill those functions.For instance, some functionalists see religion as just a crutch for the masses ora power play by the ruling class. Instead, historians of religion emphasize apowerful and lived experience of a sacred reality.

Others argue that while the functional approach is useful, more care needsto be taken in terms of which possible functions are logically valid. Forexample, Melford Spiro states that when arguing that a certain function is thecause of a religious behavior, it is necessary for individuals to both recognizeand seek to satisfy that functional requirement. He argues that an unintendedfunctional consequence (recognized only by outsiders) could not possibly beits cause.

The interpretive approach

Clifford Geertz was an American anthropologist who popularized themetaphor that culture is a text to be read and in which anthropologists canread meaning.18 Part of his inspiration for this interpretive approach was thework of the sociologist Max Weber and his concept of verstehen (i.e.,understanding the other’s point of view).19 This Weberian approach wasopposed to the more popular functionalist approach of the time. Geertzemphasized that the task of anthropologists was not to discover laws or studyorigins and causes but instead to make sense of cultural systems by studyingmeaning. Anthropologists need to seek to interpret the culturally specific“webs of significance” that people both create and are caught up in.Interpretive anthropology can discover and interpret these webs of meaningthrough detailed ethnographic descriptions.

Religion specifically is described as a cluster of symbols that together makeup a whole and provides a charter for a culture’s ideas, values, and way of life.The set of symbols provides ways to interpret the world. Geertz described

symbols as playing a double role. They are both “models of” and “models for”in that they both represent the way things are while also directing humanactivity. Geertz argued that religious symbols establish very powerful moodsand feelings and help explain human existence by giving it an ultimatemeaning. These symbols claim to connect humans to a reality that in someways is “more real” than everyday life, thus giving religion a special statusabove and beyond regular life.

Geertz felt that the study of religion needed to take place in two stages. Thefirst stage is an analysis of the systems of meaning that are embodied withinreligious symbols. The second stage involves relating these systems to socialstructures and psychological processes. Critics point out that in reality hedevoted much more time to the first stage than to the second.

The psychosocial approach

The psychosocial approach to the study of religion is concerned with therelationship between culture and personality and the connection between thesociety and the individual. One example is the work of Sigmund Freud.20

Freud’s model of the mind and his concept of defense mechanisms have beenused both by Freud himself and by his followers to explain religiousphenomena. For example, defense mechanisms are psychological maneuversby which we distort reality in ways that help us to avoid conflict and reduceanxiety. The most important of these for our discussion is projection, in whichthe subject is transposed and the emotion is projected. So “I hate X” becomes“You hate X.” Psychosocial anthropologists believe that individual emotionsalso get projected at the cultural level.

The best example of this is studies that look cross-culturally for correlationsbetween various beliefs and behaviors. One example of this approach uses thismethodology to hypothesize a connection between the characteristics ofparents and the characteristics of supernatural beings. Childhood experiencesare dominated by powerful figures—parents. Children build up parentalimages that stay with them throughout life. In adult life these parental imagesare projected onto spirit beings. For example, if parents are generallynurturing, the expectation is that the gods would be considered to be

nurturing as well. However, correlation does not equal causation, and this andseveral other issues challenge the correlational approach.

Box 1.3 Evans-Pritchard and the Azande

E. E. Evans-Pritchard was born in Sussex, England, in 1902. Afterreceiving his master’s degree in Anthropology from Oxford University,he went on to study at the University of London, where he became oneof Malinowski’s first students. He conducted several field expeditions toCentral, East, and North Africa from 1926 until the beginning of WorldWar II. During the war he left teaching and research to join the military.After the war he returned to academia and ultimately held the positionof chair of Social Anthropology at Oxford University.

Evans-Pritchard is best known for his work with the Azande ofsouthern Sudan, which was then the British colony of Anglo-EgyptianSudan. Between 1926 and 1930 he made three different visits and spent atotal of twenty months among the Azande. Following his work with theAzande, he went on to study the Nuer. He had found the Azande to befriendly, but his work with the Nuer was much more difficult. In theearly days of his research in particular, they were hostile anduncommunicative, and he was frequently ill.

The Azande are known today as the classic anthropological exampleof witchcraft in a small-scale society. Evans-Pritchard’s early articles onthe subject were greatly influenced by the functional perspective of histeacher, Malinowski. For example, Evans-Pritchard believed thatwitchcraft beliefs provided explanations for events and helped to upholdmoral standards (see Chapter 10). Ultimately, however, he was notsatisfied with this type of explanation alone. He emphasized theimportance of looking at beliefs and behaviors from an insiderperspective and wanted to show how even seemingly irrational beliefswere in fact logical and coherent from the emic perspective.

E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford,England: Clarendon, 1937).

The biological basis of religious behavior

What we perceive and think of as our reality is actually a creation of ourbrain. Our awareness of what is “out there” is based upon input from a seriesof receptors such as our eyes, nose, and tongue. The stimuli that are picked upby these receptors enter the brain, where they undergo processing before theyenter our consciousness. For example, the clear, detailed, three-dimensional,colored world revealed through sight is an illusion created by our brain from ahodgepodge of electrical impulses produced by the photoreceptors in theretina of our eyes. Color is a complete illusion of something that does not existin the real world, but is our brain’s way of representing differences in thewavelength of electromagnetic energy.

And not all of the information that enters our brain from the outside entersour consciousness. For example, there was a patient who was blind because ofa series of strokes that completely destroyed the visual cortex of his brain; hiseyes and optic nerves, however, remained healthy. Information entering thebrain from his eyes was used by his brain to permit him to walk down ahallway full of objects on the floor without stepping on them. His brain knewwhere the objects were even though his consciousness did not.21

This then brings up the question: Does our brain create realities that areindistinguishable from “reality,” whatever that means? An important part ofreligion is religious experiences, which range from feeling good tohallucinations and revelations. Could, for example, seeing a ghost, having anout-of-body experience, or being visited by an angel be examples of brain-created realities? The answer is yes.

Figure 1.2 shows a pair of brain scans that compare brains at rest withbrains of individuals in deep meditation. The bright areas are regions that areactive during particular mental activities. In the meditating brain, we see anincrease in activity in the frontal lobe, indicative of increased concentration,and a decrease in activity in the parietal lobe. This latter area is in the regionassociated with people’s orientation of their bodies in time and space.Changes in activity in this area may be related to the development of out-of-body experiences or to a sense of blurring of the boundaries between self andother. In another interesting area of research, it has been found that patientssuffering from temporal lobe epilepsy, when the functioning of the brain goes

haywire, report their seizures as intense religious experiences.

Figure 1.2 Brain scans. Single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT) images of thebrain of a Tibetan Buddhist showing baseline image at rest and in deep meditation. Topimages show increased activity in frontal lobe in area associated with focusing attention andconcentration. Bottom images show decreased activity in parietal lobe in area responsiblefor sense of orientation in space and time.

It is tempting to associate religious feelings and experiences with aparticular point within the structure of the brain—a God module perhaps.However, most neuro-scientists who are interested in these issues see religiousexperiences as more complex, involving changes in many different regions ofthe brain.

Considering biological influences is a part of anthropology’s holistic

approach. It is something we will consider as we discuss phenomena such asaltered states of consciousness and near-death experiences.

Beliefs in spirit beings

Another aspect of the biological basis for religion is the impact of the way thehuman mind works. An interesting application of this is a phenomenon thatappears to be common to all human religious systems, concepts ofsupernatural anthropomorphic causal agents within their environment. (Theterm anthropomorphic refers to things that are not human but havehumanlike characteristics and behave in humanlike ways.) This is the core ofthe concept of animism, the belief in spirit beings, which was introducedearlier in this chapter.

One explanation for the development of a belief in spirit beings is based onthe concept of theory of mind. Theory of mind refers to the idea that peopleknow, or think they know, what is going on in other people’s minds. Peoplerecognize and often identify with perceived feelings, desires, fears, and otheremotions in other human beings. The presence of a theory of mind is thoughtto be what makes us human, although evidence suggests that there may besome development of theory of mind in other animals, albeit on a very limitedscale. This is what allows people to explain other peoples’ behavior and topredict what others will do in a particular situation. Thus a theory of mind isessential for the development of complex social patterns.

Many scholars believe that the human brain actually extends the theory ofmind into the minds of animals and other living and nonliving entities. It isthis extension that leads to anthropomorphism and attribution of humanlikequalities to animals. The idea that nonhuman entities and forces possess“minds,” that they have intensions, emotions, and interact with the humanworld, is the basis for the development of a belief in spirit beings.

If anthropomorphic supernatural beings interact with the human world,then things do not happen simply because they follow the rules of nature. Thisexplains why things occur that lie outside rational analysis. And this alsoprovides the means, through ritual, to influence and perhaps to control nature.

The evolution of religion

With the emerging interest in biology and religion, new explanations for theorigin of religion have been proposed that look at the question from theperspective of biological evolution. If humans have a biological mechanism forreligion, why did it evolve?

Evolutionary explanations are actually not all that different from thefunctional, needs-fulfillment explanations we discussed earlier. Someevolutionary scientists have suggested that religion evolved as a way to fulfillsocial needs such as encouraging cooperation between individuals, reinforcingkinship ties, and imposing order and stability on society. Others have focusedon emotional needs and have argued that as humans became more intelligentand self-aware, anxiety would have been a natural response. Once we areaware that we exist, we become aware that we will die and therefore begin toworry about dying. The evolution of greater awareness and consciousnesswould create a dysfunctional, anxiety-ridden species if religion had notevolved as an adaptation to cope with this by providing explanations of andmeanings for both life and death.

Other theorists have focused on the nature of human cognition as anexplanation for the origin of religious beliefs and experiences. (Cognition is ageneral term for processes of the human brain that include perception,learning, memory, concept formation, and problem solving.) Religion is seennot as existing to serve a purpose but rather as an accidental by-product of theway the human brain works.

The human brain appears to have two different and innate ways ofinterpreting the world. One has to do with physical things like rocks, the otherwith psychological things, such as people. We interpret a rock movingthrough space and a person moving through space very differently. To aperson we attribute such things as intentions, beliefs, goals, and morality orlack thereof. These two systems seem to be biological adaptations that help usto deal with objects and with people. However, these systems go awry in waysthat provide the foundation for religion.

For example, we are dualists; we see mind and body as two separate anddistinct entities. Despite what psychologists know about how the brain works,we intuitively feel that we merely occupy our bodies, not that we actually are

our bodies. This provides the foundation for a belief in both bodies withoutsouls and souls without bodies. A dead body is seen as lacking its soul. Thesoul without the body is often believed to survive and have another, separateexistence after death. A further extension of souls without bodies would alsoinclude other supernatural beings, such as gods.

The second way in which cognition feeds into the evolution of religion isthe human tendency to overextend our system of social understanding andinfer purpose, goals, intention, and design even where there is none. Weattribute human characteristics to an amazing range of inanimate objects as,for example, the computer that seems to purposely break down at the mostcrucial moment. Humans seek and find patterns in random arrays—whatlooks like a face in a stucco ceiling or the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheesesandwich.

Pascal Boyer has pointed out that although religious concepts do violatesome expectations about the world, they do preserve other expectations. Hefocuses in particular on the social nature of human beings and the inferencesthat the human brain draws that regulate social interaction. For example,Boyer points out that gods and other supernatural agents are seen as beingvery human-like in cultures around the world. Yet there are obviously crucialdifferences. Boyer points out that gods differ from human in that they haveaccess to all the possible information that is relevant to the issue at hand in asocial interaction.

However, gods are rarely omniscient cross-culturally. For example, the ideathat “God knows you are lying” seems more natural than “God knows thecontent of every refrigerator in the world”—unless in your refrigerator issomething that you stole. The main point of Boyer’s discussion is thatsupernatural concepts are just extensions of everyday cognitive categories andthe way that the human brain processes information. As he writes, “People donot invent gods and spirits; they receive information that leads them to buildsuch concepts.”22

Conclusion

As we have seen in our discussion of the definition of religion and differentapproaches to the study of religion, ethnocentrism can be and has been amajor impediment to developing a true understanding of religious beliefs andpractices in other societies. The goal of anthropology is to move pastethnocentrism toward an approach of cultural relativism. This is especiallytrue in the study of religion. The anthropological approach—and the centralway of looking at the religious world in this book—is to study what peoplebelieve and do in regard to a sacred supernatural, not to judge whether thesebeliefs and actions are based in an objective truth or not. The anthropologicalstudy of religion calls for a methodological agnosticism.

Although agnosticism has taken on the connotation of not having made upone’s mind, the original meaning of the word is different. Agnostics say thatthe nature of the supernatural is unknowable, that it is as impossible to provethe nonexistence of the supernatural as it is to prove its existence. In this bookwe will be seeking neither to prove nor to disprove but merely to observe. Inthe words of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, writing in the seventeenthcentury, “I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not toscorn human actions, but to understand them.”

Summary

Anthropology is the study of humanity. Anthropologists study humansocieties as integrated wholes, an approach that is termed holism. Thisapproach is seen in the broad scope of anthropology, which is often dividedinto the fields of physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and culturalanthropology. This approach requires that societies be studied over longperiods of time, during which the investigator lives within the community andparticipates in the lives of the people under study, a technique known asparticipant observation. The final product is an ethnography, a descriptivestudy of a human society.

An outside observer of a community usually imposes his or her system ofanalysis on the group under study (etic perspective). It is natural to use one’sown society as the basis for interpreting and judging other societies, a

tendency called ethnocentrism. Many anthropologists attempt to see the worldthrough the eyes of the people being studied (emic perspective) and describeand understand people’s customs and ideas but do not judge them, anapproach called cultural relativism. The goal is to study what people believe,not whether or not what they believe is true.

A central concept in anthropology is culture. In 1871, Tylor wrote, “Culture… is that complex whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a memberof society.” Culture includes all aspects of the human experience that arepassed down from generation to generation. Culture gives meaning to reality;we live in a real, physical world, but our minds interpret this world through acultural lens and even create new realities.

Religion is a difficult concept to define when we try to include all humansocieties. An analytic definition focuses on the way in which religionmanifests itself or is expressed in a culture. A functional definition isconcerned with the role that religion plays in a society. Finally, an essentialistdefinition looks at what the essential nature of religion is and emphasizes thefact that religion is the domain of the extraordinary. Our definition looks atreligion as a set of cultural beliefs and practices that usually include a basic setof characteristics and draws on elements of all three of these approaches.

There have been many theoretical approaches to the study of religion. Theevolutionary approach, developed in the late 1800s, focused on the questionsof when and how religions began and how they evolved from the simple tothe complex. This evolution was seen as a natural consequence of humannature, and the religions of “primitive” peoples were remnants of an earlier,simpler evolutionary stage. Early religions included animism, the belief inspirits and ghosts, and animatism, the belief in a generalized supernaturalforce.

The Marxist approach is based on the writings of Karl Marx, who sawreligion as being a construction of those in power, designed to divert people’sattention from the miseries of their lives. This misery was seen as being theresult of exploitation of the masses by those in power under the capitalistsystem. He saw religion both as a means of compensation and as a way ofgetting people to go along with a capitalist culture that is not in their bestinterests.

The functional approach asks the question: What does religion do? For

example, Malinowski concluded that magic functions to provide control andcertainty in an otherwise uncertain situation. The interpretive approach isassociated with Clifford Geertz who believed that the task of anthropologistswas to make sense of cultural systems by studying meaning. He describedreligion as a cluster of symbols that provides a charter for a culture’s ideas,values, and way of life. Religious symbols help explain human existence bygiving it an ultimate meaning. The psychosocial approach is concerned withthe relationship between culture and personality and the connection betweenthe society and the individual.

Many theorists have suggested that religion is a by-product of thefunctioning and evolution of the human brain. The brain is capable of creatingnew realities. The theory of mind is the idea that one knows what is going onin another person’s mind. This leads to the attribution of humanlike qualitiesto nonhuman entities and forces, the basis for the development of a belief inspirit beings. Thus we infer purpose, goals, intention, and design throughoutthe universe.

Study questions

1. How does one go about conducting a holistic study of a society? Howwould this be different from a study on a specific topic?

2. We can examine human societies from an etic or an emic perspective.Do you think it is possible to really understand a society other thanyour own from an emic perspective?

3. How would you balance cultural relativism and universal humanrights? Do you think that you could remain neutral in your judgmentof all of the behaviors you might see in a small-scale society?

4. What is the basic difference between a society and a culture? Canthese two terms be used interchangeably?

5. Think back to a ritual that you have attended—a wedding ceremony,for example. Write three brief descriptions from each of the followingviewpoints: analytic, functional, and essentialist.

6. One of the major debates in studies of human behavior is that

between nature (biology) and nurture (culture). Do you think thatthere is any biological basis for the development of religion in humansocieties? Do you think that someday someone might discover asociety that has no religious practices?

7. Some scholars have argued that religion is not definable in any realsense. Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: “We sometimes demanddefinitions for the sake not of their content, but of their form. Ourrequirement is an architectural one; the definition a kind ofornamental coping that supports nothing.”23 Discuss.

Suggested readings

Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of ReligiousThought (New York: Basic Books, 2007).

[A cognitive anthropologist explains religion in terms of everyday thoughtprocesses.]

David J. Linden, The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given UsLove, Memory, Dreams, and God (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2008).

[A neuroscientist discusses the functioning of the human brain and itsrelationship to religion, among other things.]

William Paden, Interpreting the Sacred: Ways of Viewing Religion (2nd edn)(Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2004).

[An overview of theoretical approaches to religion.]

Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (NewYork: Ballantine Books, 2000).

[A skeptical look at supernatural beliefs and phenomena.]

Michael Winkelman and John R. Baker, Supernatural as Natural: ABiocultural Approach to Religion (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,2008).

[An introduction to the study of religion with an emphasis on evolution andneurology.]

Suggested websites

www.aaanet.orgWebsite of the American Anthropological Association.

http://sar.americananthro.org/The Society for the Anthropology of Religion of the AmericanAnthropological Association.

www.religioustolerance.orgOntario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.

Notes

1 Note that we are using the ethnographic present in describing these cultures. Membersof the California tribes no longer gather and process acorns, and their way of life is verysimilar to non-Native American peoples among whom they live.

2 M. M. Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 2001).

3 R. B. Edgerton, Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony (New York:The Free Press, 1992.)

4 Ibid., p. 93.

5 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology,Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom (London: J. Murray, 1871), p. 1.

6 All Bible quotations in this text are taken from The King James Bible, except whereotherwise noted.

7 N. Smart, Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (3rd edn) (UpperSaddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999), pp. 8–10.

8 C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973),p. 90.

9 M. E. Spiro, “Religion: Problems of Definitions and Explanations,” in M. Banton (Ed.),Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (London: Tavistock Publications,

1966), p. 96.

10 W. C. Smith et al., The Meaning and End of Religion (San Francisco: Harper, 1978).

11 E. B. Tylor, op. cit.

12 R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religions (London: Elibron Classics, 2005), first publishedin 1909.

13 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (New York: MacMillan,1922).

14 K. Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,” Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (February, 1844).

15 É. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (New York: Collier Books,1961), first published in 1913.

16 A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, “Religion and Society,” Journal of the Royal AnthropologicalSociety, 75 (1945), pp. 33–43.

17 B. Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (Garden City, NY: AnchorBooks, 1948), p. 94.

18 C. J. Geertz, The Interpretation of Culture (New York: Basic Books, 2000), first publishedin 1973.

19 M. Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964).

20 S. Freud, The Future of an Illusion (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1953).

21 A. Abbott, “Blind Man Walking,” Nature News, December 22, 2008.www.nature.com/news/2008/081222/full/news.2008.1328.html.

22 P. Boyer, Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought (New York:Basic Books, 2001), p. 161.

23 L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (Oxford,England: Blackwell, 1953), #217.

Chapter 2Mythology

A good place to begin our study of religion is by looking at myths. Myths arereligious narratives or stories that provide the basis for religious beliefs andpractices. Myths tell of the origins and history of the world and the creation ofthe first human beings. They also prescribe the rules of proper conduct andarticulate the ethical and moral principles of society. Some myths exist aswritten texts, whereas in nonliterate societies they exist as oral narratives.Religious stories also can be told in art, music, and dance. In this chapter, wewill discuss the nature of myths and provide several examples of myths fromvarious religious systems.

The nature of myths

As we learned in Chapter 1, the lives and experiences of a people are seenthrough a cultural lens that imposes meaning on their world. Within thisworld all people have a body of knowledge within which many things areunderstood and controlled. However, all people also experience things thatthey cannot comprehend and cannot control. They ponder the origin of theirworld. They seek to understand the interconnectedness between humanityand the world around them, including the physical landscape, the plants andanimals that dwell in this landscape, and other human beings and societies.And they question the existence and meaning of disaster, illness, and death.

Worldview

The way in which societies perceive and interpret their reality is known astheir worldview. Their worldview provides them with an understanding ofhow their world works; it forms the template for thought and behavior; and itprovides them with a basic understanding of the origin and nature ofhumankind and their relationship to the world around them.

To better understand the concept of worldview, we can compare theworldviews of two cultures, Navaho and Judeo-Christian. The Navaho todayare the largest Native American group in the United States. They occupy alarge reservation in Arizona and New Mexico, although today many Navahohave left the reservation and live elsewhere.

To the Navaho, nature exists and humans are a part of nature. The Navahosee their world in terms of the relationships and connections that bind thevarious elements that make up the world. All of these elements—the land, theplants, the animals, people, and the gods—are bound together into asystematic and balanced whole. All of the elements within the universe affectone another, existing in a state of harmony.

For the universe to function—to maintain its harmonious state—people mustbehave properly as defined by Navaho culture. Failure to behave properlybrings about disharmony in the universe, and this disharmony can lead tonatural disaster, illness, and even death. The goal of a Navaho is to remain inharmony with the universe or, as they like to put it, to “walk in beauty.”

Whereas Navaho culture sees humans as one cog in the natural world,Judeo-Christians see their world quite differently. Here humans occupy a veryspecial place in the universe. The following is from the Eighth Psalm:

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with

glory and honor.Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all

things under his feet:All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;The fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths

of the seas.

It is clear here that the world was created for the benefit of humankind and

that humankind has the authority, the right, to exploit the natural world. Thisactive relationship with nature is seen in attempts to control nature—throughdams and irrigation projects, for example. Whereas the Navaho sees illness asa manifestation of disharmony and attempts to bring resolution of the illnessthrough ritual designed to reestablish harmony, the Judeo-Christian seeks theobserved cause and then, through medical technology, proceeds to “fix it.”

Stories of the supernatural

People describe their world and express their worldview in stories and othercreative expressions. This includes modes as diverse as art, drama, jokes,writing on the walls of public bathrooms, folk music, and festivals. Here wewill focus on stories that are told about the supernatural world.

The following is a story that is European in origin and was first publishedin 1823, written down from oral presentations. It has been told and retoldcountless times and is probably familiar to the reader in some form. It is thestory of Snow White.1

The story of Snow White involves an evil queen who flies into a jealous rage whenevershe learns that someone in the kingdom is more beautiful than she. She keeps tabs onher status in the beauty arena by using a talking mirror. This is a type of divinationinstrument (see Chapter 7) that can be used to gather information about things andevents in ways that are supernatural. (Certainly, one would have to agree that talkingmirrors do not exist in our empirical, natural world.)

Snow White is the evil queen’s stepdaughter. As Snow White matures, she eventuallybecomes more beautiful than the queen, who sees Snow White as a threat that must beeliminated. The queen orders Snow White killed, but the huntsman who is ordered to dothe killing takes pity on Snow White and lets her escape into the forest. The huntsmanthen kills a wild boar and presents its lungs and liver to the queen as being SnowWhite’s. The evil queen cooks and eats the lungs and liver, thinking them to be those ofher dead stepdaughter. This is an example of ritual cannibalism. Perhaps the queenbelieves that by eating the remains of her rival, the elements of beauty in Snow Whitewill pass to her.

Thus Snow White escapes and moves in with seven dwarfs. The evil queen, learningthrough her magic mirror that Snow White is still alive, finally kills her with a poisonapple. After many years Snow White is discovered by a prince who, on kissing her,brings her back to life.

When we read the story of Snow White, it is clearly a story told forentertainment, primarily for children. However, like many such stories, it alsoprovides a moral lesson. In this case we are told of the evils of envy andjealousy and what can happen to someone who exhibits these attributes. (Inone early version of the story the evil queen is invited to the weddingcelebration of Snow White and the Prince. Her evil deeds are revealed and sheis made to put on a pair of red-hot iron slippers. She dances until she dies.)

Yet although this story talks about moral issues and contains manysupernatural elements (the magic mirror, for example), no one would classifyit as a religious story. The dwarfs are not sacred; the mirror is not holy; theresurrection of the beautiful maiden does not elevate her to the status of deity.The story does not relate the actions of any gods; it is not the basis forreligious rituals; there are no churches or temples dedicated to Snow White.Adults do not believe the story of Snow White to be true.

Stories such as Snow White are meant to entertain; these are calledfolktales. Folktales take place in a fictional world. They include supernaturalelements and frequently contain a moral. Folktales usually exist independentof time and space. (Where was the kingdom in which Snow White livedlocated? How long ago did the story take place?)

In contrast to folktales, legends are seen by members of the culture asrepresenting events that have actually taken place, although someembellishment often occurs. Legends take place in the comparatively recentpast and tell not only of such things as migrations, wars, heroes, and kings butalso of local stories about buried treasure, ghosts, and saints. They may ormay not include supernatural elements and may or may not be consideredsacred. Legends you may be familiar with include the cities of Atlantis and ElDorado, the heroes Robin Hood and King Arthur, George Washingtonchopping down the cherry tree, and the story of the Holy Grail.

Legends are commonplace in our contemporary world, although peopleseldom see them as such. Known as urban legends, these stories arerecounted as having really happened, primarily on the Internet or in tabloids.Some commonly circulated urban legends are the story of the woman whodried her dog in a microwave, crocodiles living in the sewers of New YorkCity, and strangers giving out poisonous candy at Halloween.

Myths

Myths are sacred stories. They tell of the origin of the world and humankind,the existence and activities of gods and spirits, the creation of order in theuniverse, and the nature of illness and death. Myths relate the origins ofhuman traditions and articulate a society’s values and norms. They tell how tobehave and distinguish good from evil.

Myths are thought by the people who tell them to recount real events thattook place in the remote past in a world different from the one we live in now.Myths, however, are believed to be relevant to modern life and are oftenrecounted in religious rituals. Lauri Honko writes:

The reenactment of a creative event, for example, the healing wrought by a god in thebeginning of time, is the common aim of myth and ritual. In this way the event istransferred to the present and its result, i.e. the healing of a sick person, can be achievedonce more here and now. In this way, too, the world order, which was created in theprimeval era and which is reflected in myths, preserves its value as an exemplar andmodel for the people of today.2

Although the term myth is frequently used in our society in a negative senseto mean stories that are false or only told by primitive peoples, that is not thesense in which we use the term here. Anthropologists and folklorists use theterm to refer to sacred religious stories that are believed by the people who tellthem to be true. In this sense, the stories of the Bible are myths, as are thewritings of the Qur’an.

This analytic distinction between different types of narratives is one that isalso made by many cultural groups. For example, Trobriand Islandersdistinguish between kukwanebu (fairy tales, fictional stories told after dark foramusement), libwogwo (legends, stories told to impart knowledge and believedto be true), and liliu (sacred stories told during the preparation for religiousrituals). Many societies distinguish between true stories (myths and legends)and stories that are a lie or a joke (a folktale). The distinctions betweenfolktales, legends, and myths are summarized in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Forms of narrative

Folktales Legends Myths

Regarded as fiction;not considered to be

sacred; meant toentertain

Based on real people,places, or events andare considered to be

factual

Regarded as fact; accepted onfaith; source of authority on

moral and ethical issues

Include supernaturalelements, yet are

secular

Include few if anysupernatural elements;

can be sacred orsecular

Include a great manysupernatural elements; are

considered to be sacred

Characters are humanand/or nonhuman

Characters aregenerally human

Characters are human andnonhuman

Exist independent oftime and place

Take place in thepresent or recent past;in the modern world

Take place in the remote pastin another world or in an

earlier manifestation of today’sworld

The nature of oral texts

Myths can be oral or written. In literate societies, written texts may form thebasis of scholarly discourse and analysis as well as ritual. In nonliteratesocieties and in many literate societies as well, texts are recited. Recitation ismuch more than a simple rote presentation of the text—recitation isperformance. In reciting the text, a person might speak in a manner that is notfound in everyday speech. Costumes, facial expressions, body postures, andchanges in the quality of the voice, all serve to create an experience. In somesocieties we find specialists—actors and storytellers—who memorize and recitetexts.

Oral texts are frequently very long and complex. They are not alwaysrecited as a single, complete narrative and might not even be seen as a singleentity. Particular segments might be recited at certain times in particularcircumstances.

One of the consequences of the oral transmission of stories is that they arefrequently unconsciously altered with each generation. As a result of thislearning process, different versions of the same myth can exist in different

families or groups within a society. For example, there are several versions ofthe Navaho creation story. Each was collected by a different anthropologistworking with a different elder. Although they have much in common, thereare major differences.

Raymond Firth studied the Tikopia (Polynesia culture areas). He recordeddifferent versions of a myth about the building of the Rasofiroki Temple, abuilding that was thought to exist on both a material and spiritual plane.3 Theactual building that could be seen by humans was believed to have aprototype in the heavens that was built by a group of sibling gods. In aversion recorded by Firth in 1929, the Great God, the oldest of the siblings,asks his brothers to hand up iron nails for the building of the temple.However, the brothers only hand up coconut husk and cord. When they aredone, the Great God came down, took the iron, and went off to the land of thewhite man. In a second version, the temple was built in England and thesenior brother calls out in English for his brothers to hand up the iron. Hisbrothers cannot understand this foreign language, so they keep handing upcoconut-based materials. When the building is done, the senior brother drivesthem away in disgust and they go to Tikopia in a canoe. Iron was a relativelyrecent introduction to Tikopia and the myth of the building of the templeappears to have changed not only to accommodate this new material but alsoto account for why the Europeans had this material but the Tikopians did not.

If myths are written, however, the narratives that are transmitted fromgeneration to generation tend to be very stable through time, especially if theyare not translated into other languages. An example of a written text is theQur’an, which forms the foundation of Islam. Muslims believe that the Qur’anrepresents the word of God as revealed to Mohammad by the archangelGabriel in the early seventh century. It was spoken to Mohammad and wasinitially handed down orally but was soon set down in written form. As thespoken word of God, verses from the Qur’an are recited and memorized bydevout Muslims. Because the Qur’an was revealed to Mohammad in Arabic, itis learned and memorized in Arabic throughout the Islamic world. (Of course,translations of the Qur’an do exist, but they are not used in ritual.Commentaries on the Qur’an are made in the local language.) Becauseprinting presses produce millions of copies of this text, all identical in content,the exact text not only is found throughout the world, but also is transmitted

unchanged generation after generation. For Muslims, this lack of change isparticularly important. Muslims believe that the true text exists in heaven andwas given to Mohammad through revelations, which he memorized perfectlyword for word. Thus the Qur’an (the word actually means “recitation”)represents a perfect transcription of God’s vision and should not change.

Genesis

Many written texts have their origins in oral narratives. For example, the OldTestament probably had its origins in oral narratives that were eventuallywritten down. Folklorist Alan Dundes points out that written texts that arederived from oral narratives frequently incorporate more than one version ofa particular story.4 For example, the Old Testament opens with two creationstories (Box 2.1).

Box 2.1 Genesis

Genesis (1:1–2:3)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of

the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the

darkness.And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the

evening and the morning were the first day.And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it

divide the waters from the waters.And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the

firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were

the second day.And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one

place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters

called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the

fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and itwas so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb, yielding seed after his kind, andthe tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that itwas good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the

day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, andyears:

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon theearth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and lesserlight to rule the night: he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the

darkness: and God saw that it was good.And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that

hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which

the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl afterhis kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters inthe seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle,

and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind,

and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that itwas good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let themhave dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over thecattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon theearth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, andreplenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, andover the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is uponthe face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yieldingseed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thingthat creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herbfor meat: and it was so.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested

on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had

rested from all his work which God created and made.

Genesis (2:4–2:10, 2:15–2:23)

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of thefield before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, andthere was not a man to till the ground.

But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of theground.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into hisnostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put theman whom he had formed.

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant tothe sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, andthe tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it wasparted, and became into four heads.

…

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dressit and to keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the gardenthou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for inthe day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will makehim a help meet for him.

And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and everyfowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: andwhatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to everybeast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and hetook one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, andbrought her unto the man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shallbe called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

The first story is recounted in Genesis 1:1 through 2:3. The story begins withthe world covered with water (“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face ofthe waters”). God shapes the world over a period of six days, resting on theseventh. The order of creation of living things is plants, followed by animals,followed by male and female human beings together (“male and femalecreated he them”). This story is from what biblical scholars call the P orpriestly document. It was probably written before 586 BCE. It contains manyparallels with the Enuma elish, a Mesopotamian myth, and establishes theorigin and sacred importance of the Sabbath.

The second story is found in Genesis 2:4–2:10 and 2:15–2:23. At thebeginning of the story, the world was a desert (“for the Lord God had notcaused it to rain upon the earth”). God first “formed man of the dust of theground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” He places a man,called Adam, in the Garden of Eden. God then forms all the animals andbrings them to Adam one at a time to be named. Finally, God creates woman,called Eve, from Adam’s rib. This story comes from what is referred to as the Jdocument. It was likely written earlier than the first story, sometime between960 and 915 BCE.

The stories of Genesis are reflections of the Judeo-Christian worldview.They are very patriarchal in many ways. For example, woman (Eve) is derivedfrom man (Adam). In many Western societies, men dominate woman, andmany positions of authority, such as the priesthood, are restricted to men.

Here the religious text is acting as a social charter that explains that culture’sview of the proper organization of human relationships.

Genesis also expresses the Judeo-Christian worldview with respect tonature. This worldview appears to be based on two assumptions. The first isthat the universe is mechanistic and humans are its master. The second is thathumans are a categorically different form of creature than all other forms oflife.

Changes do occur in written texts, but they are usually deliberate changesthat are the consequences of translation or scholarly discourse over themeaning of particular words and passages. In some religious traditions, suchas Christianity, the text—in this case, the Bible—is usually found in atranslated form to be read by any literate member of the community. This wasnot always true. It was in the Middle Ages (roughly 500–1500 CE) thatCatholicism as we know it today truly emerged. In the absence of a strongcentral government following the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Churchbecame both a religious and a secular power. During this time the Church wasseen as the intermediary between humankind and God—God’s message forpeople came to them through the Church. Very few people were literate, andthe Bible was available only in Latin. This was not seen as a problem, becausethe Church existed to interpret God’s word. Later, the Protestant Reformationwould emphasize the Bible, and not the Church, as the source for trueChristianity. Among the central beliefs of Martin Luther, who began theReformation, was that laypeople should read the Bible for themselves. Thismeant not only that everyone needed to learn to read, but also that the Biblehad to be translated into the local languages.

Perhaps one of the most famous translations of the Bible was that orderedby King James I of England and published in 1611. The King James Bible isstill widely used today. Many Bible scholars, however, note what theyconsider to be inaccurate translations of certain words and passages, resultingfrom the knowledge and political atmosphere of the early seventeenthcentury.

The King James Version is written in what is now an older form of English.Language changes over time, and written religious texts that do not changewill, over time, appear to use words and phrases that are no longer a part ofthe spoken language. Religious texts are often written in a “religious” form of

a language, using words and phrases that are not used in everyday speech.Some societies even have distinctive dialects or languages that are reserved forrecitation of religious narratives. For example, consider the following excerptfrom the Eighth Psalm: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou artmindful of him?” Forms such as thy, hast, and thou were once commonly usedwords in English, but no longer. Today their presence in a narrative oftenlabels that narrative as being religious.

Many modern versions of the Bible exist today. These are attempts to createwhat are considered to be more accurate translations of the earliest extantversions of the Bible, written in modern language that is easier to read andunderstand by people today. Yet many people are uncomfortable with moderntranslations and retain the King James Version because it sounds more“religious.” This resembles the special religious language forms reserved forreligious narrative that are found in many societies. Interestingly, there areversions of the King James Bible that attempt to modernize the language yetretain the use of religious linguistic forms. (See Box 2.2 for a discussion ofgender-neutral translations of the Bible.)

Box 2.2 The gender-neutral Christian Bible

Written texts often exist in multiple versions. Zondervan, the world’slargest publisher of Bibles, has published over a dozen differenttranslations. Some of the translations preserve more traditional language,such as thou, and others attempt to translate the Bible into more modernlanguage. One area of debate with regard to modern translations is theissue of gender. The language used in most Christian Bibles not onlyrefers to God as male but also uses the masculine generic (e.g., sayingman to mean both men and women). Some argue that this language isnot inconsequential and actually both reflects and shapes the way thatpeople think. Changing this language is seen as a way to address theoutdated gender roles portrayed in the Bible and help achieve genderequality.

When Zondervan updated its Revised Standard Version (RSV) in 1990

as the New Revised Standard Version, it was met with much oppositionfrom Christians who felt the changes not only were unnecessary, but insome cases changed the meaning of the text. For example, compare theRevised Standard Version (RSV) and New Revised Standard Version(NRSV) translations of John 14:23:

Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Fatherwill love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

(RSV)

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them and wewill come to them and make our home with them.”

(NRSV)

Critics argue that the new translation obscures the original meaning thatJesus and his Father would come to dwell with individual believers.

Another example comes from Acts, when Cornelius fell down andbegan to worship Peter. In the Revised Standard Version, Peter lifted himup and said, “Stand up; I too am a man” (Acts 10:26, RSV). In the NewRevised Standard Version Peter says, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.”Again, it is argued that this is an important shift in meaning from anemphasis on one’s humanity (“I too am a man”) to an emphasis on one’smortality (“I too am mortal”).

In other cases, critics argue that the changes are unnecessary and donot make sense—for example, making the army of Israel gender-neutral(using the term “warriors” instead of “men of war”) when it ishistorically accurate that the army was composed only of males.Similarly, they see changing Paul’s statement in Corinthians (1 Cor.13:11) from “When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” to “When Ibecame an adult” as unnecessary because Paul is in fact a man.

Further controversy erupted in the late 1990s when Zondervanannounced that it was going to publish a new, more modern translationof the company’s New International Version, which is second in salesonly to the King James Version, still very similar to its original 1611form. The New International Version (NIV) is popular with evangelicalChristians. The new version, called Today’s New International Version

(TNIV), also uses gender-neutral language. However, the changes madein Today’s New International Version were made only in regard tohuman beings. Some felt that the changes did not go far enough becauseGod is still referred to as masculine (e.g., Father) and not with neutralterms (e.g., parent). In September 2009, Zondervan announced that theywould publish a new version of the NIV in 2011 and at that pointdiscontinue the TNIV version.5 However, when the new NIV waspublished, Southern Baptists voted at their convention to reject thetranslation. Randy Stinson, president of the Council on Biblical Manhoodand Womanhood is quoted as saying:

Our main concern is that in hundreds of places, meaning in the Bible is erodedbecause of the translators’ decisions to remove words like he, him, his, father,brother, son, and man. God’s word is the product of his infinite wisdom and allthe details of meaning are there for a purpose.6

Obviously, there are many issues that shape this controversy. Theyinclude the degree to which language shapes thought and society,whether the masculine emphasis of the Bible was intended and should bepreserved, and how accurately translations must reflect the original text.The debate is not merely about language but about the Christianworldview regarding gender issues in general.

Understanding myths

Myths exist in all human societies. They have been collected and analyzed bycountless anthropologists, folklorists, and other scholars. Many differenttheoretical orientations have developed as tools to study and explain myths.While myths show an astonishing degree of variability, certainly commonthemes occur that have become the focus of scholarly study. In this section,we will look at some of the approaches to the study of myths and survey someof the common themes that are found.

Approaches to the analysis of myths

The analysis of myths can be approached from many different perspectives.Are myths literal or symbolic? If they are symbolic, how should these symbolsbe interpreted? How are myths tied to the rest of culture? Do myths servefunctions, and if so, which ones? Do myths reflect the way that the humanmind works, the way a specific culture works, or both? Many of the differentways of analyzing religious narratives are based on the different theoreticalapproaches to the study of religion discussed in Chapter 1.

Searching for myth origins in the nineteenth century

The evolutionary school in anthropology saw a unilinear progression frommore “primitive” societies to more “civilized” ones. Accompanying thisprogression was a similar proposed progression from magic to religion toscience. Myths were seen as belonging to the “primitive” period, with sacredmyths being replaced by secular folktales until finally dying out altogether in“civilized” societies. (It is important to remember that anthropologists nolonger believe in such an evolutionary progression or that cultures can beclassified as “primitive” or “civilized.”)

Theorists from the evolutionary school assumed that modern people livingin small-scale societies lived and thought the same way that earlier Europeansocieties had. They compared myths found in many different cultures, lookingfor common elements from which they could reconstruct an assumed“original form” of myth from which all others had derived. It was believedthat doing this could help explain puzzling aspects of modern Europeansociety.

The work of James George Frazer (1854–1941) is a good example of thisapproach. He collected as many examples of myths and magical practicesfrom around the world as possible and published them as a thirteen-volumework entitled The Golden Bough. Although modern anthropologists criticizethe information in The Golden Bough as taken out of its cultural context, thebook is still widely read. As an example of the comparative approach, Frazeranalyzed the story of the fall of man in Genesis by looking at other origin-of-

death myths cross-culturally:

The story of the Fall of Man in the third chapter of Genesis appears to be an abridgedversion of this savage myth. Little is wanted to complete its resemblance to the similarmyths still told by savages in many parts of the world. The principal, almost the only,omission is the silence of the narrator as to the eating of the fruit of the tree of life bythe serpent, and the consequent attainment of immortality by the reptile … If myinterpretation of the story is right, it has been left for the comparative method, afterthousands of years, to supply the blank in the ancient canvas, and to restore, in all theirprimitive crudity, the gay barbaric colours which the skilful hand of the Hebrew artisthad softened or effaced.7

Since Frazer’s time, further studies of myths have found that no single mythexists cross-culturally, but characteristic versions of a story may be found inspecific areas. For example, in Africa, origin-of-death myths revolve around afailure to deliver a message, whereas among Native Americans the storycenters on a debate on the subject of death.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a new approach to the study ofmyth was popular. This approach argued that myth is derived from earlierritual practices. Based on this idea, theorists tried to reconstruct these rituals.Of course, this approach is not a complete answer to the question of origins,because if myth came from ritual, where did ritual come from?

This approach to myth encouraged looking beyond the text and seeing theconnection that myths have to the cultures in which they are found. Althoughit is now more accepted that myth and ritual are closely related, this is seenmore as myth and ritual being parallel expressions than that one is derivedfrom the other.

Fieldwork and functional analysis

Early studies of myth and religion, such as those of Frazer, were undertakenby people who read myths collected by missionaries, travelers, and othersfrom the comfort of their own libraries. This changed in the early twentiethcentury with a new emphasis on ethnographic fieldwork and participantobservation, by anthropologists such as Franz Boas and BronislawMalinowski.

Many consider Franz Boas to be the founder of the academic study ofanthropology in the United States. He felt that mythology could be readalmost like an autobiography written by the culture itself. As such, he usedmyths as sources of ethnographic data about such things as kinship systems,housing types, division of labor, and hunting techniques.8 Some of hisstudents later challenged this approach; they felt that myths are more thanjust a literal reflection of what goes on in a culture. For example, RuthBenedict, in her study of Zuni mythology, noted that myths are oftenidealized descriptions of things that do not happen in real life.9 However, Boasbrought to the anthropological study of myth the importance of recording fulltexts and of relating myths to the rest of culture.

Like Boas, Malinowski favored a literal interpretation of myth; neitherfavored the idea that myths could be symbolic. Both also emphasized in-depthstudy of one culture at a time as opposed to comparing myths cross-culturally.Malinowski was a founder of the functional approach in anthropology,previously discussed in Chapter 1, which turned from the nineteenth-centuryinterest in the origins of myth to a focus on how myths function in a culture.Malinowski wrote that myths are seen as a force to help maintain the society:

Studied alive, myth, as we shall see, is not symbolic but a direct expression of its subjectmatter; it is not an explanation in satisfaction of a scientific interest, but a narrativeresurrection of a primeval reality, told in satisfaction of deep religious wants, moralcravings, social submissions, assertions, even practical requirements. Myth fulfills inprimitive cultures an indispensable function; it expresses, enhances, and codifies belief;it safeguards and enforces morality; it vouches for the efficacy of ritual and containspractical rules for the guidance of man. Myth is thus a vital ingredient of humancivilization; it is not an idle tale, but a hard-worked active force; it is not an intellectualexplanation or an artistic imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith andwisdom.10

Malinowski conducted fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands and described howthe islanders themselves distinguish between folktales, legends, and myths.Myths are not told for entertainment or to impart historical information, butare used to justify and explain religious rituals as well as social and moralrules. For example, before the Trobriand annual feast of the return of thedead, myths are told that explain why humans die, why the spirits of the deadhave to leave the village, and why they return once a year. TrobriandIslanders also engage in extensive ceremonial trading; the rules for such trade,

the magic used to prepare canoes for the voyage, and even the geographicalroutes taken are all related to specific mythology.

Critics of the functional approach point out that it focuses only on benefits,not on institutions or practices that may be oppressive or exploitative.Functionalism also focuses on consensus building, not, for example, thepotential conflict caused by competing versions of a myth. Because of thisemphasis on consensus and function, the approach does not deal well withcultural change.

Structural analysis

Structural analysis, as the name implies, focuses on the underlying structureof the myth. This approach is based on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, whopointed out that humans tend to think and categorize the world in terms ofbinary opposites, such as black and white.11 The division of the world intobinary opposites can be seen cross-culturally in myths, as in the analysis doneby Edmund Leach of the structure of the story of Genesis.12 Examples ofbinary opposites contained in Genesis are light/dark, day/night, heaven/earth,man/animal, and man/woman. Leach also points out that these opposites arefrequently mediated by a third, anomalous category, such as life and deathbeing mediated by the third category of life after death.

In the following portion of Genesis, the binary opposites of light and darkas well as heaven and earth are established (Genesis 1:4–8):

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and

the morning were the first day.And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide

the waters from the waters.And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the

firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the

second day.

Structural analysis focuses on the structure, not content, of religiousnarratives. It demonstrates that stories that seem very different on the surface

may have a similar underlying structure. We can also apply structuralanalysis to a story from the Gururumba of New Guinea (Melanesia culturearea). The primary binary opposition in Gururumba culture is that of natureand culture. We can see this opposition being expressed in several ways in theGururumba myth of the origin of women, told in Box 2.3.

Box 2.3 The Gururumba creation story

The story begins in the distant past when things were not as they aretoday. There were no villages, no pigs, and no women. One day twobrothers go into the forest to look for food. They come upon an eagle’snest in which they find eggs and food that the eagle parents have left.The brothers take the food for themselves. They return several times todo this until one time when one of the eggs hatches and the first womanemerges. The boys take the woman back to their home and feed her andshe grows up.

Then one day the younger brother decides to try to have sex with thewoman. However, he is unable to do so because she does not have avagina. He asks his older brother what to do. His older brother takes asugarcane (a symbolically male plant for the Gururumba) and hurls it atthe woman to make an opening, but she runs away. The younger brotherchases her, but every time he catches on to her arm or leg she turns intoan animal and slips away. Finally he is able to catch hold of her thumband have sex with her.

The woman gives birth to a son and several daughters. Later when theson is grown he asks his father if he can accompany him into the forest,but the father says no. The boy becomes very upset and jumps into theriver and becomes a fish. The father does not know what to do but thebrothers see smoke coming from the forest (which means a wise old manlives there). This man comes and uses magic to change the fish back intoa boy. The father is so happy that he builds the first men’s house andputs his son inside to make him a man. When the son emerges from themen’s house, pigs spring from the ground. The boy later notices smokecoming from the grasslands and realizes that there are other men out

there who have no women and no pigs. So he gives each of his sisters apig and sends them to the other men, beginning an exchangerelationship.

Source: As told by Philip Newman, lecture in the Anthropology ofReligion at the University of California at Los Angeles, 1990.

From this story, we can see that the nature versus culture dichotomy isrelated to the differences between the sexes. Women are part of nature,whereas men are associated with culture. The origin of the first woman froman egg and her various reversions to animal forms when she is pursued clearlyassociate women with nature. The wild female is only culturally transformedthrough human (male) agency. The sugarcane is a symbolically male plantused to change the biologically nonuseful woman into a culturally useful wife.Her son is the first male born of a female, and thus not fully cultural, as canbe seen when he turns into a fish. He is not a complete adult, both biologicallyand socially, until his final transformation in the men’s house. The boyhimself then becomes a transformer, changing his sisters into wives and othermen into social allies.

Critics of structuralism argue that it is a very sterile approach to the studyof religious narrative and that it is ultimately dehumanizing. Structuralanalysis can also be very complicated, leaving mythical analysis only to thosewho are well versed in this approach.

Psychological symbols in myth

Another approach to the analysis of myths interprets them as being symbolicand sees this symbolism as being rooted in human psychology. This approachis based on the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

Freud described various psychological defense mechanisms, such asprojection, in which one’s own unconscious attribute is perceived and reactedto in some other person or some other thing.13 For example, Freud sawindividual dreams as symbolically expressing unconscious wishes and a

similar process occurring with myths for groups. Myths are therefore a type of“shared dream.” Freud also emphasized the importance of early childhoodexperiences, such as the nature of the parent–child relationship. He thenproposed a relationship between early experiences and adult projectionsystems such as myth. Although such processes as projection and symbolismwere considered universal, the actual symbolic content would be expected tovary as childhood conditions varied.

The narrative most associated with the psychoanalytic approach is theGreek story of Oedipus, the man who unknowingly kills his father andmarries his mother. Freud argued that this story represents a deeppsychological conflict experienced by all boys. Because he considered this casereflective of universal developmental issues, he expected similar stories to befound cross-culturally. In fact, Allen Johnson and Douglas Price-Williams intheir research have found Oedipus-type stories from cultures around theworld.14

Similar to Freud in its emphasis on human psychological processes is thework of Carl Jung.15 In contrast to Freud, Jung felt that myths stemmed fromsomething beyond the individual unconscious. Just as individuals have anunconscious mind, Jung believed that humans as a group share a collectiveunconscious, or inborn elements of the unconscious that are manifested indreams and myths. The main characters of these dreams and myths aretermed archetypes. Oedipus is just one example of an archetype; otherarchetypal characters that have been suggested include the Trickster, theHero, the Orphan, the Seeker, the Destroyer, the Creator, the Sage, and theFool. Another example is the Phoenix, taken from the Greek story of the birdthat rises from its own ashes. The Phoenix is a story of rebirth. A familiartelling of the Phoenix archetype is found in Christianity’s death and rebirth ofJesus Christ.

In part because Jung’s archetypes are alleged to be universal andprecultural, he has received less attention in anthropological circles thanFreud, whose theories are more amenable to cultural relativism.Anthropologists have also criticized Jungian analysis for rarely using datafrom non-Western sources.

Common themes in myths

As we can see from the preceding discussion, underlying the diversity ofnarratives found cross-culturally are some common elements and themes.These similarities have been explained in various ways. Diffusion, or thespread of cultural traits from one group to another, is always a possibleexplanation. Others focus on the shared nature of human cognition andpsychology. The ideas of Freud and Jung are good examples of this approach,although Freud saw the similarities stemming from shared individualexperiences, whereas Jung focused on a universally shared collectiveunconscious. In this section we will explore some of the common stories thatare found in religious narratives around the world.

Origin myths

Origin myths answer some of the most basic questions that humans have:Who are we? Why are we here? What is our relationship to the world? Originstories address the most basic questions of identity, both personal andcommunal. Creation myths are generally the most sacred of the religiousnarratives. All other narratives ultimately build on the groundwork laid downin origin myths.

Box 2.4 The power of storytelling

Humans have been called “storytelling animals.” We are constantlysurrounded by stories from more obvious sources like books, movies, andtelevision shows to less obvious ones like daydreams, songs, gossip, andcommercials. Politics and jury trials are often about who can tell thebetter story.

We have discussed in this chapter how sacred stories shape meaningfor cultures. In the same way the stories we tell about ourselves and ourlives shape our personal worldviews and the way we see ourselves inthat world. Can you explain your actions and tell a coherent story about

them? What does it mean if you cannot?New research is exploring if we can reframe our lives by changing

how we tell our own stories. For example, an intervention with DukeUniversity students who were struggling academically focused on gettingthem to reframe their stories from not being cut out for college to justneeding time to adjust. Students who received this intervention raisedtheir overall grade point averages and were less likely to drop out than acontrol group.16

As you move through this class reflect on your own story, especiallyas it relates to education. How did the family you grew up in feel abouteducation? What were your early experiences in school like and whatimpact did that have on you? What characterizes you as a student? Whatare your educational goals and why? How does learning about religionfit into your overall story?

A common element in origin stories is the birth metaphor. When thesupernatural power doing the creating is female, this is generally aspontaneous and independent birth. When the supernatural power is male, thebirth is more symbolic: the god vomits or excretes the world or perhapssacrifices part of his own body to make the world. In the following originstory from the Bushongo, a Bantu people from Zaire (Guinea Coast culturearea), the male deity vomits the world.

In the beginning, in the dark, there was nothing but water. And Bumba was alone. Oneday Bumba was in terrible pain. He retched and strained and vomited up the sun. Afterthat light spread over everything. The heat of the sun dried up the water until the blackedges of the world began to show. Black sandbanks and reefs could be seen. But therewere no living things. Bumba vomited up the moon and then the stars, and after thatthe night had its own light also. Still Bumba was in pain. He strained again and nineliving creatures came forth [a leopard, crested eagle, crocodile, fish, tortoise, lightning,white heron, beetle, and a goat]. Last of all came forth men.17

Many origin myths begin with creation out of chaos, darkness, or the void.The following story is from the Yoruba, a society in West Africa (GuineaCoast culture area):

In the beginning the world was a watery, formless Chaos that was neither sea nor land,but a marshy waste. Above it, in the sky, lived the Supreme Being, Olorun, attended to

by other gods, including Orisha Nla, called the Great God. Olorun called Orisha Nla intohis presence and ordered him to make a world. It was time to make a solid land andOrisha Nla was given a snail full of magic earth, a pigeon, and a five-toed hen toaccomplish the assignment. Orisha Nla came down to the Chaos and set to workorganizing it. He threw magic earth into a small patch. The pigeon and the hen began toscratch in the magic earth, and they scratched until land and sea were entirely separated… Orisha Nla was sent back to earth to plant trees, including the first oil palm. Olorunmade the rain fall from heaven to water the seeds, which grew into a great forest. Inheaven, Olorun began to make the first people. They were fashioned from earth byOrisha Nla, but only Olorun, the Supreme Being, could give them life. Orisha Nla hid inOlorun’s workshop to watch. However, Olorun knew that Orisha Nla was hiding thereand put him into a deep sleep, and so only Olorun knows the secret of how to bring abody to life. To this day Orisha Nla, through the agency of parents, makes the body, butonly the Supreme Being can give it life.18

Because of the process of diffusion, certain culture areas share narrativeelements in common. One example of this is the primordial egg as an elementof creation stories in Asia, as seen in one Chinese origin story:

At first there was nothing. Time passed and nothing became something. Time passedand something split into two: the two were male and female. These two produced twomore, and these two produced P’an Ku, the first being, the Great Man, the Creator. Firstthere was the great cosmic egg. Inside the egg was Chaos, and floating in Chaos wasP’an Ku, the Undeveloped, the divine Embryo. And P’an Ku burst out of the egg, fourtimes larger than any man today, with an adze (or a hammer and chisel) with which hefashioned the world.19

A final example of an origin myth is the emergence myth, commonthroughout North America. The initial acts of creation take place under theearth, which is often organized into a series of layers. The lower layers aredark and cramped. As the story progresses, the story moves up from oneworld to the next. This movement is an evolutionary progression as acts ofcreation occur and knowledge is imparted to various creatures, includinghumans. Finally, they emerge onto the surface of the earth.

There are several interpretations that have been given to emergence myths.The world under the surface of the earth can be seen as the womb in whichcreation occurs and the emergence onto the earth as a birth. The myth canalso be seen as a reflection of the life cycle of maize (corn) that begins as aseed under the ground and then emerges onto the surface of the earth.

One of the best-known emergence myths is Diné Bahane’, the Navaho

creation story. The early part of the story takes place under the earth wherethere are four worlds, one on top of the other. The story begins in the firstworld, the bottom-most world, and then progresses upward. Usually somedanger or destructive power forces the creatures to escape through a hole inthe sky into the next world.

In the fourth world we meet the four Holy People, immortal beings whotravel on the rainbow following the path of the sunray; they can controlwinds and thunder. The Holy People then create the first humans, First Manand First Woman, from ears of corn. (Corn, cornmeal, and corn pollen playimportant roles in Navaho rituals.) The life force comes from the wind, whichis likened to a person’s breath. Box 2.5 presents the section of Diné Bahane’ inwhich we read of this creation.

Box 2.5 The Navaho creation story: Diné Bahane’

As for the gods, they repeated their visit four days in a row. But on thefourth day, Bits’íís lizhin the Black Body remained after the other threedeparted. And when he was alone with the onlookers, he spoke to themin their own language. This is what he said:

“You do not seem to understand the Holy People,” he said.“So I will explain what they want you to know.“They want more people to be created in this world. But they want

intelligent people, created in their likeness, not in yours.“You have bodies like theirs, true enough.“But you have the teeth of beasts! You have the mouths of beasts! You

have the feet of beasts! You have the claws of beasts!“The new creatures are to have hands like ours. They are to have feet

like ours. They are to have mouths like ours and teeth like ours. Theymust learn to think ahead, as we do.

“What is more, you are unclean!“You smell bad.“So you are instructed to cleanse yourselves before we return twelve

days from now.”That is what Bits’íís lizhin the Black Body said to the insect people

who had emerged from the first world to the second, from the secondworld to the third, and from the third world to the fourth world wherethey now lived.

Accordingly, on the morning of the twelfth day the people bathedcarefully. The women dried themselves with yellow corn meal. The mendried themselves with white corn meal.

Soon after they had bathed, they heard the distant voice coming fromfar in the east.

They listened and waited as before, listened and waited. Until soonthey heard the voice as before, nearer and louder this time. Theycontinued to listen and wait, listen and wait, until they heard the voice athird time as before, all the nearer and all the louder.

Continuing to listen as before, they heard the voice again, even louderthan the last time, and so close now that it seemed directly upon them,exactly as it had seemed before. And as before they found themselvesstanding among the same four Haashch’ééh dine’é, or Holy People asBilagáana the White Man might wish to call them.

Bits’íís doot l’izh the Blue Body and Bits’íís lizhin the Black Body eachcarried a sacred buckskin. Bits’íís ligaii the White Body carried two earsof corn.

One ear of corn was yellow. The other ear was white. Each ear wascompletely covered at the end with grains, just as sacred ears of corn arecovered in our own world now.

Proceeding silently, the gods laid one buckskin on the ground, carefulthat its head faced the west. Upon this skin they placed the two ears ofcorn, being just as careful that the tips of each pointed east. Over thecorn they spread the other buckskin, making sure that its head faced east.

Under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle.And under the yellow ear they put the feather of a yellow eagle.Then they told the onlooking people to stand at a distance.So that the wind could enter.Then from the east Nilch’i ligai the White Wind blew between the

buckskins. And while the wind thus blew, each of the Holy People cameand walked four times around the objects they had placed so carefully onthe ground.

As they walked, the eagle feathers, whose tips protruded slightly from

between the two buckskins, moved slightly.Just slightly.So that only those who watched carefully were able to notice.And when the Holy People had finished walking, they lifted the

topmost buckskin.And lo! the ears of corn had disappeared.In their place there lay a man and there lay a woman.The white ear of corn had been transformed into our most ancient

male ancestor. And the yellow ear of corn had been transformed into ourmost ancient female ancestor.

It was the wind that had given them life: the very wind that gives usour breath as we go about our daily affairs here in the world weourselves live in.

When this wind ceases to blow inside of us, we become speechless.Then we die.

In the skin at the tips of our fingers we can see the trail of that life-giving wind.

Look carefully at your own fingertips.There you will see where the wind blew when it created your most

ancient ancestors out of two ears of corn, it is said.

Source: Republished with permission of the University of New MexicoPress, from Diné Bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story by Paul G. Zolbrod,1984; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

Apocalyptic myths

Many myths found in a great many societies tell of the catastrophicdestruction of the world, an apocalypse. The destruction takes many forms,one of which is by flood. A disciple of Freud’s once explained this as beingrelated to dreams that happen when the person has a full bladder. Analternative explanation lies in the fact that floods are likely to be frequentlyexperienced, as people need to live near a water source. The Judeo-Christian

flood myth is the story of Noah’s ark in which God sends the flood to rid theearth of the wickedness of man.

In many societies we see a cycle of creations and destructions. The ancientAztecs of Mexico tell of four worlds that existed prior to the present world,the fifth world. The following story tells of the destruction of the fourthworld:

During the era of the fourth sun, the Sun of Water, the people grew very wicked andignored the worship of the gods. The gods became angry and Tlaloc, the god of rains,announced that he was going to destroy the world with a flood. However, Tlaloc wasfond of a devout couple, Tata and Nena, and he warned them of the flood. He instructedthem to hollow out a great log and take two ears of corn—one for each of them—and eatnothing more.

So Tata and Nena entered the tree trunk with the two ears of corn, and it began torain. When the rains subsided and Tata and Nena’s log landed on dry land, they were sohappy that they caught a fish and ate it, contrary to the orders of Tlaloc. It was onlyafter their stomachs were full that they remembered Tlaloc’s command.

Tlaloc then appeared to them and said, “This is how I am repaid for saving yourlives?” They were then changed into dogs. It was at this point, where even the mostrighteous people were disobedient, that the gods destroyed the world, ushering in thepresent era of the Fifth Sun.20

While the previous examples are of apocalyptic floods that took place in themythological past, not all apocalypses involve floods and some involvepredictions of future events. A good example comes from the New Testamentin the Book of Revelations (21:1–9). Revelations focuses on a coming battle,both earthly and spiritual, between the forces of good and evil. The myth tellsus that the “Lamb” of God (believed by most to be Jesus Christ) will save hispeople from a time of great tribulations on earth, destroy the wicked, andusher in an age of peace in which his people will live in the presence of Godand Christ in a heavenly city.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth werepassed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is withmen, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shallbe with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,

neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former thingsare passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said untome, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Iwill give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be myson.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, andwhoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in thelake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of theseven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride,the Lamb’s wife.

Much of the symbolism and story of Revelations is familiar to Americans evenif they are unfamiliar with the source, including the four horsemen of theapocalypse, the lamb of God, the seven seals, the beast, the harlot of Babylon,and Satan and the lake of fire. As we will see in Chapter 11, Revelations is thebasis for many new religious movements as individuals interpret modern-dayhappenings as being those foretold in the myth.

Hero myths

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) described the story of the hero’s journey in hisbook The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The title refers to the fact that althoughthere are thousands of different hero myths or stories involving heroesthroughout the world, they all follow the same basic story line, whatCampbell calls the monomyth. Campbell describes the monomyth as follows:“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region ofsupernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisivevictory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with thepower to bestow boons on his fellow man.”21

The hero’s journey is a common theme encountered in many myths.Sometimes the hero is based on a real person whose story has been idealized.Other times the hero has no basis in real life. The first stage of the hero’s

journey is the departure. The hero, frequently an orphaned youth, is thrustout of his or her community for one of several reasons, such as the destructionof his or her home by some supernatural force. The second phase, initiation,includes the hero’s training, as he or she learns to utilize supernatural tools,such as a sacred sword, under the direction of a master, who frequentlypossesses supernatural power. In the third phase, the return, the hero returnsand accomplishes the task. The monomyth is frequently found in originstories, where the hero is responsible for bringing some knowledge to humans.

Entire religious systems may be based on a hero story. Buddhism is basedon the story of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama. Gautama leads a verysheltered life in his father’s palace until he becomes aware of sickness,suffering, and death and the fact that he too is subject to them. He leavesbehind his worldly possessions and spends years wandering, fasting, andmeditating. He learns all he can from various teachers, but nothing seems toappease his sorrow and emptiness. In desperation, he resolves to sit under aBodhi tree until he finds the answers he has been looking for. He is attackedby Kama-Mara, the god of love and death, but is victorious. During his timeunder the tree, Gautama gains knowledge and enlightenment and is thereafterreferred to as the Buddha, or the “Enlightened One.”

The same monomyth structure is also frequently used in popular films, suchas Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and HarryPotter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.Table 2.2 compares some elements that arecommon to some of these movies.

Table 2.2 The monomyth in cinema: a sampling of common features

The Wizard ofOz (1939)

Star Wars (1977) Harry Potter (2001)

Hero Dorothy Gale Luke Skywalker Harry Potter

Remotechildhood

Lives with auntand uncle inarid Kansas

Lives with auntand uncle onarid Tatooine

Lives with aunt and uncle;is unaware that his parents

had magical powers

Call toadventure

Follows Totofleeing witch

Follows R2D2fleeing Empire

Invited to attend Hogwarts

Introduction ofthe helper

Good Witch Ben Kenobi Dumbledore

Given amulet Red shoes Light saber Wizard’s wand

Physicaltransportationout of previous

life

Tornado

Mos EiselySpaceport onMillennium

Falcon

Train to Hogwarts

Enters Land ofEnchantment

Oz and witch’scastle

Death Star Hogwarts Academy

CompanionsScarecrow, Tin

Woodman,Cowardly Lion

Han Solo,C3PO,

Chewbacca

Hermione Granger, RonWeasley

Faceschallenges

Wizard makesimpossibledemands

Freeing PrincessLeia

Three-headed dog, Devil’ssnare plant, winged keys,

etc.

Uses magic toaccomplish goal

Dorothy usesred shoes to

return toKansas

Luke uses theForce to destroy

Death Star

Harry uses magic to defeatVoldemort

Conclusion

The most fundamental questions asked by human beings—about the nature oflife, existence, and death—are answered in the religious narratives we tell.These stories both explain and structure the world of a particular group ofpeople. By examining religious narratives, we learn much about a specificgroup’s worldview, including rules for moral behavior. Myths are stories tolive by. They create networks of meaning that affect the life of people in thatculture far beyond the domain of religion.

As we explore other topics in the study of religion, we will frequentlyreturn to the issue of religious narratives, because these stories often form the

foundation of religious practices. This will be particularly important in thenext two chapters on symbols and rituals.

Summary

The ways a society perceives and interprets its reality is known as itsworldview. The worldview provides an understanding of how the worldworks; it forms the template for thought and behavior; and it provides a basicunderstanding of the origin and nature of humankind and its relationship tothe world. People express their worldviews in stories.

Myths are sacred stories that tell of the origin of the world and humankind,the existence and activities of gods and spirits, the origin of human traditions,and the nature of illness and death. They tell how to behave and how todistinguish good from evil. Myths are thought to recount real historical eventsthat took place in the remote past. They provide the basis for religious beliefsand practices.

Myths can be both written and oral. Written forms tend to be very stablethrough time, and changes that do occur are usually deliberate changes thatare the consequences of translation or scholarly discourse about the meaningof particular words and passages. Oral texts are recited, and this recitationoften has the characteristics of performance. One of the consequences of theoral transmission of stories is that they are frequently unconsciously alteredwith each generation, which explains the existence of different versions of thesame myth within a society.

There are many ways of interpreting myths. Functional analysis sees mythsas forces that help to maintain the society. Structural analysis focuses on theunderlying structure of myths. The psychoanalytic approach sees myths assymbolically expressing unconscious wishes.

Certain basic themes are common throughout the world. Origin mythsprovide answers to the questions: Who are we? Why are we here? What is ourrelationship to the world? These stories play an important role in laying outthe culture’s worldview. One common element is the birth metaphor, inwhich the world is born from a god or goddess or by creation out of chaos,

darkness, or the void. Apocalyptic myths tell of the past or future destructionof the world. Hero myths are stories about culture heroes who, throughknowledge and mastery of certain skills, are able to bring about marvelousresults.

Study questions

1. A society’s worldview includes how that society sees theenvironment and its relationship to the environment. Do you thinkthat two societies with two radically different worldviews could evercome to an agreement on how to deal with issues of environmentalexploitation such as lumbering and mining?

2. In our society a religious organization might set up a table on acollege campus and distribute copies of the Bible. In a small-scalesociety a storyteller might set up a “stage” at a local market and offerto tell stories. How are these two activities similar and how are theydifferent? How does the transmission of religious stories differ inthese two societies?

3. Using the Navaho creation story and Genesis, show how a religiousnarrative can be a social charter for a society.

4. Why do we label the movies Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, TheMatrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’sStone monomyths? What are some other movies or television showsthat are monomyths?

5. Why do you think that commonalities exist in myths found indifferent cultures?

Suggested readings

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (2nd edn) (Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1972).[A description of the hero myth in societies around the world.]

Scott Leonard and Michael McClure, Myth and Knowing: An Introduction toWorld Mythology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003).

Fiction

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012).[In a story filled with symbolism, a young boy grows up in New Mexico inthe 1940s.]

Neil Gaiman, American Gods (New York: William Morrow, 2011).[The old gods of mythology battle the new gods of technology for control inAmerica.]

Suggested websites

http://pantheon.org/mythica.htmlEncyclopedia Mythica is an encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and legend.

www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.htmlAn extensive collection of folk and mythology texts.

www.sacred-texts.comAn Internet text archive.

www.navajocentral.orgInformation about the Navaho.

www.jcf.orgThe Joseph Campbell Foundation.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/revelation/white.htmlUnderstanding the Book of Revelation.

Notes

1 This is a brief synopsis of the story of Snow White as retold by the authors. We realizethat most readers are familiar with the Snow White story. The story has been retold andchanged over the decades. Unfortunately, some of the most fascinating elements of thestory have been eliminated from recent versions. We encourage you to read the earlyversions, which are much more interesting than the sanitized versions that are mostfrequently found today.

2 L. Honko, “The Problems of Defining Myth,” in A. Dundes (Ed.), Sacred Narrative:Readings in the Theory of Myth (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), p. 49.

3 R. Firth, “The Plasticity of Myth,” Ethnoligica, 2 (1960), pp. 181–188.

4 A. Dundes, Holy Writ as Oral Lit (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).

5 C. L. Grossman, “Update of Popular ‘NIV’ Bible Due in 2011,” USA Today, September 1,2009, www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-09-01-bible-translation_N.htm.

6 E. Sun, “Southern Baptists Reject Updated NIV Bible,” Christian Post, June 18, 2011,www.christianpost.com/news/southern-baptists-pass-resolution-rejecting-2011-niv-at-annual-convention-51288/.

7 J. Frazer, Folklore in the Old Testament (New York: McMillan, 1923).

8 F. Boas, Race, Language and Culture (reprint edn) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1969).

9 R. F. Benedict, Zuni Mythology, 2 volumes (New York: Columbia University Press, 1935).

10 B. Malinowski, Myth in Primitive Psychology (Westport, CT: Greenwood PublishingGroup, 1954), p. 101.

11 C. Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology, Vol. 1(New York: Harper & Row, 1969).

12 E. Leach, “Genesis as Myth,” Discover (May, 1982), pp. 30–35.

13 S. Freud, The Future of an Illusion (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1953).

14 A. Johnson and D. Price-Williams, Oedipus Ubiquitous (Palo Alto, CA: StanfordUniversity Press, 1991).

15 C. Jung and C. Kerényi, Essays on a Science of Mythology (reprint edn) (Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 1969).

16 T. Parker-Pope “Writing Your Way to Happiness,” The New York Times, January 19,

2015, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?_r=4.

17 Brief quote from page 44 from Primal Myths: Creating the World by Barbara C. Sproul, ©1979 Barbara C. Sproul. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

18 Excerpt from Parallel Myths by J. F. Bierlein, copyright © 1994 by J. F. Bierlein. Used bypermission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of PenguinRandom House LLC. All rights reserved.

19 Brief quote from page 201 from Primal Myths: Creating the World by Barbara C. Sproul,© 1979 Barbara C. Sproul. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

20 Excerpt from Parallel Myths by J. F. Bierlein, copyright © 1994 by J. F. Bierlein. Used bypermission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of PenguinRandom House LLC. All rights reserved.

21 J. Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (2nd edn) (Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1968), p. 30.

Chapter 3Religious symbols

All animals communicate with one another. Most often, this communicationis simple and very specific to the situation. A stimulus—such as the sight of astranger, predator, or food—may bring about a response of some kind: threat,flight, or eating. However, the situation exists in the here and now. Thereaction is an immediate response to the specific circumstances.

Humans also encounter strangers, predators, and food. However, thehuman response is more complex than that of other living creatures. Humansreact to the presence of a stranger entering their midst, but the stranger maybe seen as an enemy warrior, a merchant, or a monk—and will be dealt withappropriately. The reaction to a predator might be to prepare a spear fordefense or to perform magical rites to ward off the danger. Humans feelhunger and respond to the presence of food, but many edible and nutritiousfoods are shunned because of cultural or religious prohibitions. All of thesebehaviors involve communication, be it storytelling, ritual, or the articulationof food prohibitions.

The complexity of human communication is made possible through theability of humans to create and use symbols. Symbols permit people to discussabstract topics and to talk about things in the past, in an envisioned future, oreven in a supernatural world. The world of religion is a symbolic world.

What is a symbol?

Let us begin by picking up an apple in our hand. We know that this is an

apple by its shape, color, and smell, and we know what to do with it. Manynonhuman animals will react to an apple in very much the same way. Showan apple to a horse, and the horse will know by its shape, color, and smellexactly what it is and might take the apple from your hand and eat it. In thisway, humans and other animals are very similar.

As humans, however, we can do something that horses cannot do. Forexample, we can draw a blue triangle on a piece of paper and declare that thisblue triangle represents an apple. It certainly does not look like an apple orsmell or taste like an apple, but as long as everyone in our community acceptsthe idea that a blue triangle stands for an apple, we can use it in place of a realapple in communication. If we have a fruit stand at an outdoor market, wecan fly a banner with a blue triangle above our booth so that people will knowthat we have apples for sale. Newcomers might not know that a blue trianglestands for apples, but we can tell them, and once they become regularcustomers, members of our small community, they will participate in oursystem of communication. (Of course, a nonhuman animal can be trained torespond to a blue triangle, but a human creates the symbol and a human doesthe training.)

In our community, the blue triangle is acting as a symbol. It is somethingthat stands for something else. Most symbols have no direct connection withthe thing they refer to. The association of a blue triangle with an apple isarbitrary; it could as easily be a yellow circle or a green square. As long asthere is agreement within our community as to the meaning of the symbol,we can communicate with one another using symbols rather than real objects.

Being able to create and use symbols is extremely useful. We can usesymbols to refer to things that are not directly in front of us—a faraway place,for example, or something we would like to do in the future. We might talkabout going to the grocery store to buy apples, yet there might not be an applein sight. We also can talk about fruits that we have never seen or tasted,perhaps a durian fruit from Southeast Asia. This ability to use symbols to referto things and activities that are remote from the user is termed displacement.And if we discover a new fruit that no one has ever seen before, we can createa new symbol, such as a name, to refer to it. This feature of symbols is termedopenness.

We can also use symbols to stand for things that are more complex thansimple objects. Symbols can stand for emotions and complex philosophical

concepts that exist only in our minds. Symbols can create a supernaturalworld or create myths about the past. Joseph Church, discussing language,writes:

we can manipulate symbols in ways impossible with the things they stand for, and soarrive at novel and even creative versions of reality … We can verbally rearrangesituations which in themselves would resist rearrangement … we can isolate featureswhich in fact cannot be isolated … we can juxtapose objects and events far separated intime and space … we can, if we will, turn the universe symbolically inside out.1

In our initial example we used a geometric shape, a blue triangle, as a symbol.Many symbols are physical objects or artistic representations. Symbols do nothave to be physical, however. Language is a system of symbols, but here thesymbols are sounds. The only reason that the word apple means a particulartype of fruit is because when we learned English, we learned that thecombination of sounds that make up the word apple stands for that particularfruit. There is nothing inherently “applish” about the sound of the word apple,just as there is nothing “applish” about a blue triangle. In fact, this fruit isknown by many other names in other languages—manzana in Spanish andelma in Turkish, for example.

Religious symbols

Symbols are important elements in religious practice, and religious ritualscenter on symbols and the manipulation of symbols. In Hinduism we mightapproach a statue that represents the god Brahma. In ritual the statue may bebathed with milk, and strings of flowers may be hung around its neck. Peoplein many different culture areas use masks to impersonate gods, such as themasks of the Hopi of the American Southwest and the Dogon of westernAfrica. The sand painting of the Navaho, created as a part of ritual, becomes aportal into the supernatural world.

Of course, not all symbols are physical things or artistic representations.Words, both written and spoken, are critical elements in religious behavior. InJewish ritual the Torah is taken from the ark with great ceremony to be read.In Tantric Buddhism, found in Tibet, words or formulas have great spiritual

power, which builds as they are chanted over and over. Elements of music anddance and of space and time can also serve as symbols. We will begin ourdiscussion of symbols by looking at basic artistic representations.

The swastika

A symbol such as the swastika can stand for very complex ideas and cancarry great emotional resonance. Most Americans and Europeans looking atthe swastika experience anger or dread. In 1919, the German Nazi Partyadopted the swastika as its symbol. Because of this the swastika has beenassociated with the terrible events perpetrated by the Nazis in World War II.A swastika spray-painted on a wall is often defined in law as a hate crime.

The swastika is a religious symbol that is found in a great many religioussystems. It is basically a pattern of lines set at right angles to one another and,as such, carries no inherent meaning. It occurs in many versions—clockwiseand counterclockwise, for example. The term is derived from the Sanskrit su(“good”) and avasti (“to exist”). The swastika is seen in the religious artassociated with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is also found in theancient art of Scandinavia and the Middle East, and it is even seen in earlyChristian art. In most of these contexts, the swastika has a positive meaningsuch as prosperity and good luck. However, in some cultures the reverseswastika is called the sauvastika and stands for darkness, misfortune, andsuffering.

The swastika is found in Navaho art, in which it represents the WhirlingLog, an element of a story found in the creation myth (Figure 3.1). TheWhirling Log was a type of dugout canoe built by the gods. The symbolrepresents the log with a support pole attached beneath. Attached to each endis a rainbow rope that stand out straight as the log whirls. The culture heroSelf Teacher traveled in this canoe on an epic journey. This design element isused in many rituals, including the Night and Feather chants.

The pentagram

The term pentagram can refer to any five-sided figure but is generally used torefer to a five-pointed star, also called a pentacle (Figure 3.2a). Pentagramsare among the most widely used religious symbols, both historically andcross-culturally.

Some researchers believe that the pentagram originated as the symbol of apagan goddess. The pentagram became associated with this goddess becauseher sacred fruit was the apple. If an apple is cut in half through its equator, theseeds of the apple form a pentagram in each half. The pentagram is also usedby the Masonic order, which traces its origins back to Pythagoras and ancientGreece.

The pentagram was associated with the Hebrew Scriptures as a symbol ofthe five books of the Pentateuch (the Torah). Early Christians used the symbolwith a variety

Figure 3.1 Navaho blanket with swastika. Early twentieth-century Navaho blanket woven ofwhite, red, and dark brown sheep’s wool, with storm motif. Note the swastikas at each end.

Figure 3.2 The pentagram. (a) Pentagram, (b) Satanist inverted pentagram, (c) symbol of theChurch of Satan.

of meanings, including the representation of the five wounds of Christ and thestar that prophesied the birth of Jesus. It was only during the Witchcraze (seeChapter 10) that the pentagram began to take on a connotation of evil. Duringthis time, the symbol was actually referred to as the “witch’s foot.” Thisassociation with evil became stronger for many when twentieth-centurySatanists adopted the pentagram as their symbol. The Satanist symbol is aninverted pentagram, most commonly shown with a goat’s head in the center(Figure 3.2b and c). (Satanists are discussed in Chapter 10.)

