Midterm Two Notes PDF

Wednesday October 2nd BUDDHISM Dharma : path of salvation from the pains and misery of this world Buddhists (practitioners) are people who follow and practice this Dharma Not concerned with gods but human life, sentient beings and the elimination of suffering Knowledge (pure...

Wednesday October 2nd BUDDHISM Dharma : path of salvation from the pains and misery of this world Buddhists (practitioners) are people who follow and practice this Dharma Not concerned with gods but human life, sentient beings and the elimination of suffering Knowledge (pure knowledge) is the key to escape or salvation Letting go of attachments ○ Unique to buddhism - escape of the world focused on the understand of the way things are - based on pure knowledge and what the world really is Human beings and their escape from suffering IS BUDDHISM A RELIGION? Religion is belief in spiritual beings (Tylor 1871) Our ideas of god and soul are false and empty (Rahula 1959) Buddhism as a atheistic system(Conze 1951) Unique cosmology and rituals to deal with it (Lehman 1971, Sangaharaskia 1990), Lewis) Buddhism is an ethical religion akin to human secularism(Spiro 1970) Is nirvana akin to our conceptualization of God? Buddhist was not interested in knowing whence came the world in which he lives and suffers, he take it as a given fact and his whole concern is to escape it(Durkheim 1915) BUDDHISM AS ATHEISTIC Buddhism does deal with the supernatural Deity(deva), spirits (yaka) and ghost (preta) Laukika (this world) vs Lokottara (super worldly WHAT IS BUDDHISM Dharma: the teaching of Buddha, Siddharth Gautama Axial Age: time period of large philosophical and religious change Pythagoras ○ Soul is permanent so it has to go somewhere - recycled into someone else's soul Zarathustra  ○ Balance between two internal entities - one being eternally good and one being bad ○ islam , judaism comes from ○ Battle between supreme good and supreme evil Lao Tzu ○ Important treaty in chinese cosmology ○ Unseen but not transcendence ○ Idea of alpha and omega ○ Being everything all at once Mahavira ○ Rejection of world possession ○ One had to self realized through positions oneself Isaiah ○ Defined how faith conceptualize their mesisa Transition to large scale paddy empires (Scoot 2009) What can we tell abut society and their rejection of state reflected by a paddy How does the state come from people ○ States power comes from the people As the empires were forming they were forcing people into the state WHAT IS BUDDHISM 4 noble truths 1. Truth of suffering 2. Truth of the cause of suffering 3. Truth of the end of suffering 4. Truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering Adoption as a formal religion and adoption of the pali canon Does not leave until it is adopted by the emperor ashoka Buddhmisn seeks to consider as a formula religion Canon 1. Governs the lives of monks - Vinaya Pitka 2. The sermons and teaching of the buddha - sutra 3. The books of scholastic philosophy : abhidharma Four truths that everyone needs to accept If we can understand the truths we can understand how it translates into institutions and how it is being used as a socio-cultural institution Friday October 4th 4 NOBLE TRUTHS Everything in the world is suffering Differentiates from other religions Key distinction because suffering is not contingent on our actions ○ It is not a fall from grace ○ Our choices are bringing up closer or farther away from a deity ○ Divorcing the idea that suffering is contingent on our action Individualistic interpretation about the world around us Buddhism is atheistic - does not mean they do not believe in the spiritual world around Atheistic becomes of the existence of deities around them Buddhism deals with the spirits around them - we are not depending on them for our escape from salvation ‘The first link in the chain is contact with matter, and this produces sensation. Out of sensation comes desire, out of desire attachment to the illusions of life, out of attachment karma, out of karma comes birth, and out of birth – age, sickness and death – the springs of suffering. (Vaswani 1960, 55) Suffering is attached to the transient reality ○ Religion as understanding our interactions within the world ○ Has to do with our contact with the world around us ○ Buddhism is framing its understanding of the world as everything in this world is decaying and dying Reality ground in the suffering Suffering comes from the non permanence of reality - everything is fading ‘all that cometh is vanity... put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity’ (KJV: Ecclesiastes 11) Everything comes and goes Desire is the cause of suffering Grounds us in the cycle - there are certain things we like and do not want to give up so we stay attached to this desire Elimination of desire will eliminate the suffering Thirst, desire, craving (Rahula 1959) Following the 8 fold path