1.
Amandus
–
Amandus, commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the great Christian missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium, the chief source of details of his life is the Vita Sancti Amandi, an eighth-century text attributed to Beaudemond. The vita was expanded by Philippe, abbot of Aumône, according to this biography, Amand was born in Lower Poitou. He was of noble birth but at the age of twenty he became a monk on the Île dYeu, from there he went to Bourges and became a pupil of bishop Austregisilus. There he lived in solitude in a cell for fifteen years, living on no more than bread, after a pilgrimage to Rome, he was made a missionary bishop in France in 628, without a fixed diocese. At the request of Clotaire II, he evangelized the inhabitants of Ghent. Initially he had success, suffering persecution and undergoing great hardships. However, after performing a miracle the attitude of the people changed and he founded a monastery at Elnon where he served as abbot of for four years. Amandus was made a bishop in 628, returning to France in 630, he angered Dagobert I by attempting to have the king amend his life. In spite of the intervention of Saint Acarius, Amand was expelled from the kingdom, later Dagobert asked him to return and tutor the heir to the throne. In 633, Amandus founded two monasteries in Ghent, one at Blandinberg, and the named for St. Bavo. His next missionary task was among the Slavic people of the Danube valley in present-day Slovakia, Amand went to Rome and reported to the Pope. While returning to France, he is said to have calmed a storm at sea, in 639, he built an abbey near Tournay. From 647 till 650, Amand briefly served as Bishop of Maastricht, the pope gave him some advice on how to deal with disobedient clerics and warned him about the Monothelite heresy, at that time prevalent in the East. Amand was commissioned by the pope to organize church councils in Neustria and Austrasia in order to pass on the decrees from Rome. The bishops asked Amand to transmit the proceedings of the councils to the pope. He resigned the see to St. Remaclus, to resume his missionary work, around this time, Amand established contact with the family of Pepin of Landen and helped Gertrude of Nivelles and her mother Itta establishing the famous monastery of Nivelles. At the same time, he was now 70 years old, returning home, he founded several more monasteries in present-day Belgium with the help of king Dagobert
Amandus
–
Saint Amandus and the serpent, from a 14th-century
manuscript
2.
Afterlife
–
The afterlife is the concept of a realm, or the realm itself, in which an essential part of an individuals identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body. Belief in an afterlife, which may be naturalistic or supernatural, is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death, in this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or Otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics, in metaphysical models, theists generally believe some type of afterlife awaits people when they die. Members of some generally non-theistic religions, tend to believe in an afterlife, the Sadducees were an ancient Jewish sect that generally believed that there was a God but no afterlife. Reincarnation refers to a concept found among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Spiritists. Reincarnation is also a belief described in Kabbalistic Judaism as gilgul neshamot and this succession leads toward an eventual liberation. One consequence of reincarnationist beliefs is that our current lives are both afterlife and a beforelife, according to those beliefs events in our current life are consequences of actions taken in previous lives, or Karma. In most denominations, heaven is a condition of reward for the righteous to go after they die, traditionally defined as eternal union with God. In contrast to heaven, hell is a condition of punishment and torment for the wicked, traditionally defined as eternal separation from God and confinement with other sinful souls and fallen angels. So they are seen as existing in a state of natural. In other Christian denominations it has described as an intermediate place or state of confinement in oblivion. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Catholic Church, the tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire although it is not always called purgatory. Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief, traditional African religions are diverse in their beliefs in an afterlife. For each soul remains distinct and each represents a new soul. In some societies like the Mende, multiple beliefs coexist, the Mende believe that people die twice, once during the process of joining the secret society, and again during biological death after which they become ancestors. However, some Mende also believe that people are created by God they live ten consecutive lives. One cross-cultural theme is that the ancestors are part of the world of the living, interacting with it regularly, the afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion, and its belief system is one of the earliest known in recorded history. When the body died, parts of its known as ka
Afterlife
Afterlife
–
Domenico Beccafumi 's Inferno: a Christian vision of hell
Afterlife
–
Mictlan
Afterlife
3.
Animism
–
Animism is the worlds oldest religion. Animism teaches that objects, places, and creatures all possess distinctive spiritual qualities, potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animate and alive. Animism is the oldest known type of system in the world that even predates paganism. It is still practiced in a variety of forms in traditional societies. Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples spiritual or supernatural perspectives. The currently accepted definition of animism was only developed in the late 19th century by Sir Edward Tylor, Animism may further attribute souls to abstract concepts such as words, true names, or metaphors in mythology. Some members of the world also consider themselves animists. Earlier anthropological perspectives – since termed the old animism – were concerned with knowledge surrounding what is alive, the old animism assumed that animists were individuals who were unable to understand the difference between persons and things. Critics of the old animism have accused it of preserving colonialist and dualist worldviews, according to Tylor, animism often includes an idea of pervading life and will in nature, i. e. a belief that natural objects other than humans have souls. This formulation was little different from that proposed by Auguste Comte as fetishism, thus, for Tylor, animism was fundamentally seen as a mistake, a basic error from which all religion grew. The earliest known usage in English appeared in 1819, Tylors definition of animism was a part of a growing international debate on the nature of primitive society by lawyers, theologians, and philologists. The debate defined the field of research of a new science – anthropology and their religion was animism – the belief that natural species and objects had souls. With the development of property, these descent groups were displaced by the emergence of the territorial state. These rituals and beliefs eventually evolved over time into the vast array of developed religions, in 1869, the Edinburgh lawyer, John Ferguson McLellan, argued that the animistic thinking evident in fetishism gave rise to a religion he named Totemism. Primitive people believed, he argued, that they were descended of the species as their totemic animal. Subsequent debate by the armchair anthropologists remained focused on totemism rather than animism, indeed, anthropologists have commonly avoided the issue of Animism and even the term itself rather than revisit this prevalent notion in light of their new and rich ethnographies. Certain indigenous religious groups such as the Australian Aboriginals are more typically totemic, stewart Guthrie saw animism – or attribution as he preferred it – as an evolutionary strategy to aid survival. He argued that humans and other animal species view inanimate objects as potentially alive as a means of being constantly on guard against potential threats
Animism
Animism
–
Edward Tylor developed animism as an anthropological theory
Animism
–
Five Ojibwe chiefs in the 19th century; it was anthropological studies of Ojibwe religion that resulted in the development of the "new animism"
4.
Bora (Australian)
–
Bora is an initiation ceremony of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia, descended from groups that existed in Australia and surrounding islands before European colonisation. The word bora also refers to the site on which the initiation is performed, at such a site, boys, having reached puberty, achieve the status of men. During the rites, the youths who were to be initiated were taught traditional sacred songs, the secrets of the tribes religious visions, dances, many different clans would assemble to participate in an initiation ceremony. Women and children were not permitted to be present at the sacred bora ground where these rituals were undertaken. The word Bora was originally taken from the Gamilaraay language spoken by the Kamilaroi people who lived in the north of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales to southern Queensland. It was then adorted broadly to describe similar ritual sites and the associated with them performed throughout Eastern Australia. Many other terms exist across Australia to denote similar initiatory rites on a ground, such as burbung. The specific word is said to come from the belt worn by initiated men, the appearance of the site varies among cultures, but it is often associated with stone arrangements, rock engravings, or other art works. Typically, bora ground comprised a circle with a diameter of between 20–30 metres, and a smaller ring around 10–15 metres in diameter. The former was a public space while the latter was sacred. In south-east Australia, the Bora is often associated with the creator-spirit Baiame, in the Sydney region, large earth mounds were made, shaped as long bands or simple circles. Matthews gives an excellent eye-witness account of a Bora ceremony, one very fine example of a two ring bora ceremonial site used to exist in Alberton till it was destroyed, and made way for a pineapple plantation in the late 1950s. The smaller southern ring contained a dolmen-like structure, the rings are joined by a sacred walkway. While most are confined to south-east Queensland and eastern New South Wales, five earth rings have been recorded near the Victorian town of Sunbury, Bora rings in the form of circles of individually placed stones are evident in Werrikimbe National Park in northern New South Wales
Bora (Australian)
–
Photograph of a Bora ceremony, taken in 1898 by
Charles Kerry.
