Comparative Religion

E.B Tylor
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Terms in this set (28)
E.B Tylor
-believed in spiritual beings
-focus on what people believe vs. what they do
-focus on idea of the supernatural
-religion started as dreams
-animism-->polytheism-->monotheism
-idea comes from the idea of social evolutionism
-assumed primitive became complex
-savages-->barbarians-->civilized people
James Frazer
-Tylors student
-Golden Bough was bestseller
-rejected animism-->polytheism-->monotheism
-magic-->religion-->science
-2 types of magic: sympathetic and contagious (voodoo)
Bronsilaw Malinowksi
-physicist turned anthropologist
-participant observation in New Guinea
-magical thinking and religious thinking are tied to loss of control
-you can control the outcome using science
William James
-psychologist
-much more internal with God
-religious experiences are real because it makes real people to real things in the real world
-individual experiences
Emile Durkheim
-sociologist
-one single moral community
-first to consider the "sacred"
-functionalism
Functionalism
-religion serves as a function
-keeps societies together, causes social cohesion
-when a group worships, they are really worshipping themselves
-dreamtime: entity from which you are created
Clifford Gertz
-religion is a system of symbols which establish moods and motivations
-symbols give you thoughts
-religion seems unrealistic (we are not living in a real reality-->real reality is after life)
-symbols make reality seem SUPER REAL
James McClenon
-contemporary anthropologist
-religion as something that evolved in humans because it conferred better odds of survival
-Homo Erectus and 2 boys
-religion tied to hypnosis, placebo, and healing (idea that the mind is powerful)
-hypnotizability and anomalous experience
Marx
-religion made by humans
-veil that blinds people to the truth
-existing to keep power in place
Freud
-religion as neuroticism and illusion
Max Weber-sociologist -less focused on religion's essence than on what it does -focus on "subjective experience, ideas, purposes) -interested in emic perspectiveMethodological atheism-whether or not a religion is true it is not considered it is "bracketed" off -religious truth claims are irrelevant, which is to approachAgnosticism-religious truth claims are unknowable, but this should not halt the search for religious meaning -whether or not a religion is true it is not considered, it is bracketed offTheism-researcher fully embraces the religion being studied and believes in it -religious truth claims are fully knowable -difficult for an atheistLudism-researcher essentially pretends that the religion is true for purposes of researcher-"make believe" -truth claims should be engaged as site of play -"trying out" religion -can be religious or non religious (atheist can do this)Ethnocentrism-awareness that cultural difference exists combined with view that ones own culture is superior and difference equals wrongnessCultural relativism-awareness that cultural difference exists combined with awareness that these differences make sense within the cultures that have themNaiive realism-lack of awareness that cultural difference existSocial/cultural evolutionism-animism, polytheism, monotheism -religion formed from spiritual beings -Tylor and Frazer -Malinowski rejected this!Animism-everything has a spirit (earliest form of religion) -the attribution of consciousness and a soul to aspects of the natural world including animals, plants, and features of landscapesPolytheism-godess of sea, sky, earth, etc.Monotheism-only 1 GodSyncretism-the joining of elements from two or more religions along analogous or parallel linesRevitilization movement-social movement religious in character with intent of changing societyMazeway-Wallace's psychological term, referring to a person's perceptions of their body, behavior, society, and culture -forms a mental image upon which they base their notions of self and world view"Mental Model"Sect/Secular Action-manipulation of human relationships -religious action as the manipulation of relationships between human and supernatural beingsNew Religion Movement-as society changes, old meanings change and so do religions -new religions and new understandings of old religions are constantly emerging