As with the swastika, there are many misunderstandings about themeaning of the pentagram owing to its various associations. Most recently,the symbol has been adopted by Wiccans, members of a Neo-Pagan religionthat is reviving pre-Christian religious practices. (We will discuss the Wiccanreligion in more detail in Chapter 11.) Wicca is a nature-based, polytheisticreligion that emphasizes the use of good magic and not doing harm. For someWiccans the pentagram represents earth, air, fire, water, and spirit; for othersit refers to the four directions and spirit. However, many Americans stillassociate the pentagram with evil when they see a person wearing it.

Christian symbols

Figure 3.3 Some Christian symbols. (a) Roman Cross, (b) Greek Cross, (c) Cross of St.Andrew, (d) Tau Cross, (e) Coptic Cross, (f) Celtic Cross, (g) Cross of the Russian OrthodoxChurch, (h) Cross and Flame of the United Methodist Church (®The United MethodistChurch), (i) Jerusalem Cross.

The cross is the symbol most clearly associated with Christianity (Figure 3.3).Yet the cross did not gain general acceptance for many centuries after thefounding of the Christian religion. A Vatican sarcophagus from the fifthcentury shows one of the first depictions of a cross in Christian art. It is aGreek cross (with arms of equal length); Jesus’ body is not shown. Some earlyChristians even argued against the use of the cross as a symbol of Christianitybecause it had earlier pagan associations, most specifically the Tau cross (in

the shape of the letter T).The cross that is widely used today is a Roman cross, but there is still

considerable variation in the exact look of the cross symbol. For example,Roman Catholic crosses are crucifixion scenes, complete with the body ofChrist. The Protestant cross does not show the body of Christ becauseProtestants emphasize that Jesus has risen from the cross and is no longer onit. A cross with a dual flame behind it is the symbol of the United MethodistChurch. The cross represents Christ, and the flame represents the Holy Spirit.The cross of the Orthodox Church has three cross bars: one for the inscription,one for the arms, and one for a footrest.

Box 3.1 Religious toys and games

Bible action figures, Buddha plush toys, a mosque building set, plushplagues bag, Catholicopoly, Kosherland (based on the board gameCandyland), and Missionary Conquest (based on the board game Risk)are just a few of the many religiously themed games, dolls, and toys inthe marketplace. Some are satirical and meant solely for amusement(e.g., Nunzilla dolls, Lookin’ Good for Jesus bath products, and HolyToast bread stamp). Others are intended to transmit the narratives andworldview of a religion.

Colors, images, and the rules of play are all symbolic. The game piecesin Catholicopoly include a dove and a lamb. In the Buddhist version ofthe game snakes and ladders, ethical actions move the player upwardtoward enlightenment, while selfish behaviors move one lower towardrebirth as a lower life form. Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norriswrite:

All elements of the games communicate. Not only the components that aredesigned to intentionally instill values or knowledge, such as cards or boarddesign, but every element of the game, from the box to the directions, can be readas cultural text. For example, games that have long or complicated directions areusually from hierarchical or highly regulated religions. This makes sense, sincethe designers have included what they consider to be important, and in thesereligions rules and principles are fundamental and crucial constituents. Unlike theintentional symbols and meanings embedded in religious games, directions aremore subliminally illustrative, yet nonetheless teach important aspects of religious

life.2

Bado-Fralick and Norris point out that religious games and toys makemany uncomfortable by associating religion with play, commerce, andprofane activities. Yet, the separation of religion as its own domain, eventhe separation of childhood and its games and as a distinct stage of life, isa recent invention. Games and play have long been a part of religion, asfor example in divination rituals (see Chapter 7).

If the cross was not the most important early Christian symbol, what was?It was the simple fish symbol. There are several reasons why the fish wasused. One often given is that Jesus referred to the apostles as “fishers of men.”The most commonly given reason, though, is that the letters of the Greekword for fish, icthus, form an acrostic. An acrostic is a word that is derivedfrom the first letter of a series of words. So icthus is derived from IesousChristos Theou Uiou Soter (“Jesus Christ of God the Son the Savior”). In theearly days, when Christians were a small, persecuted group, the symbolserved as a type of password. One person would draw the first arc in the sand,and if the second person was also Christian, he or she would draw the secondarc to complete the fish.

Sacred art

Although the swastika, pentagram, cross, and other simple symbols areimportant representations in their respective religious systems, they areusually elements found in more complex settings or works of art. Imagine, forexample, walking into a great European cathedral with its massive stainedglass windows, statuary, and paintings, all containing a myriad of symbols, orwalking through a Buddhist temple in Thailand, with its many representationsof the figure of Buddha, each with its own complex meaning and referents.

The sarcophagus of Lord Pakal

Artistic representations are often used to illustrate and supplement religioustexts. The following is an archaeological example from the ancient Maya ofsouthern Mexico in the Mesoamerica culture area. Although contemporaryMayan religion has many parallels with the ancient Mayan religion,contemporary studies can provide only a limited understanding of ancientMayan art. The fact that we can know as much as we do about the ancientMaya is because they built monumental buildings, chiseled great works of artinto stone, developed a sophisticated calendar, and had a system of writing.However, not all Mayan symbols have been deciphered, and much remains tobe learned.

In 1949, the Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruiz Lhuillier was working inthe Temple of the Inscriptions at the site of Palenque. Like most Mayantemples, it was built on top of a large pyramid. While working in the temple,Lhuillier discovered a staircase under the floor leading to a room containing alarge stone sarcophagus richly carved with Mayan pictures and writing(Figure 3.4). The cover was removed to reveal the skeleton of a man, that ofone of the greatest kings to rule Palenque. His name was K’inich JanahloPakal, Pakal the Great, or Lord Shield. He died at the age of eighty on August31, 683, after having ruled for sixty-seven years.

As we in the twenty-first century look at this carving from the seventhcentury, especially if we have never encountered Mayan art before, weprobably recognize only a few elements—perhaps a reclining figure in thecenter and a bird near the top. Of course, if we were aristocratic Maya livingin the seventh century, the meaning of all of these elements would be knownto us. Our fathers would have taken us to the

Figure 3.4 The Mayan cosmos. This carving is a symbolic representation of the Mayancosmos. The carving is found on the sarcophagus cover in the Temple of the Inscriptions,Palenque, Mexico.

temple precinct to show us the various motifs carved into the stone and toexplain their meaning. As aristocrats, we also would undoubtedly haveattended religious classes or received tutoring from the priests.

This carving is important to modern scholars because it is a visualrepresentation of the Mayan cosmos. We cannot explain all of the elements,and limited space here prevents us from offering a complete explanation ofwhat we do know, but let us examine some of the elements as examples ofhow symbolic representations are used to create a virtual supernatural world.

Near the base of the carving is an image of a skeletal snake. The skull of the“White-Bone-Snake” has been slit and spread out. The open jaws of theserpent form the portal that connects the world of the living with Xibalba, theworld of the dead. We see Pakal at the moment of his death descending intothe serpent’s jaws as he moves from the world of the living into the world ofthe dead.

Behind the figure of Pakal, appearing to be growing out of the serpent’sjaw, is the Cosmic Tree, which is the central axis of the world. The tree isrooted in the underworld; behind Pakal is the Middle World, which is theworld inhabited by people; the upper parts of the tree reach into the heavens.Many of the representations in the upper portion of the tree representconstellations and heavenly bodies. For example, what appear to be branchesthat end in square-nosed serpents, flowers, and other symbols represent theMilky Way. The bird perched at the top of the tree is the companion of one ofthe gods involved with the creation of the world. We know this because ofvarious symbols carved on the bird, such as a necklace and the “ribbon” in itsbeak.

The carving shows Pakal descending into the Underworld. There he willundergo a series of trials followed by his resurrection as a god. Associatedwith Pakal is a sacrificial bowl that is carved with the symbol representing thesun. Like the sun that moves into Xibalba at sunset and is resurrected atdawn, so does Pakal move into the Underworld to be resurrected as a god.After his death, the priests would enter into an altered state of consciousness(see Chapter 5) and contact Pakal’s spirit. In fact, along the side of thestaircase leading to his tomb is a pipe made of brick. This is a psychoduct,through which Pakal’s spirit moves from the tomb into the temple sanctuaryduring rituals.

The meaning of color

As we saw with the sarcophagus of Lord Pakal, religious art can be quitecomplex. There are many important elements in artistic representation. One ofthese is color. Although today we see the statues and carvings of the Romansand the ancient Mayans in white marble or the color of stone, we know thatat the time these statues and carvings were made, objects of stone were oftencovered with paint.

Colors have cultural meanings. In Western weddings, brides wear white.This tradition began with the wedding of British Queen Victoria to PrinceAlbert in 1840. Irish folk wisdom dictates the following:

Married in white, you have chosen all right.Married in red, you’d better be dead.Married in yellow, ashamed of the fellow.Married in blue, your lover is true.Married in green, ashamed to be seen.Married in black, you’ll ride in a hack.Married in pearl, you’ll live in a whirl.Married in brown, you’ll live out of town.

These meanings do not necessarily apply to other cultures. For example,sometimes white may be avoided because of its association with death. InChinese culture, brides wear red.

Many scholars have studied color terminology. English has eleven basiccolor terms: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, pink, black, white,and gray. These are the colors that children learn in preschool. We also definecolors more narrowly within these basic categories by using combined terms(such as red-orange) or specialized terms (such as lavender and turquoise).

All peoples in all societies, except individuals with some form of colorblindness, see the entire visible spectrum of colors, but the color spectrum isnot divided up into natural units of color. All languages have ways of dividingup this spectrum into arbitrary categories that are labeled by linguistic forms.However, the actual number of basic color terms and how the visiblespectrum is actually divided vary from culture to culture. Generally,languages of industrial societies tend to have a greater number of basic colorterms than do languages spoken in less complex societies.

A color term, a word such as blue, is a symbol. In this case, the word bluerefers not to a physical object, but to a particular segment of the colorspectrum, or, as a physicist might define it, a range of wavelengths of light.

When speakers of different languages are asked to identify the range of colorscovered by a particular color term, we see a great deal of variation. Symbols,including color terminology, are arbitrary and learned; they are parts ofcultural traditions. For example, the Navaho think of the ideal blue asturquoise. The stone of that color not only is important in jewelry making, butalso has religious importance. To the Navaho, “blue is the color of celestialand earthly attainment, of peace, happiness, and success, of vegetablesustenance.”3

Yoruba color terminology

The language of the Yoruba of Nigeria in the Guinea Coast culture area hasonly three basic color terms. Each term covers a much larger part of the colorspectrum than do English color terms. Funfun includes what English speakerscall white, silver, and pale gray. Pupa covers red, pink, orange, and deepyellow. Dúdú includes black, blue, purple, green, dark brown, red-brown, anddark gray.

In the English language, colors evoke emotions. We say that a sad person isfeeling blue; when angry, we see red; a jealous person is green with envy; acoward is yellow. The Yoruba also associate colors with particulartemperatures and temperaments. For example, funfun is associated withcoolness, age, and wisdom; pupa evokes hotness; dúdú is dark and warm.

The supernatural world of the Yoruba is populated by many spiritual beingscalled orisha. (The orisha will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 9.)Obatala, the king of the orisha, an ethical and merciful deity, is linked to thecolor funfun, the color of wisdom and respect. Objects associated withObatala are frequently colored white, and he is sometimes called the “King ofthe White Cloth.” In contrast, Sango is associated with the color pupa. Herules thunder and lightning and is proud and quick-tempered, and his imagesare often colored red. Ossosi, who is associated with hunting, is introvertedand unstable. He is linked to the color dúdú, green and blue. The messenger ofthe gods is an orisha named Esu-Elegba. He is the intermediary between thepeople and the gods and ancestors and is the first deity addressed in rituals.Representations of Esu-Elegba are usually done in black and white or, in

Yoruba color terminology, funfun and dúdú. These are contrasting colors andrepresent the god’s unpredictability. Artistic representations of Esu-Elegba incarvings, paintings, and embroideries primarily use these two colors. AYoruba seeing such a representation can identify the orisha in part by thecolors being used.

Sacred time and sacred space

Symbols are also used to create sacred realities: supernatural worlds, sacredspaces, and sacred divisions of time.

The meaning of time

All the examples of symbols examined thus far have been things that we candirectly see as part of some physical artistic endeavor, whether it is a shape ora color. Yet not all things symbolic are physical. People also handlenonphysical entities symbolically. Our example will be the cultural handlingof time.

What is time? People see time as being made up of recurring units that arebased on observable physical events: the movement of the sun across the sky,the phases of the moon, and the passing of the seasons. We also can dividethese units into phases. For example, a day can be divided based on theposition of the sun (morning, afternoon, and evening). In astronomical terms,these recurring events represent the rotation of the earth on its axis (a day),the journey of the moon around the earth (a month), and the travel of theearth around the sun (a year). Human activities are organized by particularparts of the day or certain times of the year.

Humans also create units of time that are not based on real astronomicalevents such as the rotation of the earth. These units appear to be arbitrary. Aweek in our culture has seven days. Why not five, as is common in parts ofCentral America and Africa? Why not eight, as was found among the ancient

Inca of the South American Andes? And why not sixteen, as is found amongthe Yoruba of Nigeria? The seven-day week of Western society is derivedfrom the cultures of the ancient Near East and perhaps came from the divisionof the approximately twenty-eight-day lunar cycle into four quarters. In otherwords, concepts such as “a week” are nonphysical symbols that stand forparticular periods of time. Many of these periods do not exist in the realworld, but only in the human mind.

Time is an important element of religious rituals. Many rituals areperformed at specific moments of time, often as part of a ceremonial cycle. Aswe will see in the next section, time often has important symbolic meaning.

The Mayan view of time

The passage of time had a deep religious significance for the ancient Maya ofsouthern Mexico and Central America. They developed several systems ofmarking time that intersected with one another to form a complex calendar.Like many peoples, the Maya had a calendrical system based on the solar yearconsisting of about 365 days. The Maya divided their year into eighteenmonths of twenty days and a nineteenth month of five days. Each month wasnamed, and each day within a month was numbered. A particular day wasnamed by a combination of its numerical position within the month and thename of the month, just as we do.

The solar year is a natural unit that is determined by the movements of thesun in the sky throughout the year. However, the Maya developed a secondkind of year of 260 days that was constructed from a cycle of twenty daynames and a second cycle of thirteen numbers. A particular day was knownby a number and a day name. The twenty-day cycle of day names and thethirteen-day number cycle are interconnected like teeth in two large gears.The same combination of day name and number occurs every 260 days.

The two calendar systems ran simultaneously, and a specific day wasnamed after its position in both calendars, which resulted in 18,980 uniquecombinations of days. It took fifty-two years to go through all of thesecombinations and to start over again. The end of a fifty-two-year cycle andthe beginning of the next was an important ceremonial event in Mayan

religious life. The fifty-two-year cycle has no astronomical basis but is a partof Mayan culture, a part of how they understood their world. And this wasjust the beginning. The Maya recognized several other cycles, such as thatbased on the movements of the planet Venus in the sky.

Thus each day from the beginning of time in the Mayan calendar wasunique and was designated by a sequence of notations based on the variouscalendars. When a child was born, the child was taken to a priest who usedthe designation of the day of the child’s birth to predict the child’s future.Important events, especially those surrounding the ruler, were scheduled tofall on days that were considered to be particularly auspicious. Thus to theMaya, time was much more than just a flow of days and years. Time had animportant religious meaning (Box 3.2).

Box 3.2 The end of time

Different religious systems have different views of time. For some, timeis cyclic. For others, it is a progression from one phase to another. Thiswas true of the ancient Maya. The Maya lived in the fourth world whichbegan on August 11, 3114 BCE. The Mayan calendar starts on this date,and from that day forward, time is divided into a series of larger andlarger inclusive units. The largest of these units is the baktun thatconsists of 144,000 days (approximately 395 years). The end point of eachcycle was an important event in the Mayan calendar. December 21, 2012,the winter solstice, marked the end of the thirteenth baktun sincecreation.4 Although many predicted the end of the world on this date,there is no evidence that the Maya saw the end of a baktun as anapocalyptic event. However, predictions such as these sold a lot of booksand made for a plot of an action-packed movie.

Other religious systems also see time as being cyclic. Onecharacteristic of Christian fundamentalism (Chapter 12) isdispensationalism. This term refers to the belief that God has divided thehistory of the earth into phases or “dispensations.” This idea wasdeveloped by the Englishman John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) who readthe Bible as a historic document from which accurate predictions could

be gleaned. His scheme consisted of seven phases, each ending with acatastrophe, such as the Fall, the Flood of Noah, and the Crucifixion.People today are living in the sixth dispensation. Like previous stages,this stage too will come to an end in some catastrophic manner.However, just before, there would be a “Rapture” in which born-againChristians would be taken up to heaven and escape the sufferings of theLast Days. Later they would rule with Christ in the seventh dispensation.

William Miller (1782–1849) was a Baptist preacher who, throughcareful study of the Bible as a historical document, believed that theworld as it was known would end in 1843. This was the beginning of anapocalyptic tradition that characterizes much of American Christianity.His movement began to spread and was referred to as Millerism. As thedate approached, Miller predicted that the Second Coming of Christ—theAdvent—would occur sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21,1844. When the predicted event failed to take place, he announced asecond date based upon “corrected” calculations—October 22, 1844. Thefailure of the Advent occurring on that date is called the GreatDisappointment. Nevertheless, the idea had taken hold in AmericanChristianity, although usually without a specified date. Out of thetradition of Millerism grew several religious traditions that survive tothis day, primarily the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Rituals and calendars in modern world religions

There are many examples from modern world religions of the importance oftime and calendars. Many rituals are performed according to a temporal cycle.Such rituals are termed periodic rituals. They often commemorate theanniversary of important events in the history of the religion. Because of theimportance of setting the date of the celebration correctly, many religionscontinue to use calendars that are older than the one most commonly used inthe Western world.

In Islam, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which is themonth during which the Qur’an was sent down from heaven to Mohammad.

The month of Ramadan is a time for worship and contemplation. During thistime, Muslims follow many constraints on their daily lives, such as not eatingor drinking during daylight hours. At the end of the day, the fast is brokenwith prayer and a meal. The Laylat-al-Qadr (the Night of Power) is celebratedon the evening of the twenty-seventh day of Ramadan, as the night whenMohammad first received the revelation of the Qur’an. According to theQur’an, this is also the night when God determines the course of the world forthe following year. The end of the fasting, and of the month of Ramadan, iscelebrated for three days in Id-al-Fitr (the Feast of Fast Breaking).

The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar. Each month begins with thesighting of the first crescent of the new moon. The length of the month thusdefined does not divide evenly into the solar year—it is about eleven to twelvedays short. As a result, the start of Ramadan shifts from year to year. In 2017the month of Ramadan began on May 27, while in 2020 it will begin on April24. One of the consequences of this is that when Ramadan falls in the winterseason, the period of fasting is relatively short and the weather is relativelycool. But it is quite different when Ramadan falls during the summer season.

Another example of periodic rituals being set to older calendars is theYamim Nora’im (Days of Awe), or Jewish high holy days, which are observedfor a ten-day period between the first and tenth days of the month of Tishri,the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)marks the beginning of this time period, and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)marks the end. These are considered to be the most important of all the Jewishholidays and are the only Jewish holidays that are purely religious and notbased on any historical or natural event.

The high holy days are a time for penitence and prayer during which Jewsare given time to repent of their sins against God and ask God for forgiveness.On Rosh Hashanah, God judges the people and records His judgment in theBook of Life. However, there is a ten-day reprieve until Yom Kippur, when theBook is closed and sealed. Yom Kippur itself is a day for fasting and prayer.

The Hebrew calendar is also a lunar calendar. But in order to keep theholidays from shifting too far, a thirteenth month is added every two or threeyears. In some years, extra days are added to prevent Yom Kippur fromoccurring on the Sabbath. Thus the major ceremonies are maintained withinspecific seasons of the year.

In the early Christian church, the celebration of Easter was correlated with

the Jewish celebration of Passover, since the Last Supper was a PassoverSeder, and celebrated in the Spring. However, because different Jewishcommunities set the date somewhat differently, the early church attempted toset the celebration of Easter according to their calendar (the Julian calendar,originally based upon the calendar reforms of Julius Caesar). Yet the date keptdrifting later in the year. Finally, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed a new,reformed calendar, the calendar that we use today (the Gregorian calendar).

It took several centuries for the new calendar to be accepted throughoutEurope and the New World. Britain and the British Empire, including theAmerican colonies, adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. By that time itwas eleven days out of sync with the older Julian calendar. As a result, whenthe changeover took place, the date of Wednesday, September 2, 1752, wasimmediately followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752. Many people wereunhappy having their birthdays dismissed in this fashion.

Other times, not related to a specific calendar, may also have religioussignificance. A common example is the time following a death. In Judaism,this period of mourning is called shiva. Shiva begins as soon as the mournerhas returned from the cemetery and lasts for seven days. During this time, themourner remains at home and does not participate in any of his or her normalactivities, such as work or school. Friends and relatives visit the home of themourners and often bring food.

Sacred time and space in Australia

The religious systems of the Australian Aborigines are focused on expressionsof sacred time and space. To understand these systems, we must examine theconcept of totemism. A simple definition of a totem, as it is frequently used,is that of a symbol or emblem of a social unit. A special relationship is said toexist between a group or individual and its totem, which is frequently, but notalways, an animal. American culture possesses many such emblems. They arefound primarily in athletics as mascots and in business as logos. Many athleticteams are named after animals—such as bears, bulldogs, eagles, and panthers—and the selection of a team’s mascot often reflects those characteristics ofthe animal that are deemed important for players to display in that particular

sport. Yet to think of totems simply as mascots and logos is very superficial, aswe will see.

The term totem comes from the Ojibwa language of Canada, in which theword ototeman can be translated as “He is a relative of mine.” This refers toparticular animal species, known as totems, that become associated withOjibwa clans, a type of kinship group. The clans are given the name of thetotem.

Totemism and the Dream Time

Perhaps the best-known examples of totemism come from Australianaboriginal groups. The totemic system has many components, includingtotemic symbols, myths, and a sacred landscape.

In contrast to isolated sacred sites, which are often the sites of pilgrimages,indigenous peoples live on a sacred landscape. The places described in theirmyths are places that exist in their own physical world—a stream, a cave, amountain. And their origin stories tell of the creation of this landscape and thecreation of the plants, animals, and people who inhabit it.

The creation myths of the Australian Aborigines begin in the dim pastduring the Dream Time with the creation of an earth without features, anearth devoid of mountains, rivers, and plains. Supernatural creatures thenappeared on the earth. These creatures of the Dream Time appeared fromunder the earth or, among coastal groups, on rafts. They then traveled overthe landscape, creating the world as we see it today—the physical world, theplants, the animals, the people—as well as the customs that govern people’slives. They then left the surface of the earth or turned themselves into someobject in the landscape, such as a boulder or hill. The places that areassociated with particular mythological beings are today sacred spaces thatplay important roles in religious rituals. The landscape in which theAborigines live is a canvas on which their mythology is written, and variousfeatures of this landscape serve to define the nature of humanity.

The stories of the Dream Time establish special relationships betweenhumans and animals, for both types of creatures are descendants of the samesupernatural being that was neither human nor animal. Thus the tie of kinship

is extended to the animal world and to the rest of the living world as well asthe physical landscape. These animals, plants, and natural objects are thetotems of the community. Any particular place, be it a water hole or a hill, canbe associated with a particular story and can be claimed as part of thereligious heritage of a particular group of people.

Within a community, different groups of people share different totems.Totems exist for bands, clans, the sexes, and even individuals. Claiming atotem brings with it special obligations. One is a prohibition against eating theflesh of one’s totemic animal, except during special rituals. It is acceptable forother members of the community, even your spouse and children, to eat ofyour totem, but not for you because you share a special relationship with thetotemic species. Members of a totemic group have responsibilities to performreligious ceremonies, including initiation ceremonies. There are many otherrules that are part of the special relationship between an individual or groupand its totem.

Totemic affiliations also organize Australian society. Specific clans areassociated with particular totems. There are rules regulating who can marrywhom. Complex rules define the affiliation of one’s children as well as theappropriate social behaviors between different classes of kin.

The determination of the group into which a child is born can be complex.In some groups it is determined by rules of kinship. In many groups thepregnancy is thought to be the result of a totemic spirit, perhaps residing in asacred water hole, entering the womb of the woman. The husband and otherelders will question the woman to determine which spirit from what totemicgroup entered her womb to determine that child’s affiliation. In some groupsthe identity of the spirit is revealed in the father’s dream. On death, theindividual’s soul returns to the totemic well.

At some point, young men are initiated into manhood. These initiationrituals involve the learning of ritual knowledge, including the ability to lookat and handle totemic objects. These rituals also involve some type ofalteration of the body, such as circumcision or the knocking out of a tooth.When visiting sacred places described in the Dream Time stories, wounds areopened or new wounds are made on the body, and a person’s blood is allowedto fall on sacred objects.

Australian Aborigine culture has a rich tradition of symbolic religious art.This art includes arrangements of stones, decoration of sacred objects, bark

paintings, and rock art. Sacred spaces, especially caves and rock overhangs,are decorated with paintings and engravings; some may be as old as 30,000years or older. Many of these were done by men as representations of totemiccreatures, objects, and events; others were thought to have been completed bythe totemic beings during the Dream Time. Some are said to actuallyrepresent totemic beings who turned to stone or became paintings on a wall.

The symbolism of music and dance

Music and dance play special roles in religious rituals. The degree to whichmusic and dance are included in ritual is quite variable. Some rituals simplyinclude a song; others focus on an elaborate performance of a myth in songand dance. Music and dance can be thought of as symbols as stories are toldthrough movement and through music motifs.

The symbolism of music

Music is a key element in ritual. It may simply set the mood for a ceremony ormay actually be the primary vehicle by which religious stories are told and bywhich people communicate with the gods. Music fulfills many roles duringreligious rituals and is used to teach, to express or engender emotional states,to produce altered states of consciousness, to please the supernatural powers,or to make contact with them.

An important function of music is the facilitation of memorization. Innonliterate societies, large amounts of narrative must be committed tomemory. Anyone who has had to memorize a piece of prose in school knowshow difficult this can be. Poetry is easier to memorize than prose becausepoetry has rhythm and rhyme. The easiest of all to memorize are the lyrics toa song. For this reason, narratives and prayers are frequently chanted or sung.

Of course, music also sets the mood for a ritual. The organ setting the moodfor a funeral, a choir singing a medieval chant, the rejoicing of a gospel hymn

—all illustrate the power of music to set the ambience for ritual. We use musicin a similar way for secular purposes. Compare the music you would select tolisten to while studying with the music you would play when having friendsover for a party or a date for a romantic evening. Movies continually usemusic to set the emotional tone. We know when to be happy, sad, orfrightened on the basis of the music on the soundtrack.

Many early Christian missionaries understood the influence of music andbrought pianos and organs with them to remote areas of the globe. A smallorgan might have been played in a crude bush church set in the middle of atropical rain forest. However, these missionaries were making the assumptionthat the various types of music that we produce reflect universals in moodsand emotions.

A somber hymn played on an organ reflects the sadness of a funeral, and aromping gospel hymn expresses the joy of closeness with God. We couldassume that Euro-American religious, military, or love music will evoke thesame emotional response in all societies throughout the world. Thisassumption, however, turns out not to be true. In reality, Euro-Americanmusic often fails to convey its intended meaning to non-Westerners, andnative musical idioms fail to move outsiders. Of course, the meaning of musicis symbolic, and as such, it is part of the learned traditions of a culture.

Realizing this basic fact, many missionaries and many contemporarymusicians are writing music in traditional idioms and are discovering andimporting tribal musical traditions into contemporary music. This is anexample of syncretism, the fusion of elements from two different cultures.For example, the well-known Congolese composition Missa Luba is a CatholicMass sung in Latin but set to music elements and instruments of the Kongotribe of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). Africandrumming, Australian Aborigine songs, and Native American flute playinghave all been integrated into new musical experiences.

Music in ritual

Music plays important roles in the lives of foraging peoples. Colin Turnbullstudied the Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest in the Congo and recorded their

music in the 1950s. The Mbuti sing throughout their day and hunters, walkingin the dense tropical forest, will use song as a way of maintaining contactwith one another. The !Kung San of Botswana utilize song in their healingrituals. Several times a month they will gather around a fire in the eveningand start singing. Some members of their group, primarily men, begin todance around the singers and enter an altered state of consciousness called!kia. Once they reach this stage they move around the fire laying hands oneach individual as a healing ritual (see Figure 5.2 in Chapter 5).

In some cultures the actual musical sounds may be interpreted as sounds ofthe supernatural. The sound may be produced either vocally orinstrumentally. One example of this is the Tuva (Siberian culture area). Forthe Tuva, spiritual power is found in nature. These spirits manifest themselvesboth through physical appearance and by the sounds they make or that can bemade through human interaction. Examples would be the sound of runningwater or the echo of a human voice from a cliff. The way for humans to makecontact with supernatural powers is to imitate their sounds. Caves, inparticular, are important for this purpose. Caves are sites of supernaturalpower and can be used to contact the spirits of the earth. The type of vocalsounds the Tuva use is also interesting. They are known for a technique calledxöömei, or “throat-singing.” A single vocalist using this technique is able toproduce two distinct pitches at the same time.

Instruments are very important elements in music, and an unbelievablearray of musical instruments can be found throughout the world. We candivide instruments into four basic types. Idiophones are instruments that arestruck, shaken, or rubbed. Common examples are rattles, bells, wooden drums,rasps, bullroarers, marimbas, and xylophones.

Membranophones are instruments that incorporate a taut membrane orskin. These include drums. Cordophones are instruments with taut stringsthat can be plucked or strummed, hit, or sawed. These include harps, zithers,and violins. Finally, we have aerophones, in which air is blown across or intosome type of passageway, such as a pipe. These include whistles, pipes,didjeridus, flutes, and trumpets.

For some cultures, sounds produced by musical instruments have religioussignificance. The best-known examples in the anthropological literature arethe didjeridu of the Australian Aborigines and the molimo of the Pygmies ofthe Ituri Forest of Central Africa. These are very simple aerophones that are

essentially nothing more than long pipes, usually of wood. The sounds ofthese instruments are said to be the sounds of spirits. Initiated men play theseinstruments out of sight of the women and children, who are told that thesound is the actual voice of the spirits. The true nature of the sound isrevealed to young men as part of initiation rites.

Music plays an important role in Africa, where it is associated withreligious rituals and storytelling. Membranophones, especially drums, areimportant instruments. Rhythm is highly developed and, in contrast withEuro-American traditions, melody and harmony are secondary. A great manytypes of drums are played, and often they are combined into large drumensembles.

The symbolism of dance

The use of dance is not common in Western religious rituals, but in manyreligious traditions dance is an important means of symbolically representingthe supernatural world and telling religious stories. Of course, dance does notexist in isolation. Dance is usually performed to music, frequently involves thechanting or singing of words, and involves the manipulation of physicalsymbols such as costumes and masks, sets, and props.

Culture consists of patterned, traditional behaviors. We can define dance asa system of patterned, traditional movements. These movements, involvingthe whole body or sometimes just a part of the body such as the hands, aresymbolic in that they have culturally determined meanings. Characters inwell-known stories are identified by their traditional movements, such as theirway of walking and moving their arms, as well as by their costumes, makeup,and masks. In societies that lack systems of writing, dance becomes animportant vehicle for telling sacred stories to the community. For example,among native Hawaiians, hula dances told the stories of the gods andgoddesses.

The Kwakwaka’wakw of the North American Northwest Coast culture areasay that a human family line was created when the ancestor of the groupcame down to earth, took off his mask, and became human. Carved animalmasks are an important religious art form for the Kwakwaka’wakw and

frequently are worn by the dancers who retell important mythic stories.Dance, however, goes far beyond the telling of stories. Dances can act asofferings, and many deities like to be entertained. Dancers also can becomeconduits of supernatural power. The Kwakwaka’wakw masked dancers, forexample, become the being whose mask is worn for the duration of the ritual.

In many cultures, gods and spirits enter the human body and take over itsfunctioning. The particular movements during possession identify the godwithin the body and may actually provide communication between the deityand the human participants. For example, possession is an important featureof Vodou. During a Vodou ritual, a song is sung to summon a particular god.When the god arrives, he or she possesses one of the dancers. A commonmetaphor is that the dancer is a horse on which the deity rides. Which godhas possessed a dancer can be deduced by the dancer’s movements andactions. (We will discuss the Vodou religion in more detail in Chapter 11.)

Early in the history of Islam, a group that was most interested in themystical aspects of the religion broke off to form the Sufi. One of the mostimportant of the Sufi mystics was a man named Mevlana Rumi, who lived inthe thirteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Rumi founded the Mevlevi Order andrevived the practice of whirling. The members of the Mevlevi Order are oftencalled “whirling dervishes” by people in the West. They wear long white skirtsthat billow out as the dancers, their arms extended in the air, continue to turn.Through this whirling, the dancers seek to become one with God.

The Tewa, a Pueblo group from the Southwest culture area, say that theydance to “seek life,” “regain life,” or “renew life.” Many symbolic references tothis theme of new life can be found in the movements of the dancers, thecostumes that are worn, and the songs that are sung. Dancers lift their armsupward to symbolize the welcoming of rain; lower their arms to indicatedigging, planting, or harvesting; and move their arms from side to side tosymbolize rainbows or clouds. Costume designs are also symbolic. Longtassels represent raindrops; woven headdresses contain depictions of squashblossoms or embroidered layers of clouds. The songs that accompany thedances make references to dawn, youth, flowers, and growing corn. The Tewapractice agriculture in a very arid environment, so references to rain anditems associated with rain such as clouds, thunder, and rainbows areimportant symbols of life.

Tewa dances are generally held in open plazas where performers can be in

contact with the earth. The dancers array themselves in long, parallel linesand move in unison to the beat of one or more drums. The dancers themselvesmay sing or a chorus of singers standing nearby may accompany them. Beforethe dance, the participants prepare in a kiva, an underground room that isentered from a hole in the roof. When the dance is about to begin, the dancersemerge from the kiva and move to the plaza. This is a symbolic reference tothe Tewa origin story that tells how the first people emerged from a worldbelow into the present world.

Conclusion

To conclude our discussion of symbolism, we need to tie together severalconcepts that we have explored thus far. Symbols are often based on specificepisodes that are recounted in myths, and they represent a specific worldview.An example we already discussed was the Tewa practice of beginning dancesby emerging from a kiva to symbolize the emergence from under the earth atthe beginning of the world. We will reexamine some of the other symbols wehave already discussed to explore the connections between symbols, myth,and worldview.

Bloodletting was an important part of Mayan religious rituals, and thesarcophagus of Lord Pakal contains blood symbolism. The reason for this isfound in the origin story as told in a document known as the Popul Vuh, aseventeenth-century book that recounts the history of the Maya. In the PopulVuh we are told that the reason why the gods created people was to have akind of living creature who would worship them. As they prepare to createhuman beings, the gods say, “So now let’s try to make a giver of praise, giverof respect, provider, nurturer.”5

This reflects the worldview of the Maya that there exists a reciprocalrelationship between the Mayan people and their gods. The world wasbrought about by a sacrifice by the gods, but it will continue to exist only ifthe Mayans in turn sacrifice for the gods. The smoke produced by burningcloths soaked with blood was seen as providing nourishment to the gods.

The image of Pakal descending into the underworld to be reborn also refers

to a portion of the Popul Vuh. The story tells of twins, Hunahpu andXbalanque, who disturb the Lords of Death by playing a ball game. They aresummoned to Xibalba to participate in a series of trials, but they are able todefeat the Lords of Death through their cunning and are then reborn.

In a similar way, the symbolism of the Christian cross is based on the storyof the crucifixion of Jesus found in the Christian Bible. The symbol of thecross also expresses the Christian worldview: that the death of Jesus providesthe opportunity for salvation:

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucifiedhim, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then Jesussaid, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted hisraiment, and cast lots.

(Luke 23:33–34)

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ,save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fearGod, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receivethe due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. Then he said untoJesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said untohim, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

(Luke 23:39–43)

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

(John 3:16)

Another example of the connection between symbol, myth, and worldview isthe yin-yang symbol (Figure 3.5). This symbol is based on the Taoistworldview of the importance of balance and harmony. The Taoists believethat there are two interacting forces in the universe, called yin and yang. Yinis the female element, associated with coldness, darkness, softness, and theearth. Yang is the male element and is associated with warmth, light,hardness, and the heavens. The two elements are opposites but mutuallydependent, and they need to be in equilibrium. Yin and yang are believed tobe present in every aspect of the world. Yet each holds the seed of the otherthat expands and becomes the other.

Figure 3.5 Yin-yang. According to Taoist belief, yin is the female element and yang is themale element in the universe.

In an ancient Chinese creation story, yin and yang were held together in acosmic egg until the struggle of the opposing elements cracked the shell. Acreature called P’an Ku took form inside the egg. P’an Ku is sometimesreferred to as the child of yin and yang or as the giant of Chinese mythology.P’an Ku emerges from the egg and goes about creating the world, in severalversions fashioning the earth using an adze or a hammer and chisel. But thecreation of the world is not complete until P’an Ku dies, whereupon his bodygives rise to various elements. His skull becomes the dome of the sky, and hisflesh becomes the soil of the earth. His bones become rock; his blood, rivers;his breath, the winds; and his eyes, the sun and the moon. The fleas andparasites on his body became the ancestors of modern human groups.

These connections between symbol, myth, and worldview will continue tobe important as we add one more element to the mix: ritual. In the nextchapter, we will discuss rituals and the ways they are intimately connectedwith symbols, myth, and worldview.

Summary

A symbol is something that stands for something else. Symbols enable us totalk about things that are not immediately in front of us and to create our ownrealities. They are important elements in religious practice, and religiousrituals center on the manipulation of symbols.

Symbols can appear in many forms. Language is symbolic in nature,because various speech sounds are used to create combinations that havemeaning. Yet there is nothing of the referent that is inherent in the soundcombination—its meaning is part of a cultural tradition. Recitation of religiousnarratives is an important feature of religious practices. Religious ideas alsocan be expressed in art that may contain many symbolic elements. Muchartistic representation is arbitrary in that the nature of the symbol does notalways communicate its meaning. Simple examples are the swastika, thepentagram, and the cross. Although an outsider might have difficultyunderstanding a piece of religious art, a member of that culture would haveno such difficulty.

Time and space are also treated symbolically. Many units of time, such asour week and the several cycles of Mayan time, are arbitrary and provide timewith deep meaning. Calendar systems exist as a way of symbolicallyorganizing time and for scheduling periodic rituals. Space is also full ofsymbolic meaning, especially when mythological events are seen as occurringon the landscape. Such a sacred landscape is a part of the totemic systemfound among the Australian Aborigines.

Music and dance are also symbolic and are important elements in religiousritual. Musical elements suggest emotions and have symbolic meanings. Whatis considered to be religious music in one community might not be in another.Dance, composed of music, movement, costume and masks, and props andsets, is often used to tell religious stories in societies where such stories are notwritten down. All of these elements—language, art, music, and dance—interactto provide rich religious experiences.

Study questions

1. Logos and trademarks are examples of symbols that are important inAmerican society. Select some examples and show how they expressa particular emotion or idea about the product being advertised.

2. Historically, symbols can be very powerful and can evoke greatemotions. This is especially true of religious symbols. List somereligious and political symbols, and describe what roles they haveplayed in human history.

3. Color has meaning in all cultures. How are colors used in Americansociety to convey meaning? What are some of the social rules thatdetermine the use of color in our society (e.g., a bride wears white)?Do you know of any differences in the meaning of color in othercultures?

4. How are totemism and the concept of Dream Time a social charterfor Australian Aborigine cultures? How do you think these cultureswould react to the presence of non-Aborigine cultures, such as thoserepresented by missionaries?

5. Many American organizations are identified with particular animals.For example, colleges and professional football teams are oftenassociated with a mascot, usually some kind of animal. What animalsare usually used as college and team mascots? Why are thoseparticular animals used and not others? When you go to a football orbaseball game, what ritual activities revolve around the mascotanimal? How does this differ from an Australian totem?

6. Describe the role of music in American culture. In what situations doyou find music being played? Why is music played in thesesituations?

7. Choose a religious symbol that you are familiar with and describe itsmeaning. How is this symbol connected to the myths and worldviewof the culture in which it is found?

Suggested readings

Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris, Toying with God: The World ofReligious Games and Dolls (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2010).

[This book looks at religious games and dolls and the blending of religioussymbols with popular culture.]

Norine Dresser, Multicultural Celebrations (New York: Three Rivers Press,1999).

[This is a practical book on the appropriate etiquette for celebrations invarious ethnic traditions in the United States, useful in our multiculturalsociety.]

Carl G. Liungman, Dictionary of Symbols (New York: Norton, 1991).[This is one of several compilations of symbols that are useful reference tools.]

Gananath Obeyesekere, Medusa’s Hair: An Essay of Personal Symbols andReligious Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).

[A psychological anthropologist examines the use of symbols by Sri Lankanascetics.]

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012).[In a story filled with religious symbolism, a boy grows up in New Mexico inthe 1940s.]

Suggested websites

http://symbols.netA comprehensive listing of websites that deal with symbols in variouscontexts including religion.

www.planetgast.net/symbolsSymbols in Christian art and architecture.

www.cem.va.gov/hmm/emblems.asp

United States Department of Veterans Affairs available emblems of belief forplacement on government headstones and markers.

www.ridingthebeast.com/articles/colorsColor symbolism and meaning in the Bible.

www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar.htmlA web exhibit of calendars through the ages (including the Mayan Calendar).

www.mayacalendar.com/mayacalendar.htmlA discussion of the Mayan calendar on the Maya World Studies Centerwebsite.

http://guides.lib.washington.edu/ethnomusicologyA list of websites related to ethnomusicology, folk music, and world musicfrom the University of Washington.

www.folkways.si.edu/Smithsonian Folkways makes available a wide variety of recordings of ethnicmusic.

http://sounds.bl.uk/Archival Sounds Recordings (British Library) provides access to a great manyrecordings of music from around the world.

Notes

1 J. Church, Language and the Discovery of Reality (New York: Vintage Books, 1961), p. 95.

2 N. Bado-Fralick and R. S. Norris, Toying with God: The World of Religious Games andDolls (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2010), p. 172.

3 G. A. Reichard, Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism (Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1977), p. 206.

4 We should note that not all scholars agree with this interpretation of the Mayan calendarand its correlation with our calendar, so the actual date on our calendar may be off by afew days.

5 D. Tedlock (translator), Popul Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the

Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), p.79.

Chapter 4Ritual

The alarm clock rings. You reluctantly jump out of bed and begin yourmorning routine, which might include showering, shaving or putting on yourmakeup, reading the newspaper, and eating breakfast. You probably do thesame things in the same order day after day—or at least on weekdays. Thispatterned, recurring sequence of events may be termed a ritual.

The term ritual can refer to any repetitive sequence of acts. Psychologistsuse the term when referring to repetitive compulsive activity, such as theritual of washing one’s hands dozens of times a day. A class might begin withthe ritual of roll call and announcements. However, when the ritual involvesthe manipulation of religious symbols such as prayers, offerings, and readingsof sacred literature, we call it a religious ritual.

The basics of ritual performance

In some ways a ritual resembles a play. A play consists of actors, words, sets,and props presented in a set way according to a script. And a play is areflection of the culture of a society and that society’s worldview.

A public religious ritual also consists of actors (shamans and priests, forexample), words (perhaps a prayer, a spell, or a sermon), sets (such as analtar), and props (such as candles, religious books, or masks) and may containmusic and dance as well. Smaller-scale rituals, such as that performed by ashaman affecting a cure, also have many of these elements, although here thesimilarity to a play is not as strong. Of course, a religious ritual is much more

than a play. Its primary purpose is not to entertain—although in some societiesrituals are an important form of entertainment—and the audience is an activeparticipant.

Two of the most basic elements in religious practices are ritual and myth,and the two are often closely connected. Ritual is often based on myth in thatthe directive to perform the ritual may lie within the myth. The myth providesthe elements for the development of the ritual. There is some debate overwhich came first. Myth is reflected in ritual; other rituals are reenactments ofmyth.

A society’s mythology consists of stories that reflect the underlyingworldview of the society. Although few people in a community can articulatein a philosophical or theological manner the basic themes and underpinningsof their religious system, everyone is familiar with the myths of their religionand accepts the basic truths of the religious system. This is also true of rituals.

Many rituals, though by no means all, are public rituals in which an entirecommunity is involved to some degree. Ritual activities symbolize theparticular beliefs and values of that community. A ritual is the vehicle bywhich basic ideas, such as the definition of good and evil and the propernature of social relationships, are imparted to the group.

Unlike other forms of discourse—reading this book, for example, orlistening to a lecture—people attending a religious ritual usually are familiarwith the ritual and also with what it means. Perhaps they have read acommentary or attended a Sunday school class that discussed the meaning ofthe ritual. Thus participation in the ritual signals a public acceptance of thebasic tenets of the religion. The mere fact that the activities that take placewithin the ritual are well known and accepted lends a sense of stability to thesociety and imparts a sense of social unity. Also, the fact that the elements ofthe ritual are repeated on a regular basis lends a sense of validity andsacredness to the religious system.

Prescriptive and situational rituals

There are many terms that we can use to describe rituals. For example, ritualsmay be prescriptive or situational. Prescriptive rituals are rituals that are

required to be performed. The requirement may be set forth in a religious text(e.g., “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” [Exodus 20:8]), may berequired by a deity or a religious authority, or may simply be based intradition.

Other rituals are performed because of a particular need of an individual ora community. These are called situational rituals or crisis rituals. Suchrituals often arise spontaneously, frequently in times of crisis. A communitymight hold a spontaneous ritual for a group of men and women from thecommunity who are going off to war or engaging in some dangerous activity.Situational rituals arise as a response to terrorist activities around the world.Some are as simple as flying a flag, others more complex, such as the settingup of informal altars where people lay flowers, light candles, and leavephotographs (see Figure 12.2, p. 290). Many churches, temples, and mosquesschedule special situational rituals to address the concerns of the community.

Periodic and occasional rituals

Another way of describing rituals is to identify them as being performed on aregular basis as part of a religious calendar or being performed when aparticular need arises, such as a marriage or a death. The former are calledperiodic rituals or calendrical rituals; the latter are called occasionalrituals. The classification of rituals as prescribed or situational is separatefrom their classification as periodic or occasional. Thus a particular ceremony—a Sunday morning church service, for example—is both prescribed andperiodic.

Periodic rituals may be performed daily or several times a day, as in thedaily prayers (salaht) of Islam. (Muslims pray at dawn, midday, midafternoon,sunset, and nightfall, as commanded by the prophet Mohammad, whichmakes prayer a prescribed ritual as well.) Periodic rituals may be performedweekly, such as the Jewish ritual of the lighting of candles that occurs onevery Friday evening to mark the start of the Sabbath or the celebration ofSunday Mass in the Catholic Church. They also include the annualcelebrations of Easter, Passover, and Ramadan.

Another example of a periodic ritual is Diwali, the Festival of Lights, one of

the most important festivals in India. It was originally a Hindu festival, but itsobservance has spread, and it is celebrated as a public holiday throughoutIndia. Diwali is celebrated on the darkest night (the new moon) of the monthof Kartik. During the festival, oil lamps are lit, and firecrackers are set off. Theritual is associated with several important mythical events. One such story isthe return of Rama, his consort Sita, and his brother Lakshmana to theirkingdom of Ayodhya after a fourteen-year exile. To celebrate their return, thepeople of Ayodhya are said to have lit up their houses with oil lamps. Thelights that are associated with this festival are said to symbolize the removalof spiritual darkness.

The celebration of Diwali was probably originally related to the harvestseason. Many periodic rituals are aligned with the phases of the agriculturalcycle. This is the basis of the timing of many religious rituals in the Jewishand Christian religious calendars. The most important rituals are associatedwith the periods of sowing and harvesting.

For example, Passover is a Jewish commemoration of the exodus of theIsraelites from Egypt. However, many historians believe that this holiday wasalso originally a spring agricultural festival. This can be seen in many of thesymbolic foods associated with the Passover Seder, or ritual meal, such asparsley. Exactly seven weeks after the Passover holiday is Shavuot. Shavuot isalso known as Yom Habikkurim, or the Day of the First Fruits, andcommemorates both the beginning of the wheat harvest and the giving of theTen Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai.

Occasional rituals are rituals that are performed for a specific purpose whena situation arises that requires the ritual to be performed. Many occasionalrituals are associated with nature and the impact of nature on the agriculturalcycle. These include rituals to control an infestation of insect pests or to bringrain, performed when crops are threatened or when rain does not come.Occasional rituals are also associated with important events in the life of anindividual. These include rituals marking birth, marriage, and death.

A classification of rituals

Our next step is to group the subjects of our study, in this case rituals, into a

manageable number of categories. This can be very difficult when thevariation is great, and any classification is to an extent arbitrary. Here we willdiscuss many of the different kinds of rituals using some of the categoriesdeveloped by Anthony F. C. Wallace.1 A list of rituals can be found in Table4.1.

A survey of rituals

Each type of ritual has its own goal and exists within its own cultural andreligious context. In the next section we will survey most of the types ofrituals found in Wallace’s classification.

Table 4.1 A classification of rituals

Type of Ritual Description

Technological ritualsRituals that attempt to influence or control

natureHunting and gatheringrites of intensification

Rituals that influence nature in the quest for food

Protective ritualsRituals designed to protect the safety of people

engaged in dangerous activities

Divination rituals Rituals that seek information about the unknown

Therapy rituals Rituals that deal with illness, accident, and deathTherapy rituals Healing rituals

Anti-therapy rituals Rituals that bring about illness, accident, or death

Ideological ritualsRituals that serve to maintain the normal

functioning of a communitySocial rites ofintensification

Rituals that delineate codes of proper behavior andarticulate the community’s worldview

Rituals that accompany changes in an individual’s

Rites of passage status in society

Revitalization ritualsRituals that focus on the elimination of aliencustoms and a return to a native way of life

Technological rituals

Technological rituals are rituals that attempt to influence or control nature,especially in activities that affect human activities and well-being. The successor failure of human endeavors such as hunting, fishing, and farming isinfluenced by the vagaries of nature. Game animals might not be located; fishmight fail to take the bait; the lack of rain might cause a crop to wither anddie. Because these events affect the very survival of a people, all societiesattempt to influence or even to control nature so as to ensure the success ofthe hunt, fishing expeditions, or cultivation. Examples of technological ritualsinclude hunting and gathering rites of intensification, protective rituals, anddivination rituals.

Hunting and gathering rites of intensification

The function of hunting and gathering rites of intensification is toinfluence nature in the quest for food. Although the name refers to huntingand gathering activities, these rituals also extend to other economic activitiessuch as fishing, herding, and farming. They include periodic rituals thatfollow the seasonal cycle and occasional rituals performed in response to somecrisis such as lack of rain. They may initiate the hunting of particular animalspecies as they migrate at different seasons through a traditional territory. Atthe start of a fishing trip, such rituals are performed to ensure success inlocating fish. Rituals accompany the preparation of the soil, the planting ofseeds, the protection of the growing crop from the elements and wild animals,and the harvest.

Among hunting and gathering peoples the commencement of the timewhen particular wild foods are available is often marked by ritual. On a

practical level, these rituals serve to regulate the gathering of that food. Thepremature gathering of a particular type of fruit, for example, mightnegatively affect the total amount of fruit that is available. They also reaffirmthe rights of particular social units to specific foods and areas of foodgathering. These rituals are frequently referred to as “first-fruit ceremonies.”Among the Cahuilla of the southern California desert, individuals would besent out to gather small amounts of food. Food left from the winter storeswould be added, and members of each kin group would eat a ritual portion ofthe food in a ceremony thanking the supernatural for providing the food in aceremony that lasted three days and three nights.

Fertility is a central theme in this group of rituals, be it the successfulsprouting and growth of crops in the spring or the birth of wild animals,without which people would go hungry and societies would die. When peopleare successful in the hunt, rituals are performed to thank the animal forallowing itself to be caught.

The Lakota are a Native American tribe living today in the north-centralUnited States. In the early nineteenth century they were hunters of thebuffalo. Today, although wild herds of buffalo have disappeared from theplains, the Lakota manage herds of captive buffalo and sell their meat as amajor source of income. Occasionally, an uncontrollable animal must bekilled, which today is accomplished by a shotgun rather than a bow andarrow. But when the animal has died, the hunters gather around the body andperform a simple ritual to thank the buffalo for permitting itself to be killed,thus ensuring the continuing success of the enterprise.

The Inuit, who live on the Arctic coast, depend on seals for their survival.The success of a seal hunt among the Inuit depends on the benevolence ofNuliajuk, the Mother of the Sea. If important customs are neglected, she cancause many difficulties for hunters such as storms or breaking up of the ice.She might also keep the seals out of the reach of the hunters. The Inuit believethat Nuliajuk is at her happiest when her hair is neat, and the misbehavior ofpeople is seen as tangling her hair. In the Inuit creation myth her fingers werecut off and the finger joints became the seals. But without fingers she cannottend to her hair herself and it is the role of the shaman to visit her in herhome at the bottom of the sea to comb her hair and thereby appease her.

The traditional Inuit belief is that seals have a soul, and many Inuit huntingcustoms and rituals are designed to show respect for the seals. One example is

the practice in many Inuit groups of placing fresh water into the mouth of adead seal before it is butchered. Some groups believed that a seal that wasgiven a drink was more likely to return again as another seal for anotherdrink, but the general belief across the groups was that the drink wouldappease the spirit of the seal.

In the words of an Inuit, Peter Irniq, “Inuit were extremely respectfultoward seals. My father used to catch a seal and put it into our iglu. Before mymother skinned the seal she would put a piece of ice in her own mouth tomelt, then let the meltwater fall into the dead seal’s mouth. She said this wasto make sure the seals under the ice will not be thirsty. She did this everytime. It’s a spiritual belief, done out of respect for the seals.”2

Protective rituals

There are numerous potential dangers that accompany risky activities.Imagine traveling in a small dugout canoe out on the ocean, out of sight ofland, looking for productive fishing grounds, with no real ability to predict theweather more than a few hours in advance, if that. Protective rituals usuallyaccompany such activities, and they may be prescriptive in that they areroutinely performed at the start of a dangerous activity or occasionally inresponse to a gathering storm.

These are rituals designed to protect the safety of the people who areinvolved in dangerous tasks. Protective rituals are also performed in responseto some unexpected threat to the success of an economic endeavor. Suchthreats might include an infestation of insect pests threatening to destroy acrop, floods and droughts, sick animals in a herd, and many other potentialcrises too numerous to name.

The ocean trading journeys of the Trobriand Islanders of New Guinea aredangerous. There are numerous concerns, including ensuring theseaworthiness of canoes and the desire for good weather. These voyages areaccompanied by a great number of rituals. The canoe captain is not only anexpert on navigation and weather prediction, but also a ritual specialist,performing rituals throughout the voyage. As an example, some rituals thatare performed before the launching of a canoe are rituals for expelling the

heaviness out of a canoe, rituals to make the canoe more seaworthy, andrituals to make the canoe fast, in part by making other canoes slow.

Rituals for the protection of boats on the open ocean are common amongseagoing peoples. The Vikings christened a new ship by “blooding the keel,”which involved a ritual human sacrifice in which a person was tied to the keelof the boat, to be crushed beneath it when the boat was launched. TheWestern practice of christening a new ship by breaking a bottle of champagnestill carries with it the idea of a blessing from God, and the person who doesthe christening enters into a special relationship with the ship.

Protective rituals are also used for other modes of transportation. Amongthe Yoruba of Nigeria in West Africa, Ogun is the god of iron. More recently,Ogun has also become associated with cars and trucks. It is common for taxidrivers to decorate their cars with his symbols and even on occasion to offeran animal sacrifice to him asking for his protection.

Often it is not actual control that is needed. Foreknowledge of naturalevents that affect the success of economic efforts can lead to preventivemeasures, be they technical (building a fence to keep wild animals out of thefield) or ritual. Such ceremonies assist communities in selecting the best timeto plant or the best place to locate game or fish. Rituals that seek informationare referred to as divination rituals. Divination will be discussed in detail inChapter 7.

Social rites of intensification

The next group of rituals serves to maintain the normal functioning of acommunity. These are termed ideological rituals. They delineate codes ofproper behavior; define good and evil, moral and immoral; and articulate thecommunity’s worldview. They assist people and the community in gettingthrough times of change and times of crisis. They facilitate the orderlyrunning of the society. They tend to be conservative, sanctioning the socialorder.

An important type of ideological ritual is the social rite of intensification.These are very familiar rituals. They are usually prescribed and periodic andinclude the weekly Sunday morning church service found in most Christian

denominations, the Jewish Sabbath rituals, and the daily prayer or salaht ofIslam. They also include major annual rituals such as the Christian Easter andthe Jewish Rosh Hashanah. Elements that are frequently found in social ritesof intensification that are most familiar to us include the reading of sections ofthe sacred text; a sermon, commenting on some aspects of the sacred text,commentary on current crises, or a discussion of moral issues; and prayers tothe deity.

Some rituals have aspects that can be classified in more than one category.A good example of this is a funeral ritual, which is often both a rite of passagefor the individual who has died (discussed in the next subsection) and a rite ofintensification for those who remain. A death is a time of crisis for the group.The funeral ritual brings people together and reaffirms the existence of thesocial group and its values. This is seen most clearly when we examine therituals surrounding the death of a chief or king. The death affects the entirecommunity and ushers in a period of potential instability. In the absence of astrong leader, the group may be vulnerable to internal strife. Enemies maytake advantage of both the lack of strong leadership and the fact that the focusof the community is on the death.

Among the Swazi of the East African Cattle culture area, the death of aking has the potential of precipitating a major crisis. The prosperity of theSwazi nation is bound up with the health and virility of the king, and duringhis life the king must avoid all contact with death. He may not visit a grave ortouch a dead body and may mourn the passing of a close relative for only afew days. Individuals living in his household are removed from the homesteadwhen they become very ill so that they will not die in the king’s presence. Thedeath of the king is kept secret until a council of kin has made the selection ofan heir. Only after the heir has been installed as the new king will the burialof the old king proceed. Following the period of mourning, rituals are held torejuvenate and revitalize the Swazi nation.

Another example of the element of a social rite of intensification in afuneral ritual is the Jewish practice of reciting the kaddish. The kaddish isknown as a mourner’s prayer, but variations on this prayer are recited atmany other times, and the prayer itself actually says nothing about death ormourning. This prayer is a reaffirmation of faith in the face of a great loss.The prayer begins, “May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in theworld that He created as He willed. May He give reign to His kingship in your

lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetimes of the entire family of Israel,swiftly and soon. May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.” Similarly,the simple practice of gathering at the home of the mourner after a funeralservice can be seen as reaffirming important group ties.

Offerings and sacrifices

One of the functions of social rites of intensification, and other rituals as well,is to communicate with the deity. One way of doing this is through prayer;another is through offerings and sacrifices. Offerings and sacrifices can beviewed in many ways. They may be gifts or even bribes, or economicexchange designed to influence the supernatural. The supernatural in turn willreciprocate with rain, healing, economic success, and so on. Of course this isin no way coercion, and the deity is free to reject the gift.

In many societies, reciprocity plays an important role in socialrelationships. Important social events, such as marriages, are celebrated withgift-giving and feasting. In these societies this type of behavior is projectedinto the supernatural world where a harmonious and mutually advantageousrelationship between the society and the supernatural will be expressed interms of mutual reciprocity between humans and their gods.

The essential difference between a sacrifice and an offering is that insacrifice blood is shed; that is, an animal, which may be a human being, iskilled. All other gifts are offerings. The item that is offered is usually an objectof some economic value and its offering often involves economic hardship forthe individual or group making the offering. It therefore becomes special oreven sacred. However, some of the economic value may be recovered aswhen, for example, food that is offered on an altar is later consumed by thosemaking the offering. Of course, this does not happen when the offering isdestroyed, as when it is burned.

Human sacrifice

Aztec society (Mesoamerican culture area) was based on agriculture and was

highly stratified. The Aztecs believed that the life of the Sun was about to endand tried to avoid that by providing the sacred food that the sun needed:blood. Human sacrifice on a large scale was an important part of Aztecreligion.

A ritual would begin with a four-day (or some multiple of four) period ofpreparation. During this time, priests would fast and make offerings of suchitems as food, cloth, and incense. The ritual itself would be preceded by adramatic procession. The participants, elaborately costumed and accompaniedby music ensembles, would walk to the specific temple of sacrifice. Allimportant rituals involved the sacrifice of either animals or humans.

The ritual human sacrificial victims were called in ixiptla in teteo, or deityimpersonators, as the belief was that they were transformed into gods. Theywould be ritually bathed, specially costumed to impersonate the specific deityto whom they were being sacrificed, and taught special dances. A wide rangeof techniques were used in sacrifice, including decapitation, drowning,strangulation, shooting with arrows, combat, and throwing from heights.Commonly, the victim was led up the temple stairs to the sacrificial stone(techcatl). There the victim would be held down by four priests, and thetemple priest would cut through the victim’s chest to remove the still-beatingheart, referred to as “precious eagle cactus fruit.” The heart would then beoffered to the sun for nourishment. This was sometimes followed by the bodybeing rolled back down the temple steps, where it was often dismembered,flayed, and eaten.

Therapy rituals and healing

Of all tragedies that may befall a people, perhaps the most disturbing anddisruptive are illnesses and accidents that lead to incapacity or death. Allpeoples have theories about the cause of illness and accident, and these areassociated with techniques, including rituals, for addressing them.

There are a number of methods for dealing with accidents and illnesses thatare technical rather than religious. For example, many traditional healersknow how to set bones, and many of the plant materials that are administeredas medicines have been found to have genuine medical value. The

anthropological study of medicinal plants is part of the study of ethnobotany.Such studies have led to the development of several drug therapies. Someplant material has been known for centuries to have some pharmaceuticalproperties, such as digitalis from the foxglove plant, which is used to treatheart problems. More recently, the drug taxol, derived from the bark andneedles of the Pacific yew tree, has been used for the treatment of ovariancancer. Northwest Coast Native American tribes traditionally treated a varietyof diseases with medicines derived from this tree.

Table 4.2 Causes and treatment of supernatural illnesses

Cause of illness Therapy ritual

Object intrusion Massage and sucking to remove object

Spirit intrusion Exorcism

Soul loss Soul retrieval

Breach of tabu Confession

Witchcraft Anti-witchcraft rituals

Spirits and gods Sacrifices and offerings

Many illnesses cannot be dealt with through technology, especially intraditional societies. Various theories of illness give rise to many types ofcures that include ritual. Rituals that focus on curing are called therapyrituals. These are among the most important rituals found in many societies.The type of ritual will depend on the cause of the illness, with the causefrequently being discovered by means of divination. Some of the supernaturalcauses of illness and their treatment will be discussed at length in laterchapters, but Table 4.2 lists those that are most frequently encountered.

The Navaho

As we discussed in Chapter 2, the Navaho worldview stresses the importanceof balance and harmony. When this balance is upset, something bad, usually

illness, is the result. Balance is upset by human actions, and the specific natureof the transgression will determine how the illness will manifest itself. TheNavaho have separate specialists for diagnosis and treatment. Diagnosis isdone by hand tremblers, who are generally women. The healers are usuallymen.

The entire family or even the entire community will gather together for thetherapy ritual, which lasts anywhere from one to nine days. Prayers,medicine, songs, and herbs in addition to sand paintings are used to restorebalance and harmony and thus cure the illness. The Navaho word for sandpainting is ikaah, which means “a summoning of the gods.” They believe thatif a prayer is offered with a good heart and is correct in every detail, the godsare compelled to answer it. If they do not answer, there must have been someimperfection in the sand painting or the ceremony.

The sand painting itself depicts a specific portion of the complex Navahomythology. Usually, this is a story of a hero who encounters some misfortune,but with help from others, usually a supernatural being, the hero recovers andlearns how to heal the same problem in others. The story also is recounted inlong, complex chants. This example again shows the relationship betweenritual, myth, and worldview.

Anti-therapy rituals

Anti-therapy rituals are rituals that bring about illness, accident, or death.When directed toward a member of one’s own community, the behavior isclearly antisocial. The person responsible needs to be identified, usuallythrough divination, stopped, and punished. However, when directed towardan enemy, an anti-therapy ritual may support an objective of the society.Among the Yanomamö of northern South America, warfare is carried outwith spears and arrows, as well as through ritual activities that send illness-causing spirits into the bodies of their enemies.

An anti-therapy ritual of the Fore of New Guinea was described in Chapter1. A sorcerer takes something connected to the victim, such as a piece ofclothing, and places it in a bundle, recites a spell, and puts the bundle in thecold, muddy ground. As a result, the victim becomes ill with the disease kuru.

Perhaps one of the best-known examples of an anti-therapy ritual is thebone-pointing ritual found among the Australian Aborigines. This issometimes referred to as a cursing ritual. Taking a kangaroo bone, theindividual performing the ritual sharpens one end and drills a hole throughthe other. He takes a strand of the victim’s hair, and puts it through the holeand secures it with a knot. Then, in public, the performer points the bone atthe victim. Here is a description of what happens next.

A man who discovers that he is being boned by an enemy is, indeed, a pitiable sight. Hestands aghast, with his eyes staring at the treacherous pointer, and with his hands liftedas though to ward off the lethal medium, which he imagines is pouring into his body.His cheeks blanch and his eyes become glassy, and the expression on his face becomeshorribly distorted … He attempts to shriek, but usually the sound chokes in his throat,and all one might see is froth at his mouth. His body begins to tremble and the musclestwist involuntarily. He sways backwards and falls to the ground, and for a short timeappears to be in a swoon; but soon after he begins to writhe as if in mortal agony, andcovering his face with his hands, begins to moan. After a while he becomes morecomposed and crawls to his wurley [hut]. From this time onwards he sickens and frets,refusing to eat, and keeping aloof from the daily affairs of the tribe. Unless help isforthcoming in the shape of a counter-charm, administered by the hands of the“Nangarri,” or medicine-man, his death is only a matter of a comparatively short time.3

Revitalization rituals

Revitalization rituals are associated with revitalization movements. Theseinclude nativistic movements, which focus on the elimination of alien customsand a return to the native way of life, and messianic movements, whichinvolve the participation of a divine savior in human flesh. These rituals areoften associated with social movements and usually develop within a contextof rapid culture change. We will discuss revitalization rituals in detail inChapter 11.

Rites of passage

Among the most-studied rituals by anthropologists are rites of passage, a

type of ideological ritual. A society consists of a number of individuals whoare related to one another and interact with one another in complex ways. Wecan think of a society as being composed of a series of positions, each onedefined in terms of appropriate behavior, rights and obligations, andrelationships to one another. Each position is known as a status. Examples ofstatuses include mother, husband, teacher, blacksmith, mayor, and priest. Ofcourse, a person can occupy more than one status. One person can be amother, a wife, and a teacher, depending on the social context. Here we areusing the term status to refer to a social position, not to the relative placementof each position in the society. The term rank is used for this latter purpose.

When a person changes his or her status in the society—becomes an adult,marries, enters a profession, or attains political office—the individual alters hisor her social relationship with other members of the society. Such changesmight require that the individual dress in a new way, speak in a differentfashion, and behave toward certain people in new ways. Making thesechanges can be difficult for the individual. They often are marked andfacilitated by rites of passage.

Rites of passage imprint the change in a person’s social status on the mindsof the participants and grant community approval or legitimacy for thechange. In a literate society such as ours, all one truly needs is a legal piece ofpaper. A couple can fly to Las Vegas or go to the local courthouse and bemarried with a brief ceremony, without the presence of family or othercommunity members. It is the marriage license, not the ceremony, whichestablishes the legality of the change in status and inserts the event in thelegal record of some political unit. This is not the case in nonliteratecommunities, where the combined witnesses and participation of family andcommunity are required. Most couples in Western culture choose to getmarried in this manner as well.

Some rites of passage are very familiar. These include rites marking aperson’s progression through the life cycle. All cultures have terminology torefer to the phases of one’s life—infant, child, adult, and senior, for example.However, these divisions of the life cycle are more formal and clear-cut insome societies than in others. As a person moves from one category to thenext, the event may be marked by ritual.

The life cycle begins with birth ceremonies designed to ensure the safetyand well-being of the child. Through these rituals the child becomes an

integral part of the community. However, in societies with a high infant deathrate, the introduction of the child to the community may be delayed. A childmay be kept in isolation and is considered a nonperson until she survives for acertain period of time. In traditional societies the child might then bepresented to the family and other members of the community, receive a name,perhaps be passed over the smoke of a fire and have strings tied around herwrists to prevent the child from falling ill. Examples of birth rituals in oursociety are baptism in Catholicism, by which the child becomes a member of aCatholic community, and the Jewish circumcision ceremony whereby a malechild becomes a member of the Jewish community.

The next major transition is that from childhood into adulthood. Thesecoming-of-age ceremonies include confirmations, quinceañeras, bar mitzvahs,and bat mitzvahs. Other important life cycle ceremonies are marriage anddeath rituals. In addition to life cycle ceremonies, rites of passage markinitiation into social groups (such as fraternity initiations) or religious orpolitical office (such as a presidential inauguration or coronation).

The structure of a rite of passage

A rite of passage that you are probably familiar with is a wedding, whichactually consists of a series of rituals performed over a period of time.Although there is considerable variation, there is a general pattern found inmany, but not all, weddings. We will use this example to describe thestructure of a rite of passage.

Anthropologists identify three phases in the typical rite of passage. The firstphase is called separation. In this phase the individual is removed from his orher former status. In some rituals this is an abrupt separation of the individualfrom the community; in others it may take place over a longer period of time.

The separation phase in a wedding is actually a series of events that takeplace over the period of time preceding the ceremony. A typical weddingcycle might begin with an engagement party. Next follows a number ofplanning and preparation activities, frequently involving wedding specialists.Although these are usually thought of as practical, logistical activities, theyoften take on the characteristics of ritual in that they consist of traditional

activities. These include the selection of a wedding dress, costuming thewedding party, selecting and mailing invitations, signing up with a giftregistry, attending wedding showers, the rehearsal, and the rehearsal dinner.The final event in the separation phase is when the bride walks down the aisleand bids farewell to her parents and, in some ceremonies, is formally “givenaway” by her father and/or mother or other close relative.

The second step is the transition phase. During the transition phase,several activities take place that bring about the change in status. In manyweddings, this phase, which is the actual ceremony, lasts from only a fewminutes to over an hour. This is relatively short when compared with rites ofpassage found in other societies, in which the transition phase can last monthsor even years.

At the conclusion of the transition phase, the person conducting thewedding ceremony often will introduce the newly married couple to thecongregation as “Mr. and Mrs.” Thus begins the final phase, incorporation,during which the couple reenters normal society, though in a new socialrelationship. This stage includes the reception or party celebrating themarriage. The incorporation phase usually lasts several hours, although inmany groups it is considerably longer. After the reception there is often aseries of additional activities, such as a display of gifts and the writing ofthank-you notes.

All of this can be quite daunting and very expensive. Of course a couple canfly to Las Vegas or go to the local courthouse and get the piece of paper andskip most of the traditional activities. However, many couples and theirfamilies are very uncomfortable with this and will follow such a legalwedding with some type of celebration to reaffirm the marriage, such as areception or perhaps a second wedding ceremony attended by friends andfamily.

Coming-of-age rituals

A ritual that frequently assumes great importance in traditional societies isthe coming-of-age ritual, which marks the transition from childhood toadulthood. An example is the rite of passage that accompanies menarche, or a

girl’s first menstruation. Menarche is only one physiological event within acomplex cycle of events we call puberty that extends over several years.However, menarche is a very definite, easily observed event.

Because puberty is so well marked in females, the ritual is sometimes anindividual ritual rather than for a group of girls at one time. Theannouncement of first menstruation by a girl to her mother may initiate theseparation phase. Among the Yanomamö of South America, a girl who ismenstruating for the first time is secluded in a simple enclosure built in thecorner of her dwelling. The transition period lasts three days, during whichthe girl sits on the floor eating little. She shaves her head and removes herornaments in an effort to look as unattractive as possible. This is done toprevent evil spirits from seducing the girl and taking her away to be married,leaving behind her dead body. At the end of this period she is incorporatedinto the community. She cleans herself and puts on a new apron andornaments. She is now considered to be an adult female member of thecommunity.

Female coming-of-age rituals may also occur as a group ritual. In this casethe ritual usually occurs several years before the onset of puberty to ensurethat the ritual is completed before the onset of menstruation.

Initiation rituals for boys are often more elaborate than those for girls.Because boys lack a clearly defined physiological event to mark the onset ofpuberty, the timing of male initiation is fairly arbitrary. Male initiation ritualsare usually group rituals in which all of the boys of a certain age range in acommunity are periodically rounded up to go through the ritual as a group.

Male initiation ceremonies are usually characterized by relatively shortseparation and incorporation phases. The separation phase may be verysudden, as when masked dancers tear the boys away from their familieswithout warning. The incorporation phase may simply be a reintroduction ofthe boys, now occupying their new status as men, to the community, followedby feasting.

Transition and liminality

Initiates in the transition stage, especially in those rituals in which this stage

lasts for a significant period of time, are in an out-of-the-ordinary situation.They have shed their previous identification and place in society but have yetto take on the mantle of their new status. Their ambiguous position and thefact that they are marginal to their society—often in a real sense if they areremoved to a special camp away from the village—are representedsymbolically.

An often-encountered metaphor for a rite of passage is the cycle of deathand rebirth. Separation is symbolized by death, and incorporation by rebirth.The period of time between death and rebirth is a time of mystery duringwhich the initiate undergoes a metamorphosis from one kind of human beingto another. Just as the process of change within an insect’s cocoon is hiddenfrom view and therefore mysterious, the activities surrounding thetransitional phase may be hidden from view from women and uninitiatedboys.

Initiates within this transition period are said to be in a liminal state.Liminality is the state of ambiguous marginality during which themetamorphosis takes place. As such, it is symbolically represented by anumber of attributes. Victor Turner provides us with a list of features thatcharacterize the liminal state. The first column in Table 4.3 lists some of theproperties of liminality, which are contrasted in the second column with thenormal state.

Table 4.3 Characteristics of liminality

Liminality Normal state

Transition State

Communitas Structure

Equality Inequality

Anonymity Systems of nomenclature

Absence of property Property

Absence of status Status

Nakedness or uniform clothing Distinctions of clothing

Sexual continence Sexuality

Absence of rank Distinctions of rank

Humility Just pride of position

Disregard for personal appearance Care for personal appearance

Unselfishness Selfishness

Total obedience Obedience only to superior rank

Sacredness Secularity

Silence Speech

Simplicity Complexity

Acceptance of pain and suffering Avoidance of pain and sufferingSource: Adapted from Victor Turner, “Liminality and Communitas,” in The Ritual Process:Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago: Aldine, 1969), pp. 94–113, 125–130.

An important feature of the state of liminality is summed up by the termcommunitas. Within this state not only is there a sense of equality, but themere fact that a group of individuals is moving through the process togetherbrings about a sense of community and camaraderie. This is what occurs inthe Islamic hajj, in which all pilgrims wear the same white garments andperform the same rituals regardless of wealth or social standing. The sense ofbelonging transcends the tremendous ethnic diversity of the pilgrims whogather together from all over the world.

In many traditional societies the boys who are initiated together form veryclose bonds and will usually remain close friends throughout their lives. Insome African societies this group of males will form a formal group known asan age set. Age sets cut across other group boundaries, such as clans andlineages, and create solidarity between groups that often are opposed to oneanother. Age sets serve a number of functions and may serve as importantsocial units, such as military units.

Members of an age set may move together through various age grades. Anage grade is a specific status defined by age, such as warrior or elder. We canthink of a system of age grades as a classification of an individual into agecategories. An individual or a group such as an age set will move through aseries of age grades during his or her life. Here the distinction is morecomplex than just a transition from child to adult, and rites of passage oftenmark the entrance into each age grade.

Apache rite of passage

The coming-of-age ceremony for Apache (Southwest culture area) girls is aperiodic ritual, held every July. The ritual lasts four days, mirroring the fourdays of creation. For the duration of the ceremony the girls are seen asreincarnations of the culture heroine White Painted Woman. The Apache saythat White Painted Woman first appeared as a young girl, arriving from theeast. She grew to adulthood, during which time she was associated with thesouth. As she grew older, she was associated with the west, the directiontaken by those who die. As a very old woman she was associated with thenorth. However, after she died, she appeared again the next day as a youngwoman in the east. Thus White Painted Woman symbolizes the cycle ofwomen’s lives. The girls wear special costumes that contain many itemssymbolic of White Painted Woman.

Every evening there is singing and dancing. On the first night the songsrefer to the first day of creation and so on until the last evening. The ritualthat is performed on the fourth night is called pulling the sun. This ritual mustbe carefully planned and timed. The ritual specialists, known as singers, singfour sun-pulling songs, moving their hands, which have been painted withsun symbols, into different positions. As the last verse of the song is sung, thesingers raise their hands over their heads. As the last note is sung, the sunrises over the mountains and falls on the singers’ raised hands.

After this ritual is completed, the girls run back to the places where they arestaying during the ritual, but they are not seen doing this because four largepoles that were erected at the start of the ceremony now come crashing down,causing the other people to turn and look at the source of the noise. The nexttime the girls are seen, they are adult women. As the final component, thegirl’s singer comes to the girl to recite her genealogy to her. The Apache are amatrilineal society, tracing kinship through the women. The singer placesthree small bits of food in the girl’s mouth, and her godmother places a fourthbit of food. This symbolizes the girl being fed by all the women, of all time, ofher tribe.

Secular rites of passage

We find a number of secular rites of passage and other nonreligious activitiesthat have many of the characteristics of rites of passage. One of these is basicmilitary training, which has many of the characteristics of coming-of-age ritesin tribal societies. The recruits are physically removed to an isolated andspecial place, the military base, where they shed their civilian clothing, havetheir hair cut, and are issued a standardized uniform. Civilian occupationalspecializations and socioeconomic ranks become irrelevant. The actualtraining has many of the features of transition, including the development ofcommunitas, equality, total obedience, acceptance of pain, and many otherfeatures of liminality listed in Table 4.3. Graduation from basic training wouldbe the beginning of incorporation. However, there is one major differencebetween military training and tribal coming-of-age rituals. After completingmilitary service, the individuals often return to the status they occupied beforeinduction and undergo a period of readjustment during which they discardtheir military identity.

Another example is the experience of a patient entering a hospital.Separation begins when the patient enters the hospital and has his clothestaken away from him and is given a standardized “uniform.” The actualmedical procedures represent transitions as the individual is in some waychanged. Some of the experiences of the patient resemble features of a liminalstate. Discharge represents incorporation. However, unlike the typical rite ofpassage, the process seldom results in a permanent change of status that isacknowledged by the society, except perhaps in the case of permanentdisability.

Alterations of the human body

All peoples have cultural images of themselves that serve to separate themfrom the rest of the animal world. Physical appearance serves to distinguishindividuals socially with regard to such attributes as gender, age, social status,and occupation as well as membership in age and social groups. Many ritualsinvolve temporary alterations of the human body, as when paint is applied tothe body to symbolize that an individual is in a liminal state. Changes instatus through rites of passage are often marked with changes in dress and

hair style that mark the individual’s new status.Other alterations are more permanent changes to the human body. The

process of producing the alteration creates a situation in which the individualmust endure a painful procedure. Being able to have one’s body cut, pierced,tattooed, and scarred without showing pain is often a critical element in ritesof passage. The experience and acceptance of pain is an important feature ofliminality, and this pain may play a role in developing an altered state ofconsciousness (Chapter 5), an important aspect of a ritual experience.

