ANTH 1002 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Liminality, Opiate
Chapter 13: Religion
I. What is religion?
A. Seeing a working definition
A.1. Religion: a set of beliefs and rituals based on a unique vision of how the world
ought to be, often focused on a supernatural power and lived out in community
B. Local expressions and universal definitions
B.1. A muslim saint shrine
B.2. Martyr: a person who sacrifices his or her life for the sake of his or her religion
B.3. Saint: an individual considered exceptionally close to God and who is then
exalted after death
II. What tools do anthropologists use to understand how religion works
A. Emile Durkheim: the sacred and the profane
A.1. Sacred: anything that is considered holy
A.2. Profane: anything that is considered unholy
A.3. Ritual: an act or series of acts regularly repeated over years or generations that
embody the beliefs of a group of people and create a sense of continuity and belonging
B. Religion and ritual
B.1. Rite of passage: a category of ritual that enacts a change of status from one life
stage to another, either for an individual or for a group
B.2. Liminality: one stage in a rite of passage during which a ritual participant
experiences a period of outsiderhood, set apart from normal society, that is key to
achieving a new perspective on the past, and current community
B.3. Communitas: a sense of camaraderie, a common vision of what constitutes a
good life, and a commitment to take social action to move forward achieving this vision
that is shaped by the common experience of rites of passage
B.4. Pilgrimage: a religious journey to a sacred place as a sign of devotion and in
search of transformation and enlightenment
C. Karl Marx: religion as “the opiate of the masses”
C.1. Religion and cultural materialism
C.2. Cultural materialism: a theory that argues that material conditions,including
technology, determine patterns of social organization, including religious principles
D. Shamanism: part-time religious practitioners with special abilities with special abilities to connect
individuals with supernatural powers or beings
E. Religion and magic
E.1. Magic: the use of spells, incantations, words, and actions in an attempt to
compel supernatural forces to act in certain ways, whether for good or evil
E.2. Imitative magic: a ritual performance that achieves efficacy by imitating the
desired magical result
E.3. Contagious magic: ritual words or performances that achieve efficacy as certain
materials that come into contact with one person carry a magical connection that allows
power to be transferred from person to person
E.4. E. E. Evans Pritchard: rethinking the logic of magic
E.5. Paul Stoller: In Sorcery’s shadow
E.6. George Gmelch: Baseball magic
III. What ways is religion both a system of meaning and a system of power?
A. Religion and meaning
A.1. Symbol: anything that represents something else
B. Religions and power
B.1. Authorizing process: the complex historical and social developments through
which symbols are given power and meaning
C. Blurring the boundaries between meaning and power
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Document Summary
Chapter 13: religion: what is religion, seeing a working definition. Religion: a set of beliefs and rituals based on a unique vision of how the world ought to be, often focused on a supernatural power and lived out in community: local expressions and universal definitions. Martyr: a person who sacrifices his or her life for the sake of his or her religion. Saint: an individual considered exceptionally close to god and who is then exalted after death. What tools do anthropologists use to understand how religion works: emile durkheim: the sacred and the profane. Ritual: an act or series of acts regularly repeated over years or generations that embody the beliefs of a group of people and create a sense of continuity and belonging: religion and ritual. Rite of passage: a category of ritual that enacts a change of status from one life stage to another, either for an individual or for a group.