Religion gives us a logical route to follow It is a way for us to understand the world around us and how to act within it Provides us with structures that help us know how to interact The 4 noble truths affect how they are perceiving information BUDDHISM AS A WORLDVIEW If religion is just another structure (durkheim) This forms a world view How we conceptualize the world around us and how we should interact with people within this world Dukkha, Anicca. Anatta Dukkha : existence is suffering Anicca : there is an unrelenting law of change Anatta : the idea of unchanging self is fictional or false 4 mobile truths into 3 words - these realities shape how they choose to interact with them NOBLE 8 FOLD PATH 8 different attributes that should be followed They come from the foundation way in which they are understanding the world around them and the relationship they have with deity What does this lead to and how do you socially organize yourself in the world you are acting in Ethical conduct Compassion and love for the world, attitudes and actions which promote harmony and happiness Mental disciple and meditation Cultivation of mental effort and awareness of all forms of bodily feelings sensation Wisdom New worldview, sense of detachment and seeing the world through this new framework Other social institutions being built on top of these other ones Not holding religion up as it own isolated aspect trying to see the connection between religion and politics Religion is an all encompassing  Adding an extra dimension into our normative reality Adds to the rules and structures that dictate how we interact to it If Buddhism is showing us how to escape this constant reality of suffering we have to ask the question about what this escape is…. NIRVANA WHAT IS NIRVANA ? Merging of the self with the all self (Humpherys 1987) The end is as important as where we are now The world are more than right now and how we feel Highlights the disappearing of the self There is something - it is the self emerging with something else Buddhism - human secularism Framing of nirvana There is no entity of a divine, transcendental, eternal or metaphysical nature beyond this world or that is experience in nirvana(Macy 1991 ; Brazier 2001) Inability to capture what nirvana is emphasizing anthropologist role in studying it ○ The people need to describe it Using the idea as an escape a break away from the reality As we let people speak for themselves we can get a better idea of what is happening because it is being told rather then trying to fit it into our own understanding We do not really have a scope for understanding BUDDHISM AND THE STATE World renunciation and social reality Highest highs, lowest lows Deeply imbedded in the thoughts and cultures of people (Nash 1965) World of rejectionism Revolutionary belief system - emerged and went against what buddhism is saying Anti state aspect State sponsored buddhism - buddhism practices by people in small areas How are they affecting cultural norms and the individuals lives of people on all levels from the state to the individual Religion eventually becomes a weapon of the state Can be weaponized and nationalized even as a religion that rejects those principles Adoption of buddhism into specific asian empires  Started with outcast and being rejected and eventually being cooped into the state Myanmar (burma) : Buddhism vs supernaturalism Monday October 7th BUDDHISM AND THE STATE World renunciation and social reality Highest highs, lowest lows ○ Deeply imbedded in the thoughts and culture of people (Nash 1965) Myanmar (burma) : Buddhism vs supernaturalism ○ Buddhism and spirit cults (Sprio 1970) Buddhism as a resistant ideology - rejection of needing a creator god Two different ways of conceptualizing, interacting with it etc Apollonian Dionysian dichotomy (Nietzsche 1972, Benedict 1934) ○ Trying to build on the ideas of the sacred and profane but into a way that makes sense - two sides of the same coin ○ Higher concept vs how it actually practiced at the lowest levels ○ Different types being practiced ○ Intent a goals behind them ○ Two different beliefs under one single brand Different reflections on the needs of social organizations Midterm - Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism (information past midterm one) Buddhism interacts with the state Rejecting the state Adoption within various empires Religion based on renouncing the world around with it How does it come to terms with the social world around it Buddhism and state politics Sliding scale, have how it is interacting at high levels but also it being a lived reality for individuals Practices at the highest level and the lowest level Practiced by the state, region, household, individuals - how are they different Looking at buddhism as an ideology and prevailing reality Morality Buddhism : Moral Nat Cults : Amoral Sensuality Buddhism : Ascetic Nat Cults : Libertarian