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What is the primary function of rituals in human communities?
What comes first, ritual or myth?
What is a common characteristic of rituals?
What is the primary purpose of life-cycle rituals?
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What is a common belief underlying healing rituals?
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What is a phenomenon that can occur in healing rituals?
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What is the term used to describe the unstructured state in which all members of a community are equal with their shared common experience?
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According to Victor Turner, what is the characteristic of the transition stage in rites of passage?
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What is the term used to describe the process of standardization of doctrine, discipline, worship, and organization in founded religions?
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What is the primary difference between a natural religious community and a voluntary religious community?
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What is the term used to describe the cycle of death and rebirth in Buddhism?
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What is the characteristic of sects that distinguishes them from churches?
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What is the term used to describe the process of installation of a new chief in the African Ndembu people?
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What is the primary function of religion, according to the text?
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Study Notes
What is Ritual?
- Rituals are found in every human community and are primary means of social communication and cohesion
- Rituals are “condensed symbols”
- Rituals come first, and then myths, with myth being an explanation of ritual
Function of Rituals
- Legitimate the transition from one stage of life to another
- Routinize behavior and help reduce anxiety and uneasiness
- Resolve social tensions due to inequality or injustice
- Performative: accomplished something or reinforced the belief or behavior by periodic repetition
Types of Rituals
- Life-cycle rituals (rites of passage)
- Life-crisis rituals (healing rituals)
- Calendar/seasonal rituals (e.g. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Ramadan)
Life-Crisis Rituals: Healing Rituals
- Healing rituals have been practiced throughout human history in various parts of the world
- Religious healers: diviners, medicine men, exorcists, shamans
- Illnesses are caused by malevolent spirits
- Placebo effects: psychic affects physical conditions, and motions intaking medicines are important
Life-Cycle Rituals: Rites of Passage
- Arnold van Gennep's three stages of rites of passage: separation, transition, reincorporation
- Victor Turner's concept of liminal stage (anti-structure → communitas)
- Communitas: an unstructured state in which all members of a community are equal with their shared common experience
Examples of Rites of Passage, Antistructure, and Communitas
- African Ndembu people's rite for installation of a new chief
- The Pope's visit to an Italian prison during Holy Week
- The New Year (Akin) Festival of the ancient Babylonians
- The Haji (annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca)
Social Functions of Religion
- Maintains social order and stability
- Brings about social change
Types of Religious Communities
- Natural religious community: join at birth, gradual process, community-oriented, local, ethnic religion (e.g. Caste Hinduism, Judaism, Tribal religions)
- Voluntary religious community: join by choice, sudden process, conversion experience, individual-oriented, universal religion (e.g. Buddhism, Christianity, Islam)
Founded Religions
- Started by a prophet, reformer, teacher who is viewed as charismatic (charisma = gift, divine favor)
- Examples: Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Muhammad
- Many reformist movements do not survive the death of leaders, but a few are able to do so through the routinization of charisma (standardization of doctrine, discipline, worship, and organization)
Hindu Caste System
- Priests
- Rulers/Warriors
- Farmers, merchants, artisans
- Laborers/Servants
Birth of Buddhism
- Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), also known as Shakamuni
- Karma: action or work, and its effect/consequences
- Samsara: world, the cycle of death and rebirth
- Sukkah: suffering or unhappiness
- Nirvana: blown out, liberation from samsara
- Theravada (Hinayana, school of the Elders) and Mahayana (great vehicle)
Church and Sect
- Voluntary religious communities → Church-type organization
- A little church within the larger church → Sect-type organizations
- Characteristics:
- Renewal or restoration of the original truth (e.g. Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican churches during the Protestant Reformation)
- Revelation of new truth (e.g. Mormonism, Christian Science, Soka-Gakkai, Krishna Consciousness)
Sect, Denomination, and Cult
- Characteristics of sects:
- Exclusive; us vs them
- ... (Note: this section is incomplete, as the original text does not provide more information about sect, denomination, and cult)
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