Lecture 3 Prof. Park, Kwang Soo Wonkwang University, Korea <3> Classification of Religions
The attempt to systematize and bring order to a vast range of knowledge about religious beliefs, practices, and institutions. The classification of religions involves: (1) the effort to establish groupings among historical religious communities having certain elements in common or; (2) the attempt to categorize similar religious phenomena to reveal the structure of religious experience as a whole. Morphological classifications of Religions
1) Animism 2) Totemism 3) Shamanism 4) Anthropomorphic polytheism 5) Henotheism 6) Monotheism * (Question) How could we define Asian religions and other religious traditions? Morphological Classifications Morphological classification refers to how religious forms and types of beliefs and rituals have developed throughout human history The pioneer of morphological classifications was Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, a British anthropologist, whose Primitive Culture (1871) is among the most influential books ever written in its field. Tylor developed the thesis of animism, a view that the essential element in all religion is belief in spiritual beings. Morphological classifications
According to Tylor, the belief arises naturally from elements universal in human experience, (e.g., death, sleep, dreams, trances, and hallucinations) and leads through processes of primitive logic to the belief in a spiritual reality distinct from the body and capable of existing independently. Tylor’s Classification of Religions Ancestor worship: prevalent in ancient societies, respects and believes in the spirits of the dead, and the after-death.
Fetishism: the belief that some objects have magical or supernatural potency, which comes from the association of spirits with particular places or things, and leads to idolatry, in which the image is viewed as the symbol of a spiritual being, or deity. Animism : In the development of the idea, this reality is identified with the breath and the life principle; thus arises the belief in the soul, in phantoms, and in ghosts.
At a higher stage, the spiritual principle is attributed to aspects of reality other than man, and all things are believed to possess spirits that are their effective and animating elements; for example, primitive men generally believe that spirits cause sickness and control their destinies. Tylor’s view of Animism For Tylor, the concept of animism was an answer to the question, “What is the most rudimentary form of religion which may yet bear that name?”
He had learned to doubt scattered reports of peoples “so low in culture as to have no religious conceptions whatever.”
He thought religion was present in all cultures, properly observed, and might turn out to be present everywhere. Far from supposing religion of some kind to be a cornerstone of all culture, however, he entertained the idea of a pre-religious stage in the evolution of cultures and believed that a tribe in that stage might be found. To proceed in a systematic study of the problem, he required a “minimum definition of religion” and found it in “the Belief in Spiritual Beings.” If it could be shown that no people was devoid of such minimal belief, then it would be known that all of humanity already had passed the threshold into “the religious state of culture.” Tylor's theory of the nature of religions Totemism, the belief in an association between particular groups of people and certain spirits, that serve as guardians of those people, arises when the entire world is conceived as peopled by spiritual beings.
At a still higher stage, polytheism, the interest in particular deities or spirits disappears and is replaced by concern for a “species” deity who represents an entire class of similar spiritual realities. Tylor's theory of the nature of religions
By a variety of means, polytheism may evolve into monotheism, a belief in a supreme and unique deity.
=> Tylor's theory of the nature of religions and the resultant classification were so logical, convincing, and comprehensive that for a number of years they remained virtually unchallenged. 1. What is Animism? The term animism has been applied to a belief in many animae (spirits) and is often used rather crudely to characterize so-called primitive religions. In evolutionary theories about the development of religion, that were particularly fashionable among Western scholars in the latter half of the 19th century, animism was regarded as a stage in which the forces around man were less personalized than in the polytheistic stage. Animism In actual instances of religious belief, however, no such scheme is possible: personal and impersonal aspects of divine forces are interwoven; e.g., Agni, the fire god of the Rgveda (the foremost collection of Vedic hymns), is not only personified as an object of worship but is also the mysterious force within the sacrificial fire. While none of the major world religions are animistic (though they may contain animistic elements), most other religions -e.g., those of tribal peoples-are. For this reason, an ethnographic understanding of animism, based on field studies of tribal peoples, is no less important than a theoretical one, concerned with the nature or origin of religion. The term animism denotes not a single creed or doctrine but a view of the world consistent with a certain range of religious beliefs and practices, many of which may survive in more-complex and hierarchical religions. Animism Modern scholarship’s concern with animism coincides with the problem of rational or scientific understanding of religion itself. After the age of exploration, Europe’s best information on the newly discovered peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania often came from Christian missionaries. Animism While generally unsympathetic to what was regarded as “primitive superstition,” some missionaries in the 19th century developed a scholarly interest in beliefs that seemed to represent an early type of religious creed, inferior but ancestral to their own. It is this interest that was crystallized by Tylor in Primitive Culture, the greater part of which is given over to the description of exotic religious behaviour. Modern views of Animism
To the intellectuals of that time, profoundly affected by Charles Darwin’s new biology, animism seemed a key to the so-called primitive mind—to human intellect at the earliest knowable stage of cultural evolution.
