Importance of Anthropological Religion Studies

8/12/2019 Importance of Anthropological Religion Studies

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deities, forces, ghosts, saints, etc. Harris believes that if you believe in any of those beings then

you taking part in religion. Having the ability to go beyond the spiritual and supernatural allows

anthropologist to look at different religious systems without having to be biased or judgmental

about whether or not something is religious, but rather analyze the culture for what it is.


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Discussion 2 2/22/2014 6:54:00 AM

1. What, according to Victor Turner, are the characteristics that distinguish priests,

prophets, shamans, and mediums?

Religious specialists devote themselves and their lives to mastering their own

beliefs in order to be able to impact their community. Priests dedicate years of their life being

mentored by an older priest and then by doing self-training. Self-training is a key part of the process since it gives them the ability to create a direct relationship and their own experience

with the supernatural. The direct connection they establish gives them a limited power to

influence the gods. Priests then strengthen their relationship by preserving the concepts, ideas,

myths and basic foundation of intellectual heritage. By doing so, they are able to maintain the

sacred traditions that have been passed down from the founders and affirming the reasoning

behind their authority. If they were to question or even produce an innovative concept, their

fellow priests would see them as heretics for challenging the institution of the church.

Meanwhile, Their followers would see them as prophets.

Prophets bring about new ideas and sense of radical change inside the city in

which they inhabit. The y do not receive any training but are called to evoke change by divine

revelation or a personal change. This change comes with an ascribed or achieved charisma

that allows them to attract and sustain a following. They are able to do this by creating a dialog

with the god or homogenous collective on behalf of the people. A prophet comes about at time of

social friction, when a small-scale society is taken over by a large scale. Their main goal is to

create a discontinuity in the large society and restructuring the religious and social system.

On the other hand, shamans do not attempt to change their society but rather tend

to their communities needs and continue on with their everyday activities. Their services are part-time and the rites are contingent upon the different illnesses or needs of the individual.

There are no set time, locations, or manner in which a ritual is conducted. However, unlike

priests and prophets, all individuals in the community are able to become shamans. A person is

able to b ecome a shaman because of their family lineage, a religious epiphany such as a divine

stroke, or by making a personal choice. Although the last is usually considered less powerful,

they are able to gain more respect by studying the ecstatic and traditional knowledge. The

ecstatic training provides them with the ability to have an out of body experience that then

allows them to communicate with spirits in order to gain knowledge, guidance, and healing. The

shaman acts as a vessel for the spirit world.

A medium is also able to communicate with the spirit world, but in a more limited

manner. He is possessed by the spirit, rather than having the ability to stand outside himself and

gain knowledge. This is the type of person that is usually searched for after someone has died in

order to gain more insight into the persons life. They are also able to sometimes able to provide

treatment through intuitive and deductive virtuosity by giving instructions of what type of


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social and physical changes need to be made. Although a medium does not have the same

amount of knowledge of the other three religious practitioners, they are still able to create a

connection with the supernatural.

2. Explain the relationship between the scale of society & the type of religious specialistlikely to be found, as reported by Turner?

As the scale and complexity of a society increases, the degree of specialization increases

as well. Religion slowly begins to separate itself from politics, economy, and science becoming

its own category. This separation creates very different societies that are reinforced by

everything that is done in the particular cultures regarding their religious system or everyday life.

In a simple society, everything is intertwined with everything else. Everyone has some

sort of religious function. Although the elderly have a priest like role, the rest of the community

is also involved. The involvement of so many individuals is possible due to the religious

specializations within the religious system itself. There are different people who posses different

types of knowledge such as those in herbalistic lore, skill in leechcraft and those who have the

capacity to enter a stage of trance and communicate with spirits. Their religion does not provide

any type of special status but is simply seen as part of their obligation. In this small scale,

multifunctional, flexible communities with a limited amount of resources, Shamanism is the

most popular type of religious belief.