Reason Buddhism : Rational Nat Cults : Non-Rational Personality Buddhism : Serenity Nat Cults : Turbulence Society Buddhism : Other-worldly Nat Cults : Worldly Not seeing consistency Cultures are dependent on the environments they are living within BUDDHISM AND THE STATE Tambiah and a structuralist approach to Buddhism in Thailand It looks at how it interacts and becomes woven within preexisting structures How does buddhism interact with pre-existing structures Grand tradition of Buddhism vs folk tradition of Buddhism ○ Grand Buddhism tradition and folk tradition of buddhism ○ Focus in on how we are gathering data - mainly concerned with the inconsistency of high theology Certain people practicing in a certain way so the question becomes are there two different religion or are they two different ways of viewing the religion Paradigm of great vs little traditions (Marriott 1955) ○ Nibbanic Buddhism : complete world renunciation. Attempting salvation or nirvana ○ Kammatic Buddhism : accumulation of merit for a better position in the birth cycle Nibbanic Buddhism as rite of passage Overseeing funeral rites ○ Lead the man’s spirit to heaven and make possible a better birth (Tambiah 1970) ○ How does it interact with indigenous beliefs? Buddhism as the moral justification of the state Buddhism as the state consciousness Fusion of national identity with Buddhism STUDYING TIPS General Categories and Concepts - headings on the slides Who talked about it ○ Identity arguments Strengths and weaknesses of the arguments Wednesday October 9th Look at religion as a social phenomena Not concerned about the truth of a religion Can be hard to look objectively at religion that we are concerned about SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT THEORY Worked framed around the idea of sacrifice Universal but universally distinct at the same time Rituals associated with giving these things up Fundamentally the same in terms of the sacrifice ○ Something you give up to appease a god ○ Part of a process of change Sacrifice as a religion element is universal - we see it commonly Practice of Animal Sacrifice Priest takes the sin off of the person and places it onto the animal and the animal dies thus ridden sins Scapegoat Idea of something taking the place of something else as a real sacrifice ○ Symbolic of the masia Hath the lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to harken that the fat of the rams (KJV : Samuel 15) Not all sacrifice is equal ○ Idea of animal sacrifice ○ Intent behind makes them unequal Sacrifice and obey are not the same ○ If there is a distinction between the two - why is sacrifice not the same as obeying Point is the idea that a sacrifice is not one if you do not want to give something up - comes from thought that if you are giving up your time(mom asking for help, etc) is giving up your time the same when you are busy then giving up time when you are not busy Sacrifice requires you to give up something you truly wont ○ If sacrifice is only because you are giving something up - can we be objective Can you be objective if you're only objective towards things you have no emotional investment in? Is being objective in your own life the only time it matters ISLAM AND POPULAR TRADITION Is not some monolithic entity with a unitary ‘essence’ but rather a cultural tradition that takes diverse forms according to various social and historical contexts (Morris 2006) Need to understand religion within certain contexts To describe and analyse how the universalistic principles of islam have been realised in various social and historical contexts without representing Islam as seamless essence on the one hand, or as a plastic congeries of belief and practices on the other(Eickelman 1982) Hard to study a religion Hard to look at them because we are not saying it is mono entity Representation becomes a challenge  If practitioners believe it is one seamless tradition ○ Conflict of representation ○ Trying to look at it within social and historical contexts ○ We have conflicting narratives and it comes down to which narrative is right It is complicated because of the fact that humans are inconsistent making the data and study have inconsistent findings Unifying Feature : practiced as much as a tradition as it a belief Is at once a religion, and a civilization and social order based upon the revealed principles of the religion. It is an archetypal reality, residing eternally in the Divine Intellect (Nasr 1981) Islam creates social order and a way of liking in some frame or way More than just ideologies and more than just beliefs It becomes a lived reality How can we look at it as just a belief system ○ Translates into social action and order Islam is neither a distinctive social structure nor a heterogeneous collection of beliefs, artefacts, customs and morals. It is a tradition (Asad 1986) Tradition as a presired lived reality that religion