Present-day thinkers consider this view to be rooted in a profoundly mistaken premise. Modern view of Animism
The lesson of the study of animism is perhaps that religion did not arise, as some of Tylor’s successors believed, out of Urdummheit (“primal ignorance”) or delusions of magical power but out of humanity’s ironic awareness of a good life that cannot, by earthly means, be grasped and held.
Since at least the mid-20th century, all contemporary cultures and religions have been regarded by anthropologists as comparable in the sense of reflecting a fully evolved human intelligence capable of learning the arts of the most-advanced society. Agni ritual (불 의례) (Indra god신– Soma 신god) Agni ritual (인도 힌두교) Agni Ritual Hindu Ritual -Brahmacarya- 범행기 Sacred Plant
Animism-new Additional Reading
The original and classic study of animism is Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture:
Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom, 2 vol. (1871, reprinted 1994). Animism-new Additional Reading
The “pre-animism” thesis is discussed in R.R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion (1909, reissued 1997).
A discussion of the relation of animism to modern worldviews is presented in Graham Harvey, Animism: Respecting the Living World (2005). Native American art Hopi kachina of Laqán The Wish Tree on Calton Hill, Edinburgh 2. What is Totemism The system of belief in which humans are believed to have kinship with a totem or a mystical relationship is said to exist between a group or an individual and a totem. A totem is an object, such as an animal or plant that serves as the emblem or symbol of a kinship group or a person. The term totemism has been used to characterize a cluster of traits in the religion and in the social organization of many primitive peoples. What is Totemism (con’t)
In English, the word totem was introduced in 1791 by a British merchant and translator who gave it a false meaning in the belief that it designated the guardian spirit of an individual, who appeared in the form of an animal— an idea that the Ojibwa clans did indeed portray by their wearing of animal skins. The term totem is derived from ototeman from the language of the Algonkian tribe of the Ojibwa(in the area of the Great Lakes in eastern North America); it originally meant ‘his brother and sister kin.’ The grammatical root, ote, signifies a blood relationship between brothers and sisters who have the same mother and who may not marry each other. Totemism
It was reported at the end of the 18th century that the Ojibwa named their clans after those animals that live in the area in which they live and appear to be either friendly or fearful.
The first accurate report about totemism in North America was written by a Methodist missionary, Peter Jones, himself an Ojibwa, who died in 1856 and whose report was published posthumously. Totemism
According to Jones, the Great Spirit had given toodaims (“totems”) to the Ojibwa clans, and because of this act, it should never be forgotten that members of the group are related to one another and on this account may not marry among themselves. Totemism Totemism is manifested in various forms and types in different contexts, especially among populations with a mixed economy (farming and hunting) and among hunting communities (especially in Australia) It is also found among tribes who breed cattle. Totemism can in no way be viewed as a general stage in human cultural development; but totemism has certainly had an effect on the psychological behaviour of ethnic groups, on the manner of their socialization, and on the formation of the human personality. Totemism(4) The general characteristics of Totemism could be explained as follows: (1) viewing the totem as a companion, relative, protector, progenitor, or helper-superhuman powers and abilities are ascribed to totems and totems are not only offered respect or occasional veneration but also can become objects