Tattooing and other permanent alterations

The oldest evidence we have of tattooing have been discovered on the body ofŐtzi, also known as the Iceman. Discovered in 1991, his mummified remainshad been buried under glacial ice for 5,300 years. The tattoos appear to havebeen produced by puncturing the skin and rubbing charcoal into the wounds.A recent analysis inventoried a total of 61 simple tattoos, such as lines andcrosses, on his body. Of course it is not possible to know for certain thepurpose of this tattooing. However, many are located on either side of thespine and over joints that show some degree of degeneration. Perhaps theywere created as part of some therapeutic ritual.

The history of tattooing in more recent American and European culturescan be traced to the voyages of James Cook in the eighteenth century. Manyof Cook’s sailors were tattooed during their stay in Tahiti, and the word tattoois derived from the Tahitian word ta-tu, meaning “to mark or strike.”Tattooing involves piercing or cutting the skin and then introducing apigment into the wound. In contemporary Western societies this is done withan electronic device, but the principle is the same (Figure 4.1a).

The social implications of tattooing in Western society have varied. Attimes it has been a fad among the aristocracy or members of particular socialgroups, such as sailors, gangs, and prisoners. In this context a tattoo served asa mark of social identity. At other times tattooing has been a way to expressdissatisfaction with the social order and was a way to distance oneself fromthe mainstream society. Tattoos also serve a religious purpose when oneplaces a religious symbol or a memorial to a loved one permanently on their

skin.

Figure 4.1 Alterations of the human body. (a) Maori (New Zealand) facial tattoos, earlytwentieth century; (b) woman from Frankfurt, Germany, with tattoos and facial piercings;(c) Mangbetu (Democratic Republic of the Congo) woman with elongated head and monkeybone through her ear.

Closely related to tattooing is cicatrization or scarification. This isfrequently seen in peoples with dark skin on whom tattoos would not showwell. In scarification, a piece of skin is raised and cut, and some material, suchas ash, is rubbed in to encourage the production of scars. Closely related tocicatrization is branding, in which the scars are created by burns.

Another common alteration of the body involves piercing some body part(Figure 4.1b). Many American women, and some men, bore holes into theirearlobes to hang earrings. The hole may be enlarged so that a plug can beinserted, or weights may be attached so that the earlobe will be stretched. Afew societies pierce the lower lip and insert a round plate. People may alsopierce their nose, eyebrow, lips, tongue, nipples, and even genitals. A sociallyconservative woman might pierce her ears to wear fashionable diamondearrings; her rebellious child might pierce her nose or eyebrow as a symbolicact of rebellion; a youth from the Amazon may have his ears pierced as part ofa coming-of-age ritual.

Some societies see white teeth as resembling the teeth of animals. To createa boundary between humans and nonhuman animals, teeth are often knockedout, filed into various shapes, or colored, most often blackened. Other bodyparts can be removed, most frequently a finger joint. The bones of the skull ininfants are quite pliable, and pressure on these bones will cause them to

deform. Sometimes such deformation results unintentionally from variouspractices such as the flattening of the back of the head in infants oncradleboards. In other societies, such as the Maya, the heads of infants borninto high social classes were deliberately bound to alter their shape (Figure4.1c).

Genital cutting

Circumcision, the removal of the foreskin of the penis, is commonly found inmany cultures. In Judaism the circumcision ceremony is referred to as a BeritMila (often called a bris). Berit means covenant and Mila means to cut, so aBerit Mila cuts, as in marks, the covenant with God. The ritual is aprescriptive one and is based on a passage from Genesis:

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thyseed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, betweenme and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of thecovenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised amongyou, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought withmoney of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

(Genesis 17:9–12)

The circumcision is performed by a ritual specialist, known as a mohel. Theritual also includes a formal naming of the child. For girls the ceremony iscalled a Brit Bat (or Covenant of Daughters) and includes the naming portiononly.

Circumcision is also traditional in Islam. However, here circumcision oftentakes place later, frequently around the age of seven, although the age variesfrom soon after birth to the time of puberty. In the latter case the circumcisionritual becomes a true puberty ritual.

There are other modifications of the penis found in many traditionalcultures. Perhaps the best known is subincision. In subincision the undersideof the penis is cut and the urethra slit open. The length of the slit varies. Insome cases, the cut is deep enough to fork the tip of the penis. SomeAustralian aborigines considered this symbolic of a serpent deity; in other

aboriginal groups the subincision was reopened periodically for ritualbleeding.

Surgeries that are to a degree analogous to male circumcision are alsofound in females in many cultures. There are several forms of what issometimes known as female circumcision or genital cutting. The simplestforms are where the prepuce (analogous to the male foreskin) of the clitoris ora part of the clitoris itself is removed. Sometimes the labia minora is removedwith the clitoris. These forms are referred to as clitoridectomy. The moreextreme forms are termed infibulation. In Pharaonic infibulation, found inmany areas of northeastern Africa, the entire clitoris, labia minora, and labiamajora are removed and the remnants of the latter are sewn together leavinga small opening for urination and the passing of menstrual blood. This surgeryprevents sexual intercourse and is a requirement for marriage. The wound isreopened by or for sexual intercourse.

Female cutting may be done at adolescence as a part of a rite of passage, butit is often performed much earlier. The procedure is seen as protecting thefamily’s honor and controlling female sexuality. Although many individualswho do female genital cutting believe that such an action is prescribed by theQur’an, it is actually nowhere in the Qur’an. Actually the practice predatesboth Islam and Christianity and is practiced in some Christian communities.

Many international organizations, including the United Nations, areworking to eliminate the practice of genital cutting. On one hand this is seenas a public health issue, especially because the surgery is frequently performedunder unsanitary conditions by individuals not trained in proper medical andsurgical techniques. The practice is associated with infections, infertility, andeven death. On the other hand it is seen as a human rights issue, cast asviolence against women and children.

Another element in the discussions of genital cutting echoes the discussionof cultural relativism in Chapter 1. Genital cutting is an essential element inmany religious practices, including Islam and Judaism, which practice malecircumcision. And there are many who see male circumcision as genitalmutilation. What is to one community an expression of religion and culturemay be to another community a violation of basic human rights. The bigquestions are, where is the line to be drawn and who gets to draw it?

Pilgrimages

In Chapter 2 we looked at stories that tell of the creation of the earth and ofhumankind. In particular, we read the story of creation in Genesis and thestory of creation as told by the Navaho. One difference between the Judeo-Christian and Navaho stories is that the former takes place at a location thatcannot be located on a modern map or visited by tourists. The Garden of Edenmay be a supernatural place or a place whose location has been lost. In eithercase it is far removed from the immediate landscape of people who read thenarrative.

By contrast, the Navaho live in the midst of the landscape of the creation.As they move through their world, they point to mountains, streams, and rockformations that are mentioned in their myths. The landscape is a constantreminder of their mythological past, and they interact with this past on a dailybasis.

All religions are associated with sacred places that are mentioned in theirreligious stories, places associated with important events in the past. TheMuslims have the Kaaba in Mecca; the Jews have the Temple wall inJerusalem; Christians have places in Jerusalem that are recounted in the storyof Jesus; Buddhists have relics of the Buddha that are housed in particulartemples; Hindus have the River Ganges. These are important focal points forreligious practice.

There are also sacred places where miraculous events have taken place inmore recent times. In Mexico the story is told of a native who was baptizedinto the Catholic Church in 1525 and became known by his Christian name ofJuan Diego. According to legend, in 1531 an image of the Virgin Maryappeared to Juan Diego and left a likeness of herself on his cloak. The cloakbearing the image resides today in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe inMexico City (Figure 4.2). The basilica has become a major sacred site. Peoplecome to this site for many reasons; some are seeking cures for illness. JuanDiego was made a saint of the Catholic Church in 2002.

A journey to a sacred place is often referred to as a pilgrimage. Apilgrimage can also be a series of rituals that are associated with a sequence ofsacred spaces. In terms of our classification of rituals, each ritual in thesequence of rituals is a social rite of intensification, although therapy rituals

are often included. In fact, the purpose of a pilgrimage may be to seek asupernatural cure for an illness.

One of the best-known pilgrimage sites in the Christian world is Lourdes,France. From February through July 1858, Bernadette Soubirous witnessed atotal of eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary at a grotto near the town ofLourdes. Today the grotto is the site of pilgrimages by Catholics seeking acure from illness.

Figure 4.2 Our Lady of Guadalupe. Painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the wall of theAtotonilco Sanctuary in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico.

A pilgrimage often can be seen as a rite of passage. Such a journey may bea requirement of a religion, and a person returning from a pilgrimage may

have achieved a new status or position in the community. The experience ofparticipating in a pilgrimage may include the three phases beginning withseparation (traveling from one’s home to the sacred place or to the beginningof the journey to several sacred places). During the rituals that occur at asacred site or series of sites, the pilgrim is in a liminal state that ischaracteristic of the transition phase. Finally, at the end the individualreenters the everyday world, often with some symbol of having participatedin the pilgrimage.

Pilgrimages also may involve visiting a number of related sites. One of thebest known of such pilgrimages, and certainly one that involves largenumbers of participants, is the Islamic hajj. This involves a prescribed visit toa series of sacred sites with specific ritual activities occurring at each one. Thehajj is described in Box 4.1.

Box 4.1 The Hajj

One of the Five Pillars of Islam, which form the framework of Muslimlife, is the hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims who are able todo so are expected to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in theirlifetime. The hajj begins on the eighth day of Dhul-Hijjah (month forHajj), the twelfth month of the Islamic year, and lasts for as long as sixdays. Every year, more than two million pilgrims from all over the worldgo to Mecca during this month. The hajj includes a series of rituals andsymbols that are intended to bring the pilgrim as close as possible toGod. A common act during the hajj is a constant repetition of theShahadah, or statement of belief. This creed states that “La ilaha ill-AllahMuhammad-un Rasulu-llah” (“There is no God but Allah, andMohammad is the Messenger of God”).

Although there is some variation, what follows is a basic descriptionof the sequence of events that make up the hajj. Before entering Mecca,the pilgrims stop at designated places outside the city to conductcleansing rituals. As part of this cleansing, men cut their nails, trim theirbeards, and put on a white seamless garment. (Women also wear white,but no particular dress is prescribed.) By wearing this special clothing, all

pilgrims become alike, symbolic of the Islamic belief that all Muslims areequal before God regardless of social status or wealth. This garment isalso like a burial shroud, which symbolizes dying or turning away fromearthly life to devote all attention to God.

The pilgrims then move into the Great Mosque, which can hold up to500,000 pilgrims at a time. Here the pilgrims walk around the Kaabaseven times. The Kaaba is a black stone that stands 13 meters (43 feet)high, engraved with the sacred names of Allah. It was already a sacredobject in Mecca before the time of Mohammad. The Qur’an says thatAbraham and Ishmael together built the Kaaba, and it is also thought tobe the site of Adam’s original place of worship.

The pilgrims then travel to the plain of Mina, three miles from Mecca.According to the Qur’an, Mina and other sites such as Arafat are placeswhere the word of God was revealed through Mohammad. After goingto Mina, the pilgrims move on to the Arafat Valley, where Muslimsbelieve Mohammad delivered his last sermon. The pilgrims gather stonesand return to Mina. The stones are thrown at the Jamraat, three pillarsthat represent places where Satan tried to tempt Abraham fromfollowing the path of Allah. This act is symbolic of Abraham throwingstones at Satan when he tried to dissuade Abraham from sacrificing hisson. Also related to this event is the ritual sacrifice of a sheep. This isseen as a reminder of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son,even though God’s mercy allowed the substitution of a ram. The meat isdistributed to family, friends, and the needy. Finally, the pilgrims returnto the Great Mosque to again circle the Kaaba.

After completion of the rituals the pilgrims reenter normal life. Theycut their hair, feast, and may engage in sexual intercourse. On returninghome, they often wear special clothing, are given a special title, andassume important positions within their communities.

The Huichol pilgrimage

The Huichol are a Native American people living in the Sierra Madre

Occidental of central Mexico (Mesoamerican culture area). A key element oftheir religious traditions is the annual journey of more than 300 miles toWirikuta, an area located east of their villages. This is a sacred journey. Itreenacts the journey of the Ancient Ones, the Huichol ancestors, that tookplace during the creation of their world.

During the dry season, between October and February, small groups ofpilgrims, each led by a shaman, leave their villages to travel to Wirikuta.Many objects are collected and prepared for the journey, including candles,small yarn paintings, coins, and special arrows. Each pilgrim assumes the roleof one of the Ancient Ones. This is more than play acting, for they become thegods they represent. The shaman leading the pilgrimage becomes GrandfatherFire.

As the Huichol pilgrims journey on foot (or today partly by bus or truck),they visit a number of sacred sites, such as water holes and caves. At each ofthese places the story of the journey of the Ancient Ones and their visit to thesacred place is told. Offerings are made, and prayers are recited, as social ritesof intensification are performed.

Finally, they reach the sacred land, where they find the peyote cactus, the“footprint of the deer.” After being ritually “killed” and after offerings havebeen made, the cactus is collected and eaten. Peyote contains a hallucinogen.The Huichol believe that by eating the peyote, they see what the gods see.(The use of hallucinogens in religious rituals is discussed in Chapter 5.)

Religious obligations

There are a number of simple religious ritual acts that are usually performedby an individual or a small group such as a family. A Christian says gracebefore eating a meal. A Jew entering a building kisses the mezuzah, a smallcase attached to the door frame in which lies a parchment with verses fromthe Torah. A Buddhist lights a candle in a household shrine.

There are other ceremonial obligations that might not involve obviousritual activity but do entail a series of obligations and avoidances of particularobjects, foods, and activities that are found in daily life. For example, virtually

all cultures have certain foods that are served only on ceremonial occasions.Other foods may be forbidden to all members of the community or certainmembers of the society at particular points in time.

Tabu

In a society some objects and people may be off limits and are said to be tabu.The term tabu also refers to inappropriate modes of interpersonal behaviors.These are often phrased in terms of pollution. It would bring dishonor, badluck, or some other negative result for a person to have contact with someoneor something that is tabu.

Things that are sacred can be thought of as possessing supernatural powerand are therefore off limits to most individuals. Contact with the supernaturalcan be dangerous. Priests must perform rituals to safeguard themselves andthe community against this danger. This is not malicious power. It is neutral,like electricity. If you stick a wet finger into an electric socket, you willreceive a large jolt of electricity, and perhaps you will die. The electricity isnot evil, but it is powerful. When properly harnessed, it can be used to lightour homes, run machinery, and so forth.

One of the most sacred objects in the Torah is the ark that carried the stonetablets from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem to be installed in the Temple. Thejourney of the ark to Jerusalem was not a simple one, and many of theepisodes that occurred on this journey illustrate how dangerous the ark was.Not only was the ark a sacred object, but also God had declared that onlyAaron and his descendants were allowed to touch it. On one occasion, as theark approached the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen that were pulling thecart that carried the ark stumbled. One of the followers, Uzzah, reached out tosteady the ark. After all, it would have been a sacrilege to let the ark fall to theground. Yet we are told that Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark,“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote himthere for his error; and there he died by the ark of God” (2 Samuel 6:7). Inother words, Uzzah’s death was not the result of some evil activity. In fact hissteadying of the ark was a good thing; but his contact with such a holy object,in the absence of ritual, resulted in his death.

The response to breaking a tabu is thought to be automatic rather thanbeing at the decision of a deity. Sometimes nothing can be done to save theindividual who has broken the tabu, but often there are ritual means ofmending the situation.

Mana and tabu in Polynesia

The concept of tabu in Polynesia can be seen in the etiquette surrounding thechief. Again, this relates to the idea of things that possess supernatural powerbeing seen as dangerous and often best avoided. In Polynesia this supernaturalpower is described by the term mana. Mana is an impersonal supernaturalforce that is found concentrated in special places in the landscape, inparticular objects, and in certain people.

In some cases it is possible for an individual to gain or manipulate mana,thus tapping into a source of supernatural power that then can be used forsome purpose. Frequently, mana is granted to a person by a supernaturalbeing. In Polynesia mana comes from the gods. The chief, as a directdescendant of the gods, has the most mana, followed by his relatives and soon down through the hierarchy. Mana does flow from one thing to another,but it is part of the chief’s role to be a reservoir and conductor of mana.

However, because of the chief’s great amount of mana, he constitutes aninvoluntary menace to those around him, who have a lesser capacity formana. Thus many tabus are in place to protect others from this power. Notonly is it tabu to touch the chief himself, but because the chief’s mana alsoruns into everything he uses, it also is dangerous to use his furniture or evenuse his fire to cook with. In some places the chief was even carried around ona litter because if he walked on a path with his own feet, the path becameforever dangerous, or tabu, to commoners.

Jewish food laws

Many cultures have complex systems of food prohibitions. These prohibitionsmay apply to the entire community, or they may apply only to individuals of

a particular age, gender, or social position.Kashrut is the Jewish law regarding what foods can and cannot be eaten

and how foods must be prepared. Kashrut comes from the Hebrew root Kaf-Shin-Resh, meaning fit, proper, or correct. The more commonly known wordkosher comes from the same root. Kosher foods are those that are properaccording to the Kashrut. Food that is not kosher is referred to as treyf.Although some have tried to analyze these rules in terms of early healthregulations, Jews who observe these dietary laws do so because the Torah saysto do so. No other reason is necessary. (Rules similar to the Jewish dietarylaws are also found in Islam, in which permitted foods are halal andprohibited foods are haram.)

The rules for keeping kosher include eating only land mammals that havecloven hoofs and chew their cud. (“Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and isclovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat”[Leviticus 11:3].) This is why eating pork is not allowed.

Even animals that are allowed to be eaten must be slaughtered ritually. Thisritual slaughter is known as shechitah and is performed by a ritual specialist, ashochet. The ritual slaughter is done by a quick, deep stroke across theanimal’s throat with a perfectly sharp blade. This method is seen as being themost humane method of slaughter possible. It ensures a rapid and completedraining of the blood as well, which is also a kosher rule. The prohibition ofthe consumption of blood is the only dietary law that has a reason given inthe Torah: The life of the animal is contained in the blood. (“Moreover ye shalleat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or beast, in any of yourdwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even thatsoul shall be cut off from his people” [Leviticus 7:26–27].)

Many of these obligations serve to provide a social identity to a group andto clearly separate that community from its neighbors. They also serve toseparate different subgroups from one another in a multicultural society. Forexample, members of a particular group might wear special clothing thatmarks them as members of that group, such as a wearing a turban or otherhead covering, or might alter the appearance of their body, such as growing abeard. Particular behaviors and food prohibitions also serve as symbols ofgroup identity and as barriers to social interactions between different socialunits. If you cannot eat with someone, it becomes difficult to engage in closesocial interactions. Such prohibitions play important roles in defining religious

groups and keeping them intact.

Box 4.2 Menstrual tabus

One common category of tabus found cross-culturally is menstrual tabus.Common rules include spending time in menstrual huts, refraining fromcooking or eating certain foods, restricting contact with males (especiallyin regards to sex), and bathing in special locations and/or times. Many ofthese tabus separate women from men and are seen as protecting menfrom possible pollution.

The Mehinaku, an Amazonian group, tell the following myth aboutthe origins of menstruation.

A long time ago the Sun (Kama) wanted to have sex with Spirit Woman(Apapainyeineju). Oh, but her labia were long. The Sun took her by the wrist andsaid, “Let’s have sex!” To which she replied, “Ah, not me. My vagina is verydangerous and frightening. Inside there is stinging ant, Mein. Inside there aresnakes, such as Mekhe and others. Inside is Scorpion, Yucapanu. If it gets you,then you will really be sick. There are many of these between my labia too. I amreally dangerous and frightening.”

The Sun went into the forest and returned with fish poison and dredged it intoSpirit Woman’s vagina, just as he would have done into a pool. Out floated all ofthe dangerous animals. Out came the snakes, then the spiders, and the scorpion.All of these came out but one tiny piranha that remained lodged deep inside her.

“This is good,” said the Sun, and he gave tiny piranha to all the women. Eachmonth the piranha bite the women and make them bleed. Sometimes, the womancan feel the piranha bite, and tell their husbands, “Soon I am going to have myperiod.”4

As seen in the myth, for the Mehinaku, female genitalia is seen as asource of danger and possible injury. This remains true beyond mythictimes as menstruating women are seen as contaminating food which cancause an illness with chest pains and a cough. Although this illness is notserious for women, it is for men and can even cause death.

Menstrual tabus are found in the world religions as well. In Judaism,menstrual blood is considered ritually unclean. Leviticus 18:19 states,“Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness,as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness” and women are forbidden

from making any physical contact with men during menstruation andfor the week following. At the end of this time, the woman immersesherself in a mikvah, a ritual bath.

Restrictions for Muslim women are for religious functions only andare based on the Qur’an 2:22 which states, “They question thee (OMuhammad) concerning menstruation. Say it is an illness so let womenalone at such times and go not into them until they are cleansed. Andwhen they have purified themselves, then go unto them as Allah hathenjoined upon you.” A menstruating woman may not enter a shrine ormosque, and may not pray, fast, or touch or recite from the Qur’an. Shemust refrain from sex and complete a ritual washing before she isconsidered clean again.

Conclusion

In the last few chapters we have introduced many basic concepts in the studyof religion, such as worldview, narratives, symbols, and rituals. As weprogress through the book and discuss new ideas and practices, it is importantto keep in mind how these different elements are related to one another. Wediscussed in the last chapter the connection between worldview, symbols, andreligious narratives. In this chapter we added ritual to the mix.

We defined a religious ritual as a repetitive, patterned act that involves themanipulation of religious symbols. In Chapter 3 we discussed how religioussymbols are often based on specific episodes recounted in religious narrativesand that they represent a specific worldview. On another level we see thatrituals are often reenactments of, or directly reference, specific religiousnarratives. In the examples in this chapter we saw that Navaho sand paintingsrepresent important religious stories, that the Huichol pilgrimage retraces thepath of the Ancient Ones as told in religious narratives, and that the JewishPassover ritual is based on the book of Exodus, just to name a few.

Ritual itself is an essential component of religious practice. The ritualexpresses important worldviews through the retelling of sacred narratives and

the manipulation of fundamental symbols. Participation in a ritual is usually agroup event and constitutes an expression not just of the beliefs of the group,but also of group solidarity. In the next chapter, in our discussion of alteredstates of consciousness, we will further discuss the important psychologicalimpact of rituals. In the words of Anthony Wallace, “Ritual is religion inaction; it is the cutting edge of the tool … It is ritual which accomplishes whatreligion sets out to do.”5

Summary

A religious ritual is a standardized, repetitive sequence of activities thatinvolves the manipulation of religious symbols such as prayers, offerings, andreadings of sacred literature. Rituals are often based on and are sanctioned inmyths that articulate the underlying worldview of a culture, and these tenetsare embedded in the rituals that are performed by a society. Prescriptiverituals are ones that are required to be performed by some religious authority;situational rituals are performed because of a particular need of an individualor a community. Periodic rituals are performed as part of a religious calendar;occasional rituals are performed when a particular need arises.

There are many types of rituals. Technological rituals attempt to influenceor control nature, such as hunting and gathering rites of intensification thatinfluence nature in the quest for food, protective rituals that serve to protectindividuals in some dangerous or unpredictable activity, and divinationrituals. Therapy rituals are healing rituals; anti-therapy rituals are performedto bring about illness and death. Ideological rituals serve to maintain thenormal functioning of a society. These include the familiar social rite ofintensification that reinforces religious and social beliefs and values and therite of passage that marks an individual’s movement from one status toanother. Rites of passage include birth, coming-of-age, marriage, and deathrituals as well as many secular rituals such as graduations, inaugurations, andcoronations. Three phases can usually be identified within a rite of passage:separation, transition, and incorporation.

In addition to these there are many small rituals and obligations that are

demanded of adherents of particular religions. This includes the concept oftabu. Things that are tabu are separated from the society and are oftenconsidered to be sacred.

Study questions

1. Rituals are an important part of academic life, be they graduationceremonies or pregame pep rallies. What are some of the rituals thatare performed at your school? Are any rituals performed at yourworkplace? How would you classify these rituals?

2. Disasters often precipitate religious rituals. Describe some of theritual activities that immediately followed the September 11, 2001,tragedy. What kinds of rituals were they? What functions did theyserve?

3. Discuss a rite of passage that you have attended. Identify anddescribe the three phases.

4. When one enters a hospital as a patient, one’s clothes and personalproperty are taken away and one is treated in a fashion that is verydifferent from how one is treated outside the hospital. Do you thinkthat a hospital stay can be considered a rite of passage? Why or whynot? If so, can the three phases be identified?

5. How is adulthood defined in U.S. culture? At what point is oneconsidered an adult? Is there a rite or several rites of passage thatmark this transition? How does the lack of a formal marker ofadulthood complicate this transition?

6. Many religions mandate specific ritual obligations. How do theseobligations function in society? How do they influence interpersonalrelationships between members of different religious groups?

7. If you have a chance, observe individuals from a particular religiousgroup. Describe differences in dress and other behaviors. Would youlabel these ritual obligations?

Suggested readings

Mark J. Plotkin, Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice (New York: Viking, 1993).[The story of an ethnobotanist’s search for new medicines in the Amazon.]

Tepilit Ole Saitoti, The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1988).

[An autobiography of a Maasai from Tanzania.]

Marjorie Shostak, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (4th edn)(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).

[The story of the life of a !Kung woman from the Kalahari Desert of southernAfrica told both in her own words and in the words of the author.]

Suggested websites

http://tahtonka.com/religion.htmlNative American arts, humanities, and culture.

https://oukosher.orgKosher laws.

http://web.haj.gov.sa/english/Pages/default.aspxOfficial website of the Ministry of Hajj, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Notes

1 A. F. C. Wallace, Religion: An Anthropological View (New York: Random House, 1966).

2 D. F. Pelly, The Sacred Hunt (Vancouver: D&M Publishers, 2001), p. 28.

3 H. Basedow, The Australian Aboriginal (Adelaide, Australia: Preece, 1925).

4 T. Gregor, Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 142.

5 A. F. C. Wallace, op. cit., p. 102.

Chapter 5Altered states of consciousness

Religion is a system of beliefs and behaviors that deals with the relationshipbetween humans and the sacred supernatural. In interacting with thesupernatural world, an individual may have experiences that transcendordinary experiences, such as a trance or hallucination. These religiousexperiences are subjective; they manifest themselves on an emotional andpsychological level. These emotions range from fear and anxiety, to ageneralized feeling of well-being, to a profound experience in which a personfeels an association with supernatural power or a supernatural entity such as aspirit or a god. These experiences and emotions are important elements inreligious practices.

These experiences are called altered states of consciousness. In itssimplest sense, an altered state of consciousness is any mental state that isrecognized by the individual or observer as differing from a normal state.Daydreaming and the feeling that comes from drinking a little too muchalcohol are examples of mental states that can be subjectively identified by theindividual, and/or seen by observers, as being different from that individual’snormal, alert mental state. Although everyone experiences altered states ofconsciousness to some degree, in both religious and nonreligious contexts, inmany cultures these states are encouraged and are interpreted by the cultureas important religious experiences.

The nature of altered states of consciousness

The definition of an altered state of consciousness is a subjective one thatincludes a wide variety of phenomena. Table 5.1 lists some of the experiencesthat characterize altered states. Which particular mental state is experiencedand the intensity of that experience depend on a number of factors, includingthe nature of the factor responsible for an individual entering an altered state,the context of the experience, the individual’s and society’s expectation, andthe physical and mental condition of the individual.

Entering an altered state of consciousness

Altered states of consciousness can be brought about by a number ofphysiological, psychological, and pharmaceutical factors. Table 5.2 lists anumber of situations that can bring about an altered state of consciousness.Many of these factors occur in religious practices and are given a religiousinterpretation.

Table 5.1 Characteristics of altered states of consciousness

Alterations in thinking: disturbances in concentration, attention, memory, andjudgment; reality testing impaired to varying degrees; distinction between

cause and effect blurred

Disturbed time sense: altered sense of time and chronology; feelings oftimelessness; time coming to a standstill; the acceleration or slowing of time

seen as infinitely long or infinitesimally short

Loss of control: fear of losing grip on reality and self-control; feelings ofhelplessness; in spirit possession states the person relinquishes control

Change in emotional expression: sudden and unexpected displays ofemotional extremes; individual may become detached and uninvolved

Body image change: distortion in body image; a schism between body andmind; dissolution of boundaries between self and others and the universe;

various parts of the body appear or feel shrunken, enlarged, distorted, heavy,weightless, disconnected; spontaneous experiences of dizziness, blurring of

vision

Perceptual distortions: hallucinations; increased visual imagery; synesthesia,in which one form of sensory experience is translated into other form, such as

in seeing or feeling sound

Change in meaning or significance: attach increased meaning or significanceto experiences; feelings of perceptiveness and insight

Sense of an indescribable experience: inability to communicate the experienceto someone who has not undergone a similar experience; varying degrees of

amnesia; sometimes a lucid memory

Feelings of rejuvenation: experience a new sense of hope and rebirth;hypersuggestibility, in which the person comes to rely more on the

suggestions of the religious practitioner; contradictions, doubts,inconsistencies, and inhibitions tend to diminish; suggestions of the person

endowed with authority accepted as concrete reality

Based on A. M. Ludwig, “Altered States of Consciousness,” in C. Tart, Altered States ofConsciousness (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969), pp. 9–22.

Table 5.2 Factors bringing about an altered state of consciousness

Production of altered stateof consciousness

Examples

Reduction of externalstimulation and/or motor

activity

Solitary confinement, prolonged social andstimulus deprivation, altered states while falling

asleep or waking up, dreaming

Constant exposure torepetitive stimulation

Prolonged drumming or repetitive dancemovements (e.g., whirling dervishes)

Increase of externalstimulation (sensory

overload) and/orstrenuous physical

activity

Third-degree tactics, spirit possession states,ecstatic trance

Increased alertness ormental involvement Prolonged vigilance, intense mental absorption in a

sustained over time task

Decreased alertness;passive state of mind;

reduction in goal-directedthinking

States attained through meditation, daydreaming,cognitive and muscular relaxation (e.g., while

floating on the water or sunbathing)

Alterations in bodychemistry or physiology

of nervous system

Hypoglycemia (which may be due to fasting),dehydration, sleep deprivation, hyperventilation,

temporal lobe seizures, administration ofpharmacological substances

Based on A. M. Ludwig, “Altered States of Consciousness,” in C. Tart, Altered States ofConsciousness (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969), pp. 9–22.

Fasting

Fasting is the act of abstaining from eating food and drinking liquids over aperiod of time. The concept of fasting may also include other prohibitionssuch as that against sexual intercourse and smoking. There is great variationin the nature of a fast. In some societies the fast includes all food and drink; insome the drinking of water is permitted. In still other societies a fast refers toabstaining from a particular food such as meat.

Fasting leads to an alteration in body chemistry. In response to the absenceof food intake over an extended period of time, the body turns to alternativemeans of providing glucose to run the body. Initially fat stores in the liver andelsewhere are metabolized. On depletion of the fat stores, the body begins tobreak down proteins. The feeling of hunger normally disappears after a fewdays.

Changes in body chemistry accelerate with intense, prolonged fasting, andthe fasting individual will show the clinical features of starvation. Severesymptoms of starvation, including death, have occurred in religious fasting;this is a rare, maladaptive outcome. Because most religious fasts last only aday or two, or involve some intake of food during the fasting period, thefeatures of starvation seldom develop. In intense fasting, the psychological

features that are seen include an increase in impulsive and aggressivebehavior, a decrease in competence, and hallucinations. Characteristicsassociated with dehydration include fatigue, lethargy, confusion, anddizziness. Thus fasting can lead to the development of an altered state.

People express many reactions to fasting in a religious context. Of course,in addition to physiological and psychological features, the culturalexpectations play a major role. Fasting is often seen as a sacrifice to a deityand frequently accompanies religious rituals. It can be an important elementin the training of religious specialists in which it is seen as a form ofdiscipline. Fasting also accompanies rituals of atonement as an act ofcleansing.

There are many instances of fasting in both the Old and New Testaments.For example, Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights while he was on themountain with God. Jesus also fasted for forty days and forty nights while inthe wilderness.

The Jewish calendar contains a number of fast days. The best known is YomKippur, the Day of Atonement and the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Onthat day, Jews fast from sunset to sunset the next day. Fasting includesabstinence from all food and drink, including water, as well as otherprohibitions such as that against sexual intercourse and bathing. Fasting is apart of the process of achieving atonement.

Fasting is found in some Christian denominations and absent in others.Fasting accompanies Holy Communion in the Catholic and Orthodoxchurches. Here fasting often means abstaining from certain, but not all, foods.Fasting customs vary greatly in Protestant churches and often accompany apersonal spiritual experience rather than being a part of a ritual. Fasting isfound in some Buddhist sects, and it is an important element of Hindu ritual.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamiccalendar, is one of the Pillars of Islam. Fasting includes abstention from foodand water from sunup to sundown, as well as abstention from sex andsmoking. This act is seen as moving the individual closer to God byabandoning those things that are enjoyable. As the community fasts together,people are brought together with a heightened sense of community.

Sacred pain

Altered states of consciousness can also result from pain. Pain is a commontheme in religious traditions. It may be a punishment, as in the Christianlegacy of Eve bringing forth children in pain (“in sorrow thou shalt bringforth children” [Genesis 3:16]) or the Hindu consequences of bad karma. Painmay be seen as purifying, as with the ascetics and monks who causethemselves pain of the flesh in this life to avoid greater torment of the soul inthe next life. It is sometimes an enemy or maybe even a weapon, as withChrist’s battle on the cross. Finally, pain may be seen as transformative or as asource of supernatural power—pain purifies and is used to achieve exorcism.

Certain levels of pain have an analgesic quality (such as when the dentistshakes your lip before giving you a Novocain shot or when you rub the elbowyou just banged on something hard). Pain can also induce a euphoric state,through the body’s production of natural opiates, and may be related toexperiences of dissociation or trance. The voluntary ordeals to whichshamanic initiates and ascetics submit themselves may be related to thiseffect. This is also the goal of many participants in modern Western bodymodification subcultures who practice suspension (hanging from hookspiercing their skin).

In our society we tend to think of pain as a very individualistic and evenisolating experience. However, religious pain is often shared pain. Sometimesthis sharing is vicarious. Christianity provides many examples of theimportance of vicarious suffering, including the sacrifice of Christ on thecross, the existence of hell, and the public executions of witches and heretics.Some individuals have experienced localized pain in areas of the body thatcorrespond to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. Sometimes these are seen asmarks on the body known as stigmata.

Many rituals use pain that is either self-inflicted or inflicted by others. Forexample, some funeral rituals involve self-mutilation on the part of mourners(Chapter 8). Self-inflicted pain is also effective because before performing theact, people often become very focused, concentrating on the act. They mayalso have undergone a period of purification before the act that might includefasting or lack of sleep.

Among the ancient Maya, male rulers would use small obsidian blades to

perforate the foreskin of their penises, and women would perforate theirtongues and draw strings, often studded with thorns, through their tongues(Figure 5.1). The blood would fall onto strips of bark paper lying in aceremonial bowl. The blood-soaked paper then would be burned as anoffering. The intense pain and blood loss would bring about visions that wereinterpreted as the entrance of gods and ancestors into the presence of theruler.

In Chapter 4 we examined rites of passage that included coming-of-agerituals. These rituals often include tattooing, scarring, and circumcision.Because many of these operations are quite painful, the ability to withstandpain has become an important element in these rituals. The subject oftenenters an altered state of consciousness in the course of undergoing suchpainful procedures. This altered state of consciousness often makes it possibleto withstand the pain that is being inflicted.

Pain is also closely linked to emotion and sense of self. In modern Westernmedical practice, pain is often seen as being very disruptive and devastating toa person’s life and sense of self, isolating the individual in his or her ownprivate world. However, pain can also be experienced as healing andtransformative. In these cases pain is often experienced as the catalyst forstrengthening the person’s sense of self. Instead of being isolating, the painexperience may reinforce the person’s connections to both the social andsupernatural worlds. Prime examples of changes in identity that occurthrough pain experiences are possession and exorcism, both of which will bediscussed in later chapters.

Figure 5.1 Mayan carving. Stone carvings from Temple 23, Yaxchilán, Mexico,commemorating a ritual performed on October 28, 709 CE, celebrating the birth of Bird-Jaguar. (a) Lintel 24 shows Lady Xoc pulling a rope studded with thorns through her tongueas her husband, Shield-Jaguar, holds a torch. (b) Lintel 25 shows Lady Xoc experiencing ahallucination of a serpent.

A pilgrimage (see Chapter 4) often involves sacred pain that may beinterpreted as a sacrifice, an imitation of the suffering of a god, a penance, atest, and so on. Again, such pain is related to an altered state of consciousness.One example comes from the pilgrimage to Sabari Malai in South India. Thepilgrimage follows the path of the god Lord Ayyappan, son of Shiva, and hisencounter with, and defeat of, a female demon. Pilgrims commit themselves tocelibacy, moderate eating, walking with bare feet, and sleeping on the ground.The pilgrimage is a forty-mile journey, walked barefoot over sharp stones andhot sand. The pain of this is seen as an essential part of the pilgrimage, thegoal of which is becoming one with Ayyappan. Following is a description byE. Valentine Daniel of the experience of pain on this pilgrimage:

One tells oneself, “I shall walk on this side or that” or “Look! There’s a patch of grass.Let me go walk on that. It will make my feet feel good, even though the patch is onlythree feet long.” During this phase, one is able to differentiate between the pain causedby the blisters under one’s toenails and those on one’s heels. Then again, one is able todistinguish between the pain caused by blisters, wherever they happen to be, and thepain arising from strained calf muscles and tendons … The headaches caused by theheat of the noon sun and the load of the iru muti can be distinguished from the painresulting from the straps of the knapsack biting into one’s shoulders.

Sooner or later, however, all the different kinds of pain begin to merge … Theexperience of pain makes one acutely aware of oneself (ego) as the victim, and theoutside (undifferentiated as roots, stones, and hot sand) as the pain-causing agent …With time, pain stops having a causative agent, and ego is obscured or snuffed outbecause it has nothing to contrast itself with or stand against … There is a “feeling” ofpain, of course, but it is a sensation that has no agent, no tense, and no comparative …Pain is the only sensation belonging to the eternal present.1

The biological basis of altered states of consciousness

Participants in religious rituals may report being possessed by a spirit orvisited by an angel; they may feel their souls move outside their bodies; theymay become one with the universe. These are real and profound experiences.But what is occurring within the brain of these individuals? Is there abiological basis for these altered states of consciousness?

Neurologist Oliver Sacks and others have looked at the relationshipbetween migraines and religious experiences.2 The term migraine is generallyused to describe a type of headache, but migraines are also associated withnausea and other physical symptoms. One symptom associated withmigraines is an aura, a type of hallucination. Although auras are most oftenvisual, they may also involve distortions of other senses.

Culture plays a major role in how the patient interprets an aura. A modernmigraine sufferer might experience a visual aura as pathological, a conditionthat makes it difficult to function—for example, to drive a car. (An aura thatconsists of floating lights, for example, can severely interfere with normalvision.) The same visual experience could be interpreted as a vision. In fact,descriptions of visions were written down and illustrated by Hildegard ofBingen, a nun and mystic who lived from 1098 to 1179. Her descriptions anddrawings are similar to contemporary descriptions of auras by migraine

patients. Thus a particular experience may be experienced as a medicalcondition or, if the culture interprets it that way, a mystical experience.

Of course, migraine auras are not consciously induced, as many religiousaltered states are. Research in neurobiology has focused on how rhythmic,ritualized behavior affects certain parts of the brain. For example, in situationsin which a fast rhythm is being used, such as with vigorous singing anddancing, the sympathetic system or arousal system of the brain is driven tohigher and higher levels, ultimately becoming overstimulated. When thishappens, the brain essentially selectively shuts down, and certain areas of thebrain stop receiving the neural input that they normally receive and on whichthey depend to function normally.

One area of the brain that shuts down when overstimulated is a structure inthe brain known as the orientation association structure. This is the part ofthe brain that enables us to sense the boundaries of our body, to distinguishourselves from the world around us, and to orient ourselves in space. Theseare tasks that we normally take for granted because our brains are functioningwell, but the inability to perform these tasks can cause huge difficulties forpeople who have sustained damage to this part of the brain. Imagine trying tosit down in a chair if you could not tell where you ended and the chair beganor if you did not know exactly where your body was.

The orientation association structure becomes deprived of new informationbecause of the selective shutdown response to overstimulation of the arousalsystem. The result of this is a softening of the boundaries between self andother. This may be responsible for an altered mental state described by manyreligious systems in which the divisions between the self and the outsideworld disappear and one feels as being “one” with the universe orsupernatural beings. This is referred to as a unitary state.

Other research has focused on the emotional impact of repetitive motorbehaviors, including what are referred to as marked actions or actions that aredifferent from

Box 5.1 Altered states in Upper Paleolithic art

The Upper Paleolithic of Europe (35,000–10,000 years ago) is the time

when the first Homo sapiens arrived and replaced the Neandertals. It wasa time of new technologies and the development of artistic traditions.Perhaps the most famous art from this era is that of cave paintings,which are found primarily in France and Spain.

Over the decades, archaeologists and art historians have wrestled withinterpreting the meaning of cave art and the role it played for people ofthe Upper Paleolithic. David Lewis-Williams believes that the art waspart of a religious experience and are graphic representations ofexperiences of altered states of consciousness, either created while in orimmediately after coming out of an altered state.

Lewis-Williams points out that when people enter altered states thereare some experiences that appear to be universal, because they resultfrom the biology of the brain. One is the sensation of flying. Another isthat of being drawn into a vortex, which is often perceived as theentrance to a tunnel that leads to another world such as an underworld.He theorizes that Upper Paleolithic peoples saw the caves in terms ofsuch experiences. They were the “entrails of the underworld.” The wallsof the caves were seen as a membrane between the everyday world andthe world of the spirits.

Many of the works found on the cave walls incorporate some featureof the wall itself, such as a crack or nodule. Often the painted animalsappear to be coming out of the wall. These are spirit-animals, andshamans performed rituals to move these animals through the membraneso the shaman could use the spirit-animal in healing and other activities.This connection to the spirit world on the other side of the membranecan be seen in offerings—such as stone objects and animal teeth—that arewedged into cracks in the wall, thereby sending them into theunderworld. Incised lines may also be attempts to penetrate to the otherside.

In addition to representational images, such as animals, UpperPaleolithic humans painted geometric figures on the cave walls. Inmoving into a trance state, a person passes through three stages. In thefirst stage, geometric visual images are seen. These are entopticphenomena and are the forms painted on the cave walls. These imagesare seen by peoples in all societies, but they are open to culturalinterpretation. In the second phase, the individual attempts to make

sense of these phenomena and interprets them in cultural terms. Theseentoptic images are still seen in the third stage, or deep trance. Theycombine with iconic images of people and animals that are seen as partof the spirit world. In these deep trances, an individual will often feelchanged into an animal and shares the power of the spirit-animal.Images of transformed shamans are called therianthropes.

Sources: D. J. Lewis-Williams and J. Clottes, “The Mind in the Cave—theCave in the Mind: Altered Consciousness in the Upper Paleolithic,”Anthropology of Consciousness, 9 (1998), pp. 13–21; D. J. Lewis-Williams,The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (London:Thames & Hudson, 2002).

normal ordinary movements, such as a slow bow. Other studies have lookedat the impact of smell, such as that of burning incense. What is important tonote is that these studies have found that it is not possible to get the exactsame effects as are seen with ritual behavior just by chemically stimulatingthe right area. It is only with the merging of beliefs and behaviors that the fulleffect is achieved.

Ethnographic examples of altered states ofconsciousness

Altered states of consciousness are at the core of many religious experiencesand enable the believer to experience the supernatural in a very immediate,visceral way. In the following section we will see the role of altered states ofconsciousness in ritual by examining specific ethnographic examples.

San healing rituals

The !Kung are a subgroup of the San, a hunting and gathering people of theKalahari Desert in southern Africa (Khoisan culture area).3 In their healingrituals the !Kung experience !kia, which is an altered state of consciousness.According to the !Kung, an energy known as n/um, given to the !Kung by thegods, resides at the base of the spine. As an individual enters !kia, the n/umbegins to boil and turn to a vapor, which then rises in the spine to a point nearthe base of the skull. At that point the individual enters an altered state.

In a large !Kung camp, during the time of year when food is plentiful,dances are held several times a month. As night falls, several women sit downaround a large fire and begin to sing. Other women soon join them in a tightcircle around the fire and the singing becomes louder and more energetic.Soon some of the men, and a few women, begin to dance around the circle ofsingers. As the dancing becomes more and more energetic they become warmand begin sweating profusely. The dancers then start to stagger and shakeviolently. Having entered !kia they begin their healing by going around thefire and laying their hands on each individual. The !Kung believe that illnessis shot into people by the ancestors. By laying hands on a person, they pull outthe sickness and throw it into the darkness (Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 San healing ceremony. Healing ritual of the /Gwi band, a subgroup of the San,southern Africa. The men begin to dance around the women, who are singing around a fire.

About half of the men and about 10 percent of the women become healers.In addition to pulling out illness, a person in an altered state of consciousnesscan see the inside of a person and travel to the home of the gods. Theyexperience intense emotions and a sense of ascending and flying which isinterpreted as traveling into the heavens.

The Sun Dance of the Cheyenne

The Sun Dance is a major communal religious ritual practiced by many tribalgroups in the North American Plains culture area, including the Arapaho,Blackfeet, Crow, Kiowa, Sioux, and Cheyenne. Each group has its ownparticular variations, but there are certain elements common across thedifferent cultures. The Sun Dance takes place near the summer solstice and

represents the theme of renewal.The Cheyenne’s name for the Sun Dance, oxheheom, means “New Life

Lodge” or “Lodge of the Generator.” The ritual is closely tied to the creation ofthe earth and passages from the Cheyenne origin story. One myth tells of afamine that was afflicting the Cheyenne. In response, a culture hero namedTomsivsi (Erect Horns) took the beautiful wife of a tribal chief with him on ajourney to the Sacred Mountain. Inside the mountain, they were taught theSun Dance and were told that by performing the dance the world would berenewed.

The ceremony is pledged by an individual who is making a commitment tosupernatural beings. This pledge may be made in hopes of healing a loved one,or a man himself may be sick and vow to do the dance if he recovers. The vowmay be made to avert danger in war or may be based on a dream. From thetime the man makes his pledge until the end of the ritual, there is a tabu onsexual activity. This again references the myth in which Tomsivsi refused tohave sex with his companion until after he emerged from the SacredMountain.

The Sun Dance takes eight days to perform, with the first four days spentbuilding the dance lodge. The center pole for the dance lodge is cut down by aman who interacts with the tree as a warrior interacts with an enemy and it isritually transported to the lodge by chiefs. Many ritual acts and offerings tothe pole are associated with the raising of the pole. During this time, secretrites are also conducted in the Lone Tipi which symbolizes the SacredMountain where Tomsivsi learned the dance. Many acts symbolic of earthrenewal are done at this time.

The last four days are devoted to the actual public dance, which takes placein the Sun Dance Lodge. The participants in the dance face the center pole andrise up and down on their toes while standing in one place. As they rise theyblow on eagle-wing bone whistles. The dancers do this almost continuouslyfor the entire four-day period. While there may be brief rest periods, thedancers are completely without food or water.

The most dramatic part of the Cheyenne Sun Dance, and an element notpracticed by most other Plains groups, is an act of self-sacrifice known as“hanging from the central pole.” A man does this act with the help of ashaman who himself has made the same sacrifice in the past. The shamanfastens a rope to the central pole that will reach just to the chest of the man.

Two holes are cut in the skin of the man’s chest, skewers are passed through,and the free ends of the rope are attached to the skewers. The man dances,fastened to the pole, all night trying to break free. If he has not done so bymorning, the shaman cuts him free.

Dancers who make this additional sacrifice do so in hopes of gaining pityfrom the supernatural beings and being rewarded with good fortune. Dancersare also rewarded with public approval and social prestige. The fasting,dancing, and pain all help induce an altered state of consciousness for thedancers. Participants often report having visions during the ritual.

The Holiness Churches

The Holiness Churches are a series of independent churches that are foundprimarily in Appalachia, most predominantly in West Virginia. This area ofthe United States was once highly dependent on coal mining. It was arelatively isolated, economically depressed area. Although some of this is truetoday, the isolation is breaking down, and life is improving. Many HolinessChurches still survive. Each church is independent, yet individuals willfrequently visit several churches in the region. The rituals do not follow a setpattern, although many elements are highly traditional, and the sequence ofactivities is determined largely by the elders of the church community. Thesepractices are based on a specific portion of the Bible:

And he [Jesus] said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to everycreature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shallbe damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they castout devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if theydrink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and theyshall recover.

(Mark 16: 15–18)

During the service, several members of the congregation enter an altered stateof consciousness through intense concentration in prayer and with loud musicwith a repetitive beat. Individuals dance energetically and even entertrancelike states. In some Holiness Churches participants in an altered state

will pick up poisonous snakes and drink poison. Entrance into an altered stateis a highly desired religious experience and is interpreted as being filled by theHoly Ghost. This is an example of a unitary state.

Individuals may also “speak in tongues” which is an unknown “language”that is interpreted as the voice of God speaking through the person. Alsoknown as glossolalia, the language uses the sound, rhythms, and accents ofthe speaker’s native language. The sounds are broken up into syllables that areput together unsystematically into units that resemble words and sentencesbut are not.

Drug-induced altered states ofconsciousness

The use of drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness is practiced bymany societies. Table 5.3 lists various categories of drugs that produce analtered state of consciousness.

Table 5.3 Drugs that produce an altered state of consciousness

Category Examples Effects

Euphoria MorphineReduces mental activity and induces a sense of well-

being

PhantasticaMarijuana,

peyoteCauses visions, illusions, hallucinations, delirium

Inebriantia AlcoholProduces a state of intoxication; brings about aninitial phase of cerebral excitation followed by a

state of depression

Hypnotica XanaxSedatives or sleep producers; may cause insensibility

to pain

Analeptics,

Excitania coffee,tobacco

Mental stimulants

TranquilizerLibrium,

Thorazine,Valium

Reduces anxiety and mental tension; produces astate of mental calm

As with any altered state of consciousness, this can have both adaptive andmaladaptive expressions. For example, a drug addict may be unable tomaintain a home, a job, or normal social relationships as a consequence of hisor her addiction. In discussing drug-induced altered states, it is important torecognize the difference between secular drug use, which is often extremelymaladaptive, used for escapism, and leads to many personal and socialproblems, and ritual drug use, which is highly controlled and generallyadaptive.

The problems associated with recreational drug use, such as addiction, aregenerally not seen when the usage is done in a religious context. Religiousdrug use takes place only at certain times and in certain contexts, with definedbeginning and end points. The ritual setting channels the experience inimportant ways.

The importance of this structure and the possible dangers of drug use areoften recognized in the insider’s perspective as well. For example, the Huicholemphasize the role of the shaman not just to lead them on the peyotepilgrimage, but also to lead them back. They long for the ecstasy of thisreligious experience but also worry they might not be able to return from it.Members of the Native American Church, who use peyote as a sacrament,also caution against using peyote in anything but a religious context.

Hallucinogenic snuff among the Yanomamö

Various substances are used in religious contexts in order to bring aboutaltered states of consciousness. Here we will explore the use of hallucinogenicsnuff, tobacco, peyote, and marijuana in religious contexts.

The use of drugs is ubiquitous in South American traditional societies. Agreat many plants, both wild and domesticated, can be found in the tropical

forests that are exploited by traditional societies and used in religious rituals.Napoleon Chagnon describes the use of hallucinogens by Yanomamö shamansin Venezuela.4

The most commonly used hallucinogenic snuff is called ebena. It is madefrom the inner bark of a particular tree and is ground together with bark ashesand leaves. After the mixture is carefully kneaded it is ground to a finepowder on a heated piece of broken pottery. The final product, a fine greenpowder, is manufactured and used on a daily basis by the shamans of thevillage. One man will insert a long, hollow tube into the nostril of another.Placing a bit of powder in one end, he blows the powder with a powerful puffof air into the nasal cavity of his partner. The effects of the drug can beimmediately seen. The individual taking the drug chokes and coughs; his eyeswater; and long strands of green mucus drip from the nostrils. He hasdifficulty walking and begins to experience visual hallucinations, mainlyblubs of light.

The Yanomamö provide a cultural interpretation of these visualhallucinations. They see the world as populated by tiny, humanlike spiritscalled hekura. A shaman’s supernatural power depends on his ability to enticethe hekura into his chest, which is visualized as a world of rivers, mountains,and forests. Under the influence of ebena they report seeing hekura spiritsmoving down from the mountains. Having decorated their bodies to maketheir bodies attractive to the spirits, the men sing songs to entice the spiritsinto their chests. Once the hekura have settled in the spirits will work withthe shaman in bringing about healing as well as to cause illness and death tohis village’s enemies.

Tobacco in South America

Many ethnographies of South American cultures describe the varied ways inwhich drugs are used in these societies. Many of these practices are outlinedby Johannes Wilbert, who, while focusing on the use of tobacco in SouthAmerican societies, also touches on the use of other substances. In thesesocieties a drug is often used in combination with a variety of substances,both collected and cultivated.5

The use of tobacco, often mixed with other substances, is common in SouthAmerican societies. The substances are made into several different forms, andmany delivery systems have developed. Of course, traditional societies do nothave the option of injection, so the problem is how to get the drug into thebloodstream, where it will move rapidly to the brain.

Substances are efficiently absorbed in parts of the body that are lined withepithelial tissue that contain a high density of blood capillaries. These includethe lining of lungs, mouth, throat, digestive system, rectum, nose, and eyes.Tobacco can be smoked, sucked (as in chewing tobacco), or drunk. Some tribesproduce a processed form of tobacco with the consistency of a jelly, which isthen rubbed on the teeth and gums. Tobacco can be dried and ground into apowder and blown up the nose.

Drugs also can be introduced into the rectum by some type of enemadevice. The advantages of this technique are that it will not irritate thestomach and that the drug will not be lost if the individual vomits. Sometimesthe enema device is a simple tube. The drug is then blown into the rectum.Another device makes use of a bulb that can be made from rubber or thebladder of an animal. A painting on a pottery vessel found in a Mayan sitesolved the mystery of a particular type of pottery vessel that appeared to haveno obvious function. The painting shows it being used, with a rubber bulb, asan enema syringe.

Peyote in the Native American Church

The late nineteenth century was a difficult time for the Native Americanpopulation of the United States. The tribes were losing land, their traditionallifestyles were disappearing, disease had decimated many native communities,and the official policy of the U.S. government was to destroy Native Americanculture and to assimilate the populations into the general culture. Religionbecame one method of coping with this stress, and out of the chaos developeda series of religious movements known by anthropologists as nativisticmovements. (These movements will be discussed in detail in Chapter 11.)Many of these movements combined both native and Christian elements, anexample of syncretism.

Some of these early movements involved the use of the hallucinogeniccactus peyote. Peyote grows in northern Mexico and southern Texas and has along history of use in religious ritual, as among the Huichol. The ritual use ofpeyote slowly moved into the Native American populations and is referred toas peyotism. Some of these groups stress Native American beliefs and rituals;others combine Native American elements with those of Christianity thatwere introduced by missionaries. They also tend to be pan-Indian in that theyincorporate elements and draw membership from many different tribes.Familiar elements of ritual include meditation, revelation, prayer, and the useof native plant materials—for example, tobacco and sage.

For some groups that utilize Christian elements, peyote plays a role similarto that of the sacramental bread and wine of the Christian Mass. The peyote isbelieved to contain the power of God and to ingest the peyote is to absorbGod’s power. Members of the Native American Church say that this enablesthem to have a direct experience of the supernatural.

The first Native American Church was incorporated in Oklahoma in 1918,followed by others. The reactions of the various states to the use of peyotehave been mixed. In some situations it was tolerated; in others individualswere tried and convicted for using a banned substance. Finally, in 1978,Congress amended the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to legalize theuse of peyote as a sacrament in Native American Church rituals.

Marijuana among the Rastafarians

Rastafarians are members of an Afro-Caribbean religion that has its roots inChristianity but venerates the former emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, asthe messiah. Rastafarians believe that people of African descent are theIsraelites reincarnated and generally focus on issues of race relations. One oftheir key beliefs is in the coming repatriation of blacks in the Americas toAfrica. The Rastafarians are an example of a revitalization movement(Chapter 11), originating in conditions of social and economic deprivation andmeant to improve the lives of its adherents through adopting new religiousbeliefs. Since its beginnings the Rastafarian movement has grown toencompass not just the poor, but also the middle classes and has spread out

from its place of origin, Jamaica, partly through the international spread ofboth Jamaican people and reggae music.

The Rastafarians stress a philosophy of ital levity, which stresses therejection of Western consumerism and emphasizes living in harmony withnature. This includes eating food that is grown without chemical fertilizersand using herbal remedies. In addition to vegetarianism and not cutting thehair (resulting in dreadlocks), a common Rastafarian religious practice is thesmoking of marijuana, or ganga. Ganga is sometimes referred to as the“wisdom weed” or “the holy herb” and is seen as a religious sacrament and away to gain new understandings of self, the universe, and God.

Rastafarians trace the use of ganga to several passages in the Bible,including the following: “thou shalt eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:18),“eat every herb of the land” (Exodus 10:12), and “Better is a dinner of herbwhere love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith” (Proverbs 15:17).

Conclusion

In Chapter 1 we listed the six dimensions of religion as set forth by NinianSmart. One of these was the experiential dimension, an encounter with asacred reality that is beyond ordinary experience. Religious experiences can behighly emotional. They can range from a generalized feeling of well-being todramatic visions. These mental states, states that differ from one’s normalmental states, are altered states of consciousness. They define religiousexperience. It is through such altered states that supernatural phenomena andpowers manifest themselves. It moves abstract beliefs into the realm of livedexperience.

Interpreting the changes in mental state when one is in an altered state ofconsciousness is largely influenced by culture. In other words, culture placesmeaning on our experiences. A buzz from drinking several alcoholic drinks isamenable to several interpretations. Some are secular: “I’ve had a little toomuch to drink, and I’m feeling tipsy.” Some people, experiencing the identicalreaction, might interpret that same feeling as “I feel as if a spirit has enteredmy body.” The objective feeling may be the same, but the subjective

interpretation may be very different.The religious interpretations of altered states of consciousness generally fall

into two categories. First, supernatural power, usually in the form of spirits orgods, enters the person’s body, a phenomenon that we call spirit possession.An individual can control the spirit within his or her body to accomplishcertain goals, or the spirit that possesses a human body can use that body toheal or to divine the unknown, often without the knowledge or the memory ofthe possessed person. However, possession by an unwanted spirit can bringabout illness that may be cured by exorcism rituals.

The second common religious interpretation of an altered state ofconsciousness is that a person has entered a trance state because the soul hasleft the person’s body. The experience of the individual in the altered state isthen associated with the experiences of the soul, which is operating in asupernatural realm.

Altered states frequently play an important role in healing, for both thehealer and the patient. Healing is facilitated, and in some cases evenaccomplished, through suggestibility, emotional catharsis, and feelings ofrejuvenation. For example, when possessed by a spirit, the healer may use thesupernatural power of the spirit to remove the cause of the illness, often bysucking the offending spirit out of the patient’s body. When an illness isdiagnosed as the loss of the soul, the healer sends his or her soul on a voyageto retrieve the lost soul of the patient.

The most common idea of religious altered states, though, is the idea ofachieving a unitary state, a state in which the individual experiences a feelingof becoming one with the supernatural, however this is conceived of by thecommunity. For some, this is becoming one with God or a spirit; for others, itmay be expressed as becoming one with a generalized supernatural force. Wesaw an example of this in our discussion of the Sabari Malai pilgrimage, thegoal of which is a unitary state with the god Lord Ayyappan.

The idea of the unitary state is often one of the major components of areligious ritual or even an entire religious system. A common religious themeis that humans were once at one with the supernatural but somehow becameseparated. The goal of many religious practices is to regain that unity. Thistheme can be seen in many familiar religions. For Christians, Jesus providesthe pathway back to God; for Buddhists, following the teachings of Buddhaallows an individual to attain oneness with the universe; for Muslims,

reconciliation is possible through submission of the will to Allah.In previous chapters we discussed symbols, narratives, and the importance

of religious rituals. However, it is only with a discussion of altered states ofconsciousness that a true appreciation of the power of rituals can be reached.Narratives provide a basis for belief, but it is only with ritual that these ideasare turned into experiences. A religious altered state in a way offers visceralproof of the existence of the supernatural. These experiences move thesupernatural from the realm of abstract belief into that of a lived reality.

Summary

An altered state of consciousness is any mental state that differs from anormal mental state. Such states are characterized by a number ofpsychological experiences, such as alterations in patterns of thinking,disturbed sense of time, change in emotional expression, distortion in bodyimage, and others. A person can enter an altered state through a number ofsituations including reduction of external stimulation, increase of externalstimulation, increased alertness or decreased alertness, pain, or alterations inbody chemistry such as those that accompany fasting and sleep deprivation.These factors create observable changes in the activity of the brain.

Altered states of consciousness can also be brought about by drugs andchemical agents, such as the use of tobacco, coffee, alcohol, marijuana, peyote,and a number of manufactured substances. However, the use of thesesubstances in religious practice occurs within a religious context. Theexperience is strongly influenced by cultural expectations.

Study questions

1. Altered states of consciousness include familiar experiences such asdreaming and daydreaming. Describe any such experiences that you

have had. How do they fit the description of an altered state ofconsciousness that is given in this chapter?

2. Many factors can lead to altered states of consciousness and are likelyto occur in most people’s lives. What are some of these?

3. Tattooing, body piercing, and other alterations to the body that arepracticed among some people in today’s society are painfulprocedures. How does the experience of pain become a part of thetotal experience? You might want to talk with some people who haveundergone these procedures.

4. Next time you go to a religious service, pay close attention to anyexperiences that could be labeled an altered state of consciousness.Describe the experience. What were the conditions that led to theexperience? How do the physical layout of the church, temple, ormosque; the presence of ritual objects; and the playing of music helpto produce an altered state of consciousness?

Suggested readings

Ariel Glucklich, Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul(Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003).

[Examines ideas about and uses of pain in religious contexts.]

Richard Katz, Boiling Energy: Community Healing Among the Kalahari Kung(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).

Autobiographies about personal religious experiences

Karen Armstrong, Through the Narrow Gate (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin,2005).

[Armstrong, who has written on many religious topics, tells of her ownspiritual life, including seven years in a convent.]

Madeleine L’Engle, The Irrational Season: The Crosswicks Journal, Book 3(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984).

[L’Engle’s journal follows a church year and her own questioning of herfaith.]

C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York: HarcourtBrace, 1995).

[Lewis’s autobiographical account of his life, including as a Christian and asan atheist.]

Fiction

Myla Goldberg, Bee Season (New York, Doubleday, 2002).[A girl’s participation in a spelling bee sets in motion events that willultimately lead to the disintegration of her family. Largely about the spiritualquests of all four of the family members.]

Suggested websites

www.holiness-snake-handlers.webs.comOfficial website of Holiness serpent handlers.

www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.htmlThe life and works of Hildegard von Bingen.

archeologie.culture.fr/chauvetThe Upper Paleolithic cave site of Chauvet-Pont D’Arc.

www.nativeamericanchurch.comThe website of the Native American Church of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.

www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/british-museum/the-americas-bm/meso-central-america-bm/a/maya-the-yaxchiln-lintels

The lintels from the Mayan site of Yaxchilán.

Notes

1 Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way by Daniel E. Valentine. Reproduced withpermission of University of California Press in the format Republish in a book viaCopyright Clearance Center.

2 O. Sacks, Migraine (New York: Random House, 1992).

3 The various symbols other than letters used in San words stand for a variety of clicksthat characterize their languages.

4 N. A. Chagnon, Yanomamö (6th edn) (Independence, KY: Wadsworth, 2012).

5 J. Wilbert, Tobacco and Shamanism in South America (New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress, 1987).

Chapter 6Religious specialists

In small-scale societies with relatively simple technologies, rituals usually areperformed by most or all of the adult members of the community. However,some individuals may develop a special interest in religious practices and maydevelop a special ability to contact the supernatural. An example is the healersfound among the !Kung San, in which around half of the men and a numberof women become healers. Yet these men and women are full participants inthe secular life of the group. Full-time, specialized religious statuses usually donot exist in such societies, because these societies do not produce the surplusof food that is necessary to support full-time specialists.

As we discussed earlier, religious activities are not clearly delineated fromnon-religious activities in small-scale societies. Religious activities areinterwoven with secular activities; indeed, the separation between religiousand secular is not even made. This is reflected in the lack of full-time religiousspecialists.

Some societies have developed part-time specialists. These are people whoearn their living at some economic task, such as hunting or farming, but whoare called on to perform rituals when necessary because of their specialknowledge or abilities. Such a person might be paid for his or her services, butmany are not.

In larger and more technologically complex societies we see thedevelopment of many occupational specializations, including religiousspecialists. These practitioners may be full-time specialists who derive theirincome primarily from the performance of religious rituals. Such individualsmay be supported by the community, or they may derive their incomethrough payment for services by individuals whom they have helped. Forexample, religious practitioners may be found in a marketplace, ready to be

approached by clients who are in need of services in order to secure economicsuccess for some endeavor or perhaps a cure for an illness. In some societiesreligious practitioners may attain important political and economic positions.

There are many terms used to describe religious specialists. Unfortunately,the terms are not used in a consistent manner. Sometimes it is a problem oftranslation because the nature of religious practitioners and their activities inmany societies might not neatly fit a defined category in our society or asdefined by anthropologists.

Two terms frequently used to categorize religious specialists are those ofshaman and priest. These are not two mutually exclusive categories, butrather ends of a continuum. Very often a religious practitioner that we mightclassify as a priest will perform some functions that are more characteristic ofa shaman; the reverse is also true.

Shamans

The distinction between priests and shamans is not always clear-cut, andthere are many religious specialists who fall somewhere in between. Generallyspeaking, in contrast to a priest, a shaman receives his or her power directlyfrom the spirit world. He or she acquires status and abilities, such as healing,through personal communication with the supernatural during shamanictrances or altered states of consciousness. The route to becoming a religiousspecialist and how each functions within a society will also differ for shamansand priests.

Defining shamanism

Like many terms used in the study of religion, the term shaman has been usedin different ways by different people. Some use the term very broadly toencompass a wide variety of phenomena; others use it in only a very narrowsense. Most agree that shamanism refers to techniques used by specific kinds

of religious specialists and that shamans can be found in a wide variety ofcultures and religions (Figure 6.1).

The term shaman actually comes from the Tungus language of CentralSiberia. It refers to the religious specialists who use handheld drums and spirithelpers to help the members of their community by healing the sick, diviningthe future, and ensuring success in the hunt. The term was later expanded toinclude similar religious specialists in other cultures, although some peoplebelieve that the term shaman should only be applied to these Siberianreligious specialists.

Figure 6.1 Shaman. A shaman performs at the Kaijiang Festival in Harbin, China, at the startof the fishing season.

For those who apply the term more broadly, the crucial elements ofshamanism include direct contact and communication with the supernaturalthrough trance, the use of spirit helpers, the use of a specific culturallyrecognized and transmitted method and paraphernalia, and a sociallyrecognized special position for the shaman.

Unlike priests, who are full-time community-based specialists, shamans are

usually part-time independent contractors. The authority of a shaman lies inhis or her charisma and ability to heal. The relationship between a shamanand the community is a personal one. Shamans focus on specific problems,such as those that affect a particular individual or family. Because clientsoften select a shaman in a particular situation for the shaman’s reputation andtrack record in curing, successful shamans can amass a significant degree ofsocial authority.

Becoming a shaman

Because shamans receive their power and authority directly from supernaturalbeings, they frequently are chosen by spirits to become a shaman. Perhaps thebehavior of a child with regard to sacred objects is interpreted as a sign ofselection by the spirits for training as a shaman. Often the call comes in adream or trance. In some societies a person may deliberately seek a callthrough inducing an altered state of consciousness. This is most frequent insocieties in which shamans achieve some degree of social authority. In somesocieties, the task of being a shaman is so difficult and demanding thatindividuals do not seek a call. When a call comes—through a dream, a trance,recovery from an illness—the individual may be reluctant to act on it.

The spirits will commonly call to the future shaman during a particularlydifficult time of their lives, including periods of stress, illness, accident,possession, or near-death experiences. Shamans have been called “woundedhealers” and are seen as people driven to be shamans by their own illnesses,possibly including psychosis or possession. The shamanic initiation oftenincludes the idea that the spirits eat, dismember, or kill the person before thatperson can be reborn as a shaman. The spirits are testing the initiate and thesymbolism of death, transformation, and rebirth are very common.

The shaman often undergoes a period of training, usually with an oldershaman. Although learning religious knowledge is important, the mainpurpose of the training is to learn how to make contact with the supernatural,a very dangerous activity, and how to manipulate the supernatural world inorder to achieve some specified end. The candidate establishes a relationshipwith a spirit familiar who acts as his guide to the supernatural world. The

period of apprenticeship may include periods of seclusion, fasting, and thetaking of hallucinogens, but the main goal is to learn to enter into and controlthe experience of an altered state of consciousness.

The shamanic role and rituals

The shaman may contact the supernatural by traditional, standardizedmethods that fit our definition of ritual. The ritual is only a means forcontacting and establishing a relationship with a supernatural entity; it is notan end in itself. The success of a shaman lies not in her ability to memorizeand perform rituals, but in her ability to successfully establish contact andsome measure of control over the supernatural.

The control of spirit helpers and the ability to enter altered states ofconsciousness are central to the role of shaman. These spirits help the shamanfight hostile spirits and also help the shaman diagnose and treat illnesses. Insome cultures illness results from the loss of the patient’s soul. The shamanwill enter an altered state of consciousness and send his or her soul torecapture the patient’s soul and return and anchor it to the patient’s body.

The shamanic ritual may be a simple affair, say a private consultationbetween patient and shaman, or may be a major public ritual. In the latter, itis common for the ritual to be very dramatic, aided by the use of varioustheatrical techniques on the part of the shaman. Drumming, singing, dancing,and elaborate costumes contribute to this effect, as do the use of ventriloquismand sleight of hand. Using these techniques does not necessarily imply intentby the shaman to deceive onlookers. Shamans operate in the realm of thesupernatural, which others are unable to perceive. Using sleight of hand mayrepresent an attempt by the shaman to represent and convince others of whatthey see as true accomplishments on the unseen level.

The movement of the shaman between the realm of the natural andsupernatural is often related to a worldview that sees humans living in amiddle zone between an upper and lower world. The three worlds are seen aslinked by a central vertical axis, often referred to as an Axis Mundi or Axis ofthe World. An example already discussed is the Mayan World Tree seen onthe sarcophagus of Lord Pakal in Chapter 3. The shaman is able to travel

between these worlds, usually along this central axis. In shamanic rituals, aladder, pole, or tree is often used to represent the axis.

The shaman’s ability to make this soul journey to the supernatural realm islinked to his or her special abilities at transformation, which is often linked toother ideas of transformation such as into animals or other beings. Alsocommon is gender transformation, where the shaman wears the clothes of, oreven takes on some of the social roles of, the opposite sex, or is seen as beingsexually ambiguous.

Because of their ability to directly contact and manipulate the supernatural,members of a shaman’s community often regard them with some suspicion.The same powers that enable them to cure sickness could also be used to causeit. Priests do not have this same ability and so are not viewed with the sameconcern. Although priests are capable of the same personal evil that we all are,they have no special abilities by virtue of their position.

Siberian shamanism

Shamans of Central Siberia are religious specialists who use handheld drumsand spirit helpers to help the members of their community. Siberian shamansperform rituals to heal the sick, divine the future, and ensure success in thehunt. Here again the world is divided into three realms. The upper realm isone of light and good spirits; the middle realm is the home of people andspirits of the earth; and the lower realm is one of darkness and evil spirits. It isthe shaman’s role, while in an altered state of consciousness, to communicatewith various spirits. The shaman may also journey to one of the other realms.

One of the main functions of the shaman is healing. This is accomplished inmany ways. A shaman can communicate with spirits to learn what they want.He can also dispel a disease-causing spirit or retrieve a lost soul. A shamanhas spirit familiars or animal souls that help in the shaman’s work. Thesespirits give the shaman his particular qualities and powers. It is by havingthese spirits that the shaman is able to heal, but they also give the shaman thepotential to do harm.

Other shamans specialize in contacting the spirits to help ensure asuccessful hunt. In this case the shaman contacts the spirits of an animal

species and makes a deal with them. The animal spirits will supply humanswith food, and the humans will eventually supply the spirits with human fleshand blood. This is one cause of human sickness and death. It is the role of theshaman to minimize the amount of human sickness while trying to maximizethe number of animals that will be successfully hunted. Part of a shaman’ssuccess in doing this is from a pact with the animal spirits through a specialrelationship with the daughter of the elk or reindeer spirit.

Yakut shamanism

The Yakut or Shkha live in northeastern Siberia. Missionaries of the RussianOrthodox Church entered the region in the early eighteenth century. Theyfound a people living in small groups spread over a vast area, hunting, fishing,and herding horses and reindeer. Over time, many Yakut converted toChristianity, yet the practice of shamanism remained strong, and most peopleparticipated in both Orthodox and shamanic rituals. In 1931 the Sovietgovernment began a program designed to destroy the traditional religiouspractices by persecuting shamans. Many were executed or deported. EthnicRussians moved into the area and today outnumber the native population.Following the breakup of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Republic ofSakha, a part of the Russian Federation, the ban on shamanism was lifted.With this came a sense of identity among the Yakut; shamanic ritualsincreased in frequency, and traditional beliefs were taught in the schools.

Like many traditional peoples living in a modern state and exposed todifferent religious practices, Christian elements have entered into shamanicrituals and beliefs. For example, Takako Yamada quotes a shaman in 1994:

I didn’t see many gods in the upper world. I only saw Jesus Christ, a woman god andone or two other gods. Jesus and the woman gave me a photo, asking me to look afterthe people in the world. So, I believe I have received a universal ability to cure not onlythe Yakut but also foreign people.1

Along with the revival of traditional shamanism have come new groups thatoften develop around a charismatic leader who combines shamanic andChristian elements and produces a new type of religious practice. Marjorie

Mandelstam Balzar describes a ritual performed by one such leader, KytaBaaly.2 Although young and poorly educated, he has attracted a significantfollowing. He performs rituals that are based on traditional Yakut practices,yet he claims to be the son of Jesus Christ. Followers wear a small “sacredworld path” pin or pendant that combines a Christian cross with a treesymbol. This is an example of a revivalistic movement, which will bediscussed more fully in Chapter 11.

Korean shamanism

Although shamanism is usually thought of as a feature of small-scalereligions, shamans are also found in many industrial societies. For example,Korea has a long history of shamanism. At one time shamans, who weremostly men, had considerable political influence. Over time this influencewaned, and eventually shamans were persecuted and driven underground.Shamanism moved from being a prominent, public institution to being a moreprivate, secretive activity. Today most shamans are women. This providesmany women with a good source of income and also gives them some degreeof influence over the community. Shamanism is now becoming recognized asan important part of Korean culture and many aspects of shamanistic ritual,such as songs and dances, are being publicly performed for entertainment.

Shamans are chosen by the spirits. Women who have experienced sometype of psychological stress in their lives are especially vulnerable. The societybelieves that the spirits, in their search for someone to possess, tend towardindividuals whose maŭm, or soul, has already been fractured and thereforebeen made vulnerable. The sign that a particular woman has been selected ismanifested as possession illness or sinbyŏng. There are many physical andpsychological symptoms of sinbyŏng, but the most significant is entrance intoa trance state. The individual is ill with possession sickness until she acceptsthe call of the spirits. Many individuals chosen by the spirits are veryreluctant to become shamans, who are considered by society to be socialdeviants. Finally, however, she apprentices herself to an experienced shamanwho eventually performs an initiation ritual that transforms her into a full-fledged shaman.

Youngsook Kim Harvey recounts the description by a Korean shaman of theevents that led to her initiation:

Long before I had any indication of supernatural notification, I found myself feelingexcited by the rhythm of the changgu (“drum”). I don’t remember how I came to bebrought back to myself … it happened more and more often. When I heard the changgu,I seemed to forget everything instantly and lose all sense of inhibition. I wanted todance and chant to it. It is this sense of being swept up and away in a weightless sort ofway that makes you dance and be a mudang in spite of everything else. When you arein that state of mind, you cannot think of anything else … Even now, just talking aboutit to you makes the temperature rise in me … You can see how people who are possessedby spirits can go insane if they are improperly initiated … You have no way of makinguse of the feelings that take hold of you.

When you start doing your own kut, you just feel your spirits stealing into you andtaking over; the sensation is incomparable … You just know that you’ve got the spiritsin you … that you don’t have to worry because it’s them inside you, not you … You’rejust a medium and you feel marvelous. Otherwise, how could anyone do the things amudang does in her sober mind? You lose all sense of embarrassment … all inhibition …you are suffused with the feeling, “I’m the number one, the best—there is none else likeme in the whole world!”3

Korean shamans are called to perform shamanic rituals for a number ofreasons. For example, a shaman is called to guide the dead to the otherworld.During this ritual, the shaman takes the role of the deceased who is then ableto communicate with the family. Shamanic rituals are also performed to cureillnesses, for divination, and to ensure the good fortune of the family andcommunity.

Pentecostal healers as shamans

Box 6.1 Clown doctors as shamans

Although Western medicine is undeniably effective in treating manydiseases, it has been criticized for focusing only on the physical diseaseand neglecting the patient’s illness experience. In an attempt to addressthis issue, many complementary therapies have been introduced. One

example is the use of clowns in pediatric hospitals. A study by LindaMiller Van Blerkom of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit (CCU),which entertains children in New York City hospitals, suggests that theseclowns have many similarities with traditional shamanic healers.

The clowns dress in outlandish costumes that include a white doctor’scoat and a doctor’s bag filled with magic tricks and props. They aredescribed as popping red foam-rubber clown noses out of respiratortubing, hiding puppet animals under their coats, blowing bubbles,singing lullabies to children, doing magic tricks, dancing, and tellingjokes. They distract patients during painful procedures and also interactwith families and staff.

Van Blerkom points out that both clowns and shamans mediatebetween order and chaos, sacred and profane, natural and supernatural,and that clowns with healing functions are known from other cultures,particularly in Native American cultures. She notes several similaritiesbetween shamans and clown doctors. For example, both wear unusualcostumes and both are viewed with some ambivalence.

The use of puppets by clown doctors is reminiscent of shamanic spirithelpers, and both use music and sleight of hand. Traditional shamansand clowns use suggestion and manipulation of cultural symbols and paymore attention to the patient’s experience and social context thanWestern doctors typically do. Van Blerkom writes:

The clowns say they parody doctors and play with hospital equipment to lightenup the atmosphere and make children less afraid of doctors and their instruments,but one can also recognize another shamanistic function: psychosocial support. Byinvolving the social group, illness and curing are given public recognition and thepatient receives group support. Shamanistic rituals reinforce social roles and canbe therapeutic for families struggling to cope with an illness and disorder.

Source: Linda Miller Van Blerkom, “Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers ofWestern Medicine,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 9 (1995), pp. 462–475.