5.
Communitas
–
Communitas is a Latin noun commonly referring either to an unstructured community in which people are equal, or to the very spirit of community. It also has significance as a loanword in cultural anthropology. Communitas refers to a state in which all members of a community are equal allowing them to share a common experience. Communitas is characteristic of people experiencing liminality together and this term is used to distinguish the modality of social relationship from an area of common living. There is more than one distinction between structure and communitas, the most familiar is the difference of secular and sacred. Every social position has something sacred about it and this sacred component is acquired during rites of passages, through the changing of positions. Part of this sacredness is achieved through the transient humility learned in these phases, Communitas is an acute point of community. It takes community to the level and allows the whole of the community to share a common experience. This brings everyone onto a level, even if you are higher in position, you have been lower. Turner distinguishes between, existential or spontaneous communitas, the transient personal experience of togetherness, e. g. that which occurs during a counter-culture happening. Normative communitas, which occurs as communitas is transformed from its state to being organized into a permanent social system due to the need for social control. Ideological communitas, which can be applied to many utopian social models, Communitas as a concept used by Victor Turner in his study of ritual has been criticized by anthropologists. See John Eade & Michael J. Communitas is also the title of a book published in 1947 by the 20th-century American thinker and writer Paul Goodman and his brother, Percival Goodman. Their book examines three kinds of societies, a society centered on consumption, a society centered on artistic and creative pursuits. In 1998, Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito published a book under the name Communitas challenging the traditional understanding of this concept and it was translated in English in 2010 by Timothy Campbell. Rather, it is a void, a debt, a gift to the other that also reminds us of our constitutive alterity with respect to ourselves. Here we find the final and most characteristic of the associated with the alternative between public and private, those in other words that contrast communitas to immunitas. He can completely preserve his own position through a vacatio muneris, whereas the communitas is bound by the sacrifice of the compensatio, the immunitas implies the beneficiary of the dispensatio
Communitas
–
Initiation at the Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii, a rite of passage expressing communitas
6.
Comparative religion
–
Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions concerned with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices of the worlds religions. In general the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics. Studying such material is meant to give one a richer and more sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual, other religions that fit this description are sometimes included but are often omitted. The original belief in the One God of Abraham eventually became strictly monotheistic present-day Rabbinic Judaism, christians believe that Christianity is the fulfillment and continuation of the Jewish Old Testament. Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament prophecy and this signaled a break with Islam and started a new religious system, that also represents the predecessor of the Baháí Faith. Christianity and Judaism are two other Abrahamic religions that diverge in theology and practice, the historical interaction of Islam and Judaism started in the 7th century CE with the origin and spread of Islam. There are many common aspects between Islam and Judaism, and as Islam developed, it became the major religion closest to Judaism. There are many traditions within Islam originating from traditions within the Hebrew Bible or from post-biblical Jewish traditions and these practices are known collectively as the Israiliyat. The historical interaction between Christianity and Islam connects fundamental ideas in Christianity with similar ones in Islam, Islam accepts many aspects of Christianity as part of its faith - with some differences in interpretation - and rejects other aspects. Islam believes the Quran is the revelation from God and a completion of all previous revelations. Several important religions and religious movements originated in Greater Iran, that is and they include Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, Ætsæg Din, Yazdanism, Ahl-e Haqq, Zurvanism, Mandaeism, Manichaeism, and Mazdakism. Indian religions refers to a number of religions that have originated on the Indian subcontinent and they encompass Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Buddhism and modern Hinduism are both post-Vedic religions, gautama Buddha is mentioned as an Avatar of Vishnu in the Puranic texts of Hinduism. Prominent Hindu reformers such as Gandhi and Vivekananda acknowledge Buddhist influence, Gandhi, like Hindus, did not believe Buddha established a non-Hindu tradition. He writes, I do not regard Jainism or Buddhism as separate from Hinduism, a Taoic religion is a religion, or religious philosophy, that focuses on the East Asian concept of Tao. This forms a group of religions including Taoism, Confucianism, Jeung San Do, Shinto, I-Kuan Tao, Chondogyo. In large parts of East Asia, Buddhism has taken on some taoic features, Tao can be roughly stated to be the flow of the universe, or the force behind the natural order. It is believed to be the influence that keeps the universe balanced and ordered and is associated with nature, the flow of Chi, as the essential energy of action and existence, is compared to the universal order of Tao
Comparative religion
Comparative religion
–
The
Rig Veda is one of the oldest
Vedic texts. Shown here is a Rig Veda manuscript in
Devanagari, early nineteenth century.
7.
Divination
–
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Divination can be seen as a method with which to organize what appear to be disjointed. Fortune-telling, on the hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion, divination is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being superstition. Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination into the four types, Omens. Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of births, the tracking of natural phenomena. Chinese governmental planning relied on this method of forecasting for long-range strategies and it is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination, Joseph Needhams work considered this very idea. This consists of the casting of lots, or sortes, whether with sticks, stones, bones, beans, coins, modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination. This ranks a set of given possibilities and it can be qualitative, for example, dowsing developed from this type of divination. The Romans, in times, used Etruscan methods of augury such as hepatoscopy. Augury is normally considered to refer to divination by studying the flight patterns of birds. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, the answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some religions use a form of bibliomancy, they ask a question, riffle the pages of their holy book, other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and New Age methods of feng shui such as intuitive and fuzion. In this practice, the examines the hands of a person for whom they are divining for indications of their future. The Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis was made famous when Alexander the Great visited it after delivering Egypt from Persian rule in 332 BC, deuteronomy 18, 10-12 or Leviticus 19,26 can be interpreted as categorically forbidding divination. However, some would claim that divination is indeed practiced in the Bible, such as in Exodus 28, communicating with God through prayer is not the same as divination, though both are open, typically two-way conversations with God. Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination, oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth, their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of the demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule
Divination
–
This man in
Rhumsiki,
Cameroon, attempts to tell the future by interpreting the changes in position of various objects as caused by a freshwater crab through the practice of
nggàm.
Divination
–
Russian peasant girls using
chickens for divination; 19th century
lubok.
8.
Divine language
–
Divine language, the language of the gods, or, in monotheism, the language of God is the concept of a mystical or divine proto-language, which predates and supersedes human speech. The sacred language in Islam is Classical Arabic, which is a descendant of the Proto-Semitic language, Arabic, along with Hebrew and Aramaic, is a Semitic language. It is considered to be sacred, as, in the Muslim view, it is the language by which Allah revealed the final revealed book, the Quran, to Muhammad, Prophet of Islam, through the angel Jibril. In Vedic religion, speech Vāc, i. e. the language of liturgy, later Hindu scholarship, in particular the Mīmāṃsā school of Vedic hermeneutics, distinguished Vāc from Śábda, a distinction comparable to the Saussurian langue and parole. The concept of Sphoṭa was introduced as a kind of transcendent aspect of Śábda, in 1510, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa published Book I of his De Occulta Philosophia. They recorded large portions of the language in their journals, along with a text in the language called the Book of Loagaeth. Dees language, called Angelical in his journals, often today by the misnomer Enochian. According to A True and Faithful Relation, Angelical was supposed to have been the language God used to create the world, and then used by Adam to speak with God and Angels and to name all things in existence. He then lost the language upon his Fall from Paradise, and this proto-Hebrew, then, was the universal human language until the time of the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel. After this, all the human languages were developed, including an even more modified Hebrew. These true roots of language are few, alphabet and roots being identical
Divine language
–
Adam naming the animals, in Christian mythology, which must have been in the divine language given to him by God.
9.