of awe and fear; (2) use of special names and emblems to refer to the totem; (3) partial identification with the totem or symbolic assimilation to it; (4) prohibition against killing, eating, or touching the totem, even as a rule to shun it; (5) totemistic rituals. Totem fish mask Garuda - Sacred bird in India Tapa cloth Types of Totemism Totemism is a complex of varied ideas and ways of behaviour based on a worldview drawn from nature. There are ideological, mystical, emotional, reverential, and genealogical relationships of social groups or specific persons with animals or natural objects, the so-called totems. It is necessary to differentiate between group and individual totemism. These forms share some basic characteristics, but they occur with different emphases and in different specific forms. Group Totemism Social or collective totemism is the most widely disseminated form of this belief system. It typically includes one or more of several features; such as the mystic association of animal and plant species, natural phenomena, or created objects with unilineally related groups (lineages, clans, tribes, moieties, phratries) or with local groups and families; The hereditary transmission of the totems (patrilineal or matrilineal); group and personal names that are based either directly or indirectly on the totem; Group Totemism (con’t) the use of totemistic emblems and symbols; taboos and prohibitions that may apply to the species itself or can be limited to parts of animals and plants (partial taboos instead of partial totems); and a connection with a large number of animals and natural objects (multiplex totems) within which a distinction can be made between principal totems and subsidiary ones (linked totems). Group Totemism (con’t)
Group totems are generally associated or coordinated on the basis of analogies or on the basis of myth or ritual. Just why particular animals or natural things— which sometimes possess no economic worth for the communities concerned—were originally selected as totems is often based on eventful and decisive moments in a people’s past. Individual Totemism Individual totemism is expressed in an intimate relationship of friendship and protection between a person and a particular animal or a natural object (sometimes between a person and a species of animal); the natural object can grant special power to its owner. Individual Totemism (con’t)
Frequently connected with individual totemism are definite ideas about the human soul (or souls) and conceptions derived from them, such as the idea of an alter ego and nagualism—from the Spanish form of the Aztec word naualli, “something hidden or veiled”—which means that a kind of simultaneous existence is assumed between an animal or a natural object and a person; Individual Totemism (con’t) i.e., a mutual, close bond of life and fate exists in such a way that in case of the injury, sickness, or death of one partner, the same fate would befall the other member of the relationship. Consequently, such totems became most strongly tabooed; above all, they were connected with family or group leaders, chiefs, medicine men, shamans, and other socially significant persons. A Short History of Tememistic Theory » Lévi-Strauss The most incisive critique of totemistic phenomena, one that denied the “reality” of totemism, was supplied by the French ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss in Le Totémisme aujourd’hui (English translation, Totemism, 1963). As a chief representative of modern structuralism, Lévi-Strauss was especially stimulated by Radcliffe-Brown, whose views he attempted to further expand. Levi-Strauss (con’t)
Lévi-Strauss believed that he was to approach the apparent, acknowledged difficulties in the study of totemism from the viewpoint of a study of structure.
In order to study the structure of totemism, Lévi- Strauss devised a scheme to illustrate the abstract polarities that he saw in totemism as a phenomenon in human culture. Levi-Strauss (con’t)
