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Why do so many, perhaps all, cultures have religions?

Why do so many, perhaps all, cultures have religions?

Ryan Schram

ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au

Mills 169 (A26)

March 19, 2015

Readings

Douglas, Mary. 2002. “The Abominations of Leviticus.” In Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, 51–71. London: Routledge.

Ortner, Sherry B. 1973. “Sherpa Purity.” American Anthropologist 75 (1): 49–63. doi:10.2307/672339.

Other media

Speigel, Alix. 2011. “Why Cleaned Wastewater Stays Dirty In Our Minds.” Morning Edition. National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/2011/08/16/139642271/why-cleaned-wastewater-stays-dirty-in-our-minds.

What is polluting?

Do you observe taboos? What are things that pollute you?

  • bathroom door handles (1)
  • cannibalism
  • breastfeeding in public (1)
  • How would you feel if you saw a woman give her child to another woman to breastfeed? (1, 2)
  • alcohol
  • women, children and younger, uninitiated men. (Atchin, Malakula Island, Vanuatu)
  • toilet-to-tap (NPR story on the 'cognitive sewage' attached to recycled water)

We have two questions we need to consider. The first is why would a society teach its members to feel anxiety over taboos? Is there any reason for these rules? We have two answers to this. One comes from Durkheim and Douglas, the other comes from Ortner.

The second question is what do taboos, pollution tell us about people's religious thinking. How can we fit these ideas into our larger ideas about religion? If a society imposes taboos on things because they are dirty, what does this society consider pure?

Toilet to tap

  • Some people can never be convinced that recycled water is the same as clean water.
  • In an experiment, people who refused recycled water would accept it when they were told a story that included the idea that recycled water would sit underground for one year before entering the water system.
  • Even in spite of the facts, people only could understand the process of recycling water through symbols.
  • Symbols guide how people think and act. Emile Durkheim and Max Weber each offer explanations for why.

Max Weber and the action perspective on society

  • In order for society to exist, individuals must act, and patterns of action must develop.
  • Sociology should look at the basis for people's actions and choices, or what specific forms of action mean to a person, and give them a motivation to act.
  • In another sense, Weber looks at society from the ground up, and asks how individuals fit into social systems.
  • Weber: “methodological individualism”; Durkheim: “methodological holism”.

Weber's influence on anthropology

The most prominent example of Weber's influence on anthropology is in the work of Clifford Geertz.

  • Culture is like a text. People read the patterns of action they see in other people's behavior and derive meaning from it.
  • People's own action is a way of communicating, often very implicit. Your behavior shows other people what you think, how you feel, and what is valuable to you.
  • Even people who are not consciously trying to send a message through their behavior will have meaning read into what they do. Consider the difference between a twitch in your eye, and a wink. There isn't much, but if you wink, everyone will know that you did.
  • Fashion is also a rich area for applying the Geertzian method. Many uni students say, “Who cares about fashion? I just put on whatever and go to class!” But even that is a kind of symbolic message: “I don't care.”

Weber, Geertz and religion

  • Are you good? It is, in a sense, impossible to know on one's own. You can never be sure.
  • Through manipulating symbols, one can reassure oneself one is OK, that one fits in, and one is normal.
  • For Sherpa people, and possibly all people, avoiding pollution and/or pursuing purity are two complementing ways people can do this. Their symbolic actions of preserving purity are like holding up a mirror to themselves.
  • According to Geertz, religion gives people “powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations” (Geertz 1973: 90).

References

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Religion As a Cultural System.” In The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 87-125. New York: Basic Books.

A guide to the unit

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