produces It is not just the social structure - it is the lived reality Painting a picture on how something becomes tangible and material Only captures the intangible nature of the ideology ○ How words and thoughts and directions become social structures, laws, morals, ethics, etc ○ Then the religion is no longer fake because you can touch it - thus making it tangible ○ Being intangible ideas translating into how people actually live Friday October 11th ISLAM AND POPULAR TRADITION True Islam and the structure of authority  The definition of what is or is not “Islamic” is likely not to be about how closely society mirrors a known textual blueprint as about how and by whom specific texts are used to underwrite specific practices and general notions of authority’ (Starrett 1997) Half of the world's Muslims live in South-East Asia Religion as the motivation for social action and social process (Patai 1952) Cultural is not basically religion (morris 2006) Many other beliefs, concepts, motivations and activities influence their social life, besides those of religion (Starrett 1997) Wednesday October 16th ISLAM AS A RELIGION Based on the revelatory visions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Economic crossroads of empires The disintegration of tribal society (robinson 1971) A message of uncompromising monotheism (Morris 2006) One God, One Book, One Prophet Muhammad sees himself as the last in the chain of prophets The visions given to him were pointed towards salvation Substitute the actual commands of the god Word is seen as direct from God Can see how this singular vision could content or become inconsistent with social reality and practitioners Presents a singular way of looking and interacting with the world Words were given to muhammed therefore they should be singular everywhere ○ Essence requires the complete ? ○ Complicated when we see how it interacts with preexisting social and cultural functions 5 pillars Explicit profession of faith (Shadhadah) ○ La ilaha ila allah Muhammadum rasula allah Prayer (Salah) ○ Prayer accompanied by ritual cleansing ○ Intermediaries - Confession to a priest, petition your god ○ Fundamental structures perpetuate specific understanding ○ Sense of equality between deity and people Able to approach  ○ Democratization of a divinity ○ Practitioner is able to directly communicate with their detite Mandanded way of how to do this ○ Structures show us how the world and cosmos around the world are being conceptualized Alms giving (Zakah) ○ Relationship between and individual and their community ○ Serves as a way to unify and differentiate a group ○ Illustrates by saying that as a member of this community you owe 1/40th of your personal wealth ○ Conceptualization of individualism itself - you are not 100% in control of your life ○ Reallocation of money tells us about the positionaly of the believer in relation to the community and each other Fasting (Sawn) ○ A way of conceptualizing the community and structuring an aspect of religion ○ Acts as a unifying and differentiating force ○ Create unity as practitioners from around the world practicer the same thing Pilgrimage (Haj) ○ Geospatial significance ○ Creates a certain view of the world and their responsibilities to the world around them ○ How are they conceptualizing their positionality to the earth itself ○ Idea that it gives added significance to the area’s around the world ○ Changes how people interact with specific areas of the world ○ Place where our deity performed his act ○ Place where muhammed had his visions, etc Sanctification of one specific area - one place in the world that is special in a religious sense Illustrates how religion affects the world around us and differs from person to person MAKKAH Nothing pointing to it or declaring it as special Islam reshape normative reality How does it change normative life and the socio cultural structures of society  ○ How does that reality change from place to place as those structures are different ○ Morris points out that we are not looking at religion as the only motivation factors as a way of viewing life but it is one of many It is only part of the socio culture structures that shape the world around ISLAM AND SOCIAL LIFE Islam is the blueprint of a social order. It holds that a set of rules exists, eternal, divinely ordained, and independent of the will of man, which defines the proper ordering of society. This model is available in writing; it is equally and symmetrically available to all literate men, and to all those willing to heed literate men. These rules are to be implemented throughout social life. (Gellner 1981) It is a blueprint - need to fill it out and add to it Interaction with the non visible world ○ Proper ordering of society Religion as not the only motivating factor ○ States are highly influenced by religion It is a blueprint for the proper ordering of society ○ Not set in stone ○ What are the other things contributing to the world around us As a blueprint it allows space for other sociocultural structures to add to the new normative reality How does Islam mix with pre-existing social and cultural structures? How does Islam interact with other social and cultural structures? What we see is that islam becomes mixed with other socio cultural norms and explains why there is so much conflict among groups expressing the true islam Blueprint allows them to reshape and adapt No clergy of priesthood 1. Relationship and positionality of deity to practitioners 2. Authority placed on the words communicated through Muhammed Opening of the divine to everyone Islam as a scribal religion Interpretation is highly subjective the social and cultural context Manifestation of religion as LIVED Interpretation of the book becomes important interpretation becomes highly subjective Democratization of the idea that everyone has equal access Big differences in where islam is being practiced So we have vary in the entity and we are going to look at how a monolithic religion adapt to this reality Amongst itself Monday October 21st ISLAM AND SPIRIT (ZAR) CULTS Zar cults in Northern Somalia and Sudan What happens when they are oppositional? How do they interact within the structures around it that do not fall within its established structures ZAR CULTS IN SOMALIA Man is inherently sinful and removed from God ○ This belief goes against - measures put in place to remedy the separation Holy man or saints ○ Ability to Administer or relieve curses ○ Set apart from society through the endowment of mystical powers ○ Jinn or Saar (Zar) Play a vital role in the practicer of islam in somalia ○ These are not just religious specialist ○ Starting to see how popular tradition and popular belief and how it interacts with dominate structural cultures Create the need for additional structures How existing cosmetology dominates into the other Not all are contributing their powers to the one god itself Not exclusive to this monotheistic deity This is not the monotheistic religion Islam as almost exclusively masculine in Somalia  Whenever men are dealing with the supernatural forces, in order to remedy it they use: the holy men and the Quran When it comes to women we see an institutional shift - women are not treated by holy men and the quran ○ They turn to people outside of the practitioner and use sance Holy men and the Quran are the tools of authority Women work outside of the theocratic institution ○ Jinns are mentioned in the Quran, thus permissible and connected to islam ○ Can start to see how there are certain ways of doing things and there is an outside of the framework ○ Their power does not come from the institution of islam - it is not longer being treated as an intermediary between god and man ○ Intermediating between the spirits themselves and the people that flipped it ○ Get to this point of justification - islam is a seamless entity Religions of the oppressed (Lewis 1986) Cultures oppose the narrative to fit into this blueprint of realty If we think of these two different institutions (islamic Ecrative - not open for people to have access too - male dominate) ○ Connection because people start their own to the realization but within a different realism Idea of religion of the oppressed or cultures or existence ○ They are created for people to all have dignity power and self respect RESISTANCE CULTURES Sive and Her Sisters - Karin Kapadia Challenges the assumptions of Moffart and Dumont about a pervasive cultural consensus Distinct cultural representation create themselves a normative world in which they have dignity power and self respect (Kapadia 1995) Is no uniform womens perspective in Aruloor, Aruloor women are positions and sharply divided by caste and class, and their experience and understand of the world vary greatly (Ibid) PERIPHERY PHENOMENON Members are not people part of the dominant power structure Peripheral to moral order, unconcerned with social norms  Spirits themselves are periphery, outside the theological framework ○ Important because they are not outside completely, they are still attached slightly ○ Connected to islam by the fact they are mentioned within the Quran ○ This is part of our conceptualization of faith itself ○ The phenomenon is someone outside of the framework itself How do these beliefs work their way into larger theoretical cultures? Do not see themselves as separate How do things in the periphery work itself to the centre ○ Want to understand the narrative and what is motivating them ○ How can we ignore the people as the main factor We see in somalia the central institution becomes a normative reality Not a rejection of the institution but people learning their way from the periphery into the centre Wednesday October 23rd ZAR CULTS IN SUDAN Constantinides (1977 : 1987) and Boddy (1989) Criticized by Morris - some