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Religious Specialists

Religious Specialists. All human societies include individuals who guide and supplement the religious practices of others. Such individuals are seen to be highly skilled at contacting and influencing supernatural beings and manipulating supernatural forces.

olivia-rivera
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Religious Specialists

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  1. Religious Specialists • All human societies include individuals who guide and supplement the religious practices of others. • Such individuals are seen to be highly skilled at contacting and influencing supernatural beings and manipulating supernatural forces. • They may have undergone special training and may display certain distinctive personality traits that make them particularly well suited to perform these tasks.

  2. Priests and Priestesses • A priest or priestess will have the role of guiding religious practices and influencing the supernatural. • He or she is the socially initiated, ceremonially inducted member of a religious organization. • Buddhist monks in LuangPra Bong (Laos)

  3. Shamans . • A Shaman of the Sami people (Noaidi) with his drum. Woodcut, 1767. Skilled at contacting and manipulating supernatural beings and powers through altered states of consciousness. Provides a focal point of attention for society and can help maintain social control Benefits for the shaman are prestige, wealth, and an outlet for artistic self-expression.

  4. “Shaman” Origins . • A Shaman of the Sami people (Noaidi) with his drum. Woodcut, 1767. • : • Tungus language of Central Siberia. Originally denoting a religious specialist who heals the sick, divines the future and secures success in the hunt with help of spirits and a drum • Sami today

  5. Korean Shamanism . • Today, most are women. Called upon to guide the dead to the underworld, to cure illness, for divination and to ensure good fortune. • Shamans are chosen by spirits who are attracted to those whose maǔm or soul has been hurt by some sort of illness. The individual will become possessed until she accepts the call of the spirits and becomes a Shaman. • Shamans in Korean society are sometimes seen as social deviants, so this may be a role not willingly taken. • Korean Shaman initiation

  6. Religious Rituals • Involves religious paraphernalia/symbols like prayers, offerings, sacred literature recitations, etc. • If Myths provide the basis for a society’s morals and values. Rituals are the vehicle with which these values are imparted to the group.

  7. Rituals: Rite of PassagePurpose is to change the status of an individual within a community and to imprint this new status to collective memory. • Review: • Status: refers to social position (i.e. brother, mother, husband, Instructor, student, policeman) not to rank • Rank: Hierarchical placement of an individual within society (i.e. Employee, Supervisor, Middle Manager, Vice President, President, CEO)

  8. Rituals: Rite of PassagePurpose is to change the status of an individual within a community and to imprint this new status to collective memory. • Rite of Passage stages: • Separation: an individual is separated from previous status • Transition: undergoes rituals (can involve initiation and/or pain ceremonies) • Often a time of mystery and metamorphosis. An individual is in a state of Liminality: ambiguous social marginality occurring in this transition phase. • Incorporation: Individual reenters society w/ new status

  9. Rituals: Rites of Intensification(also called Social Rights of Intensification) • Rituals to mark occasions of crisis in the life of the group. • Functions: • Unite people. • Allay fear of the crisis. • Prompt collective action.

  10. Rituals: Rites of Intensification • Ex: “Ghost Dance” • Associated with the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 where 153 Lakota Sioux were killed during its performance. Started by Jack Wilson (Wovoka), a Paiute Native American who received a message from God that if this dance was performed, impending doom from the “Manifest Destiny” of settlers could be avoided, and harmony and peace would prevail.

  11. Magic The belief that supernatural powers can be compelled to act in certain ways for good or evil purposes by recourse to certain specified formulas. Many societies have magical rituals to ensure good crops, the replenishment of game, the fertility of domestic animals, and the avoidance or healing of illness in humans.

  12. Magic • Imitative magic • Magic based on the principle that like produces like. Sometimes called sympathetic magic. • Ex: Red Cloverhead & sap of the Bloodroot used to treat problems of the blood. • Ex: Ancient Egypt & Rome: Bes Jars

  13. Magic • Contagious magic • Magic based on the principle that things once in contact can influence one another after separation. • Ex: The Fore, Sorcery & Kuru. Food remnants, hair, nail clippings, excrement of victim mixed with leaves/stones bundle placed into the cold, muddy ground, symbolizing deep chill of Kuru. Bundle beaten with a stick, symbolizing breaking/weakening of bones.

  14. Divination A magical procedure for determining the cause of a particular event, such as illness, or foretelling the future. Ex: Magic 8 ball, Ouija board, Tarot, etc…

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