Evolutionary origin of religions
–
Humanity’s closest living relatives are common chimpanzees and bonobos. These primates share an ancestor with humans who lived between six and eight million years ago. It is for this reason that chimpanzees and bonobos are viewed as the best available surrogate for this common ancestor, Barbara King argues that while non-human primates are not religious, they do exhibit some traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion. These traits include high intelligence, a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of self, there is inconclusive evidence that Homo neanderthalensis may have buried their dead which is evidence of the use of ritual. The use of rituals is thought to be evidence of religious activity. Some evidence suggests that many species grieve death and loss, in this set of theories, the religious mind is one consequence of a brain that is large enough to formulate religious and philosophical ideas. During human evolution, the hominid brain tripled in size, peaking 500,000 years ago, much of the brains expansion took place in the neocortex. This part of the brain is involved in processing higher order cognitive functions that are connected with human religiosity, the neocortex is associated with self-consciousness, language and emotion. According to Dunbars theory, the relative size of any species correlates with the level of social complexity of the particular species. The neocortex size correlates with a number of variables that include social group size. In chimpanzees the neocortex occupies 50% of the brain, whereas in humans it occupies 80% of the brain. Robin Dunbar argues that the event in the evolution of the neocortex took place at the speciation of archaic homo sapiens about 500,000 years ago. His study indicates that only after the event is the neocortex large enough to process complex social phenomena such as language. The study is based on an analysis of neocortex size plotted against a number of social behaviors of living. Lewis Wolpert argues that causal beliefs that emerged from tool use played a role in the evolution of belief. The manufacture of complex tools requires creating an image of an object which does not exist naturally before actually making the artifact. Furthermore, one must understand how the tool would be used, accordingly, the level of sophistication of stone tools is a useful indicator of causal beliefs. Wolpert contends use of tools composed of more than one component, such as axes, represents an ability to understand cause
Evolutionary origin of religions
–
Evidence of prehistoric religion:
Neolithic "
Potnia Theron " type
goddess, seated on a throne flanked by two lionesses, from
Çatalhöyük.
10.
Fetishism
–
A fetish is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a man-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent value or powers to an object. William Pietz, who conducted an extensive study of the fetish. According to Pietz, the concept of fetish emerged from the encounter between Europeans and Africans in a very specific historical context and in response to African material culture. Stallybrass concludes that Pietz shows that the fetish as a concept was elaborated to demonize the supposedly arbitrary attachment of West Africans to material objects, the European subject was constituted in opposition to a demonized fetishism, through the disavowal of the object. Initially, the Portuguese developed the concept of the fetish to refer to the used in religious cults by West African natives. The concept was popularized in Europe circa 1757, when Charles de Brosses used it in comparing West African religion to the aspects of ancient Egyptian religion. Later, Auguste Comte employed the concept in his theory of the evolution of religion, wherein he posited fetishism as the earliest stage, however, ethnography and anthropology would classify some artifacts of monotheistic religions as fetishes. For example, the Holy Cross and the consecrated host or tokens of communion found in forms of Christianity, are here regarded as examples of fetishism. The theory of fetishism was consecrated at the end of the century by G. W. F Hegel in Lectures on the Philosophy of History. This they saw as a problem historically and sociologically. for a particular. In refusing to see his mothers lack of penis, the boy disavows what he sees and this compromise results in a substitute. It remains a token of triumph over the threat of castration, the use of the concept in the study of religion derives from studies of traditional West African religious beliefs, as well as from Voodoo, which in turn derives from those beliefs. Fetishes were commonly used in Native American religion and practices, the bear represented the shaman, the buffalo was the provider, the mountain lion was the warrior, and the wolf was the pathfinder. Made and used by the BaKongo people of western Zaire, a nkisi is an object that provides a local habitation for a spiritual personality. As Europeans tend to think of spirits as objects of worship, in this way, Europeans regarded minkisi as idols on the basis of false assumptions. Europeans often called nkisi fetishes and sometimes idols because they are rendered in human form. Modern anthropology has generally referred to these objects either as objects or as charms
Fetishism
–
Teenage girls being initiated into the
Sande society,
Sierra Leone,
West Africa. Text: "The dancers all wore fetishes peculiar to the order, each having special significance. These consisted of several ropes of cane cut into beads and of rows of seeds which had been bored and filled with Bundu (Sande) medicine".
Fetishism
–
A voodoo fetish market in
Lomé,
Togo, 2008
11.
Great Spirit
–
According to Lakota activist Russell Means, a better translation of Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery. The Great Spirit was not always what Native Americans believed in, the Great Spirit is a God-like entity that was adopted by Native American religion in the 18th century. The Great Spirit is a celestial deity who personally ruled the world. He is the God of creation, history and eternity, before contact with Europeans there was no word in any Native American language that represented a God or a supreme being. Anthropologists have determined that the idea of a Great Spirit is wholly an invention of the white man, there are many different prophets of the Great Spirit. While each prophet is made up of different myths each one has the same goal, each prophet aims at restoration and preservation of a way of Native American life that is diminishing. The Great Spirit is used to guide individuals and their communities with the lessons through the prophets, the Great Spirit is expressed through multiple Native American Tribes which is why each story regarding the Great Spirit is different- they are products of various cultures. Some prophets call for war, while others call for peace, certain prophets call for acculturation between the Native Americans and whites, while others call for complete segregation. Two of the most well known prophets prophecies took place in the early 1800s, the Shawnee Prophet occurred in 1824. Tenskwatawa, a religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, warned The Governor of Michigan, Lewis Cass and this flame would end the world as it was between the Native Americans and Whites. Once the destruction was complete, the Great Spirit would restructure, another well-known story happened in 1827 and involves William Clark and Kennekuk, a spiritual leader of the Kickapoo nation. This is known as the Kickapoo Prophet, kennebunk informed Clark that he must be careful while exploring the land that is now Illinois. This warning was so that the relocation of Kennekuk’s tribe would be delayed and he proclaimed that the Great Spirit would give a sign when it was safe to continue traveling. Other popular prophets include The Delaware Prophet and The Red Sticks Prophet, the Great Spirit is portrayed in American Indian history as a powerful force that guides the people in wisdom and survival. In the various tribes, The Great Spirit might be called Earthgrasper, Earthmaker, Gisha Munetoa, Gitchi Manido, an Algonquin legend speaks of a Delaware Indian called Eroneniera that travels to meet The Great Spirit. Upon meeting, The Great Spirit tells Eroneniera that he is the “Maker of Heaven and Earth…because I love you…the land on which you are, the Great Spirit teaches him a prayer to share with his people that they should repeat it every morning and night. The stories of the Native American helped explain mysteries and abstract ideas, the stories also explained weather, animals, and land formations. The Great Spirit and many deities are mentioned in the mythology of the Native American
Great Spirit
–
"Appeal to the Great Spirit," statue by Cyrus Dallin before the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
12.
Henotheism
–
Henotheism is the worship of a single god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker used it to depict primordial monotheism among ancient Greeks, Friedrich Schelling coined the term henotheism, from heis which literally means single, one. The term refers to a form of theism focused on a single god, related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism. The latter term is an extension of henotheism, from καθ ἕνα θεόν — one god at a time, Henotheism refers to a pluralistic theology wherein different deities are viewed to be of a unitary, equivalent divine essence. Another term related to henotheism is equitheism, referring to the belief that all gods are equal, further, the term henotheism does not exclude monism, nondualism or dualism. Various scholars prefer the term monolatry to henotheism, to discuss religions where a god is central. According to Christoph Elsas, henotheism in modern usage connotes a syncretic stage in the development of religions in late antiquity. A henotheist may worship a god from a pantheon of deities at a given time, depending on his or her choice, while accepting other deities. Henotheism and inclusive monotheism are terms that refer to a position between unlimited polytheism and exclusive monotheism. Ahura Mazda is the god, but Zoroastrianism does not deny other deities. Ahura Mazda has yazatas some of which include Anahita, Sraosha, Mithra, Rashnu, Richard Foltz has put forth evidence that Iranians of Pre-Islamic era worshiped all these figures, especially Mithra and Anahita. Prods Oktor Skjærvø states Zoroastrianism is henotheistic, and a dualistic and polytheistic religion, but with one supreme god, who is the father of the ordered cosmos. Other scholars state that this is unclear, because historic texts present a picture, ranging from Zoroastrianisms belief in one god. Henotheism was the used by scholars such as Max Muller to describe the theology of Vedic religion. The Vedic era conceptualization of the divine or the One, states Jeaneane Fowler, is more abstract than a monotheistic God, it is the Reality behind and of the phenomenal universe. The Vedic hymns treat it as limitless, indescribable, absolute principle, an example of the questioning of the concept of God, in addition to henotheistic hymns found therein, are in later portions of the Rigveda, such as the Nasadiya Sukta. Hinduism calls the metaphysical absolute concept as Brahman, incorporating within it the transcendent and immanent reality, different schools of thought interpret Brahman as either personal, impersonal or transpersonal. Ishwar Chandra Sharma describes it as Absolute Reality, beyond all dualities of existence and non-existence, light and darkness, while Greek and Roman religion began as polytheism, during the Classical period, under the influence of philosophy, differing conceptions emerged
Henotheism
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
13.