The distinction between shamans and priests is not always clear and insome Western religious traditions practitioners usually thought of as being

priests exhibit many shamanistic traits. One example is Pentecostal faithhealers (see Box 6.1 for another example). Altered states of consciousness areachieved through the use of rhythmic speech and music. Participants in theritual are often moved to shout, dance, run up and down the aisle, or cry. Thehealing ritual, known as “laying on of hands,” generally takes place during aservice. The person in need of healing stands in front of the preacher, who isstanding in front of the altar. Others stand behind the person receiving theprayer in case he or she needs physical support. The preacher anoints theperson’s head with oil and recites incantations. The preacher may also rub thehead, torso, back, or legs of the person. The whole congregation mayparticipate by clapping in unison during the healing. The Holy Spirit isbelieved to possess both the healer and the patient, which can lead either oneof them to convulse suddenly or begin speaking in tongues.

Similar to shamans, many Pentecostal preachers report having been calledby the supernatural, in this case God, and describe prophetic dreams andvisions. Pentecostal preachers also function similarly to shamans by using analtered state of consciousness to directly contact and experience thesupernatural for healing another individual.

Neoshamanism

The last several decades have seen a growing interest in shamanism, primarilyin the United States and Europe. Much of this can be traced to the publicationof historian Mircea Eliade’s book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasyin 1951.4 This book was one of the first to look at common elements ofshamanism cross-culturally and to focus on shamanism as a technique forachieving an altered state of consciousness. The interest in shamanism,however, really took off starting in the 1970s. Many cultural themes in theUnited States helped contribute to this, including the legacy of the 1960s drugculture, an interest in non-Western religions, environmentalism, and the NewAge, self-help, and self-realization movements. Popular anthropology worksalso contributed, largely through the work of Carlos Castaneda and MichaelHarner.

Carlos Castaneda, while a graduate student at UCLA, claimed he was

apprenticed to a Yaqui (Arizona) shaman named Don Juan Matus. Based onhis experiences, he wrote a series of books beginning with The Teachings ofDon Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, published in 1968.5 The earliest booksfocused on the use of mind-altering drugs to experience another reality. Later,he moved his focus to a new technique of body movements, or magical passes,that he called tensegrity, a term borrowed from architect R. BuckminsterFuller, who coined the term as a combination of “tensional” and “integrity.”The aim of tensegrity is to increase awareness of the energy fields that,according to Castaneda, humans are made of. This is done through bodymovements and breathing, which Castaneda said were taught to him by DonJuan and which go back to ancient Mexico. Although Castaneda himselfpassed away in the late 1990s, workshops in tensegrity continue to be offered.

Castaneda’s work has been criticized by many academics as fictional, nottrue ethnography. No one has been able to verify the existence of Don Juanand experts in Yaqui culture have cast doubts on the accuracy of his accounts,among other issues.

Michael Harner is an anthropologist who spent many years studyingshamanism, primarily in the Americas (among the Jivaro in the UpperAmazon) and northern Europe (Saamiland). Harner felt that the insights helearned about shamanism from the Jivaro were applicable to all people in allplaces. He dubbed the concept core shamanism, which is described on hiswebsite as “the near universal methods of shamanism without a specificcultural perspective.”6 In 1980, Harner published The Way of the Shaman as asort of self-help book for those in the West interested in pursuing shamanism.7

Harner is the founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies that continuesto offer training workshops in core shamanism.

Although Harner’s original work with the Jivaro centered on the use of thedrug ayahuasca, he focuses now on drumming to achieve altered states ofconsciousness. In a typical workshop, the participants are told to lie down andrelax with their eyes closed or covered. A leader then directs them througheither an exercise in guided imagery or a supernatural experience, dependingon your point of view. The participants are told to begin their journey byentering the earth at a place well known to them in the physical world, suchas a cave. They then travel down tunnels to the “lower world,” where theymeet and interact with spirit teachers and power animals.

Those who use techniques like those proposed by Castaneda and Harner areknown as neoshamans to distinguish them from more traditional shamans.There are many significant differences between the two. Neoshamanism isfocused on an individual, often as a self-help means of improving one’s life.Neoshamans choose to participate and focus on what they consider thepositive aspects of shamanism. More traditionally, shamanism is focused onhelping the community. Shamans are chosen but may resist the call because ofthe dark side of shamanism that neoshamans often ignore. The shamanictrance is often described as a terrifying experience, and shamans are oftenmarginalized and feared because of their ability to do great evil.

Neoshamanism has also been criticized for presenting shamanic beliefs andpractices out of their cultural context through such concepts as coreshamanism. A single practitioner may choose bits and pieces from manydifferent cultures. Harsher criticisms accuse neoshamanism of culturalimperialism, neocolonial attitudes, and perpetuating racist stereotypes ofindigenous people. Harner and others are seen as profiting from thecommodification of indigenous identity, beliefs, and practices. Although someindigenous healers do encourage neoshamanism and are willing to teach, thisis a very contentious issue, one that speaks to the larger issue of who controlscultural symbols and rituals.

Priests

Priests are full-time religious specialists associated with formalized religiousinstitutions that may be linked with kinship groups, communities, or largerpolitical units and are given religious authority by those units or by formalreligious organizations. Priesthoods tend to be found in more complex food-producing societies, whereas shamans are associated with technologicallysimpler ones. Generally speaking, a society will contain either priests orshamans but seldom both. (Here we are using the term priest as a generic termthat includes a wide variety of practitioners, including ministers and rabbis.)

A priest acts as a representative of the community in dealing with the deityor deities. In this capacity, priests are responsible for the performance of

prescribed rituals. These include periodic rituals on a ceremonial calendar thatis usually tied to the agricultural cycle. A priest also performs rites of passagesuch as birth and death rituals and weddings, as well as performing rituals inthe event of disaster and illness. A priest’s skill is based on learning ritualknowledge and sacred narratives and on knowledge of how to perform theserituals for the benefit of the community. However, a particular ritual might ormight not result in the desired end. A ritual performed for a rain god to end adrought might result in a rainstorm or a continuing drought. But the failure ofthe ritual to work is not necessarily due to the activities of the priest; it mightbe due to the will of the deity who has made the decision whether or not to letthe rains come.

Although priests may contend with important, practical matters, such asthe success of crops or the curing of illnesses, they are also associated withrituals that have more generalized purposes. These purposes are usuallyarticulated in social rites of intensification and deal with the reinforcement ofthe belief system and the established ethical code. Priestly rituals legitimizecommunity ventures—for example, the coronation of the British monarch bythe Archbishop of Canterbury—and, on a more personal level, establish thelegitimacy of a child as a member of the community through birth rituals.

Priests also personify the image of the ideal person. They are models ofethics and morality in their communities, and they are held to higherstandards of behavior than is the population at large. When a priest fails tolive up to these standards, the significance is much greater than when anotherperson fails in the same way. This is why revelations of child molestation byCatholic priests are considered exceptionally heinous and shocking.

Priestly rituals usually take place in a space that is set aside for ceremonialactivities, which is considered to be sacred space. It is usually a communityspace as well. It may be an outdoor area or a structure, and the structure maybe large enough that the entire community can enter and participate in therituals. However, in many societies the ceremonial structure—a shrine or atemple—is a place where sacred objects are kept and into which only a priestmay enter.

Individuals become priests for a variety of reasons. Often it is an inheritedresponsibility, as when a priestly office is passed on from father to son. Manysocieties have priestly lineages, such as the Levites of the Old Testament, orpriestly classes or castes, such as the Brahmins of Hinduism. Sometimes the

position of priest is one of great prestige and power and one enters thepriesthood to further one’s standing in the community. At the conclusion oftraining, the priest is formally recognized as a religious authority by thecommunity through a rite of passage, such as an ordination.

Priests also may have received a divine call, sometimes in dreams, visions,or trances. In some societies a person becomes a priest after being cured of anillness. The very fact of being cured may be taken as a sign of divine favor. Inother societies the reason for entering the priesthood might be more practical.In Europe in centuries past one of the only ways a middle-class man could getan education was by joining the priesthood. Research and teaching would beimportant components of his responsibilities. It was the custom in someagricultural societies that the oldest son inherited the land, the middle sonentered the military, and the youngest son entered the priesthood.

The training of a priest usually involves memorization of vast amounts ofknowledge, for the very survival of the community might depend on thepriest’s competence in the performance of rituals. Although a priest mayconnect with the supernatural through visions and trances, this ability is notas important as the priest’s ability to memorize and perform rituals in theproper manner.

Zuni priests

The Zuni, a pueblo people of the American Southwest culture area, developedreligious practices that involved a complex hierarchy of priests, which formsthe basis of Zuni religious and political organization.

Young males, rarely females, are inducted into one of the six kiva groupsthat exist in Zuni society. A kiva is a ceremonial chamber, a sacred spaceanalogous to a shrine or temple. Among the Zuni, kivas are rectangular roomsbuilt above ground. (This is different than the more familiar circularunderground kivas found among other pueblo peoples and so commonly seenin archaeological sites.) The six kivas are associated with the six cardinaldirections, which include the familiar north, east, south, and west but also thezenith overhead and the nadir underground. Ritual responsibilities rotateamong the six kiva groups. The major responsibility of the priests of each kiva

group is the accurate performance of rituals. This involves the manipulation ofsacred objects and the recitation of prayers.

Zuni society also recognizes many other priesthoods. They include thepriests of the twelve medicine societies that both men and women join whenthey are cured of an illness because of the work of the medicine society. If aman takes a scalp in battle, he joins the warrior society. In time a man mayjoin a number of priesthoods. The accumulation of ritual knowledge over timeis associated with prestige and power.

Zuni political authority is vested in a council of priests led by the priest ofthe sun and keeper of the calendar. Their major concern is with religiousmatters, such as selecting some of the participants in certain rituals, theplacement of occasional rituals into the ritual calendar, and the reaction of thereligious organization to natural disasters. They appoint a civil administrationto handle nonreligious matters.

Okinawan priestesses

Okinawa, located southwest of the main islands of Japan, was once theindependent kingdom of Ryukyus. Although the language, culture, andreligious beliefs are very similar to those of Japan, there are considerabledifferences as well. Okinawa’s indigenous religion was based on animism andshamanism, but has been heavily influenced by Shinto, Buddhism, andTaoism entering from Japan and China. Like Shinto, Okinawan religion seesthe world as inhabited by a myriad of supernatural beings referred to as kami.By placating and pleasing the kami through rituals, misfortune can be avoidedand blessings gained.

There are a variety of religious specialists, all of whom are women (Figure6.2). Okinawa is the only known society in which women lead a mainstream,official, publicly funded religion that is practiced by both sexes. The two mainspecialists are priestesses, kaminchu, and shamanlike practitioners called yuta.The yuta mediate between the villagers and the supernatural bycommunicating with the ancestors and the kami. They practice divination aswell as healing rituals. Whereas each yuta has one or more kami that shecommunicates with regularly, the kaminchu is believed to actually embody a

particular kami associated with the clan.Kaminchu rituals are funded by the village council or clan and take place at

the village prayer house in the village square, in clan houses, or in sacredgroves. On these occasions the priestesses wear elaborate five-piece whiteoutfits and crowns of leaves. This is the conventional clothing for the kami aswell. The significance of the kaminchu is in their presence; they actually dovery little at a ritual. They sit in certain places on certain days and receivefood offerings from the villagers. They do not preach, perform rites of passage,or heal—they sit and eat. However, like the kami themselves, they are believedto emit good spiritual energy. The villagers also like to have the kaminchuaround at events such as housewarmings and agricultural festivals.

Figure 6.2 Okinawan Priestesses. Priestesses perform during a ceremony at Shuri CastleFestival, Okinawa.

The role of kaminchu is semihereditary. Each clan has a certain number ofkaminchu positions that can only be filled by female members of the clan.Within some clans, certain positions can only be filled by women of certainfamilies. The role of chief kaminchu for a village is traditionally passed from

mother to daughter.Susan Sered compared the stories told by kaminchu (priestesses) and yuta

(shamans) of how they attained their positions.8 Both types of religiouspractitioners told of illnesses, but Sered found significant differences betweenthe two. The kaminchu reported minor illnesses that generally involved somesort of bleeding or other bodily rupture. The Okinawan worldview sees thebody as whole and sealed and this illness event was seen as opening the pathfor the embodiment of the kami. However, the illness is small and symbolic. Itdoes not make the woman into a kaminchu but is considered a sign orreminder of what she was born to be.

In contrast, the illnesses reported by the yuta involved seriouspsychological, physical, or social dysfunction. After a long illness that madethem social outcasts, they were able to heal themselves both physically andsocially through becoming yuta. Overcoming the illness was seen as proofthat the yuta would be effective in her role and also had the ability tounderstand the suffering of others. The status of yuta is more ambiguous andthe question being answered in the stories they told was why a person wouldtake on such a role.

Eastern Orthodox priests

Religious organizations associated with nation-states or multistateorganizations are characterized by many types of priests organized in complexhierarchical organizations, such as those of the Roman Catholic Church. Incontrast to the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches consist of aseries of independent religious organizations. Some are associated withparticular nations, such as the Greek Orthodox Church, but others are not.Within the church are many religious specialists who fall within ourdefinition of priest. These specialists are organized into a complex religioushierarchy. The head of a region is the bishop. Each bishop is independent ofother bishops, although bishops at several levels will form various councils.The specialists who are called priests are usually assigned to particularchurches and are responsible for the performance of rituals. Finally there arethe deacons who assist the priests in the performance of rituals and work

under their direction.The Orthodox Church has a strong tradition of asceticism where

individuals separate themselves from the everyday world and spend their livesas monks and nuns. Monks are ordained priests, but instead of functioning inthe outside world they live in various types of isolated communities, such asmonasteries or small villages; some live a semi-solitary life as hermitsassociated with a nearby monastery. Bishops are normally selected fromamong the monks and most Orthodox seminaries are associated withmonasteries. Bishops are celibate but men who are already married maybecome priests and deacons, although upon the death of their spouse theycannot remarry.

Orthodox priests participate in a wide variety of activities includingeducation and counseling, but the focus of their responsibilities is theperformance of rituals. They are primarily involved with the performance ofsocial rites of intensification that center around the Divine Liturgy orcommunion service. The priest also performs rites of passage associated withbirth, baptism, marriage, and death. This knowledge and authority comesfrom the church.

Other specialists

While shamans and priests are major and well-studied types of religiousspecialists, many other specialists practice in various limited ways. The labelsthat are used to refer to these specialists often overlap extensively and are notused in any consistent manner. Some of their functions overlap those ofshamans and priests. In this section we will look at healers, herbalists,diviners, and prophets.

Healers and diviners

The term healer is often used to refer to a priest or shaman, especially when

the individual is focused on the curing of illness or injury. However, morespecialized healers also exist. Many activities of healers are similar to those ofU.S. medical practitioners. For example, they may set bones, treat sprains withcold, or administer drugs made from native plants and other materials. Manygovernments have used traditional healers as conduits for the introduction ofnew practices in nutrition and public health (Box 6.2).

Box 6.2 African healers meet Western medicine

Traditionally, healers have played important roles in the lives of peoplein sub-Saharan Africa, providing simple health services as they workedin consort with the spirit world. Today Western medicine also plays animportant role. A great many native Africans are doctors, nurses, andother health practitioners, and large hospitals have been built in urbancenters. Yet the majority of the population has little access to Westernmedicine. The World Health Organization estimates that that is 1 doctorfor every 40,000 people.9 Hospitals and clinics are often not available inrural areas, and the cost of medical services and medicines is oftenprohibitive.

On the other hand, the ratio of traditional healers to people in Africa isabout 1 in 500.10 A solution to the problems of making basic healtheducation and services available to rural communities is to recognize theimportance and effectiveness of healers in many medical situations. Inaddition, healers can be trained in many aspects of Western medicine,thus forming a partnership between traditional healing and medicine.Healers are available and trusted members of the community andtherefore can have a major impact on the general state of health in theseareas.

Many programs have been developed in Africa to train native healersin medical techniques. One such group is Prometra, the Association forthe Promotion of Traditional Medicine. The organization providesmedical training to healers while at the same time promoting nativehealing methods. Experiences between native populations and Europeanpowers fostered a deep mistrust between the medical establishments of

colonial governments and local healers. This mistrust is now beingovercome. For example, traditional healers recognize symptoms ofHIV/AIDS and can refer patients to medical facilities. They can alsomonitor infant health and practice infant oral rehydration; dehydrationis a major cause of infant mortality.

Sources: Prometra (www.prometra.org); S. Faris, “Calling All Healers,”Time (July 24, 2006), pp. 42–43.

One type of healer is the herbalist. Herbalists are specialists in the use ofplant and other material as cures. The herbalist may prescribe the materials tobe administered or may provide the material as prescribed by a healer ordiviner. Various plant materials that are used in tribal societies actually dohave medicinal properties. Herbalists are intimately familiar with the variousplant materials in the habitat and gather, process, and administer variousmedicines made from these materials. However, much of the theory of curingis based on principles of magic to be discussed in Chapter 7.

A diviner is someone who practices divination, a series of techniques andactivities that are used to obtain information about things that are notnormally knowable. These may include things that will happen in the future,things that are occurring at the present time but at a distance, and things thattouch the supernatural, such as the identification of witches. Some divinationtechniques involve the interpretation of natural phenomena or some activity,such as the turning over of cards. Other techniques involve the divinerentering an altered state of consciousness and, while in that state, obtainingthe requested information.

Diviners usually focus on very practical questions: What is a good time toplant my crop? Will my investment pay off? Whom should I marry? What isan auspicious day for a marriage? A very important type of information thatdiviners provide is the cause of illness. The diviner often provides thediagnosis, and the healer provides the cure. Diviners usually, but not always,work for private clients and are paid for their services. Divination is discussedin Chapter 7.

Prophets

A prophet is a mouthpiece of the gods. It is the role of a prophet tocommunicate the words and will of the gods to his or her community and toact as an intermediary between the gods and the people. Although shamansmay occasionally function as prophets, in many cases the role of prophet is aseparate one. Prophets are found in a wide variety of cultures and include thefamiliar examples of Moses and Mohammad.

Handsome Lake was a prophet of the Seneca tribe (Eastern Woodlandsculture area) during the time when the reservation system was first imposed.In 1799 Handsome Lake became ill and appeared to have died. His body wasprepared for burial, but he revived. He said that he had had a vision of threemessengers who had revealed to him God’s will and told him that he was tocarry this message back to his people. Later the same year he received asecond revelation in which he was shown heaven and hell and was givenmoral instructions, which were very similar to Christian ideas. HandsomeLake received further revelations in subsequent years. On the basis of hisvisions, he preached a revitalization of traditional seasonal ceremonies, astrengthening of the family, and a prohibition against alcohol. HandsomeLake’s teachings continued to spread after his death in 1815 and ultimatelybecame the foundation for the Longhouse religion.

The Nuer, a cattle-herding people living in the Eastern Sudan culture area,have a history of prophets. One example is Ngundeng, a nineteenth-centuryNuer prophet. He was born in the late 1830s. Of course, there are no historicalrecords of his life, but there are many stories, especially those told by hisfamily. According to tradition, he was conceived after his mother was pastmenopause and was born after a twelve-month pregnancy. Ngundeng is saidto have spoken to his mother at birth and to possess a number of physicalcharacteristics that were attributed to divine influence. Unlike some prophetswho make contact with supernatural power later on in life, Ngundeng wasborn with that power.

As a young man he had seizures, or altered states of consciousness. He alsoshowed very strange behaviors such as wandering alone in the bush, fasting,and drinking nothing but water for long periods of time. As he began to eattobacco, mud, grass, and human feces, he became very thin, and his hair grew

long and matted. Then he was possessed by a god, who revealed himself to beDeng. Ngundeng, as Deng’s prophet, began to make prophecies and developeda reputation as a peacemaker.

The Nuer believe that prophets are chosen by a god and are then able topredict the future, cure the sick, ensure the fertility of women and cows,influence the growth of a good crop, and so forth. Stories began to circulateabout Ngundeng’s further ability to take a life through words or eventhoughts. The ability to kill was the other side of the coin of controlling life.The god Deng was a lifegiver, controlling rain and the procreation of cattleand children, but he was also a god of death. Ngundeng gained a widereputation for making barren women fertile and halting epidemic disease. Hedied in 1906.

Over 100 years later, the prophet Ngundeng played an important role in themovement for an independent state in southern Sudan. Ngundeng had a dangor ceremonial rod which was inherited by Ngundeng’s son. When the son waskilled in battle in the resistance against British colonial rule, the dang wastaken as a souvenir to England. Years later, the dang was sold at auction to aBritish scholar, Douglas Johnson, who has studied the Nuer. Douglas returnedit to the Nuer in 2009. The rod had become a symbol of the Nuer’s drive forindependence from Sudan.

Conclusion

So far in this book, we have discussed many of the basic concepts andcomponents of religious systems, such as narratives, worldview, symbols,rituals, altered states of consciousness, and ritual specialists. Religiousspecialists often are the main repositories of religious knowledge, retelling keynarratives, manipulating religious symbols, and entering into altered states ofconsciousness through their ritual practices. Specialists play a key role asmediators between the natural and supernatural worlds. As we move into thenext section of the book, we will shift our attention to those supernaturalforces and beings. Again, all of these topics are tied together. For example, theconceptions people have of the nature of the gods influence the character of

the rituals that will be directed toward the gods. An important factor in aculture’s worldview is how and in what ways supernatural phenomena andpowers manifest themselves.

Summary

Most religious systems identify specialists to carry out specific religiousfunctions. Two of the most frequently found specialists are shamans andpriests.

A shaman receives his or her power directly from the spirit world andacquires the ability to do sacred things through personal communication withthe supernatural. Shamans are part-time independent contractors whoseauthority lies in their charisma and ability to heal. A Siberian shaman workswith a spirit familiar or animal soul that helps the shaman in his or her workof dispelling a disease-causing spirit or retrieving a lost soul.

Priests are full-time religious specialists who are associated with formalizedreligious institutions and tend to be found in more complex food-producingsocieties. The priest acts as a representative of the community to the deity ordeities and is responsible for the performance of prescribed rituals. The skill ofa priest is based on the learning of ritual knowledge and sacred narratives andon knowledge of how to perform these rituals for the benefit of thecommunity. Priestly rituals usually take place in a space that is set aside forceremonial activities, such as a temple or shrine.

Other kinds of religious specialists include herbalists, diviners, andprophets. A prophet is a mouthpiece of the gods. It is the role of the prophet tocommunicate the words and will of the gods to his or her community and actas an intermediary between the people and the gods.

Study questions

1. Religious specialists in U.S. society are often set apart by particularmodes of dress, grooming, and general behavior. Some specialists aresubject to special rules, such as celibacy in Catholicism. What is thefunction of setting religious specialists apart from other members ofthe community? How does this help the individual in his or herfunction as a religious specialist?

2. Although most religious specialists in U.S. society are priests, somedo, on occasion, carry out functions that are more apt to be classifiedas shamanism. What are some of these?

3. In cases of illness, most Westerners visit a physician rather than areligious specialist. In what ways does the behavior of a physicianresemble that of a religious specialist?

4. How is neoshamanism different from classic shamanism? Do youthink the term shaman is appropriate to use in Western societies?

5. Although we talk about shamans and priests typically appearing indifferent kinds of societies, there are cases such as Korea andOkinawa in which both types of practitioners are present. How doesthis work? How do their roles and functions both overlap and differ?

Suggested readings

Nicholas Black Elk (as told through John G. Neihardt), Black Elk Speaks(Lincoln, NE: Bison Press, 2014).

[The story of a Lakota shaman living during the years of white settlement atthe end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.]

Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days (SanFrancisco: HarperOne, 1991).

[Autobiography of Buechner’s childhood, finding Christ, and becoming aminister.]

Thomas Merton, The Seven Story Mountain: Fiftieth-Anniversary Edition(New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998).

[Merton discusses his early doubts, his conversion to Catholicism, and his

decision to take life vows as a Trappist monk.]

John K. Nelson, A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine (Seattle: University ofWashington Press, 1996).

[Includes description of the role of Shinto priests and the story of how severalmen became priests.]

Fiction

Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge(New York: Washington Square Press, 1990).

[The account of an anthropologist learning the ways of a shaman.Presented as fact but believed to be fictional.]

Suggested websites

www.shamanism.orgThe Foundation for Shamanic Studies (Michael Harner).

www.castaneda.comCarlos Castaneda’s Magical Passes.

www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/index.htmlArctic Studies Center (Smithsonian).

Notes

1 T. Yamada, “Through Dialogue with Contemporary Yakut Shamans: How They ReviveTheir Worldview,” Anthropology of Consciousness, 7 (1996), pp. 4–5.

2 M. M. Balzar, “Healing Failed Faith? Contemporary Siberian Shamanism,” Anthropology

and Humanism, 26 (2002), pp. 134–149.

3 Y. K. Harvey, Six Korean Women: The Socialization of Shamans, American EthnologicalSociety Monograph No. 65 (1979), pp. 31–32.

4 M. Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (new edn) (Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 2004).

5 C. Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (Oakland, CA:University of California Press, 1998).

6 M. Harner, The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, www.shamanism.org.

7 M. Harner, The Way of the Shaman (10th anniv. edn) (New York: HarperOne, 1990).

8 S. Sered, “Symbolic Illnesses, Real Handprints, and Other Bodily Marks: Autobiographiesof Okinawan Priestesses and Shamans,” Ethos, 25 (1997), pp. 408–427.

9 World Health Organization, WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014–2023 (Geneva:WHO, 2013), p. 27.

10 Ibid.

Chapter 7Magic and divination

When most people hear the word magic, they most likely picture a rabbitbeing pulled out of a hat or an elephant disappearing before their eyes. Whatis popularly called magic we will call illusion, because magic in this senserefers to acts that rely on some sort of trickery and deception. Entertainerswho perform such illusions freely admit that they are manipulating not thesupernatural world, but rather human perception. Magic, as anthropologistsuse the term, refers to rituals by which a person can compel the supernaturalto behave in certain ways. Closely related to magic are supernatural ways ofgaining information about the unknown, be it what will happen in the future,what is happening in some faraway place, or the cause of an illness. Thesetechniques are aspects of divination.

The nature of magic

Life is full of surprises—some good, some bad. One way of dealing withadverse situations is through science, an important methodology for comingto an understanding of our world through objective observations,experimentation, and the development of hypotheses and theories. Scientificexplanations are limited since they deal only with observations that are madethrough our senses, such as using vision to examine animal tissue under amicroscope or distant galaxies through a telescope. And science demands anatural explanation consistent with the laws of nature. All peoples, fromsmall-scale communities to large industrial societies, make detailed

observations about their world and manipulate objects in their environment inorder to come to some understanding of their world. All societies havesystems of technology that use rational and practical methods to achievecertain objectives.

Consider a subsistence farmer in a small-scale society who is growing cropsto feed his family. A subsistence farmer is very knowledgeable about his craft.He is familiar with various types of soils, knows the best time to plant, andknows how to build a fence to keep out wild animals. A lot is riding on hissuccess. Failure to produce an adequate crop could lead to malnutrition orstarvation for his family.

Yet some situations are beyond the explanatory power and control ofscience and technology. No matter how carefully and skillfully the farmerperforms his task, bad things can and do happen. Rains fail to come, or aninfestation of insect pests destroys his plants. He probably wonders, “Why isthis happening to me? What can I do to prevent these things fromhappening?” These questions cannot be addressed through scientificinvestigation.

To answer such questions, our farmer might turn to religious ritual toinvoke the influence of a deity. Perhaps he will present an offering to a godand ask the god for help, perhaps to bring rain. Or he might build a smallspirit house in the corner of his field and by presenting the spirit with foodofferings, try to persuade the spirit to take up residence and guard the fields.

In these examples our farmer is accessing supernatural power through theintercession of a supernatural anthropomorphic causal agent such as a god orspirit. He brings this supernatural power to bear upon his problems throughrituals in which he attempts to persuade a deity to intercede in his life to bringabout desired outcomes, such as a good crop. However, the success of thisenterprise lies in the hands of the god or spirit who might or might not beinclined to do as the farmer asks.

Supernatural power also exists in other, more diffuse forms. (For example,we examined supernatural power called mana in Chapter 4.) Instead ofrelying on the good will of a supernatural being, our farmer can manipulatesupernatural power as a more direct means of achieving his ends. All he needsis the correct ritual. Ritual is seen as a key. And if the right key fits into theright lock, then the wielder of that key is able to “unlock” that power todirectly achieve his objective. This is what we mean by the term magic.

Magic and religion

Early anthropologists were quite ethnocentric when it came to the study ofmagic, often placing it in a separate category from religion. Today mostanthropologists consider magic to be a part of religion because it is associatedwith supernatural mechanisms, but many early anthropologists (and somecontemporary ones) have used other criteria to place magic in a separatecategory.

Edward Tylor, who discussed magic in his book Primitive Cultures,published in 1871, wrote that magic is a logical way of thinking.1 The problemis that the logic is based on bad premises. Tylor believed that in tribal culturesthe magician takes the same approach as a scientist, but the magician makesthe mistake of assuming a causal relationship simply because things appear tobe similar, when this relationship does not exist. In addition, Tylor did notinclude magic in the realm of religion because no spirits are involved, whichhe considered necessary for inclusion in his definition of religion.

James Frazer, like Tylor, believed that magic was a pseudoscience, based ondirect action.2 Frazer was a part of the evolutionary school (Chapter 1) andthought that magic was an early stage that would be replaced by religion.Religion was seen as different from magic because it is based on persuasion ofsupernatural beings rather than manipulation of supernatural forces. Someevolutionary school thinkers believed that ultimately religion itself would giveway to science. Of course, none of this has happened; in most societies magic,religion, and science coexist.

Émile Durkheim also thought that magic could be distinguished fromreligion, but he focused on the social context.3 Unlike religious rituals thattend to involve the whole of the community, magic is often centered on theneeds and desires of an individual. A farmer wants rain, a young man wants awife, a woman needs a cure for her child’s illness. In contrast to religiousrituals that are carried out for the good of the community, magic is directed atvery practical ends as articulated by an individual. Durkheim wrote, “In allhistory, we do not find a single religion without a church … There is nochurch of magic.”4 However, generalizations are just that. Magic is frequently

used in community-wide public rituals to bring rain or defend the communityagainst an enemy.

Another related difference is seen in the purpose of the magic or religiousritual. Religion is seen as “an end in itself.” Bronislaw Malinowski wrote:“While in the magical act the underlying idea and aim is always clear,straightforward, and definite, in the religious ceremony there is no purposedirected toward a subsequent event.”5 Some nonmagical rituals certainly havevery specific goals—coming-of-age ceremonies, for example—but many ritualsare more generalized, especially social rites of intensification.

When Malinowski studied the Trobriand Islanders, he noted that they didnot use magic in lagoon fishing because it is not dangerous. However, open-sea fishing is dangerous and is accompanied by extensive rituals designed toassure safety and success. He writes: “We do not find magic wherever thepursuit is certain, reliable, and well under the control of rational methods andtechnological processes. Further, we find magic where the element of dangeris conspicuous.”6

However, Annette Weiner notes that although lagoon fishing is relativelysafe, there are other reasons to perform magic in the lagoon environment. Shewrites:

They “turn” to magic, not out of psychological distress over a physical environment outof control, but when it is essential that they produce a large catch that must be used foran important exchange that has social and political consequences. To control the actionsof the wind and the fish is ultimately proof of one’s ability to control an exchange,thereby providing a measure of control over others.7

The issue of whether or not magic is part of religion or a separate categoryaltogether is largely a function of how religion itself is defined (Chapter 1).Here we are using a very broad definition of religion that easilyaccommodates magic as it is used in this text.

Rules of magic

Magic tends to follow certain principles. These were first described by JamesFrazer in his book The Golden Bough originally published in 1890.8 Frazer

articulated the Law of Sympathy, which states that magic depends on theapparent association or agreement between things. There are two parts to theLaw of Sympathy. The first is the Law of Similarity, which states that thingsthat are alike are the same. The second is the Law of Contagion, which statesthat things that were once in contact continue to be connected after theconnection is severed. The Law of Similarity gives rise to homeopathic, orimitative, magic and the Law of Contagion gives rise to contagious magic.

Homeopathic magic

Homeopathic or imitative magic assumes that there is a causal relationshipbetween things that appear to be similar. The similarity can be physical orbehavioral. The most familiar kind of homeopathic magic is image magic.This is the practice of making an image to represent a living person or animal,which can then be killed or injured through doing things to the image, such assticking pins into the image or burning it. The first may cause pain in thebody of the victim that corresponds to the place on the image where the pinwas stuck; burning the image might bring about a high fever. Animals drawnon the walls of caves with arrows through them might be an example ofimage magic. Here the artist is creating the hunt in art. Depicting a successfulhunt will bring about a similar outcome in the real hunt.

There are many examples of behaviors that imitate a desired end, causingthe end to occur. Sometimes these are found embedded within rituals that arenot specifically seen as magic rituals. An example is the increase rite of theAustralian Aborigines. These are essentially fertility rituals that function tofacilitate the successful reproduction of the totem animal (Chapter 3). Theyare performed annually and are seen as essential parts of the animals’ lifecycle. The men who perform the ritual draw sacred designs on their bodiesand place various objects on their persons. In this way the men become thetotem animal in a magical sense. Their behavior, which is often expressed indance, brings about a sympathetic behavior in the actual animal. For example,the acting out of the copulation and birth of an animal species will translateinto reproductive success for those animals.

The principle of sympathy explains many folk customs, including those in

American society. Folklorist Wayland D. Hand has collected many examples,such as walnuts being good for the brain.9 After all, does not the shellresemble a skull and the meat inside resemble the brain?

Many of the practices that are labeled “alternative medicine” or“homeopathic medicine” in American society are based on the Law ofSimilarity. Traditional herbal medicine is often based on the doctrine ofsignatures. This is the belief that signs telling of a plant’s medical use aresomehow embedded within the structure and nature of the plant itself. Somebelieve that God provided these signatures so that people could ascertain theuse of particular plants in healing. For example, red cloverhead is used to treatproblems of the blood, as is the red sap of the bloodroot. Indigestion is treatedby several yellow plants associated with the yellow color of the bile that isoften vomited up. The fused leaves of the boneset plant are used, as the plant’sname suggests, to heal broken bones.

Similar analogies appear to be the basis of many food prohibitions observedby pregnant women among the Beng of the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Apregnant woman is told not to eat meat from the bushbuck antelope, whichhas a striped coat. If she does, her child will be born with striped skin. Duringpregnancy a women should give herself enemas using a particular vine thathas slippery leaves; then the infant will move quickly through the birth canalduring birth. The soon-to-be new mother is also told that her behavior duringher pregnancy will be reflected in her child, especially negative behaviors. Apregnant woman who steals will have a child with the long arm of a thief.Some in the United States think that if the mother is anxious or nervousduring pregnancy, the baby will be nervous and fussy.

Contagious magic

Contagious magic is based on the premise that things that were once incontact always maintain a connection. An example of contagious magic fromour own culture is the rabbit’s foot. The rabbit is a successful animal, but notbecause it is intelligent. It is a prey animal for a wide variety of other animals,but there are numerous rabbits. This must mean that the predators are notalways successful. Because rabbits are not smart, they must be lucky. If we

carry a part of this lucky animal, the luck will rub off on us.Wayland Hand notes that there are many examples of folk medicine in the

United States that are based on the principle of contagion. Many of theseinvolve transference of the disease into some object. The object could then bedisposed of, thus curing the illness. Warts could be cured by rubbing a pennyon the wart and then burying the coin. One cure for whooping cough was totie a caterpillar in a band around the neck of the child. The illness disappearedas the caterpillar died, the disease having been successfully transferred to theanimal.

We also see the principle of contagion in modern society with the collectionof, and prices paid for, anything used by a celebrity. A sweaty shirt worn byone of your professors in the classroom would get a very different reactionthan would a shirt that had been worn by your favorite rock star or actor.

The following example comes from New Guinea. If a man has been hit inbattle by an arrow, his friends will bind up the wound and put a cool poulticeon it to keep the fever down and make him comfortable. They will also put apoultice on the arrow, which they have taken out of the wound, because itwas connected with the wound, and this too will help with the cure. Theenemy who fired the arrow, however, is likely to be practicing counter-magic.Back in his camp he will keep the bow near the fire and twang the string fromtime to time because the bow fired the arrow that made the wound, andthrough this connection he can send twinges of pain.

Anything connected with the person can be used in contagious magic. Ifyou can get hair, a nail cutting, or even one of their belongings (such asclothes), you can do your worst to the person it came from. In fact, a hairfrom your enemy’s head is likely to be the first thing any sorcerer would askyou for before taking on a contract to liquidate the enemy. You can attacksomeone through his or her footprint, name, shadow, or reflection (although afew of these also involve soul beliefs).

Magic in society

Magic plays an important role in a society’s religious practices. We will

examine the operation of magic in three societies, the Trobriand Islanders, theAzande, and the Fore. We will also look at the role of magic in Wicca, a Neo-Pagan religion.

Magic in the Trobriand Islands

The Trobriand Islanders, who live off the western coast of New Guinea,distinguish among three types of knowledge. First there is knowledge ofthings in the everyday world, which is shared by all or a large group of adultmembers of the society. This is what children learn from their parents: boyslearn how to garden and girls learn how to weave mats.

A second form of knowledge is more specialized and is shared with alimited number of individuals. This includes expert knowledge that isnecessary for task specializations, such as sailing or woodcarving. This formalso includes knowledge of particular magical rituals that tend to be learnedby many members of the society.

The highest level includes knowledge of the most complex and valuedtechnological skills, such as canoe building, as well as knowledge of myths,songs, and dances. These skills are important to the community, and a personwho has such skills is called tokabitam, “man with knowledge.” This level ofknowledge includes knowledge of important magic, such as rain and gardenmagic. This knowledge is of great importance to the community, and therelatively few people who possess such knowledge are very important people,in terms of both prestige and wealth, because the services of such people arepaid for.

Learning magic

Although many forms of magic are well known among adult members of acommunity, much magical lore is the private property of individuals. Themost common way to obtain magic is to learn it from one’s parents,grandparents, or other kin. Thus certain types of magic become associatedwith particular family lines. Sometimes the magic is owned by a more remote

relative or a nonrelative. In this case the person who desires the magic willpurchase it from its owner.

A Trobriand Islander who wants to learn particular magic will present aseries of gifts over time to the owner as a way of convincing the individual tobestow that knowledge. It is to the advantage of the owner of the magic tospread the learning process over a long period of time, thus maximizing thenumber of gifts given. If the owner dies before all of the magic has beentransferred to the student, the magic might not be effective because thetransfer of the magic is incomplete.

Sometimes the owner of the magic dies before beginning the transferprocess or, for some reason, does not want to share the knowledge. This ishow magic disappears from the community. On the other hand, importantmagic can be purchased from more remote Trobriand communities. Todaymany young men travel to the capital of Papua New Guinea to find work.After several years they return, bringing gifts of manufactured goods as wellas magic purchased from tribes living on the large island.

In learning magic one must learn the words that are spoken—the spell. Thespell is an oral text that is transmitted without change. The slightest deviationfrom its traditional form would invalidate the magic. Because spells usuallyare passed down unchanged from generation to generation, they often cometo be recited in an archaic form of the language and might include words thatno longer have meaning. If the magic comes from a different cultural group,the spell may even be recited in a foreign language. In the Trobriand Islandsthe ritual must be performed exactly. The slightest slip in the ritual, such as aminute omission in its performance or a seemingly insignificant change in itssequence, invalidates the magic. This is not the case in all societies. Amongthe Azande of the Sudan, described in the following section, magical ritualsare variable, and the spell is unformulated.

Trobriand garden magic

Despite all the knowledge, skills, and hard work that a Trobriand farmer putsinto gardening, bad things can happen. Rain might fail to come, or insect pestsmight destroy a crop. To deal with these seemingly uncontrollable problems,

the farmer turns to magic.In farming, good fertility and a good crop are attributed to the skill and

knowledge of the farmer and the superiority of his magic. There is a cleardistinction between work that must be performed manually and workperformed through magic. Together, they make up a complex gardeningsystem.

The Trobriand Islanders recognize many types of soils; they discriminatebetween many varieties of yams; they build fences to keep out pigs. Theislanders are very clear about what tasks are considered work and what areconsidered magic. The construction of a spirit house is strictly magic, butweeding is work. Work and magic are essential to the success of a garden.Good luck, a better-than-expected result, is confirmation of the strength of themagic; bad luck, a poor crop, points out a deficiency in the magic.

Malinowski describes many garden rituals. For example, this is part of aritual that occurs before a field is cleared of brush: in the morning the mengather together around the magician, a religious specialist, who fasts until thecompletion of the ritual. The men, dressed and bodies painted for the specialoccasion, pick up their axes, which have been magically prepared. They marchto the garden, where the magician takes his hereditary wand of office in hisleft hand and his axe in his right hand and enters the garden. He cuts a smallsapling and recites a spell:

This is our bad wood, O ancestral spirits! O bush-pig, who fightest, O bush-pig from thegreat stone in the rayboag, O bush-pig of the garden stakes, O bush-pig drawn by evilsmells, O bush-pig of the narrow face, O bush-pig of the ugly countenance, O fiercebush-pig. Thy sail, O bush-pig, is in thy ear, thy steering-oar is in thy tail. I kick theefrom behind, I despatch thee. Go away. Go to Ulawola. Return whence you have come.It burns your eyes, it turns your stomach.10

The sapling, which is then thrown into the forest, stands for evil influencesand the bush-pig, which causes damage by digging up gardens. This ritual isfollowed by others, creating a cycle of rituals that parallels the work that mustbe accomplished to secure a bountiful harvest.

Magic among the Azande

One of the most detailed studies of the religious system of a small-scalesociety is that of the Azande conducted by E. E. Evans-Pritchard in the 1920sand 1930s.11 The Azande live in the southern Sudan, Congo culture area,which at the time Evans-Pritchard worked was a British colony. Here we willexamine Zande magic; later in this chapter we will look at Zande divination.We will return to the Azande in Chapter 10 when we discuss witchcraft.

Among the Azande magic involves the use of objects, usually of plantmaterial, called medicines. A medicine is an object in which supernaturalpower resides. To access this power, to change a piece of wood or plantmaterial into medicine, requires ritual. The object, which may be consumed inthe ritual or kept intact for long periods of time, then becomes the center ofmagical rituals.

There are large numbers of plants from which medicines are derived.Sometimes the association between the nature of the plant and its use isclearly based on the doctrine of signatures. This is recognized by the Azande,who point out that a particular plant is used because of its resemblance tosomething that is associated with the purpose of the magic. A good example isa particular fruit that is full of a milky sap. The fruit resembles the breast of awoman with a young child. A drink is made from the root of the plant and isgiven to a mother who is having difficulty producing enough milk for herinfant.

The thousands of available medicines can be placed in a series of categoriesbased on their purposes. There are those that control nature, such as rain. Oneis used to delay sunset so that the person will have time to reach home beforedark. Many medicines are associated with horticulture and hunting. Forexample, medicines are used to direct the flight of a spear or an arrow into theprey and to protect the hunter from dangerous animals. Craftsmen, such asblacksmiths, have their own magic to aid in their task. Some medicines areused against witches and sorcerers. Magic is used to bring about success inlove and to guarantee a safe journey. An important function of magic is toavenge murder, theft, and adultery. Finally, diseases are cured by usingspecific medicines.

There are several ways in which the medicine is used. For example, plantmaterial may be burned and, using oil, made into a paste that is then rubbedinto incisions made on the face or torso; or the medicine may be made into an

infusion that is drunk. A man may make a whistle out of a particular varietyof wood and keep this whistle tied around his waist. He blows it in themorning soon after waking up as a protection against misfortune. This verysimple type of ritual is very common. But even more important rituals tend tobe performed privately so that an enemy will not know that it is beingperformed and use other magic to interfere with the effects of the ritual. Insome cases a man might not want others to know that he owns a particularmedicine. He does not want to be pestered by people to perform the magic forthem.

Zande magic rites are not very formal, nor are they usually public.Although there are some public rituals, such as war magic performed by achief, most magic is performed by a single individual for his or her immediateneed. There are a number of ritual actions that need to be performed; yet theorder of their performance will vary.

The ritual itself is usually quite simple. It involves manipulating themedicine and reciting a spell. The spell is not formal. The individual simplyaddresses the medicine and tells it what he or she wants done. Unlike magicalspells in other societies, power does not reside in the spell. Rather the powerresides in the medicine, and the spell is simply a way of waking up the powerand giving the power instructions. The manner is quite informal; the onlyrequirement is that the instructions be clear. If the medicine is handledcorrectly and the instructions are clear, the magic will work. Anotherrequirement is the observation of a number of tabus, although which tabus areobserved varies widely. Commonly, they include abstention from sexualactivity and the avoidance of certain foods. If the tabu is not observed, themagic will fail.

Whether or not a particular medicine is good or bad often depends oncontext. For example, magic that is worked to kill someone out of spite is bad.It is worked in secret in the dead of night. If a person who works bad magic isdiscovered, he or she will be killed. On the other hand, lethal magic that islegally sanctioned is good magic. This includes magic used to kill witches andsorcerers. Sorcery also can be dealt with by counter-magic and antidotes.

Sorcery among the Fore

Although magic is used for a variety of reasons to increase the probability ofsuccess and control the uncertainties of life, magic can also be used inantisocial ways to interfere with the economic activities of others and to bringabout illness and even death. Antisocial magic is often referred to as sorcery.

The Fore of New Guinea believe that the disease kuru is caused by sorcery(Chapter 1). The sorcerer steals food remnants, hair, nail clippings, orexcrement from the victim. He makes a bundle with leaves and somesorcerer’s stones and places the bundle in cold, muddy ground. He then beatsthe bundle with a stick and calls the victim’s name, reciting the followingspell: “I break the bones of your arms, I break the bones of your hands, I breakthe bones of your legs, and finally I make you die.”12 The location of thebundle in cold, muddy ground suggests the deep chill felt by kuru patients.The use of something from the victim, such as hair, is an example ofcontagious magic. The Fore attempt to prevent kuru by attempting to deprivethe sorcerer of the materials he needs. Much day-to-day behavior involves thehiding of hair clippings, parings, feces, and food scraps.

The Fore recognize many diseases, some of which correspond to diseasesrecognized by Western medicine. They are usually seen as the result ofsorcery. Many magical techniques use materials that were once in contactwith the victim, as in kuru, but many use special poisons that are placedwhere the victim will make contact with them, such as on a trail. In nankili,or pleurisy (a lung condition), the sorcerer makes bone needles out of thebones of pigs, cassowary, or possums. He blows smoke on the bone needles tomake the needles fly into the victim’s body.

Wiccan magic

Wicca is a Neo-Pagan religion, meaning that it is a perceived revival of pre-Christian religious practices (Chapter 11). Although there is great variationwithin the Wiccan religion, magic is often a central element of ritual.Practitioners see their magic knowledge and rituals as a continuation ofthousands of years of folk magic, which was often lost or pushed undergroundby the spread of Christianity. Wiccans also borrow freely from the magictraditions of various cultures around the world.

The magic ritual usually consists of a stated goal, the manipulation ofspecific objects, and the observation of special conditions, such as place andtime. However, the core of the ritual, what is often considered the “realmagic,” is movement of energy, which takes place within the practitioner. Themagician builds up this energy within herself or himself, and it is released atthe right time to bring about the goal of the spell.

Wiccan magic is based on the worldview that there is a power that exists inall things. Through rituals (involving such things as music, dance,visualizations, and the manipulation of objects) this power can be awakenedand concentrated and can be set to effect a particular goal, which is thepurpose of the spell. The power can also be moved from one person to anotheror between humans, places, and objects. As this power moves to its intendedtarget, it will have an effect on that target.

Popular objects used in Wiccan spells include crystals, herbs, oils, candles,images, runes, and specific foods. The symbolism of color is also used, as arechanting and creative visualization. The religion is closely connected tonature, and the working of magic spells might require a consideration of theweather, season, lunar phase, and/or time of day. The goal of such magic isoften very practical and meant to help with everyday challenges such asrelationships, health, protection, money, and employment. Magic is to be usedwhen all else fails and in conjunction with more mundane efforts. Forexample, the belief is that just doing magic to get a job will not help unlessyou also take practical measures, such as sending out resumes. Because eachindividual’s personal power is limited, it should not be used lightly.

As we will see in Chapter 11, Wiccan moral rules are such that magic is tobe used only for positive purposes. Wiccans often say that they respect life,respect the earth, and respect the power too much to do magic for evil.

Divination

In the previous section we examined the subject of magic, techniques fordirectly and automatically bringing about desired results through supernaturalmechanisms. People use magic for a variety of purposes, such as bringing rain,

curing illness, and ensuring fertility. Another way of dealing with theuncertainties of life is to anticipate them. As the saying goes, “Knowledge ispower.” If we only knew what the future holds for us or what is happening atthe present time in places and situations that are hidden from us, decisionmaking would certainly be easier. We could see the consequences of ouractions and learn about unknown variables that affect our lives.

Techniques for obtaining information about things unknown, includingevents that will occur in the future, is known as divination. The worddivination comes from the same root as the word divinity. This implies thatdivination has to do with the supernatural.

The nature of many forms of divination is magical. Such magical rituals areused to manipulate the supernatural world in order to provide information. Inother words, the ends of a magical ritual can be a physical occurrence, such asthe coming of rain, or information, such as who will win the Super Bowl. Ofcourse, supernatural beings—ancestors, spirits, and gods—also may haveaccess to unknown information. Many divination techniques involve contactwith such supernatural entities, as when a medium contacts the spirit of adeceased individual or when a shaman falls into a trance.

Other forms of divination are based on the idea that the world consists ofthings and events that are interconnected with one another. We saw this sameworldview for the workings of magic. Magic is based on the manipulation ofperceived connections between things; divination is based on observing theseconnections. For example, many people believe that the movements of theplanets, sun, and moon are in some way ultimately connected with a person’slife and that an understanding of these movements enables one to learn aboutthe future.

Forms of divination

There are many ways of accomplishing an act of divination. To understandthese methods better, we can classify various techniques into a number ofcategories.

A basic characteristic of divination techniques is that some areinspirational and others are noninspirational. Inspirational forms of

divination involve some type of spiritual experience such as a direct contactwith a supernatural being through an altered state of consciousness, usuallypossession. Noninspirational forms are more magical ways of doing divinationand include the reading of natural events as well as the manipulation oforacular devices. (The term oracle usually refers to a specific device that isused for divination and can refer to inspirational or noninspirational forms.Examples are the poison oracle of the Azande, to be described shortly, and acontemporary toy called the Magic 8 Ball.)

Table 7.1 A classification of methods of divination with examples

Noninspirational Inspirational

Fortuitous Apantomancy Necromancy

Omens Oneiromancy

Ornithomancy Possession Presentiments

Deliberate Aleuromancy Prophecy

Astrology Medium

Dowsing

Flipping a coin

Graphology

Haruspication

Magic 8 Ball

Ordeals

Ouija board

Palmistry

Phrenology

Scapulamancy

Tarot cards

Tasseography

We also can divide divination techniques into fortuitous and deliberate

types. Fortuitous forms happen without any conscious effort on the part of theindividual. One sees a flight of birds overhead or unexpectedly falls into atrance and has a vision. Deliberate forms are those that someone sets out todo, such as reading tarot cards or examining the liver of a sacrificed animal.

Using these two ways of classifying divination techniques, we can createfour categories: fortuitous noninspirational, deliberate noninspirational,fortuitous inspirational and deliberate inspirational, as shown in Table 7.1.

A survey of divination techniques

There is a wide variety of divination methods. We will review a number ofthese, but, of course, this cannot be an exhaustive list.

Presentiments are feelings that a person experiences. They suggest thatsomething is about to happen, such as a feeling of dread or an impendingdisaster. In some societies a warrior on a raid will return to the camp orvillage on feeling a presentiment that is thought to be an omen of hisimpending death on the raid. The warrior will be thought of not as a coward,but as a prudent individual.

Body actions include such things as sneezing, twitching, and hiccupping.Such activities can be interpreted in many ways, and interpretations of thesame action differ from culture to culture. Some examples from the UnitedStates are as follows: If you sneeze before breakfast, you will receive a letterthat day. If you sneeze six times, you will go on a journey. If you hiccup oryour ears are burning, someone is talking about you.

The term necromancy is used in various ways. Generally, it refers todivination through contact with the dead or ancestors. In ancient Greeksociety, when a person died under suspicious circumstances, the body wasbrought into the temple for close examination. It was believed that signs onthe body were attempts of the spirit of the dead to communicate whathappened and who did it. In most cases a diviner enters a trance in an attemptto communicate with the dead.

Knowledge can be derived from the observation of living or dead animals.This includes omens, fortuitous happenings, or conditions that provideinformation. There are a large number of examples as well as a very extensive

vocabulary that describes them. Here are only a few.One can gain information from the observed behavior of animals.

Ornithomancy involves reading the path and form of a flight of birds, andapantomancy refers to a chance meeting with an animal, such as a black catcrossing one’s path. (Many cultures attribute good and bad fortune to variousanimals that one comes upon. Among the Nandi of East Africa, if a rat crossesone’s path, that is good, but if it is a snake, that is bad.)

An animal does not have to be alive to be used for divination, and it issometimes a sacrificed animal or part of an animal that is examined foranswers to questions. Haruspication, the examination of the entrails ofsacrificed animals, was part of the ceremonies opening a session of the Senatein ancient Rome. In another technique a scapula or shoulder blade from ananimal skeleton, such as a sheep, or even from a human is dried. Sometimesthe question is written on the bone. The scapula is then placed in a fire, andthe pattern of burns and cracks is read by a specialist to determine theresponse. This is called scapulamancy.

Many physical entities of the natural world are “read” for information.Astrology is based on the belief that all of the stars and planets, as well as thesun and moon, influence the destiny of people. Other techniques observe thewinds and the movement of water. Infrequent appearances of natural events,such as earthquakes and comets, are said to portend evil events.

There are many other forms of divination that you may find familiar. Theseinclude aleuromancy, the use of flour (as in fortune cookies); dowsing, inwhich a forked stick is used to locate water underground; graphology,handwriting analysis; palmistry, the reading of the lines of the palm of thehand; phrenology, the study of the shape and structure of the head; andtasseography, the reading of tea leaves. Other familiar forms of divinationsare mechanical types that include the manipulation of objects (see Box 7.1). Agood example is flipping a coin. Mechanical divination is common in manysocieties and includes familiar forms such the Ouija board, Magic 8 Ball, andtarot cards. Other types of mechanical devices are used in other societies. Forexample, in many divination systems a series of objects, such as shells andbones, are thrown and the pattern formed by these objects is read (Figure 7.1).

Box 7.1 I Ching: The Book of Changes

The I Ching, or The Book of Changes, is a Chinese divination text that isthousands of years old. The methods described provide much more thanjust yes/no answers and are seen not so much as foretelling the future,but rather as revealing what the person needs to do to live in harmonywith the forces of the universe that control the future.

In Chapter 3 we discussed the concepts of yin and yang, the twointeracting forces in the universe. Yin is the female element and isassociated with coldness, darkness, softness, and the earth. Yang is themale element and is associated with warmth, light, hardness, and theheavens. The two elements are mutually dependent and need to be inequilibrium.

In the I Ching, yang is represented by a single line (——–), and yin isrepresented by a broken line (— —). A set of three lines produces eightpatterns or trigrams. Each is named and is associated with nature:heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake. Inaddition, each is associated with a number of characteristics. Forexample, K’un, represented by three broken lines, is the earth and isassociated with the color black and an animal (the cow). K’un is gentle,passive, and nurturing. Two sets of trigrams are then put together toform each of the sixty-four hexagrams.

There are many techniques of casting a hexagram. Some methods arequite complicated and involve much ritual. One commonly used methodinvolves the throwing of three coins. The outcomes of six throws identifythe six lines in the hexagram. A more elaborate method of casting thehexagram is to use a set of yarrow stalks.

Each hexagram can be read on several levels. First, each of the sixlines, which can be yin or yang, has meaning. Second, one can examinethe pair of trigrams. However, most important are the meanings assignedto each of the sixty-four hexagrams.

In some techniques of casting, there are four types of lines: old yin,young yin, old yang, and young yang. Old yin and old yang arechanging lines. The original hexagram is used to provide insight into thepresent; when the changing lines change to the opposite form,information is provided about the future. Thus if the top two lines are

old yin, they will change into yang creating a second hexagram.As examples, here are brief descriptions of three hexagrams. The

hexagram that is composed of six solid lines (yang) is named Heaven.“This hexagram is a good omen for an important occasion of state, animperial sacrificial rite.” The hexagram named Small Castle is composedof five solid lines and one broken line third from the top. “The image ofheavy clouds promising rain that has not yet arrived conveys a mood ofexpectation and anxiety. There is a sense of impending storm.” Finally,the hexagram named Peace consists of three broken lines on top andthree solid lines at the bottom. “Some small sacrifices may be called forin order to attain your larger goal. Generally favorable.”

Source: K. Huang and R. Huang, I Ching (New York: Workman, 1987).

Figure 7.1 Divination. Divination is practiced in South Africa by throwing objects, includingpieces of bone, on a mat.

Inspirational forms of divination

Inspirational divination is a form in which an individual has direct contactwith a supernatural being, be it an ancestor, a ghost, a spirit, or a god. This isusually accomplished through an altered state of consciousness. Possessioncan be either fortuitous or deliberate. Prophecy is fortuitous in that theprophet receives information through a vision unexpectedly, without any

necessary overt action on the part of the individual.A familiar example of prophecy is Moses. The book of Exodus tells that

Moses was tending his father-in-law’s flock and one day led them to the edgeof the desert. An angel of God appeared to Moses from within a burning bush.God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses at first did notwant to go. He replied, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that Ishould bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” God replied, “I will be withthee” (Exodus 3:11, 12).

Box 7.2 Spiritualism and séances

In the Spiritualism religion, it is believed that the dead continue to evolvein the spirit world and can communicate with the living to share theirwisdom. This is done through séances in which individuals gathertogether and with the help of a spirit medium attempt to get messagesfrom the spirit world.

Mediums enter into an altered state of consciousness andcommunicate with the supernatural in a variety of ways. This may bemental, as when one senses the presence of the spirits, or physical, aswhen the spirit manipulates energy to make a knocking sound or ring abell. Mediums also frequently use a variety of divination techniques suchas tarot cards, crystal balls, and Ouija boards. The medium may alsobecome possessed by the spirit who then speaks through her, aphenomena called channeling.

Spiritualism was very popular in the mid-nineteenth century. MaryTodd Lincoln held séances in the White House in 1862 after the death ofher 11-year-old son from a fever. In 1891 the Ouija Board was patentedto help make communication with the dead more efficient. However,widespread fraud led to the loss of credibility for the movement and itsinfluence declined. In the 1920s for example, Harry Houdini spent muchtime debunking spirit mediums by showing that many used the sametechniques as stage magicians. Before he died Houdini and his wifeagreed that if possible he would communicate a secret code to her fromthe afterlife. For ten years after his death, she held yearly séances on

Halloween to attempt to contact him, a tradition that continues withmany magicians around the world.

Deliberate possession involves an overt action whereby the individual fallsinto a trance. Such people would be called mediums. Communication fromthe deities through possession, usually of a priest, is a very common feature ofmany religious systems. One example is the Oracle at Delphi, discussed laterin this chapter.

The interpretation of dreams is a common form of divination. Dreams areoften thought of as visits from spirits or visions of journeys taken by one’ssoul during sleep. Either way, an individual establishes a connection with thesupernatural world. All you have to do is to be able to interpret what youexperience in the dream. Much of the dream experience is symbolic, whichoften makes dreams difficult to interpret. Sometimes the interpretation issomething you can do on your own, but at other times it requires a specialist.The interpretation of dreams is termed oneiromancy.

Instead of consulting a specialist you may purchase a book to help youinterpret your dreams. One such book lists the following examples of themeanings associated with the presence of animals in dreams.13 Dreams of batsflying during the day are a sign of reassurance and calm, but bats flyingduring the night signify a problem. A bull is a sign of tough competition.Riding a horse is a sign of happiness, but a black horse signifies grief.Dreaming about monkeys is a warning that you are surrounded by lies anddeceit. And so it goes for thousands of dream experiences that are interpretedas signs telling of what is to be.

These interpretations of dream content are based on Euro-American dreamsymbolism. However, dreams may be interpreted differently in non-Euro-American cultures. Some scholars see two basic categories of dreams. One isthe individual dream, which is the type familiar to us, the kind that comesfrom inside of the dreamer. In some societies, however, the source of thedream may lie outside of the dreamer. These are the culturally patterneddreams that often are deliberately sought—in a coming-of-age ritual, forexample. Sometimes the individual simply waits for the appropriate, culturallydemanded dream to occur, often encouraged by a shaman or parent.

Whatever the source of the dreams, they often are a source of information,

which classifies them as a divination method. Often an ancestor will appear ina dream and prescribe for the dreamer a cure for illness or a warning of whatis to come. Guardian spirits and totemic spirits may let themselves be knownthrough dreams. Or a spirit may appear in a dream informing the individualwhat his lot in life is, such as a call to a career as a shaman or priest. Or adream may be a visit from the soul of a recently deceased relative informingthe dreamer of a particular desire of the soul. Failure to meet this desire mightresult in illness and perhaps death.

Ordeals

Ordeals are painful and often life-threatening tests that a person who issuspected of guilt may be forced to undergo, such as dipping a hand into hotoil, swallowing poison, or having a red-hot knife blade pressed against somepart of the body. Ordeals can be thought of as a trial by divination performedon the body of the accused. In some cultures, including past European andAmerican cultures, ordeals were an important part of criminal trials.

Among the Kpelle of Liberia, trials are conducted through the use of the hotknife ordeal. The ordeal is conducted by a specialist, who is licensed by thegovernment. The specialist will heat a knife in a fire and first pass the knifeover his own body to show that the ordeal is valid because he himself is notburned. Then the knife is stroked over the body of the accused. If theindividual is burned, he is guilty.

A European trial conducted between the ninth and thirteenth centuriesmight include an ordeal, especially when other kinds of evidence wereinconclusive. There were essentially two types of ordeals. The first involvedthe handling of a hot object by the accused, usually a piece of metal or stoneremoved from a cauldron of boiling water or carrying a piece of red-hot metalremoved from a fire by the bare hand and carried nine paces. Three daysfollowing the handling of the hot object the hand of the accused would beexamined for signs of burns that would signify guilt. The other type of ordealinvolves tying up and throwing the accused into a lake or river. Water, beingpure, would reject the guilty who would float to the surface. Water, however,would accept the innocent, who would sink.

In actuality these ordeals were seldom performed. People believed in theefficacy of these trials, especially when they were carried out by a priest in thecontext of a church-sanctioned activity. Faced with an ordeal, the guiltywould usually confess before it could be carried out. More often than not thetruly innocent were glad to participate in the ordeal. It has been suggestedthat if the priest in charge of the process, after spending time with the accusedpreparing him or her for the ordeal, was convinced of his or her innocence,would see to it that the hot water was not as hot as it could be so that theinnocent were able to survive the process.

Astrology

Quite likely the most popular divination technique practiced in the UnitedStates today is astrology which actually has a history stretching backthousands of years. The basis of astrology is the assumption of a causalrelationship between celestial phenomena and terrestrial ones and theinfluence that the stars and planets have on the lives of human beings.Astrology can be used to examine the life of a specific individual or to divineevents of importance to the whole community.

The origins of astrology appear to have been in Babylonia, where it was themost common form of divination. However it was not conducted on anindividual basis, but rather for the well-being of the entire community. Thecasting of horoscopes did not occur until the fifth century BCE, rather late inthe history of Babylonian astrology. Other important innovations includeddividing the ecliptic of the sun’s orbit around the earth into twelve zones ofthirty degrees each.

Crucial to Babylonian astrology was the idea that the movements of thecelestial bodies represented the will of the gods. Therefore, by reading thesigns in the heavens, the future could be divined. The sky was seen ascontaining the “mansions” of the three principal gods: Anu, Enlil, and Ea.These gods governed the “celestial paths” or three belts that ran along theequator, the Tropic of Cancer, and the Tropic of Capricorn. Each of theplanets was also identified with a specific deity. For example, the planetJupiter was associated with Marduk, and Venus was associated with the

goddess Ishtar. Ultimately, a god was linked to, and was seen to rule over,each month. Importantly, this was closely linked with the activities of theagricultural cycle.

From Babylonia, astrology spread to Greece, Rome, and Egypt, where it wasdeveloped far beyond what the Babylonians had achieved. Hipparchus iscredited with discovering the position of the equinoxes around 130 BCE, thuslaying the foundation for the horoscope as we now know it. One of the mostsignificant contributions to astrology on the part of the Greeks is this attemptto chart an individual’s destiny by looking at the position of the stars andplanets. From the Greeks we also get the fully developed zodiac. Each of thetwelve zones was linked to a particular animal (e.g., Saturn with a goat, Marswith a ram, Venus with a bull). From Greece astrology spread to India andIran and throughout much of Asia.

In Europe, Greek astrological knowledge was revived only with thetranslation of Arabic texts in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There was alarge renewal of interest in the subject in Western Europe during the fifteenthand sixteenth centuries. Up until the rise of modern science in the sixteenthcentury, astrology and astronomy were intertwined. With the discoveries ofCopernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, astrology lost any scientific basis and becameseparate from astronomy.

Astrology is extremely popular in the United States today. Even people whodo not believe in its divinatory abilities generally still know what their sign isand at least a little of what is associated with that sign. For example, both ofthe authors of this book are Geminis, one born in late May and the other inearly June, albeit a generation apart. Gemini is ruled by Mercury andsymbolized by the twins. The twin symbolism is supposed to relate to thedual, creative, versatile, and complex nature of those born under this sign.Less flattering descriptions include unpredictable, restless, and confusing toothers. Gemini is also considered to be a masculine, outer-directed, and activesign. One of three air signs, Gemini is associated with being free-thinking,intellectual, and communicative. Of course, an individual horoscope could bedone for each of us that would also take into account the specific day and timeof our respective births.

Fore divination

We have already discussed the Fore of New Guinea and the effects of thedisease kuru in their lives (see Chapter 1). The Fore believe that sorcery is thecause of the disease. Therefore an essential element in dealing with kuru is theidentification of the sorcerer. The most common divination technique uses apossum as a vehicle for supernatural revelation. The victim’s husband,brothers, and husband’s age mates place some of the victim’s hair clippings inone small bamboo tube. In another tube they insert the body of a freshly killedpossum. Striking one bamboo against the other, they call the name of thesupposed sorcerer and then place the bamboo containing the animal in thefire. The guilt of the accused is established if the possum’s liver, the locus ofits consciousness, remains uncooked. After divination they do not openlyaccuse a specific person of sorcery, but the suspected sorcerer is subjected tofurther tests or death magic.

The Fore also consult healers, who usually belong to distant communitiesand even non-Fore groups. These “dream men,” whom we would labelmediums, enter altered states of consciousness through the rapid inhaling oftobacco and the use of other plant materials that produce trances andhallucinations. Information is also gleaned from dreams. Such diviners arethen able to identify sorcerers.

Oracles of the Azande

Zande oracles have been described in great detail by E. E. Evans-Pritchard.The best known are iwa, the rubbing-board oracle; dakpa, the termite oracle;and benge, the poison oracle.

The oracle that is most often used is iwa, or the rubbing-board oracle. Thisis a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use oracle that can be consulted veryquickly. There are many situations in which some answer is urgently needed,such as the sudden onset of an illness, decisions about going on a journey,questions about interpersonal relationships, and a myriad of minor questions.Many older men carry iwa on their persons, ready to consult it at a moment’snotice. If a man has not acquired or learned to use the oracle, it is quite easy

to find a friend or relative who has.The rubbing-board oracle takes many shapes, but it is relatively small and is

always made of wood with a flat, round or oval “female” surface and a “male”piece or lid that fits on top. After being carved, the object becomes an oracleonly after it has been rubbed with medicines and buried in the ground for afew days to permit the medicines to work. The female surface is treated withplant juices, and the male lid is moistened with water. As the lid is movedback and forth, it will either move smoothly or stick to the female surface. Thesticking is usually interpreted as a yes answer; moving smoothly is interpretedas a no answer.

Iwa is manufactured and used by humans and therefore is thought to beprone to error. Although it is sometimes inaccurate, this fact is balancedagainst the ease of use and the fact that a large number of questions can beasked of this oracle within a very short period of time. It often serves as thefirst step in the process that leads to the use of more reliable, albeit moreexpensive and complex, oracles.

A greater level of reliability is given by dakpa, the termite oracle. Just aboutany man, and sometimes a woman, can consult dakpa. All one has to do is tofind a termite mound and then take two branches from two different trees andplace them into the mound. The next day one removes the two to see whichone (or both) has been eaten by the termites. Of course, the process is slow—one has to wait overnight—and because only a few questions can be asked atany one time, its use is quite limited. However, it is considered to be reliable,primarily because it is not manufactured by humans, the agents of the oraclebeing termites that are not influenced by the same things that influence aperson.

Without question the most important Zande oracle is benge. When it isconsulted or sanctioned by a chief, the results may be used as evidence inlegal proceedings. It is used in all important legal and social situations anddirects the Azande on what to do in major crisis situations.

The poison used is a red powder manufactured from a forest creeper andmixed with water to become a paste. The liquid is squeezed out of the pasteinto the beaks of small chickens, which are compelled to swallow it. Generallyviolent spasms follow. The doses sometimes prove fatal, but just as often thechickens recover, and sometimes they are even completely unaffected by thepoison. From the behavior of the chickens, especially by their death or

survival, Azande receive answers to the questions they place before the oracle.The creeper does not grow in Zandeland. It takes a long, difficult journey

through the territory of other tribes to procure the poison. This, in part,accounts for the high value the Azande place on the poison oracle. Theoracular consultation takes place away from the homesteads where the oraclecan be consulted in secrecy without interference from witches. The equipmentincludes the poison and a basket of chickens. The Azande raise chickens butdo not regularly slaughter them for food except on very special occasions.Eggs are not consumed but are permitted to hatch.

It takes experience and skill to become a good operator of the oracle, tojudge the amount of poison to be given the chickens, and to observe andinterpret the behavior of the chickens. At the start of a consultation theoperator, who has observed a number of tabus, prepares the poison. A secondman will pose the questions. The operator twirls a grass brush in the liquidpoison and squeezes the brush so that the poison runs into the throat of thechicken. Then the questioner begins to address the poison for several minutes,and more poison is given to the chicken. Then the operator takes the chickenin his hand, jerks it back and forth, and finally places it on the ground. Theoperator and questioner watch as the animal dies or survives. Depending onthe way in which the question was phrased and the instructions that are givento the poison, the death or survival of the chicken provides a yes/no answer tothe question. We will discuss benge further when we discuss Zande witchcraftin Chapter 10, because the poison oracle is the principle method ofdetermining the identity of a witch.

Divination in Ancient Greece: the oracle at Delphi

Many divination techniques were popular in ancient Greece includingoneiromancy (interpretation of dreams), ornithomancy (reading the flight ofbirds), haruspication (examining the entrails of dead animals), cleromancy(casting lots), and the consultation of professional mediums, such as those atSiwah, Didyma, Dodona, and Delphi.

The Temple of Apollo at Delphi was the most important religious site inancient Greece. The site dates back to 1400 BCE and was built around a sacred

spring. The Greeks considered Delphi to be the center (literally the navel) ofthe world. The oracle at Delphi was consulted for many matters, large andsmall, by people from all over Greece and beyond. Battles to be fought,voyages to be undertaken, investments to be made were all brought before theoracle, whose answers were often cryptic. It was the oracle at Delphi thatwarned Oedipus in myth that he would kill his father and marry his mother.

The oracle spoke the word of the god Apollo through the Pythia, a womanwho would enter an altered state of consciousness and become possessed byApollo. Many ancient accounts exist that describe how this divination tookplace. A person wishing to consult the oracle would first sacrifice an animaland observe whether or not it was a good day to consult the oracle. If theomens were good, the petitioner would wait outside the Adyton, the innerchamber only entered by the Pythia.

Figure 7.2 Painting of the Pythia. Painting on a drinking cup, ca. 440–430 BCE. Aegeus, themythical king of Athens, consults the Pythia, who sits on a tripod. This is the onlycontemporary image of the Pythia.

Prior to actual consultation with the god Apollo, the Pythia would cleanseherself in the spring, drink water from another sacred spring, and chew on alaurel leaf (a symbol of Apollo). She would seat herself on a tripod which waslocated over a chasm in the earth (Figure 7.2). Inhaling a pneuma, or sweet-smelling gas, which came from the chasm, she would enter into an alteredstate of consciousness. Questions, written on lead tablets, were passed in tothe Pythia and she would answer. A priest or poet located nearby would theninterpret what she had said and record it in verse.

Scholars disagree on how incoherent or how lucid the Pythia’s speech wasand how much interpreting was done by the priest. Regardless, her answers,in the way of oracles, were not direct. They were often ambiguous, filled withdouble meanings, or plainly misleading. For example, the story is told of KingCroesus of Lydia, who asked the Pythia if he should make war on thePersians. She answered that if he did, he would destroy a great realm. Croesuswent to war, not realizing that the realm he would destroy would be his own.

Although descriptions from Plutarch and others had described the Pythiabreathing in gases from the chasm, attempts in the early 1900s to find anactual source of these gases failed. For many years the idea that such a thinghad actually taken place was dismissed. Then in the 1980s, a United NationsDevelopment Project began a survey in Greece of active faults. At that time ageologist, Jelle de Boer, found signs that indicated a fault line running alongthe south slope of Mount Parnassus and under the site of the oracle.14 Gasesand spring water could have reached the surface through cracks created bythe fault in the ground below the temple. De Boer began working with aninterdisciplinary team including an archaeologist, a chemist, and atoxicologist. This team has suggested that inhaling the gas ethylene couldaccount for the various descriptions of the effects on the Pythia of inhaling thepneuma at Delphi.

Magical behavior and the human mind

Magic and divination exist because of how the human brain considers causeand effect. An action—perhaps the recitation of a spell—is followed by a result.

For example, a ritual designed to bring rain performed in the morning may befollowed by a rainstorm that afternoon. Now there are two explanations forthis. The first is that the ritual caused it to rain; the other is that theappearance of a rainstorm that afternoon was simply a coincidence. It appearsthat the default setting of the human brain is to think of a temporal sequence—ritual followed by rain—in terms of cause and effect rather than coincidence.In fact, the brain has a very difficult time thinking in terms of coincidence atall. This view of cause and effect is what we mean by magic. We can definemagic as methods (rituals) that somehow interface with the supernatural bywhich people can bring about particular outcomes.

Not all magic is directed or purposeful. It is possible to set something inmotion without being aware of it, without deliberately performing a ritual.For example, if you break a mirror, you set in motion events that will result inbad luck. This is why many people are careful not to step on a crack in thesidewalk and not to let a black cat cross their paths. You have not offended adeity who is extracting punishment. You have unwittingly pressed the wrongbutton and the result—bad luck—will automatically happen.

Magical thinking

This perceived relationship between doing something and what appears to bea result of that action is the basis of much behavior in all societies, includingour own. I find a coin on the sidewalk that I place in my pocket. The next daysomething good happens—I unexpectedly receive a raise. Attributing this tothe good luck I got from picking up the coin is an example of magicalthinking.

Simple examples of magical thinking can be found in behaviors that arefrequently referred to as superstitions. Superstitions are relatively simpleforms of magical thinking. They represent simple behaviors that directly bringabout a simple result, such as carrying a good luck charm. While the termsuperstition is frequently used to describe such simple magical behaviors, theterm is highly problematic. A superstition is frequently thought of as beingsilly and the hallmark of an uncritical mind. Perhaps it is better to refer tosuch behaviors simply as examples of magical thinking.

Magical behaviors frequently arise in situations that are difficult to controland in which negative outcomes are frequent. Examples abound in gamblingbehavior. Let’s take a very simple gambling situation, a flip of a coin. If youflip a coin it will land either heads or tails. The odds of either of theseoccurring are 50:50. The odds of winning at any number of games in which noskill is involved can be easily described mathematically whether it is a flip of acoin, the throw of a pair of dice, or the dealing of a hand of cards. And yetgamblers worldwide sincerely believe that the behavior of coins, dice, andcards are not random but can be influenced by outside forces. Thus a gamblerwill wear a lucky shirt, carry a good luck charm, blow on the dice beforethrowing, or any number of magical behaviors.

A similar connection between magic and uncertainty can be found inathletics. Of course, skill and practice play a major role in athletic prowess,but poor athletes sometimes do exceptionally well, whereas great athletics willhit a patch of “bad luck.” Because much is riding on performance, athletesfrequently attempt to control “luck” through magical behavior.

Anthropologist and former professional baseball player George Gmelchdescribes magical behavior among athletes:

On each pitching day for the first three months of a winning season, Dennis Grossini, apitcher on the Detroit Tiger farm team, arose from bed at exactly 10:00 A.M. At 1:00P.M. he went to the nearest restaurant for two glasses of iced tea and a tuna fishsandwich. Although the afternoon was free, he changed into the sweatshirt andsupporter he wore during his last winning game, and one hour before the game hechewed a wad of Beech-Nut chewing tobacco. After each pitch during the game hetouched the letters on his uniform and straightened his cap after each ball. Before thestart of each inning he replaced the pitcher’s rosin bag next to the spot where it was theinning before. And after every inning in which he gave up a run, he washed his hands.

When asked which part of the ritual was most important, he said, “You can’t really tellwhat’s most important so it all becomes important. I’d be afraid to change anything. Aslong as I’m winning, I do everything the same.”15

Where do these ritual behaviors come from? They come from what appears tobe an association between an activity and a result. The juxtaposition of abehavior with a desired result—the eating of a tuna sandwich before a game inwhich the pitcher pitches a perfect game, for example—is seen in terms of onecausing the other. The pitcher will from that point on religiously eat a tunasandwich before each game as a method of ensuring success. Gmelch notes

that such rituals are found most frequently in those areas that are mostdifficult to control and are therefore most influenced by random fluctuationsof success, such as pitching. This behavior among baseball players closelyresembles the behavior of our small-scale subsistence farmer attempting tocontrol the problems that beset his crops.

Why magic works

Edward B. Tylor addressed the question of why people believe that magicworks. The answer is because magic appears never to fail. There are severalreasons for this. First, magic often attempts to bring about events that willoccur naturally. Rain magic works because it will eventually rain. Rain magicoften is performed at the end of the dry season, when rain is badly needed. Ofcourse, the onset of rains normally follows the end of the dry season.However, the practitioners of such magic do not see it that way. The raincomes not naturally, but as a result of the ritual. The proof is very simple: youperform the ritual, and it rains. We could perform an experiment and try toconvince a community not to perform rain magic to see what would happen,but to people who depend on their crops for survival this would be a veryfoolish thing to do. In addition, humans are very resistant to changing theirbeliefs, even when presented with evidence to the contrary.

This observation is important in understanding the use of magic and otherhealing rituals in curing illness. In our society over 90 percent of all illnesses,including colds and fevers, will eventually disappear, with or withouttreatment. Therefore in the vast majority of illnesses a cure will naturallyfollow the ritual. Again we have to assess the juxtaposition of the ritual andthe end of the illness—a case of cause and effect.

People do not generally ask impossible things of magic. Magic to bring rainat the end of the dry season or to make a garden grow is likely to work. Magicto enable a student to pass an exam without studying or to be able to fly offthe roof of a building is likely to fail. No one tries to grow his or her gardenby magic alone. There is a natural world that demands a natural response(you must weed and water your garden), and there is a supernatural worldthat demands a supernatural response (you must make sure no supernatural

harm comes to your garden and try to gain supernatural help for its success).Of course, if you do not get the expected results, it could be because you did

not do it right; the failure is with the magician, not the magic. In fact, if thebelief is that the ritual must be performed without error for it to succeed,failure of the ritual is direct evidence that the magician made an error. Also,someone else could be doing counter-magic; one person’s failure is anotherperson’s success. Magic might be performed by two opposing entities, and themore powerful will prevail over the weaker. For example, one village might beusing magic to kill members of another village, whereas people in the lattervillage might be performing magic to prevent illness and death. Thus warfareis being conducted on a supernatural plane.