His scheme was implemented in a table of oppositions or polarities, or mutual relationships. The basic opposition, or relationship, was between nature and culture. On the one hand, there were in nature certain realities such as species of animals or plants and specific animals or plants. On the other hand, there were in culture various groups and individuals who identified themselves with particular species or with specific animals or plants. Levi-Strauss (con’t) Lévi-Strauss distinguished four kinds of relationship between nature and culture within totemism: (1) a species of animal or plant identified with a particular group, (2) a species of animal or plant identified with an individual, (3) a particular animal or plant identified with an individual, and (4) a particular animal or plant identified with a group. Additional Reading Claude Lévi-Strauss, Le Totémisme aujourd’hui (1962; Eng. trans., Totemism, 1963), contains a detailed critical evaluation of existing hypotheses of Anglo-American and French authors; R. Piddington, An Introduction to Social Anthropology 1:200–206 (1950), offers a short but sufficient characterization of the totemic phenomena, the difficulty in defining it, its great variability, and some concrete examples. Tiger and Eagle Korean Folk Painting Rabits on the Moon Sacred Animals and Sacred Plants
Twelve sacred animals (십이지신상) Twelve Sacred Animals (십이지신상) Twelve sacred animals (십이지신상) Tomb and animals Deity of Animals (India) Deity of Animal with Yoga position Deity of Animals
Goguryo (현무-강서대묘) 6-7th Century Koguryo (고구려-무용총) Shilla – White Flying Horse A totem pole in Totem Park, Cultural flag of the Kanak community Personal Totem of Mohegan Chief Tantaquidgeon Tangun Myth in Samgukyusa 단군신화와 신단수
#三國遺事1卷-1紀異-古朝鮮-02 古記云: 昔有桓因[謂帝釋也.]庶子桓雄, 數意天 下, 貪求人世. 父知子意, 下視三危太伯, 可以弘 益人間, 乃授天符印三箇, 遣往理之. 雄率徒三千, 降於太伯山頂[卽太伯, 今妙香山.]神壇樹下, 謂 之神市. 是謂桓雄天王也. 將風伯雨師雲師, 而主 穀主命主病主刑主善惡凡主人間三百六十餘事, 在世理化. 三國遺事1卷-1紀異-古朝鮮-02(2) 時有一熊一虎, 同穴而居, 常祈于神雄, 願化爲人. 時神 遣靈艾一炷, 蒜二十枚曰: ‚爾輩食之, 不見日光百日, 便得人形.‛ 熊虎得而食之, 忌三七日, 熊得女身, 虎不 能忌, 而不得人身. 熊女者, 無與爲婚, 故每於壇樹下, 呪願有孕, 雄乃假化而婚之, 孕生子, 號曰, 壇君王儉. 以唐高{堯}卽位五十年庚寅[唐堯卽位元年戊辰, 則五 十年丁巳, 非庚寅也, 疑其未實.], 都平壤城[今西京], 始 稱朝鮮. 又移都於白岳山阿斯達. 又名弓[一作方]忽山, 又今彌達. 御國一千五百年. 周虎{武}王卽位己卯, 封箕 子於朝鮮, 壇君乃移於藏唐京, 後還隱於阿斯達爲山神, 壽一千九百八歲. 우주목-우주의 나무 World Tree=Cosmic Tree
also called cosmic tree centre of the world, a widespread motif in many myths and folktales among various preliterate peoples, especially in Asia, Australia, and North America, by which they understand the human and profane condition in relation to the divine and sacred realm. 우주의 나무=세계의 중심 신과 인간이 만나는 성스러운 장소 Setting a Sotdae => Sodo Setting a Sotdae => Sodo Setting a Sotdae => Sodo Setting a Sotdae => Sodo Sotdae => Sodo (소도) = duck on the pole Sotdae Two main forms are known and both employ the notion of the world tree as centre.
(1) In the one, the tree is the vertical centre binding together heaven and earth; (2) in the other, the tree is the source of life at the horizontal centre of the earth. => Adopting biblical terminology, the former may be called the tree of knowledge(지혜의 나무); the latter, the tree of life.(생명의 나무) Sacred Flying birds: ‘Garuda’ in India Garuda
In Hindu mythology, the bird and the vahana (mount) of the god Vishnu.
In the Rgveda (a collection of Vedic hymns) the sun is compared to a bird in its flight across the sky, and the association of the kitelike Garuda with Vishnu is taken by scholars as another indication of Vishnu's early origins as a sun deity. Garuda
The mythological account of Garuda's birth identifies him as the younger brother of Aruna, the charioteer of the sun god, Surya.
His mother was held in slavery by her co-wife and her sons, who were nagas (serpents), to which is attributed the lasting enmity between the eaglelike kite and the serpents. Garuda
The nagas agreed to release his mother if he could obtain for them a drink of the elixir of immortality, the amrta.