Initiation
–
Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be an admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can signify a transformation in which the initiate is reborn into a new role. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as depicted in these pictures, is called an initiate. Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a religious act by classical or traditional societies. He defined initiation as a change in existential condition, which liberates man from profane time. Initiation recapitulates the history of the world. And through this recapitulation, the world is sanctified anew. Can perceive the world as a work, a creation of the Gods. Eliade differentiates between types of initiations in two ways, types and functions and this real valuation of ritual death finally led to conquest of the fear of real death. Function is to reveal the meaning of existence to the new generations and to help them assume the responsibility of being truly men. It reveals an open to the trans-human, a world that, in our philosophical terminology. Puberty Rites- collective rituals whose function is to effect the transition from childhood or adolescence to adulthood and they represent above all the revelation of the sacred. Entering into a Secret Society- Mystical Vocation- the vocation of a man or a shaman. This is limited to the few who are destined to participate in an intense religious experience than is accessible to the rest of the community. These can be broken into two types, puberty rites, by virtue of which adolescents gain access to the sacred, to knowledge, specialized initiations, which certain individuals undergo in order to transcend their human condition and become protégés of the Supernatural Beings or even their equals. Dissonance is then thought to produce feelings of group attraction among initiates after the experience. Rewards during initiations have important consequences in that initiates who feel more rewarded express stronger group identity, as well as group attraction, initiations can also produce conformity among new members
Initiation
–
Initiation ceremony, Korogo Village, Sepik River,
Papua New Guinea, 1975. Franz Luthi
Initiation
–
Freemasonry initiation. 18th century
14.
Liminality
–
During a rituals liminal stage, participants stand at the threshold between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes. The concept of liminality was first developed in the early 20th century by folklorist Arnold van Gennep, more recently, usage of the term has broadened to describe political and cultural change as well as rituals. The dissolution of order during liminality creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions, the term has also passed into popular usage, where it is applied much more broadly, undermining its significance to some extent. Van Gennep, who coined the term liminality, published in 1906 his Rites de Passage, van Gennep began his book by identifying the various categories of rites. He distinguished between those that result in a change of status for an individual or social group, Liminal rites, Two characteristics are essential to these rites. First, the rite “must follow a prescribed sequence, where everybody knows what to do. Second, everything must be done “under the authority of a master of ceremonies”, the destructive nature of this rite allows for considerable changes to be made to the identity of the initiand. This middle stage “implies an actual passing through the threshold that marks the boundary between two phases, and the term ‘liminality’ was introduced in order to characterize this passage. ”Postliminal rites, During this stage, the initiand is re-incorporated into society with a new identity, as a “new” being. Turner confirmed his nomenclature for the three phases of passage from one culturally defined state or status to another. preliminal, liminal, van Gennep considered rites of initiation to be the most typical rite. In such rites of passage, the experience is highly structured, the first phase requires the child to go through a separation from his family, this involves his/her “death” as a child, as childhood is effectively left behind. In the second stage, initiands must pass a “test” to prove they are ready for adulthood, if they succeed, the third stage involves a celebration of the “new birth” of the adult and a welcoming of that being back into society. By constructing this three-part sequence, van Gennep identified a pattern he believed was inherent in all ritual passages, by suggesting that such a sequence is universal, van Gennep made an important claim. An anthropological ritual, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, and in the first phase comprises symbolic behaviour signifying the detachment of the individual. from an earlier fixed point in the social structure. Turner, who is considered to have “re-discovered the importance of liminality”, in 1967 he published his book The Forest of Symbols, which included an essay entitled Betwixt and Between, The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage. Within the works of Turner, liminality began to wander away from its application to ritual passages in small-scale societies. He became aware that liminality “, the attributes of liminality or of liminal personae are necessarily ambiguous. Ones sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation, however, Turner’s approach to liminality has two major shortcomings. However, Agnes Horvath argues that the term can be applied to historical events
Liminality
–
Liminal phase of a rite of passage: Albert Anker's Die Ziviltrauung, "the Civil Marriage," 1887
15.
Magic (paranormal)
–
Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language with the aim of exploiting supernatural forces. The term magic has a variety of meanings, and there is no agreed upon definition of what it is or how it can be used. Religious scholars have defined magic in many different ways, one approach, associated with the anthropologists Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer, has magic and science be opposites. Many scholars of religion have rejected the utility of the term magic, the term magic comes from the Old Persian magu, a word that applied to a form of religious functionary about which little is known. This meaning of the term was adopted by Latin in the first century BCE. The concept was incorporated into Christian theology during the first century CE. This concept was pervasive throughout the Middle Ages, although in the modern period Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western culture over the following centuries, throughout Western history, there have been examples of individuals claiming to be practitioners of magic and referring to themselves as magicians. This trend has proliferated in the period, with a growing number of magicians appearing within the esoteric milieu. Scholars of religion have failed to agree on a definition of magic is. The subject has one of intense dispute, with some scholars criticizing the validity of the term in the first place. Even among those throughout history who have described themselves as magicians, there has been some debate among scholars as to whether to use the term magic at all. The scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith for example argued that it had no utility as a term that scholars should use. Religious historian Wouter Hanegraaff agreed, stating that the magic is an important object of historical research. Since the 1990s its usage among scholars has declined, within Western culture, magic has been linked to the idea of the Other. Using the term magic when discussing non-Western cultures or pre-modern forms of Western society raises problems, alternately, this term implies that all categories of magic are ethnocentric and that such Western preconceptions are an unavoidable component of scholarly research. Magic is one of the most heavily theorized concepts in the study of religion, the intellectualist approach to defining magic is associated with two prominent British anthropologists, Edward Tylor and James G. Frazer. This was an approach that viewed magic as being the theoretical opposite of science, in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Tylor characterized magic as beliefs based on the error of mistaking ideal analogy for real analogy
Magic (paranormal)
–
"
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses " by
John William Waterhouse
Magic (paranormal)
–
The "
Magician " card from a 15th-century
tarot deck.
Magic (paranormal)
–
Juju charm protecting dugout canoe on riverbank, in
Suriname.1954.
Magic (paranormal)
–
Traditional welcome performance,
Mitral,
Kheda district, Gujarat
16.