Finally, there is the issue of selective memory. We do not remembereverything that happens to us. Some things are etched in our memories; otherthings are quickly forgotten. Successes, even if infrequent, are rememberedand are thought of as proof that something works. Memories of failures, evenif common, quickly fade with time.

There are documented cases of magic working, especially death magic (i.e.,magic is worked against someone who then dies). These are often referred toas anti-therapy rituals (see the example in Chapter 4). Is there a physiologicalbasis for such deaths? This issue is discussed by Harry D. Eastwell among theAustralian Aborigines of Arnhem Land.16 Eastwell notes that the basis of suchdeath by magic often is the result of an extreme state of fear. Such fear givesrise to many symptoms, such as agitation, sleeplessness, and sweating. This isfurther exacerbated by the belief on the part of the victim and his or herfamily that death is inevitable. Thus as symptoms increase in intensity, thefamily withdraws support because the patient is seen as socially dead. Becausethe individual is socially dead, the family will not provide food and water andwill often begin funeral rituals before death has occurred.

Conclusion

In Chapter 1 we saw that the human brain extends the theory of mind into theminds of animals and other living and nonliving entities. The human mind

sees intension in the nonhuman world and the ability to directly interact withit. This gives rise to the seeming ability to directly influence and, to somedegree, control the nonhuman world through ritual activity. This is the basisof magical thinking.

Although magic at first appears to be an exotic topic, practiced by those inforeign places, in reality magical thinking is a very human way of thinkingand is practiced at some time or another by every one of us. The logic ofmagic not only is the result of our normal mental processes, but also answersour need to have some control over our lives. Magic gives us control anddivination gives us knowledge—two of the major functions of religion.

Magic deals with supernatural forces and thus is a religious phenomenon.In the next two chapters we will turn to what may be a more familiar domainof religion: anthropomorphic supernatural beings.

Summary

Magic refers to activities by which a person can compel the supernatural tobehave in certain ways. Key components of magical acts are the words thatare spoken or the spell and objects that are manipulated in set ways. Magicalrituals usually can be performed only at special places and at special times.The performer must often observe certain restrictions such as abstention fromsexual intercourse and avoidance of certain foods. A magician is usually aworker in the kind of magic that is on the whole public and good, whereas asorcerer deals in matters that are evil and antisocial.

Frazer articulated the Law of Sympathy, which states that magic dependson the apparent association or agreement between things. There are two partsto the Law of Sympathy. The first is the Law of Similarity, which states thatthings that are alike are the same. The second is the Law of Contagion, whichstates that things that were once in contact continue to be connected after theconnection is severed. The Law of Similarity gives rise to homeopathic orimitative magic, and the Law of Contagion to contagious magic.

Techniques for obtaining information about things unknown, includingevents that will occur in the future, is known as divination. Inspirational

forms of divination involve some type of spiritual experience, such as a directcontact with a supernatural being through an altered state of consciousness.Noninspirational forms are more magical ways of doing divination andinclude the reading of natural events as well as the manipulation of oraculardevices. Fortuitous forms simply happen without any conscious effort on thepart of the individual; deliberate forms are those that someone sets out to do.Examples of divination include omens, presentiments, possession, prophecy,ornithomancy, oneiromancy, necromancy, astrology, dowsing, flipping a coin,ordeals, palmistry, phrenology, and reading tarot cards.

Magic and divination are based on magical thinking, or how the humanbrain perceives cause and effect. This leads to simple magical acts, sometimescalled superstitions, based on presumed correlations. Tylor addressed thequestion of why people believe that magic works. The answer is becausemagic appears to never fail. There are several reasons for this. Because magicalways works, failure must be due to the inadequacies of the magician. Magicusually attempts to bring about events that will naturally occur; people do notgenerally ask impossible things of magic. Finally, there is the issue of selectivememory.

Study questions

1. In gambling, we know that the result of throwing a pair of dice is arandom event, yet gamblers believe that various behaviors caninfluence the results. This is an example of magical thinking. Whatdoes this mean?

2. Someone gives you a “lucky charm” that you place in your pocket,and soon afterward something very good happens that you attributeto the charm. Is this an example of magic? Explain.

3. Can you think of any examples of magical thinking in your own life?4. “Magic always works.” Is this statement true? Explain.5. There are two major types of magic: homeopathic magic and

contagious magic. How are they similar and how are they different?Provide some examples of each type as used in the area of healing.

6. What are some of the divination devices that one can buy in a toystore? Classify each and explain how it works.

7. One could argue that the use of divination—astrology, for example—is harmless entertainment. Are there negative consequences of livingone’s life relying on astrology and fortune telling?

Suggested readings

William J. Broad, The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Messages ofAncient Delphi (New York: Penguin Press, 2006).[A discussion of the oracle in ancient Greek society and the story of the searchfor a scientific explanation.]

Thomas E. Kida, Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes WeMake in Thinking (Amhurst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006).[Discusses the psychology of belief and the thought patterns that often leadpeople to accept false beliefs.]

Tahir Shah, Sorcerer’s Apprentice (New York: Time Warner, 2002).[Shah’s travels across southern India to find and learn the art of magic fromone of India’s greatest practitioners.]

Paul Stoller and Cheryl Olkes, In Sorcery’s Shadow (Chicago: The Universityof Chicago Press, 1987).[The story of Stoller’s work with sorcerers in the Republic of Niger.]

Stuart Vyse, Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (New York:Oxford University Press, 1997).[Examines the psychological and cognitive reasons behind magical thinking.]

Fiction

Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea (Emeryville, CA: Parnassus Press,1968).[The life story of a powerful wizard growing up in the fantasy world ofEarthsea.]

Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of theWest (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).[The story of the Wizard of Oz focusing on the life of the Wicked Witch of theWest.]

Suggested websites

www.bartleby.com/196An online copy of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough.

www.era.anthropology.ac.ukSpider divination of the Mambila people of West Africa, including simulation.

http://skepdic.com/divinati.htmlDiscussion of divination methods from The Skeptic’s Dictionary.

www.lib.umich.edu/traditions-magic-late-antiquityTraditions of Magic in Late Antiquity exhibit from the University ofMichigan.

Notes

1 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Cultures: Researches into the Development of Mythology,Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom (London: J. Murray, 1871), p. 1.

2 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (New York: MacMillan,1922).

3 É. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (New York: Collier Books,

1961), first published in 1913.

4 Ibid., p. 60.

5 B. Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (Garden City, NY:Doubleday, 1954), p. 38.

6 Ibid., p. 17.

7 A. B. Weiner, The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace,1988), p. 8.

8 Frazer, op. cit.

9 W. D. Hand, “Folk Medical Magic and Symbolism in the West,” in A. Fife et al. (eds.),Forms upon the Frontier, Utah State University Monograph Series 16, no. 2 (1969), pp.103–118.

10 Ibid., p. 100.

11 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford,England: Clarendon, 1937).

12 S. Lindenbaum, Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands (PaloAlto, CA: Mayfield, 1979), p. 65.

13 R. Grant, The Illustrated Dream Dictionary (New York: Sterling, 1995).

14 J. Z. de Boer, J. R. Hale, and J. Chanton, “New Evidence for the Geological Origins of theAncient Delphic Oracle (Greece),” Geology, 29 (2001), pp. 707–710.

15 G. Gmelch, “Baseball Magic,” Transaction, 8 (1971), pp. 39–41, 54. Courtesy of G.Gmelch.

16 H. D. Eastwell, “Voodoo Death and the Mechanism for Dispatch of the Dying in EastArnhem, Australia,” American Anthropologist, 84 (1982), pp. 5–17.

Chapter 8Souls, ghosts, and death

The late-nineteenth-century anthropologist Edward Tylor introduced theconcept of animism, a belief in spirit beings that animate all living things (seeChapter 1). Although the spiritual nature of living things can be thought of asa generalized supernatural power, it is seen most frequently as supernaturalbeings of various kinds. Some supernatural beings live within animals, plants,and natural physical features; others live as independent beings. Somesupernatural entities are closely associated with humans, being human inorigin; others, like gods and spirits, are usually separate from humans inorigin.

This chapter will study supernatural beings that are thought to be thesupernatural mirror of animate beings, primarily humans, or are transformedhuman beings. Important among these are souls and ghosts, which aresupernatural manifestations of individuals living and dead. We will concludewith an examination of death rituals that frequently interface with thesupernatural entities that are discussed in this chapter.

Souls and ancestors

The belief in the existence of a spirit entity residing within a person appears tobe a natural one that grows out of simple observations about life. A humanbeing does certain things, interacts with people in certain ways, and has adistinct personality. On the other hand, a person temporarily ceases to be anactive being during sleep or when in a faint or coma; during sleep a person

dreams; during ritual a person enters a trance. A person permanently ceases tobe an animated being in death. What is responsible for all this?

The term soul is used to label the noncorporeal, spiritual component of anindividual. Although many people are familiar with the presence of spiritswithin nonhuman animals, most scholars reserve the term soul for the spiritsthat inhabit the human body. Usually, each individual possesses a soul thattakes on the personality of the individual (or perhaps the individual takes onthe personality of the soul). The soul usually has an existence after death, atleast for some period of time.

When one dreams, it is as if one’s soul leaves the body and travels rapidlythrough space and time. It meets up with all sorts of people, including thesouls of relatives who have died. In some groups it is considered dangerous towake someone up suddenly, for there might not be enough time for the soul toreturn from its travels, and the soul might be lost. On the other hand, it is nota good idea to murder someone in his or her sleep because the person’s soul isabsent. It is better to wait until the victim is awake and the soul has returned.

We see a person sleeping, lying inert, devoid of activity and personality. Wemake the same observation when one faints or goes into a coma. Some believethat when a shaman enters a trance, the shaman’s soul has left the shaman’sbody to travel to a supernatural world. Illness may be caused by the soulhaving left the body. Death is the permanent withdrawal of the soul from thebody. The existence of a soul that survives death is reinforced when a lovedone feels the presence of the deceased or experiences visits from the deceasedin dreams.

Variation in the concept of the soul

Although the concept of a soul can be found in all cultures, the soul takes on agreat many forms. The soul may be envisioned as a full-sized duplicate of theliving individual, or it may be small and reside somewhere in the body.Where? Perhaps in the liver, the chest, the heart, or the brain. The soul mayexist as a person’s shadow, so one must be careful where one’s shadow falls.Or the soul may be reflected in a mirror, which is why beings without souls,such as vampires, have no reflection. When seeing a photograph for the first

time, some people see the image as the soul that has been captured by thephotographer.

Many people think of different kinds of souls that reside within the body.One soul might be responsible for a person’s animation and will disappear atdeath. This soul, or life force, may be reincarnated into other living beings.Another soul might be a spirit that is that individual’s personality. Differentsouls may be associated with different parts of the body, or one soul maycome from the father’s family and another from the mother’s.

For example, in Haitian Vodou (Chapter 11), there are three spiritualcomponents associated with the physical being. One of these is a spirit knownas the mét-tét, or “Master of the Head.” Its identity is discovered throughdivination. The mét-tét may possess the individual. The other two spiritualcomponents can be seen as souls. The ti-bonanj, or “little angel,” is a person’sconsciousness and ego. When the body dies, the ti-bonanj stays nearby for awhile and then moves on to heaven, where it has little more to do with theliving. The gwo-bonanj, or “big angel,” comes from the ancestral spirits and isreturned after death. It is a part of Bondye, the “High God,” and is a person’slife force that determines, in part, his or her character and intelligence. If aperson has lived a good life, the person’s memory will be kept for manygenerations, and his or her gwo-bonanj may be prayed to.

You may be born with souls, but other souls may be acquired during yourlifetime. The Jivaro of Ecuador (Amazon culture area) believe that a personhas three souls. Every person is born with a nekas, or the soul that is the lifeforce. The second soul, the aruntam, has to be acquired through a vision. TheJivaro see this life as false and the spiritual world as real. Only by acquiringan aruntam can a person enter into the real, spiritual world. Acquiring thissoul is also believed to give a person power, intelligence, and self-confidence.The third soul, the miusak, is the “avenging soul.” If a person’s aruntam iskilled, the miusak will avenge the death. It is this belief that gives rise to thepractice of headhunting. The miusak is believed to reside in the head;capturing and ritually shrinking the head are believed to neutralize themiusak of the enemy.

Box 8.1 How do you get to heaven?

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, 72 percent of Americansbelieve there is a heaven.1 Perhaps the more interesting questions arehow they think one gets to heaven and whether or not they believe thattheir path is the only one. The main divide in opinions on how one getsto heaven is the works versus grace debate. On the works side is a beliefthat it is one’s actions or deeds that allow one to get into heaven. Ofcourse, the question remains of just which deeds and how many need tobe performed. In the late fifteenth century, an emphasis on deeds as thepath to salvation led to the selling of indulgences by the CatholicChurch, which was one of the major issues in the ProtestantReformation. Martin Luther and others reacted to the idea that one couldbuy one’s way into heaven by proposing the alternative grace argumentthat it is only through belief in God that one enters heaven. The beliefposition also has its issues, mainly concerned with ethics and personalresponsibility. Is a last-minute acceptance of God enough to make up forany act, no matter how heinous? When the Pew Research Center askedrespondents which they believed, it was fairly evenly divided with athird citing actions and another third citing belief. The responses variedsomewhat along religious lines with evangelicals more likely to citebelief and Catholics more likely to cite acts.2

Another question asked by the Pew survey was whether the personbelieved that his or her path was the only path to heaven.3 A surprisingmajority (67 percent, including 52 percent of evangelicals) stated thatthere are other paths. Of the 66 percent of Christians who held thisbelief, most included at least one non-Christian religion in their answer.In the 2007 study, there was an association between how a personanswered the faith versus acts question and whether they felt theirs wasthe only path. For example, those who believe faith is crucial were lesslikely to see other valid paths to heaven.4

While the majority of Christians surveyed said other paths could leadto heaven, the number who did so has decreased since earlier surveys in2002 and 2007. White evangelical Protestants and black Protestants inparticular have become noticeably more strict on this question.

In some cultures the soul is created anew for each child. Beliefs differ as towhen and how the soul enters into the child. For example, the RomanCatholic belief that the soul enters the child at conception has influenced theirposition on such issues as cloning and abortion. In other cultures the soul mayhave a previous existence before it starts a new life.

Souls, death, and the afterlife

The concept of a soul is very closely tied to ideas about death. As Nigel Barleywrites, “notions of what it means to be dead are always part of a more generalidea of what it means to be a living human being in the first place andfunerary behaviour and beliefs around the world read like an extendeddiscussion of the notion of the person.”5

As far as anthropologists are aware, there are no cultures that do not have asoul-like concept and no cultures that do not believe that this soul survives thedeath of the body, at least for some period of time. Where there is a belief inmultiple souls, the different souls may have different destinations after death,including surviving for different lengths of time. In most cultures the idea ofthe soul after death is based more on continuity with life than withimmortality, as is common in the West.

Souls that live after death may spend some time near their family, oftenuntil the funeral is completed, and then may travel someplace else or bereincarnated. One of the functions of funeral rituals is to aid the soul in itsjourney. Sometimes these journeys are dangerous and difficult, and a soulmight perish on the journey or might end up in a not-so-nice place. In somereligious systems the duration of a soul’s residence after death is finite, andthe soul is reborn in another individual or, in the case of transmigration, intothe body of an animal.

The ability of a soul to survive its journey to the land of the dead maydepend on the quality of the person’s life. In such societies the life is judged,and the threat of failing to “pass the test” to enter paradise can act as a meansof social control. On the other hand, in many groups all souls make it towherever souls go after death, or only those who have memorized particularrituals or who have had elaborate funeral rituals. It is not always the good

that successfully make the journey; often it is the wealthy and powerful.Where is the land of the dead, and what is it like? The final destination of

the soul is usually at some distance from the place where the person lived. It isoften located at a known geographic place, such as a mountaintop or island, ora place that is “over the horizon.” Often it is located in a place that is notconsidered a part of the normal physical world, such as in the sky orunderground. Although we in the West tend to think of the physical afterlifeas a paradise, in many cultures it is surprisingly similar to the physicalcommunity on earth. In the afterlife the dead socialize, hunt, and have sex.However, there is no illness, and the dead interact with their ancestors.

Not all souls go to the same afterlife. Many people have special places forsouls depending on certain attributes. For example, warriors who have died inbattle, women who have died in childbirth, or persons who have died bysuicide might go to special places. There may be special places for the souls ofcertain social classes or occupational groups, such as shamans. For example,Valhalla was the special place for Viking warriors who died a good death, thatis, died in battle. In this case both social status and manner of death wereimportant.

Examples of concepts of the soul

In this section we will examine soul beliefs in several societies, including theYup’ik of Alaska, the Yanomamö of South America, and the Hmong ofSoutheast Asia, as well as Roman Catholic, Hindu, and Buddhist beliefs.

Yup’ik souls

Many religious systems believe in the recycling of souls. Among the Yup’ik ofwestern Alaska, a newborn has the soul of someone who has recently died inthe grandparental generation, after whom the child is named. After death, thesoul remains nearby for a period of time and then leaves to await rebirth.Thus the immortal soul recycles through time from the beginning of the earth.

In Yup’ik culture, animals also possess immortal souls that are a part of a

cycle of birth and rebirth. However, this cycle is based on a reciprocalrelationship between humans and animals that is based on how each treatsthe other. For example, if a seal perceives that the hunter is adhering to therules of Yup’ik society and its relationship to the animal world, the seal willpermit itself to be killed. Its flesh will provide food for the hunter and hisfamily, and the seal’s soul will, if treated properly by the hunter, return to thesea to be reborn again.

On death, the soul of the seal retracts to its bladder. The Yup’ik collect all ofthe bladders from the seals killed during the year. They are inflated and hungthroughout a five-day festival and then are shoved through a hole in the iceinto the water, where the souls are eventually reborn.

Yanomamö spirits and souls

The Yanomamö (Tropical Forest culture area) believe in a complex of souls.The main part of the soul becomes a no borebö at death. The Yanomamöcosmos is composed of four layers. The living Yanomamö live on the thirdlayer, and on death the no borebö moves up to the second layer, where itmoves down a trail until it encounters a spirit named Wadawadariwä. Thespirit asks the soul whether it has been stingy or generous. If the soul repliesthat it has been stingy, it is sent to a place of fire, but if it has been generous,it joins the ancestors. One would assume that the possibility of being sent to aplace of fire would act as a constraint on negative behavior during life, butWadawadariwä is thought to be somewhat stupid and will accept what thesoul tells him, which is why everyone is generous and is sent to the village ofthe ancestors.

Another aspect of the soul is the bore, which is released during cremation.It remains on earth and lives in the jungle. Some bore possess bright glowingeyes and will attack people who are traveling through the jungle at night.

The third aspect of the soul is the möamo, which lies within the body nearthe liver. Shamans will use their powers to remove the möamo from the bodyof their enemies, who will become sick and die. Much of the activity ofshamans is divided between stealing the souls of enemies and recovering thesouls of members of their own community.

In addition, everyone has a noreshi, or animal, which is born each time ahuman child is born and will develop and grow along with the child. Theanimal is the person’s double, and what happens to one will happen to theother. When either the person or his or her noreshi dies, the other dies. Themost common noreshi for males are large birds, and for females are landanimals.

A person’s noreshi lives far away. Therefore a person has no physicalcontact with his or her own noreshi. Still it is possible for someone else livingwhere the noreshi lives to kill the noreshi, usually by accident, then the personassociated with it dies. If possible, the dead person’s relatives will seekvengeance by killing the murderer. Every once in a while, hunters willencounter an animal that shows unusual behavior. Such an animal is either anevil spirit or someone’s noreshi. It is never killed.

Hmong souls

The Hmong are a people living in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia.Large numbers of Hmong from Laos immigrated to the United States after theend of the Vietnam War.

The Hmong believe that a person possesses a number of souls—somesources say as many as thirty. Health is the result of a balance between thephysical body and its souls. When one or more of the souls are lost or stolen,the person falls ill.

A soul may be frightened out of the body by a traumatic event, or it may bestolen by a spirit. Anne Fadiman, in her book The Spirit Catches You and YouFall Down, tells the story of a Hmong family living in Merced, California.6

The story centers on a little girl, Lia. One day Lia’s sister came into the houseand slammed the door, frightening Lia’s soul out of her body. The loss of thesoul resulted in an illness, which the Hmong call by a phrase that translates as“the spirit catches you and you fall down.” The spirit being referred to is asoul-stealing spirit. This illness is diagnosed as epilepsy in Western medicine.

Curing such illnesses falls to the shaman. The shaman enters an alteredstate of consciousness to search for the lost soul and, if it is found, will returnit to the patient’s body. If the soul was stolen by a spirit, the shaman will

negotiate with the spirit for the return of the soul. Gifts will be offered, andthe soul of a sacrificed animal will be offered in exchange for the soul of thesick individual.

After the birth of a child its placenta (afterbirth) is buried under the dirtfloor of the house. The word used by the Hmong for the placenta can betranslated as “jacket,” and it is thought of as a piece of clothing. At death thesoul travels back to the place where the person’s placenta was buried and putson its placenta jacket. This allows the soul to travel on the dangerous path tothe place where the ancestors live. If the soul fails to locate its placenta jacket,it will wander for eternity, never to be reunited with its ancestors.

The soul in Roman Catholicism

The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church states that after death the destinyof each soul is determined by God, based primarily on the person’s behaviorduring life. The main issue is the presence of sin, which is defined as a moralevil. People who are free of sin and are perfectly pure will go to Heaven,where they will be with God and will experience perfect happiness. AlthoughGod is considered to be omnipresent, Heaven is considered to be His home; ingeneral it is conceived of as being in the sky.

Souls that are in a state of grace but in need of purification go toPurgatory. The word Purgatory comes from the Latin purgare, meaning tomake clean or to purify. Purgatory exists for those souls who die with lesserfaults for which the person had not repented or for which the penalty was notentirely paid during life. For example, venial sins are considered aconsequence of human frailty and are considered pardonable, requiring onlytemporary punishment. These sins can be dealt with by time spent inPurgatory. This is necessary because nothing less than the perfectly pure canenter Heaven.

People who die in mortal sin or with original sin are relegated to eternalpunishment in Hell. A mortal sin is an act that is contrary to Divine law andseparates the sinner from God; original sin is the sin of Adam in Genesis,which is washed away by baptism. Hell is a place of punishment and eternaltorment for the damned, including both humans and demons. Hell is usually

conceived of as being within the earth. In the Bible it is described as an abyssand a place to which the wicked descend. Because its inhabitants areestranged from God, they are placed as far away from Him as possible.

The soul in Hinduism and Buddhism

In Hinduism there is a belief in an immortal, eternal soul that is born againand again in different bodies, a process called reincarnation. Although thebodies differ each time, the self—its distinct personality—remains unchanged.A rebirth might not be into a human body, and birth as a human is seen as aprecious and rare opportunity.

The Hindu idea of reincarnation is closely tied to the concept of karma.Karma concerns an individual’s actions and the consequences of those actions.One’s life is what one has made it, and every action, thought, and desire—bethey good or bad—will affect one’s next life. The life one lives now is theconsequence of past actions. This cycle of birth, death, and rebirth in thisworld is known as Samsara. The ultimate goal is to escape from Samsara andachieve moksha, or liberation from the limitations of space, time, and matter.Because the achievement of salvation is difficult and complex, an individualwill require multiple lifetimes to achieve it. Although there is no mobilitywithin a single lifetime, how the individual accepts and lives during that lifewill determine the level for the next reincarnation.

Buddhist concepts of the soul, reincarnation, and karma differ in importantways. Buddhists do not believe in an immortal soul or a conscious personalitythat continues on. What is referred to as a soul, Buddhism conceives of as acombination of five mental and physical aggregates: the physical body,feelings, understandings, will, and consciousness. These make up the humanpersonality, and this is what is caught up in the endless cycle of birth, death,and rebirth.

The Four Noble Truths state that life is imperfect and inevitably involvessuffering. This suffering originates in our desires but will cease if all desirescease. The way to do this and to achieve release from the cycle is to follow theEightfold Path, which consists of right understanding, right thought, rightspeech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right

meditation. A person who does this can achieve Nirvana. The goal ofBuddhism is not to go to some blissful heaven, but to extinguish desire andcraving and escape from the suffering of this life.

Buddhists also have the concept of karma, the belief that all of one’sactions, good or bad, help create one’s personality. This process continueseven after death. Rebirth is seen as the transmission of karma. Buddhacompared this process to a flame that passes from one candle to the next.However, it is only the flame of karma that is passed on, not a continuouspersonality. The Wheel of Life (Figure 8.1) shows the thirty-one planes ofexistence, conceived of by some Buddhists as psychological metaphors and byothers as reality. These planes of existence include hells, hungry ghosts(beings tormented by unsatisfied desires), animals, humans, and gods.Humans proceed around and around this wheel, repeatedly experiencingsuffering, unless we are freed into Nirvana. Following on the flame metaphor,Nirvana means to extinguish, or to put out the flame of the candle.

Figure 8.1 The Wheel of Life. A painting of the Wheel of Life on a monastery wall in Tibet.

Ancestors

One possible fate for a soul is that it becomes part of the group of supernaturalbeings that are important to the living: ancestors. Writers have often used theterm ancestor worship to describe the beliefs and behaviors surrounding theveneration of ancestors. However, the use of the term worship is falling out offavor because a number of researchers think that the ancestors are respectedand attended to but not really “worshipped.”

The importance of ancestors to a culture is a reflection of the importance ofkinship, generally kinship beyond the immediate family. Even after death aperson is still a valued member of the kinship group, one who reinforces ideas

of social roles and contributes to social harmony and social solidarity. In somecultures the ancestors act as a moral force, punishing their descendants formisbehavior.

However, not all souls become ancestors—or at least not ancestors whoreceive any ritual attention. For example, in societies in which descent isfigured through men, mainly males may become ancestors. If a woman insuch a culture were to become an ancestor, this would be determined by herrelationship to a man, for example, by marriage or through her children.Although most ritual activity concerning ancestors is a family matter, inAfrica it is common for the ancestors of chiefs or kings to be consideredresponsible for things that concern the entire community, such as rain, andtherefore will be recognized by everyone.

Yoruba ancestors

Among the Yoruba of West Africa, ancestors play very important roles in thecontinued welfare of their descendants, and much of their religious practice,including the maintenance of shrines and the performance of rituals, arecentered on them.

The Yoruba identify two broad classes of ancestors: family ancestors anddeified ancestors. Of those who die, only a limited number become familyancestors. Ancestors are individuals who led noteworthy lives while alive.They lived to an old age and lived a good life, and their descendants arewilling to perform the required rituals. It is one of the most important tasks ofthe family head to perform proper rituals for the family ancestors. Themaintenance of good relations with the ancestors is important for thecontinued well-being of the family, for the ancestors possess power to bringgood or ill to their descendants. The ancestors provide guidance andprotection for the family but will punish family members who do not behaveas they should and do not fulfill their obligations to the dead. Deifiedancestors are those with great powers and are worshipped at shrinesthroughout the region. In fact, such ancestors may be thought of as gods withhuman origins.

The egungun are spirits who have traveled from the land of the dead to

visit the living. In ritual the ancestors are often represented by the egungundancers, who become conduits between the living and the ancestors. Anegungun dancer is a man who wears a long grass robe and a wood mask witha human or animal face. Several days after a funeral, the egungun goes to thehouse in which the person has died and tells the relatives that the deceasedhas arrived in the land of the dead. Food is then given to the egungun and hisfollowers.

On death an individual travels to the land of the dead. If the person hasbeen good in life, he or she will lead a pleasant existence, but those whobehaved badly will suffer. One of the rewards of living a good life is to beremembered. As long as they are remembered, dead people are able to act asintermediaries between the gods and the family. The ancestors often contacttheir living family in dreams or through the aid of the egungun. Egungun mayappear at times when the family needs advice and at the annual festival.

Beng ancestors and reincarnation

In some societies the soul travels to a new home; in others the soul is recycledinto another being. When a person dies among the Beng of West Africa, thesoul becomes a spirit that travels to wrugbe, one of many invisible spiritvillages. After a while, the spirit is reborn as a human baby, although thespirit continues to exist as an ancestor. The individual exists both as areincarnated being on earth and, at the same time, as an ancestral spirit.

Every individual born is a reincarnation of an ancestor. Sometimes theidentity of the ancestor is known. In the case of a child born on the same daya family member dies, the newborn is thought to be an instant reincarnationof the deceased. Knowing which ancestor has been reincarnated in aparticular newborn has important consequences, because it is assumed thatthe child has the same personality traits of the ancestor and is treated as such.Most often, however, the identity of the ancestor remains unknown.

People are able to travel to wrugbe in their dreams to consult withancestors. The ancestors also live with the family. At night a bowl of food isprepared for the ancestors and the family and the ancestors sleep together.They return to wrugbe during the day.

When a baby is born, the spirit does not move from wrugbe to this world allat once, but emerges over a period of several years. This emergence does noteven begin until the umbilical cord falls off. A mixture of herbs is placed onthe cord to dry it out so it will fall off sooner and the infant can begin to movefrom wrugbe into the living world. If an infant should die before the cord fallsoff, there is no funeral or public recognition of the death because the child’sspirit had never entered the world of the living.

During early childhood, the child’s consciousness is sometimes in this lifeand sometimes in wrugbe. The parents do not want the child’s soul to returnto wrugbe, so they do what they can to make the child’s life as attractive aspossible. If a child is crying or uncomfortable, the child is thought to behomesick for wrugbe. The child attempts to communicate with the parents,but the parents do not understand the babbling. So a diviner is called. Usuallythe diviner suggests that a cowry shell, coin, or other piece of jewelry be givento the child.

Tana Toraja ancestors

The Tana Toraja are a horticultural people living in small villages growingrice and raising water buffalo and pigs in the mountains of Sulawesi,Indonesia. Ritually, their world is divided into the smoke-ascending part andthe smoke-descending part. This division exists in both the physical andsupernatural worlds. The smoke-ascending part is associated with the risingsun in the east, the deata, and health and fertility rituals. The deata are godsand spirits that are associated with nature. They are found in mountains andrivers, trees and animals, and the roofs of houses; they exist in the stars,clouds, rain, and mist. The smoke-descending dominion includes the nene orancestors and the bombo or souls of people who have recently died. Thisrealm is associated with the setting sun in the west and with death rituals.Through ritual the bombo are transformed into nene, and the nene can betransformed into deata.

The smoke-ascending and smoke-descending realms must be kept separate,and this requirement lies at the heart of much of Torajan ritual. Ritual alsoincludes the offering of food, such as rice, and the sacrifice of animals. This

ritual activity is known as “feeding the gods.” It pleases the gods, and theywill, in turn, come to the aid of the people.

The Torajans clearly separate physical death from social death. Thedefinition of the moment of death in a modern industrial society has beenmade difficult because of life-prolonging machines (Box 8.2). For example, thebrain might cease functioning, but the heart is kept artificially beating. InTorajan society physical death is associated with the cessation of breathingand heartbeat. Yet it is not as simple as that because when breathing andheartbeat cease, when physical death has occurred, social death has not, fordeath is stretched out over an extended period of time. This is a good exampleof how culture reinterprets natural events—in this case, death. When a personis physically dead, the individual is not said to have died, but is said to have afever or to be sleeping. This knowledge is important because at this point, allsmoke-ascending rituals are forbidden. To the Tana Toraja, the act of dying isa process whereby the bombo (soul) begins to separate from the physical body.

Box 8.2 Determining death

Determining when a person is dead is not as simple as it seems. Such adetermination is a cultural interpretation of a series of biological events.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many people feared that theywould be declared dead when they in fact were not. Some coffins of thetime were outfitted with pull cords attached to outside bells so that if aperson was buried alive, they could signal those on the outside by pullingon the cord. This fear of being buried alive lessened with thedevelopment of new technologies, such as the stethoscope.

The modern debate on the determination of death has focused on theheart versus the brain. Are you dead if you have no brain activity butyour heart is still beating? This debate has been influenced by thequestion “Which is the seat of the soul: the heart or the brain?” Modernmedicine has defined death as the cessation of brain activity, leading tothe existence of “beating-heart cadavers” from which organs can beprocured for transplantation into another individual. However, manyfamilies still deny consent for organ donation, fearing that the person is

not really dead yet. Although the EEG prevents misdiagnosis of braindeath, people have difficulty seeing someone whose heart is beating asreally being dead. Thousands of people are on waiting lists for organdonation, and many die each year while waiting for organs to becomeavailable.

Another interesting phenomenon associated with organ donation isthe claim by some heart transplant recipients that they take on some ofthe qualities or personality traits of the donor. Such a belief is clearlyrooted in cultural beliefs about the soul.

The social pronouncement of death does not take place for weeks and, inthe case of very important people, even years. The dead body is wrapped in acloth or put in a wood coffin and placed along the south wall of the housewith the head to the west, which is the direction that is associated withsmoke-descending rituals. The corpse, which may or may not be partiallyembalmed, is said to be asleep. During this time the decaying body is stillreferred to as a person with a fever. Offerings of food and drink are made tothe dead person. People greet the dead person when they enter the house, andthey converse with the dead, keeping him or her up to date about what ishappening to the family and the community. During this time the bombo ofthe deceased stays close by and watches the preparations for its funeral. Soonthe bombo has the power to cause trouble or to bring blessings to the family.

Torajan funeral rites are complex and important smoke-descending ritualsthat move the bombo into the next world, where it is transformed into a nene(ancestor). At the start of the funeral the sound of a gong formally announcesthe death. Sacrifices are made, and the body is moved to the west wall with itshead pointing south, which is the direction in which it will travel to theafterlife.

The next day, the body is wrapped in cloth, and an effigy is made on whichthe family hangs the personal possessions of the deceased. A few weeks laterthe body leaves the house along with a water buffalo, household items, andprovisions for the soul’s journey. The body is moved toward the burial sitealong with the effigy, which is usually a frame of bamboo but is carved ofwood for an important person. Now the rituals begin that will separate thephysical corpse from the bombo. The buffalo is sacrificed, and the corpse is

buried in a limestone cliff. If the effigy is carved of wood, it is placed on aledge in the cliff along with other effigy figures.

The soul has now become an ancestor, and it begins its journey southwardto Puya with the guardian buffalo. However, suicides, lepers, and people whodid not play according to the rules of society are not allowed to enter Puya.The life of a nene in Puya is very much like one’s life while breathing. Thenene has the same social rank as in life and is still wealthy or poor. The nenekeeps an eye on the family to be sure that the family is being properlyhonored. The nene has the power to bring aid and blessings as well as harm.

Sometime after the funeral the descendants perform the rituals to transformthe nene into a deata (god). Whereas the nene lives in the smoke-descendingrealm, the deata moves to the smoke-ascending realm. The deata joins theother spirits in the trees, mists, and sky and continues to watch over itsdescendants, who continue to offer sacrifices.

Ancestors and the departed in Japan

In Japan, household-level religious activities have been the main means ofcontacting the supernatural. Understanding the structure and importance ofthe household is essential to understanding relationships between the livingand the dead. The household is a corporate group that ideally will existperpetually from the time of its founding. One becomes a member of ahousehold through kinship, but an individual may be rejected if they are seenas unsuitable. There are four key household roles for the living: the masterand mistress of the house, the heir and his bride. If any of these roles areempty, the household is essentially incomplete and the roles should ideally befilled, often by recruiting someone from the outside. Marriage alone does notcreate a new line. For example, if the mistress dies before the birth of an heir,her soul is believed to return to the household in which she was born.

On death, the body is disposed of within a few days and the soul enters aperiod of uncertainty. As in many other cultures, the soul is polluted by deathand becomes potentially dangerous. The soul may wander for many weeksbefore it is purified and made safe by a series of rituals. These rituals usuallyend forty-nine days after the death, although occasionally the living feel it

necessary to do additional rituals after this time. The soul then enters theclean and peaceful world of the deceased and the ancestors.

David Plath made a distinction for Japanese souls between the departed andthe ancestors.7 The departed are generally household members who died inrecent memory. When a person dies, a tablet is prepared and is preserved anddisplayed in the house on a shelf or cabinet reserved for that use. Thedeceased is remembered as an individual and the anniversary of the person’sdeath date will be celebrated until no one is left who knew that person alive.At this time, the departed person will be retired to the ranks of the ancestorsand the personal tablet is destroyed.

Ancestors are thus dead regular household members that are not in livingmemory. Included in this category are the founder of the household andpeople who were regular members of the household at death. Any people borninto the household, but who married out, were adopted out, or left to start anew household are not included. The ancestors usually share a single generictablet, remembered more as a collective than as individuals.

As in other cultures, the dead in Japan are seen as a moral force. However,they operate as moral authorities, not moral agents. The living strive to dowell in life so they will not be ashamed to stand before the dead. Although thedead do sometimes intervene in the affairs of the living, this intervention isusually mild. In case of family misfortune, the family usually turns first todivination, suspecting something wrong with the physical structure of thehouse. Only if the misfortune continues are the dead suspected. The dead,though, are also a source of security and comfort. They are seen as generallyfriendly and supportive, and the relationship between the living and dead isideally one of mutual affection and gratitude.

The souls in the category of the departed are interacted with as individualsand are treated as though they were alive. For example, the living will preparefavorite foods or gather favorite flowers. This is done at any time but is mostcommon on the departed person’s death-day anniversary. The souls are seenas being close by and accessible to the living. They can be contacted at thehousehold shelf of tablets, the graveyard, and other places. However, they alsoreturn for a Midsummer holiday that is seen as a reunion for the living anddead. At the end of the holiday they are believed to be going off on a greatjourney. They are always present, but also are seen as coming and going from

periodic household gatherings.Although the dead in some cultures are seen as a conservative force, this is

not the case in Japan. The emphasis is not on behaving in very specific waysthat existed in the past, but on behaving in ways that will help continue thehousehold line.

Bodies and souls

As we have seen, the concept of the soul is intimately connected with death.Although the soul animates the living body, the soul also has a life beyondthat of the physical. In this section we will look at cases in which the soul andbody are disconnected but one or the other remains closely connected withthe world of the living. These include ghosts, vampires, and zombies.

Ghosts

The distinction between a soul and a ghost is not always a clear one. They areboth manifestations of an individual after death. A soul is essentially good. Itmight hover around its corpse and the family after death, but eventually itgoes somewhere else or is reincarnated. However, souls can bringmisfortunate to the family if they are neglected or the family fails to performthe appropriate funeral rituals. By contrast, a ghost is essentially a negativeforce and tends to remain in the vicinity of the community. Ghosts can bringabout illness and other misfortune; therefore, they have to be dealt with.

Dani ghosts

When someone among the Dani of New Guinea dies, a supernatural elementcalled the mogat leaves the body. The mogat remains near the community andthe family and becomes a ghost.

Dani ghosts will alert the community to enemy raids, thereby performing aservice. However, ghosts are generally troublesome, and they are heldresponsible for a wide range of misfortunes, including accidents and illnessesof both people and pigs. The Dani are reluctant to travel in the dark for fear ofbeing accosted by ghosts. However, these problems can be dealt with byrituals designed to placate the ghost, and, in truth, the Dani show more fear ofghosts in stories than they do in their everyday activities.

A major function of a funeral is to make the ghost happy and to keep itaway from the community. The ghost of a person who has been killed in waris especially dangerous. It must be given a “fresh-blood” funeral, which ismuch more elaborate than the regular funeral given for a person who dies inother ways. The ghost of a person who is killed in war is also placated by thekilling of an enemy.

There are many ways to keep ghosts happy and to control the negativeinfluence of ghosts. An essential element in Dani ceremonies is the killing ofpigs during feasts, and food is always given to the ghosts. (Although the food,especially pork, is set aside for the ghosts, eventually someone will eat theghosts’ share.) The Dani build small structures called ghost houses in severallocations both within and outside the village as places where the ghosts canlive.

Bunyoro ghosts

The Bunyoro live in the East Africa Cattle culture area and many of theirreligious activities center on relationships with ghosts. Ghosts are one of threesignificant causes of illness, the others being sorcery and the activities ofspirits. When illness strikes, a Bunyoro will use the services of a diviner todetermine the cause of the illness. If the misfortune is due to a ghost, thediviner will then proceed to identify the ghost. Generally, a ghost causestrouble for someone who is close to it and who has offended it in some way. Aghost will bring misfortune to that individual’s relatives and descendants aswell.

The Bunyoro ghost is the disembodied spirit of a person who has died. It isa transformation of the soul. It is seen as being left by a deceased person but

not being the deceased person per se. Unlike ghosts in Western cultures,Bunyoro ghosts are never seen except in dreams. Ghosts are essentially eviland are associated with the underworld as well as with specific places, such astheir graves. However, on the positive side, a ghost of a man may come to theaid of his son and descendants.

There are many ways in which a person can deal with ghosts. For example,there are techniques for capturing ghosts, and once captured, the ghost can bedestroyed or removed from the community. Other rituals keep the ghost awayfrom the family. However, many ghosts remain in the community and willperiodically possess a victim or a close relative, thereby entering into directcommunication with the living. Often the ghost will form a relationship witha living person, who will periodically sacrifice a goat to it and build a specialghost hut for it to live in.

The belief in ghosts plays an important role in Bunyoro society. It gives theBunyoro an explanation for things that happen, such as illness, as well asmethods, through ritual, of dealing with these problems. The Bunyoro alsobelieve that a ghost will cause trouble if it was treated poorly while living.This belief encourages people to behave properly toward family members soas to avoid problems after that person dies.

Japanese ghosts

Japanese religious practice is a complex mixture of folk beliefs, Buddhist,Shinto, and Taoist influences and influences from cultures outside of Japan,especially China. Throughout Japan, there is a belief in a variety ofsupernatural beings, the less savory ones including what Western writers callghosts, demons, and goblins, among others. Not only are these spirits foundamong the peasants of the countryside, but they also appear in urban centersand have been immortalized in plays and art.

Many Japanese believe that at death an individual is transformed into animpure spirit. At specified intervals over the next seven years the familyperforms various rituals of purification as the spirit becomes an ancestralspirit. As an ancestral spirit, it watches over the family and helps in time ofcrisis. However, during the seven-year period the impure spirit floats between

the land of the living and the land of the dead. During this time it is importantthat the family perform the required rituals and make offerings; if this is notdone, the spirit will hover close to the living, often in the form of a ghost, andcause misfortune. Also, if an individual dies under conditions of greatemotional stress, the spirit will remain in the world of the living as a ghostand haunt the individuals who are responsible for its anguish. Many folktalestell of murder victims and unrequited lovers who are so distraught at themoment of death that they remain on earth as ghosts.

Ghosts are frequently depicted in traditional Japanese art. For example,some drawings show a female ghost:

with long straight hair and waving or beckoning hands. Pale clothing with long, flowingsleeves was draped loosely about the seemingly fragile figure, and the head and upperpart of the body were strongly delineated. From the waist down, however, the form wasmisty and tapered into nothingness.8

The living dead: vampires and zombies

Stories of resurrection from death are found in the mythology of manyreligious traditions. From the Egyptian god Osiris, the Hebrew prophet Elijah,who could raise the dead and is himself expected to return, to Lazarus andJesus, stories are told of those who die but later return to life. In theseexamples the individual is seen as special and the resurrection has greatreligious significance. In other cases, the dead returning to life is moreordinary. The resurrection can be seen as positive, as when a person isallowed to return to life to comfort her family. Or it can be seen as negative,as when a person returns to life to bring about death and destruction. In thissection we will look at examples of the latter, namely vampires and zombies.Both are familiar creatures in the United States where countless books,movies, television shows, and video games feature vampires and zombies astheir main characters. However, the folk beliefs that underlie these creaturesare often quite different from popular renditions.

Vampires

Much of Western vampire lore is largely based on Bram Stoker’s novelDracula, published in 1897. Stoker based his book loosely on the historicalfigure of Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, but made numerous changes. Tepeswas a Romanian prince, not a count, who ruled in Walachia, notTransylvania, and who was never viewed as a vampire by the localpopulation. In fact, Tepes is a local hero to many in Romania. More recently,vampires have been the focus of many popular books and movies, includingthe Twilight and Sookie Stackhouse series that portray vampires as dangerousbut romantic figures.

The vampire is a creature that was considered to be real throughout muchof Europe, primarily in parts of Eastern Europe, and they bear littleresemblance to the depictions in these novels. Vampires were more likely tobe shabbily dressed peasants than elegant counts and were certainly not seenas romantic in any way. So who or what is a vampire? A vampire wasbelieved to be someone who had recently died but who had returned to bringdeath to others.

The interest in vampires and the documentation of cases of vampirismbegan in the eighteenth century when parts of Serbia and Walachia wereturned over to Austria. Austrian patrol officials began recording the localcustom of exhuming dead bodies and “killing” them. An important case comesfrom the Serbian village of Medvegia in the 1730s. The following is atranslated report of the case:

[A] local haiduk [a type of soldier] named Arnold Paole broke his neck in a fall from ahay wagon. This man had, during his lifetime, often revealed that, near Gossowa inTurkish Serbia, he had been troubled by a vampire, wherefore he had eaten from theearth of the vampire’s grave and smeared himself with the vampire’s blood, in order tobe free of the vexation he had suffered. In twenty or thirty days after his death somepeople complained they were being bothered by this same Arnold Paole; and in fact fourpeople were killed by him. In order to end this evil, they dug up this Arnold Paole fortydays after his death … and they found that he was quite complete and undecayed, andthat fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; that the shirt, thecovering, and the coffin were completely bloody; that the old nails on his hands andfeet, along with the skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown; and since theysaw from this that he was a true vampire, they drove a stake through his heart,according to their custom, whereby he gave an audible groan and bled copiously.9

In reality, much of the evidence for the return of Paole and others as vampirescan be easily explained by anyone with knowledge of how corpses

decompose. For example, as the corpse decays, it becomes bloated with gas.This results in a red coloration of the skin and the appearance of a fullabdomen. The gas also pushes blood into the mouth. When the villagersstaked Paole and reported that he groaned, what they most likely heard wasthe release of this gas. Although his corpse appeared not to have decomposed,this also is not unusual. Corpses actually decay at varying rates, and burialitself delays decomposition. In fact, all decomposing bodies would show these“vampire” features. However, only the bodies of those suspected of vampirismwere ever dug up and “killed.”

Paul Barber points out that the people who were most likely to be labeledvampires were those who were considered difficult, unpopular, or greatsinners during their lifetime.10 He suggests that a belief in vampires providedan explanation for unexplained deaths, especially from epidemic diseases andother unfortunate events. Even better than just an explanation, the attributionof misfortune to vampirism also provided a course of action: the vampirecould be “killed.”

Vampires in New England

Vampire beliefs were fairly widespread throughout Europe and came withearly settlers to North America. Folklorist Michael Bell in his book Food forthe Dead has documented several cases of vampire beliefs in New England,dating from 1793 to as late as the 1890s.11

New England vampire beliefs revolved around consumption, the old namefor tuberculosis. The term consumption comes from the observation that thosewho were ill appeared to “waste away,” yet at the same time they showed afierce will to live. This is reflected in the folk belief that the vampire’s desirefor sustenance drives it to feed off of its living relatives causing the wastingaway.

The death of a family member from tuberculosis was frequently followedby further deaths within the family. The disease is readily transmitted amongpeople living under crowded conditions such as was common in rural NewEngland farms in the nineteenth century. One of the first to die was thoughtto return to cause illness and death in family members. Something had to be

done to stop it.One strategy was to dig up the body of the supposed vampire and destroy

it, usually by burning. In 1854 in Connecticut, a man was dying following thedeath of his father and two older brothers. Friends exhumed the bodies of thedeceased brothers and burned the bodies next to their graves. Sometimes thesmoke from the burning was used as a medicine. In 1827 in Rhode Island theremains of a young girl were exhumed and her body burned while membersof the family gathered around and inhaled the smoke to prevent furtherillness. Drinking a mixture of ashes from the burning and water wassometimes seen as a cure.

Archaeological evidence of vampires in Poland

An important source of information about the lives of people living in the pastis found in the archaeological analysis of cemeteries. Skeletons provide muchinformation about the people and the cultural practices associated with burial.Many burial customs have been interpreted as shielding the community fromevil influenced associated with the dead. Such practices are referred to asapotropaic practices.

Between 2008 and 2012 archaeologists recovered 285 skeletons from aseventeenth-and eighteenth-century cemetery located near the village ofDrawsko in northwestern Poland.12 Five skeletons were found with a sickleplaced across the throat or abdomen (Figure 8.2). If the body were to rise fromthe grave, the sickle would decapitate or eviscerate it. Two skeletons had largestones beneath their chins, thought to prevent the dead from biting others orto feed on the living. These folk customs are associated with beliefs invampires.

Figure 8.2 Vampire burial. Skeleton of a 30–39-year-old female buried at Drawsko, Poland,in the seventeenth to eighteenth century. A sickle was placed across the throat of the bodyat the time of burial, an example of an apotropaic practice.

The six skeletons were not segregated from the other burials. Biochemicalanalysis confirms that they were not outsiders but members of thecommunity. We do not know why these practices were associated with theseparticular individuals.

In Poland a small minority of souls were thought to become transformedinto vampires. These would be individuals who were somehow different fromthe typical member of the community. Perhaps they possessed some unusualphysical feature, committed suicide, were unbaptized, or were born out ofwedlock. Also at risk of becoming a vampire was the first person to die in anepidemic, as they were seen as the cause of the epidemic. During the time thatthe cemetery was in use there was a series of cholera epidemics in the region.The use of apotropaics was thought to prevent reanimation of the corpse.

Similar practices have been found in burial sites from as early as the tenth

century in many areas including the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovakia,and Greece. Other customs associated with vampire burials includedecapitation, dismemberment, hammering a stake or nails into the body,placing stones on the body, binding limbs, and the burning of the body.

Haitian zombies

Although zombies are known from other cultures, they are most closelyassociated with Haiti and the religion of Vodou (Chapter 11). In contrast tovampires, who are believed to bring death and are therefore feared, Haitianzombies themselves are not to be feared. The fear associated with zombies isthe fear of being made into one. Zombies are seen as soulless creatures,animated for a life of slavery on a plantation.

There are a few documented cases that, although controversial, seem toshow that zombification actually occurs. These involve people whose deathand burial were documented and who were then observed to return. On thebasis of these cases a Haitian psychiatrist named Dr. Lamarque Douyonrequested the help of an ethnobotanist to track down the zombie powder. Dr.Douyon thought that the victim was given a drug that made him or herappear to be dead. After the burial the person who had administered thepowder would dig up and revive the victim. Dr. Douyon received help fromWade Davis, then a graduate student at Harvard University. Davis’s accountof his research was published in 1985 in the book The Serpent and theRainbow, which was later made into a movie.13

Davis claims that he was able to acquire some of the zombie powder andanalyze it. The key ingredient turned out to be pieces of dried puffer fish.Puffer fish is considered a delicacy in Japan, where only specially licensedchefs are allowed to prepare it owing to the poisonous nature of the fish. Asmall amount of the poison is considered exhilarating. It causes tingling of thespine, prickling of the lips and tongue, and euphoria. Still, several dozenJapanese people every year get tetrodotoxin poisoning from eating puffer fish,and some die. A victim of this kind of poisoning is likely to make a fullrecovery if he or she survives the first few hours. So why do Haitianpoisoning victims end up zombies but Japanese victims do not?

Davis pointed out the importance of cultural context and expectations.Haitians who practice Vodou believe that it is possible for a powerful priest tocontrol the part of the soul known as ti-bonaj, discussed earlier. This soul isassociated with a person’s personality and individuality. When the person’s ti-bonaj is captured, the person is deprived of will, and his or her body can beheld as a slave. These beliefs are necessary underpinnings to the zombificationphenomenon. Davis also suggested that the threat of zombification is used asa social control mechanism.

Davis’s theory is very controversial, as are some of his research methods.Some question whether he paid for the zombie powder and participated in theexhumation of the corpse. Even more damaging is the inability of others tofind tetrodotoxin in samples of the powder or to verify how the powder wouldwork. In all, Davis’s work remains unproven but provides an interestinghypothesis.

Zombies in contemporary culture

The U.S. military occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) brought an awareness ofHaitian culture and Vodou. By 1932 the first American zombie horror movie,White Zombie, had been released. The movie with the largest impact onportrayals of zombies though is George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead(1968). Romero portrayed zombies not as driven by a Vodou priest to work butinstead as driven to eat flesh, starting the popular cultural association ofzombies and eating brains.

Supernatural figures reflect our contemporary fears and anxieties. Withzombies, we see both a fear of losing our individuality to become part of thezombie horde and apocalyptic themes based on anxieties about thegovernment and large corporations. Zombies are often said to have beencreated due to radiation or government or corporate experiments gone awry,such as in the movie and games Resident Evil. The general movie or videogame scenario pits a small group of heroes against the encroaching zombiehorde, often part of a larger societal collapse or conflict. The classic videogame Wolfenstein 3D, for example, pits the player against zombie Nazisduring World War II. Unlike Haitian zombies, the modern zombie is a

monster who can be killed guilt-free. In 2016, the South Korean zombie movieTrain to Busan broke numerous box office records. In the film, the crew doeswhat a businessman tells them to rather than rescue passengers, and thegovernment covers up the truth. The theme of corporate callousness reflectscultural concerns in South Korea, particularly following the incident in 2014when a ferry boat overturned killing 300 people, mainly teenagers, a tragedyblamed on corporate greed.

Zombies have seen a cultural resurgence in recent years, surpassing evenvampires in their popularity. Unlike vampires who only threaten oneindividual at a time and have often been cast as romantic figures, zombiesmenace the entire human race and are portrayed as mindless, shambling, anddecaying. An element of comedy is also often present in modern zombieportrayals. Many movies, such as Shaun of the Dead, combine comedy andhorror into what Bruce Campbell, star of the movie Evil Dead, termed“splatstick.” The popularity of the mash-up novel Pride, Prejudice and Zombiesand the game Plants vs. Zombies are further examples.

Death rituals

Death rituals or funerals can be thought of as rites of passage whereby anindividual moves from the status of living to that of dead (or another post-death state such as ancestor). The loss of a member of the community,especially an important member, can be very traumatic. We can think of adeath as a disruption of the social fabric of the family and community thatneeds to be mended. Death rituals also provide a way of channeling behaviorin what can be a highly emotional state. Funeral rituals provide explanationsfor death and for what happens after death. In these functions, funerals areacting very much like social rites of intensification.

However, death rituals differ in many ways from other rites of passage.One of the most striking features is the presence of the body of the deceased.Even if the body does not play a role in the ritual itself, it is present, andsomething must be done with it.

Funeral rituals

Funerals permit and channel expressions of grief. All people feel grief, but itcan be manifested in many ways. In some societies there are specific timeswhen it is appropriate to express grief and times when it is not. Somesocieties, including British and U.S. societies, emphasize control of one’semotions. Grieving is often done privately, not in public, even at the funeralservice. The length of time that is set aside for grieving is often limited, andafter a period of time, the close relatives are expected to once again take uptheir lives. Even when grieving is publicly conducted and is very boisterous, itis still limited in time, and its expression is culturally channeled.

Among the Murngin of Australia funeral rituals actually begin beforedeath. The family and community gather around the dying person and beginto wail and sing song cycles to comfort the dying. The songs also provideinstructions to the soul so that it will make it to the totemic well and notcause difficulties for the family. Although some of the emotional energy of themen is directed toward revenge for the death (death is usually caused bysorcery or fighting), grief is more explicitly expressed by the women, whotake sharp sticks or stone knives and cut their heads so that they bleed.

Earlier, we described the funeral rituals of the Torajans of Indonesia as partof the discussion of ancestors. Here we have a good example of the culturalexpression of grief and how the outward expression of grief does not alwayscoincide with the internal emotion of grief. In Tana Toraja there is a strongcultural pressure not to show one’s emotions and to keep sadness and angerhidden from others. The Torajans believe that such emotions are bad for one’shealth and are disruptive to interpersonal relationships. However, in thecontext of death, Torajans can and are expected to express grief.

When the corpse is kept in the house between the time the personphysically dies and the beginning of the funeral, wailing does not occur, andthe family remains calm. When the funeral finally begins, which might beseveral months later, there are particular times when it is appropriate to cryand wail. Wailing is loud and expresses both grief and sympathy for thefamily of the deceased. Wailing occurs when people are near the body or aneffigy figure, and they sometimes cover their faces and touch the body.

Funerals are for both the living and the dead. Frequently, the fate of the

soul depends on the proper rituals being performed correctly by the family.Thus while rituals may comfort the living, they may explicitly function tomove the soul out of the community to some other place, such as a “land ofthe dead.”

Often the most important issues are to protect the living by separating theliving from the dead and to move the soul away from the living community sothat it cannot cause harm. There are many ways in which living and dead areseparated. Often the personal property of the deceased is destroyed. Thiseliminates anything that might attract the soul and encourage it to stay. TheNuer, a pastoralist group in East Africa, quickly bury the body and obliteratethe grave so that the soul cannot find its body and therefore will leave. Otherways of moving the soul are to frighten it with firecrackers, as was done inChina, or to build some type of barrier that ghosts will not cross.

The need to protect the community from ghosts is made very explicit infuneral rituals of the Dani of New Guinea. Karl Heider describes a Danifuneral and writes: “In every way, explicit as well as implicit, the funeral actsshout out to the ghosts: ‘See this! See what we do for you!’ And then, althoughthis part is not so often said in words: ‘Now go away and leave us in peace!’”14

Disposal of the body

The focal point of most funeral rituals is the corpse, and one of the mostimportant activities in a funeral is the process of disposing of it. In somesocieties it is truly a disposal, for it is thought that as long as the body isintact, the soul will not leave. In some cultures burial takes place quickly,often within twenty-four hours; in others the body may be kept for severaldays or even longer before burial. This is especially true if some type ofpreservation is practiced and the body plays an integral part in the ritual.

Burial

Perhaps the most common means of disposing of a body is burial. In analyzing

burials, there are many variables that we can look at, such as where the bodyis buried. Often there is a sacred place for burials, such as a cemetery or cave.A cemetery may be restricted to a particular ethnic group or social class orpeople characterized by a particular cultural feature such as occupation orcause of death. Warriors who die in battle or women who die in childbirth areoften buried in special areas. (Many modern cultures provide specialcemeteries for members of the military, for example, or for those who died ina specific war, such as World War II cemeteries.) Some cemeteries containunmarked graves; others contain very elaborate tombs. However, bodies arenot always placed in special places. Often they are buried near the house oreven under the floor of the house. This occurs frequently when the soulbecomes an ancestor and the family wishes to keep the ancestor close by.

The body can be simply wrapped in a blanket or cloth, and sometimes theblanket or cloth has special designs and may be prepared early in life. Thebody can be placed in a wood coffin of various shapes and designs or in apottery vessel. The position of the body may be influenced by the size andshape of the container. A body can be stretched out in a coffin (mostfrequently on its back but sometimes on its side or stomach) but would bebound in a fetal position if placed in a pottery vessel. Sometimes the body isoriented in a particular direction with the head often positioned in thedirection of some sacred place.

Often the body is prepared in some way before being placed in a containeror in the ground. The body may be decorated or clad in special clothing.Sometimes the body is painted. Grave goods may be placed in the grave,ranging from simple mementos to elaborate grave goods. And the grave goodsmay include sacrificed animals or sacrificed people.

The African Burial Ground

Much of our knowledge of history comes from written documents. Writtenrecords, however, document only a few segments of society, usually theimportant and literate, and those activities, such as shipping, that require thatcareful records be kept. Answering specific historical questions will send theresearcher to archives, genealogical records, and old newspapers. But what

about the uneducated, the poor, and the disenfranchised? Although theymight have played important roles in society, their very existence remainspoorly documented.

For example, we normally do not think of slavery in northern cities, yetslaves in New York City in the eighteenth century made up a significantportion of the population at that time. And people died and needed to beburied. People of European ancestry built churches with adjacent cemeterieswithin the city limits, but those on the fringes of society, such as slaves, had tobury their dead on land outside of the city limits that was set aside for thispurpose.

A cemetery containing the remains of slaves was discovered in New YorkCity in 1991 when contractors started to excavate a lot for a new governmentoffice building in lower Manhattan. Located at Broadway and Reade Street, itis known today as the African Burial Ground. This cemetery dates from theeighteenth century and was in use until 1795. At this time it was locatedseveral miles outside the limits of a city that was considerably smaller than itis today. Over 400 skeletons were removed for analysis and later reburied.

Besides the skeletons themselves, there is much evidence of culturalpractices. Many of the teeth have been filed and modified in some way, acustom that was common in western and central African cultures. Most, butnot all, of the bodies were buried in wooden coffins. The most commonartifacts recovered were shroud pins, which held together the cloth used towrap the bodies. Some cultural items were placed into the coffin with thebody, including jewelry, glass beads, and coins.

The coffins were oriented with the heads to the west. We do not knowexactly what this means, but several explanations have been suggested,including a belief that on the Day of Judgment the bodies would sit upright intheir graves with their eyes to the east, the direction of the rising sun and thedirection of Africa, their homeland. Although only about 400 graves wereexcavated, it has been estimated that as many as 10,000 people were buried inthe cemetery throughout the eighteenth century. The government officebuilding was never constructed on the site, and the lot has been turned into amemorial park.

Secondary burials

Funeral rituals sometimes include two burials. The first takes place at deathand involves burial or some other disposition of the body. The secondaryburial takes place at a later time, perhaps months or years later. This secondphase often marks the end of the mourning period and commonly involvesdigging up, processing, and reburying the body in some way. This issometimes related to conceptions of the soul and the idea that what happensto the body mirrors or in some way affects what happens to the soul afterdeath.

Among the Murngin of Australia, each kin group is associated with one ormore sacred water holes, where totemic spirits live (Chapter 3). The spiritcomes out of the water hole, often in a father’s dream, and asks the father topoint out its mother; the spirit then enters its mother’s womb. If a baby dies,its spirit returns to the water hole, becomes a spirit once again, and waits to bereborn. When an adult dies, the spirit returns to the totemic well, where it willalways remain a spirit, never again to be reborn.

After death has occurred, totemic designs are painted on the body, whichbecomes the centerpiece of singing and dancing. It is then carried to the grave.The grave is a symbol of the sacred well, and the body is placed into thegrave, laid out straight with the face down. Then the grave is filled in.

After two or three months or more, the body is exhumed. Any remainingflesh is then removed from the bones, and the bones are washed. Some of thesmall bones, such as finger bones, are kept as relics by close relatives. Thecleaned bones are placed on bark paper and made into a bundle. The bones arewatched over for several months. A coffin is then made from a tree trunk thathas been hollowed out by termites that is carved into its proper shape. Thebones are broken up with a stone and placed into the log. The log is left to rot,and the bones are left to decay.

Cremation

Cremation is not as common as burial, yet many cultures practice cremationfor a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is a reaction against the process of

decay, which is thought to be a highly dangerous process. It is also a way todestroy the corpse so that the soul is cut off from its former body. In modernindustrial societies cremation is becoming more popular as land becomes moreand more valuable and crowded and less land is available for cemeteries. Also,cremation is more economical than burial, and cremation becomes morepopular as the cost of burial increases.

Among the Yanomamö, after a person has died, the body is decorated. It isthen brought to a pile of firewood that has been set up in the open area in themiddle of the community, and the body is burned. The smoke from the fire isthought to be contaminating, and bows and arrows are washed afterward.Children and the ill leave the village while the body is being cremated toavoid contamination from the smoke. After cooling, bits of unburned bonesand teeth are removed from the ashes and saved in a hollow log.

The Yanomamö are endocannibalistic anthropophagers. The termendocannibalism refers to the eating of one’s own people, andanthropophagers refers to the eating of human bodies. (We have already seenthe example of ritual eating of noncremated bodies among the Fore, describedin Chapter 1.) The cremated bones are pulverized and placed into severalsmall gourds. Later a series of memorial rituals will be performed in which theground ashes from the gourds will be added to a plantain soup and consumed.The Yanomamö say they do this so that the dead will find a home in thebodies of the living. They are horrified by our unfeeling practice of leaving thedead to rot in the ground—a good example of cultural relativism.

Mummification

In some cultures, such as those that practice cremation, it is important todestroy the body to release the soul. Other cultures stress the importance ofmaintaining the integrity of the body after death. The practice of embalmingis not intended so much to preserve the body for all time as to prevent decayduring the funeral period and to permit the display of a lifelike body. Otherpeoples, however, stress the need to prevent decay of the flesh for all time.Besides embalming, some peoples smoke the body or preserve the body in saltor oil.

To the ancient Egyptians, death was the next step in a continuation of life.To participate in this new life, the body had to be preserved. The Egyptiansdeveloped a process of mummification that by New Kingdom times (ca.1570–1070 BCE) was able to thoroughly preserve the body.

The process of mummification was complex and time-consuming and couldbe practiced in its complete form only for the important and wealthy. The firststep was to thoroughly remove as much of the water in the body as possibleby burying it in the mineral natron for seventy days. The internal organs wereremoved and preserved in jars, and the body cavity was filled with resin-soaked linen. The body was then wrapped in additional linen, and hot resinwas painted on the wrapping to form a hard layer. Finally, the entire bodywas wrapped in a cast made of linen and plaster.

While mummification is usually associated with ancient Egypt, it appearsthat mummification was widely practiced in Britain during the Bronze Age(2200 to 750 BCE). However, this practice was quite crude when compared tothe elaborate technology practiced in Egypt. While this kind ofmummification delayed decomposition, eventually the flesh decayed awayleaving only the skeleton. In a normal burial, bacteria from the gut create tinyholes in the bone. Microscopic analysis of mummified bones lack such holessince mummification prevented or slowed down this process. Analysis showsthat only a small percentage of Bronze Age bodies were processed. Techniquesincluded removal of the internal organs, smoking the body over a fire, orburial for a time in a peat bog, an environment very hostile to bacteria.

Exposure

Another possibility is to expose the body to the elements or to be consumedby animals. This very effectively and quickly reduces the body to just bones.In some cases the bones would then be collected for further processing orburial. Again the disposal method may reflect soul beliefs—in this case thebelief that once the soul has departed the body, the physical body itself isunimportant. Among the Inuit, who live in the Arctic, exposure was largelydone out of necessity, because the ground was unsuitable for burial and fuelwas unavailable for cremation.

Some Native American societies placed the body up in a tree or on a highplatform, where it would be exposed to the elements. Sometimes the bodywould be placed in a cave, and in the hot, arid climate of the AmericanSouthwest the body would become a natural mummy. In Tibet we find skyburials, in which the body was consumed by birds. Perhaps this type of bodydisposal developed because of the difficulty of digging a grave in the hardground and the scarcity of fuel for cremation. For Tibetan Buddhists thepractice is related to important concepts such as the impermanence of life and,through providing food for living creatures, generosity, compassion and theinterrelatedness of all life.

U.S. death rituals in the nineteenth century

In the United States in the early nineteenth century a person would mostlikely die at home, especially in rural areas, surrounded by family, friends,clergy, and perhaps a physician. Death often was a public affair, and the“audience” showed concern about the medical and religious condition of thedying person.

Once death occurred, the close members of the family took responsibilityfor the preparation of the body for burial. This was done primarily by femalefamily members rather than by a professional undertaker. The body wasritually washed and groomed, and a cloth or shroud was wrapped around thebody. Finally, the corpse was placed in a coffin. The coffin was most likelymade after death to the measurements of the person, although some peopleprepared shrouds and coffins for themselves before their death.

The body stayed in the home for one to three days in the parlor. Furniturewas removed, mirrors were covered, and black crepe was hung. If the weatherwas warm, ice was often placed around the body to slow decay. Familymembers would keep a vigil by the body, and people would come to the houseto view the body, recite sections from the Bible, socialize, and eat.

Finally, after a brief service the family and friends formed a procession, andthe coffin was carried to the gravesite. Early in the century, especially in ruralareas, the body would be buried on family land. However, as communitiesgrew, burials more frequently occurred in cemeteries. If the distance between

the home and the cemetery was short, the coffin would be carried; later thiswas replaced by the hearse, a horse-drawn carriage specially built for thispurpose that could be rented from a livery stable. Sometimes the processionstopped at a church for a public funeral service and perhaps a final viewing ofthe body before continuing on to the graveyard. The body would finally beburied in the ground or placed into an aboveground tomb.

Things changed during the Civil War, during which more than 600,000 mendied. (This is a very large number, especially when compared with the 57,777who died during the Vietnam War and the 405,399 who died in World War II.)After a battle there were so many corpses that it was not possible to give themthe respectful treatment that was expected during other times. However,attempts were made to give the bodies a proper burial if at all possible and tomark the graves so that relatives could locate the bodies later. Moreover,many families wanted the remains shipped home to be buried with properceremony in the family plots, and they would provide money for this purpose.In 1862, Congress authorized the establishment of military cemeteries, andtwelve were created during that year near major battlefields, forts, andhospitals. These included Arlington National Cemetery across the PotomacRiver from Washington, D.C., on the estate that had belonged to theConfederate General, Robert E. Lee.

Sometimes a family member would find a grave that was located near abattlefield, remove the remains, and ship them home. A thriving businessdeveloped in metal, cement, and marble coffins that would preserve theremains for a time. However, the most significant development in the area ofcorpse preservation was the increasing use of embalming, a process that didnot occur in the local funeral when a person died in his or her own bed.

Embalming was first practiced in the U.S. in the 1840s to preserve medicalcadavers. It was not until the Civil War that this process became widely usedin the general population to preserve the bodies of those who had died inbattle so that they could be shipped home for proper burial. Undertakers whospecialized in embalming set up shops near hospitals and army camps and intents next to battlefields. Thus a new form of burial practice was introducedinto U.S. culture.

U.S. funeral rituals today

U.S. society is very heterogeneous, and we must take note of the tremendousvariation in funeral practices, especially among recent immigrants. However,we can describe what might be called a “traditional U.S. funeral.”

Today most people in the United States die in hospitals or nursing homes.When the individual is formally pronounced dead, the care of the body passesfrom the medical to the ritual specialists: the clergy and the funeral director.The death is announced in the obituary section of the local newspaper asword spreads by mouth throughout the network of family and friends. Thebody is then removed to the funeral home, where it is prepared by embalmingto preserve the body for viewing. (Not all bodies are embalmed. OrthodoxJudaism, for example, prohibits embalming; the bodies are refrigerated, andburial takes place soon after death.)

People feel that it is necessary to view the body to demonstrate that theindividual is indeed dead. This makes the death seem real. They will go togreat lengths to recover bodies for this purpose. In the case of major disasters,expensive recovery operations are mounted for the purpose of recoveringremains, which then become the focal point of death rituals.

Before the funeral ritual there is often a viewing, at which the body is puton display. There is little formal ritual at a viewing, yet there are what appearto be standards in the objects that are displayed (such as flowers andphotographs), people dressing in somber colors, and words that are said to thesurvivors. People often sit or stand around and tell stories of the deceased.

People in the United States have relatively little experience with deathcompared with members of other societies and are often ill at ease in itspresence. Commonly, a person will not attend his or her first funeral untiladulthood. In other societies children would be present throughout a person’sillness, death, and funeral. There is also a special vocabulary for thingsassociated with U.S. funerals that is thought to be more acceptable than moretraditional terms—funeral director for undertaker and casket for coffin, forexample.

The viewing is followed by the funeral ritual, which may be religious orsecular. U.S. funeral rituals are relatively short, usually lasting a half hour to afull hour. Typically, friends, neighbors, and coworkers will take a few hours

off of a normal working day to attend the funeral before returning home orback to work. These rituals are relatively quiet; there is little outwardexpression of grief. The casket is then taken in procession to the gravesite,where there is usually a short graveside ritual. Often the mourners leave thegravesite before the grave is filled in. This is followed by an informalgathering of family and friends at a family member’s home that includesinformal feasting and conversation, usually with little or no ritual.

In recent times some changes have been seen in U.S. practices arounddeath. Cremation has become a popular alternative to burial, and the growthof grief recovery therapy shows a new recognition that funerals and U.S.culture do not always provide the best means of coping with such events.Even modern technology has had an impact, with announcements of deaths,condolences, and memorials taking place through social media. (See Box 8.3for a discussion of roadside memorials.)

Days of death

Festivals that emphasize death and frame it as a concept are found cross-culturally. The one most familiar in the United States is probably Halloween,although few know much about the origins and religious underpinnings ofwhat has become a secular day of costumes and candy.

Box 8.3 Roadside memorials

Unlike a formal, structured funeral that takes place in a space designatedfor death and mourning, roadside memorials are informal and mark thespot where the death occurred rather than the final resting place for thebody. These memorials can be found not just all over the United States,but all over the world. The memorials vary but generally consist of across and flowers, pictures of the deceased, and other personal items.

These public markers of private grief are most commonly found atsites of traffic accidents and usually appear quite quickly after theincident. Some are temporary, but some last for years and may be tended

to and added to during that time. The memorials tend to mark deathsthat are sudden and unexpected. In addition to those found at sites oftraffic accidents, such impromptu memorials were seen at ColumbineHigh School following the shootings there, at Buckingham Palace afterthe death of Princess Diana, and near the sites of the Twin Towers andthe Pentagon after September 11, 2001.

Roadside memorials in the United States are not uncontroversial. Forsome they involve the issue of freedom of speech; for others they violatethe separation of church and state (an overwhelming majority of thememorials contain crosses). There is no federal law governing thememorials, and states have dealt with the issue in different ways. Herethe concern is generally one of traffic safety, as the displays mightinterfere with traffic or distract drivers. Some states ban roadsidememorials; others allow them, but may remove them if they are thoughtto interfere with traffic; other states have official memorials that can bepurchased from the appropriate governmental agency.

Halloween

In essence, the holiday of Halloween has its origins as a case of culturecontact, a theme that will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 11. The basisof this holiday is an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. Samhain was NewYear’s Day and was celebrated on November 1. The Celts believed that duringSamhain the gates that normally separate the worlds of the living and thedead were opened, and the souls of those who had died during the past yearcould then move into the otherworld. To celebrate the day, special foods wereprepared as offerings, and people dressed up as spirits and wild animals.

With the conversion of Ireland to Christianity in 300–400 CE many localreligious beliefs and practices were redefined. In a practice that continues tothis day, Christian missionaries were encouraged to reframe local customs inChristian terms. November 1 was soon declared All Saints Day, as a day tohonor the Christian saints, particularly those who did not otherwise have afeast day. The day before All Saints Day, October 31, became known as the

Eve of All Saints, or the Even of All Hallows, which was shortened to HallowEven or Halloween. However, the meaning of All Saints Day was not at allrelated to the original Celtic holiday, and it was not very successful inreplacing it.

Around 900 CE the Christian Church added the holiday of All Souls Day onNovember 2. This holiday honors all of the people who have died during thepast year and is much closer in meaning to Samhain. Many of the traditionalbeliefs and customs of Samhain were preserved, including the idea that nightwas a time for the wandering dead, the offering of food and drink to maskedrevelers, and the lighting of bonfires. Stylized representations of death,including skeletons, are common.

Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)

The Mexican Day of the Dead is also associated with the Catholic holidays ofAll Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1 and 2. Much like Halloween,the Day of the Dead is associated with cultural contact. This time theinfluence comes from the Aztec culture. The Aztecs set aside a month (whichwould correspond to the end of July and early August in our calendar) tohonor the dead. The festivities were overseen by Mictecacihuatl, or the “Ladyof the Dead.” Later, Spanish priests moved the celebration to coincide with AllSaints Day and All Souls Day.

In what is often referred to as the “folk Catholicism” of Mexico, the deadare seen as intermediaries between the living and God. The Day of the Dead isa time of family reunion, for all family members living and dead, and is anexpression of family continuity. This is not seen as macabre or as a solemnevent but as a celebration. During the first week in November, shops offermany special items for this celebration. Included are many representations ofskeletons, elaborate wreaths and crosses, and papal picado, or tissue papercutouts. Food items are also popular, including special bread called pan demuerto and skulls and coffins made out of sugar.

An altar is set up in the home with pictures of saints, candles, incense, vasesof flowers, and portraits of the deceased. Offerings of food and drink are madeto the dead, especially food that was a favorite of that person while he or she

was alive. Gravesites are decorated, and a feast takes place in the graveyard(Figure 8.3). The souls of children return first and then those of adults. Thesouls do not physically consume the food but are believed to absorb itsessence.

Conclusion

Issues of life and death are of central concern for the domain of religion. Whatmakes us alive? What happens to us when we die? Can my soul exist withoutmy body? Can my body exist without my soul? Although cultures will answerthese questions differently, humans must universally come to some sort ofunderstanding and explanation of these phenomena. The belief in some sort ofsoul, for example, appears to be universal, as is the idea that the soul survivesthe death of the body, at least for some time. A belief in a soul explains manythings for us, such as an individual’s life force and unique personality andwhat happens to that personality when all that remains is a corpse. Soimportant to us are the souls of other people that they often remain a part ofthe world of the living, numbered among the beings that populate thesupernatural world.

Our unease about death manifests itself in supernatural creatures such asghosts, vampires, and zombies. Through these beings the divisions betweenlife and death become less clear and many other cultural anxieties come intoplay. In the next chapter we will turn our attention to other supernaturalbeings more commonly associated with religion: gods and spirit beings.

Figure 8.3 The Day of the Dead. A woman in Michoacan, Mexico, decorates a grave duringDía de los Muertos.

Summary

The belief in the existence of a spirit entity residing within a person appears tohave grown out of observations of sleep, coma, and death. A soul is thenoncorporeal, spiritual component of an individual. Usually, each individualpossesses a soul that takes on the personality of the individual and has anexistence after death. During life the soul may leave the body. Dreams areseen as adventures of the soul, and illness may be caused by an absence of asoul that must be retrieved by a shaman. Death is the permanent withdrawalof the soul. How the soul is perceived varies widely, including the number ofsouls, the size of the soul, and where the soul is located in the body. The soulmay retain its identity after death for a limited time or eternity. Thedestination of the soul after death may depend on the behavior of the person

during life, the social status of the individual, or perhaps the way in which theperson died. Funeral rituals may assist the soul on its journey to the land ofthe dead and serve to protect the living from any negative influences of thesoul. Sometimes the soul returns and animates another individual, a concepttermed reincarnation.

One possible fate for a soul is that it becomes part of the group ofsupernatural beings known as ancestors. Even after death, a person is still avalued member of the kinship group and reinforces ideas of social roles,contributes to social harmony and social solidarity, and punishes descendantsfor misbehavior.

Ghosts are negative forces that remain in the vicinity of the communityafter death. They can bring about illness and other misfortune, although theirrole is sometimes ambiguous. In contrast, vampires and zombies are creaturesthat have no souls. Vampires are believed to be individuals who have recentlydied, usually before their time, and have returned to bring death to others.The body of an alleged vampire will be exhumed and “killed” or destroyed insome way. Zombies are corpses that have been raised from their graves andanimated.

Death rituals or funerals are rites of passage that move the individual fromthe status of living person to that of ancestor or other post-death status.Funerals vary among cultures in a number of ways: the form of the expressionof grief, the role of the ritual in terms of what will happen to the individual inthe afterlife, the ritual ways in which the family and community separatethemselves from the dead to avoid contamination or illness, how the living arereorganized in society to accommodate for the absence of the deceased, andthe method of disposal of the corpse.

Many cultures allow for the return of the spirits of the dead at special timesof the year. A familiar example is Halloween, which is based on an old Celticholiday when the gates that normally separate the worlds of the living and thedead were opened and the souls of those who had died during the past yearcould then move into the otherworld. The early Church transformed thiscelebration into All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1 and 2,respectively. The Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) in Mexico is alsoassociated with these Catholic holidays. The family, including both the livingand the dead, gather together for celebration.

