What is Myth?

Stories that explain how the world came to be (origin stories)

Makes life meaningful for those who accept it (control and connect)
Tools for overcoming logical contradictions
Tell people their origins

Creation from chaos Greek, Sumerian, Babylon

Earth Diver Cherokee, Ainu (Japan), Finnish, Yoruba (Nigeria)
o There's a watery world and we rose up
Emergence Hopi, Zuni, Navajo
o People came out from the ground
Out of Nothing Biblical Genesis, Egyptian, Maori, Quiche Maya
o Widespread
World Parent Babylon, Aztec, Hawaiian, Norse
o A parent bearing into the world all of creation

What is Ritual?

Repetitive social practice composed of symbolic activities

o Speech, singing, dancing, or gestures
Separate from everyday life
Adheres to a culturally defined schema
o Specific way of doing rituals that others recognize
Closely connected to ideas encoded in myth
Performance is as important to study of rituals as the symbolic content

Rites of Passage

Rituals that move individuals from one position in the social structure to another
3 Stages Separation, Liminality, Reincorporation
Example: Wedding
o Separating yourself when you're about to married
o There is a stage when you're married and unmarried
o Then you reincorporate yourself to the other family
Example: Going into the army
o You separate yourself from society (when you leave)
o When you're a recruit, you're sort of in the army but not yet
o Then you go back into society as a soldier
Examples: Fraternities, Sororities, Bar mitzvah, Baptism

What is Religion?

A system of beliefs and behaviors that formulates and answers questions that are
important, recurrent, and implement a desire for answers.

A Human Universal common to all human cultures worldwide

Difficult to define

Categories of Religious Behavior

Prayer
o
o
o
o

A customary way of addressing personified forces

Speaking or chanting aloud
In public, in private (secret space)
May require a special apparatus
Ex. Rosaries, Incense
Physiological Exercise
o To induce an ecstatic spiritual state (some type of euphoria,
hallucination)
o Drugs
o Sensory deprivation
o Inducing pain, sleeplessness, fatigue
o Deprivation of food, water or air
o Ex. Fasting, Meditate
Exhortation
o Certain people have closer relationships with invisible powers (mitigate
other world and our own)
o They give orders, heal, threaten, comfort, etc.
o Ex. Shaman- part-time religious practitioner; Priest- full-time
Mana
o Impersonal superhuman power
o May be transferrable
o Ex. Laying on hands to remove/cure illnesses. some religious objects are
meant to be touched (that power is being transferred to you when
touched)
Taboo
o Objects, people or food that may not be touched
o Ex. Menstruating women, Kocher- what can or can't be eaten
Feasts
o Ex. Passover seder
Sacrifice
o Money, goods, or services
o Sometimes animals or humans, blood

Religion and Social Organization

Societies have complex practices designed to insure proper contact with cosmic
forces.
Can affect action i.e. mobilizing large segments of societies through real and

perceived rewards/punishments
Maintains social control by stressing fleeting nature of life
Religious Specialists supervise or embody correct religious practice
What are Shamans?
Part-time religious practitioners
Enters trance state to communicate with and control spirits
Considered to be the most ancient type of religious practitioner
May be men or women
What are Priests?
Full-time religious practitioners skilled in the practice of religious rituals,
which he or she carries out for the benefit of the group
May not have direct contact with supernatural forces (mitigate that
connection)
Are found in hierarchical societies
Considered guardian of traditions, maintaining the religious status quo

Religion to Cope with Misfortune

People may use magic, consult with oracles, or accuse individuals of witchcraft.
Magic is a set of beliefs and practices designed to control the visible or
invisible world for specific purposes.
o Ex. Superstition
Oracles are invisible forces to which people address questions and whose
responses they believe to be truthful. (Trusting something with power to answer
your questions about meaning in life)
Witchcraft is the performance of evil by human beings
o Witches
Possess an innate, nonhuman power to do evil, whether or not it
is intentional or self-aware
Almost always female
o Accusations of witchcraft may strengthen group bonds
o Ex. Witchcraft Among the Azande (video)

Religion to Cope with Change

Drastic changes may need people to create new worldviews.
o Syncretism is a creative blending of old religious practices with new ones.
(Making something work, whatever works, the mix of both worlds- ex. Spread of
Christianity)
o Ex. Voodoo, Santeria, Cargo Cults of Melanesia (happened after WWII,
planes that were dropping cargo in Melanesia, the indigenous there only
saw planes dropping goods all the time, something they couldn't explain
so it became a part of their worldview of something that would deliver
goods to them)
o Revitalization is a deliberate, organized attempt by some members of a society to
create a more satisfying culture.(Some members deciding to make things work)
o Nativistic movements represent an attempt to return to the old ways led by a

messiah or prophet. (Has to do with the prophet saying we should go back to the
old ways)
Witchcraft Among the Azande (video)
How do the Azande define witchcraft?
o Caused by something invisible, invisible power
What is witchcraft used for? What problems does it solve?
o
What rituals are visible in the film?
o
What is an oracle and how does it work?
o
Notes:
19th century- Republic of Congo, Africa
Complex system of practices to solving problems of everyday life- magic and witchcraft
Rituals, churches- Christianity (two systems conflict)
Witchcraft beliefs- cures practical problems, in times of trouble
Polygamous
"Magnu" (name for witchcraft) can be inherited
Oracle- consults when someone gets sick or someone is accused of adultery
Adultery- frequent crimes, often punished by death
Trials by chief and judge
Benge- poison to chickens, whether the chickens live or die will decide the truth
Who, why and what of problems
There is no bad luck to them, there is always a cause for the problem
You can be a witch without learning
Illness: want to find out who and what is causing it
Termite Oracle: (didn't get the name) Put two sticks, Ask termites whether his life will
live or not, if eats one stick- will live, if two sticks- will die
Witches were causing the illness
Iwa Oracle- operated by a specialist; whether the two sticks stick together or slide on one
another will give the oracle the answer (yes or no answers)
The two oracles haven't told him that his wife will die, still need to know who's doing the
witchcraft to her wife so he can cure the illness
Benge- Find out which witch is causing the illness
If it dies, the accused second wife is responsible for the witchcraft
If it doesn't, someone else is responsible
Chicken died, so found out that there is witchcraft in the second wife
Asked if should divorce, chicken died signifying it was pointless
Asked how the first wife will live, chicken lived, needs to be purified

To reestablish purity in the household- sends a police to the household to purify the
witchcraft
Second wife, spitting water- asking the witchcraft in her belly to be inactive or to
settle down (might be doing it unconsciously) - have to be spat sincerely to be useful
Sample of Magic in Contemporary Days
Superstitions in sports
Create an octopus picture on the ground with their cleats- good weather
Billy Goat- cubs
Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties, Easter
Octopus- predicted to world cup winner
Put right shoe on first
Lincoln's nose in Lincoln Hall