Monotheism
–
Monotheism has been defined as the belief in the existence of only one god that created the world, is all-powerful and interferes in the world. Another, more broad definition of monotheism, is the belief in one god, a distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive monotheism and pluriform monotheism which, while recognising various distinct gods, postulate some underlying unity. There are also monotheistic parody religions, such as Pastafarianism, the word monotheism comes from the Greek μόνος meaning single and θεός meaning god. The English term was first used by Henry More, according to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, monotheism was the original religion of humanity. Scholars of religion largely abandoned that view in the 19th century in favour of a progression from animism via polytheism to monotheism. Austrian anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt had postulated an Urmonotheismus, original or primitive monotheism in the 1910s and it was objected that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam had grown up in opposition to polytheism as had Greek philosophical monotheism. Some writers believe that the concept of monotheism sees a gradual development out of notions of henotheism and monolatrism, quasi-monotheistic claims of the existence of a universal deity date to the Late Bronze Age, with Akhenatens Great Hymn to the Aten. A possible inclination towards monotheism emerged during the Vedic period in Iron-Age South Asia, the Rigveda exhibits notions of monism of the Brahman, in particular, in the comparatively late tenth book, dated to the early Iron Age, e. g. in the Nasadiya sukta. While all adherents of the Abrahamic religions consider themselves to be monotheists, Judaism does not consider Christianity to be monotheistic, Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world. God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic, a one, indivisible. The Babylonian Talmud references other, foreign gods as non-existent entities to whom humans mistakenly ascribe reality, One of the best-known statements of Rabbinical Judaism on monotheism is the Second of Maimonides 13 Principles of faith, God, the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of a pair, nor one like a species, nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity. Judaism and Islam reject the Christian idea of monotheism, Judaism uses the term shituf to refer to the worship of God in a manner which Judaism does not deem to be monotheistic. During the 8th century BCE, the worship of YHWH in Israel was in competition with other cults. Some scholars hypothesize that Judaism was originally a form of monolatrism or henotheism, in this hypothesis both the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah had YHWH as their state god, while also acknowledging the existence of other gods. Shema Yisrael are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and is the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the service in Judaism. It is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, despite at least one earlier local synod rejecting the claim of Arius, this Christological issue was to be one of the items addressed at the First Council of Nicaea
Monotheism
–
Bahá'í House of Worship,
Langenhain, Germany
Monotheism
Monotheism
–
Krishna displays his
Vishvarupa (universal form) to
Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Monotheism
–
A Sikh temple, known as Nanaksar
Gurudwara, in
Alberta, Canada.
17.
Polytheism
–
Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism, within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but they can be henotheists, other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the Axial Age and the development of Abrahamic religions. Important polytheistic religions practiced today include Chinese traditional religion, Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, the term comes from the Greek πολύ poly and θεός theos and was first invented by the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria to argue with the Greeks. When Christianity spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, non-Christians were just called Gentiles or pagans or by the pejorative term idolaters. The modern usage of the term is first revived in French through Jean Bodin in 1580, a central, main division in polytheism is between soft polytheism and hard polytheism. Hard polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, hard polytheists reject the idea that all gods are one god. Hard polytheists do not necessarily consider the gods of all cultures as being equally real, Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity. Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world, the psychological way is to regard the activities of the soul itself and or the souls acts of thought. The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example, to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, an example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems. In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time, deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder cultures pantheon to a one, as in the Greek Titanomachia. Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives, epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when Dionysus was invited to Mount Olympus, robert Graves The Greek Myths cites two sources that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did
Polytheism
–
Egyptian gods in the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
18.
Revitalization movement
–
In 1956, Anthony F. C. Wallace published a paper called Revitalization Movements to describe how cultures change themselves. Wallaces model 1956 describes the process of a revitalization movement and it is derived from studies of a Native American religious movement, The Code of Handsome Lake, which may have led to the formation of the Longhouse Religion. Wallace derived his theory from studies of so-called primitive peoples, with attention to the Iroquois revitalization movement led by Seneca religious leader. Wallace believed that his revitalization model applies to movements as broad and complex as the rise of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, scholars such as Vittorio Lanternari and Peter Worsley have developed and adapted Wallaces insights. Ghost Dance, a famous Native American revitalization movement Great Awakenings, revivalism Kehoe, B Alice, The Ghost Dance, Ethnohistory and Revitalization, Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek, Thompson Publishing,1989. The Religions of the Oppressed, a Study of Modern Messianic Cults, the Trumpet Shall Sound, a Study of Cargo Cults in Melanesia. Cargo Cult, Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beynd
Revitalization movement
–
Arapahoe ghost dance
19.
Rite of passage
–
A rite of passage is a celebration of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society, in cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of rite de passage, a French term innovated by the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in his work Les rites de passage, The Rites of Passage. The term is now fully adopted into anthropology as well as into the literature, in English, Van Genneps first sentence of his first chapter begins, Each larger society contains within it several distinctly separate groupings. In addition, all these groups break down into still smaller societies in subgroups, the population of a society belongs to multiple groups, some more important to the individual than others. Van Gennep uses the metaphor, as a kind of house divided into rooms, a passage occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another, in the metaphor, he changes rooms. Van Gennep further distinguishes between the secular and the sacred sphere, many groups in modern industrial society practice customs that can be traced to an earlier sacred phase. Passage between these requires an ceremony, or ritual hence rite of passage. He is able to find some universals, mainly two, the separation between men and women, and the magico-religious separation between the profane and the sacred. He refuses credit for being the first to recognize type of rites, in the work he concentrates on groups and rites individuals might normally encounter progressively, pregnancy, childbirth, initiation, betrothal, marriage, funerals and the like. He mentions some others, such as the passage, a crossing of borders into a culturally different region. Rites of passage have three phases, separation, liminality, and incorporation, as van Gennep described, in the first phase, people withdraw from their current status and prepare to move from one place or status to another. The first phase comprises symbolic behavior signifying the detachment of the individual or group, from an earlier fixed point in the social structure. There is often a detachment or cutting away from the self in this phase. For example, the cutting of the hair for a person who has just joined the army and he or she is cutting away the former self, the civilian. The transition phase is the period between states, during which one has one place or state but has not yet entered or joined the next. The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae are necessarily ambiguous, in the third phase the passage is consummated the ritual subject. Having completed the rite and assumed their new identity, one society with ones new status. Laboratory experiments have shown that severe initiations produce cognitive dissonance and it is theorized that such dissonance heightens group attraction among initiates after the experience, arising from internal justification of the effort used
Rite of passage
–
Initiation ritual of boys in Malawi. The ritual marks the passage from child to adult male, each subgroup having its customs and expectations.
Rite of passage
–
Jesus underwent Jewish
circumcision, here depicted in a Catholic
cathedral; a
liturgical feast commemorates this on New Year's Day
20.
Ritual
–
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and performed according to set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community, Rituals are characterized but not defined by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance. Rituals are a feature of all human societies. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying hello may be termed rituals, the field of ritual studies has seen a number of conflicting definitions of the term. One given by Kyriakidis is that a ritual is an outsiders or etic category for a set activity that, to the outsider, seems irrational, non-contiguous, or illogical. The term can be used also by the insider or emic performer as an acknowledgement that this activity can be seen as such by the uninitiated onlooker, the English word ritual derives from the Latin ritualis, that which pertains to rite. In Roman juridical and religious usage, ritus was the way of doing something, or correct performance. The word ritual is first recorded in English in 1570, there are hardly any limits to the kind of actions that may be incorporated into a ritual. Catherine Bell argues that rituals can be characterized by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, Ritual utilizes a limited and rigidly organized set of expressions which anthropologists call a restricted code. Maurice Bloch argues that ritual obliges participants to use this formal oratorical style, which is limited in intonation, syntax, vocabulary, loudness, in adopting this style, ritual leaders speech becomes more style than content. Because this formal speech limits what can be said, it induces acceptance, compliance, Bloch argues that this form of ritual communication makes rebellion impossible and revolution the only feasible alternative. Ritual tends to support forms of social hierarchy and authority. Rituals appeal to tradition and are concerned to repeat historical precedents accurately. Traditionalism varies from formalism in that the ritual may not be yet still makes an appeal to historical. An example is the American Thanksgiving dinner, which may not be formal, thus, the appeal to history is important rather than accurate historical transmission. Catherine Bell states that ritual is also invariant, implying careful choreography and this is less an appeal to traditionalism than a striving for timeless repetition. The key to invariance is bodily discipline, as in prayer and meditation meant to mold dispositions. This bodily discipline is frequently performed in unison, by groups, Rituals tend to be governed by rules, a feature somewhat like formalism
Ritual
–
A priest elevates the Host during a
Catholic Mass, one of the most widely performed rituals in the world.