Study questions

1. With the growth of urban centers, U.S. funerals have moved out ofthe family context into the commercial world. As in any commercialventure, a special vocabulary develops that replaces many familiarterms. Look up some websites for funeral homes and cemeteries andexamine the vocabulary that is used. What terms are used today inplace of older terms such as undertaker, coffin, corpse, and death?What other examples can you find?

2. We can divide methods for disposing of the body into two maincategories: those that preserve the body or part of the body and thosethat result in the complete disappearance of the body. Is there anycorrelation between these two categories and how a religion viewsdeath and the afterlife?

3. Discuss the practice of cryogenics as a method of handling a bodyafter death. How is cryogenics similar to mummification?

4. Describe the customs surrounding the festival of Halloween incontemporary U.S. society. Do you see any religious elements in thisfestival today? What elements that are secular today are derived fromreligious elements in the past?

5. Many Hollywood movies show images of ghosts, vampires, andzombies. How do these images resemble or differ from these entitiesas they appear in actual religious systems?

Suggested readings

Paul Barber, Vampires, Burials and Death: Folklore and Reality (New Haven,CT: Yale University Press, 2010).

[Looks at European folklore about vampires and the scientific explanations forsome of the phenomena.]

Nigel Barley, Grave Matters: A Lively History of Death around the World

(Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2005).[A look at how different cultures define and react to death.]

Alma Gottlieb, The Afterlife Is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancyin West Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).

[An exploration of how religious ideology impacts Beng child-rearingpractices.]

Peter Metcalf and Richard Huntington, Celebrations of Death: TheAnthropology of Mortuary Ritual (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1991).

[A cross-cultural study of the rituals that accompany death.]

Lisa Miller, Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife (New York:HarperCollins, 2010).

[Looks at the historical roots of the concept of heaven and how and why it haschanged over time.]

Heather Pringle, The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession and theEverlasting Dead (New York: Hyperion, 2002).

[A look at mummies and the people who study them.]

Fiction

Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse (New York: Ballantine Books, 1983).[Book 1 of the Incarnations of Immortality series. The main character kills theIncarnation of Death and is forced to fill the position.]

Margot Livesey, Eva Moves the Furniture (New York: Henry Holt, 2001).[Eva grows up with two companions whom no one else can see.]

Alice Sebold, Lovely Bones (New York: Little Brown, 2002).[Narrated by a 14-year-old girl who has been murdered and is now in heaven,watching her family.]

John Richard Stephens, Editor. Vampires, Wine and Roses (New York: MetroBooks, 2008).

[A collection of short stories, excerpts, and poems about vampires by many

authors, including William Shakespeare, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron,Voltaire, Woody Allen, and Bram Stoker.]

Suggested websites

www.nps.gov/afbg/index.htmOfficial website of The African Burial Ground National Monument, NationalPark Service.

www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/home.htmlA site that explores mummification from the British Museum.

www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.htmlA discussion of Halloween from the American Folklife Center of the Libraryof Congress.

australianmuseum.net.au/death-the-last-tabooAn Australian Museum online exhibit on death.

www.grief-recovery.comThe Grief Recovery Institute website.

Notes

1 “Chapter 1: Importance of Religion and Religious Beliefs,” November 3, 2015(www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/chapter-1-importance-of-religion-and-religious-beliefs/).

2 “Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life,” December 18, 2008(www.pewresearch.org/pubs/1062/many-americans-say-other-faiths-can-lead-to-eternal-life).

3 “Chapter 1: Importance of Religion and Religious Beliefs,” November 3, 2015(www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/chapter-1-importance-of-religion-and-religious-beliefs/).

4 “Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life,” December 18, 2008(http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1062/many-americans-say-other-faiths-can-lead-to-eternal-life).

5 N. Barley, Grave Matters: A Lively History of Death around the World (New York: HenryHolt, 1995), p. 27.

6 A. Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (New York: Noonday, 1997).

7 D. W. Plath, “Where the Family of God Is in the Family: The Role of the Dead inJapanese Households,” American Anthropologist, 66 (April 1964), pp. 300–317.

8 B. Jordan, “Yurei: Tales of Females Ghosts,” in S. Addiss (Ed.), Japanese Ghosts andDemons: Art of the Supernatural (New York: George Braziller, 1985), p. 25.

9 P. Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988), p.16.

10 Ibid.

11 M. E. Bell, Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires (Middletown, CT:Wesleyan University Press, 2011).

12 L. A. Gregoricka, et al., “Apotropaic Practices and the Undead: A BiogeochemicalAssessment of Deviant Burials in Post-Medieval Poland,” PLoS ONE, 9(11):e113564(2014).

13 W. Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow (New York: Touchstone, 1985).

14 K. Heider, Grand Valley Dani: Peaceful Warriors (3rd edn) (Fort Worth, TX: HarcourtBrace, 1997), p. 132.

Chapter 9Gods and spirits

Ghosts, ancestors, and vampires are transformed human beings. However,there are many supernatural beings that generally do not have human origins.These supernatural beings include gods and spirits. Although we recognizethese as two separate types of supernatural entities, this division is to somedegree arbitrary. Generally speaking, gods are individualized supernaturalbeings, each with a distinctive name, personality, and sphere of influence thatencompasses the life of an entire community or a major segment of thecommunity. Spirits are generally less powerful than gods and usually aremore localized. Frequently, they are collections of nonindividualizedsupernatural beings that are not given specific names and identities.

Supernatural beings are usually a crucial aspect of a religious system; manyanthropologists have defined religion by the presence of such beings. Mythsdescribe their actions and their behaviors may be seen as a model for humanbehavior. Rituals are often directed toward superhuman beings—to placate,praise, or make requests.

Spirits

Nonindividualized spirits include the leprechauns of Ireland, the jinn of theMiddle East, and the kami of Japan. There are also spirits that are individuallyrecognized, such as a guardian spirit, an ancestral spirit, and a shaman’s spirithelper. In contrast with gods, spirits are less powerful and are more focusedon particular individuals, families, or groups of specialists.

Whereas gods may live in a remote location, such as Mount Olympus, thehome of the Greek gods, spirits live in the human world, interacting withhumans and concerned about what humans are up to. Spirits often exhibitcomplex personalities. They may be friendly or harmful. They provideprotection, success, and luck but also are blamed for minor mishaps. One canask for their assistance because they are closely connected to people and areinvolved in everyday human affairs. Offerings, entertainment, and attentionwill promote the development of a beneficial relationship between people andthe spirit world. But ignoring their presence or, worse yet, doing something toharm or offend them can have negative consequences, such as the loss of acrop, infertility, illness, or the death of a child.

Because spirits live in the human world, they often reside in variousphysical objects—some natural, others human-made. Places of special beautyor unusual characteristics, such as a sacred grove or a waterfall, are said to beinhabited by spirits. Such places may also be considered dangerous. They maybe venerated, and people will often travel to such places to ask favors of thespirits. Unusual natural objects—such as a remarkable or strange stone orplant—may contain a spirit, as might a human-made object such as a statue ora shrine. Sometimes special structures are built and spirits are enticed to takeup residence in them to provide protection or good luck to the builder.

The Dani view of the supernatural

The Dani live in the highlands of New Guinea, in the Indonesian province ofIrian Jaya. This description of spirits is based on a study of the Mulia ValleyDani.

Because the Dani themselves seldom articulate their belief system, itbecomes exceedingly difficult for an outsider to learn about Dani religiouspractices from an insider, or emic, perspective. As is the case with manyreligions, to the outsider, Dani religion appears to be confusing and illogical.Questions about rituals and beliefs are greeted either by silence or by thefamiliar “That is just the way we do things” or “This is the way our fathersdid it.” Sometimes the question elicits a specific myth.

An anthropologist, using an outsider or etic perspective, can attempt to

understand the underlying structure and logic of Dani beliefs and practices,although the Dani themselves might not understand or accept this structureand logic. For example, anthropologist Douglas James Hayward notes that theDani appear to organize their world into complementary pairs.1 Their physicallandscape is divided into cultivated and noncultivated land, and animals aredivided into those that live in association with people and those that do not.Their society is organized in terms of a system in which all individuals areplaced into one of two social groups that intermarry with one another. Usingthe principle of complementary pairs, Hayward divides the Dani supernaturalworld into several categories by using three criteria: Are the beings physicalor spirit? Are they beneficent or malevolent? Are they close or far away?

Table 9.1 The supernatural world of the Daniw

Beneficent Malevolent

Spirits and gods

Close

Ghosts*

Personal guardian spiritsForest spirits

Spirits that control rainsGod who controls flooding

Ghosts*

Male and female forest spiritsSwamp spiritsSorcery spirits

Spirits associated with illness

RemoteGod who shaped the surface of the

EarthGuardians of the Dani

Spirits from neighboringterritories

Non-spirit life forms

Close – Enemies

RemoteThe sun (female)

The moon (male, husband of sun)Inhabitants of the sky

* Ghosts are malevolent in that they cause misfortune and illness. They are also beneficentin that they warn the village of enemy raiding parties.

The beings that inhabit the Dani world are either spirit or physical (“trulypresent”). Physical beings are mortal and are subject to the laws of nature.

They include people, animals, and plants. Spirit beings are immortal and arenot subject to the laws of nature. However, this classification does notnecessarily correspond to our dichotomy between spirit and physical. Forexample, the sun is believed to be a real woman and thus a physical being,albeit one with unusual abilities.

The identification of a being as beneficent or malevolent also is not as easyas it first appears, because this categorization often depends on context. Forexample, ghosts are spirits of the recently deceased that linger near the villagein which they once lived, reluctant to leave. If the community fails to performfuneral rituals in a satisfactory manner, the ghost becomes disappointed andmay cause trouble for the community. Although ghosts have a negativeinfluence on Dani life, they also can be beneficent. Ghosts are consulted indivination ceremonies. They also warn the community of the approach of anenemy raiding party.

The focus of Dani rituals is aimed at those spirit beings that live close byand play significant roles in their lives. This includes close beneficent spiritssuch as guardian spirits. An important group of close beneficent spirits isspirits associated with nature. These include forest spirits, rain spirits, andflood spirits. The weya spirits control the rains. When they become violent,they send lightning storms, and trees that have been struck by lightning areevidence of their presence and power. However, they are classified asbenevolent beings because they bring the rain.

Included among the close malevolent spirits are forest spirits and swampspirits. In the forest lurk male forest spirits who seduce women traveling alonethrough the forest. The forest also contains female forest spirits, who seducemen by taking the form of their wives and girlfriends. Sexual intercourse withsuch a spirit brings about death for the man (unless a pig has been sacrificed)as well as the birth of a child that looks exactly like a human child but onlyhas half a human soul.

Many close malevolent spirits are associated with illnesses. These spiritsoften are identified with particular animals. For example, a spirit associatedwith frogs causes illnesses characterized by cold, clammy hands and feet; aspirit associated with owls brings about sore throats; and a spirit associatedwith lizards is responsible for the swelling of the limbs and joints.

Remote malevolent spirits live in other people’s territories. They are adanger only when someone brings a spirit with him into one’s home territory.

When returning home from a journey, the traveler closes the trail behind himby placing a “spirit restrainer,” composed of clumps of grass on sticks. Thespirit cannot go beyond or around the restrainer and therefore cannot followthe traveler home.

Apart from the enemy, the only other malevolent non-spirit beings are acommunity of little people who live in the sky. Being lazy, they stole foodfrom their neighbors’ gardens rather than growing it themselves. They werefinally driven out by the Dani and climbed into the sky. Eventually, theylearned how to farm. However, these little people like to urinate on theirformer enemies during rains. Men do not like to go out of doors on days whenit is raining or misty.

Guardian spirits and the Native American visionquest

An important element in many Native American cultures is direct contactwith supernatural beings and supernatural power. An example is the visionquest, in which the individual enters into an altered state of consciousness,makes contact with the world of spirit beings, and receives a gift ofsupernatural power. The spirit beings that are encountered in these visions areoften referred to as guardian spirits. An individual, usually male, may attemptto make contact with a guardian spirit either as part of a coming-of-age ritualor continually throughout his adult life, as a means of attaining protection,guidance, and identity. According to their worldview, it is only through theattainment of this connection with the supernatural and the receipt ofsupernatural power that a person can be successful in life.

Among the Ojibwa of the Great Lakes area, the vision quest is carried outat puberty. However, children begin preparing early in life with periodicfasting. They are given instruction in how to induce a vision and how torecognize and reject a bad vision. At the appropriate time the boy is led intothe forest to a platform that has been constructed in a tall pine tree. He is leftthere alone to fast until he receives his vision. The vision is interpreted as ajourney into the supernatural world. The boy is shown the path his life shouldtake and the spirit beings who will be his guardian spirits. He is also told of

certain objects that he can acquire that will serve as physical symbols of hisrelationship with the guardian spirits. After a successful vision quest the boyassumes the status of an adult man.

Among the Wind River Shoshoni of Wyoming, vision quests areundertaken not just at puberty, but throughout life. Supernatural power canbe attained from guardian spirits in visions and in dreams. In the vision questthe supplicant, usually male, rides to a place with rock drawings in thefoothills. After cleansing himself in a creek or lake, he goes to the rock ledgebeneath the drawings. Naked except for a blanket, he waits for the vision. Thevision is brought on by a combination of fasting, enduring the cold, sleepdeprivation, and smoking tobacco. What is actually seen varies but commonlyincludes trials to be overcome before the spirit appears, often as an animal, tobestow supernatural power. The spirit frequently gives the man specificinstructions, such as wearing a special item or avoiding certain people orbehaviors. For example, a deer spirit that gives the gift of speed while runningmight instruct the man to wear a deer tail sewn on his clothes or on a ribbonaround his neck. Among the Shoshoni, a man can acquire several guardianspirits to aid him.

Jinn

The Qur’an tells of God’s creation of three types of conscious beings: humansmade from clay, angels made from light, and jinn made from fire withoutsmoke. Jinn are normally invisible, but they can make themselves visible, andin doing so, they often take the form of a human or an animal. Once visible,they can alter their shape and features at will. Jinn are born, live, and die; theymarry, mate, and have families. Some have great powers; others do not. Manyare specifically known and named; others occur as a part of an unnamedcollective of spirits. Like people, jinn have different personalities, some goodand some bad. They may lie and deceive people; they enjoy playing tricks andkidnapping people; and they often tempt humans into sexual intercourse.

Sometimes a person can forge a special relationship with a jinn, and thenthe jinn becomes a source of special powers. For example, a person can enterinto an alliance with a jinn and become a powerful magician. The Genii of the

Aladdin story is a jinn, and the stories of the Arabian Nights are largelystories involving jinn. But generally, people try to keep a distance betweenthemselves and jinn because, more often than not, jinn are troublemakers.People will frequently recite verses from the Qur’an or avoid situations thatattract the attention of jinn. This is the origin of many tabus surroundingblood, childbirth, and marriage, because these are situations that are veryattractive to jinn. The very existence of jinn causes people to be careful, yetthey also provide an explanation for illness and bad luck.

Spirit possession in the Sudan

Anthropologist Janice Boddy describes the presence of jinn in the smallArabic-speaking village of Hofriyat in the northern Sudan.2 The Hofriyatirecognize three types of jinn. White jinn have little effect on humans, whereasblack jinn, or devils, are dangerous, and possession by black jinn often leads toserious illness and death. However, the most frequently encountered are redjinn called zairan (singular: zar). The red color symbolizes an association withblood and fertility. Zairan are capable of causing illness. Such illnesses mustbe dealt with, but they are seldom fatal.

The world of the zairan parallels the world of humans. Zairan belong todifferent religions, occupations, and ethnic groups, and they exhibit a range ofbehaviors, some good and some bad. In other words, they are very much likehumans, mixing both good and bad traits, but generally they tend to beamoral and capricious. The Hofriyati recognize jinn that are identified asrepresenting diverse ethnic and social groups. Some are Europeans, WestAfricans, Ethiopians, Arabs, and so forth, representing outside groups withwhich they have had contact in the past. Yet there are no zairan whoresemble the Hofriyati themselves.

Spirit possession occurs when a zar enters the body of a woman. Mostpossession occurs in women of childbearing age, and close to half of the adultwomen in the community are possessed. In these communities the life of awoman is very restricted. Physically, she remains within the high walls of thefamily compound, where she is segregated from the men, eating and evensleeping in separate quarters. Her worth and happiness depend on her fertility

and her ability to produce sons. The production of sons and their survival arewomen’s tasks, and men are not to blame in the case of failure. A woman whodoes not have children, miscarries, or has only daughters or whose childrendie young is accorded a very low position in the society. She may be divorcedby her husband or may have to accept a co-wife in the marriage.

Therefore there is a great deal of anxiety in marriage, and this anxiety oftenleads to depression. In this case a woman may be possessed by a zar.However, it also is possible that the zar is responsible for the misfortunesurrounding her reproductive life. Once the zar has entered her body, she willcontinue to be possessed from that time on.

Although zar possession is a lifelong condition, it would not be accurate todescribe this possession as an illness. During ceremonies each zar is drummedinto each woman in turn; the woman then goes into a trance. Through thisrelationship the woman regains a measure of well-being, although she mustconstantly pay attention to the wishes of the spirit by attending possessionceremonies on a regular basis. The possessed woman must also meet certaindemands of the spirit. She must eat certain foods, wear gold and cleanclothing, avoid anger, and manifest other ideal feminine behaviors. As long asthe relationship continues, the woman will maintain a “cure.” From thespirit’s point of view, this relationship gives it access to the human world.Once it possesses its host, the zar will be entertained and can engage invarious activities.

When she is not possessed, a woman will participate in singing anddrumming. Such all-female rituals provide an important outlet for otherwiseisolated women. They are much more than curing rituals and are alsoenjoyable social events in a world where such social activities are relativelyrare.

Christian angels and demons

Angels and demons are spirit beings that appear in Judaism, Christianity, andIslam. In these monotheistic religions angels act as mediators between Godand human beings. Angels are often represented as agents of revelation,executors of divine will, or as witnesses to divine activity. Angels appear in

both Greek and Jewish writings but tend to play a limited role. In the NewTestament of Christianity, angels are frequently mentioned. (“And thereappeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” [Luke 22:43].)

However, much of the popular Christian belief about angels comes not fromthe Bible, but from the sixth-century writings of Saint Dionysus. In his workThe Celestial Hierarchy, he established a rank order of angels that included, indescending order, seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, virtues, powers,principalities, archangels, and angels. Belief in angels is widespread in modernU.S. society. A poll conducted in 2011 found that 77 percent of those surveyedbelieve that angels and demons are active in the world.3 Despite thesenumbers, there is little consensus on exactly what angels are or how theylook. Descriptions range from a glowing light to a very human appearance, orperhaps the presence of the angel is felt but not seen. In general, angels aresaid to appear to help people in need, often as workers or messengers of God.

At the other end of the spectrum are demons. Although frequent mentionis made of demons in the Christian Bible, no one passage gives a full accountof their creation or workings. However, several Church writings have beenpublished that clarify the subject, such as the decrees of the Fourth LateranCouncil from the Catholic Church in 1215. Here it says that both the Deviland the demons were originally angelic creatures, created by God as good,innocent beings. They became evil by their own actions. Satan and hisminions rebelled against God and, after a battle with the good angels, werecast from heaven. Satan and the demons are believed to be closely associatedwith human evil, including the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden andtheir dominion over hell.

One common activity of demons, as described in the New Testament, isdemonic possession. This was considered a major cause of strange behaviorsby humans and much of Jesus’ healing ministry involved performing demonicexorcism.

In the period roughly between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries,Christian demonology reached its peak. Beliefs about demons were elaboratedand had much social influence. Ornate doctrines were produced detailing thehierarchies, invocation, methods, and exorcism of demons. This was the era ofthe infamous Witchcraze (see Chapter 10), during which there was aparticular interest in incubi and succubae. Incubi and succubae are,

respectively, male and female demons who have sex with humans while theysleep. Sex with an incubus was said to be responsible for the birth of demons,witches, and deformed children.

The belief in demonic possession is still common today among conservativeChristians, both Catholic and Protestant. For many of these groups a belief inthe inerrancy of the Bible requires a belief in demons and demonic exorcism,because they are mentioned so frequently in the New Testament. See Box 9.1for a discussion of Christian exorcism.

Box 9.1 Christian demonic exorcism in the UnitedStates

The Christian belief in demons and demonic exorcism is taken directlyfrom the New Testament. There we learn that Satan and his demonsharass, torment, and possess humans. This possession sometimes isshown in new skills or strength that the person then has (by virtue of thedemon). In general, possession was described as an illness, and much ofJesus’ healing ministry involved performing demonic exorcism. In theNew Testament, Jesus is able to perform exorcisms by merely demandingthat the demons leave; his disciples do the same in the name of Jesus.(“And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of anunclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; whathave we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come todestroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesusrebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And whenthe devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt himnot” [Luke 4:33–35]).

In his book American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land ofPlenty, Michael Cuneo argues that the phenomenon of Christiandemonic exorcism is both influenced by and reflects the wider culture inthe United States. For example, he cites the great influence of the bookand later film The Exorcist in the early 1970s. Following the release ofThe Exorcist and other popular books, the reported incidence of demonicpossession and requests for exorcism greatly increased. The film depicted

a specifically Catholic event. However, official Catholic exorcisms were—and are—difficult to come by. Although the Catholic Church doesbelieve in demonic possession and the need for exorcisms, these are seenas rare events. The priest is advised to be skeptical and look for othercauses first, such as mental illness. The exorcism ritual can be officiallyperformed only with permission of a bishop.

However, some exorcisms were available through unofficial channels,particularly priests who do not agree with the modernization of thechurch following the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s andamong charismatic Catholics. In the 1970s and 1980s, exorcism ritualsalso became popular in other Christian religions, particularly amongpeople belonging to a religious movement called neo-Pentecostalism orthe charismatic renewal. In general, members of this movement wereseeking a more personal and dramatic religious experience. Thisexperience was called baptism in the Holy Spirit and was believed to beassociated with various spiritual gifts (or charisms), such as speaking intongues, prophesy, and healing. Part of this healing was exorcisms—ordeliverance ministries, as they were often called. The demons involvedwere often personal demons such as demons of lust, anger, resentment,and addiction, as well as demons of specific illnesses, such as cancer.

Exorcism also became popular with certain groups of evangelicalProtestants, particularly in the early 1980s. Cuneo estimates that thereare at least 500–600 evangelical exorcism ministries today and that thenumber might even be two or three times this amount.

Cuneo points out that the exorcism movement fits in very well withother cultural ideas that were popular in the late twentieth century in theUnited States. Like other self-help regimens and therapies of the era, theexorcism movement teaches that people are victims and not responsiblefor the bad things in their lives. Demons are to blame in much the sameway that more mainstream therapies blame the ubiquitous“dysfunctional family.” Cuneo writes:

Exorcism may be a strange therapy, it may be the crazy uncle of therapies, but it’stherapy nonetheless. And no less than any of the countless other therapies in thetherapy-mad culture of post-sixties America, it promises liberation for theaddicted, hope for the forlorn, solace for the brokenhearted. It promises a new andredeemed self, a self freed from the accumulated debris of a life badly lived or a

life sadly endured.4

Gods

Generally speaking, gods are more powerful than spirits. They possess greatsupernatural power and control or influence major forces of nature, such asthe wind, rain, and fertility. Gods are personalized individuals with names,origins, and specific attributes. Some gods are associated with social andpolitical units such as clans and villages. The number of gods found within areligious system varies from one to more than a thousand.

Gods are anthropomorphic; that is, they resemble people in their physicalappearance and personalities. They are born, marry, and sometimes die. Theylove and lust, are wise and dull, loving and hateful, generous and miserly.Some are sympathetic to human beings; others are hostile. And like humans,gods can be influenced by gifts in the form of offerings and sacrifices and bypraise and flattery, and sometimes they can be tricked.

The behavior of humans on earth reflects the orders and commandments ofthe gods. Gods set up codes of behavior and punish people who do notobserve them. They may prescribe that certain ritual activities be performedand bring down misfortune when they are not. Some gods are very concernedabout the fate of human beings and will establish close relationships withthem and have a great influence in human lives.

Types of gods

Within a particular religious system, the gods as a collective make up apantheon. Usually, the gods within the pantheon form a hierarchy with asupreme god at the top. They are related to one another in various ways,often making up a large family unit characterized by family relationships,such as those seen in the Greek pantheon (Figure 9.1). The community of the

gods often mirrors human society. If the human society is highly hierarchicaland warlike, so is the society of the gods.

Figure 9.1 The Greek pantheon. This diagram portrays the relationships among the better-known gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon. Unlike human families, gods andgoddesses are able to marry brother to sister and to produce children without a mate.

Specific gods are associated with the forces of nature, human fertility andthe human life cycle, economic activities, and war. Specialized deities arecalled attribute gods. The relative importance of such gods depends largelyon the importance of various activities within human society. For example, ifa society is very warlike, the war gods may be featured prominently inreligious rituals.

The gods within a pantheon have specific spheres of influence and control.Sometimes there is a relatively small number of gods, each controlling arather large slice of human activity. Sometimes there are a great many gods,each highly specialized. For example, instead of a single god associated withagriculture, the Roman pantheon had a rather lengthy list of gods who wereresponsible for very specific activities within the farming cycle (Table 9.2).

Although there is a tremendous variety of gods that can be listed, certaintypes seem to appear over and over as we move from society to society.Creator gods are responsible for the creation of the physical earth and theplants and animals that live on it. Creator gods can be very powerful deities

and often occupy the top rung of a pantheon. Creation is not necessarily thework of a single god. Often various aspects of creation are divided amongseveral gods, or, usually after the creation of the physical earth, different godsare responsible for the creation of specific types of plants and animals or theplants and animals that occupy a particular area. This includes the creation ofpeople.

Sometimes the creator god creates the world and then withdraws fromactive interactions with the world. These otiose gods are too remote and toouninterested in human activities to participate in the activities and fate ofhumans. Therefore rituals are seldom performed to influence and to ask favorsfrom such gods. Sometimes these gods maintain interest in humans throughlesser, intermediary deities.

Table 9.2 The Roman gods and goddesses of agriculture

Deity Responsibility

Seia The sprouting of the seed

Segesta The shoots coming through the soil

Proserpina Forms the stalks

Nodotus Forms sections of the stem

Volutina Forms protective sheath around the seeds

Patelana Later removes sheath around the seeds

Lacturnus and Matuta Ripening of grain (at two stages)

Flora Makes the plant blossom

A common form of supernatural being found in cultures in many diverseareas is the trickster. Ambiguity is one of its major characteristics, whichoften makes it difficult to define. Most often male, the trickster is able totransform himself into a series of beings—human, animal, and deity. Thevarious parts of his body may detach themselves or be severed from the body.In some trickster stories he is seemingly destroyed by being burned, crushed,or disemboweled—yet he is able to reassemble himself. Often the trickster is acreator who is responsible for bringing many technologies, customs, and

activities into the world, such as fire, healing, and magic. Although on the onehand he is powerful, courageous, and creative, he is also vindictive, selfish,cowardly, and destructive. Perhaps his two most frequently mentionedcharacteristics are gluttony and lust; he has a voracious appetite for food andsex. He is always finding ways to find and steal food and is never sexuallysatisfied. Among the best-known tricksters are those of North America, suchas Raven, Coyote, and Hare.

The trickster figure plays a number of roles in human societies. The storiespoint out human frailties through satire, because the trickster represents theantithesis of what it is to be human and places human society in its position inan environment that is not always stable and predictable. Sam Gill writes,

In Trickster is embodied the human struggle against the confinement felt by beingbound to place, even with the obvious necessity of such definition in order to preventchaos. In many of his adventures, Trickster permits people to experience the vicariousthrills and freedoms of a utopian existence. But his folly reveals the very meaning of theboundaries that give order to human life.5

The trickster may also find a place in situations of contact and social conflict.In !Kung San society (Khoisan culture area) the trickster is frequently seen asa participant in society who flouts society’s rules. In many stories the tricksterfinds himself interacting with the nonnative, dominant population, in whichcase the stories become protest and resistance stories in which socialsituations are reversed and the trickster outwits the dominant individual.

Gods and society

Émile Durkheim first proposed the idea that religious symbolism marks assacred important institutions of human society that are necessary for thegroup’s survival.6 Durkheim’s approach is a functionalist one, seeing religiousand other cultural phenomena as serving some essential purpose inmaintaining the society. In his analysis of gods, he points out that the powerscommonly attributed to gods are similar to those of society: creating sacredtimes and spaces, designating moral rules and punishing offenders, existingabove all individuals, requiring sacrifice. Values that we learn in society, such

as obligation, loyalty, respect, and hierarchy, are mirrored in our relationshipwith supernatural beings.

The imagery that is used for gods, such as their anthropomorphic nature, istaken from social categories and statuses. Gods are rulers, fathers, mothers,daughters, and sons. We relate to them through social interactions in wayslearned in society. Whatever the themes are in a particular culture will bereflected in the nature and domains of the gods. The values and concerns of aculture are projected onto the gods themselves, and the behavior of humanstoward the gods is an expression of the social behaviors valued by thatculture.

Gods reflect human behavior

In a similar vein, British anthropologist Robin Horton suggests thatsupernatural beings function to extend the realm of social relations.7 Again,the focus is on gods as anthropomorphic beings who reflect human behavior.Horton suggests that the behavior of the gods provides a model for humans.He explored his ideas by looking at various African religions. Although a highgod is found in almost all of these religions, the nature of this god ranges froman otiose god to one who is in active control of the universe. Horton thoughtthat two variables explain much of this variation.

The first variable is how often people in that society encounter otherpeoples and the world in general outside their own local community. Hortonthinks that lesser gods are associated with the interpretation of eventsoccurring in the immediate area while a high god is more important forinterpreting that immediate world in relation to the greater world beyond thelocal area. With this greater level of contact, issues that people face are morelikely to be seen as being part of just being human. Thus the greater thecontact a society has with the larger world, the greater the need for a high godwho has universal features and is associated with humanity in general ratherthan just with a local group.

The second variable proposed by Horton was the degree to which anindividual’s status in the society is ascribed or achieved. An ascribed status isone that is given to an individual based on attributes over which they have no

control, such as gender and family line. Horton proposed that because anindividual’s status is determined solely by the community, ideas will focus onlesser gods who themselves are focused on local issues. In contrast, if status isbased on an individual’s personal achievements, the individual is, at least inpart, independent from the community. Therefore explanations of personalsuccess and failure are more likely to reference a high god who rules over awider realm.

Horton suggests that these variables help to explain the openness of Africato Islam and Christianity. He correlates the arrival of missionaries in Africawith the opening up of local communities to the wider world and an increasein emphasis on achieved versus ascribed status.

The number and nature of supernatural beings

The functionalist perspective was also tested in a 1974 study by GuySwanson.8 In the study, Swanson looked at fifty different societies to seewhether social characteristics of a group are predictive of their religiousbeliefs. Here we will look at two of the predictions he tested that concern thenumber and nature of supernatural beings.

Box 9.2 Games and gods

Among the many expressions of a culture’s worldview are the gamesthat are played. For example, are games of chance favored over games ofstrategy? Do games rely on physical skills or on mental skills? Thecharacteristics of games are associated with particular features of aculture. Here we will look at the connection between games and religion.

John Roberts, Malcolm Arth, and Robert Rush classified games intothree categories: games of strategy, games of chance, and games ofphysical skill. They found that games of chance, such as dice games, areassociated with religious activities. On the simplest level, success at agame of chance may be attributed to aid received from the supernatural,either magical in nature or through supernatural beings. The authors

argue that games of chance are “exercises in relationships with thesupernatural.” They tested this idea by looking at the nature ofsupernatural beings in societies where games of chance were the mostprevalent type of game played. The dimensions they explored includedhow aggressive or how benevolent supernatural forces were seen to beand how easy it was to coerce these beings. They hypothesized that godsin these societies would be seen as more benevolent than aggressive andas being relatively easy to coerce. The hypothesis was upheld in theirsample of societies. As an interesting side note, the lack of reference togames of chance in the Hebrew Bible suggests that this God was moreaggressive than benevolent and not easily coerced.

The study concluded that “games of strategy may be related tomastery of the social system; games of chance may be linked withmastery of the supernatural; and games of physical skill are possiblyassociated with the mastery both of self and of environment.”

Source: John M. Roberts, Malcolm J. Arth, and Robert R. Rush, “Games inCulture,” American Anthropologist, 61 (1959), pp. 597–605.

First, Swanson looked at religious systems in which there is a high orsupreme god who is higher than all other supernatural beings. In Swanson’sstudy, this could be either the only god in the system or the ruler of apantheon of gods. The essential element was that this god rules over ahierarchy with at least two levels of supernatural beings below it. Swansonreasoned that, on the basis of Durkheim’s work, such a religious hierarchywas more likely to be found in a society that also had a decision-makinghierarchy that contained at least three different levels. In a kin-based society,for example, this could include families, lineages, and clans (a lineage containsmany families, and a clan contains two or more lineages). His study supportedthis hypothesis. The belief in a supreme god was found in 78 percent ofsocieties with three levels and 91 percent of those with four or more levels butin only 11 percent with only one or two levels.

Swanson also looked at polytheistic systems in which no one god isconsidered to be supreme. Although they are superior to spirits, each god rulesover a particular domain, and none is superior to another. Because these gods

are attribute gods, Swanson realized that the presence of this type of godwould be connected to the degree of specialization in a society. He found thatthe number of specialists is positively correlated with the number of suchgods.

Sigmund Freud (Chapter 1) and psychosocial anthropologists have a similarperspective. For example, Freud thought that religion as a whole can be seenas a symbolic expression of relationships between children and their parents.9

This can especially be seen in the nature of gods. We think about natureanthropomorphically, and so there is a god of thunder, a god of themountains, a god of the river, and so on. We then project human qualities,particularly those of parents, onto them. For example, if parents are punitive,so are the gods; if parents are indulgent, so are the gods.

Big Gods

Many anthropologists have pointed out differences between living in smallcommunities and large urban societies. Looking at the two ends of what isunquestionably a continuum of community size and complexity, people insmall communities pretty much know one another, often share biologicalrelationships, and are aware of what everyone is doing. It is difficult to hideantisocial behaviors in small societies, and transgressions against societalnorms are usually handled informally within the community, where the socialstanding of individuals is often based on issues of trust.

On the other hand, large societies are essentially communities ofanonymous strangers. Informal methods of social control do not work wellsince it is easy for strangers to hide moral transgressions from each other. Thismay explain the development of complex political institutions, such as courtand police systems, in such societies.

Psychologist Ara Norenzayan notes that gods are usually not concernedwith issues of morality in small societies.10 While gods may interact withhumans and demand attention in the form of rituals and sacrifices, they areusually not involved with rewarding and punishing humans for theirbehaviors. This is in marked contrast with large, complex societies wheregods, or the God of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)

are very concerned with defining moral behavior and punishingtransgressions of the divine moral code. Norenzayan calls such gods “BigGods.”

What bonds strangers in large societies is the mutual acceptance of a moralcode that is an important aspect of their religious system. God is seen as all-knowing, judging, rewarding, and punishing individual behaviors. People whoaccept the same belief system, perform the same rituals, and follow the samemoral rules form the basis of cooperative behavior among strangers.Individuals are judged on the strength of their support of their religion. Ofcourse people who do not accept the same belief system are treated withsuspicion. This often forms the basis of conflict between different segments oflarge societies.

The gods of the Yoruba

The Yoruba live in the southwestern region of Nigeria and the Republic ofBenin in West Africa. Through the slave trade and more recentlyimmigration, Yoruba culture has spread into the New World. Theirs is anancient culture, and their religious concepts are found throughout a numberof city-states, each associated with a particular urban center. The urban centerof Ife is of special importance, for it was here that the first acts of creationwere performed. It was here that Olodumare sent the gods to create the earth.

The Yoruba cosmos is divided into two realms: Orun, heaven or sky, andAiye, the earth, the realm of the living. Residing in Orun is the CreatorOlodumare, gods known as the orisha, and the ancestors. Olorun is the highgod and the source of all supernatural power, but he is remote from the peopleand is not approached in rituals, an example of an otiose god. He is contactedthrough the intermediaries, the orisha.

There are a large number of orisha. Some are acknowledged throughout theYoruba region; others are associated with a particular region, village, or evenfamily group. The orisha are anthropomorphic and display human emotions.They are not inherently good or evil, but manifest complex behaviors and canact in a good or evil way, depending on the situation and the context. Theorisha make themselves known through possessing a devotee, who then

moves and talks in a characteristic manner associated with the god. Theperson will also wear special clothing and hold certain objects. Worship ofparticular deities is associated with shrines and altars that contain objects thatare placed there to please the gods and to show one’s devotion. The orisha areexamples of attribute gods. Each is approached in ritual because of aparticular problem. Table 9.3 lists some of the best known of the orisha.

Table 9.3 Some of the Yoruba orisha

Orisha Domain CharacteristicsSymbolic

representation

Esu-Elegba

“Guardian of the Threshold,”first god to be addressed in

ritual; intermediary betweenpeople, their ancestors, and the

gods

Unpredictable,trickster

Hooked beaded stick;red and black

Obatala King of the orisha

Ethical,merciful,patient,

composed

White sheet, whitebeaded cane; white

OgunRules over metal, technology,

and warAggressive,

bold

Beaded machete,metal implements;

green and dark blue

OrisaOko

Agricultural deity, judgesantisocial behavior, disease, and

poverty, interprets Ifadivination

Iron beaded staffs,flutes

OsanyinForest deity and god of

herbalistic medicine

Represented as apuppet with a

squeaky voice, ironstaff topped with

birds; colors of theforest

Osoosi Hunter godQuick, strong,

aggressive,intellectual

Hunter’s hat, powderhorns, bow and

arrow; green andblue

OsunGoddess of freshwater streams;

sustains life

Youngestorisha,

beautiful andvain, deceitful

Round fan, crownand beaded apron;crystal yellow gold

to opaque chartreuse

Sango God of thunder and lightning

Proud,aggressive,

quick-tempered

Double-bladed axe,gourd rattle, zigzagmotif representing

lightning

YemojaRuler of the river Ogun, mother

of many orisha, symbol ofmotherhood

Calm, serious,dignified

Round fan, crown;crystal white and

crystal blue or green

The gods of the Ifugao

The Ifugao are a mountain-dwelling people living in the western mountains ofLuzon in the Philippines (Southeast Asia culture area). They were studied byR. F. Barton in the early part of the twentieth century.11 The Ifugao are wellknown as a culture with a large pantheon of gods. Barton listed 1,240 deitiesbut believed that there were as many as 1,500. These deities are grouped intoforty classes, although the classification is quite inconsistent. Yet the Ifugaohave no supreme or creator deity. Like most supernatural beings, Ifugaodeities are immortal; they are often invisible; they are able to change theirshape; and they can transport themselves instantly through space. Althoughthe deities can be grouped by their characteristics and powers, each does haveits own specific place in the pantheon. Just as in the world of humans, the bestway to get along with the gods is to bribe them. A prayer without a sacrificeis useless because the sacrifice is treated as a payment.

As an example, one of the classes is translated as the “Paybackables.” Thename is derived from a word used for a payment in an economic exchange.

The Ifugao believe that they used to have trading relations with these deitiesin the past and have received from the deities a great deal of their culture.This is the largest of the classes and includes a rather broad range of deities,including nature gods, deified heroes and ancestors, and technological gods.An important god in this class is Lidum, a deity who taught the Ifugao manyof their rituals.

Barton lists 168 “Paybackables.” An example is the deities that are involvedwith the activity of weaving. They include “Separator of Seeds from Cotton,”“Separator of Defective, Lumped Fibers,” “Fluffer,” “Spinner,” “Draw Out ofThread on Spindle Bob,” “Black Dyer,” “Red Dyer,” “Yellow Dyer,” “Winderinto Ball,” “Weaver’s First Helper Who Receives the Ball and Passes It Backand Forth,” “Second Helper Who Passes Ball around the End Stick,”“Scrutinizer (who sees that the job of setting up the loom is done right),” and—well, you get the general idea.

A rather interesting class of deities is the “Convincers.” These gods bend aperson’s will to that of the person who invokes them. This process is called byEnglish-speaking Ifugao convincing. To fulfill religious obligations, an Ifugaomust borrow things to sacrifice. The loan is often very difficult to get repaid,and the Ifugao have developed many behaviors, including bullying andbluffing, to get the loan repaid. For example, if a debtor has publicly refused topay a debt and therefore cannot pay it without losing face, the one to whomthe debt is owed will call on the god Amobok, who will weaken the debtor’sresolve and get him to pay back the debt in secret, thereby saving face.

There are many other important classes of deities. These include gods ofreproduction, messenger deities, gods associated with various illnesses, godsassociated with death, divination deities, gods of war, guardians of property,and many, many more.

Goddesses

Goddesses have been important figures in many religious systems. Somescholars believe that early human religions centered on fertility, a lunar cycleas opposed to a solar one, and the worship of a goddess. This is largelyspeculative and based on findings of small carvings of female figures with

exaggerated characteristics thought to be connected to fertility (Figure 9.2).Some believe that goddess worship continued in Europe until a few

thousand years before the Common Era. At this time the Indo-Europeansinvaded from the East and brought with them a belief in male gods and theexploitation of nature. Some argue that goddess worship and the new godworship gradually combined to produce the polytheistic pagan religions of theRomans, Greeks, and Celts.

With the development of the monotheistic religions, discussed later in thechapter, the goddess was further suppressed, as these latter religionsconceived of god in largely male terms. Although all three of the monotheisticreligions contained some egalitarian sentiments in their origins and texts, allhave also been interpreted at one time or another in very misogynistic terms.

Three important goddesses are Ishtar of the ancient Near East, Isis ofancient Egypt, and Kali in Hinduism. We will also discuss the Virgin Mary inCatholicism, although her classification as a goddess is certainly debatableand comes entirely from an etic perspective. Goddess worship has also seen aresurgence with the growth of the Wiccan religion, which will be discussed inChapter 11.

Ishtar (Ancient Near East)

The goddess Ishtar was worshipped for thousands of years in Mesopotamia.Seen as both invincible in battle and a source of fertility, Ishtar was one of theparamount national deities.

In the natural environment of Mesopotamia, winds, rain, drought, and floodwere all common. This contributed to a worldview in which theseinconsistencies in nature were seen as being a reflection of violent conflictsamong the gods; both the environment and the gods were seen as beingunpredictable. The only way to ensure adequate food, victory in warfare,health, and so on was proper performance of rituals and sacrifices for the godsand goddesses.

Figure 9.2 Venus of Willendorf. A prehistoric female fertility figure from an archaeologicalsite near the town of Willendorf, Austria, dated between 24,000 and 22,000 years ago. Figureis 11.1 centimeters (4 inches) high.

Among the gods and goddesses in the pantheon, Ishtar is supreme in herpower over fate, as recounted in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In this story Ishtarmade sexual advances toward King Gilgamesh, which he rejected. Inresponse, Ishtar asked the supreme god, An, to send the bull of heaven todestroy Gilgamesh and his city, Uruk. Ishtar threatened that if she did not gether way, she would release the dead from the netherworld. In her role as afertility goddess, she also promised that she would ensure that there would beenough food to eat after the bull’s destruction.

Sexuality was an important aspect of Ishtar, as seen in the sacred marriagerites. The rites took place between the king and an avatar of Ishtar, probably

her high priestess. Unlike the Egyptian pharaohs, who were themselves seenas divine, this king was seen as a mortal who was the intermediary betweenthe community and the gods. His relationship with Ishtar was seen as thesource of his power and the guarantee of his success. This union was explicitlysexual, although it resulted not in offspring, but in the fertility of the land andsuccess in battle.

Isis (Ancient Egypt)

Women occupied a relatively favorable position in ancient Egyptian society.The pharaoh was seen as the son of the sun god, and his queen was not onlyconsort to the divine king but the mother of the divine prince. Women werealso important in the religious realm, the pantheon containing a number ofprominent goddesses.

Isis was probably the most important deity of the Egyptian pantheon for theaverage Egyptian. She was called the “Great Mother” and the “Queen ofHeaven” and was associated with family. Her most common representationwas as a mother, seated, suckling her son Horus on her lap. It is as the devotedwife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus that she was best known.

Although Isis was originally closely associated with the royalty, she becameassociated with nature as her significance grew and became diversified. Herinfluence spread; she was present in Rome and Greece. Around 300 BCE thereligion of Isis had developed into a mystery religion that involved secret andsacred rites. One had to be initiated into the religion to gain the wisdom andsalvation that the goddess could offer. The influence of Isis peaked during thethird century CE, when her popularity made her a serious competitor to theChristian church.

Kali (Hinduism)

The worship of a feminine aspect of the divine has a long history in India,probably dating back to pre-Vedic ancient peoples. (The Vedas are religious

texts that are the foundation of much of modern Hinduism. They were writtendown by the middle of the first millennium BCE, although they had existed inoral form much earlier.) The goddess remains important today. She is oftenassociated with creativity and nature, in particular great trees and rivers.

The goddess is worshipped in many forms, including Durga, associatedwith ultimate light and benevolent power, and Kali, who is the divine in itsfierce form. Kali means the “Black One,” and she is depicted as dark-skinnedand naked, standing on a corpse, dripping with blood, and carrying a swordand a severed head. She wears a girdle of severed hands and a necklace ofskulls (Figure 9.3). Kali is said to have an insatiable thirst for blood, and at hertemples animals are beheaded as a sacrifice to her.

Despite this fierce appearance, Kali is not evil. Although she is a fearsomedestroyer to those who do evil, she is the loving and compassionate mother toher devotees. In Hinduism the divine is seen as encompassing both creationand destruction. Death and birth are linked together in an endless cycle.

Kali symbolizes transformation. The sword that she carries is used to cutaway impediments to the realization of truth. Her garland consists of fiftysevered heads to represent the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. Thus thegarland represents knowledge and wisdom. The hands are the principal meansby which work is done and therefore symbolize the action of karma. Thehands have been severed, showing that the binding effects of karma have beenovercome. Kali blesses the devotee by cutting him or her free from the cycle ofkarma.

Kali is often depicted as dancing wildly with the god Shiva. Shiva issometimes known as the Lord of the Dance and, like Kali, is known asdestructive and horrific. Some stories describe their dancing as threatening todestroy the world with its savage power. Gradually, Kali became known asone of Shiva’s chief spouses. In art she is often shown standing or dancing onhis naked and prostrate body. As she dances, her energy flows into him andbrings him life. This image of Shiva and Kali shows Shiva as the passivepotential of creation and Kali as his Shakti, or feminine creative principle.

Figure 9.3 The Hindu goddess Kali. A fierce goddess, Kali destroys those who do evil, butalso brings wisdom and transformation to her devotees.

Mary (Roman Catholic)

Christianity is a monotheistic religion and, as such, cannot be said from anemic perspective to have a goddess. However, throughout Christian history,Mary has played an important role, and devotion to her has developed indifferent ways.

The height of devotion to Mary occurred during the medieval and baroque

periods in the modern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions. AlthoughMary was never described as a goddess, she was held in such high esteem thatshe was certainly seen as more than merely a woman. She was set above thesaints and, as the mother of God’s son, was seen as only a little lower thanGod. She played an important role as an intermediary between people andGod and Jesus. This was not true of the Protestant religions, which havetended to minimize the place of Mary. In fact, devotion to Mary was one ofthe major issues of the Protestant Reformation.

In the book of Revelation a passage that is interpreted as referring to Marydescribes her as “a woman, clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). This woman isalso said to be stepping on a serpent, which is seen as symbolic of Maryovercoming the curse brought on humans by the first woman, Eve. In thelanguage of Revelation, Mary is the “Queen of Heaven.”

The importance of Mary is shown in many different ways. First is thecelebration, not only of the Annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel toldMary she would bear the Son of God, but also of Mary’s birth and death. Sheis shown in countless works of art, and many churches have been dedicated inher name. Shrines and pilgrimage sites associated with Mary were found notonly in medieval Christianity, but in modern times. Examples are pilgrimagesites at Lourdes in France, Guadalupe in Mexico, and Fatima in Portugal, ateach of which an apparition of Mary occurred (Figure 4.2 in Chapter 4).

Similarities between Mary and some of the Near Eastern pagan goddesseshave also been noted. (For example, Isis is also referred to as “Great Mother”and “Queen of Heaven” and is depicted seated and holding her son.) Mary fitsnicely into the role of these goddesses as protectors and sustainers. Someresearchers think that devotion to Mary is actually derived from earlierworship of the Mother Goddess. Despite the fact that technically all Mary cando is offer intercession for the protection of God, she is often directlyaddressed for protection. If not a goddess, Mary certainly plays an importantrole in the Christian understanding of God.

Monotheism: conceptions of god in Judaism,Christianity, and Islam

Most of the religions that we have discussed and most religions that haveexisted in the world have been polytheistic; that is, they recognize manydeities. However, many people in the world today belong to one of the largemonotheistic (a belief in one god) religions of Judaism, Christianity, andIslam. These three religions share some of the same history in addition to theconcept of a single God. We will now examine a little of the history of thesethree religions and how they have conceived of the nature of God.12

Judaism

The ultimate theme of Judaism is monotheism. Judaism believes that the Jewshave been chosen by God to enter into a special relationship with Him, muchlike that of child to parent. However, many scholars argue that we should notassume that the earliest Jews—for example, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, andJacob—were in fact monotheists.

The patriarchs appear to have shared many of the religious beliefs of theirpagan neighbors in Canaan and might not have even shared the same godamong themselves. Many different names are used for God in the HebrewBible (the Tanakh). Some scholars argue that these were actually names ofdifferent gods. For example, the god of Abraham might have been El, the highgod of Canaan. The name Yahweh is also used, and he is called the “God ofour Fathers” by the Israelites. However, Yahweh might have been a differentGod from El.

When Moses made the covenant with God on Mount Sinai, the Israelitesagreed to worship Yahweh alone. The covenant did not say that Yahweh is theonly god who exists, although that concept developed later. Even the TenCommandments take the existence of other gods for granted, such as in thecommandment that “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).

Worship of a single god while ignoring the others was an unusual step in apolytheistic world, in which it was dangerous to ignore possible sources ofsupernatural power and the Israelites were often reluctant to make this move,despite the covenant. It appears that Yahweh had been a warrior god and wasvery helpful in such matters, but He was not seen as a specialist in other areas,such as fertility. When the Israelites settled in Canaan, they turned to the cult

of Baal, the Canaanite fertility god, for such matters. It was difficult for themasculine Yahweh to replace goddesses such as Ishtar and Asherah, who stillhad a great following among the Israelites, especially among the women.

The Tanakh tells that the people had become so corrupt and idolatrous thatGod permitted the King of Assyria to successfully invade the country. Later,Jerusalem was captured, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and thepeople were taken to exile in Babylonia. This was an important turning pointin Jewish history as they came to realize that they could practice their religionaway from the Temple. From this grew the idea of a more pure monotheism,that Yahweh is the only God. In many ways the monotheism of the Jews wasdifferent from the pagan religions around it. The other gods of the ancientMiddle East, such as Baal and Marduk, were not involved in the everydaylives of the people. The God of Israel, however, was an important power inhuman lives and was intimately involved in the ongoing history of the Jewishpeople. The pagan religions were generally tribal, limited to a specific peopleand a specific place. The God of Israel promised that he would protect Jacoband his people when they left Canaan and traveled to a strange new land. Thisconception of God was very pragmatic.

The way in which God is characterized changes over time in the Tanakh. Inthe story of Abraham, God, described in a very anthropomorphic way, visitedAbraham in his tent and shared a meal with him. Later in time, God appearedto Moses in the much more dramatic form of a burning bush and insisted ondistance. Later prophets were visited by angelic messengers, or sometimesthey heard a divine inner voice. In the later rabbinic tradition God waspresented as even more transcendent and even less anthropomorphic.

The early stories of God depict Him as a very partisan tribal deity, oftencruel and violent. He demanded the sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac, and Hevisited horrific plagues on the Egyptians. Later He was transformed into asymbol of transcendence and compassion, and in all three of the monotheisticreligions discussed in this section, God became an inspiration for socialjustice.

In the years after the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in 70CE, the rabbis described God as an essentially subjective experience. To thisday, Judaism considers theological ideas about God to be a private matter forthe individual, for any official doctrine would limit the essential mystery of

God. The rabbis also began the important tradition of interpretation andcommentaries on religious texts. Thus there is a fair amount of room inJudaism for individual opinions on such important matters as the nature ofGod.

Christianity

Out of Judaism came the new religion of Christianity. Jews at the time ofJesus, under Roman rule, were expecting a Messiah. However, as nowpassionate monotheists, they expected this Messiah to be human, a descendantof King David, not divine. The term son of God had been used previously inJewish stories and expressed intimacy with God; it was not to be takenliterally. Although few Jews of the time accepted Jesus as the Messiah, manyother people ultimately would.

The story of Christianity is essentially the story of Jesus. The Gospel ofJohn describes Jesus as the eternal Son of God and the word of God madeflesh. Jesus himself never claimed to be divine, and it was only after his deaththat his followers seem to have come to this conclusion. This did not happenimmediately. It was not until the fourth century CE that the doctrine that Jesushad been God in human form (the Incarnation) was established.

For Christians Jesus became the mediator between humans and God. Theybelieved that the reason God had become human, in the form of Jesus, was tolead people back to God. Salvation had been won for humans by the sacrificeof Jesus on the cross. Therefore, salvation was to be found through faith inJesus. Through this faith, Christians believed that they would be cleansed oftheir sins, made righteous, and that they would be sanctified and glorified byGod in the life to come.

Ultimately, an understanding of the Christian conception of God requiresan understanding of the Trinity. The Trinity begins with God, the Father, whois the creator of heaven and earth. God became immanent in Jesus, who isGod, the Son, the divine in human form. The Son is an incarnation of theFather, who returned after his physical death on earth to live with the Father,although he remains fully present in and to his believers. Jesus promised tosend the Holy Spirit to his followers after his death. The Holy Spirit, or Holy

Ghost, is the spirit of God, guiding and sustaining the faithful.The concept of the Trinity caused many problems for the ostensibly

monotheistic Christians. Under pressure from a hostile Roman world toexplain how Christians could worship three divine beings but still considerthemselves monotheistic, Christians settled on an interpretation of a singledivine substance manifested in three personas. This view is expressed in theAthanasian Creed: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit isGod, and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.” In Western Christianity,however, the three distinct personas have generally been stressed over theunifying substance.

Islam

The story of Islam begins with the story of Mohammad, a member of theQuraysh tribe, which in the seventh century CE had recently settled in Meccaafter having previously lived as nomadic herdsmen on the Arabian steppes.This act of settling in one place drastically altered their lifestyle, and newvalues started replacing the old. Mecca was also the location of the Kaaba, anancient and massive cube-shaped shrine. Most Arabs believed that the Kaabawas originally dedicated to al-Lah (Allah), the High God of the ancientArabian pantheon.

Allah was believed to be identical to the God of the Jews and Christians.Although Judaism and Christianity are also monotheistic, both were seen ashaving strayed from the authentic monotheism of Abraham, which Islamwould seek to restore. Abraham lived before God had sent either the Torah orthe Gospel and was therefore seen as neither a Jew nor a Christian. In thestory of Abraham he has a son, Ishmael, by his concubine Hagar. WhenAbraham’s wife, Sarah, becomes pregnant with Isaac, she demands that Hagarand Ishmael leave. God consoles Abraham by telling him that both of his sonswill be the fathers of great nations. Abraham and Ishmael are said to havetogether built the Kabah for God in Mecca.

Muslims believe that the original religion was monotheism but that it hasoccasionally decayed into polytheism. At these times God would sendprophets, including Moses and Jesus, to renew the message of monotheism.

Each prophet brought the message in a way that was appropriate to hisparticular time and place. The last prophet was Mohammad, and he receivedmessages meant for all people and all times.

Mohammad was visited by an angel, who gave him the command to recite.The Word of God was revealed to Mohammad little by little over a period oftwenty-three years and would be compiled into what is called the Qur’an. Thepower of the Qur’an is based partly on the extraordinary beauty of thelanguage. Muslims believe that to hear the Qur’an recited is to experience thedivine.

The early verses of the Qur’an encourage people to look for signs of God’sgoodness and power in the world and to realize how much they owe to God.Muslims believe that God is omniscient and has created everything for adivine purpose. The world is governed by fixed laws that ensure theharmonious working of all things. Humans can find peace by knowing andliving by these laws. People must reproduce God’s benevolence in their ownsociety in order to be in touch with the true nature of things. To believe in thisis to surrender totally to God. An essential act in Islam is bowing down inprayer (salat), a gesture of this surrender. In practice, these ideas mean thatMuslims have a duty to create a society that is just and equitable, in which thepoor and vulnerable are treated well.

The God of Islam is more impersonal than the God of Judaism. Muslimsbelieve that God can only be glimpsed in the signs of nature and is sotranscendent that He can be talked about only in parables. In contrast toChristianity there are no obligatory doctrines about God. Theologicalspeculation is dismissed as self-indulgent guesses. No one could possibly knowor prove the nature of God.

Atheism

Just as the statement “I believe in God” has meaning only in context, so doesthe concept of atheism. For example, early Christians and Muslims wereconsidered atheists by the larger society in which they lived for refusing torecognize the existing pantheon of gods. In the Qur’an an unbeliever issomebody who is ungrateful to God and refuses to honor Him. Atheism has

historically meant not accepting the current conception of God.In Europe it was only at the end of the sixteenth century that the term

atheist began to be widely used. It was the time of great conflicts betweenProtestants and Catholics and the proliferation of many Christian sects.Rumors abounded of people—atheists—who denied the existence of God.These were much like the rumors of witchcraft, which we will discuss inChapter 10.

In reality atheism, as we conceive of it today, was highly unlikely—perhapseven impossible—for people of the time. In sixteenth-century life, religion andthe Church were ubiquitous. They dominated life and were part of nearlyevery activity. In these conditions it is hard to imagine someone gainingenough of an outsider perspective to question God and religion. Even ifsomeone had managed to do so, this person would have found no support forthis perspective in the science or philosophy of the time. The term atheist wasused as an insult, to describe someone who did not agree with you about thenature of God. No one would actually use the term to describe himself orherself. It would not be until the end of the eighteenth century that a fewEuropeans would find it possible to deny the existence of God.

The scientific developments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centurieswere important to the development of atheism. By the start of the seventeenthcentury, leading theologians argued the existence of God on entirely rationalgrounds. When these arguments did not hold up well under the new science,the existence of God began to be questioned. In large part it was the way inwhich people conceived of the nature of God that made Him vulnerable tothis attack. God was seen as a fact of life that could be examined in much thesame way that the natural world was.

Another issue was a new emphasis on a literal understanding of the Bible inboth Catholic and Protestant traditions. Again, these literal interpretationsmade the texts vulnerable to questioning from the new scientific perspective.The heliocentric theory of Copernicus and Galileo was condemned by theRoman Catholic Church not because the theory endangered belief in God, butbecause it contradicted the scriptures. Many years later, the discoveries ofLyell and Darwin would call into question the biblical account of creation.

With the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment came new ideas ofscience and progress. Enlightenment was seen as achievable by people ontheir own, without relying on the traditions of the Church or revelation from

God. However, most of the philosophers of the Enlightenment did not rejectthe idea of God outright, just the conceptions of a cruel God who threatenspeople with eternal damnation. They believed in a god, but not the God of theBible. However, a few people truly were beginning the trend away from God,and by the end of the century there were philosophers who were proud to callthemselves atheists. There was also an idea that science, which was thefoundation for questioning God, would ultimately replace religion.

Science has not been the only factor in the growth of atheism. Thechallenge of horrific historical events such as the Holocaust has also played arole. Some people believe that growing atheism is just the natural result ofliving in a more secular society.

Just as there are different kinds of beliefs in god, there are different kinds ofatheists. Some distinguish between weak atheism (disbelief in any specificgod) and strong atheism (denial of the existence of any god). Anotherapproach is agnosticism, which is the idea that the question of the existenceof a god is unsolvable, unprovable.

While the numbers of people with no belief in a god have growndramatically in Europe over the years, it is interesting to note that the samephenomenon has not occurred in the United States. Although churchattendance and membership in traditional religious denominations havefallen, the vast majority of people in the United States still say that theybelieve in God, whatever they mean by that.

Conclusion

The functioning of the human mind leads us into seeing the world as beingthe result of the actions of various types of beings. Our world is populatedwith actors whom we see as responsible for the events in our lives, especiallythose that cause us pain and misery. Some of these actors are humans withsupernatural powers—magicians and witches, for example. Others are nothuman, but are anthropomorphic supernatural beings—spirits and gods. Theactions of these supernatural beings explain the operation of our world. Theyprovide us with an explanation for what befalls us and provide the basis of

action to counter such negative events through ritual activity.The similarity between gods and people is striking. Gods resemble us in

appearance, thoughts, and actions. They have human emotions and displaythe best and worst of human behavior. The structure of human society is amodel for that of the gods in ways that are both simple and complex. Ofcourse, the powers possessed by supernatural beings go far beyond those ofhumans. Gods are creators and destroyers. As such, gods are part of theexplanatory system for how the world works. The existence of gods answersmany of the big questions in life: How did the world begin? Why are we here?The existence of spirit beings answers many of the smaller ones: Why do weget sick? What goes bump in the night?

Summary

Gods and spirits are supernatural beings that generally do not have humanorigins. The distinction between gods and spirits is to some degree arbitrary.Spirits are less powerful than gods, are more localized, and are frequentlycollections of nonindividualized supernatural beings that are not givenspecific names and identities. Examples include the leprechauns of Ireland, thejinn of the Middle East, and the angels and demons of the monotheisticreligions. Spirits include guardian spirits, ancestral spirits, and shamans’ spirithelpers. Spirits live in the human world, interacting with humans. They mayprovide protection, success, and luck but also are blamed for minor mishaps.Spirits often reside in natural and human-made objects. Places of specialbeauty or unusual character may be inhabited by spirits.

Gods are more powerful than spirits. They control major forces of nature,such as the wind, rain, and fertility. Gods are anthropomorphic, with names,origins, and specific attributes. They are born, marry, and sometimes die; theylove and lust; they are wise and dull, loving and hateful, generous andmiserly; some are sympathetic to human beings, others are hostile. Ahierarchy of gods makes up a pantheon, usually with a supreme god at thetop. Many types of gods can be recognized, including creator gods, otiosegods, trickster gods, and attribute gods.

Theorists have proposed that the nature of the gods in a society mirrorsimportant cultural elements, such as that group’s social structure. Hortonproposed that the importance of a high god in African religions was related toincreased contact with the outside world and the importance of achievedstatus over ascribed status. Swanson tested the functionalist ideas ofDurkheim and found that religious hierarchy was more likely to be found in asociety that also had a decision-making hierarchy that contained at least threedifferent levels. He also found that the number of attribute gods related to theamount of specialization. Psychosocial anthropologists believe that humansproject qualities of important figures such as parents onto the gods.Psychologists also note that while gods are usually not concerned with issuesof morality in small societies, gods in large, complex societies are veryconcerned with defining moral behavior and punishing transgressions of thedivine moral code. Such gods are called “Big Gods.”

Some scholars believe that the earliest human religions centered on fertility,a lunar cycle as opposed to a solar one, and the worship of a goddess.Examples of goddesses are Ishtar of the ancient Near East, Isis of ancientEgypt, and Kali from Hinduism. From an etic viewpoint, the role of the VirginMary in Catholicism has some characteristics of a goddess. With thedevelopment of the monotheistic religions the goddess was suppressed, asthese religions conceived of God in largely male terms.

Polytheistic religions recognize many deities. The more familiarmonotheistic religions believe in a single omnipotent and omniscient God.Judaism believes that the Jews have been chosen to enter into a specialrelationship with God. Out of Judaism came Christianity. The story ofChristianity is essentially the story of Jesus—God who became human to leadpeople back to God. In Islam, Allah was believed to be identical to the God ofthe Jews and Christians, religions that were seen as having strayed from theauthentic monotheism of Abraham, which Islam would seek to restore.

Atheism has historically meant not accepting the conception of the divinethat is found in a particular society at a particular time. It was not until theend of the eighteenth century that atheism took on its present meaning ofdenying the existence of God.

Study questions

1. The world is full of examples of supernatural beings. We cancategorize many of them as gods and spirits. What are the definitionsof gods and spirits given in this chapter? Is this always an easydistinction to make? Why or why not? What does this tell us aboutsystems of classification?

2. As we learned in Chapter 1, the functional approach to the study ofreligion looks at the role that religious practices play in thefunctioning of a society. Apply this approach to zar possession in thenorthern Sudan.

3. Gods are supernatural anthropomorphic beings. What exactly doesthis mean?

4. In what ways does the concept of a monotheistic God appear inJudaism, Christianity, and Islam?

5. The terms atheism and agnosticism are often used in U.S. culture.What exactly do these terms mean? Why do you think it is morecommon for people in Europe to say that they are atheists thanpeople in the United States?

Suggested readings

Michael Cuneo, American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty(New York: Doubleday, 2001).

[A look at exorcism, largely Christian evangelical, in the United States.]

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Mariner Books, 2008).[Dawkins presents his arguments for atheism.]

Felicitas D. Goodman, How about Demons? Possession and Exorcism in theModern World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988).

[A look at possession in different cultures, including a discussion of the role ofaltered states of consciousness.]

Ara Norenzayan, Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation andConflict (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).

[An examination of the relationship of “big gods” and large, complexsocieties.]

Michael Shermer, How We Believe: The Search for God in the Age of Science(2nd edn) (New York: Holt, 2003).

[A look at reasons why people say they believe in God.]

Fiction

Peter Blue Cloud, Elderberry Flute Songs: Contemporary Coyote Tales (Buffalo,NY: White Pine Press, 2002).

[A series of contemporary stories involving the trickster Coyote written by aMohawk.]

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003).[A story of murder and conspiracy that focuses on the importance of thefeminine divine.]

Neil Gaiman, American Gods (New York: William Morrow, 2011).[Old gods battle new ones for control in America.]

Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees (New York: Penguin Books, 2002).[Set in South Carolina in the 1960s, a young girl’s life is influenced by threebeekeeping sisters and a Black Madonna.]

Suggested websites

http://godchecker.comA database of all known gods.

www.atheists.orgThe website of the American Atheists.

www.religioustolerance.org/god_devel.htmVarious ideas about God from Ontario consultants on religious tolerance.

www.newadvent.org/cathen/06608a.htmCatholic beliefs about God.

www.marypages.com/Apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Notes

1 D. J. Hayward, Vernacular Christianity among the Mulia Dani (Lanham, MD: UniversityPress of America, 1997).

2 J. Boddy, “Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: The Cultural Therapeutics of Possessionand Trance,” American Ethnologist, 15 (1988), pp. 4–27.

3 AP-GfK Poll, December, 2011, www.ap-gfkpoll.com.

4 M. Cuneo, American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty (New York:Doubleday, 2001), p. 273.

5 S. D. Gill, Native American Religions: An Introduction (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1982),pp. 28–29.

6 É. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) (reprint edn) (New York:Free Press, 1995).

7 R. Horton, Patterns of Thought in Africa and the West: Essays on Magic, Religion andScience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

8 G. E. Swanson, The Birth of the Gods: The Origin of Primitive Beliefs (Ann Arbor: TheUniversity of Michigan Press, 1960).

9 S. Freud, The Future of an Illusion (1927) (reissue edn) (New York: Norton, 1989).

10 A. Norenzayan, Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).

11 R. F. Barton, “The Religion of the Ifugao,” American Anthropological AssociationMemoirs, no. 65, (1946), pp. 1–244.

12 The following discussion is based on the work of Karen Armstrong in A History of God:

The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (New York: Ballantine Books,1993).

Chapter 10Witchcraft

One of the most interesting topics in the anthropology of religion iswitchcraft. However, witchcraft is not a single, unified concept. Whenanthropologists speak of witchcraft, they generally refer to individuals whohave an innate ability to do evil. A witch does not depend on ritual to achievehis or her evil ends but simply wills misfortune to occur. In this sensewitchcraft is clearly different from sorcery. (Of course, there is nothing toprevent a witch from using magic, but this would lie outside the definition ofwitchcraft.) In some cultures witchcraft can be unconscious and unintentional;one can be a witch and not even know it.

Although in our culture we tend to think of witches as females,traditionally both sexes have been accused of witchcraft. Witchcraftaccusations reflect underlying social tensions in a society. Individuals whoexhibit antisocial behavior and people in relationships characterized byconflict are likely targets. Along these lines, cultures in which witches areconsidered primarily to be women will tend to exhibit tension between thesexes.

The concept of individuals with such propensities for evil is found in a widevariety of areas, including New Guinea, Southeast Asia, the Americas, andEurope. However, the best-developed discussions of witchcraft in theanthropological literature describing witchcraft in small-scale societies arethose of witchcraft in African societies. In these societies witchcraft is a verycommon belief and refers to the ability of a person to cause harm by means ofa personal power that resides within the body of the witch.

The term witchcraft, however, is also used to refer to other religiousphenomena. Witchcraft, encompassing many of the features found in Africanwitchcraft, was found in peasant communities in Europe from medieval to

early modern times. Because the people in these communities believed thatonly God could heal, individuals who practiced healing arts and midwiferywere often stigmatized and thought of as being witches. When witchcraftbecame of interest to various Christian churches, the idea of witchcraftchanged to reflect an association with Satan. This led to the famous witchcraftexecutions in Europe and colonial America. We should also mention thatWicca uses the term witch in a vastly different way. The Wiccan religion willbe discussed in the next chapter.

The concept of witchcraft in small-scalesocieties

The idea of witchcraft as an evil force bringing misfortune to members of acommunity is found in a great number of societies throughout the world. Inthese societies witchcraft is evil; there are no good witches. Unlike sorcerers,who perform magic rituals to achieve their evil ends, witches simply willdeath and destruction.

The power of a witch is clearly a supernatural power. Some witches flythrough the air. Others can change their outward physical appearance to thatof an animal. Witches have personal characteristics that are the antithesis ofthose that characterize a good, moral person. Witches might practicecannibalism and incest; they show hatred, jealousy, and greed. Thus theybecome personifications of all that is evil in a society. Witchcraft beliefsbecome a way of objectifying antisocial behavioral traits.

Witchcraft among the Azande

The Azande are a large cultural group living in southern Sudan andnortheastern Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). Between 1926and 1930 the British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard made threeexpeditions to Zandeland which were the basis for his ethnography

Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande.1 Among the Azande,witchcraft is an everyday topic of conversation, and people will discusswitchcraft in great detail with an outside observer. Therefore Evans-Pritchardhad access to a great deal of information.

The Zande belief in witchcraft

As with many African peoples, the Azande believe that witchcraft, or mangu,is something that exists within the body of a witch. The Azande actuallydescribe this something as a physical substance. It is described in many ways.For example, it might be “an oval blackish swelling … in which various smallobjects are sometimes found.”2 It appears to be associated with the intestinesor perhaps the liver. And how are the Azande able to describe witchcraftsubstances? It is because in the days before the British established control overthe area, an autopsy was performed on people who had been accused ofwitchcraft when alive, to determine whether they were truly witches or not.

However, because witchcraft is inherited, an autopsy of an accused witchwould also prove that a particular living person, related to the deceased, wasor was not a witch. Mangu is thought to be passed down from parent to childof the same sex—from father to son and from mother to daughter. Therefore ifa man were proven to possess witchcraft substance, this conclusion wouldextend to that man’s father, sons, brothers, and so on. However, the Azanderarely have a theoretical interest in witchcraft. What is important is whether aperson at a particular point in time is acting as a witch toward a specificperson. A person can possess mangu and yet not act as a witch. (As we shallsee shortly, the identification of witches is more commonly done throughdivination.)

Although witchcraft is contained within the physical body, its action ispsychic. The psychic aspect of mangu is the soul of witchcraft. It usually, butnot always, leaves the physical body of the witch at night, when the victim isasleep, and is directed by the witch into the body of the victim. As it moves, itshines with a bright light that can be seen by anyone during the nighttime.However, during the day it can be seen only by religious specialists.

All types of misfortune that are not clearly caused by some other factor are

attributed to witchcraft. This includes accident, illness, and death but alsoeconomic misfortunes such as the loss of a crop or the failure of sometechnological operation. Although there are methods for dealing withwitchcraft, it is only in the case of death that there is a demand forcompensation from the witch, the killing of the witch, often through sorcery,or the execution of the witch by the legal authority. These latter consequencesoccurred only for witches who had been held responsible for many deaths.

Witchcraft accusations are based on real social tensions that exist in Zandesociety. Witches are never strangers. Accusations grow out of negativeemotions and behavior, such as greed, envy, and hatred. Certain socialrelationships within Zande society are common breeding grounds for suchemotions, and this is reflected in the pattern of witchcraft accusations. Forexample, the Azande practice plural marriage, and the relationship betweenco-wives is often cordial. Yet tension may develop between them, especially ifthe husband favors one wife over another or one wife is jealous of the otherfor other reasons.

The role of divination

Zande oracles were described in Chapter 7. The best known are dakpa, thetermite oracle; iwa, the rubbing-board oracle; and benge, the poison oracle.

A case of suspected witchcraft might begin by consulting dakpa because itis a relatively simple and inexpensive form of divination that can beperformed by non-specialists. If dakpa suggests that witchcraft is responsible,a specialist would be consulted to use iwa, the rubbing-board oracle. Not onlydo these oracles provide information and suggest courses of action (includingherbal remedies and the performance of therapy rituals), but it is thought thatif the witch learns that someone is trying to determine the cause of the illness,the witch might stop so as not to risk being accused.

If all of the steps fail to stem the tide of the illness, however, benge will beconsulted. If there is confirmation that witchcraft is indeed the cause, theoperator of the oracle must identify the witch. A witch is always someoneknown to the victim, and the cause of a witchcraft attack is usually associatedwith greed, envy, hatred, or some other antisocial behavior. In placing names

before the oracle, one would select those people in the community whoexhibit antisocial behavior, because there is a probability that one of them isthe witch. Because antisocial behavior tends to occur frequently in stressfulsocial relationships, among people one knows, accusations tend to beassociated with particular relationships.

Once the witch has been identified through the poison oracle, a neutralintermediary confronts the witch, who invariably claims innocence. However,according to Zande witchcraft belief, it is possible to possess mangu(witchcraft substance), which might be acting up without the accused person’sconscious knowledge. This gives the accused person a way out. She canperform a simple ritual in which she takes water into her mouth and spits itout, thereby “cooling” her witchcraft. If the victim gets better, then benge ispraised for identifying the witch. The witch does not suffer any stigma. If thevictim continues to be ill, then either the accused person was not sincere incooling down her witchcraft or she did indeed stop but some other witchstarted.

An analysis of Zande witchcraft beliefs

Evans-Pritchard wrote that:

the concept of witchcraft … provides [the Azande] with a natural philosophy by whichthe relations between men and unfortunate events are explained and a ready andstereotyped means of reacting to such events. Witchcraft beliefs also embrace a systemof values, which regulate human conduct.3

All peoples seek explanations for things that happen in the world, especiallymisfortune. It is in this arena that people frequently turn to supernaturalcauses, such as spirits, sorcery, or witchcraft. The Azande think of allmisfortune as being due to some supernatural agency.

Evans-Pritchard describes the case of a fallen granary. These structures arebuilt on stilts to keep wild animals from getting in and eating the grain. Theshade of the granary is an important meeting place where people congregateduring the heat of midday. After the harvest, the weight of the grain stored inthe granaries is great. Zandeland is home to a great many termites. Although

the men carefully examine the pillars and replace damaged ones before eachharvest, it is still possible that termites will weaken the stilts and the granarywill fall. If people are sitting under the structure when it falls, they may beseriously injured.

The immediate explanation for the accident is quite simple: termite-weakened wood stilts could not bear the weight of the grain, and the granarycollapsed. Yet the Azande explain this course of events as an example ofwitchcraft. The key question here is not, “Why did the granary collapse?” but“Why were these particular individuals sitting under this particular granarywhen it collapsed?” The answer is witchcraft. To most Westerners the factthat these two events occurred at the same time—certain people sitting underthe granary and the collapse of the granary—is simply coincidence or badluck. However, the Azande do not accept the concept of coincidence. The factthat these specific individuals were injured was due to witchcraft.

Because of this way of thinking about cause and effect, witchcraft becomesa good explanation for misfortune. Anti-witchcraft rituals and theidentification of the witch provide a plan of action, or what Evans-Pritchardcalled “a ready and stereotyped means of reacting to such events.” However,witchcraft cannot be used as an excuse for incompetence or simply badbehavior. If a particular activity fails because the person is not skilled, then itis not witchcraft.

Witchcraft among the Navaho

Whereas Zande witches are born with mangu, in other cultures the power ofwitchcraft is one that is sought. Again, immoral and antisocial behavioraltraits are associated with witchcraft. They drive the individual to do whateverhe or she must do to gain power that eventually will satisfy this emotionalneed. As our example we will examine witchcraft beliefs among the Navahoof the American Southwest. (It should be noted that although we are using theethnographic present, it has been many decades since the last documentedcase of witch killing among the Navaho.)

In contrast with the Azande, the Navaho are very reluctant to discusswitchcraft. Many deny its existence, although this might be because admitting

to knowledge of witchcraft is seen as suspicious. Yet witchcraft beliefs arefound throughout Navaho society. In contrast with the Azande, Navahowitches are individuals who seek to be initiated into the Witchery Way.Witchcraft is usually learned from a parent, grandparent, or spouse. Part ofthe initiation is believed to involve the killing of a relative, usually a sibling.

Witches are usually active at night, assuming the form of an animal, mostoften a wolf or coyote that move about at great speed. They visit graveyardsand prepare a powder from the flesh of corpses. The powder may be droppedon the sleeping body of the victim through the smoke hole in the roof of thehogan (traditional house) or blown into the face of the victim in a crowd.Symptoms of corpse poisoning may be dramatic, but usually involve a slowwasting away that cannot be halted by healing rituals.

Witchcraft is generally associated with immoral and antisocial behaviorsuch as greed, vengeance, and envy. Greedy witches obtain wealth by robbinggraves. Another method is to pair up with another witch. One witch causesthe illness, and the other witch attempts to “cure” the victim; the fee is thensplit between the two witches. Witches are thought to meet in caves at night,where they practice incest and cannibalism, have intercourse with the dead,and perform rituals to kill victims. Witchcraft beliefs act in many ways toenforce social norms. For example, if you do not care for your parentsproperly, they can become witches.

Witchcraft reflects human culture

The study of Zande witchcraft demonstrated that witchcraft beliefs andaccusation reflect interpersonal behavior between people in stressful situationsand that stressful behavior is frequently a recurring situation in particularsocial relationships. This point is clearly illustrated when we compare thesystems of witchcraft belief in two different but related societies: the Nupeand Gwari of West Africa.

The Nupe and the Gwari are neighboring societies in the Guinea Coastculture area. They live in similar habitats and interact socially andeconomically with one another. Their social organizations are very similar;they even speak closely related languages. And many aspects of their religious

practices are similar or identical.These two societies accept the existence of witchcraft, and the details of this

belief are similar except for the sex of the witch. Among the Gwari, witchesare both men and women; among the Nupe they are always women, althoughthe operation of a woman’s witchcraft activities must be aided by a man.There are ways of countering and preventing the operation of witchcraft.Among the Gwari, it is through rituals that rid the entire community ofwitchcraft. Witches are identified through divination, and the victims are bothmen and women. The pattern among the Nupe is different. Here thewitchcraft of women is controlled through secret activities of the men.