Garuda performed this feat with a certain amount of difficulty and on his way back from the heavens met Vishnu and agreed to serve him as his vehicle and also as his emblem. Emile Durkheim The founder of a French school of sociology, Emile Durkheim, in her general work concerning the elementary forms of religion (1912), also examined Totemism from a sociological and theological point of view. Durkheim hoped to discover a pure religion in very ancient forms and generally claimed to see the origin of religion in Totemism. Durkheim (con’t) For Durkheim, the sphere of the sacred is a reflection of the emotions that underlie social activities, and the totem was, in this view, a reflection of the group (or clan) consciousness, based on the conception of an impersonal power. The totemistic principle was then the clan itself, and it was permeated with sanctity. Such a religion reflects the collective consciousness that is manifested through the identification of the individuals of the group with an animal or plant species; it is expressed outwardly in taboos, symbols, and rituals that are based on this identification. Critiques of Totemism The most incisive critique of totemistic phenomena, one that denied the reality of totemism, was supplied by the French ethnologist Claude Levi-Strauss in Le Toteisme aujourd'hui (English translation, Totemism, 1963). As a chief representative of modern structuralism, Levi-Strauss was especially stimulated by Radcliffe-Brown, whose views he further attempted to expand. Levi-Strauss Levi-Strauss distinguished four kinds of opposition, or relationship, between nature and culture within totemism: (1) a species of animal or plant identified with a particular group, (2) a species of animal or plant identified with an individual, (3) a particular animal or plant identified with an individual, and (4) a particular animal or plant identified with a group. Morphological classifications of Religions
1) Animism 2) Totemism 3) Shamanism 4) Anthropomorphic polytheism 5) Henotheism 6) Monotheism * (Question) How could we define Asian religions and other religious traditions? 1. What is Animism? The term animism has been applied to a belief in many animae (spirits) and is often used rather crudely to characterize so-called primitive religions. 2. What is Totemism The system of belief in which humans are believed to have kinship with a totem or a mystical relationship is said to exist between a group or an individual and a totem. A totem is an object, such as an animal or plant that serves as the emblem or symbol of a kinship group or a person. 3. Shamanism (샤마니즘, 무속)
A religious phenomenon centered on the shaman; an ecstatic figure believed to have power to heal the sick and to communicate with the world beyond. The term applies primarily to the religious systems and phenomena of the northern Asian, Ural-Altaic (e.g., Mansi, Khanty, Samoyed, Tungue), and Pale0-Asian (eg., Yukaghir, Chukchi, Koryak) peoples. Shamanism The term shamanism comes from the Manchu- Tungus word šaman. The noun is formed from the verb ša-, ‘to know’; thus, shaman literally means ‘he who knows.’ Various other terms are used by other peoples among whom shamanism exists. The shamans recorded in historical ethnographies have included women, men, and transgender individuals of every age from middle childhood onward. Shamanism It is generally agreed that shamanism evolved before the development of class society in the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) and the Bronze Age, that it was practiced among peoples living in the hunting-and-gathering stage, and that it continued to exist, somewhat altered, among peoples who had reached the animal-raising and horticultural stage. Shamanism Shamanism is also used more generally to describe indigenous groups in which roles such as healer, religious leader, counselor, and councilor are combined. In this sense, shamans are particularly common among other Arctic peoples, American Indians, Australian Aborigines, and those African groups, such as the San, that retained their traditional cultures well into the 20th century. It is often found in conjunction with animism, a belief system in which the world is home to a plethora of spirit- beings that may help or hinder human endeavors. Shamanism Opinions differ as to whether the term shamanism may be applied to all religious systems in which the central personage is believed to have direct intercourse through an ecstatic state with the transcendent world that permits him to act as healer, diviner, and psychopomp (escort of souls of the dead to the other world). Since ecstasy is a psychosomatic phenomenon that may be brought about at any time by persons with the ability to do so, the essence of shamanism lies not in the general phenomenon but in specific notions, actions, and objects connected with the ecstatic state. Korean Shamans Urarina Shaman Evenk Tungus shaman, 1785 Classic Shamanism Shamanism as practiced in northern Asia is distinguished by its special clothing, accessories, and rites as well as by the specific worldview connected with them. North Asiatic shamanism in the 19th century, which is generally taken as the classical form, was characterized by the following traits: How to people become Shamans? 1. A society accepts that there are specialists who are able to communicate directly with the transcendent world and who are thereby also possessed of the ability to heal and to divine; such individuals, or shamans, are held to be of great use to society in dealing with the spirit world. 