Ritual
–
The use of Latin in a Tridentine Catholic Mass is an example of a "restricted code".
Ritual
–
The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by
Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, and the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of
Plains Indians.
Ritual
–
Masquerade at the
Carnival of Venice.
21.
Sacred language
–
A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is a language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. Once a language associated with religious worship, its believers may ascribe virtues to the language of worship that they would not give to their native tongues. In the case of sacred texts, there is a fear of losing authenticity and accuracy by a translation or re-translation, a sacred language is typically vested with a solemnity and dignity that the vernacular lacks. In some cases, the language is a dead language. In other cases, it may simply reflect archaic forms of a living language, in more extreme cases, the language has changed so much from the language of the sacred texts that the liturgy is no longer comprehensible without special training. The concept of sacred languages is distinct from that of divine languages, the concept, as expressed by the name of a script, for example in Devanāgarī, the name of a script that means of city of deities. Theravada Buddhism uses Pali as its liturgical language, and prefers its scriptures to be studied in the original Pali. In Thailand, Pali is written using the Thai alphabet, resulting in a Thai pronunciation of the Pali language, Mahayana Buddhism makes little use of its original language, Sanskrit. In some Japanese rituals, Chinese texts are read out or recited with the Japanese pronunciations of their constituent characters, in Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan language is used, but mantras are in Sanskrit. Christian rites, rituals, and ceremonies are not celebrated in one single sacred language, the Churches which trace their origin to the Apostles continued to use the standard languages of the first few centuries AD. The continuous use of Greek in the Roman Liturgy came to be replaced in part by Latin by the reign of Pope Saint Damasus I, gradually, the Roman Liturgy took on more and more Latin until, generally, only a few words of Hebrew and Greek remained. The adoption of Latin was further fostered when the Vetus Latina version of the Bible was edited and parts retranslated from the original Hebrew, Latin continued as the Western Churchs language of liturgy and communication. One simply practical reason for this may be there were no standardized vernaculars throughout the Middle Ages. Church Slavonic was used for the celebration of the Roman Liturgy in the 9th century, in the mid-16th century the Council of Trent rejected a proposal to introduce national languages as this was seen, among other reasons, as potentially divisive to Catholic unity. From the end of 16th century, in coastal Croatia, the vernacular was gradually replacing Church Slavonic as liturgical language, for example, vernacular was used in the inquiry of bride and bridegroom as to whether they accepted their marriage-vows itself. Jesuit missionaries to China had sought, and for a short time, among the Algonquin and Iroquois, they received permission to translate the propers of the Mass into the vernacular. In the 20th century, Pope Pius XII granted permission for a few vernaculars to be used in a few rites, rituals and this did not include the Roman Liturgy of the Mass. In the 20th century, Vatican II set out to protect the use of Latin as a liturgical language, to a large degree, its prescription was initially disregarded and the vernacular became not only standard, but generally used exclusively in the liturgy
Sacred language
–
The oldest surviving manuscript in the sacred
Sanskrit language:
Devi Māhātmya, on palm-leaf, in an early
Bhujimol script,
Bihar or
Nepal, 11th century.
Sacred language
–
Navy Chaplain Milton Gianulis conducts an Easter morning Orthodox Liturgy candlelight service aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75)
22.
Shamanism
–
The word shaman probably originates from the Tungusic Evenki language of North Asia. The term was introduced to the west after Russian forces conquered the shamanistic Khanate of Kazan in 1552, Mircea Eliade writes, A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be, shamanism = technique of religious ecstasy. Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul, alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community, Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment, hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. The word shaman probably originates from the Evenki word šamán, most likely from the dialect spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples. The Tungusic term was adopted by Russians interacting with the indigenous peoples in Siberia. It is found in the memoirs of the exiled Russian churchman Avvakum, adam Brand, a merchant from Lübeck, published in 1698 his account of a Russian embassy to China, a translation of his book, published the same year, introduced the word shaman to English speakers. The etymology of the Evenki word is sometimes connected to a Tungus root ša- to know, other scholars assert that the word comes directly from the Manchu language, and as such would be the only commonly used English word that is a loan from this language. This proposal has been thoroughly critiqued since 1917, ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen regards it as an anachronism and an impossibility that is nothing more than a far-fetched etymology. Ethnolinguists did not develop as a discipline nor achieve contact with these communities until the late 19th century, there is no single agreed-upon definition for the word shamanism among anthropologists. The English historian Ronald Hutton noted that by the dawn of the 21st century, the first of these uses the term to refer to anybody who contacts a spirit world while in an altered state of consciousness. The second definition limits the term to refer to those who contact a spirit world while in a state of consciousness at the behest of others. Problematically, scholars advocating the third view have failed to agree on what the defining technique should be, the fourth definition identified by Hutton uses shamanism to refer to the indigenous religions of Siberia and neighboring parts of Asia. According to the Golomt Center for Shamanic Studies, a Mongolian organisation of shamans, Shamans are normally called by dreams or signs which require lengthy training. However, shamanic powers may be inherited, turner and colleagues mention a phenomenon called shamanistic initiatory crisis, a rite of passage for shamans-to-be, commonly involving physical illness and/or psychological crisis
Shamanism
–
Shaman
Shamanism
–
The earliest known depiction of a Siberian shaman, produced by the Dutch explorer
Nicolaes Witsen, who authored an account of his travels among Samoyedic- and Tungusic-speaking peoples in 1692. Witsen labelled the illustration as a "Priest of the Devil" and gave this figure clawed feet to highlight what Witsen perceived as demonic qualities.
Shamanism
–
Russian postcard based on a photo taken in 1908 by S.I. Borisov, showing a female shaman, of probable
Khakas ethnicity.
Shamanism
–
South Moluccan Shaman exorcising evil spirits occupying children,
Buru. 1920.
23.
Theories about religions
–
Sociological and anthropological theories about religion generally attempt to explain the origin and function of religion. These theories define what they present as universal characteristics of religious belief, from presocratic times, ancient authors advanced prescientific theories about religion. Herodotus saw the gods of Greece as the same as the gods of Egypt, euhemerus regarded gods as excellent historical persons whom admirers eventually came to worship. Scientific theories, inferred and tested by the method, emerged after data from tribes and peoples all over the world became available in the 18th and 19th centuries. Max Müller has the reputation of having founded the study of religion. Subsequently, Clifford Geertz and others questioned the validity of abstracting a general theory of all religions, theories of religion can be classified into, Substantive theories that focus on the contents of religions and the meaning the contents have for people. This approach asserts that people have faith because beliefs make sense insofar as they hold value and are comprehensible, the theories by Tylor and Frazer, by Rudolf Otto and by Mircea Eliade offer examples of substantive theories. Functional theories that focus on the social or psychological functions that religion has for a group or a person. This approach tends to be static, with the exception of Marx theory, and unlike e. g. Webers approach and they relied heavily on reports made by missionaries, discoverers, and colonial civil servants. These were all investigators who had a religious background themselves, thus they looked at religion from the inside, typically they did not practice investigative field work, but used the accidental reports of others. This method left them open to criticism for lack of universality, the theories could be updated, however, by considering new reports, which Robert Ranulph Marett did for Tylors theory of the evolution of religion. Field workers deliberately sent out by universities and other institutions to collect specific cultural data made available a much greater database than random reports, for example, the anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard preferred detailed ethnographical study of tribal religion as more reliable. He criticised the work of his predecessors, Müller, Tylor, a second methodology, functionalism, seeks explanations of religion that are outside of religion, i. e. the theorists are generally atheists or agnostics themselves. As did the essentialists, the functionalists proceeded from reports to investigative studies and their fundamental assumptions, however, are quite different, notably, they apply what is called methodological naturalism. When explaining religion they reject divine or supernatural explanations for the status or origins of religions because they are not scientifically testable, the dichotomy between the two classifications is not bridgeable, even though they have the same methods, because each excludes the data of the other. The functionalists and some of the later essentialists have criticized the view as neglecting social aspects of religion. Such critics go so far as to brand Tylors and Frazers views on the origin of religion as unverifiable speculation, the view of monotheism as more evolved than polytheism represents a mere preconception, they assert. There is evidence that monotheism is more prevalent in hunter societies than in agricultural societies, the view of a uniform progression in folkways is criticized as unverifiable, as the writer Andrew Lang and E. E. Evans-Pritchard assert
Theories about religions
–
Kwakwaka'wakw ancestor figure
Theories about religions
–
J. M. W. Turner 's painting of
the Golden Bough incident in the
Aeneid
Theories about religions
–
Edward Burnett Tylor
Theories about religions
–
Mircea Eliade
24.
