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L2 and 03 - Developing Approaches To Religion

1) Tylor developed one of the first frameworks for comparing religions by proposing the theory of animism - the belief that spirits animate all things. He suggested religions developed through stages from animism to totemism, polytheism, and finally monotheism. 2) Tylor viewed religious and societal development as progressive, with monotheism being the most evolved form. He applied Western standards in evaluating other religions. 3) Tylor's notion of animism as the original basis of religion and his theory of unilinear religious evolution provided an early comparative theory for anthropology but was criticized for its ethnocentric bias.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
67 views15 pages

L2 and 03 - Developing Approaches To Religion

1) Tylor developed one of the first frameworks for comparing religions by proposing the theory of animism - the belief that spirits animate all things. He suggested religions developed through stages from animism to totemism, polytheism, and finally monotheism. 2) Tylor viewed religious and societal development as progressive, with monotheism being the most evolved form. He applied Western standards in evaluating other religions. 3) Tylor's notion of animism as the original basis of religion and his theory of unilinear religious evolution provided an early comparative theory for anthropology but was criticized for its ethnocentric bias.

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Mehreen Raza
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Perspectives and

Approaches
Anthropology of Religion
Western Perspectives on Religion
• Clearly Biased and Ethnocentric.
• Early Christian Thinking : Last 1600 years – there is But one path to
God ; much shaped by Christianity where it was considered as one
true religion and looked down upon other beliefs.
• So other religions were long regarded as erroneous religions. The
standard to judge other religions was Christianity itself.
• This thinking demanded that other societies also adopt Christianity
but also system of politics, economics and even dress.
Continue…
• History: Rise of the Roman Catholic Church and expansion of its
sphere of influence – eradicated all alternative beliefs from Rome –
most importantly paganism.
• In 380 CE, the Roman Emperor banned the practice of all other
religions.
• Rise of Reformers who believed that truth had strayed far from truth
and established new churches to challenge the catholic churches.
Rationalist Thinking; There are many
Paths to God
• The rationalists movements emphasized reason over revelation and
argued for more universal understanding of religion rather than their
differences.
• One variety of such thinking was called deism – refers to belief in God
but lack of adherence to any specific dogma (doctrine or
philosophy).
• Deists believed that religions true purpose was to promote morality
and apart from moral teachings, no other doctrines are needed.
They argued that all religious ideas should be exposed to skeptical
scrutiny.
• God was conceived as the “first cause” of the Universe who
established the laws of nature but then he no longer intervened in its
working and rather allowed the universe to run itself.
• Deism was a product of rationalist thinking and the wave of anti
intellectualist movement in 1800 ended the deist movement.
• Deism gave us the theme of Universalism ; the view that common
themes in different religions reflected different paths to same God.
• Though this was a novel idea in the west but Hinduism have long held
similar ideas such as reincarnation of Lord Vishnu as Jesus. That is why
many Hindu temples have statues of Jesus alongside many deities
Comparative thinking - Making religions
an Object to study
The rationalist perspective led to a more objective approaches to study
religion;.
1. Study of different religions and archeological discoveries led to the
belief that some aspects of religion are products of historical
events. – evidences of a great flood that destroyed most of
mankind.
2. These findings suggested that by comparing sacred texts and other
evidence, one could discern universal aspects of religions and cast
light on the functions of religion
• Max Muller – German scholar of languages (1823-1900) in his work “
Sacred books of the East” – was convinced that all religions contained
some truths and that they had often been obscured by the historical
and cultural events that shaped each religion.
• He treated religions as essentially equal.
• But he was accused of undermining morality and the Christian faith.
• Inorder to free the study of religion from bias, a researcher has to
look to all religions with the same objectivity.
Development of Anthropological
Approaches
• It was the comparative study of religion that began during 19th century
that helped set the stage for the development of anthropology.
• Anthropology originated in the notebooks and reports of merchants,
soldiers, officials, missionaries and others who wrote about their
experiences with foreign people.
• The interest was for many reasons ; the desire to trade, the urge for
conquest, the need to administer colonies, and simple curiosity
• Modern anthropology could emerge only when the human tendency to
view others with an ethnocentric sense of superiority was overcome
Work of
Thinkers and Scholars
SIR EDWARD B. TYLOR
1832-1917
• Developed first theory which provided a framework both for comparing religions and
for considering the manners in which religion was developed.
• All societies had a belief in spirits as everywhere human experiences (dreaming and
death) are so profound and common that has led to development of religious concepts.
• He referred to the non- material aspect of our existence. Where during dreaming – the
non- material soul leaves the physical body temporarily where as in death the departure
is permanent.
• He used the term anima (Latin) meaning breath or air to refer to that non-material/non
physical aspect (spirit or soul) that resides within the ordinary bodies and objects.
• It is the animating principle that is responsible for life and activity.
• He proposed that the religious systems for every society had development out of this
recognition of anima – hence animism as the original basis of religion.
• He asserted that the development of religions from one stage to the next is universal
throughout the world’s cultures:
• ANIMISM: Belief in souls, and that all things in the world are endowed with a
soul.
• TOTEMISM: Religious practices centered around animals, plants, or other
aspects of the natural world held to be ancestral or closely identified with a
group and its individuals.
• POLYTHEISM: Belief in more than one, or many gods.
• MONOTHEISM: Belief in one god.
Tylor’s Notion of Progress
• He also applied the notion of progress – to religion and explained the
Morphology.
Main Concept : Both nature and societies produced increasingly
complex forms, forms that were generally regarded as improvements.
• Used his own religion as standard for comparison. Suggested that the
one God of Christianity had supplanted these many Gods when
people came to realize that these were simply different aspects of the
one. In Tylor’s eyes, monotheism evolved out of polytheism.
• He argued that many gods of polytheism developed out of earlier
animistic beliefs that the world was populated by spirits.
TYLOR’S MINIMALIST
DEFINITION OF RELIGION
“BELIEF IN SPIRITUAL BEINGS” – ANIMISM

 Primitive people were rationalists and scientific


philosophers.
 The notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational
thought.
 Preliterate religious beliefs and practices were not
“ridiculous” or a “rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly.”
 They were essentially consistent and logical, based on
rational thinking and empirical knowledge.
According to Tylor, “ancient savage philosophers”
were impressed by two groups of biological problems:

1) What is it that makes the difference between a living


body and a dead one and what causes sleep, trance,
disease, and death?

2) What are these human shapes which appear in


dreams and visions?

THEIR EXPLANATION:
A spirit or soul, derived from the experience of human
souls or spirits in “dreams and waking hallucinations”
animates lifeless objects such as sticks or stones,
trees, mountains, rivers, etc.
Poly-theism to Mono-theism
• With progress, came rational thinking and people became more
sophisticated in their thinking realizing that many different groups of
anima were controlled by smaller number of more powerful anima
(different groups controlled by rulers). These anima leaders were called
deities. Eventually lesser deities came to be seen nothing more than
different aspects or avatars of one all power ful deity.
• This progress was named as Unilinear Evolution. It provided a wat to
compare society and determine where each stood on an evolutionary
scale.
• This can be regarded as first comparative theory of modern Anthropology.

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