2. A given shaman is usually known for certain mental characteristics, such as an intuitive, sensitive, mercurial, or eccentric personality, which may be accompanied by some physical defect, such as lameness, an extra finger or toe, or more than the normal complement of teeth. How do people become Shamans? (con’t) 3. Shamans are believed to be assisted by an active spirit- being or group thereof; they may also have a passive guardian spirit present in the form of an animal or a person of another sex—possibly as a sexual partner. 4. The exceptional abilities and the consequent social role of the shaman are believed to result from a choice made by one or more supernatural beings. The one who is chosen—often an adolescent—may resist this calling, sometimes for years. Torture by the spirits, appearing in the form of physical or mental illness, breaks the resistance of the shaman candidate and he (or she) has to accept the vocation. How do people become Shamans (con’t) 5. The initiation of the shaman, depending on the belief system, may happen on a transcendent level or on a realistic level—or sometimes on both, one after the other. While the candidate lies as if dead, in a trance state, the body is cut into pieces by the spirits of the Yonder World or is submitted to a similar trial. The spirits’ reason for cutting up the shaman’s body is to see whether it has more bones than the average person. After awakening, a rite of symbolic initiation, such as climbing the World Tree, is occasionally performed. How do people become Shamans (con’t) 6. By attaining a trance state at will, the shaman is believed to be able to communicate directly with the spirits. This is accomplished by allowing the soul to leave the body to enter the spirit realm or by acting as a mouthpiece for the spirit-being, somewhat like a medium. 7. One of the distinguishing traits of shamanism is the combat of two shamans in the form of animals, often reindeer or horned cattle. The combat rarely has a stated purpose but is a deed the shaman is compelled to do. The outcome of the combat means well-being for the victor and destruction for the loser. How do people become Shamans (con’t) 8. In going into trance, as well as in mystical combat and healing ceremonies, the shaman uses certain objects such as a drum, drumstick, headgear, gown, metal rattler, mirror, and staff. The specific materials and shapes of these instruments are useful for identifying the types and species of shamanism and following their development. 9. Characteristic folklore (oral and textual) and shaman songs have come into being as improvisations on traditional formulas used to lure or imitate animals. Mongol shaman Shaman accessories A shaman wears regalia, some part of which usually imitates an animal—most often a deer, a bird, or a bear. It may include a headdress made of antlers or a band into which feathers of birds have been pierced. The footwear is also symbolic—iron deer hooves, birds’ claws, or bears’ paws. The clothing of the shamans among the Tofalar (Karagasy), Soyet, and Darhat are decorated with representations of human bones—ribs, arm, and finger bones. The shamans of the Goldi-Ude tribe perform the ceremony in a singular shirt and in a front and back apron on which there are representations of snakes, lizards, frogs, and other animals. Shaman accessories (con’t) An important device of the shaman is the drum, which always has only one membrane. It is usually oval but sometimes round. The outer side of the membrane, and the inside as well among some peoples, is decorated with drawings; e.g., the Tatars of Abakan mark the membrane with images of the Upper and Lower Worlds. The handle is usually in the shape of a cross, but sometimes there is only one handle. The drumstick is made of wood or horn, and the beating surface is covered with fur. In some cases the drumstick is decorated with Classic Shamanism – Drama and Dance Shamanic symbolism is presented through dramatic enactment and dance. The shaman, garbed in regalia, lifts his voice in song to the spirits. This song is improvised but contains certain obligatory images and similes, dialogue, and refrains. The performance always takes place in the evening. The theatre is a conical tent or a yurt; the stage is the space around the fire where the spirits are invoked. The audience consists of the invited members of the clan, awaiting the spirits in awe. A stage lighter and decorator, the shaman’s assistant, tends the fire so as to throw fantastic shadows onto the wall. All these effects help those present to visualize everything that the recited action of the shaman narrates. Drama and Dance (con’t) The shaman is simultaneously an actor, dancer, singer, and, indeed, a whole orchestra. This restless figure is a fascinating sight, with his cloak floating in the light of a fire in which anything might be imagined. The ribbons of his regalia flit around him, his round mirror reflects the flames, and his accoutrements jingle. The sound of his drum excites not only the shaman but also his audience. An integral characteristic of this drama is that those who are present are not mere objective spectators but rather faithful believers, and their belief enables the shaman to achieve results, as in healing physical or mental illnesses. Shamanism Additional Reading Mircea Eliade Ed. Good introductions to shamanism include Piers Vitebsky, The Shaman (1995, reissued 2001; also reissued as Shamanism, 2001); Barbara Tedlock, The Woman in the Shaman’s Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine (2005); and I.M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion:A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession, 2nd ed. (1989). Shamanism-new Classic descriptions of the shamanism of the peoples of Siberia are given