justified and some not Zar Bori : mainly consisting of women Zar Tumbura : lower class men, maily descendants of slaves Both condemned by the social elite (scholars of the law) and labeled as superstition ○ Difference between faith and superstition ○ Superstition divorced from islam because it takes away the religion nature ○ Similar to folk ○ Superstition gets removed from the narrative of progression If you look at a picture of humanity it takes them and puts them behind We have evolved past folk superstition because we have science and other types of beliefs The result of urbanization in Sudan ○ Directly linked to modernity ○ Zar cults are not traditions - they are proposing as to where islam and to islam ○ Means to adapt to modernization ○ Buddhism is a reaction to people's identities removed  ○ Reaction to change in social organization and give stability in a time where there is significantly less stability ○ Move from rural areas into urban areas ○ Islam had been restricted the autonomy and movement in urban contexts becomes restricted evenmore ○ Increased instability - no social organization and decrease in economy and movement Context and pressures which form zar cults as a natural resource for people swept up in the international movement Zar cults mirror the next form of social organization Mirroring their male counterpart ○ Not about overthrowing and rejecting - about overthrowing something that does not allow for dignity and self respect During the course of the dancing several women may achieve, or assume, a state of dissociation, the drumming, incense, rhythmic bodily jerking, and over breathing, all being employed as techniques. Trance allows for considerable bodily and emotional abandon. The same women whose culture normally demands of them sedate, restrained behaviour may weep, tremble, rage, shriek, yelp, beat themselves violently against the ground, smoke and drink openly, or strut about arrogantly. (Constantinides 1977) They serve a social purpose Not an attack on islam or the norms created by they religious institutions Everyday forms of resistance “unwritten history of resistance (Scott 1985) Boddy looks at the power and gender binary created between men and women as essential, thus not periphery Disagrees with lewis that the actions of women are not reactionary to men SAINTS AND SCHOLARS OF ISLAM Two channels of muslim religious life (Gellner 1969 Orthodox and Mystic Within Muslim societies, there is a permanent, if sometimes latent, tension and opposition between two styles of religious life On the one hand, there is a puritanical, unitarian, individualist, scripturalist ideal of a single deity, which has disclosed its final message in a definitive revelation available to all who care to read. This version spurns mediation and neither requires nor formally allows clergy; it presupposes only a literate class of scribes who act as guardians and exegesis of the revelation’ (Gellner 1981) Authority comes from the word itself Where knowledge comes from is this book, where you are going to visual it and his manifestation on earth and this book The way one gets the divine authority is through the knowledge they gain from this book Mythical - places emphasis not on the authority of the word but the authority and power Point where god and earth touch - this is the main () myth between the two Mystical emphasizes connection or lineage to the prophet Ahmed points out the frailty of Gellner's ideas (1976) Scibal aspect of it is contributed to a social class Other side is the people who quit Labels it as high and low islam The scholars have aspects of mythism as well ○ Scribal authority - not cut and dry Points out - the orthodox has this affinity for modernity - trajectory and progression ○ We need to reject notions of modernity - what does it mean when he says orthodox has an affinity for modernity Sees it all as Gellner points out that orthodox Islam has an affinity for modernity Image of their future (Marx 1919) Mutaqadum (process or advancement) vs asri (contemporary) ○ Modernity is a directional word - we want to move in that direction ○ Asri Group of people watching the news - the mother refers to the taliban as backwards and says it is because they take MUTAQADUM Authenticity, organization, education, hygiene, as well as social consciousness and piety (Deeb 2011) Friday October 25th Part One - Hinduism and New Religious Movements Oh East is East and West is West, Never shall the twain meet (Kipling 1889) Never Shall the Twain Meet (IBID) The West : aggressive, extroverted, selfish, analytic, a curse to the cosmos (Garde 1975) The East : co-operative, synthetic, introverted, hospitable and generous (IBID) Bus such contracts, based on monolithic conceptions of particular cultural traditions, seem to me, whilst having some validity, to be extremely misleading, if not obfuscating (Morris 2006) Hinduism as a culture or religion? ○ The spiritual dominating life in India ○ The dominant character of the Indian mind which as coloured all its cultures and moulded all its through is the spiritual tendency. Spiritual experience is the foundation of india's rich cultural history (Radhakrishnan 1933) ○ Challenged by Roy and Chattopadhyaya Oh East is East and West is West, Never shall the twain meet till earth and sky stand presently at god great judgment seat, but there is neither east nor west border, non breed, non, birth, when two strong men stand face to face through they come from the ends of the earth (Kipling 1889) HINDUISM AS A RELIGION OF TOLERANCE Hinduism as an encompassing religion ○ Hinduism absorbs everything that enters into it, magic or animism, and raises it to a higher level (Radhakrishnan 1927) ○ Adherence, or compliance, to the Hindu code of conduct (Sen 1961) ○ No great tradition just a great many traditions (van Der Veer 1988) Is and can be violent It is an encompassing religion - it absorbs other belief systems and cosmetologist ○ Hinduism is open to accepting lots of different belief structures into the cosmic realities ○ We do not know who the founder of the religion is Lots of fold and dependent on the different deities people follow There is not a clear answer on this ENCOMPASSING NATURE  takes everything in it and raises this to a higher level Share similarities but different in the way they conceptualizes the religion and practice ○ We see an open admintence to this ○ Take everything and raise it up to this level ○ Part of this has to do with people's willingness to adhere or comply to the hinduism code of conduct “We will take everything but you will become like us” WHAT IS THE HINDU CODE OF CONDUCT? religion , tradition, culture? People have looked at hinduism in this way in that it is not a great tradition, it is not a seamless unified entity but made up of many great traditions It does not claim an single entity Does not claim that it is not a patchwork of different religions But it does claim what it means to be hindu Wednesday October 30th INTRINSIC PRINCIPLES Karma : reincarnation Not only an expression of consequences of actions but the effect of them as well We can understand how they are conceptualizing this life and other lifes Actions in this life affect life past Looking at the principles - can see how people base their practice outside of the world Basis of how we conceptualize and interact with the world around us If you were born into the wrong caste it is because of something you did in your past life Your life is not limited to just this life Looking at how fundamental ideas are able to affect our perceptions of the world now Consequences of personal life choice - extend past into other lifes Caste Position of one in society How you interact with other people Expectations of society within the self How choices affect your reality Hinduism in a broad sense - looking it as people being divided into specific responsibilities 4 major castes Hierarchical inequality Defined different purposes What purpose are you supposed to fulfill within this life Inequality in purpose - based on where you fall within the society you have different responsibilities All these functions should be equal in the sense that one is not supposed to be higher than another but unequal in what their purpose it Responsibilities that need to be fulfilled and what role you play in fulfilling them Four hindu paths to salvation (moksha) Knowledge, Action, Devotion, Yoga - connection between body, mind and soul More ritual side of the belief system itself - things you need to do in order to obtain salvation which is moving up through the caste system with your actions Transformative reality - becoming something you once were not before SANSKRIT HINDUISM Paradigm of great and little traditions - REDFIELD The anthropologist becomes interested in how the great tradition emerges from the cultures of the fold and in how two kinds of cultural traditions and two kinds of community, little and great, inter-relate (Singer 1972) ○ Literate tradition vs context tradition ○ Unhelpful to overstate the unity, but equally unhelpful to overlook that they are often two separate institutions and systems (Fuller 1992) ○ Imbedded in a specific social context There is no singular founder of hinduism If it is a melting pot of religions coming together we need to understand that in the religious contexts Separation between high theology and low theology The high - In hinduism it is called the sanskrit (written hinduism) DISTINCTION - idea that any type of structural belief system as great traditions (once a year festivals) We know religion is more than just the great traditions, it is about the everyday things We have great and little traditions that come together and form hinduism Redfield wanted to bring these two things together and become larger we had to combine the literature version (priest, books) and hinduism as it was being practiced on the folk size (lived size) Two parts of one complex whole Even within this context we tend to gravitate to one side of the other  Distinct entity vs unified entity Not dealing with inter compounds, other types of living animals and entities - dealing with people who have complex emotions Two separate institutions and systems Looking at inconsistencies ○ Humans are inconsistent ○ Unity vs separation : unhelpful to look at one or the other because extremes do not really exist ○ Looking at them as only unified ○ How can these two things exist together at the same time FULLER : not shift to a post modern perspective - point out the complexity of this in order to avoid oversimplification - not a statement complaining things are two difficult to understand Trying to highlight the complexity of the system Specific case examples and understand the goal ○ We are not competing but we are building a larger framework ○ How do these two things relate to one another ○ They are very complex system One side over stating the unity and other side stating disunity Need to understand how these two things coexist in the contexts of hinduism Understanding the context is so important because of the founderless religion of hinduism A FOUNDERLESS RELIGION All attempts to define an enormously complex and amorphous phenomenon like hinduism have usually ended in failure (Srinivas 1952) Lack of a centralized reference point, it takes a specific reference point ○ Has to do with melting pot of beliefs ○ Lack of centralized theology Vast syncretism a veritable melting pot of the myths beliefs rites and spiritual entities of many cultures and communities (Morris 2006) If hinduism is the religion of the Indian people, should it not include all people who are a part of the artificial construct ? Hindu being the Persian word for the country beyond the river Sindhu (indus) ○ Hindu was a catch all turn for people on the one side of the river India is noy just made up of hinduism - it is made up of many religions If hinduism is this collective identity that we all share in our difference, why are other religions not included in this ○ Christian Why is there constantly a push to say these people are not indian  ○ Being indian - hindus - trying to make these things inseparable Treated like a blank canvas that people are adding on to Amorphous nature Situational and context dependent - this does not mean it is not a religion Without a leader we are lacking the contexts within the religion What is being transmitted through in its founded Beginning created in the mystery - could be intentional Took a lot of beliefs and integrated them all together into an absolute reality Amorphous phenom to allow that to happen Could argue that the founderless reality could be intentional as the lack of a solidified foundation Religion that allows for the incorporation of multiple different backgrounds - becomes a unifying force Unify in the sense that it creates a culture Find identity in their differences We have a singular religious identity that we can now say we are this This is maybe why hinduism remains founderless and ambiguous This founderless nonhomogeneous aspect is used to criticize other religions as not being real ○ SHAMANISM Seeing something similar to this as people and from this specific area becoming a unified identity Convincing argument because looking at this culture Hinduism is an identity we all take on than does it not make sense to adopt and form a statement Perhaps we could take hinduism and separate it from the indian identity MIDTERM TWO Typed or Handwritten One sided Letter Paper (8x11) 40 MC FINAL IS WRITTEN - ONE QUESTION (1500) words 1-5 questions to choose from No cheat sheet Will you give questions beforehand? Brief about who/what said - want to understand WHAT is being said Friday November 1st KARMA, CASTE AND SOCIAL CAPITAL L. Hanifan (1916) via Putnam (1995; 2000) Social Capital: the network of relationships among people living together which involves the functioning and possibility of social groups through a shared sense of understanding, norms, values, trust, cooperation, and reciprocity Social capital is the value of our choices in exchange for position or influence in society Criticism in looking at bowling as his main topic for social change The intangible wealth people accumulate based on their choices Theory of moral causation and justification Those whose conduct here has been good will quickly attain a good birth, the birth od a robin, the birth of Brahman, the birth of a Kshatriya. Or the birth of a Vasihya. But those whose conduct has been evil, will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog, the birth of a hog, the birth of a [low caste] Chandala A visible dimension of everyday life in rural india, which is part of everyone's social and personal identity in a very real sense (Fuller)