According to our hypothesis that witchcraft accusations are signs ofdifficult social relationships, we might want to examine differences ininterpersonal relationships in the two groups. Among the Nupe, the generalpicture is one of antagonism between men and women, reflected in the factthat witches are always women and men have the ability to control theactivity of female witches. Further study reveals a major difference inmarriage relationships in the two groups. Among the Gwari, marriage isgenerally free of tension, but this is not the case with the Nupe. This is likelydue to differences in the economic systems. Among the Nupe, married womencan become itinerant traders and have the potential of economic success.Their husbands are often in debt to their wives, and wives take over certaineconomic tasks that usually fall within the sphere of activity of men. Theseinclude paying for feasts and gathering together the bridewealth for sons. Menare angry and resentful over the situation but really cannot do anything aboutit. In addition, among the Nupe, itinerant traders can be married women wholeave young children in the care of extended family, and even refuse to havechildren, to be free to ply their trade. Although men condemn this activity asimmoral, once again they are helpless to do anything about it. It is this angerand hostility that are projected into the world of witchcraft, in which witches—interestingly, visualized as itinerant traders—are women who can becontrolled by the men. Thus men have power over women in the realm ofwitchcraft but not in the real world.

Witchcraft and AIDS

In the previous section we saw how witchcraft beliefs functioned to provideexplanations for misfortune and a means of actively dealing with theperceived cause. In the case of illness, the emphasis in modern medical theoryis on discovering the cause of the illness—perhaps a malfunction of the bodyorgans or the invasion of an infectious agent. Once the cause is determined,an appropriate response is made to cure the illness through surgery,medication, and other therapies. In many societies, the cause of illness andother misfortunes may be attributed to some supernatural causal agent suchas a ghost or a spirit or a human agent engaged in sorcery or witchcraft. In thelatter case the emphasis is on the identification of the person responsiblethrough divination and other means followed by appropriate action, includingthe identification and possible execution of the individual responsible.

Adam Ashforth studied witchcraft in Soweto, South Africa, in the 1990s.4

Here witchcraft can be seen as a manipulation of power that is found mostcommonly in various substances. Since the motive for witchcraft is most oftenjealousy and envy, the witch is usually someone close to the victim, a familymember or a neighbor. One form of witchcraft involves isidliso, which can beloosely translated as “poison.” This poison is associated with a variety ofsymptoms, including those that affect the stomach and digestive tract and thelungs. It is thought to frequently lead to a slow wasting illness ending in thedeath of the victim. Some people visualize isidliso as a small creature thatlooks like a crab, frog, or lizard that becomes lodged in the throat of thevictim. It can even take on a human form and devour the victim from theinside. As the illness progresses, the victim becomes thin, vomits blood, losesappetite, and coughs continuously. Isidliso is also seen as causing many socialills, such as divorce and unemployment.

Isidliso is sent to the victim through a mixture of herbs and magicsubstances in food and drink. It can also be sent into the victim throughdreams. But unlike a chemical poison, intension is critical, and the poison willonly affect the intended victim.

One of the most devastating diseases to be introduced into traditionalcommunities has been AIDS. The nature of AIDS lends itself to interpretationsof witchcraft and sorcery. It is a complex disease that is not very wellunderstood. The victim suffers over a long period of time, appearing to getbetter and then decline again. Outwardly it often parallels traditional beliefs

in illnesses caused by witchcraft. The available medical technology isessentially ineffective. It appears to strike randomly and is especially seenamong the poor. In Soweto, as in other African communities, the presence ofAIDS quite often leads to accusations of witchcraft, often within the family,with the subsequent tragedy of homicide of the alleged witch.

Euro-American witchcraft beliefs

Although Euro-American ideas about witchcraft show some similarities tothose of small-scale societies, there are many important differences. Bothcultures see witches as evildoers, but ideas of witchcraft in Europe wereinfluenced by Christian ideas about the nature of evil. As was discussed inChapter 9, one of the theological challenges facing Christianity (as well asJudaism and Islam) is how to explain the existence of evil when God has beendescribed as unique, all-powerful, and all-good. One answer to this problemposits the existence of an evil spirit of great power. In Hebrew this spirit wascalled Satan, the adversary. This was translated in Greek as diabolos and inEnglish as the devil. Satan is not a major figure in the Hebrew Bible; however,he did receive a great deal of attention in Judaism during the Apocalypticperiod (200 BCE to 150 CE), a time during which Jews were focused on the ideaof an imminent apocalypse and the coming of the messiah. However, fromthat time on, the rabbis came to dominate Judaism, and Satan received verylittle attention.

One important event during the apocalyptic period was the origin ofChristianity; the New Testament prominently features Satan. The message ofthe New Testament is that Jesus Christ saves us from the power of the Devil.Part of the new definition of the evil of witchcraft is that witches areindividuals who have made a pact with the Devil.

The connection with pagan religions

We said earlier that in small-scale societies the concepts of witchcraft andsorcery are quite distinct. This changes with European witchcraft beliefs, inwhich sorcery gets bound up with witchcraft—thus our common perception ofwitches doing spells. There were also important changes in the conception ofsorcery. Previously, sorcery had been seen as largely mechanical, amanipulation of the supernatural. Now sorcery became associated with theinvocation of spirits. Although sorcery had always been an antisocial behaviorand seen as a hostile act, sorcery was now defined as also being hostile toGod. The spirits of sorcery were defined as demons. Therefore, anyone doingsorcery, or for the most part any magic, was seen as calling upon the servantsof Satan.

Some have argued that this was part of the larger persecution of paganreligious practices. Christians were arguing that Jesus was the Son of God,and a large part of their argument was based on the miracles that heperformed. Skeptics of the day were likely to counter with the argument thatJesus was merely another sorcerer, performing magic. So for Christians theonly legitimate magic became the magic performed by Jesus; all other magicwas the work of the Devil. Magic and witchcraft became not just crimesagainst society, but heresy—crimes against God.

The Christian theology of the time argued that pagan magic and religionwere all the work of the Devil, part of his plan to lure people away from thetruth of Christianity. The pagan gods and goddesses were thus redefined byChristians as servants of Satan. However, at the level of popular religionmany of the pagan beliefs and gods were absorbed into the Christian religion.

The nature of the Catholic Church’s response to heresy underwent dramaticchanges during this time. Beginning in the twelfth century, laws dealing withheresy became more severe. A factor in this state of affairs was the revival ofRoman law. Under Roman law, people are seen as part of the corporation thatis the state and therefore must follow its principles. In the late Roman Empireseveral codes had declared that crimes against God were worthy ofpunishment by death. The revival of Roman law encouraged the imposition ofharsher penalties for heresy. For example, burning became the punishment ofchoice for relapsed heretics and was increasing in frequency. Witches, asheretics, were burned as well. However, from the fifteenth century onward,witches were treated even more harshly than other heretics. Most hereticswere burned only in the case of relapse; witches were burned on a first

conviction.Before the thirteenth century, the only way for a heretic to be brought to

trial was if an individual made an accusation against that person. It was notlong, though, before bishops began holding Inquisitions, or formalinvestigations. Instead of waiting for an accusation, the authorities began toactively go looking for heretics, particularly witches. By the end of thethirteenth century, inquisitors were assigned to most areas of continentalEurope.

At the beginning, most sentences appear to have been penances such aswearing a cross sewn to one’s clothes or going on a pilgrimage. The goal ofthe inquisitor was primarily to identify the guilty and get them to confess andrepent in order to restore them to the fold. Only a small number of the casesresulted in execution. These were generally reserved for relapsed heretics orfor obstinate heretics (those who refused to repent). In time, though, thepunishments, especially for witches, became more severe.

Inquisitions were a powerful means of enforcing sanctions against hereticsand witches. At first individual bishops were encouraged in their efforts, butbetween 1227 and 1235 the papal Inquisition was established. The power of theInquisition was constantly being corroborated and expanded. For example, in1252, Innocent IV issued the papal bull Ad Extirpanda. This bull authorizedthe imprisonment of heretics, the seizure of their possessions, and theirimprisonment, torture, and execution. All of this was done on what wasusually minimal evidence. The procedures of the Inquisition were such thatguilt was easy to establish and innocence was difficult to defend. It should benoted that although the Inquisition was a Catholic institution, Protestantswere also involved in the conviction and execution of witches during thistime.

The Witchcraze in Europe

At the end of the Middle Ages, witches were believed to be individuals, bothmale and female, who had formally repudiated Christianity and made a pactwith the Devil. Witches were believed to ride by night and to have secretnocturnal meetings. As we saw with witchcraft in small-scale societies,

witches generally represent all that is evil and antisocial. In this case, witcheswere believed to have orgies, to engage in sacrificial infanticide andcannibalism, and to desecrate Christian holy objects such as the crucifix andthe Eucharist.

The period known as the Witchcraze began at the end of the Middle Ages(around 1450) and lasted for about 200 years. Many scholars date the start ofthe Witchcraze to the time at which the Inquisition began actively seeking outwitches. Although people associate this with the “Dark Ages,” it actually wasa product of the Renaissance and Reformation. The Witchcraze was a time inwhich many people were accused, convicted, and executed as witches. Exactnumbers are hard to come by, but estimates range from a few thousand toseveral million people.

One invention in the 1450s in particular helped to spread these ideas: theprinting press. One of the most important books published during this timewas the Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer against Witches, which waspublished by the Catholic Church in 1486. The Malleus spells out the Church’sbeliefs about witches at the time. Witches were people who renounced theCatholic faith and devoted themselves, body and soul, to the service of evil.Witches offered unbaptized children to the Devil and engaged in orgies thatincluded having intercourse with the Devil himself. Witches were alsotypically believed to shift shapes, fly through the air, and make magicalointments. The Malleus also stated that witches were more likely to be womenthan men, something we will return to later. The Malleus spelled out what todo with a witch: All witches must be arrested, convicted, and executed. It isimportant to note that even people who spoke out against the Witchcraze didnot challenge the actual existence of witches. To do so at this time would havebeen tantamount to declaring oneself an atheist.

People who were accused of witchcraft were interrogated to obtain aconfession. The questions they were asked presumed their guilt. For example,common questions included where and when they met with the Devil. Thequestion of whether or not they had done such a thing was never asked.Torture was a common means of gaining a confession. In 1628 a man namedJohannes Junius was executed as a witch. What is unusual about this case isthat he was able to smuggle a letter out of prison to his daughter before hedied. What follows is a portion of that letter:

Many hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent haveI come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die. For whoevercomes into the witch prison must … be tortured until he invents something out of hishead … When I was the first time put to the torture, Dr. Braun, Dr. Kötzendörffer, andtwo strange doctors were there. The Dr. Braun asks me, “Kinsman, how come youhere?” I answer, “Through falsehood, through misfortune.” “Hear you,” he retorts, “youare a witch; will you confess it voluntarily? If not, we’ll bring in witnesses and theexecutioner for you.” I said, “I am no witch, I have a pure conscience in the matter; ifthere are a thousand witnesses, I am not anxious.” [The witnesses were broughtforward.] And then came also—God in the highest heaven have mercy—the executioner,and put the thumb-screws on me, both hands bound together, so that the blood ran outat the nails and everywhere, so that for four weeks I could not use my hands, as you cansee from the writing … Thereafter, they first stripped me, bound my hands behind me,and drew me up in the [strappado]. Then I thought heaven and earth were at an end;eight times did they draw me up and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible agony… And so I made my confession … but it was all a lie.5

As the sixteenth century progressed, the Witchcraze only increased inintensity. Religious conflict, popular movements, and wars during theReformation exacerbated social tensions, which were then reflected inwitchcraft accusations. The Witchcraze did not decline until the late 1600s andearly 1700s.

The Witchcraze in England and the United States

The Witchcraze in England was at first somewhat different from that incontinental Europe. England had no Inquisition, no Roman law, and only aweak tradition of heresy—all of which had contributed to the Witchcrazeelsewhere. There was no English translation of the Malleus Maleficarum untilmodern times. English witchcraft remained closer to the idea of sorcery, withan emphasis on the power of witches to place hexes and curses. In the 1500s,English witches were not believed to fly, conduct orgies, or make pacts withthe Devil. Instead, they harmed livestock, caused diseases, and hurt infantsand children. The first statutes against witchcraft in England were not passeduntil the mid-1500s. Even then, witches were prosecuted under civil, notreligious, law. This is why witches in England, and later the United States,were hanged and not burned (Figure 10.1). Burning was the punishment for

heretics.Ideas more like those on the European continent eventually made their way

into England through Scotland and King James I, who was a major proponentof the Witchcraze. The height of the Witchcraze in England occurred duringthe 1640s. The English Civil War at the time was producing even greateranxieties and insecurities. America lagged even farther behind; the firsthanging of a witch in New England did not occur until 1647.

By far the most famous of the witch trials in the Americas occurred inSalem in 1692. This trial is well documented and has been extensively studied.The immediate cause of the trials appears to have been two young girls (agesnine and eleven) who were experimenting with divination techniques in anattempt to discover who their future husbands would be. In the process, theymanaged to scare themselves and began exhibiting nervous symptoms. Theythrashed around and assumed odd postures. The father of one of the girls wasSamuel Parris, the local minister. He called in a physician to examine the girls,but the doctor was unable to find anything wrong. It was this physician whofirst suggested that the girls might be victims of a witch’s spell.

The girls’ behavior became worse, and soon other young girls and youngwomen also began to suffer from fits and convulsions. The girls werequestioned and named three women as witches: Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne,and a West Indian slave named Tituba. Soon more were accused. The fitsincreased in intensity. The girls screeched, howled, reported visions, andsuffered from mysterious tooth marks. The trials themselves were dramaticaffairs at which the girls exhibited these symptoms. In all, nineteen peoplewere executed, and more than 100 were jailed.

Most of the commentaries on the Salem trials focus on what, from anoutsider’s perspective, was really going on here. Early suggestions includedthe girls being delusional and the whole thing being a vicious prank. Perhapsthey enjoyed the attention, or maybe they were overcome by the power ofsuggestion. More recent research has suggested a possible biologicalcomponent in the form of ergot poisoning. Ergot poisoning comes from eatinga particular mold found in the grain rye, and among its symptoms arehallucinations.

Figure 10.1 Execution of English witches. Three English witches are seen hanging in thiswoodcut from a contemporary pamphlet on the third Chelmsford witch trial of 1589.

The events that took place in Salem, like many cases of witchcraft, resultedfrom the ebb and flow of everyday activities of people that characterize livingin a com-munity. Witchcraft accusations were the end result of stressful socialrelationships as well as situations arising from the politics, economics, and

religious practices of the community.Salem was not a single community. It was a farming society at the edge of

the settled world at that time. In the not too distant past, before the period ofthe witchcraft trials, Salem had experienced conflict with the local nativepopulation and felt the need to defend itself. By the time of the trials, Salemwas a rapidly growing community, one that included an extensive hinterland,and as the population grew, so did pressures on the land. In fact, manyneighborhoods of the town were petitioning the colonial government forstatus as independent villages.

As is common in many societies throughout the world, those accused ofwitchcraft were primarily people living on the fringes of society. Many weremarginalized and powerless women without husbands, brothers, or sons toprotect their interests. Others were those who dealt with folk remedies andmidwifery. “When such remedies went bad, and when face-to-face disputeresolution failed, the customers who paid for the cures or the potions mightconclude that the purveyor was at fault. Thus premodern malpractice becamewitchcraft.”6

Box 10.1 The evil eye

Although not usually thought of as witchcraft, belief in the evil eye hasmany of the characteristics associated with witchcraft. The power of theevil eye, like that of witchcraft, lies within the body of the individual,who might or might not be aware of it. This belief is found primarily inIndia, the Middle East, parts of Europe, and Mexico.

A person with the evil eye is able to cause illness or some other type ofmisfortune simply by looking at or praising someone or something. Thisis especially the case with babies, and in many societies it is consideredbad form to praise or say something complimentary about a child, or thechild could become ill and perhaps die. The concept is associated withenvy, and people with the evil eye are jealous over the success or goodluck of others.

One can avoid the evil eye by wearing charms that ward away thedanger and by the recitation of certain formulas. When complimenting a

person or praising a person, one makes sure to begin and end thecompliment with a special formula. Spitting or particular hand gesturesare also used to protect one against the malignant power of the evil eye.Another strategy is to conceal one’s good fortune and avoid lookingprosperous.

The idea of the evil eye varies from society to society. In the Mayanregion of Mexico, illness may be caused by ojo, or the evil eye, by a manor animal simply looking at a child.7 People with the evil eye aredangerous, and one must deal with them with great care. One canrecognize these individuals by a mole, a prominent vein, or a markbetween the eyebrows. Cures may be affected by some type of contactwith the person who has the evil eye. For example, a man who hasbrought about sickness in a child might be asked to place the child’sfinger in his mouth or rub some of his saliva on the child’s mouth.

Functions of Euro-American witchcraft beliefs

Many of the functions that we discussed for small-scale societies areapplicable here. Witches define all that is wrong and immoral. People whoexhibit antisocial behavior or who stand out in any way are the most likelytargets of witchcraft accusations. In the European example, witches helped todefine the boundaries of Christianity and the cohesion of the Christiancommunity. Witches were people who turned their backs on Christianity andmade a pact with the Devil. They were heretics—people who sinned againstGod.

Witches also fulfill our unconscious need to blame someone for themisfortunes that we experience in our daily lives. It is more psychologicallysatisfying to have an identifiable individual who can be blamed and punishedthan to shrug our shoulders and attribute misfortune to bad luck. In general,patterns of witchcraft accusations also reflect deeply felt conflicts anddivisions in a culture. The studies have shown this to be true for Salem, forexample. Deeply felt moral divisions over the governance of the church, alongwith neighborhood and family conflicts, were showcased in the Salem witch

trials.

Witches as women

Although both men and women were tried and executed as witches duringthe Witchcraze, many more women were killed than men. There are manyreasons for this. First, the Malleus Maleficarum itself says that women aremore likely to be witches. This is because, according to the Malleus, womenare weaker, stupider, more superstitious, and more sensual than men. TheMalleus tells us:

All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman … What else is a woman but afoe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, adesirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, paintedin fair colours … The word woman is used to mean the lust of the flesh, as it is said: Ihave found a woman more bitter than death, and a good woman more subject to carnallust … There are more superstitious women found than men. And the first is, that theyare more credulous; and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore herather attacks them [than men] … Women are naturally more impressionable, and moreready to receive the influence of a disembodied spirit … They have slippery tongues, andare unable to conceal from their fellow-women those things by which evil arts theyknow … [T]hey are feebler both in mind and body … Women are intellectually likechildren … She is more carnal than a man as is clear from her many carnalabominations … She is an imperfect animal, she always deceives … And indeed, just asthrough the first defect in their intelligence they are more prone to abjure the faith; sothrough their second defect of inordinate affections and passions they search for, broodover, and inflict various vengeances, either by witchcraft, or by some other means.Wherefore it is no wonder that so great a number of witches exist in this sex.8

Beliefs about witches included intercourse with the Devil. During a witch’sinterrogation, she was asked to name demons that had been her lovers and todescribe the Devil’s phallus. The fact that the Devil is almost universallyperceived as male might have been a factor in labeling women as witches.

Sixteenth-century Europe was unusually misogynistic. Some historianshave suggested that this was due to demographic changes. More men thanwomen died from the plague and from warfare. As a result, there was ademographic imbalance, with more women living alone than usual. The socialposition of a woman living alone in a patriarchal society, in which women

were defined in relation to men, would have been difficult. The weaker socialposition of women made it easier for them to be accused. Anotherdemographic change that likely had an impact was the increasing movementfrom the countryside to life in the city, with the accompanying increase ininsecurities.

Among women, midwives appear to have been a particular target. Infantand maternal mortality rates were both high at the time and these deaths,along with any deformity or illness, were likely to be blamed on the midwife.Some researchers have also noted the connection between the persecution ofmidwives as witches and the rise of the profession of male doctors.

Modern-day witch hunts

At the height of the McCarthy era, Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible,which used the Salem trials as an allegory for McCarthyism. The term witchhunt is often used to describe modern events, but how similar are these to thehistorical and cross-cultural events that we have discussed so far in thischapter?

The McCarthy era took place in the United States in the early 1950s.Beginning with “loyalty” programs under President Truman and extending toinvestigations by the House Committee on Un-American Activities thatresulted in blacklists and jail terms, the overwhelming concern was that“radicals” and communists were part of a vast conspiracy to destroy Americandemocracy.

How similar were the events of the McCarthy era to the European witchhunts? Both began with strong emotions fueling a “scare” of a vast secretconspiracy whose purpose was purely subversive and potentially apocalyptic.The focus in both cases was identification of the adversaries of society, withinvestigations spiraling as those identified were pressured to implicate others.Both focused on purity and unity and showed an intense preoccupation withloyalty (to Christianity during the European Witchcraze, to Americandemocracy during the McCarthy era).

The most obvious difference is the lack of a supernatural, religious elementto McCarthyism. However, both certainly showed extraordinary levels of

exaggeration and misperception. The ideas about communists and subversivesduring the McCarthy era reached beyond reality into outright fantasy. For amodern witch hunt case that includes more direct religious elements, we canlook at the child sex abuse crisis in the United States in the 1980s.

During the 1960s and 1970s, much about modern family life had changed,including shifting gender roles and a rise in divorce rates. The 1960s also sawthe “discovery” of child battering and in 1974 the Child Abuse Prevention andTreatment Act was passed. Adding to the cultural mix was a growth inreligious cults, and growing fears of Satanism and the occult (see Chapter 11).Many in American society believed that Satanic cults were sexually abusingchildren. The general mood was one of fearfulness about the family andchildren specifically; the family was seen as disintegrating and children werebeing put in peril. The mix of emotions (fear, guilt, outrage) set the stage forour next example of a witch hunt.

Beginning in California in the early 1980s, authorities thought they haddiscovered Satanic “sex rings” that were sexually abusing children andengaging in various acts of Devil worship. Perhaps the most famous case isthat of the McMartin Preschool, but there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, ofinvestigations. Evidence to support the allegations of Satanic activity wasnever found and the methods used by investigators have largely beendiscredited. Although favoring the prosecution perspective at first, even themedia at the time eventually labeled these cases as witch hunts.

Box 10.2 Satanism

Most modern Satanists do not conform to the conceptions that manypeople have about them. We must distinguish between people who havebeen labeled Satan worshippers by others, which for some conservativeChristian groups would include any non-Christian religion, and thosewho label themselves as Satanists.

Very few people actually worship Satan as the personification of evil,although some do claim to worship a Lucifer or Satan whom they believeis an ancient deity mistakenly identified as the Devil by Christians. Theview these Satanists have of Satan is a pagan image that focuses on

power, virility, and sexuality. To most Satanists, though, Satan is morelike a force of nature than a deity. Their Satan is not the Christian Deviland has nothing to do with the Christian Hell, demons, buying people’ssouls, human sacrifice, or truly evil deeds. Satanists do not even believethat Heaven and Hell exist.

Although there is much variety in the beliefs of Satanists, we candescribe some of the more common beliefs. Satanists generally believethat each person is fully responsible for his or her own life, and theemphasis is on the individual, not on a god or goddess. Life itself isrespected and valued; despite common misconceptions, Satanists do notadvocate or practice animal or human sacrifices.

The largest of the many religious traditions within Satanism is theChurch of Satan, founded by Anton Szandor La Vey in 1966. In theforward to The Satanic Bible (1969), Burton Wolfe states, “Satanism is ablatantly selfish, brutal philosophy. It is based on the belief that humanbeings are inherently selfish, violent creatures.”9 La Vey believed that theJudeo-Christian traditions have taught us to suppress our true feelings,which has resulted in nothing but misery. The Church of Satan could bedescribed as a form of hedonism. Satanists believe in the gratification ofall of one’s desires. Instead of abstinence, Satanists believe in indulgence.The behaviors that the Catholic Church labels as sin are seen as virtuous.The Church of Satan does recognize sins, but they are entirely differentones, including stupidity, pretentiousness, self-deceit, and conformity.The Church of Satan says that although it is important to be kind tothose who deserve it, one should not waste love on those who do notdeserve it. Do not turn the other cheek; instead, seek vengeance.

Rituals are conducted and generally are one of three types: ones thatinvolve sex magic, ones that are focused on healing or happiness, anddestruction rituals focused on a specific victim. (Satanists believe that if aperson is targeted by a destruction ritual but does not deserve it, thatperson will not be harmed.) The use of magic in Satanism does resemblesomewhat the magical practices of Wicca (Chapter 7). However, manySatanists think that the Wiccans are hypocrites because they limit theirmagic to positive uses. In contrast, although Satanists use magic tobenefit themselves and their friends, they also use the magic and rituals

to harm their enemies.The most important symbol of the Church of Satan is the Sigil of

Baphomet, which is a goat’s head drawn within an inverted pentagram(Figure 3.2c in Chapter 3). At the time The Satanic Bible was written(1969), it was common for Satanists to use a naked woman as an altar,symbolizing that Satanism is a religion of the flesh, not the spirit. This isnow rarely used. Although Satanists have been blamed for kidnappingand the sacrifice of people and animals, this is urban legend.

Conclusion

Fear of the existence of supernaturally evil individuals appears to beuniversal. And who should we fear most as potential evildoers? People whostand out, people with whom we have existing conflicts. If my neighbor isjealous of my success, might she

not want to bring me down and cause me harm? Of course, she might wellthink the same of me. The witch is the enemy within—the member of thecommunity who rejects, subverts, and betrays. As with many religiousphenomena, witchcraft accusations are closely tied to other social phenomena—in this case, reflecting existing tensions and fears. In reality the mostcommon way to become a witch is to be accused of being one.

Witchcraft is a fascinating subject within the realm of religious beliefs andbehaviors. Studying this phenomenon is made more complicated by thedifferent ways in which the term has been used in small-scale, European, andmodern Neo-Pagan communities, discussed in the next chapter. Ourcontinuing interest in the subjects of magic and witchcraft can be seen inpopular media representations such as the television shows Bewitched,Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and ofcourse the extremely popular Harry Potter book series. However, thesefantasy representations differ significantly from the real phenomena. First,these sources show magic and witchcraft as very similar phenomena, if not

one and the same. Second, witches are portrayed in a very positive light,which fits only the Wiccan definition (Chapter 11). In small-scale societies,practicing witchcraft is by definition antisocial behavior. Even Wiccans wouldargue with many of the representations of the powers of witches, which areshown as being far beyond those that are actually claimed.

The rise of the Neo-Pagan religions and their redefinition of witchcraft arebut one example of how religions rise and fall and change over time. Thistopic is one that we will explore in greater detail in the next chapter.

Summary

The idea of witchcraft as an evil force bringing misfortune to members of acommunity is found in a great number of societies throughout the world.Unlike sorcerers, who perform magic rituals to achieve their evil ends, witchessimply will death and destruction and it happens, for the source of this evil isa supernatural power that lies within the body of the witch. Witches possesspersonal characteristics that are the antithesis of those that characterize agood, moral person. The concept of witchcraft in small-scale societies islargely based on the work of E. E. Evans-Pritchard among the Azande of theSudan. Evans-Pritchard concluded that a belief in witchcraft serves threefunctions: it provides an explanation for the unexplainable; it provides a set ofcultural behaviors for dealing with misfortune; and it serves to definemorality.

Ideas of witchcraft in Europe were influenced by Christian ideas about thenature of evil. Christianity accepts the existence of an evil spirit, known asSatan or the Devil. In this belief system, witches are individuals whose evilpower originates with a pact with the Devil. In Europe, witchcraft beliefs weremerged with sorcery. Sorcery became associated with the invocation of spirits,which was defined as being hostile to God. Anyone doing any form of magicwas seen as calling on the servants of Satan. Magic and witchcraft became notjust crimes against society, but heresy—crimes against God. The period knownas the Witchcraze began at the end of the Middle Ages (around 1450) andlasted for about 200 years. In Euro-American witchcraft beliefs, witches define

all that is wrong and immoral. People who exhibit antisocial behavior are themost likely targets of witchcraft accusations. Witches also fulfill ourunconscious need to blame someone for the misfortunes that we experience inour daily lives. In general, patterns of witchcraft accusations reflect deeply feltconflicts and divisions in a society.

Study questions

1. Discussion about witchcraft is made difficult by the several meaningsof the term. To what different phenomena has the term witchcraftbeen applied?

2. How does the concept of witchcraft in Zande religion aid the Azandein coping with the stresses of their lives?

3. What are the major differences between witchcraft belief among theAzande and the Navaho?

4. The gender of witches differs from society to society. Among theAzande witches are male and female, but in the European andAmerican Witchcraze, witches were most often female. Why? Whatdoes this tell us about the function of witchcraft beliefs in humansocieties?

5. Magic and witchcraft have become popular subjects in U.S. culture inrecent years. In what ways do these popular depictions differ fromanthropological descriptions of magic and witchcraft?

6. The term witch hunt is often used in contemporary society, such asduring the communist scare following World War II. How is thisusage similar to the use of the term witch as discussed in thischapter?

Suggested readings

Adam Ashforth, Madumo: A Man Bewitched (Chicago: The University ofChicago Press, 2005).[Based on his work in Soweto, South Africa, Ashforth describes the struggle ofhis friend Madumo who is accused of using witchcraft to kill his mother.]

John Demos, The Enemy Within: A Short History of Witch-Hunting (NewYork: Penguin Books, 2008).

[A look at witch hunts in Europe, early America and modern America]

Alan Dundes (Ed.), The Evil Eye: A Casebook (Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 1992).

[Description of the evil eye in different cultures.]

Peter Charles Hoffer, The Devil’s Disciples: Makers of the Salem WitchcraftTrials (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).

[A detailed analysis of the Salem witchcraft trials.]

Ulinka Rublack, The Astronomer and the Witch: Johannes Kepler’s Fight forHis Mother (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

[Detailed history of the witchcraft accusations and subsequent trial in 1620 ofKatharina Kepler, the mother of the noted astronomer Johannes Kepler, whoplayed an active role in defending his mother during her trial.]

Jeffrey Russell, The History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans (2ndedn) (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007).

[A look at witchcraft in tribal societies, historical Europe, and modern times.]

Fiction

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me Ultima (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012).[The story of a young boy growing up in New Mexico in the 1940s dealingwith conflicts between religious traditions including the presence of witches.]

Elenore Smith Bowen, Return to Laughter (New York: Anchor, 1964).[An anthropological novel tracing the adventures of a female anthropologistworking in West Africa written under a pen name by Laura Bohannan basedon work among the Tiv of Nigeria.]

Suggested websites

www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htmThe Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692.

www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/witches1.htmlMedieval Sourcebook: Fifteenth-Century Witchcraft Documents.

www.malleusmaleficarum.orgThe text of the Malleus Maleficarum.

www.churchofsatan.orgThe Church of Satan website.

Notes

1 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford,England: Clarendon, 1937).

2 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, op. cit., p. 22.

3 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, op. cit., p. 63.

4 A. Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa (Chicago: TheUniversity of Chicago Press, 2005).

5 G. L. Burr (Ed.), The Witch Persecution in Translations and Reprints from the OriginalSources of European History, vol. 3, no. 4 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania,1898–1912), pp. 26–27.

6 P. C. Hoffer, The Devil’s Disciples: Makers of the Salem Witchcraft Trials (Baltimore,MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 75.

7 R. Redfield and A. Villa Rojas, Chan Kom: A Maya Village (Washington, DC: CarnegieInstitution of Washington, 1962).

8 The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, unabridged onlinereproduction of the 1928 edn, Part I, Question VI, www.malleusmaleficarum.org.

9 Burton H. Wolfe, introduction to A. S. La Vey, The Satanic Bible (New York: HarperCollins, 1969), p. 18.

Chapter 11The search for new meaning

Small-scale societies are being drawn more and more into the larger, oftenmore complex, world. In doing so, they are exposed to many influences thatresult in change—both positive and negative. We have much to learn fromthese societies, including the effects of culture contact, how cultures changeover time, and how new religions come into being. This is a starting pointfrom which to look at cultural and religious change in the larger-scale culturesin which we live. Our comparative study of various religious systems and ourunderstanding of basic anthropological principles now place us in a positionto analyze aspects of our own culture from an entirely new perspective. Thisis what we will attempt to do in this chapter.

This chapter discusses several topics. We will begin with a study of theprocess of culture change, especially in the context of outside influenceresulting from economic, political, and social exploitation. We will see howthe processes of change can lead to the demise of a culture or adjustments forsurvival. In many contact situations, the dominated culture reacts with theformation of new religious movements that frequently combine culturalelements from both the dominant and dominated societies. Such revitalizationmovements not only are found among tribal peoples but also form the basis oftoday’s Western religions, including many new religious movements. Suchmovements are always affected by existing cultural ideologies and raise manyquestions, including how new religions will be perceived by the society atlarge.

Adaptation and change

Throughout this book we have seen examples of how religion reinforces asociety’s culture and worldview. Religious institutions also providemechanisms for dealing with the inevitable stresses that are part of living. Ingeneral, religious practices tend to be very conservative. This conservatism isderived from their sacred nature and the fact that a society’s belief system isusually considered to be ancient—that is, it was practiced in the old time bythe ancestors.

However, change does occur. In fact, change must occur if a society is toendure. The world does not exist in a steady state. Changes happen in theclimate, in the availability of food and water, in the presence of hostilepeoples on one’s borders. If the society is to survive, it must adapt and changeto meet the challenges brought about by this changing world.

However, we should not think of a society as a perfectly tuned machinemeeting stress and change in its stride. Sometimes changes occur too slowlyor too quickly to be effective, or change does not occur at all. Sometimeschanges appear that are maladaptive. Yet in the long run, if a society is tosurvive, it must adapt to some degree to the world as it exists.

Mechanisms of culture change

Generally speaking, societies that are technologically simple tend to berelatively isolated from outside influences and tend to change slowly overtime. Internal change occurs through the processes of discovery andinvention. A discovery is a new awareness of something that exists in theenvironment. An invention occurs when a person, using the technology athand, comes up with a solution to a particular problem.

Societies do not exist in isolation; people are aware of the existence of othercommunities beyond their boundaries. The mere existence of other cultureswith different technologies, social organizations, and religious practicesexposes a society to new ideas and new technologies. When two groups, suchas those within a culture area, face similar problems, solutions that are

developed in one group through discovery and invention might be adopted bythe other. This apparent movement of cultural traits from one society toanother is called diffusion. Technological traits are more likely to diffuse thanare social and religious traits. Sometimes it is only the idea that moves fromone culture to another, and stimulated by that idea, the receiving societyinvents a new trait, a process called stimulus diffusion.

When a trait diffuses from one culture to another, it is often altered to agreater or lesser degree to become consistent with the rest of the receivingculture. Perhaps the use of a hallucinogenic drug is introduced into a societyfrom a neighboring group. Yet how that drug is used in ritual might differ.Differences will occur in which rituals the drug is used, who uses it, and whatit means. An introduced trait has to be altered to fit into the cultural systemand to reflect the worldview of the culture.

Acculturation

Sometimes, however, the influence of one culture on another is more intense.Rather than sporadic contact through trade and other joint activities, onesociety might assume political and/or economic control over another. If bothsocieties are fairly equal politically and economically, both societies willborrow traits from one another; over time, the societies will become more andmore similar. However, when one society is able to dominate the other thedominant culture undergoes far less change than does the subordinate one.The dominant society is the one that, usually because of a more developedtechnology and wealth, is able to establish control over the subordinate one.In this case the subordinate culture experiences change as traits are accepted,often at a rate that is too rapid to properly integrate the traits into the culture.

This process is referred to as acculturation. A society that has undergonechange of this type is said to be acculturated. Thus an anthropologist whoenters a tribal village and sees cans of soda, metal knives, pots and pans, and aradio knows that this is an acculturated community. When the dominatedsociety has changed so much that it has ceased to have its own distinctidentity, we say that it has become assimilated.

The ability of one group to establish control over another is usually due to

technological, economic, and political factors. However, once this control hasbeen established, it is possible for features of other parts of the culture to flowfrom one society to the other. Religion may play an especially important rolebecause a dominated culture might look for religious explanations for what isoccurring and the dominating group might use religious justifications for itsactions.

Some societies are very receptive to new religious ideas and are able tograft them onto their own religion. Why not add what appears to be apowerful foreign god to the existing pantheon? It can’t hurt. For example, theChristian God often becomes yet another god in the pantheon, and selectedelements of Christian ritual may be incorporated into traditional rituals.

To those living in the Western world this incorporation of elements fromone religion into another might seem strange. Christianity, Judaism, and Islamare exclusionary in that members of these religions are excluded frompracticing rituals of other religions. When a person converts, he or she givesup all former religious beliefs. However, we saw in Chapter 9 how even thesereligions adopted some beliefs of the surrounding cultures during theirdevelopment.

In many societies, people practice rituals from different religious systemsmore on the basis of need that anything else. For example, in Japan someonemight travel to a Shinto shrine to ask for blessings on the family, be marriedin a Christian ritual, and be buried in a Buddhist ritual. Small-scale societiesoften are able to assimilate new religious practices with a degree of ease.However, Christian missionaries, for example, demand exclusion. One of themost stressful aspects of the presence of missionary activity is the pressure togive up one’s former religion.

Syncretism

The process of acculturation does not always involve the completereplacement of one trait by another or the complete acceptance of a new trait.There often is a reworking of the trait through a process known as syncretism.Syncretism is a fusing of traits from two cultures to form something new andyet, at the same time, permit the retention of the old by subsuming the old

into a new form.Previously in this text we have seen several examples of syncretism, such as

the origins of Halloween and the Day of the Dead. Other examples include thesyncretism of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan and that of Christianity andindigenous religions in Africa. In this section we will be looking at tworeligious systems that were formed through the process of syncretism.

Haitian Vodou

Vodou is a religion that is found in the country of Haiti and in the Haitiandiaspora. It is a religion that is extremely rich in symbolism, with art anddance playing central roles in ritual. Vodou grew out of several religionsindigenous to West Africa, especially the religions of the Fon, Kongo, andYoruba peoples. The term vodou comes from the Fon language of Dahomey(now Benin) and means “spirit” or “deity.” However, the term is used largelyby outsiders to describe this religion. Practitioners merely say that they “servethe spirits.”

History of Vodou

The country of Haiti occupies the western third of the Caribbean island ofHispaniola, which was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. In 1697,Haiti became a French colony. (The rest of Hispaniola today is the Spanish-speaking country of the Dominican Republic.)

The French colony of Haiti eventually became one of the richest colonies inthe Caribbean, largely because of plantation agriculture dedicated to sugarcultivation and activities related to sugar, such as the production of molassesand rum. Sugarcane cultivation is very labor intensive, and large numbers ofslaves were brought from West Africa.

The slaves soon outnumbered the French colonists, who lived in constantfear of slave rebellions. In the late seventeenth century, the Frenchgovernment decreed that all slaves had to be baptized and instructed in theCatholic religion. Yet, other than a baptism ceremony, slaves were given little

or no religious instruction, because few landowners allowed priests on theirland for this purpose. Over time the slaves became vaguely aware of the mostbasic tenets of Catholicism, but they continued to practice their Africanreligions.

In 1790 the feared slave revolt came to pass. After a prolonged struggleHaiti, the first black republic in the New World, declared its independence in1804. The establishment of a republic formed of ex-slaves was not popularwith its neighbors, and diplomatic recognition was withheld for some time. Asa result Haiti became isolated from the rest of the world. The Vatican recalledits priests in 1804 and broke off relations with Haiti; Catholic clergy did notreturn until 1860. It was during this period of isolation that Vodou developed.Today Haiti is nominally a Catholic country, although many Protestantchurches have been established. Yet Vodou remains strong, and the majorityof professed Catholics also practice Vodou.

Vodou beliefs

Vodou is in many ways a West African religion. It worships many of the samedeities, and Vodou rituals closely resemble West African rituals. HaitianVodou has a pantheon of deities called lwa, which are similar to the orisha ofthe Yoruba (see Chapter 9). Altars are constructed containing objects that areinfused with spirits, and offerings and sacrifices are made to appease the lwa(Figure 11.1). Dance and music play major roles in Vodou ritual.

The lwa can be divided into several pantheons. The two most important arethe Rada and the Petwo nanchon, or nations. The Rada nanchon consists ofdeities that would be very familiar to a Yoruba. These are African deities andare thought to be very ancient. In contrast are the Petwo lwas. They areaggressive and assertive, born out of the slave experience. Many first appearedduring the period of isolation in the early nineteenth century. Anotherimportant group of lwas are those associated with death.

Table 11.1 lists some of the more important lwa. However, the situation ismuch more complicated than is shown in the table, because many deitiesappear in different manifestations. Each deity has a particular personality,domains over which he or she rules, and particular symbols. These symbols

include not only physical objects and artistic motifs, but also particular waysof speaking and music and dance movements. Each lwa is known to be partialto certain foods that are used as offerings. In general, the Rada lwa like thingsthat are “cool,” such as candies and sweet drinks; the Petwo lwa like thingsthat are “hot,” such as strong drinks like rum and spicy foods.

Figure 11.1 Vodou altar. This replica of a Vodou altar was set up as part of the exhibit“Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou” at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.Vodou priest Sauveur St. Cyr is seen in front of a painting of the lwa Azaka/St. Isidore, thelwa of agriculture.

An example of syncretism is the association of particular lwa with Catholicsaints and manifestations of the Virgin. Symbolism in the chromolithographs(colored posters) used by early priests who attempted to bring Christianity tothe slaves was seen as symbolic of the deities. Perhaps the oldest and most

venerated of the deities is Danbala, the Rada serpent deity. His domain is rain,fecundity, and wisdom. Danbala is depicted as Saint Patrick, who is picturedon the chromolithographs with snakes at his feet. In Vodou art, Danbala isoften seen with his wife Ayida Wèdo, the rainbow serpent.

Santeria

Other religious movements, similar in form and function to Vodou, developedthroughout the Caribbean, Brazil, and other parts of the New World whereslaves were imported to work the large plantations. Santeria developed inCuba from a fusion of West African religions, primarily Yoruba, and SpanishCatholicism.

Table 11.1 The lwa of Haitian Vodou

Lwa Role Symbols Seen as Colors

Legba

As the guardian of thethreshold between humans

and the supernatural, Legba isthe first lwa to be greeted in

ritual

Crutches, pipe,rooster

St. PeterOrange,yellow,

red

Danbalaand

AyidaWèdo

Lwa of rainfall and fertility,Danbala is the oldest of thelwa; his wife is the rainbow

spirit

Serpent, rainbow,lightning bolts,bishop’s attire

St.Patrick

White

Agwe Protector of ships at seaRitual boat,

shells, admiral’sattire

St. Ulrichholding a

fishGreen

EziliDantò

Lwa of fertility andmotherhood; protector of

mothers

Heart, knife,black pig

TheBlack

MadonnaMulticolor

Madonna

EziliFreda

Lwa of love and luxury Hearts, flowers,doves

ofSorrows

Pink,white

GedeLwa of death; healer, trickster

deity

Cross, skull andcross bones, tophat, sun glassesmissing one lens

St.Gabriel

Black,purple

Azaka Lwa of agricultureStraw hat, straw

bag, pipeSt.

Isidore

Green,white,denim

LasirènFemale lwa of the sea; bringsluck and money; patron deity

of musicians

Mermaids, fish,mirror

St.Marthawith adragon

Blue,white

OgouLwa of war and militarymight; protector of cars

Fire, iron, swords St. James

Red andblue ofHaitian

flag

Slavery lasted longer in Cuba than in Haiti. Independence of this lastSpanish colony in the New World occurred in 1898. By this time, there were alarge number of freed slaves as well as communities of freed slaves in remotemountainous areas and various mutual aid societies and social clubs in urbanareas. Santeria developed out of these societies, and today it has spread toother areas in the New World, including the United States. In the UnitedStates in areas with large Hispanic populations, such as Los Angeles, thereligion is most often seen in the context of Botanicas, or stores that sellcharms, herbs, and other materials used by followers of the religion.

Santeria deities, called by the Yoruba name orisha (Chapter 9), show thesame syncretism as the Haitian lwa. The orisha, known by their Yorubanames, are associated with particular saints: Ogun is Saint Peter, Obatala isSaint Mercedes, and Shango is Saint Barbara.

Although Santeria is the name by which this religion is now mostcommonly known, the name was originally pejorative, used by the Spanish tonote what they saw as an unusual amount of attention being paid to the

Catholic saints as opposed to Jesus Christ. The proper name for the religion isRegla de Ocha, or Rule of the Orisha, although Santeria is used as well. Thereligion is also known for being secretive. Relatively little information aboutbeliefs, rituals, and symbols is released to the general public.

One reason for the secrecy is the use of animal sacrifice in ritual, which hasled to conflict between practitioners of Santeria and political authorities in theUnited States. The issue is whether animal sacrifice should be permitted aspart of the First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion orwhether it should be banned under statutes preventing cruelty to animals. Thematter has not been resolved, but most U.S. police organizations have becomemore understanding and permissive about this practice, and the courts havegenerally upheld the right to practice animal sacrifice.

Revitalization movements

Societies that are situated next to each other experience diffusion, the flow ofculture traits that are then adjusted to fit into the receiving culture. This isespecially true if the two societies are roughly equal in terms of technologyand economy. However, the situation often arises in which one culture is ableto establish economic and political dominance and superimpose itself onanother. The situation can be a direct takeover, as when one society conquersanother and maintains economic, political, and military control, or it can beindirect, as when a missionary or an economic enterprise—a shoe factory, forexample—shows up in a community. A missionary or factory manager mightnot have the political power of a conquering state but still represents a moretechnologically advanced society with things that people come to want andneed.

The flow of events differs in each situation, but generally speaking, amassive introduction of items from a dominant culture can have a dramaticeffect on the receiving culture. The end result could be the destruction of aculture. The people might survive, but they end up becoming a mere reflectionof the dominant culture, living on the fringes of that culture. Moreover,demoralization manifests itself in many maladaptive behaviors.

One society might be totally assimilated into another, it might simplydisappear as an entity, or it might exert itself and become a viable subculturewithin the larger culture. Frequently, however, there is a reaction that oftenmanifests itself as a religious or secular movement known as a revitalizationmovement.

A revitalization movement is one that forms in an attempt to deliberatelybring about change in a society. The change is perceived as more bearable andsatisfactory to those under pressure. The movement may be secular, but theyare very frequently religious movements, complete with mythology, ritual,and symbolism, and may result in the formation of a new religion. These aredeliberate activities, frequently initiated by an individual or a small group thatpromises better times and solutions to the problems that besiege thecommunity or are perceived as a threat to the community.

Revitalization movements arise from a number of perceived stressful andoften traumatic situations. These situations include political and economicmarginalization (loss of effective political participation), economic deprivationand poverty, and malnutrition and high levels of chronic or epidemic diseases.There may also be less tangible stresses within the social structure that arisewhen a culture is discriminated against by the dominant society and whenthere is a perception that the values of the community are being threatened.

The origins of revitalization movements

Anthony Wallace describes several stages in the development of arevitalization movement.1 In the early stages of contact or other stressors,change is occurring, but at an acceptable rate, within relatively normal levels.Over time, the stress levels become intolerable to some people. This phase ischaracterized by an increase in illness, alcoholism and drug use, and crime.Although these behaviors are dysfunctional, they serve as a temporaryadjustment to change for many individuals.

Increasing exposure to the dominant society and the increasing influx ofnew traits, many of which cannot easily be integrated into the existingculture, increase the amount of stress on the individual. Means of livelihoodmay be restricted, and new economic patterns may emerge that are not

consistent with the ideals of the culture. For example, individualized wagelabor may replace family-based economic activities with the effect of tearingfamilies apart and increasing the isolation of individuals. Alcoholism, druguse, and crime may become endemic as normal social relationships within thesociety break down. Sometimes the dominant culture deliberately attempts todestroy the indigenous religious pattern (often by ridicule and destruction ofsacred objects and sacred spaces), and attempts may be made to substitute thereligious practices of the dominant culture for those of the subordinate one.However, not all such movements are religious. They can be political, such asmany of the elements of the Celtic revival in Ireland or the Communistmovements in many countries.

At this stage the society may disintegrate and cease to exist as a separateunit, with the members of the society assimilating into the dominant socialgroup (often at the margins of that group). However, another possibility isrevitalization. Revitalization begins when an individual or a small groupconstructs a new, utopian image of society and takes steps to make it a reality.At the same time the dominant social group becomes contrasted as evil. Thefounder of the movement may be a charismatic leader or prophet, and thestory that establishes the legitimacy of the movement is often thought of assupernatural.

People who join the movement think of themselves as being elected to aspecial status, and attempts are made to bring more people into the fold.Although somewhat flexible at first, over time the philosophy and rules maybecome set, and the group may sets itself off, often with great hostility, fromthe main society. At this point, the movement, if successful, becomes firmlyestablished and relatively stable. The movement can become part of themainstream, having successfully brought about a change in the culture. Or themovement may remain an isolated one that either persists or eventuallydisappears, often in a dramatic and terrible way.

Types of revitalization movements

We can recognize several types of revitalization movements. Nativisticmovements develop in societies in which the cultural gap between the

dominant and subordinate cultures is vast. These movements stress theelimination of the dominant culture and a return to the past, keeping thedesirable elements of the dominant culture to which the society has beenexposed, but with these elements now under the control of the subordinateculture.

Revivalistic movements attempt to revive what is often perceived as a pastgolden age in which ancient customs come to symbolize the noble featuresand legitimacy of the repressed culture. For example, the Celtic revival inIreland stressed the revival of ancient Celtic customs and provided symbols ofrebellion against the occupying British. Once the Irish Republic gainedindependence, many items from the past became symbols of a new nationalidentity, such as the revival of the Celtic language, arts and crafts, and placenames. In addition to these secular examples, some Neo-Pagan groups havealso attempted to revive ancient Celtic religious practices. Many of the Neo-Pagan movements discussed later in this chapter would be consideredrevivalistic.

Millenarian movements are based on a vision of change through anapocalyptic transformation; messianic movements believe that a divinesavior in human form will bring about the solution to the problems that existwithin the society. Of course, these four types are not always clearlydifferentiated from one another, and elements of one may appear in another.We will look at some examples of these types in the following sections.

Cargo cults

A well-known example of nativistic movements is the cargo cults of NewGuinea. The term cargo cult comes from the word cargo, which in the pidginEnglish spoken in New Guinea and the islands of Melanesia means “tradegoods.” These movements began along the coast in the late nineteenth centurybut reached their peak during and after World War II, when the U.S. militarybrought in large quantities of manufactured goods.

When the first outsiders entered this region, explorers, missionaries, andcolonial administrators brought with them a wealth of manufactured goodsthat sparked the imaginations of the native peoples and became highly

desirable items. The newcomers were seen as conduits for the goods, and theoutsiders were perceived as being very powerful. In the context of the nativeculture, power comes from knowledge of the supernatural. Thus the activitiesof the missionaries resonated with the population, and much of the interest inthe newly introduced Christianity was an interest in discovering the ritualsecrets that the missionaries used to bring the cargo from over the sea fromthe Land of the Dead.

Soon it became clear to the local peoples that the key to controlling thecargo was not to be discovered through Christian rituals because themissionaries refused to share the magical secrets with them. Other negativefactors included the Europeans’ unwillingness to share many of their goodswith the natives, the condescending way the Europeans treated the natives,and the strange appearance and behavior of the Europeans.

This disillusionment led to the emergence of a number of stories thatexplained what the local people were experiencing. The main puzzles were theorigin and control of the cargo and the power of the outsiders. The Europeansdid no obvious work and engaged in a number of very strange activities. Themanufactured goods must have been made in the Land of the Dead by theancestors of the Melanesians. The Europeans, through ritual, intercepted theships and airplanes and stole the cargo that was meant for the local people.

The solution to the problem was to discover and learn the Europeans’magic. Then the people could rid the land of the outsiders and permit theancestors to land the planes and bring the cargo directly to their descendants.This would also usher in a period of paradise on earth and, in some cases, thereturn of the ancestors. To accomplish this goal, the Melanesians carefullyexamined the behavior of the Europeans to find a clue to their powerfulmagic.

Several cargo cults emerged over the years. They often appeared inresponse to a prophet who had dreams or who had otherwise discovered thesecret used by the Europeans in controlling the cargo. These movementsutilized activities of the Europeans as the basis of ritual, but these Europeanbehaviors were terribly misunderstood. The activities, seen as magic rituals,varied from place to place. They included making marks on paper, runningflags up poles, marching with sticks over their shoulders, and dressing up inEuropean-style clothes and sitting around a table with a vase of flowers in thecenter. One group cleared a long strip of land in imitation of a landing strip,

complete with a control tower.As sad as these things are, they are overshadowed by another aspect of the

cargo cults. In some movements the prophet announced that the ancestors andthe manufactured goods would not appear until the people destroyed theirtraditional sacred objects or exposed these objects to people who were notsupposed to see them, such as women and uninitiated boys. In othermovements success would not happen as long as the people had adequatefood, so pigs and crops were destroyed. The results were tragic.

One of the best known of the early cargo cults was the Vailala Madness,which occurred between 1919 and 1923. It centered on divination trances. Oldrituals were set aside, and new rituals, containing many Christian elementsand military-style activities, appeared. For example, messages from the deadcould be received through flagpoles. In 1932 and 1933 another cargo cultemerged among the Buka people. They believed that steamships would arrivewith cargo, and a large warehouse was built to store these manufacturedgoods. However, the steamship would not arrive as long as the people hadfood, so they destroyed their farms.

The Naked Cult of 1944 through 1948 featured the cult members goingaround naked and fornicating in public. Other elements included thedestruction of villages and things received from the Europeans. People stoppedworking for the Europeans and waited for the arrival of the Americans, whichwould mark the beginning of the period when the followers of the prophetwould receive the cargo. A modern cargo cult is described in Box 11.1.

Box 11.1 The John Frum cult

Cargo cults are small-scale religious movements that have beenassociated with culture contact in New Guinea and many of the islandsof the southwestern Pacific. While we can look at these cults as historicalreligious movements, at least one is quite active today and has been forover 70 years. Every February 15, the people of the island of Tannacelebrate John Frum Day. Tanna is a part of the nation of Vanuatu,formerly the New Hebrides, in the western Pacific.

The John Frum cult is based upon a prophet who is said to have

appeared in the 1930s. It is not known if John Frum was a real person ornot, or whether he was a native or a European. However, he is said tohave predicted the Japanese invasion and the subsequent arrival of theAmerican military in World War II.

John Frum is said to have prophesized the good age in which the whiteman, including the missionaries, would disappear followed by an influxof manufactured goods. In order to bring about this new era, in the early1940s the people of Tanna rejected European customs such as Europeanmoney and Christianity, and returned to the traditional Tannese kastom(customs). Then the American army arrived. The people of Tanna wereastonished by the wealth and power of the Americans and saw theUnited States as a source of cargo. Today, on John Frum Day, men marchin military fashion—as they comprehend it—and raise American flags.They carry bamboo rifles and use a red cross as a sacred symbol. It isbelieved that on some future February 15, John Frum will return bringingwith him manufactured goods or cargo that rightly belongs to them.

The Ghost Dance of 1890

The policies of the U.S. government toward Native Americans in the latenineteenth century were those of forced assimilation. This was facilitated bythe destruction of traditional food resources, restriction of communities tosmall tracts of land and reservations, and forced education at boarding schoolsfor children, where they were forbidden to speak their language or practicetheir culture. Many communities were moved great distances onto land thatwas insufficient in amount and fertility to feed the community. The resultswere poverty, starvation, crime, alcoholism, and the breakup of the family andother traditional social patterns. It is not surprising that one of the ways inwhich the people reacted to these activities was through the development ofnativistic movements.

Early in 1889 a Paiute named Wovoka (1858?–1932), who lived in Nevada,had a vision. Wovoka was illiterate and never kept a journal or wrote lettersand, after December 1890, never gave interviews. What follows is the essence

of what occurred.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, awakeningduring an eclipse of the sun. (This was interpreted by some as death followedby rebirth.) Wovoka then told the people that he had been to Heaven andtalked with God. He had visited with his dead ancestors, who were once againyoung and healthy. God had told Wovoka that the Indians were no longer tolie, steal, fight, or drink alcohol. Wovoka had then been given a traditionaldance that lasted three (or five) nights. If people followed the rules andfaithfully performed the dance, they would go to Heaven, where they wouldonce again be young.

Although this aspect of the vision appears to be a positive adaptation to thechanges that were occurring, there was a great deal more to the vision.Wovoka told of an apocalypse during which new earth would cover theworld, burying the Whites, followed by a return of the land and animals,including the buffalo, to their original condition. The Native Americans wouldinherit this land, and the dead would return to the earth—hence the name theGhost Dance.

Although the new religion incorporated many Native American traditions,such as meditation, prayer, and ritual cleansing, it also incorporated manyChristian elements. The vision itself took place in a Christian Heaven.Wovoka had spent time as a young man on the Wilson ranch. The Wilsonswere devout Christians—specifically, Presbyterians—and they undoubtedlyexposed the young Wovoka, or Jack Wilson, as he was also known, toChristianity. The Ghost Dance religion included many examples ofsyncretism.

In the fall of 1890, news of Wovoka’s vision had spread eastward and hadreached the reservations of the Lakota living on the northern Plains. Adelegation traveled to Nevada, where they joined hundreds of native peoplewho had traveled from many different tribes to see Wovoka. Wovoka metwith the delegations and told them of his visions and taught them the dance.

The Lakota delegation returned to their reservations and told the peoplewhat they had seen and what they had been told. On receiving the news, theLakota began to congregate in large numbers to dance the Ghost Dance. Thesegatherings alarmed the local government agents. Finally, the militia wascalled out to break up the dancing, and the Lakota fled into the countryside,

where they were rounded up and returned to the reservations.As part of these operations, the militia found and surrounded a large group

camped by a creek in South Dakota called Wounded Knee. On December 29,1890, while tensions were high, the shaman Yellow Bird urged the people toresist the soldiers. He reminded the warriors that the Ghost Dance religionpreached that the bullets from the enemy would not penetrate the “ghostshirts” that they wore. A young warrior then drew his rifle from under ablanket and fired on the soldiers. Immediately, the militia opened fire on thegroup, using bullets and two-pound shells; within a few minutes more than200 men, women, and children lay dead. Even today, over 120 years later, thisevent colors the relationship between Native American groups and the U.S.government.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(Mormonism)

Many new religious movements emerged in the United States in the earlynineteenth century. It was a time of great stress and crisis for a country thatwas heading into a Civil War. The Industrial Revolution was bringing with itmany changes in traditional lifestyles, including the movement of manypeople to cities and the subsequent breakdown of old ideas of community. Theproliferation of many different Christian sects, or new branches of amainstream religion, led to choice fatigue, as a single dominant church wasreplaced by numerous options. Out of this stress grew many revitalizationmovements, including the Shakers, the Seventh Day Adventists, and theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Today, LDS is the fastest-growing faith group in U.S. history and claims to have more than fifteenmillion members worldwide.

The LDS Church was founded by Joseph Smith (1805–1844). He grew up inNew York, where his family were “seekers”—what we might callnondenominational Christians. Smith was very troubled by the number ofChristian sects that existed at the time and wanted to know which was thetrue Christianity. Smith received his first vision at the age of 14. In this visionGod and Jesus came to him and told him that all of the various sects were in

error and that he should not join any of them.A few years later, when Smith was 17, he had three visitations from the

angel Moroni to prepare Smith, as a prophet, to restore the true ChristianChurch. Moroni revealed to him the location of golden tablets on which waswritten additional biblical history. Smith was able to use special stones buriedwith the tablets to translate them into what is now known as the Book ofMormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. This book did not replace theChristian Bible but rather supplemented it. The book is named after Mormon,an ancient prophet who compiled the sacred record, and is the source of thename Mormons for members of the LDS Church.

The early LDS Church was heavily persecuted. In 1844, Smith was jailed forhis destruction of an opposition printing press in Illinois. While he was in jail,a mob attacked the jail and killed Smith and his brother. His death provoked acrisis in the group. However, God sent a revelation that Brigham Youngwould be the next leader of the group. It was Young who led them to whatbecame Salt Lake City, Utah. There, the LDS Church encountered difficultieswith both the Native Americans who were already living in the area and theU.S. government, which refused Utah recognition as a state because of theLDS practice of polygamy. Utah finally received statehood after an 1890church revelation from God that disallowed plural marriages.

In some ways LDS beliefs are similar to those of evangelical Christianity,including the literal truthfulness of the Bible, atonement, resurrection, andtithing. However, there are also significant differences. For example, whilemost conservative Christians believe that salvation is based on faith alone,Mormons believe that salvation also requires good works. In Chapter 9 wediscussed the difficulties of the concept of the Trinity for monotheisticChristianity. Here, too, the LDS Church differs. The deity is seen as beingTrinitarian; God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are seen as three separate entities,God and Jesus being separate deities of flesh and bone. Smith described Godas self-made, as finite, and as having a material body. The Holy Spirit is seenas a Spirit Personage.

Another obvious difference is the additional biblical texts in the Book ofMormon. The history related there says that a group of Israelites departedfrom the Middle East around 600 BCE, before the time of the Babyloniancaptivity, and came to North America. This included a patriarch, Lehi, and his

two sons, Nephi and Laman. Two tribes, the Nephites and Lamanites, aredescended from the sons. The two groups lived in a state of continual feuding,and eventually, the Lamanites killed off the Nephites (around 385 CE). TheBook also says that after his resurrection, Jesus came to North America, wherehe performed miracles and delivered sermons. He also selected twelvedisciples from among the Nephite tribe.

The Mormons believe that these are the same doctrines that were held bythe very early Christian Church. They believe that they are restoring theoriginal church of the apostles to how it was in the first century of theCommon Era.

Neo-Paganism and revival

The term Neo-Pagan refers to pre-Christian religious traditions that havebeen revived and are practiced in contemporary times, an example ofrevivalistic movements. One of the best known of the Neo-Pagan religions isthe Wiccan religion.

The Wiccan movement

The beginnings of the Wiccan religion can be traced to the publication ofseveral important books. The first was The Witch Cult in Western Europe,written by anthropologist Margaret Murray in 1921. In this book Murrayexamined the Witchcraze, which is referred to by Wiccans as “the BurningTimes.” She focused on what she believed to be the connection of theWitchcraze to the persecution of practitioners of pre-Christian religions. Shebelieved that there was an unbroken line between pre-Christian goddess-based religions and women who were labeled as witches. This claim is verycontroversial, and most Wiccan practitioners today see their religion as areconstruction, not a continuation, of earlier practices. The timing of thepublication of the book importantly coincided with the suffragist movement

in the United States, an early feminist movement that centered on gaining forwomen the right to vote. The idea of a pre-Christian religion that valued andworshipped women was appealing, and a return to such religious practices fitsin well with ideas of female empowerment.

The Wiccan movement took off in the 1950s. This was largely due to thework of Gerald Gardner (1884–1964), who wrote Witchcraft Today (1954) andThe Meaning of Witchcraft (1959). Gardner was an amateur anthropologistwho, in 1908, studied the Dyaks of Borneo. Gardner continued MargaretMurray’s idea that witchcraft was a pre-Christian religion in Britain. Gardnerthen went on to say that he had found and joined a coven of witches whomhe believed to be among the last remnants of this old religion.

Wiccan beliefs and rituals

There is much variety in Wiccan beliefs and practices. Here we will discusssome of the most common features. Wicca is a polytheistic religion, althoughwhich of the pagan gods and goddesses are named varies. Gender equality—the god and the goddess—are stressed, as is nature as a manifestation of deity.

The religion is in many ways nature-based and includes a ritual calendar.One set of rituals is performed at full moons and is associated with thegoddess. There are also eight Sabbats, or solar festivals, related to the god. TheSabbats happen seasonally and are related to such events as times of plantingand harvesting. They also are seen as symbolic of events in the life of the godand goddess. The Sabbats include Samhain (the New Year festival discussed inChapter 8, the death of the god), Yule (the Winter Solstice, rebirth of the godthrough the goddess), Imbolc (February 1, associated with purification andfertility), Ostara (the Spring Solstice), Beltane (April 30, when the young godbecomes a man), Midsummer (when powers of nature are seen as being attheir peak), Lughnasadh (beginning of the harvest), and Mabon (the secondharvest, the waning of the god).

The rituals themselves are varied but often begin with the casting of a circleto create a sacred space. After the circle is cast, invocations are recited to thefour cardinal directions (Figure 11.2). As part of this, or after this, the gods andgoddesses are invoked to observe the ritual. From this point, the ritual will

vary according to its purpose. Common elements include singing andchanting, the manipulation of symbols, and a ritual meal.

Figure 11.2 Wiccan ritual. Saluting the four cardinal points during a Wiccan ritual.

Common Wiccan symbols include images or candles to represent the godand goddess. The athame, or ritual knife, and wand are commonly used tocast the circle. Cauldrons and cups are symbolic of the goddess. A broom maybe used to sweep and thus purify an area. The pentacle is another Wiccansymbol (Chapter 3).

The use of magic is also characteristic of Wiccan religion. This includesboth folk magic and ritual magic. Contrary to common misperceptions, allmagic in Wicca is to be used for good and never for evil. This can be seen inthe Wiccan Law of Return. A karma-like idea, this law says that whatevergood you do will return to you, as will any evil. There are several variationson this, such as the Three-fold Law, which says good and evil will returnthreefold, and the Ten-fold Law, which says that good and evil will return

tenfold. Wiccans also have a moral rule known as the Wiccan rede. In essence,this rule says that you can do whatever you want as long as it does not harmanyone.

The growing popularity—and persecution—of Wicca

Although exact numbers of adherents are difficult to come by, Wicca hasexpanded rapidly, primarily in North America and Europe. The religion hasalso recently gained important official recognition. The U.S. Armed Forceschaplain’s handbook now contains a section on Wicca, and Wiccanpractitioners have won court cases affirming the right to practice the religionin jail.

Wicca has many features that make it appealing, especially to youngwomen. These include the lack of sexist beliefs and discrimination in generaland a focus on the female aspects, or the goddess. A concern for nature andthe environment also fits in well with modern ideas. Whereas for some themorality of traditional religions seems excessively restrictive, Wicca has asingle moral rule (the Wiccan rede). The practice of Wicca is very flexible andallows for personal involvement. Individuals can practice the religion alone orwithin a group and are free to add their own symbols and rituals as they seefit.

Wicca has also appeared in many popular media presentations in recentyears. However, despite the growing numbers of Wiccan practitioners and theincreasing media exposure, Wicca remains a religion that is largelymisunderstood. Practitioners are often persecuted and the subjects of hatecrimes. Some of this misunderstanding comes from the Wiccan use of theterm witch and symbols such as the pentacle, which for most NorthAmericans and Europeans have strong negative connotations; they see theseas signs of devil worship. For Wiccans the idea of a devil is a Christian notion,and so they have no connection with it. (See Box 10.2 for a discussion ofSatanism.)

Wiccans choose to use the term witch because for them it has a differentbut important meaning and connotations. For them, witch was a term thatwas unfairly applied to pagans, healers, and people who practiced an age-old

tradition of folk magic. To call themselves witches is seen as reclaiming theterm and reaffirming their heritage.

High demand religions

New religious movements have generally branched off of older, moreestablished religions and thus have many features in common with the older,mainstream religion. If the new group is still considered mainstream anddiffers on just a few points from the mainstream religion, it is referred to as adenomination. Examples of Christian denominations are Baptist andLutheran; Islamic denominations would include Sunni and Shi’a. A sect iseven more different from the older religion than a denomination is. Althoughstill connected to the mainstream religion, sects are generally associated witha founder or leader and new revelations. Examples of Christian sects includethe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, discussed earlier. There arereal challenges with the term cult. This word has several different meanings,and it is used in different ways by different people.

The “cult” question

Historically, a cult is a particular form or system of religious worship. Thisincludes specific devotion to a particular person or thing. Thus the CatholicChurch speaks of the cult of Mary. However, very few people use the termcult with this meaning. Although there are some neutral definitions—such asconsidering a cult to be a small, recently created, and spiritually innovativegroup—most definitions are associated with more negative imagery.

Even those who use the term cult with negative meanings do not agree onwhat a cult is. For example, evangelical Christian groups, such as the Counter-Cult Movement, label as a cult any religious group that accepts some, but notall, of what evangelicals accept as Christian doctrines. Thus, the LDS Church,Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Unification Church (discussed later) are all

considered to be cults. However, a group such as the Wiccans does not getattention from this group because they are not a Christian-derived religion.This highlights the gate-keeping issue that often presents itself when a newgroup splinters off. Who gets to decide who can call themselves Christian?Some fundamentalist Christian groups carry this even farther and define anyreligion that deviates from their beliefs—be it Judaism, Buddhism, or a UFOreligion—to be a cult.

On the other side is the Anti-Cult Movement. Largely composed of mentalhealth professionals, this group targets what they consider to be dangerousand authoritarian mind control (“brainwashing”) and doomsday cults. Theyare most concerned with what they see as deceptive recruitment techniquesand psychological techniques used to control members. The media also play alarge part in how religious groups are perceived. When the term cult isemployed by the media, it is most often used to refer to a small religiousgroup with a charismatic leader who is brainwashing his followers and is intotal control of them. The group is seen as evil and usually as believing thatthe end of the world is imminent.

Because of this confusion and the often negative connotations of the term,many researchers avoid the term cult altogether and instead prefer the termnew religious movement. However, this debate points to another area ofdisagreement about how some of the more extreme new religious movementsare perceived. In one point of view there is a continuum from mainstreamreligions to denominations and sects. High demand religions are at the farend of this continuum but otherwise are no different from other religiousgroups and should be regarded as such. Others argue that these high demandgroups cross the line and perhaps should not be considered religions at all, butrather something that masquerades as religion. Some believe that these groupsare so far removed from the mainstream culture that they become dangerous—the normal controls no longer are operating. Of course, the problem withthis latter point of view is who gets to decide. As it involves judging thebeliefs and practices of a religious group, it is one that we will avoid in thisbook. Instead, we will focus on the perspective that high demand religiousgroups are just one end of the continuum of religious expression whileacknowledging the challenges and dilemmas these groups present for thelarger society.

Characteristics of high demand religions

All religious groups require their members to believe certain things and tobehave in certain ways. All groups require some degree of conformity fromtheir members. However, groups do vary in the level of this demand and thedegree of control they attempt to exert over members. Here we will examinegroups that are at the high end of this continuum.

An example of a higher-end demand situation that very few would label acult is a Roman Catholic monastery. Monks must follow a strict schedule ofsleep, work, and prayer. Their diet is limited, and they often take oaths ofcelibacy and even silence. They must accept without question the decisions ofthose in authority. These are traits that are commonly associated with highdemand groups.

In high demand groups the beliefs and behaviors of group members arestrictly controlled. Common methods used to control beliefs include longhours of work with little or no free time, a restricted sleep schedule, strictcontrol of access to outside information, and creation of a view of the outsideworld as unsafe and threatening. Behavior also may be controlled by publicshaming and humiliation and isolation from outside contacts. Communalliving is common, and members may be given new names and identities tosignify their break with their past lives and their affiliation with, and devotionto, the new group.

Some researchers claim that the endless repetition of prayers and othertechniques are in actuality autohypnotic techniques. For example, a personmight be taught that when faced with criticism of the group, he or she shouldrepeat a certain phrase over and over. Another area of concern for someobservers is the deceptive recruitment techniques that some groups use. Ofcourse, some of these techniques are found in groups that are not consideredto be high demand, and quite a few of them are used by organizations that aregenerally not questioned, such as Army boot camps.

Mind control?

One of the major issues surrounding high demand religious groups is whether

or not mind control or brainwashing could or does take place. A propositionof the Anti-Cult Movement is that the pressures exerted by these groups movebeyond normal social pressure and constitute a unique form of influence thatcan be all-controlling. However, many social scientists question this assertion.How is “brainwashing” different from other forms of social influence andnormal socialization? Why do we not say that people converting tomainstream groups are being brainwashed? Were we all brainwashed by ourparents to accept the beliefs of our cultures and our religions? Are advertising,military training, and schooling all examples of brainwashing?

An interesting study by Jeffrey Pfeifer looks at how we label these differentareas of social influence differently. In this study, people were presented witha fictional paragraph describing a student named Bill. They were told that Billleft college to join a Catholic seminary, to join the Marines, or to join theMoonies. Several high-demand techniques were described:

While at the facility, Bill is not allowed very much contact with his friends or familyand he notices that he is seldom left alone. He also notices that he never seems to beable to talk to the other four people who signed up for the program and that he iscontinually surrounded by [Moonies, Marines, Priests] who make him feel guilty if hequestions any of their actions or beliefs.2

When asked to describe Bill’s experience, those who thought Bill joined aCatholic seminary labeled it as “resocialization”; those who thought he joinedthe Marines frequently labeled it as “conversion.” Only those subjects whothought that Bill joined the Moonies used the term “brainwashing.”

Many studies have failed to support the idea of brainwashing. Several ofthese have focused on the issue of recruitment, with the idea that if thesegroups did have some way to override free will and control a person’s mind,then everyone, or at least almost everyone, who attends a recruitment meetingfor one of these groups should in fact convert. This turns out not to be thecase.

Sociologist Eileen Barker studied the Unification Church. She found thatonly a small percentage of people who attended Unification Churchrecruitment seminars actually joined the church. Another study bypsychiatrist Saul Levine looked at over 800 people who had joinedcontroversial religious movements. He found that more than 80 percentdropped out within two years. These are hardly the statistics one would

expect if the groups had mind control over their members.3

Genuinely dangerous religious groups

This is not to say no religious groups should be considered dangerous, eitherto their individual members or to the society at large. The question is how toidentify these groups. Once we get past obvious features such as torture andmurder, the criteria are not all clear. And not all of these groups will even beof the high demand variety.

However, there are a few characteristics that have been suggested as earlywarning signs of a dangerous group. One of these is the authority claimed bythe leader of the group and what that person does with this authority. Anexample is when the leader sets up ethical rules that everyone must follow—except for the leader himself or herself. This can also extend to the leadershipdictating important personal details in the lives of followers, such as whom aperson can marry.

Another feature of a dangerous group is when the group sees itself as beingabove the law or as not having a social contract with the secular state.Although some people place apocalyptic ideology on the list, this is in and ofitself not necessarily a danger sign. However, when the group believes theywill be soldiers in God’s army during this apocalypse and begin to stockpileweapons for this battle, the issues change.

Examples of high demand religions

Recent decades have seen the development of many new religious movements,including several that could be labeled as high demand. Many of thesemovements remain under the radar of cultural awareness, but some havecome to our attention in dramatic, and often tragic, ways. This includes theBranch Davidians and Heaven’s Gate groups in the United States.

As was discussed previously, new religions do not come out of nowhere.They are derived from older religious traditions. In the United States these are

often Christian based. Many of the new religions, for example, deriveimportant elements of their ideology from the Book of Revelation, whichdescribes an apocalyptic world transformation.

Branch Davidians (Students of the Seven Seals)

The Students of the Seven Seals can be traced back to a group that broke offfrom the Seventh Day Adventists in the 1940s. Led by Victor Houteff, the newsect shared a number of the same beliefs as the Seventh Day Adventists, suchas a belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. However, Houteff taughtthat Christ would return only when at least a small number of Christians hadsufficiently purified themselves and that he himself was a messenger sentfrom God to conduct this necessary cleansing. The key to all of this was secretinformation contained in a scroll that is described in the Book of Revelation inthe Christian New Testament, which is said to contain a description of theevents that will occur when Christ returns and the world as we know it ends.The scroll is protected by seven seals, hence the name of the group. They arealso known by the nickname Branch Davidians.

After Houteff’s death, control of the group passed to his wife, whoprophesied that the world would end in April 1959. When this did not come topass, some people did leave the group, but the religion persisted, with severalnew leaders. A man named Vernon Howell joined the group as a handymanin 1981 and soon married the daughter of a prominent member of thecommunity. There was a struggle for power, and Howell took control of thegroup in 1987. He later changed his name to David Koresh, after the biblicalKing David and the Babylonian King Cyrus. By the early 1990s the group hadover 100 members.

Under David Koresh the group came to believe that the death of Christ hadprovided salvation only for those who died before Christ did, that is, before 32CE. People who had died since that time could be saved only by the actions ofthe current prophet. The Book of Revelation says that the Lamb of God willopen the seven seals and trigger the sequence that ends the world as we knowit. Traditionally, Christians have made the interpretation that the Lamb ofGod is Jesus Christ. The Branch Davidians believed that the Lamb of God was

David Koresh himself. After the breaking of the seals, a battle would occur inwhich the Branch Davidians believed they would play a major role, hence theneed for weapons. After the battle they alone would ascend to heaven to bewith God.

The group’s practices included many that are typical of high demandreligious groups. The group lived communally and led a highly regulated,disciplined life. Koresh exerted control over such areas as sex and marriage.Couples were separated and marriages were dissolved, and Koresh persuadedwomen in the group to join him as his “spiritual wives,” which includedsexual access. Everyone else was expected to remain celibate. Members werenot allowed to go to the movies or engage in competitive activities. The lengthof women’s dresses and their hairstyles were regulated. Koresh himself hadveto power over all decisions. The practice that brought them to the attentionof the U.S. government, however, was the gathering of a large supply ofweapons.

In 1993, in Waco, Texas, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms(ATF) decided to arrest Koresh on firearms violations. When ATF agentsattempted to arrest Koresh, a firefight erupted in which six Branch Davidiansand four agents died. A fifty-one-day siege followed. Finally, federal agentsfired tear gas grenades and used tanks to try to penetrate the building. Severalfires had started in the compound, and Koresh and at least seventy-five of hisfollowers, including twenty-one children, died.

Much has been written about the events of Waco, and much remainsunclear. However, one factor is that the federal officials failed to take theBranch Davidians’ religious beliefs seriously and to consider this as a factor intheir strategy. Koresh apparently believed that the raid was the start of thewar of Armageddon, which he believed was to begin with an attack on theBranch Davidians. This case points out the problems associated with thefreedom of religion, especially when the group is armed and awaiting amillenarian battle. How do we balance religious freedom against the need fororder and security?

The Branch Davidian movement has survived the death of Koresh andcontinues today. A small chapel was erected on the site of the siege and agroup of about two dozen people still come to pray there every Sunday. Thegroup anticipates that Koresh will return to earth. Based on the Book ofDaniel, believers prophesized that Koresh would return in 1993 and 1999.

Although he failed to return on these predicted dates, the group is still waitingfor him to lead them to the Promised Land. In 2004, Clive Doyle, the caretakerof the site, said in an interview:

Our hopes are that God will intervene prior to the rest of us dying … But we do have toface facts: eventually everyone gets old and dies. We worry that we will go the way ofthe Shakers and other groups that didn’t get new members or have children.

If it was all a deception, and yet we were convinced it was right, then how can weever know the difference between good and evil, and right and wrong? … If I wasmisled by God, then how would I ever believe anything ever again?4

Unification Church (Moonies)

The members of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of WorldChristianity are also known by the derogatory term Moonies after the founderof the movement, Reverend Sun Myung Moon. When Moon was 15 years old,Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision and gave him the responsibility ofcompleting the work that Jesus had begun. The Unification Church wasfounded in Seoul, Korea, in 1954, with the goal of uniting Christiandenominations around the world and bringing unity among all majorreligions. Moon believed that this was necessary in preparation for the secondcoming of Christ. Missionaries were sent to Japan and the United Statesbeginning in the 1950s, but the religion did not see significant development inthe United States until Reverend Moon came to the country in the early 1970s.

The main beliefs of the church are contained in the text Divine Principle,which was published in 1973. The text tells of new truths or the new Principlethat has been revealed through Reverend Moon. This text explicitly says thatthe time for the second coming of Christ is the present and focuses on thefamily as the purpose of creation.

The practice for which the Unification Church is best known is the largejoint weddings presided over by Reverend and Mrs. Moon (Figure 11.3). Somehave included thousands of people, and the couples are often matched up byReverend Moon a month or less in advance.

The Unification Church teaches that before Adam and Eve were married inEden, Eve had an affair with the Archangel Lucifer, which caused the spiritual

fall of mankind. Eve later had premarital sex with Adam, which caused thephysical fall of mankind. Taken together, these two illicit sexual acts causedAdam and Eve to form an imperfect family. It was this sin that let Satan takecontrol of the world. God’s plan, by which Jesus would redeem humanity andundo the harm caused by Adam and Eve, was for Jesus to form a perfectmarriage. However, Jesus was killed before he could do this. Through hissubsequent spiritual resurrection Jesus would make spiritual salvation possiblefor those who believe in him. Unfortunately, physical salvation is not possiblebecause Jesus did not complete his task.