Coral Gardens and Their Magic
–
It concentrates on the cultivation practices the Trobriand Islanders used to grow yams, taro, bananas and palms. It describes the gardens in which the Trobrianders grew food as more than merely utilitarian spaces, in 1988 Alfred Gell called the book still the best account of any primitive technological-cum-magical system, and unlikely ever to be superseded in this respect. The book has been described as Malinowskis magnum opus, the book consists of seven parts divided over two volumes. Volume I, The Description of Gardening, contains the introduction and it also considers the methodological limitations of various approaches to ethnographic fieldwork, especially in relation to terminology. Part Four, An ethnographic theory of language and some practical corollaries This part considers language as a tool, a document, and it discusses the difficulties of translation and the overlap and boundaries of concepts, and brings context to bear on interpretation. For the anthropologist and for the speakers, part Six, An ethnographic theory of the magical word This part advances a theory of magical language, both in the Trobriand case specifically and in general terms. Malinowski argues that Trobriand magic spells, like all forms of language, must be understood in context, as verbal acts, Language, including magical language, is intended primarily not to communicate thought, but to bring about practical effects. This theory of a function of language as a functional aspect of human behaviour, is an early anthropological contribution to the theory of pragmatics. Part Seven, Magical formulae This section presents some Trobriand magical spells, the work continues to receive attention from contemporary anthropologists. Its assessment of the Trobriand chiefs role as that of a glorified brother-in-law to the community is one with which later anthropologists have taken issue. Malinowski was also praised for his serious engagement with the realities of Trobriand agriculture, its emphasis on its ceremonial aspects notwithstanding, in favour of a simpler, the work is also regarded as a pioneering text in the interdisciplinary study of pragmatics. Its analysis of the context and contents of Trobriand spells was one of the first to bring ethnography to bear on the subject of language. In a letter written around February 1929, Malinowski wrote that he was basing the monograph partly upon a manuscript on gardening he had written during 1916 and 1917. The book was published by Routledge in 1935 and it has been through several editions, including a 1966 second edition by Allen and Unwin. US editions were published in 1965 and 1978, Coral Gardens and their Magic, Volume I at Google Books Coral Gardens and their Magic, Volume II at Google Books
Coral Gardens and Their Magic
–
Coral Gardens and Their Magic: A Study of the Methods of Tilling the Soil and of Agricultural Rites in the Trobriand Islands
25.
Dukun
–
A dukun is an Indonesian-Malay term for shaman. In Malaysia, they are referred to as bomoh. Their societal role is that of a healer, spirit medium, custom and tradition experts. In common usage the dukun is often confused with another type of shaman and it is often mistranslated into English as witch doctor or medicine man. The dukun is the epitome of the kejawen or kebatinan belief system indigenous to Java. Beneath the thin superficial practice of Islam, very strong and ancient beliefs of animism, ancestor worship, in the pre-colonial past, dukun were exempt from paying taxes, as with Hindu priests and Buddhist monks. Many highly prominent and highly educated Indonesians, Malaysians and Singaporeans, even those with Western doctorate and masters levels degrees will still consult dukun or soothsayers. Dukun are most common on the island of Java, though the island of Madura is especially feared for being very powerful practitioners of dark magic, the Dayak people of Kalimantan are also feared for their use of dukun when head-hunting. In Sabah, the Kadayan community are renowned for their dukun who are said to look waif-like with red eyes, in common practice, a dukun is consulted when a person perceives they have an issue that has a supernatural or paranormal association. If a dukun is not known to the individual, their family or friends, word of mouth often creates a situation where the dukun will appear as if summoned, the dukuns knowledge is passed down orally, but the specific customs differ from one community to another. Initiates may voluntarily decide to learn the craft, or the position might be inherited. Proto-Malay dukun often serve the role of both shaman and village chief, known as a tok batin. Dukun who inherited their knowledge from their parent or grandparent is held in higher esteem than one who served as another dukuns disciple, typically the initiation ritual involves meditation at a mountain, waterfall, cemetery or some other location away from people. In some communities, such as the Kadayan of Sabah, dukun are also required to learn silat before they can be initiated, the purpose is both for the purpose of self-defence and for the spiritual training. The dukuns primary role is that of a healer and they may use herbalism, incantations, chants, animal parts, inanimate objects, spiritual communication or guidance, prayers, offerings, the keris or any combination to effect their curatives. Dukun are believed to be able to communicate directly with malevolent and benevolent spirits, spirits are said not to resist the dukun in their removal from their host, as they are enthralled that a living being can communicate with them. Dukun are most famous for prophetic visions and this is often the result of consulting spirits relating to one’s deceased family who often provide insight into what is likely to happen. Dukun will occasionally bless an individual or a business, to keep away termites or spirits or demons, dukun are alleged to see normally invisible spirits and communicate as easily as though the spirit were physically present
Dukun
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A Dukun preparing traditional medicine.
Dutch Colonial Period. 1910-1940.
Dukun
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A dukun (left) during the Bambu Gila (Mad Bamboo) ceremony in Liang Village,
Ambon,
Maluku.
26.
Kebatinan
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It is rooted in the Javanese history and religiosity, syncretizing aspects of different religions. Kejawen, Javanism, the culture and religious beliefs and practices of the Javanese people of Central Java and it is not a religious category, but refers to an ethic and a style of life that is inspired by Javanist thinking. Agama Jawa, the Javanese religion Kepercayaan, belief, faith, full term, Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan Yang Maha Esa, Kepercayaan is an official cover term for various forms of mysticism in Indonesia. According to Caldarola, it is not an apt characterization of what the groups have in common. It includes kebatinan, kejiwan and kerohanian, Kebatinan is the inner-directed cultivation of inner peace, rooted in pre-Islamic traditions, whereas kejawen is outer-directed and community-oriented, manifesting in rituals and practices. Java has been a melting pot of religions and cultures, which has created a range of religious belief, including animism, spirit cults. Indian influences came first with Hinduism, which reached the Indonesian Archipelago as early as first century. In the 4th century, the kingdom of Kutai in East Kalimantan, Tarumanagara in West Java, several notable ancient Indonesian Hindu kingdoms are Mataram, famous for the construction of the majestic Prambanan temple, followed by Kediri and Singhasari. Since then Hinduism along with Buddhism spread across the archipelago and reached the peak of its influence in the 14th century, the last and largest among Hindu-Buddhist Javanese empires, Majapahit, influenced the Indonesian archipelago. Hinduism and Buddhism penetrated deeply into society, blending with the indigenous tradition, One conduit for this were the ascetics, called resi, who taught mystical practices. A resi lived surrounded by students, who care of their masters daily needs. At the courts, Brahmin clerics and pudjangga legitimized rulers and linked Hindu cosmology to their political needs, small Hindu enclaves are scattered throughout Java, but there is a large Hindu population along the eastern coast nearest Bali, especially around the town of Banyuwangi. Java adopted Islam around 1500 CE, Islam was first accepted by the elites, which contributed to the further spread and acceptance. Sufi and other versions of Folk Islam were most easily integrated in the religion of Java. The learned versions of Sufi Islam and sharia-oriented Islam were integrated at the courts with rituals, clifford Geertz described this as abangan and priyayi, the lower class and elite varieties of Javanese syncretism. The Kyai, the Muslim scholar of the writ became the new religious elite as Hindu influences receded, Islam recognises no hierarchy of religious leaders nor a formal priesthood, but the Dutch colonial government established an elaborate rank order for mosque and other Islamic preaching schools. In Javanese pesantren, The Kyai perpetuated the tradition of the resi, students around him provided his needs, even peasants around the school. Nowadays there are Christian communities, mostly Reformed in the larger cities, Roman Catholics and other Christian groups have been persecuted for their beliefs such as a ban on Christmas services or decorations
Kebatinan
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A
Wayang puppet representing
Semar
Kebatinan
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A
Wayang puppet representing
Garuda
Kebatinan
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A Javanese man meditating under
Banyan tree.