In a complex society, there are a series of institutionalized religions from which people

can choose participate in or not. The mass society allows an individual to choose if they would

like to take part in any of the religious affiliations that have been created. There is a wide rangeof religions due to the bureaucracy, rational, routine, and hierarchy that is created in these

communities. In each of these religions however, there is an aspiration for religious perfection.

There is also a clear difference in status, rank, and functions different for each level within the

church itself. In this complex society, priests or a variation of priests are the most common. The

agriculturalist economy in these communities is the only kind that is able to sustain a non-

working class.

In a medium scale society, there is both a version of a priest and a shaman within the

same nation. In these societies, there are national and tribal gods that all of the communities

worship. Priests monitor this national scale of religion. These priests are set aside from birth or

are possessed later on in life. They must train themselves to hear the voice of god in the same

way that institutionalized priests must create a direct relationship with god during their own

training. What makes the medium scale society so special is their ability to also have a

multifunctional society. This society encompasses the smaller villages within the nation. In these

villages, there are smaller deities. These multifunctional villages require more of a shaman type


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of priest. In their training, priests are able to learn to control mediums in an attempt to return to

the original possession that led them to become religious practitioners. Their ability to control

mediums makes them very similar to shamans, especially since in these multifunctional societies,

they would need to also take part of different everyday activities. The medium scale society is

able to take different practices in the rituals conducted in both simple and complex societies, inorder to create its own unique religious s ystem.


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Discussion 3

Victor Turner emphasizes the importance of comradeship as a factor in the liminal period.

Discuss Turners thoughts on this concept, and indicate any parallels you may see in

contemporary American society.

Rites de passage are commonly found in the past and the present. These rites arenot all necessarily religious, but can also be secular, or can change from having a sacred meaning

to a secular one. However, often times the aim is to bring back a connection with a deity or a

supernatural power. After all, a ritual is religion in action. During the rites de passage , there is a

period in time called the liminal or marginal period. In this time, individuals are ripped of their

status, homes, and of their past. Sometimes their names are taken away, such as the community

of the Ndembu in Zambia. In this society that Turner studied, each of the individuals taking part

of the ritual was called neophyte which means initiand. They become structurally invisible

and are found in a sort of ambiguity and paradox. They are stripped of their identities by

disguising themselves in grotesque ways. Their sexuality is also taken away by making them

sexless or bisexual. They essentially become prima material.

All of the individuals going through this process understand each other and come

to form communitas. In these communitas, there is an intense community spirit, solidarity,

equality, and togetherness. Among this complete equality and lack of control a strong alliance

begins to form. This becomes a comity of comrades. The comradeship does not take into account

any distinctions of rank, age, kinship position, but instead start to act as a whole where its

one for all, and all for one. The elders do encourage such strong ties of friendship that should

last even into old age. This is encouraged by being grouped in sets of five and four around acommon lodge fire. During this liminal time, the neophytes are able to be themselves and

become mutually outspoken by stripping them of all responsibilities that they would have in their

regular lives. This frankness allows for stronger ties among each other that then enable them to

continue on with the ritual knowing that they have a sort of support system among each other.

In contemporary America, there are many secular rituals that act as a liminal

period. Our time in college represents that marginal time in which we shift from being

irresponsible teenagers to responsible adults. Within each of our maj ors, each of us is

striving to become the best. It doesnt matter if you come from a wealthy family or from a more

humble upbringing. At the end of the day, only your abilities and effort in your classes are the

ones that count. Our success and who we are is measured by what we do, not so much on our

personalities, especially in online courses where the only thing the professor sees, its our results.

In our classes, we come to find a group of people who we share certain things with and who

become our support system through college and those late night studies. These comradeships are

formed through a variety of similar struggles and experiences. Having these things to share in


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common allows them to form a tighter bond and understand what each other is going though.

Many times, the ties between each other become so strong that they last for a lifetime. This

relationship then comes a symbol of what you went though in order to be a responsible adult.

Importance of Anthropological Religion Studies

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