Complete salvation, both spiritual and physical, will be possible only afterthe arrival of the “third Adam” (Jesus is seen as the second Adam) and hissubsequent perfect marriage. The third Adam is seen as the second coming ofChrist and the perfect man, who will marry the perfect woman. Together theywill become the “true parents” or the spiritual parents of humankind.Although the Unification Church has never made this official claim, manymembers believe that Reverend Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, are the TrueParents.

Figure 11.3 Mass wedding of the Unification Church. Reverend Moon performs a mass

wedding ceremony.

UFO religions

Some new religious movements have imported elements of moderntechnology, such as space travel and cloning, as a basis for a philosophy that,while not always seen as a religion to outsiders, clearly serves as such. Mostscholars consider UFOs to be within the realm of the paranormal orsupernatural, thus fitting in with our definition of religion (Chapter 1). TheUFO groups describe extraterrestrial beings, or “ufonauts,” in the same waythat supernatural beings are described in more traditional religions. Thesebeings are often seen as spiritual beings who have come to earth to helphumans in some way. They are described as wise and as having powersbeyond those of ordinary humans.

Another common religious theme is the idea of an imminent apocalypse.The world is seen as being on the verge of destruction. The “ufonauts” willsomehow rescue the human race, usually preventing a nuclear war orselectively removing people from the planet to preserve the species.“Ufonauts” are often seen as having been involved in the original creation ofhumans or the planet.

As we saw in the previous section, many of the new religious movements inthe United States are based in some part on the Christian religion. Even manyof the UFO religions exhibit syncretism and contain significant Judeo-Christian elements.

Heaven’s Gate

The Heaven’s Gate movement was the last of three organizations founded byMarshall Applewhite, also known as “Do,” and Bonnie Trusdale Nettles, alsoknown as “Ti.” Passages from the Christian Gospels and from the Book ofRevelation were reinterpreted as referring to UFO visitations. They saw theearth as being in the control of evil forces. However, they saw themselves asbeing among the elite who would be saved from the evil on earth and taken to

the next level.Members of the group lived communally in a house in San Diego,

California. They dressed in unisex clothing and were all celibate. Eight ofthem, including Applewhite, had been voluntarily castrated. This was seen aspreparation for the next life, in which there would be no sexual activity andno gender identity. Members were required to separate themselves fromfamily and friends and to completely detach themselves from human emotionand material possessions. Their lives focused on following a disciplinedregimen referred to as the overcoming process, through which they couldovercome human weaknesses and prepare themselves for a physical transitionto the next kingdom.

The group saw humans in a dualistic way: that the human soul was asuperior entity that was only temporarily housed in a physical body. Much ofthe metaphor was that of gardening. The soul was seen as a plant in acontainer, but this container could be left behind, and the soul could bereplanted in another container. The Heaven’s Gate members believed thatextraterrestrials had planted the seeds of current human beings millions ofyears ago and were coming to reap the harvest of this work by takingspiritually evolved individuals to join the ranks of spaceship crews. Themembers believed that by committing suicide together at the right time, theywould leave their containers (or bodies) behind and be replanted into anothercontainer at a level above that of human existence.

The correct time was seen as March 1997, near Easter. They believed that aspaceship was hiding in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet. Twenty-one womenand eighteen men voluntarily committed suicide in three groups on threesuccessive days.

Raelians

The Raelian Movement was founded in 1973 by French race car driver andjournalist Claude Vorilhon, known as Rael to his followers. Vorilhon says thatwhile walking in the mountains around France, he had an encounter withspace aliens, during which he was given a message for humans about our trueidentity. He was told that a team of extraterrestrial scientists, the Elohim,

created humans in laboratories and then implanted them on earth. Elohim is aterm found in the Hebrew Bible, where it is translated as “God.” Rael says thatthe word means “those who came from the sky.”

Over the next five days, Vorilhon continued to meet with theextraterrestrials, who gave him new interpretations of parts of the Bible. Forexample, the Elohim chose the earth as a place to conduct DNA experiments,and they built laboratories for this purpose in what is now known as the HolyLand. They first created plants, then animals, and finally humans “in theirown image.” The humans were at first housed in these laboratories, referred toin the Bible as the Garden of Eden, but they proved to be too aggressive andwere forced out.

Vorilhon was also told that prophets, who are the offspring of the Elohimand human women, have been sent in the past. These prophets includedBuddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, and Joseph Smith. Rael, as theextraterrestrials named Vorilhon, is the last of forty prophets, sent to warnhumans that since the end of World War II we have entered the Age ofApocalypse. Instead of destroying themselves with nuclear weapons, humanscan choose instead to change their consciousness. This change will enablehumans to inherit the scientific knowledge of Elohim. Through science, 4percent of humans will be able to clone themselves. After doing this, they willbe able to travel through space and create life on other planets.

Rael focuses on cloning as the only hope for immortality. Four annualrituals are held so that the Elohim can fly overhead and record the DNA codeof the Raelians. Most members are loosely affiliated with the group andacknowledge the Elohim as their fathers. The more committed members jointhe Structure. The Structure works to further the two main goals of themovement: to spread Rael’s message and to build an intergalactic spaceembassy in Jerusalem to receive the Elohim when they arrive in the year 2025.

The Raelians have received the most attention from journalists throughtheir organization CLONAID and their claims to have successfully achievedhuman cloning. However, they have been unwilling to offer any scientificproof that they have in fact cloned a human being, and most observers believethis to be highly unlikely.

Conclusion

Religions exist to answer questions, to show us a culturally defined correctpath, to make us feel safe and secure in the world we live in. Any specificreligion is strongly connected to the culture and circumstances in which it isfound. But what happens when those conditions change? The religion nolonger meets these needs, needs that we require to be fulfilled. A new religion,more suited to the new situation, is needed, and thus a revitalizationmovement is born. Revitalization movements are likely to be popular inperiods of rapid social change, when the current ways of doing and thinkingabout things are no longer satisfying. They spell out a clear path, a new path(or the return to a former one) that they say will lead people out of despairand into a better future, which will answer questions and provide meaning tolife. And in the end, isn’t that the point of religion?

Summary

Culture change occurs through the processes of discovery, invention, anddiffusion. Acculturation refers to the situation whereby a culture issignificantly changed because of exposure to the influence of a politically andtechnologically dominant culture. Sometimes there is a reworking of the traitthrough a process known as syncretism, in which traits from two cultures fuseto form something new and yet, at the same time, permit the retention of theold by subsuming the old into a new form, such as Vodou in Haiti andSanteria in Cuba.

A revitalization movement is a movement that forms in an attempt todeliberately bring about change in a society. These are frequently initiated byan individual or a small group that promises better times. We can recognizeseveral types of revitalization movements. Nativistic movements develop intribal societies and stress the elimination of the dominant culture and a returnto the past but with desirable elements of the dominant culture brought underthe control of the subordinate culture. Examples are the cargo cults of New

Guinea and the Ghost Dance in the United States. Revivalistic movementsattempt to revive what is perceived as a past golden age, and ancient customscome to symbolize the features and legitimacy of the repressed culture. Forexample, Wicca and other Neo-Pagan movements are attempts to revive pre-Christian religious traditions. Millenarian movements are based on a vision ofchange through an apocalyptic transformation. Messianic movements believethat a divine savior in human form will bring about the solution to theproblems that exist within the society.

A new religious movement that has branched off from a more establishedreligion and yet is still considered mainstream is referred to as adenomination. A sect is still connected to the mainstream religion but isgenerally associated with a founder or leader and new revelations. The termcult is used in many ways but usually in a negative sense. Many researcherstoday avoid the term cult and use the term new religious movement.

All religious groups require some degree of conformity from their members.However, groups do vary in the level of this demand and the degree of controlthe group attempts to exert over members. At one end of the spectrum arehigh demand groups, in which the beliefs and behaviors of group members arestrictly controlled. Sometimes the activities of such groups become dangerousto its members and to society.

Study questions

1. Cultures are constantly changing and adapting to external changethrough discovery, invention, and diffusion. Define each of theseterms, and provide an example of each from American culture.

2. While the intentions of missionaries might be good, the effects oftheir activities are often harmful to small-scale societies. Why? If youwere a missionary trained in anthropology, how would you approachyour mission?

3. Vodou and Santeria are practiced by immigrants from Haiti and Cubain most large urban centers in the United States. Yet the members ofthese religions prefer to perform their rituals in secret, out of sight of

their neighbors. Why? What particular religious practices do youthink would especially offend a typical American urban resident?

4. Although we tend to think of revitalization movements as occurringprimarily in small-scale societies, can you make the argument thatChristianity and Islam began as revitalization movements?

5. Why do high demand religions develop? Why do people join thesereligions?

6. Some anthropologists have argued that it would have been better ifthe government had dealt with the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas,as a religious group and had taken their beliefs seriously. How couldthis have been accomplished? Do you think that the destruction atWaco could have been avoided? Why or why not?

Suggested readings

Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (Berkeley:University of California Press, 2001).

[A person-centered ethnography of an immigrant woman practicing Vodou inNew York City.]

Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an AnxiousAge (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).

[An anthropological look at channeling in America, focusing on issues ofidentity and how channeling reflects American culture.]

Scott Cunningham, The Truth about Witchcraft (St. Paul, MN: LlewellynPublications, 2002).

[A description of the basic beliefs, symbolism, and rituals of Wicca.]

Michael Hittman, Wovoka and the Ghost Dance (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 1997).

[A detailed description of the Ghost Dance religion with many originaldocuments.]

Alex Mar, Witches of America (New York: Sarah Crichton, 2015).

[A study of Neo-Pagan religions in the United States.]

Loretta Orion, Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revived (ProspectHeights, IL: Waveland Press, 1995).

[An ethnography of Wiccans.]

Fiction

Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (New York: Dell Publishing, 1988).[An apocalyptic story that includes a small Caribbean nation in which areligion called Bokononism is practiced.]

Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (New York: Berkeley, 1961).[Valentine Michael Smith, raised by Martians, returns to earth and founds hisown church.]

Suggested websites

www.unification.netThe website of the Unification Church.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060428083040/religiousmovements.lib.virginia.eduReligious Movements home page at the University of Virginia.

www.religioustolerance.org/newage.htmDiscussions of New Age spirituality.

www.psywww.com/psyrelig/hg/index.htmlHeaven’s Gate website.

www.witchvox.com/xbasics.htmlInformation on Neo-Pagan religions from The Witches’ Voice.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/cultmain.htm“The Cult Question: Spiritual Quest or Mind Control” from The Washington

Post.

Notes

1 A. F. C. Wallace, Culture and Personality (New York: Random House, 1970).

2 Quoted in J. R. Lewis, “Overview,” in J. R. Lewis (Ed.), Odd Gods: New Religions and theCult Controversy (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 2001), p. 41.

3 Ibid., pp. 32–33.

4 H. Witt, “Faith and Culture: Branch Davidian: Waco Sect Survives,” Chicago Tribune(June 14, 2004).

Chapter 12Religion, conflict, and peace

In our study of religion we have seen that religion has a great many functions.Among these is the fact that religion serves to bind people together into socialgroups, importantly people who are not related to one another and do notshare bonds of kinship. Religion also spells out and emphasizes moral rules ofhuman behavior that are essential for large numbers of people in acommunity to coexist in harmony.

Yet within these functions are the seeds of conflict. As effective as religionsare in binding people together, they are equally effective at separating out thepeople outside the religious community, people whose behavior and moralcode is often vilified and viewed as alien and incorrect. Religion may fosterpeacefulness and proper behavior but is also frequently the cause andfacilitator of conflict and violence. This is the subject of this chapter.

Religion and conflict

Conflict is part of life and will always exist because different people havedifferent worldviews, cultural beliefs and values, and individual interests andgoals. We previously discussed conflicts arising from different uses of thesame symbol, such as the swastika, or different interpretations of the samemyth. Conflict in itself is not good or bad—it is how we deal with conflict.

Andrew Heywood argued that politics, and in particular democraticpolitics, is in essence a form of conflict resolution.1 Our government is part ofa complex system designed to deal with conflict over things such as the

distribution of resources. When the political system breaks down, individualsmay resort to violence to try to address the conflict or to express theirfrustrations. Does this mean that conflicts resolved through political meansare always nonviolent and those resolved through other means are alwaysviolent? That depends on how we define violence.

When we think of violence we usually think of people directly andphysically harming other people. Johan Galtung, a Norwegian sociologist,defines violence very broadly as whatever stops people and groups fromachieving their full potential.2 He distinguishes between direct violence andindirect violence, which he describes as structural violence and culturalviolence. Structural violence is the result of societal conditions such aslowered life expectancy in lower socioeconomic classes. A society’s way ofjustifying this kind of violence and making it seem natural is called culturalviolence.

You may be thinking that by including indirect violence, the definition istoo broad. Certainly with these definitions we would see violence everywhereand when most people think of violence they are thinking of direct, physicalviolence. However, it is useful to understand that violence can happenwithout a specific actor. Taking into account structural and cultural violencecan help us understand the more direct violence of particular groups. Forexample, Islamic terrorist attacks on innocent Europeans can be understood asa reaction against structural violence both historically and currently that hasled to war and instability in the Middle East.

Role of religion in conflict and violence

What is the role of religion in conflict and violence? Some theorists argue thatconflict and violence are inherent to religion (the substantive view) whileothers argue that religious conflicts are always really about something else(the functional view). Those who think that religion has a built-in tendency tocause conflicts and violence point to specific characteristics or warning signs,including that religion is absolutist, divisive, and irrationalist. Others arguethat these features are not unique to religion and can be found associated withsuch things as nationalism (Box 12.1).

Box 12.1 Nationalism as religion

Nationalism refers to a sense of identification with and loyalty to onenation above all others. In this sense it is a purely secular phenomenon.However, nationalism and patriotism share many parallels with religionsfrom an analytic and functional perspective. Nationalism and religion areboth based on deep emotions and serve as sources of identification andfor defining self and other. Both provide major themes for anindividual’s worldview, and include important stories, symbols, andrituals that people feel reverence for. Insiders who go against the nationor religion are seen as having committed a crime beyond that of anormal transgression and may be exiled or shunned. Individuals willgive their lives for their nation in the same way that they will do so inthe service of religious beliefs.

In the United States, the flag is the predominant symbol ofnationalism. There are rituals around raising and lowering the flag andchildren pledge their allegiance to the flag every day in school. Songs,reminiscent of hymns, are sung that invoke the imagery of the flag andreverence for the nation. The constitution and declaration ofindependence are sacred texts and are quoted on important occasions.Relics of the nation are kept in the National Archives and places such asthe Washington Memorial, Gettysburg, and Ground Zero are treated assacred places to which individuals make pilgrimages. The foundingfathers are rarely portrayed as complex human beings, flaws and all, butare treated as saints to be revered and never criticized. For many, anycriticism against the country is a betrayal and shows a lack of loyalty.Historical traitors, such as Benedict Arnold, are seen as evil beings.

Religions are absolutist in that they claim to be the absolute truth, drawingsharp lines between good and evil. This allows for no dialogue orunderstanding of other viewpoints and offers no possibility of compromise.When social struggles get interpreted in terms of religion, they become largerthan life, a cosmic battle between good and evil.

Religion suggests clear-cut distinctions not just between good and evil but

also between “us” and “them.” Religious symbols, rituals, and worldviewscreate a strong sense of community and identity. They also often providebelievers with a sense of sacred privilege; being the chosen ones elevates themabove all others. This type of worldview is divisive, tending to causedisagreements with others.

Believers see the rules and directives of religion as going beyond theordinary. Therefore, normal logic and judgments do not apply and religiousbeliefs and rules are beyond scientific and rational understanding, which canbe termed irrationalist. Religion often calls for a blind obedience to thesupernatural. Believers are taught that their personal desires are secondary toreligious traditions. Because of this they can be persuaded to fight for religiousbattles even if it is not in their own best interest. Since the supernatural ismore important than the natural world, it is possible to justify any means andfight against all odds to realize religious goals. It may not even matter if theyare not winning the battle in the natural world since they will ultimately berewarded in the afterlife.

Fundamentalism

Many of the features considered to link religion to conflict from thesubstantive viewpoint are also closely linked with fundamentalism. The termfundamentalism originated in the nineteenth century. At that time it wasused to refer to the opponents of liberal Protestantism who were urging areturn to the “fundamentals” of Christianity as a way to guide those whomthey believed had lost their way. Among these fundamentals was a belief inthe inerrancy of the scriptures and a resulting millenarianism based on theBook of Revelation.

The term fundamentalism was generalized to other religious traditions witha strong scriptural component, mainly Judaism and Islam. Judaism, inparticular, has focused historically on debates, commentaries, andinterpretations of scriptures, and differences in these interpretations led todifferent Jewish denominations. In Islam, however, the Qur’an is seen as theWord of God and is not seen as something that can be treated as a historic or

literary text. Therefore debates over meanings are not seen as challenging thefoundations or sanctity of the scriptures—the fundamental always remains sothere is no need to justify or rediscover them. Because of this, many Islamicand some Jewish groups question the use of the term fundamentalism to referto non-Christian traditions. Some Islamic writers prefer the terms“absolutism” or “extremism” instead of “fundamentalism.”

Over time, however, the use of the term fundamentalism has shifted froman emphasis on religious scriptures to being associated with religious andsocial movements that share certain features and worldview in common. It isthat etic perspective that we will use here.

Characteristics of fundamentalist groups

In many ways fundamentalists groups are easier to define by what they areagainst than what they are for. These groups protest against, and fear,modernization in general and the secularization of society specifically. Societyis no longer focused on the big questions of morality and salvation. Change isnow prized over continuity. An emphasis on production and commerce hasreplaced more traditional values. Loyalty to and identification with the statehave replaced loyalty to and identification with one’s religious group.Fundamentalists express outrage at these trends.

The fundamentalist worldview is focused on finding certainty andsimplicity in an otherwise complex and uncertain world. They tend to seeissues in terms of black and white and reject the idea of relativism. Because ofthis mindset, they generally refuse to engage in dialogue and compromise orfind common ground, an absolutist perspective.

Richard Antoun describes fundamentalism:

as an orientation to the modern world, both cognitive and emotional, that focuses onprotest and change and on certain consuming themes: the quest for purity, the searchfor authenticity, totalism and activism, the necessity for certainty (scripturalism),selective modernization, and the centering of the mythic past in the present.3

Totalism is a reaction to the increasing separation of religion from otherdomains of life. Fundamentalists believe that religion is relevant to, and

should be a part of, all parts of a society. Religious texts play an importantrole in fundamentalist beliefs. Scripturalism refers to the practice of justifyingbeliefs and actions by reference to the religious text. These texts are generallyheld to be inerrant and represent certainty and stability in a rapidly changingworld. Another aspect of the importance of religious texts is the idea thatthese texts are relevant to life today, what Antoun calls traditioning.

Other important themes of fundamentalist groups include millenarianismand a focus on the perceived struggle between good and evil. These groupsalso are characterized by activism. Antoun points out that “Fundamentalism isinherently oppositional and minoritarian. It is the protest of those not inpower.”4 It is important to note that he means political and cultural power, notnecessarily economic power.

Although the themes of fundamentalist groups are very similar cross-culturally, individual movements obviously have arisen in response to verydifferent cultural and historical circumstances. The growth of Christianfundamentalism in the United States was a reaction to the secular Protestantideology that was very important in the early days of the country. A belief insecular progress and ideas such as manifest destiny served to elevatenationalism to the level of religion. In contrast, Islamic fundamentalism islargely a reaction to Western colonialism and the general outrage at the extentof Western cultural and economic infiltration into Islamic countries. AndJewish fundamentalism has its roots in reactions to the strong anti-Semitismof the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in eastern and central Europe.

Mormon fundamentalism

Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(LDS), received the revelation regarding marriage in the early 1830s. A fewyears later he made the revelation public. It is recorded as Section 132 of TheDoctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsContaining Revelations Given to Joseph Smith, The Prophet. This revelationintroduced the principle of plural marriage, based on the marriage customs ofthe patriarchs of the Bible, such as Abraham and Jacob, who had more thanone wife. Among the Mormons, polygamy became an obligation; some

referred to it as a sacrifice. Joseph Smith and his successors were given divineauthority to perform polygamous marriages.

Polygamy was actively practiced in secret by members of the church until1852 when Brigham Young brought it out into the open. Knowledge of thepractice of polygamy caused great concern among non-Mormons, and theFederal government passed a series of laws making its practice a crime. Thegovernment also actively prosecuted polygamists and plural marriage was animportant factor in originally denying statehood to Utah. In 1890 theMormons no longer entered polygamous marriages. The explanation givenwas that God accepted the sacrifice of plural marriage and removed thecommandment. Although some polygamous marriages were authorized after1890, all such marriages ceased in 1904. After 1904, church members wereexcommunicated for practicing polygamy.

Not all church members accepted the end of plural marriages, and somecontinued the practice after 1904. They continued to regard polygamy as areligious obligation based upon Joseph Smith’s revelation. Because they couldno longer marry within the Church, they found other ways of legitimizingpolygamous unions. In the 1920s, Mormon fundamentalist groups began toaccept the claim made by Lorin C. Woolley that he had the divine authority tosolemnize polygamous marriages. He preached that he was the legitimatehead of the Church holding the authority passed down from Joseph Smith.

Although the practice of polygamy has been the most publicized feature offundamentalist Mormon groups, other concepts, which were articulated andpracticed to a greater or lesser degree in the mid-nineteenth century, are alsofound and would fit with the practices of high demand groups that werediscussed in the previous chapter. Three of these are controversial and havebeen repudiated by the LDS Church.

The first is known as the Law of Consecration. Consecration refers toindividuals deeding their property to the Church. The Church in turn assigneda certain amount of property back to the individual to use. In the LDS Church,consecration has been replaced by tithing whereby a certain percentage ofone’s income is given to the Church. However, in many fundamentalistgroups this principle is used to concentrate control of all property, includinghomes and farmland, in the hands of the leader who then allows people to usethe property as he sees fit. The second is the prohibition against AfricanAmericans entering the priesthood. Although the LDS Church rejected this

policy in 1978, it is still practiced by fundamentalist groups.Finally, there is the practice of blood atonement. Many historians believe

that this was practiced by the early Church. Individuals were killed whocommitted one of many sins, including adultery, sexual intercourse between awhite person and an African American, and leaving the Church. A series ofmurders in the 1970s and 1980s have been attributed to fundamentalist groupspracticing blood atonement.

Today the fundamentalist movement has split into a number of small, self-contained, and highly secretive communities living in rural areas in thewestern United States, Mexico, and Canada. Each group is controlled by aleader who demands complete obedience. Polygamy is practiced, with girls asyoung as 12 and 13 being required to marry leaders of the community. Manyof these groups have been accused of illegal practices such as forcing underagegirls into marriage.

Case studies of religion and conflict

Disillusionment with secular models of geopolitics was key to how religionbecame prominent in conflicts in the last few decades. For example, the end ofthe Cold War, the ideological conflict between the capitalist democraticUnited States and the communist authoritarian Soviet Union, dominated theglobal political landscape for much of the twentieth century. The conflict isreferred to as the Cold War because there was no actual direct violent conflictbetween the two countries. Instead the conflict was fought indirectly insmaller battles through their allies in various parts of the world, such as theKorean War, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Sovietinvasion of Afghanistan.

Many scholars argue that the impact of this global ideological conflict wasthat other sources of ideological and identity conflict (including religious)were subordinated to the broader conflict between capitalist democracy andcommunist authoritarianism. However, once this framework was no longerthere, other sources of identity and conflict began to reemerge.

In the Middle East, disillusionment with secular governments started even

earlier. Secularism was strongly associated with authoritarianism, as in thecase of the Shah in Iran and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Under theseauthoritarian regimes, extreme poverty, deprivation of rights, and limitedaccess to resources were common. For many, this represented not only afailure of secular nationalism but a failure of the state to provide for andprotect its citizens, an important tenet of Islam. Another factor in the growingprominence of religion in conflicts is the function of religion to reduceambiguity, uncertainty, and insecurity. In a rapidly changing and ever morecomplex world these would be expected to be a factor but even more so insituations of conflict.

The Iranian Revolution

Islamic fundamentalism is a movement grounded in social, religious, andeconomic stressors that exist in many Muslim countries. Since the fall of theOttoman Empire in the 1920s, world history has seen the politicalmarginalization of these countries. The colonial context of political andeconomic domination is an important backdrop. In many areas of the MiddleEast the borders drawn by European colonial powers in the early twentiethcentury rarely coincided with boundaries of preexisting communities. Ethnicand regional diversities, as well as local loyalties to various tribes or religioussects, made it difficult to integrate people into one nation.

Even after Muslim countries gained independence, Western colonialismwas still seen as a problem. Most Muslim countries were ruled by aWesternized elite, mass-produced Western goods were flooding in, andWestern culture was coming in through mass media. Although great wealthcame into the region in the 1970s as a result of OPEC oil price increases, thiswent only to the elite and only served to accentuate the relative deprivation ofthe majority of people. For many Muslims, this cultural and economicdomination by the outside was seen as a sign of God’s wrath and a call for areturn to the Qur’an and strict adherence to its principles. Islamicfundamentalism illustrates many of Antoun’s themes described earlier,including scripturalism and traditioning.

Perhaps the best example of the political activism aspect of fundamentalism

in Islam is the Iranian Revolution in 1979. This was a religious revolutionagainst secular nationalism, led by religious leaders and using religiousidioms. An exemplar of this was the use of the myth of the Imam Husayn. TheShi’a Muslims in Iran focus not on the Prophet (like Sunni Muslims do) butinstead on his descendants. According to Shi’a tradition, almost all twelve ofthe imams, direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad, died by violentmeans and at the hands of the secular government in power at the time. Theobvious message was that these governments could not be trusted. Thesestories form the backdrop for a worldview of alienation from society, andmore particularly from the government, which is seen as unjust andillegitimate.

Of particular importance is the story of the third imam, Husayn, grandsonof Mohammed. Before the revolution, religious devotion centered on Husayn,focused on his role as intercessor between humans and God. However, duringthe course of the revolution, a new interpretation and emphasis emerged. Thestory tells us that in the seventh century Husayn was on a pilgrimage toMecca when he heard that his adherents in Iraq were surrounded by an armyand needed his support. He broke off his pilgrimage, one of the five requiredpillars of Islam, to go to them. In Iraq, he, his family, and his followers weremartyred. The focus shifted to Husayn as a revolutionary who believed thatthe struggle against oppression was more important than even theperformance of basic Muslim worship obligations.

At the time of the revolution, Iran was a constitutional monarchy ruled byShah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The Shah ran a strict dictatorship, completewith censorship laws and the imprisonment of political activists. At the sametime, some conditions in Iran had improved and some rights were established.The White Revolution in the 1960s had begun a series of social, economic, andpolitical reforms that gave more freedom to women and emphasized secularover religious education. These attempts to modernize Iran were undertakenwith the help of the United States who saw Iran as a potentially stabilizingforce in the region. The Shah was opposed by many groups. Some disliked theShah’s autocratic rule and the corruption of the very wealthy royal family.Religious leaders saw his rule as overly secular and tied to the West,particularly to the United States.

The revolution against the Shah utilized the imagery of the story ofHusayn. Demonstrators yelled that “Everywhere is Kerbala and every day is

Ashura” (Kerbala and Ashura being the place and time that Husayn waskilled). The U.S. president at the time, Jimmy Carter, was identified as Yazid,the ruler of the army at Kerbala, and the Shah was seen as Shimr, the generalsent by Yazid to kill Husayn. The United States was called the “Great Satan.”

On December 10, 1978, on the Day of Ashura, the anniversary of the daythat Husayn was killed, two million demonstrators marched for hours. Theycarried flags of green, red, and black, symbolizing Islam, martyrdom, andShi’a. By the end, a resolution was passed and Ayatollah Khomeini, living inexile, was invited to become the new leader of Iran. He returned in February1979 and formed the Islamic Republic. Islamic law was reestablished, religiousinstruction was reinstituted in the educational arena, and many new socialnorms were instituted, including the veiling of women, a ban on alcohol andgambling, and the censoring of all media for sexual content.

Box 12.2 The veil in Islam

Many religious systems prescribe standards of behavior. This includesstandards of dress and grooming. Examples are the dress codes of theAmish and the Hasidic Jews. While the details and underlying theologymay differ, these rules function to identify members of the group and todisplay one’s commitment to the group’s religious practices. In Muslimcountries it is traditional for women to cover their head, and sometimeseven their entire body in the presence of non-family males. This is seenas adherence to a level of modesty that is required by religious and socialcustom.

The nature of the covering varies from society to society. The mostcommonly worn garment is the hijab, a headscarf that covers the headand neck. Other forms of veiling includes the niqab that covers the entirebody except for an opening for the eyes; the chador, a long shawl thatcovers the head and body but leaves the face uncovered; and the burqa, afull-body veil with the eye opening covered by mesh.

The wearing of such coverings is mandated by law in several countriessuch as Saudi Arabia; in other countries it is customary but optional. Asurvey by the Pew Research Center in 2011 of Muslim American women

showed that 36 percent wear the hijab all of the time, 24 percent wear itmost or some of the time, and 40 percent never wear it.5

In some communities undergoing assimilation the hijab has become animportant symbol not only of a religious system, but of one’s culturalorigins and identity. This has become a major issue in France, whichmaintains a strict separation between religion and the state in theeducation system. In 1989 this became a major issue when three teenagegirls of North African descent wore headscarves to school. When askedthey refused to remove them and were subsequently expelled. Thisbecame known as the “headscarf affair” and led to attempts to outlaw thewearing of headscarves in public schools.

In 2004 France passed a law banning the wearing of conspicuousreligious symbols in French public schools. The law does not single outthe hijab; it refers instead to conspicuous religious objects. This meansthat each school must find its own interpretation. A cross and Star ofDavid are usually allowed, but in one case a student was expelled simplyfor wearing a long dress that came to her ankles. Yarmulkes (Jewishskullcaps) are frequently allowed as cultural and social symbols ratherthan religious symbols.

The law is controversial. The many debates focus on the rights ofminority groups and religious freedom. The hijab is also seen as anavoidance of assimilation by stressing one’s ancestry and culturalheritage. However, the issue is not simply an academic one. France hasbeen racked by several acts of terrorism, perpetrated by religiousextremists. Anti-Muslim feelings have risen, and the hijab has becomeanother type of symbol. It has become a symbol of the fear of the “other.”

The debates have moved beyond the schools. On the Mediterraneancoast of France many cities banned the burkini, a full-body swimsuitworn by Muslim women, in response to terrorist attacks there in 2016.City officials argued that the burkinis were associated with Islamicfundamentalism and would cause emotional distress following theattacks. In Nice, France, the human rights group Collective AgainstIslamophobia brought a court case saying it was discriminatory, Anti-Muslim, and unconstitutional. The court suspended the ban as no publicrisk was shown. Some have pointed out that full-body coverings worn by

Catholic nuns are permitted on the same beaches.

Iran under the new religious rule has been criticized for many human rightsviolations, including the imprisonment and murder of critics of the regime.Although women had gained many important rights under the Shah, thesehave all been lost. Patrols were formed to confront women for such violationsas wearing lipstick or showing their hair.

The Arab Spring

The failure of the state to protect its citizens was a catalyst for many forms ofopen resistance, many of which were religiously based. The uprisings oftencalled the “Arab Spring” are one of the most recent of these events. Beginningin Tunisia in 2011, it spread to Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria. Theterm “Arab Spring” was coined by the Western media in response to thesuccessful uprising in Tunisia and referenced the fall of Communism inEastern Europe in 1989, when most countries in the former Communist blocadopted democratic political systems and a market economy in a very shorttime frame. The expectation that a similar thing would happen in the MiddleEast, with political systems collapsing in the face of popular uprisings, wasmisguided. As opposed to what happened in Eastern Europe, in the MiddleEast there was no consensus on what should replace the existing system.

Two conflicting principles were at play in the uprisings: the desire for moreimplementation of Islamic fundamentalism on one hand and the belief thatsecularism had to be defended on the other. This has resulted in the rise of theIslamic State in Iraq and Syria. Instead of political reform and social justice,there has been more war and more violence.

The Hobby Lobby case in the United States

In 2010, the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA, otherwise knownas “Obamacare”) was introduced in the United States. The legislation required

businesses to provide health insurance coverage for their employees. The basisof the religious conflict, though, was a provision that this insurance wouldinclude all Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved contraceptivemethods. Although regulations provided by the Department of Health andHuman Services did make some exemptions for religious employers, somereligious businesses felt that this was not enough.

In September of 2012, the Hobby Lobby stores sought an injunction underthe Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The RFRA was passed byCongress in 1993 and requires strict scrutiny when a law “substantiallyburdens a person’s exercise of religion.” It was amended in 2000 to defineexercise of religion as any exercise of religion “whether or not compelled by,or central to, a system of religious beliefs.” Hobby Lobby was founded and isrun by the Green family who are devout Christians who run their company ina way consistent with Biblical principles. For example, the company and all itsstores are closed on Sundays. The Greens objected to four of the twentycontraceptives covered by the PPACA, including the morning-after pill,because they conflict with their belief that life starts at conception.

Figure 12.1 Hobby Lobby. Supporters Hobby Lobby react to the U.S. Supreme Court decisionof June 30, 2014.

Although the injunction was initially denied it was upheld on appeal. Afteran appeal by the United States government the course went to the SupremeCourt in 2014 where the justices ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby (Figure 12.1).

This was considered a landmark decision and was the first time the courtrecognized a corporation’s claim of religious beliefs. The court found that for-profit corporations could be considered as persons under the RFRA, arecognition that was already extended to non-profits.

The case speaks to a critical issue that is at the heart of liberal democraciesin North America and Europe. To what extent does the government have theright to infringe on freedom of religion when it concerns the health and well-being of other groups within the state? Is the right to freedom of religionapplicable only to individuals or also to businesses?

Religion, terrorism, and peace

Religiously based conflict may lead to violence considered to be terrorism.However, religion may also play an important role in peacebuilding. Examplesof both of these are discussed below.

Religious conflict and terrorism

Although religious violence is nothing new, the last few decades of thetwentieth century saw an increase in religious violence and terrorism aroundthe world. Some of this is linked to new fundamentalist movements. Examplesof religious violence can be found in all of the world religions and in smallerreligious groups as well. Christianity is associated with attacks on abortionclinics in the United States and with the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, notto mention the religious conflicts in Northern Ireland. The Middle East hasseen much violence perpetrated by both Jews and Muslims, including theassassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Baruch Goldstein’s attack at the Tomb of thePatriarchs, and Hamas suicide bombers. Sikhism is associated with theassassination of Indira Gandhi, and a sect of Japanese Buddhism with theTokyo subway gas attack. The September 11, 2001, attack on the World TradeCenter towers in New York and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., is only

one of many examples of religiously motivated violence.Much of this violence has been referred to by the term terrorism.Terrorism

can be defined as “public acts of destruction, committed without a clearmilitary objective that arouse a widespread sense of fear.”6 Such acts aregenerally committed with a deliberately exaggerated level of violence. Theviolence is justified by reference to religious beliefs, including the idea thatthe act is part of an ongoing cosmic war, a battle between good and evil. Thusthose who commit the acts are seen as martyrs to the cause; those who areattacked are defined as demons and agents of Satan.

Terrorism is also usually defined as the tactics of a smaller, weaker groupagainst a more politically established enemy with the intent to intimidate orput political pressure on the more dominant organization. The actors aretypically non-state related. Of course, there is state-sponsored violence andacts that could be considered state terror but this differs in scale, motivation,and the means by which the fear-inducing violence is carried out.

Mark Juergensmeyer argues that terrorist acts are highly symbolic and, assuch, can be analyzed in much the same way that religious ritual is.7 Forexample, the timing and location of attacks are usually highly symbolic. Theviolence is meant to send a message, although the intended message is notalways the one that the general public perceives.

Many theories of terrorism focus on the role of a lack of education orpoverty in states that are weak. However, research has shown that both poorand wealthy individuals engage in terrorist acts and that support for terrorismactually increased among Palestinians that were higher on the economiccontinuum. Similarly, individuals with increasing levels of education oftenshow increased support for terrorism. Some terrorist organizations willspecifically target university students for recruitment.

Other theories focus on the role of social dynamics in small groups.Charismatic leaders bring socially alienated individuals into a network offictive kinship that acts as a tight-knit family group. Many individualsrecruited by terrorist organizations are migrants living in diasporacommunities where they are marginalized from the societies they live in. Theterrorist groups offer them a sense of meaning and belonging. Not only doemotional attachments grow with the new family-like group, but bondingamong young males occurs as we saw in our previous discussion of rites of

passage (Chapter 4).8

Figure 12.2 Terrorist attacks in Paris. People react to a series of attacks in Paris, France, in2015, in front of a memorial display, an example of a situational ritual.

Religion and peace

Just as we needed to define conflict, we also need to define peace. Most peoplethink of peace as just being the absence of war, something John Galtungcalled negative peace.9 How Galtung defined peace relates to how he definedviolence as including more than just direct, physical violence. An absence ofdirect violence would be negative peace. But only an absence of structuralviolence results in what Galtung called positive peace. Positive peace is notjust about ending violent conflict but about ensuring the safety and well-beingof the population.

We have discussed how religion is related to conflict and violence, butreligion also has a role to play in peace and peacebuilding in the aftermath ofviolent conflict. There are many ways that religious leaders and religiousinstitutions can contribute to peace, including acting as mediators, providingmeeting places, and calling on their extensive communication networks. Aswe saw in Chapter 6, priests often have secular powers and play a strong rolein society and can promote civic engagement, a sense of shared responsibilityand participation in peacebuilding activities. Religious leaders can also call on

the mythology and worldview of their traditions to form strong ethical andmoral arguments.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is anexample that shows the role of religion in the peacebuilding process in post-apartheid South Africa.10 The system of apartheid was based on often brutalmistreatment of the majority black population by the minority whiteAfrikaans population. Christianity played a role in supporting apartheid as theDutch Reformed Church suggested that Afrikaners were God’s chosen peopleand that blacks were a subservient species. In their worldview, apartheid andthe church were linked. We can see here how more religious ideas becomeentangled with more secular ones such as racism.

However, religion was also an important part of efforts at peacebuildingfollowing the transition to democracy in South Africa in the early 1990s.Christianity played a large role in the TRC, which actually led to somecriticism as it was unclear whether the TRC was state-sponsored or church-sponsored. The TRC framed the process as one of religious redemption andsuggested that Christianity was needed to achieve reconciliation. This caseshows how difficult it can be to separate out the sacred and the secular, thechurch and the state. Although post-apartheid South Africa was a secularstate, the people of South Africa, black and white, considered it to be aChristian country.

The TRC operated from 1995 to 2002 with the mandate of investigatinghuman rights violations that occurred during apartheid by both the state andthe liberation movement. The main focus was on providing a safe place forvictims to tell their stories and for perpetrators to confess, atone, and apply foramnesty. The commissioners came from three backgrounds—legal, health andmental health, and religious—and was chaired by Anglican ArchbishopDesmond Tutu. Many TRC events took place in churches and Christian ritualswere also held at the TRC. Hymns were often sung during testimony andbiblical passages read aloud. While the TRC helped with some healing andrecovery, much of the social and economic injustices were not addressed andSouth Africa remains a very unequal country.

Conclusion

As we have seen throughout this book, religion is connected to and interactswith all other areas of a culture. Religion is an important aspect of identityand a major shaper of worldviews. As such it is inevitable that religion will beinvolved in conflicts of many different types. To truly understand theseconflicts and search for solutions we need to understand the context in whichthey are occurring, which will include many of the topics we have discussedthroughout this book. People’s worldview and cultural beliefs about thesupernatural may be a causal factor in conflict or may be used to expressother conflicts. As such, efforts at peacebuilding need to address these factorsand can harness the functional aspects of religion to help resolve conflicts.

Summary

In addition to direct, physical violence, John Galtung proposes that there isalso indirect violence both structural, based on social structures and socialinstitutions, and cultural, where culture is used to justify the structuralviolence. The substantive view argues that conflict is inherent to religionbecause religion is absolutist, divisive and irrationalist. The functionalist viewstates that religious conflicts are really about something else.

Fundamentalism is a religious movement characterized by a return tofundamental principles, usually including a resistance to modernization andan emphasis on certainty through a literal interpretation of scriptures. Themesof fundamentalist groups include the quest for purity, the search forauthenticity, totalism and activism, the necessity for certainty (scripturalism),selective modernization, and the centering of the mythic past in the present.

Disillusionment with secular geopolitics and a need to reduce ambiguityand uncertainty were major contributors to the prominence of religion inconflicts in recent decades. Examples of the role of religion in conflicts includethe Iranian Revolution, the Arab Spring, and the Hobby Lobby case.

Terrorist acts are those committed by a smaller, weaker entity against non-

combatants with the intent to arouse fear and put pressure on the moredominant organization. Terrorist acts are often symbolic in nature. Individualsmay join terrorist groups for the sense of stability, family, and belonging thatit gives them.

Religious institutions and leaders also play a role in peacebuilding, such asin the case of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee.Religious leaders may act as mediators, provide meeting places, and call onextensive communication networks and their secular influence. They can alsocall on the mythology and worldview of their traditions to form strong ethicaland moral arguments.

Study questions

1. What do you think is the relationship between religion and conflict?Why?

2. Think of a situation of conflict in your own society. Can you identifyany indirect violence associated with this conflict?

3. Give an example of a myth, symbol, or ritual that emphasizes orencourages conflict and violence and one that emphasizes orencourages stability and peace.

4. Imagine there was no separation of church and state in the UnitedStates and that a fundamentalist religious group has taken control.How do you think that society would change?

5. What is your opinion on the core questions raised by the HobbyLobby case? To what extent does the government have the right toinfringe on freedom of religion when it concerns the health and well-being of other groups within the state? Is the right to freedom ofreligion applicable only to individuals or also to businesses?

6. In your opinion, what would positive peace in a society look like?What criteria would need to be met?

Suggested readings

Nancy Tatom Ammerman, The Bible Believers: Fundamentalists in theModern World (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987).

[An ethnography of modern fundamentalists.]

Richard T. Antoun, Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic andJewish Movements (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2001).

[Looks at the common characteristics of fundamentalist movements.]

Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000).[A discussion of fundamentalism, focusing on Protestant fundamentalism inthe United States, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, and Muslimfundamentalism in Egypt and Iran.]

Susan Friend Harding, The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Languageand Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000).

[A look at Christian fundamentalism as seen through the life of Jerry Falwell.]

Mark Jurgensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of ReligiousViolence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).

[A comparative look at religious violence and terrorism.]

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Death without Weeping: The Violence of EverydayLife in Brazil (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

[The author focuses on the lives of women and children living in poverty, anexample of structural violence.]

Suggested websites

www.usip.orgUnited States Institute of Peace.

www.cfr.org/peace-conflict-and-human-rights/sunni-shia-divide/p33176#!/p33176

The Sunni Shia Divide (Council on Foreign Relations).

https://csrc.asu.edu/ASU Center for Study of Religion and Conflict.

https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/religion-and-conflict-case-studies

Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at GeorgetownUniversity (Religion and Conflict Case Studies).

Notes

1 A. Heywood, Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations (2nd edn) (Palgrave:Macmillan, 2015).

2 J. Galtung, “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research,” Journal of Peace Research, 6 (1969),pp. 167–191.

3 R. T. Antoun, Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements(Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2001), p. 2.

4 Ibid., p. 13, italics in original.

5 Pew Research Center, 2011, Muslim American Survey 083.

6 M. Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 5.

7 M. Juergensmeyer, op. cit.

8 L. A. Kuznar, “Rationality Wars and the War on Terror: Explaining Terrorism and SocialUnrest,” American Anthropologist, 109 (2007), pp. 318–329.

9 J. Galtung, op. cit.

10 M. Shore, Religion and Conflict Resolution: Christianity and South Africa’s Truth andReconciliation Commission (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009).

Glossary

acculturation  The process whereby a culture receives traits from a dominantsociety.

achieved status  A status that one has because of a factor other thanautomatic membership due to gender, age, kinship affiliation, and so forth.

acrostic  A word that is derived from the first letter of a series of words.aerophone  A musical instrument in which air is blown across or into some

type of passageway, such as a pipe; includes whistles and flutes.age grade  A series of consecutive statuses defined by age.age set  A social group that contains members of one sex within a specific

age span.agnosticism  The idea that the existence of a god is unknowable, that it is as

impossible to prove the nonexistence of the supernatural as it is to proveits existence.

aleuromancy  Divination by use of flour, as in fortune cookies.altered states of consciousness  Any mental state that differs from a normal

mental state.analytic definition  A definition that focuses on the way religion manifests

itself or is expressed in a culture.ancestor  A deceased family member who has a continued existence and the

potential to impact the lives of his or her living descendants.angels  In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, spirit beings who act as

mediators between God and human beings.animatism  The belief in an impersonal supernatural power.animism  A belief in spirit beings.anthropology  The study of humanity.anthropomorphic  Nonhuman entities that have human characteristics.anti-therapy ritual  A ritual that is performed to bring about illness,

accident, or death.

apantomancy  Divination by a chance meeting with an animal.apocalypse  Ultimate devastation or the end of the world.apotropaic practices  Cultural practices designed to shield the community

from evil influences.arbitrary  A feature of symbols, in which the symbol is not related to the

thing it symbolizes.archaeology  The study of prehistoric people from the analysis of their

physical and cultural remains.archetype  A main character of the collective unconscious.ascribed status  A status that one automatically has because of gender, age,

kinship affiliation, and so forth.assimilation  A condition whereby a dominated culture has changed so

much because of outside influences that it ceases to have its own distinctidentity.

astrology  The belief that all of the stars and planets, as well as the sun andmoon, influence the destiny of people and that reading the sky can be usedas a divination technique.

athame  The ritual knife used in Wiccan rituals.atheism  Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.atonement  For Christians, the idea that the death of Jesus Christ represented

a sacrifice that reconciled humans and God.attribute god  A god that rules over a defined domain.avatar  The incarnation or embodiment of a god in human form.Axis Mundi  A central axis that is seen as linking the three different levels of

the world, the central world containing humans, and the supernaturallayers above and below it.

calendrical ritual  A ritual that is performed on a regular basis as part of areligious calendar.

cargo cult  Religious movement occurring among small-scale societies ofMelanesia in response to culture contact; the movement focuses on theattainment of trade goods.

channeling  When a person becomes a source of communication for asupernatural agent.

choice fatigue  A situation in which individuals in a culture are faced withtoo many options, such as when a single dominant church is replaced bynumerous denominations and sects.

chromolithograph  A type of colored printed poster.cicatrization  Scar formation at the site of a cut or wound.circumcision  A surgical procedure during which the foreskin is removed

from the penis.clitoridectomy  A surgical procedure characterized by removal of the clitoris

as well as parts or all of the labia minora.cognition  The processes of the human brain, including perception, attention,

learning, memory, concept formation, and problem solving.collective conscious  A set of beliefs shared by members of a social group

that functions to limit the natural selfishness of individuals and promotesocial cooperation.

collective unconscious  Inborn elements of the unconscious that aremanifested in dreams and myths.

communitas  A state characterized by a sense of equality, community, andcamaraderie.

contagious magic  Magic that is based on the Law of Contagion, utilizingthings that once were in physical contact with an individual.

cordophone  A musical instrument with taut strings that can be plucked orstrummed, hit, or sawed, such as a harp or violin.

core shamanism  Michael Harner’s concept of the core and nearly universalmethods of shamanism without a specific cultural context.

covenant  A formal, binding agreement.creator god  A god that is responsible for the creation of the physical earth

and the plants and animals that live upon it.crisis ritual  A ritual that arises spontaneously, frequently in times of crisis.cross  An upright pole with a transverse piece in the middle or near the top.

Used for execution by the Romans; now a symbol for the Christianreligion.

cult  Historical meaning is a particular form or system of religious worship.Most commonly used to describe a small, recently created, and spirituallyinnovative group, often with a single charismatic leader. Connotations ofthe term include that the leader is evil, is in total control of his followers,and believes that the end of the world is imminent.

cultural anthropology  The anthropological study of contemporary humansocieties and their cultures.

cultural relativism  Attempting to analyze and understanding cultures other

than one’s own without judging them in terms of one’s own culture.cultural violence  Aspects of culture that are used to justify structural or

direct violence and make it seem natural.culture  Human beliefs and behaviors of a society that are learned,

transmitted from one generation to the next, and shared by a group ofpeople.

culture area  A geographical area in which societies share many culturaltraits.

cursing ritual  An anti-therapy ritual that involves reciting a curse to bringabout illness and death.

deliberate divination  Divination that someone sets out to do.demon  A spirit being, usually evil.denomination  A religious group that differs on just a few points from the

mainstream religion.diaspora  Movement of a population out of their homeland.diffusion  The apparent movement of cultural traits from one society to

another.direct violence  The use of physical force or the threat to do so.discovery  New awareness of something that exists in the environment.displacement  The ability to use symbols to refer to things and activities that

are remote from the user.divination  Supernatural techniques for obtaining information about things

unknown, including events that will occur in the future.divination ritual  A ritual that is used for the purpose of divination.diviner  A religious specialist who specializes in divination.doctrine of signatures  Belief that physical structures found in nature, such

as the shape of a plant, are indicative (or signatures) of their potential usein healing.

dowsing  Method of divination whereby water and other undergroundresources are located by use of a forked stick.

emic perspective  The study of a society through the eyes of the peoplebeing studied.

endocannibalistic anthropophagers  The term endocannibalism refers tothe eating of one’s own people, and the term anthropophagers refers to theeating of human bodies.

entoptic phenomena  Visual effects that have their origin in physical

changes within the eye.essentialist definition  A definition that looks at the essential nature of

religion.ethnobotany  The anthropological study of the use of plant material,

especially in healing.ethnocentrism  Using one’s own culture as the basis for interpreting and

judging other cultures.ethnographer  A person who produces an ethnography.ethnographic present  Speaking or writing about cultures in the present

tense although what is described might no longer exist.ethnography  The descriptive study of human societies.etic perspective  The study of a society using concepts that were developed

outside of the culture.Eucharist  A Christian sacrament that commemorates Jesus Christ’s last

supper by consecrating bread and wine.evolutionary approach  An approach that focuses on the questions of when

and how religion began and how it developed through time.fasting  The act of abstaining from eating and drinking over a period of time.folktale  A story that is part of the tradition of a society; not considered to be

true.foraging bands  Small communities that subsist by hunting, fishing, and

gathering wild plant foods.fortuitous divination  Divination that simply occurs without any conscious

effort.functional approach  An approach that is based on the function or role that

religion plays in a society.functional definition  A definition that is based on the role that religion

plays in a society.fundamentalism  A religious movement characterized by a return to

fundamental principles, usually including a resistance to modernizationand an emphasis on certainty through a literal interpretation of scriptures.

ghost  The soul of an individual after death that remains in the vicinity of thecommunity.

glossolalia  Unintelligible speech that mimics normal speech; known as“speaking in tongues.” In religious practice, it is generally believed to bethe voice of the supernatural speaking through the person.

god  An individual supernatural being, with a distinctive name, personality,and control or influence over a major aspect of nature (such as rain orfertility), that encompasses the life of an entire community or a majorsegment of the community.

graphology  Divination through handwriting analysis.haruspication  Divination by the examination of entrails of sacrificed

animals.healer  A religious specialist who concentrates on healing.hedonism  Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure as a matter of principle.herbalist  A specialist in the use of plant and other material in curing.heresy  Crimes against God.hero myth  A common theme found in myths worldwide centered around

the hero’s journey or monomyth.high demand religion  A religious group in which much is demanded of

members in terms of strict adherence to rules for thought and behavior.holism  The study of human societies as systematic sums of their parts, as

integrated wholes.homeopathic magic  Magic that is based on the Law of Similarity.horticulture  The use of cultivated domesticated plants without the use of

fertilizers, plows, irrigation, and other agricultural technologies.human universals  Characteristics that are found in all human societies.hunting and gathering rites of intensification  A ritual whose purpose is to

influence nature in the quest for food.ideological ritual  A ritual that delineates codes of proper behavior,

promotes community solidarity, articulates the community’s worldview,and assists the community in managing crises.

idiophone  A musical instrument that is struck, shaken, or rubbed, such as arattle or bell.

image magic  A form of homeopathic magic in which an image represents aliving person or animal, which can be killed or injured through doingthings to the image.

imitative magic  Magic that is based on the Law of Similarity.incorporation  The final stage of a rite of passage in which the individual is

reintroduced to the community in his or her new status.increase rite  A type of ritual whose purpose is to aid the survival and

reproduction of a totemic plant or animal.

incubi  Male demons who have sex with human women while they sleep,resulting in the birth of demons, witches, and deformed children.

indirect violence  Not based on the actions of a single actor. Includes bothcultural and structural violence.

infibulation  Form of female genital cutting including excision of the clitoris,labia minora, and most of the labia majora.

Inquisition  A unit of the Roman Catholic Church that convened to judgecases of heresy.

inspirational divination  A type of divination that involves a spiritualexperience, such as a direct contact with a supernatural being through analtered state of consciousness

interpretive approach  Idea that cultural systems are understood bystudying meaning; religion is a cluster of symbols that provides a charterfor a culture’s ideas, values, and way of life.

invention  Coming up with a solution to a problem using the technology athand.

jinn  In the Islamic religion, a spirit being created of fire.karma  The effect of a person’s behavior during the series of phases of the

person’s existence. Karma is seen as determining the person’s destiny.kiva  A ceremonial chamber, often built underground, that is found among

Native American societies in the American Southwest.Law of Contagion  Things that were once in contact continue to be in

contact after the physical connection is severed.Law of Similarity  Things that are alike are the same.Law of Sympathy  Magic that depends on the apparent association or

agreement between things.legend  A traditional story about past events that is considered to be true;

usually contains an element of reality—a known character, event, or place.liminality  The state of ambiguous marginality that characterizes the

transition phase of a rite of passage.linguistic anthropology  The anthropological study of language.magic  Ways in which a person can compel the supernatural to behave in

certain ways.mana  An impersonal supernatural force.Marxist approach  Idea that religion is a construction of those in power,

designed to divert people’s attention from the miseries of their lives; a way

of getting people to go along with capitalist culture.medium  A practitioner who intentionally communicates with the

supernatural to find information.membranophone  A musical instrument that incorporates a taut membrane

or skin such as a drum.menarche  A young woman’s first menstruation.messianic movement  A type of revitalization movement that is based on

the appearance of a divine savior in human form who will bring about thesolution to the problems that exist within the society.

millenarian movements  A type of revitalization movement that envisions achange through an apocalyptic transformation.

modernity  A philosophical movement based on ideas of rationality,objectivity, reason, and science as the means of gaining knowledge, truth,and progress.

monomyth  A theme common to many myths that tells of the adventures ofa culture hero.

monotheism  A belief in one god.mummification  A technique of preserving a dead body involving drying

and preservatives.mystery religion  A religion whose beliefs, practices, and true nature are

known only to those who have been initiated into the religion.myth  A sacred story that provides the basis for religious beliefs and

practices.nationalism  A sense of identification with and loyalty to one nation above

all others.nativistic movement  A type of revitalization movement that develops in

traditional societies that are threatened by the activities of moretechnologically advanced societies.

necromancy  Divination through contact with ancestors or the dead.negative peace  The absence of war.Neo-Paganism  A revival of pre-Christian religious practices.neoshamanism  A modern spiritual practice that draws on some concepts

and practices of traditional shamanism, but is usually used as a method forimproving an individual’s life.

new religious movement  A historically recent religious movement, ofteninvolving new leaders and new scriptures or new interpretations of older

religious traditions.noninspirational divination  Forms of divination that are performed

without the direct involvement of supernatural beings.occasional ritual  A ritual that is performed when a particular need arises.occult  Having to do with the paranormal or supernatural.offerings  Economic exchanges designed to influence the supernatural.omen  A fortuitous happening or condition that provides information.omniscient  State of being all-knowing.oneiromancy  Divination by the interpretation of dreams.openness  A feature of symbols; the ability to create new symbols.operant definition  A definition in which we define our terms so that they

are observable and measurable and therefore can be studied.oracle  A specific device that is used for divination.ordeal  A trial by divination that is performed on the body of the accused

person to determine guilt or innocence.orientation association structure  The part of the brain that enables us to

distinguish ourselves from the world around us and to orient ourselves inspace.

ornithomancy  Divination from reading the path and form of a flight ofbirds.

otiose god  A god who is too remote and too uninterested in humanactivities to participate in the activities and fate of humans.

palmistry  Divination through the reading of the lines of the palm of thehand.

pan-Indian  Refers to activities that draw from many different NativeAmerican traditions.

pantheon  All gods and goddesses in a polytheistic system.participant observation  A research method whereby the anthropologist

lives in a community and participates in the lives of the people understudy while at the same time making objective observations.

pastoral nomads  Societies that subsist primarily by herding domesticatedanimals.

pentacle  A five-pointed star.pentagram  A five-sided figure.periodic ritual  A ritual that is performed on a regular basis as part of a

religious calendar.

peyotism  The ritual use of peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus.Pharaonic infibulation  A surgical procedure performed on women that

involves the complete removal of the clitoris and the labia minora andmajora, the two sides of the wound then being stitched together, leaving asmall opening.

phrenology  Divination through the study of the shape and structure of thehead.

physical anthropology  The study of human biology and evolution.pidgin language  A simplified language that forms from the fusion of two

languages.pilgrimage  A journey to a sacred place or a sequence of sacred spaces at

which rituals are performed.polytheism  A belief in many gods.positive peace  Structural violence is not present.possession  An altered state of consciousness that is interpreted as a deity

taking control of a person’s body.postmodernism  An emphasis on subjectivity over objectivity and a

tendency toward reflexivity, or self-consciousness; all knowledge is seenas being a human construction that scholars must seek to deconstruct.

prescriptive ritual  A ritual that a deity or religious authority requires to beperformed.

presentiment  A feeling in a person that something is about to occur.priest  A full-time religious specialist who is associated with formalized

religious institutions.prophecy  Divination through the communication of a prophet.prophet  Someone who communicates the words and will of the gods to his

or her community, acting as an intermediary between the people and thegods.

protective ritual  A ritual that is performed at the start of, or during, adangerous activity to protect the participants or to protect the communityagainst disaster.

psychoduct  A pipe or tube that connects a tomb to a temple through whichthe spirit of the deceased may travel into the temple.

psychosocial approach  An approach to the study of religion that isconcerned with the relationship between culture and psychology andbetween society and the individual.

Purgatory  A place for souls who die with lesser faults for which there hasbeen no repentance or for which the penalty is not wholly paid duringtheir lifetime.

rank  The relative placement of a status in the society.reincarnation  A belief in an immortal, eternal soul that is born again and

again in different bodies.relic  An object of religious veneration, especially a piece of the body or a

personal item of a religiously important person, such as an ancestor orsaint.

religion  The realm of culture that concerns the sacred supernatural.religious ritual  A ritual that involves the manipulation of religious symbols.resurrection  Dead people being brought back to life.revitalization movement  A movement that forms in an attempt to

deliberately bring about change in a society.revitalization ritual  A ritual that is associated with a revitalization

movement.revivalistic movement  A type of revitalization movement that attempts to

revive what is often perceived as a past golden age.rites of passage  A ritual that occurs when an individual changes status,

serving to legitimize the new status and to imprint it on the community’scollective memory.

ritual  A patterned, recurring sequence of behaviors.sacred  An attitude wherein the subject or object is set apart from the

normal, everyday world and is entitled to reverence and respect.sacrifice  A gift designed to influence the supernatural in which an animal is

killed.scapulamancy  A divination technique in which a dried scapula, or shoulder

blade, is placed in a fire and the pattern of cracks and burns areinterpreted.

scripturalism  The practice of justifying beliefs and actions by reference tothe religious text.

secondary burial  Some time after the initial burial the bones are removedand reburied.

sect  A new branch of a mainstream religion, usually involving newrevelations, new scriptures, and a new leader.

separation  The first phase of a rite of passage in which an individual is

removed from his or her former status.shaman  A part-time religious specialist who receives his or her power

directly from the spirit world and acquires status and the ability to dothings through personal communication with the supernatural.

shrine  An object or building that contains sacred objects or is associatedwith a venerated person or deity.

situational ritual  A ritual that arises as needed, frequently in times of crisis.small-scale  Describes relatively small communities that practice foraging,

herding, or technologically simple horticulture.social charter  A story that establishes the proper organization and rules of

behavior of a society.social rite of intensification  A type of ideological ritual that functions to

reinforce the belief system and the values of the society.sorcerer  A magician who specializes in antisocial, evil magic.sorcery  Compelling the supernatural to behave in certain ways, usually with

evil intent.soul  The noncorporeal, spiritual component of an individual.spell  The words that are spoken in a magic ritual.spirit  A supernatural being that is less powerful than a god and is usually

more localized; often one of a collection of nonindividualized supernaturalbeings that are not given specific names and identities.

spirit possession  An altered state of consciousness that is interpreted as aspirit taking over control of a human body and is either deliberatelyinduced by a ritual performance or the consequence of an illness causedby a spirit taking control.

status  A social position that is defined in terms of appropriate behavior,rights and obligations, and its relationship to other statuses.

stigmata  Bodily wounds or pain considered by Christians to be visible signsof participation in the sufferings of Christ.

stimulus diffusion  What occurs when an idea moves from one culture toanother and stimulates the invention of a new trait.

structural violence  A form of violence where people’s basic needs are notbeing adequately met due to some social structure or social institution.

subincision  Form of genital cutting where the underside of the penis is cutand the urethra slit open.

succubae  Female demons who have sex with human men while they sleep,

resulting in damnation of the men’s souls.supernatural  Entities and actions that transcend the natural world of cause

and effect.superstitions  Simple behaviors based on magical thinking that are thought

to bring about simple results.supreme god  A god who resides at the top of a pantheon.swastika  A symbol formed by two lines crossing at right angles with their

ends bent at right angles in a clockwise or counterclockwise position.symbol  A shared understanding about the meaning of certain words,

attributes, or objects; something that stands for something else.sympathetic system  The arousal system of the brain.syncretism  A fusing of traits from two cultures to form something new and

yet permitting the retention of the old by subsuming the old into a newform.

tabu  Objects and persons that are supernaturally prohibited. May also referto certain behaviors that would bring about negative consequencesthrough supernatural means.

tasseography  Divination through the reading of tea leaves.technological ritual  A ritual that attempts to influence or control nature,

especially in those situations that affect human activities and well-being.tensegrity  A technique of body movements that aims to increase awareness

of the body’s energy fields; developed by Carlos Castaneda.terrorism  Public acts of destruction committed by those in a weaker position

against non-military targets with the intent of causing fear.theory of mind  The idea that people know, or think they know, what is

going on in other people’s minds.therapy ritual  A ritual whose function is to cure.therianthropes  Creatures that are part human and part animal.tithing  The giving or taking of a tithe, a tenth of one’s income or

agricultural produce, usually in support of a religious institution.totalism  The belief that religion is relevant to, and should be a part of, all

parts of a society.totem  A symbol or emblem that stands for a social unit.totemism  A religious system that assigns different plant and animal species

to specific social groups and postulates a relationship between the groupand the species formed during the period of creation.

traditioning  The idea that religious texts are relevant to life today.transition  The second phase of a rite of passage during which a person is in

a liminal state and is moved from one status to another.transmigration  A situation in which a soul passes from one body to another

—human, animal, or even an inanimate object.trickster  A god who gave humans important things or skills, often by

accident or through trickery.unitary state  An altered state of consciousness in which an individual

experiences a feeling of becoming one with the supernatural.urban legend  Contemporary story about people and events that never

occurred, but are presented as real.vampire  A person who has died before his or her time and who brings about

the death of friends and relatives until his or her corpse is “killed.”witchcraft  The ability of a person to cause harm by means of a personal

power that resides within the body of the witch.worldview  The way in which a society perceives and interprets its reality.zombie  A corpse that has been raised from the grave and animated.

Index

Page nos in bold refer to a table, and in italic denote a figure or illustration.

acculturation 253–254African Burial Ground 193–194age set 95agnosticism 28, 228AIDS 140, 238–239aleuromancy 156altered states of consciousness 110, 111, 123–124, 158–9, 162, 164–165, 262: biological basis of

115–117; drug-induced 120–123, 120; ethnographic examples 117–120, 208; fasting 112;pain 113–115

analytic definitions of religion 16ancestors 179–184angels 208, 210animatism 19animism 17, 19, 26, 172anthropology: definition 1–2anthropomorphic 26, 212anti-therapy rituals 85, 91Antoun, Richard 282Apache 96apantomancy 156apocalyptic myths 52–53, 69–70apotropaic practices 188–190, 189Applewhite, Marshall 274Arab Spring 287archaeology 2archetypes 47Arth, Malcom 216Ashforth, Adam 238

assimilation 253astrology 156, 161–162atheism 227–229attribute gods 213Australian Aborigines 72–73, 75, 91, 148, 168, 192, 194Axis Mundi 130Azande 23–24: divination 162–163; magic 150–151; witchcraft 234–236Aztecs 13, 52, 89, 200

Baaly, Kyta 131Bado-Fralick, Nikki 63–64Balzar, Marjorie Mandelstam 131Barber, Paul 188Barker, Eileen 270Barley, Nigel 174Barton, R. F. 219Bell, Michael 188Benedict, Ruth 44Beng 148, 180–181Bible 41–42Big Gods 217–218binary opposition 45–46birth metaphor 48–49Boas, Franz 44Boddy, Janice 209Book of Mormon 264Boyer, Pascal 27Branch Davidians 270–272Brown, Karen McCarthy 12Buddhism 54, 178, 179Buka 261Bunyoro 185–186burial 193–195Bushongo 49

Cahuilla 86calendars 69–71calendrical rituals 83Campbell, Joseph 53cannibalism 8, 13, 34, 195

cargo cults 260–262Castaneda, Carlos 134–135Celts 199Chagnon, Napoleon 121Cheyenne 118–119Chinese 49, 67, 78Christianity 40–42, 47, 52–53, 70, 100, 112, 113, 210–212, 223–224, 226, 239–240: calendar

70–71; fundamentalism 281–282; symbols 62–64, 77–78; toys and games 63–64Church, Joseph 59Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 263–264, 282–283Church of Satan 61, 247–248cicatrization 98circumcision 92, 98–100cleromancy 164clitoridectomy 99clown doctors 133collective conscious 20collective unconscious 47color, meaning of 66–68coming-of-age rituals 93–94communitas 95contagious magic 147, 148–149core shamanism 134–135creator gods 213cremation 195crisis rituals 83cross 62–64, 62, 77cult 267–268cultural anthropology 2cultural relativism 10–11, 13cultural violence 279culture 14–15culture areas 4, 4–6culture change 253Cuneo, Michael 211–212cursing rituals 91

dance 75–77Dani 185, 192, 206–207, 206

Daniel, E. Valentine 114Darby, John Nelson 70Davis, Wade 190Day of the Dead 200, 201De Boer, Jelle 165deliberate divination 155Delphi oracle 163–165, 164demonic possession 210–212demons 210–212denomination 267diffusion 253, 258Diné Bahane’ 50–52direct violence 279–280dispensationalism 70divination 33, 154–160: astrology 161–162; Azande 162–163; classification 155; Delphi

163–165, 164; ordeals 160–161divination rituals 9, 85, 87diviner 141Diwali 84doctrine of signatures 148Douyon, Lamarque 190dowsing 156Doyle, Clive 272Drawsko 188–189, 189Dream Time 72–73Dundes, Alan 37Durkheim, Émile 20, 146–147, 215Dyaks 265

Eastern Orthodox priests 139Eastwell, Harry D. 168Edgerton, Robert 13Egyptians 195–196, 222Eliade, Mircea 134emergence myth 50emic perspective 10entoptic phenomena 117essentialist definition of religion 16–17ethnobotany 90

ethnocentrism 11ethnography 3etic perspective 10Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 23–24, 151, 162, 234, 236evil eye 244evolutionary analysis of myths 43–44evolutionary approach 18–19, 26exorcism 211–212

Fadiman, Anne 177fasting 112first-fruit ceremonies 86Firth, Raymond 36folktales 34, 35Fon 254food prohibitions 104–105, 148Fore 7–10, 9, 91, 153, 162fortuitous divination 155Frazer, James 19, 21, 43–44, 146, 147Freud, Sigmund 23, 47–48, 217functional analysis of myth 44–45functional approach 20–22functional definition of religion 16fundamentalism 281–282: Islamic 284–287; Mormon 282–284funeral rituals 8, 88, 191–192, 197–198

Galtung, Johan 279games 63–64, 216Gardner, Gerald 265Geertz, Clifford 16, 22–23gender-neutral Bible 41–42Genesis 37–41, 43, 45genital cutting 98–100Ghost Dance 262–263ghosts 184–186, 206, 207Gill, Sam 214glossolalia 120Gmelch, George 166goddesses 213, 214, 220–224gods 205, 212 213, 214, 215–218: Ifugao 219–220; Yoruba 218, 218–219

Golden Bough, The 43, 147graphology 156Gregorian calendar 71guardian spirits 207–208Gururumba 46Gwari 237–238

Haiti 12, 190–191, 254–255hajj 95, 101–102Halloween 199–200Handsome Lake 141Han, Hak Ja 273Hand, Wayland D. 148–149Harner, Michael 134–135haruspication 156Harvey, Youngsook Kim 132Hayward, Douglas James 206healer 139–140healing rituals 89–90, 117–118, 118, 124Heaven’s Gate 274Hebrew calendar 71Heider, Karl 192herbalist 140hero myths 53–54Hero with a Thousand Faces, The 53Heywood, Andrew 279high demand religions 268–270: ethnographic examples 270–274Hildegard of Bingen 115Hinduism 178, 222–223, 223Hmong 177Hobby Lobby 287–288, 288Hofriyat 209–210Holiness Church 119–120holism 1–2, 7, 9homeopathic magic 147–148Honko, Lauri 35Horton, Robin 215Houteff, Victor 270Howell, Vernon 271

Huichol 103, 107, 121human sacrifice 13, 87, 89human universals 3hunting and gathering rites of intensification 85–86, 85

I Ching 157ideological rituals 85, 87–88Ifugao 219–220image magic 147–148imitative magic 147increase rite 148incubi 210–211indirect violence 279infibulation 99Inquisition 240–241inspirational divination 154–155, 158–160interpretive approach 22–23Inuit 86, 196Iranian Revolution 285, 287Irniq, Peter 86Ishtar 220–221Isis 222Islam 36–37, 83, 99, 105, 106, 112, 226–227: calendar 70–71; fundamentalism 281–282,

284–287; hajj 95, 101–102

Japan 183–184, 186jinn 208–210Jivaro 134–135, 173John Frum Cult 261–262Johnson, Allen 47Johnson, Douglas 142Judaism 87–88, 112, 224–226, 239: calendar 71; circumcision 92, 98–100; food laws 104–105;

mourning and death 71, 198Juergensmeyer, Mark 289Julian calendar 71Jung, Carl 47–48

kaddish 88Kali 222–223, 223kami 137–138

karma 178, 222Kashrut 105King James Bible 40–41kiva 76–77, 137Kongo 74, 254Korean 131–132Koresh, David 271–272Kpelle 160 !Kung San 74–75, 117–118, 118, 127, 214kuru 8–10, 9, 91, 153, 162Kwakwaka’wakw 76

Lakota 86, 263La Vey, Anton Szandor 247Law of Contagion 147Law of Similarity 147Law of Sympathy 147Leach, Edmund 45legends 34, 35Levine, Saul 270Lévi-Strauss, Claude 45Lewis-Williams, David 116–117Lhuillier, Alberto Ruiz 64liminality 94–95, 95, 97linguistic anthropology 2Longhouse religion 141Lourdes 100Luther, Martin 40, 174lwa 255–256, 257

magic 145, 167–168: Azande 150–152; contagious 147, 148–149; homeopathic 147–148;magical thinking 165–167; Trobriand 149–151; Wiccan 153–154

Malinowski, Bronislaw 21–22, 44–45, 147, 151Malleus Maleficarum 241, 242, 245mana 19Mangbetu 98Maori 98Marett, Robert R. 19marijuana 123Marx, Karl 20Marxist approach 20

Mary (Christianity) 100, 101, 223–224Maya 64–66, 65, 77, 98, 113–114, 114, 122, 130: calendar 68–70; see evil eye 244Mbuti Pgymies 74–75meditation 24, 25mediums 159Mehinaku 105–106menstrual tabus 105–106messianic movements 260Mevlevi Order 76migraine 115millenarian movements 260Miller, Arthur 246Miller, William 70Millerism 70molimo 75monomyth 53–54, 54monotheism 224–227Moon, Sun Myung 272–273, 273Moonies 272–273Mormons 263–264: fundamentalism 282–284mummification 195–196Murngin 192, 194Murray, Margaret 265music 73–75myth 32, 35, 35–36: analysis of 43–47; apocalyptic 52–53; Bible, 37–42; hero 53–54; origin

48–52

Nandi 156Native American Church 121, 122–123nationalism 280, 282nativistic movement 91, 122, 259–260: cargo cult 260–262; Ghost Dance 262–263Navaho 32–33, 36, 50–52, 60, 61, 67, 90, 100: witchcraft 236–237necromancy 156negative peace 290Neo-Pagan 153, 264neoshamanism 134–135Nettles, Bonnie Trusdale 274new religious movement 268Ngundeng 141–142

noninspirational divination 154–155, 155Norenzayan, Ara 217Norris, Rebecca Sachs 63–64Nuer 23, 141–142, 192Nupe 237–238

occasional rituals 83–84Oedipus myth 47, 164offerings 88–89Ojibwa 72, 208Okinawa 137–139, 138omens 156oneiromancy 159–160operant definition of religion 15, 17oral texts 36–37ordeals 160–161origin myths 48–52orisha 67–68, 218, 218–219, 255, 257–258ornithomancy 156otiose god 213–214, 218Our Lady of Guadalupe 100, 101

Pahlavi, Mohammed Reza 285pain 113–115Paiute 262Palenque 64–66, 65palmistry 156pantheon 212–213, 213participant observation 2, 12, 21pentacle 60, 266–267pentagram 60, 61, 62Pentecostal healers 133–134periodic rituals 70–71, 83–84peyote 103, 122–123Pfeifer, Jeffrey 269Pharaonic infibulation 99phrenology 156physical anthropology 2pilgrimage 100–102, 114–115: hajj 101–102; Huichol 103Plath, David 183

poison oracle 163, 235Polynesia 104polytheism 224, 227Popul Vuh 77positive peace 290possession 158–159postmodernism 11–13prescriptive rituals 83presentiments 155Price-Williams, Douglas 47priests, priestesses 135–136: Eastern Orthodox 139; Okinawan 137–139, 138; Zuni 137prophecy 158prophets 141–142protective rituals 85, 87psychoduct 66psychological analysis of myth 47psychosocial approach 23Purgatory 177Pythia 164–165, 164

Qur’an 36–37, 70, 106, 227

Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred 20–21Raelian Movement 274–275Ramadan 70–71Rastafarians 123Reformation 40, 174, 224reincarnation 178, 180–181religion, definition 15–18religion, domain 18religious obligations 103revitalization movement 123, 258–260revitalization rituals 85, 91revivalistic movement 131, 260, 264rites of passage 85, 91–92: coming-of-age 92–93; liminality 94–95, 95; structure of 92rituals 82–84: anti-therapy 91; classification of 84, 85; death 191–193, 196–198; revitalization

91; rites of passage 91–95; social rites of intensification 87–89; shamanic 129–130;technological 85–87; therapy and healing rituals 89–90

roadside memorials 199Roberts, John 216

Roman Catholicism 100, 174, 211, 223–224, 240–241, 255, 268–269rubbing-board oracle 162–163, 235Rumi, Mevlana 76Rush, Robert 216

Sacks, Oliver 115sacred, defined 17sacrifices 88–89: human 13, 87, 89Salem 242–246sand painting 90Santeria 256–258Satan 239–240, 247Satanism 61, 62, 246–248sauvastika 60scapulamancy 156scripturalism 282séances 159secondary burial 194–195sect 263–264, 267Seneca 141Sered, Susan 138Serpent and the Rainbow, The 190shamans 128–130, 128, 177: clown doctors 133; core shamanism 134–135; Korean 131–132;

neoshamanism 134–135; Pentecostal healers 133–134; Siberian 130–131Shoshoni 208Siberian 130–131situational rituals 83Smart, Ninian 16, 123Smith, Joseph 263–4, 282–283Smith, Wilfred Cantwell 18Snow White 33–34social charter 40social rites of intensification 85, 87–88sorcery 8, 153, 162, 239South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 290souls 172–175: ethnographic examples 175–179Soweto 238–239Spinoza, Baruch 28spirit possession 124, 158, 209–210, 218

spirits 205–206: angels and demons 210– 211; Dani 206–207; jinn 208–210; vision quest207–208

spiritualism 159Spiro, Melford 17, 22status 92stigmata 113stimulus diffusion 253storytelling 36, 48structural analysis of myth 45–47structural violence 279Students of the Seven Seals 270subincision 99succubae 210–211Sufi 76Sun Dance 118–119supernatural, defined 16–18superstition 166supreme god 212Swanson, Guy 216swastika 60, 61Swazi 88symbols 14–15, 58–59: dance 75–77, music 73–75, religious 59–64; religious art 64–68; space

72–73; time 68–71syncretism 74, 122, 254, 256

tabu 103–104: mana and 104; menstrual 105–106; Polynesia 104Tana Toraja 181–183, 192Taoist 78, 78tasseography 156tattooing 97, 98Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, The 134technological rituals 85–87, 85tensegrity 134termite oracle 162–163, 235terrorism 289Tewa 76–77theory of mind 26therapy rituals 85, 89–90, 124therianthropes 117

throat singing 75Tikopia 36time, symbolism of 68–71tobacco 122totalism 282totemism 72–73, 148toys and games 63–64traditioning 282transmigration 175trickster 214Trobriand Islanders 21, 35, 45, 87, 147, 149–151Tungus 128Turnbull, Colin 74Turner, Victor 94Tuva 75Tylor, Edward B. 14, 17, 19, 146, 167, 172

UFO religions 273–274: Heaven’s Gate 274; Raelians 274–275Unification Church 270, 272–273, 273unitary state 116, 120, 124Upper Paleolithic art 116–117urban legends 34U.S. funerals 196–198

vampires 187–188: New England 188; Poland 188–190, 189Van Blerkom, Linda Miller 133Venus of Willendorf 221Vikings 87, 175vision quest 207–208Vodou 12, 76, 173, 254–256, 256,257Vorilhon, Claude 274–275

Wallace, Anthony 84, 107, 259Way of the Shaman, The 135Weber, Max 22wedding, American 93Weiner, Annette 147Wheel of Life 178, 179Whirling Log 60Wicca 62, 153–154, 248, 264–267, 266

Wilbert, Johannes 122Wilson, Jack 263witchcraft 233–234, 237–240, 245–248, 267: Azande 234–236; and AIDS 238–239; Navaho

236–237; Salem 242–246; witch hunt 246–247; witchcraze 240–245, 265Witch Cult in Western Europe, The 265witch hunt 246–247witchcraze 240–245, 265Wittgenstein, Ludwig 29Wolfe, Burton 247Woolley, Lorin C. 283worldview 32–33, 40Wovoka 262–263

Yakut 131Yamada, Takako 131Yanomamö 11, 91, 94, 121, 176, 195yin-yang 78, 78, 157Yoruba 49, 67–68, 87, 218–219, 218, 254, 255, 257Young, Brigham 264, 283Yup’ik 175–176

zombies 190–191Zuni 44, 137