Dutch East Indies, before 1940.
27.
Slametan
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The slametan is the communal feast from Java, symbolizing the social unity of those participating in it. Clifford Geertz considered it the core ritual in Javanese religion, in particular the abangan variant, the feast is common among the closely related Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese people. A slametan can be given to celebrate almost any occurrence, including birth, marriage, death, moving to a new house, depending on the intention, the mood and emphasis may vary somewhat, but the main structure is the same. This is what the host intends for himself and his guests, by experiencing the egalitarian structure of the slametan and the petitions of supernatural protection from spirits. In Geertzs fieldwork in Mojokuto in the 1950s, he found that costs of slametans varied from 3 to 5,000 Indonesian rupiahs, depending on the type, slametans are generally held in the evening, after evening prayer is finished. The date is determined either by the occurrence it is celebrating, the guests, always men, are always close neighbors, and the selection of guests is based entirely on proximity, and not whether they are friends or relatives. They are called by a messenger of the host only five or ten minutes before the slametan is to begin, when they arrive, the guests sit on floor mats around the food which has been placed in the center, while incense fills the room. The ceremony begins with a speech in high Javanese. During pauses in the speech, the audience responds with solemn inggih, following the speech, somebody present gives an Arabic chant-prayer. Many will not know how, but the host makes sure that there had attended a religious school. Fragments of the Koran, especially the al-Fatiha, are most commonly used, at pauses the audience says amen. The prayer leader receives a small payment, at last, the food is served. While the ceremony is strictly for men, the food preparation falls upon the women in the family, each guest receives a cup of tea and a banana-leaf dish containing each sort of food in the center of the room. The food is fancier than average, and each variety has a symbolic meaning, the host himself does not eat, nor does he serve the food, which one or two of the guests does. When everybody has a dish, the host invites them to eat, after a few minutes, and before eating most of the food, the guests excuse themselves, and finish eating the food in their own homes, with their own wives and children. The whole ceremony usually lasts only ten or fifteen minutes, around birth, there are four major slametans and a number of minor ones. Funerals generally take place as soon as possible after the death, and inevitably involve the religious specialist of the village. Slametans are held the day of the death, and then repeated in increasing size three, seven, forty, and 100 days after the death, the first and second anniversaries, and 1000 days after the death
Slametan
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A slamatan in a mosque in Java during
colonial period.
Slametan
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A Slametan in a mosque in
Cibodas, with
tumpeng as its main menu. ca. 1907.
Slametan
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Tumpeng is commonly the main menu in a slametan.
28.
Cargo cult
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A cargo cult is a millenarian movement first described in Melanesia which encompasses a range of practices and occurs in the wake of contact with more technologically advanced societies. Cargo cults often develop during a combination of crises, under conditions of social stress, such a movement may form under the leadership of a charismatic figure. This leader may have a vision of the future, often linked to an ancestral efficacy thought to be recoverable by a return to traditional morality. This leader may characterize the present state as a dismantling of the old order, meaning that social hierarchy. Contact with colonizing groups brought about a transformation in the way indigenous peoples of Melanesia have thought about other societies. However, many of these practitioners actually focus on the importance of sustaining and creating new social relationships, since the late twentieth century, alternative theories have arisen. The indigenous societies of Melanesia were typically characterized by a big man system in which individuals gained prestige through gift exchanges. The more wealth a man could distribute, the people in his debt. Those who were unable to reciprocate were identified as rubbish men, faced, through colonialism, with foreigners with a seemingly unending supply of goods for exchange, indigenous Melanesians experienced value dominance. That is, they were dominated by others in terms of their own value system and these goods are intended for the local indigenous people, but the foreigners have unfairly gained control of these objects through malice or mistake. Thus, a feature of cargo cults is the belief that spiritual agents will, at some future time, give much valuable cargo. Symbols associated with Christianity and modern Western society tend to be incorporated into their rituals, the term cargo cult was first used in print in 1945 by Norris Mervyn Bird, repeating a derogatory description used by planters and businessmen in the Australian protectorate of Papua. The term was adopted by anthropologists, and applied retroactively to movements in a much earlier era. Discussions of cargo cults usually begin with a series of movements that occurred in the nineteenth century. The earliest recorded cargo cult was the Tuka Movement that began in Fiji in 1885 at the height of British colonial plantation era. Tuka was a leader who witnessed a loss of efficacy in his social group, a loss of land. The movement began with a return to a golden age of ancestral potency. Minor alterations to priestly practices were undertaken to update them and attempt to recover some kind of ancestral efficacy, colonial authorities saw Tuka as a rebel, and he was exiled, although he kept returning
Cargo cult
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Ceremonial cross of
John Frum cargo cult,
Tanna island, New Hebrides (now
Vanuatu), 1967
29.
Ghost dance
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The Ghost Dance was a new religious movement incorporated into numerous American Indian belief systems. The practice swept throughout much of the Western United States, quickly reaching areas of California, as the Ghost Dance spread from its original source, Indian tribes synthesized selective aspects of the ritual with their own beliefs. The Ghost Dance was associated with Wilsons prophecy of an end to white expansion while preaching goals of living, an honest life. Practice of the Ghost Dance movement was believed to have contributed to Lakota resistance to assimilation under the Dawes Act, in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, U. S. Army forces killed at least 153 Miniconjou and Hunkpapa from the Lakota people. The Lakota variation on the Ghost Dance tended towards millenarianism, an innovation that distinguished the Lakota interpretation from Jack Wilsons original teachings, the Caddo Nation still practices the Ghost Dance today. The Northern Paiutes living in Mason Valley, in what is now the U. S. state of Nevada, were known collectively as the Tövusi-dökadö at the time of European contact. The Northern Paiute community at time was thriving upon a subsistence pattern of fishing, hunting wild game. The Tövusi-dökadö during this period lacked any permanent political organization or officials, community events centered on the observance of seasonal ceremonies such as harvests or hunting. In 1869, Hawthorne Wodziwob, a Paiute man, organized a series of community dances to announce a vision and he spoke of a journey to the land of the dead and of promises made to him by the souls of the recently deceased. They promised to return to their loved ones within a period of three to four years, Wodziwobs peers accepted this vision, likely due to his reputable status as a healer. He urged the populace to dance the common circle dance as was customary during a time of celebration and he continued preaching this message for three years with the help of a local weather doctor named Tavibo, father of Jack Wilson. Prior to Wodziwobs religious movement, a typhoid epidemic struck in 1867. This and other European diseases killed approximately one-tenth of the total population, the disruption brought disorder to the economic system and society. Many families were prevented from continuing their nomadic lifestyle, a round dance is a circular community dance held, usually around an individual who leads the ceremony. Round dances may be ceremonial or purely social, usually the dancers are accompanied by a group of singers who may also play hand drums in unison. The dancers join hands to form a large circle, the dancers move to their left with a side-shuffle step to reflect the long-short pattern of the drum beat, bending their knees to emphasize the pattern. Spier studied peoples of the Columbia plateau, Jack Wilson, the prophet formerly known as Wovoka, was believed to have had a vision during a solar eclipse on January 1,1889. It was reportedly not his first time experiencing a vision, but as an adult, he claimed that he was then better equipped, spiritually
Ghost dance
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Cyperus esculentus
Ghost dance
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The Ghost Dance by the
Oglala Lakota at Pine Ridge. Illustration by
Frederic Remington, 1890.
Ghost dance
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Wovoka—
Paiute spiritual leader and creator of the Ghost Dance
