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Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274):

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Religion "denotes properly a relation to God."

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Sigmund Freud (1865-1939) Psychosocial Approach:

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Religion is neurosis, an illusion, "born of the need to make tolerable the helplessness of man, and built out of the material offered by memories of the helplessness of his own childhood and the childhood of the human race."

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Karl Marx (1818-1883): Theoretical Approach

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Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of the heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

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Emile Durkheim (1858-1917):

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He defined religion in terms of a relation with society. He said that "the idea of society is the soul of religion." Religion is "collective sentiments...fixing themselves upon external objects."

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Paul Tillich (1886-1962):

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Religion is the state of being grasped by something unconditional, holy, absolute." "Religion is Ultimate Concern."

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Victor Frankl (1905-???):

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One may also be justified in defining religion as man's search for ultimate meaning.

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Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947):

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Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness; and if you were never solitary, you were never religious.

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Catherine Albanese:

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"Religion here can be understood as a system of symbols (creed, code, cultus) by means of which people (a community) orient themselves in the world with reference to both ordinary and extraordinary powers, meanings, and values." (p. 11)

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Rudolf Otto (1869-1937):

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"Desiring to give it [the essential religious feeling] a name of its own, I propose to call it 'creature-consciousness' or 'creature-feeling'. It is one emotion of a creature, abased and overwhelmed by its own nothingness in contrast to that which is supreme above all creatures."

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James 1:27:

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"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

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Ronald Cavanagh (1938-?):

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Religion is the varied symbolic expression of and appropriate response to that which people deliberately affirm as being of unrestricted value for them.

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Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872):

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"man is the beginning of religion, the center of religion, the end of religion." Religion "is the dream of the human spirit."

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Charles Winquist (1944-2002):

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A very inclusive definition of religion is simply the human response to moments of transcendence.

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Agnosticism:

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The idea that the existence of a god is unknowable, that it is as impossible to prove the nonexistence of the supernatural as it is to prove its existence.

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Analytic definitions:

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A definition that focuses on the way religion manifests itself or is expressed in a culture.

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Animatism: (Robert Marett)

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The belief in an impersonal supernatural power.

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Animism:

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A belief in spirit beings (gods, souls, ghosts, demons, etc.) defined by Edward Burnett Tylor.

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Anthropology:

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The study of humanity.

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Anthropomorphic:

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Nonhuman entities that have human characteristics.

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Archaeology:

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The study of prehistoric people from the analysis of their physical and cultural remains.

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Cognition:

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The processes of the human brain, including perception, attention, learning, memory, concept formation, and problem solving.

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Collective conscious:

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A set of beliefs shared by members of a social group that functions to limit the natural selfishness of individuals and promote social cooperation.

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Cultural anthropology:

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The anthropological study of contemporary hum an societies and their cultures.

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Cultural areas:

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A geographical area in which society share many cultural traits.

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Cultural relativism:

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Attempting to analyze and understanding cultures other than one's own without judging them in terms of one's own culture.

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Culture:

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Human beliefs and behaviors of a society that are learned, transmitted from one generation to the next, and shared by a group of people.

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Divination:

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Supernatural techniques for obtaining information about things unknown, including events that will occur in the future.

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Emic perspective:

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The study of a society through the eyes of the people being studied.

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Essentialist definition:

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A definition that looks at the essential nature of religion.

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Ethnocentrism:

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Using one's own culture as the basis for interpreting and judging other cultures.

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Ethnographers:

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A person who produces an ethnography.

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Ethnographic present:

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Speaking or writing about cultures in the present tense although what is described might no longer exist.

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Ethnography:

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The descriptive study of human societies.

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Etic perspective:

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The study of a society using concepts that were developed outside of the culture.

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Evolutionary approach:

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An approach that focuses on the questions of when and how religion began and how it developed through time.

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Foraging bands:

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Small communities that subsist by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plant foods.

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Functional approach Karl Marxist:

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An approach that is based on the function or role that religion plays in a society.

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Functional definitions:

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A definition that is based on the role that religion plays in a society.

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Holism:

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The study of human societies as systematic sums of their parts, as integrated wholes.

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Horticultural:

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The use of cultivated domesticated plants without the use of fertilizers, plows , irrigation, and other agricultural technologies.

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Human universals:

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Characteristics that are found in all human societies.

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Interpretive approach Clifford Geertz:

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Idea that cultural systems are understood by studying meaning; religion is a cluster of symbols that provides a charter for a cultures ideas, values and way of life.

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Linguistic anthropology:

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The anthropological study of language.

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Operant definition:

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A definition in which we define our terms so that they are observable and measurable and therefore can be studied.

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Participant observation:

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A research method whereby the anthropologist lives in a community and participates in the lives of the people under study while at the same time making objective observations. Pioneer Bronislaw Malinowski.

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Pastoral nomads:

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Societies that subsist primarily by herding domesticated animals.

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Physical anthropology:

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The study of human biology and evolution.

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Postmodernism:

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An emphasis on subjectivity over objectivity and a tendency toward reflexivity, or self consciousness; all knowledge is seen as being a human construction that scholars must seek to deconstruct.

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Psychosocial approach:

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An approach to the study of religion that is concerned with the relationship between culture and psychology and between society and individual.

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Religion:

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The realm of culture that concerns the sacred supernatural.

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Sacred:

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An attitude wherein the subject or object is set apart from the normal, everyday world and is entitled to reverence and respect.

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Small scale:

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Describes relatively small communities that practice foraging, herding, or technologically simple horticulture.

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Supernatural:

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Entities and actions that transcend the natural world of cause and effect.

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Symbols:

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A shared understanding about the meaning of certain words, attributes, or objects; something that stands for something else.

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Theory of Mind:

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The idea that people know, or think they know, what is going on in other people's minds.

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Clifford Geertz (1966-2002)

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"Religion is: (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men [sic] by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."

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Origins of religion:

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is difficult to explain because there is fragmented pieces and inconclusive evidence in human culture.

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Functions of religions:

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It is adjustive, adaptive and intergrative.

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Anthony Wallace:

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Basis his relationships of religion to social structure.

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Difference between primitive and modern religion:

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It is important to study and are more similarities to human cultural.

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Universality and tenacity of religions:

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It is crucial to understand the phenomenon of staying power.

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Stephen Jay Gould

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Famous for writing books on conflicts that exist between science and religion. Creationism is an oxymoron.

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Confessional study of religion:

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Assumes the person is a member of a faith tradition and is studying religion to sustain their beliefs.

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Academic study of religion:

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Person is not a member of anything and doesn't belief anything but is a member of a college.

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Modernity

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Renaissance scholars based their knowledge on the ideals of rationality, objectivity and reason.

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Robert Edgerton

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Defined (maladaptation) as the failure of a population or its culture to survive because of the inadequacy or harmfulness of one or more of its beliefs or institutions.

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Edward B Tylor (1832-1917) Evolutionary Approach:

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Used the term culture in its anthropological sense. He wrote "Culture is that complex whole, which includes knowledge belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

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Ninian Smart

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Believes there are six dimensions of religion-institutional, narrative, ritual, social, ethical and experiential.

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Evans-Pritchard:

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Best known for his work with the Azande who are known as the classic anthropological example of witchcraft in a small society.

Religion 110- Anthropology of Religion, Magic and Witchcraft – Flashcards

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