in M.A. Czaplicka, Aboriginal Siberia (1914, reissued 1969); and Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, rev. and enlarged ed. (1964, reissued 1989; originally published in French, 1951), with an extensive bibliography. Additional Reading Eliade’s work not only deals with phenomena in Central and North Asia but also in North and South America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Uno Holmberg, Finno-Ugric, Siberian, vol. 4 in Louis Herbert Gray and George Foot Moore, The Mythology of All Races (1927, reissued 1964), describe shamanism among these peoples. V. Diószegi (ed.), Popular Beliefs and Folklore Tradition in Siberia (1968; originally published in German, 1963), contains studies on the shamanistic conceptions of the Sami, Hungarian, and Siberian peoples. Gut –Shaman’s ritual (무당의 굿) Kuksadang (국사당) 무당의 신전 Bari(-degi) Princess (바리데기공 주) 제주도 세습무 황해도 무당 황해도 무당-작두춤 4. Anthropomorphic Polytheism (다신주의)
The belief in many gods (with human forms) Polytheism characterizes virtually all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which share a common tradition of monotheism, the belief in one God. Sometimes above the many gods a polytheistic religion will have a supreme creator and focus of devotion, as in certain phases of Hinduism (there is also the tendency to identify the many gods as so many aspects of the Supreme Being) Typically, polytheistic cultures include belief in many demonic and ghostly forces in addition to the gods, and some supernatural beings will be malevolent; even in monotheistic religions there can be belief in many demons, as in New Testament Christianity. Polytheism Sometimes above the many gods a polytheistic religion will have a supreme creator and focus of devotion, as in certain phases of Hinduism (there is also the tendency to identify the many gods as so many aspects of the Supreme Being); Sometimes the gods are considered as less important than some higher goal, state, or saviour, as in Buddhism; Sometimes one god will prove more dominant than the others without attaining overall supremacy, as Zeus in Greek religion. Polytheism and other beliefs Polytheism can bear various relationships to other beliefs. It can be incompatible with some forms of theism, as in the Semitic religions; It can coexist with theism, as in Vaiṣṇavism; It can exist at a lower level of understanding, ultimately to be transcended, as in Mahāyāna Buddhism; It can exist as a tolerated adjunct to belief in transcendental liberation, as in Theravāda Buddhism. God and gods Hindu Temple 소 시바신 믿는 브라만 코끼리 여성신 사원의 여성 춤추는 신 The nature of Polytheism In the course of analyzing and recording various beliefs connected with the gods, historians of religions have used certain categories to identify different attitudes toward the gods. Thus, in the latter part of the 19th century, the terms henotheism and Kathenotheism were used to refer to the exalting of a particular god as exclusively the highest within the framework of a particular hymn or ritual; e.g., in the Vedic hymns (the ancient sacred texts of India). This process often consisted in loading other gods’ attributes on the selected focus of worship. Within the framework of another part of the same ritual tradition, another god may be selected as supreme focus. The Nature of Polytheism Kathenotheism literally means belief in one god at a time. The term monolatry has a connected but different sense; it refers to the worship of one god as supreme and sole object of the worship of a group while not denying the existence of deities belonging to other groups. The term henotheism is also used to cover this case, or more generally to mean belief in the supremacy of a single god without denying others. This seems to have been the situation for a period in ancient Israel in regard to the cult of Yahweh. Polytheistic Powers, gods, demons, Natural Forces, and Objects A widespread phenomenon in religions is the identification of natural forces and objects as divinities. It is convenient to classify them as celestial, atmospheric, and earthly. This classification itself is explicitly recognized in Indo- Aryan religion: Sūrya, the sun god, is celestial; Indra, associated with storms, rain, and battles, is atmospheric; and Agni, the fire god, operates primarily at the earthly level. Sky gods, however, tend to take on atmospheric roles; e.g., Zeus’s use of lightning as his thunderbolt. Polytheistic Powers, gods, demons, Natural Forces, and Objects In the earliest cultural levels, in which hunting and then pastoralism and agriculture are clearly vital, religion exhibits these identifications in rites connected with fertility. The sun’s vitality is seen in the cyclical effects of causing things to grow and wither. Moreover, because of its dominance of the world, the sun is often seen as all-knowing, and thus sky gods of various cultures tend to be highly powerful and knowledgeable, if also sometimes rather remote. The sky is also often associated with creation. Polytheistic Powers, gods, demons, Natural Forces, and Objects By contrast the moon is rarely of the same importance (though in Ur, a city of ancient southern Babylonia, the moon god Sin was supreme). The role of the sky god in ensuring food and in providing light and warmth, over against the chaotic effects of darkness, was a theme of various myths of the cosmic drama and was one main reason for the connection in mythic thought between creation and light. Polytheistic Powers, gods, demons, Natural Forces, and Objects On earth, besides the divine mother out of whose womb plant life has its birth, there are a host of divinities connected with agricultural and pastoral life. In addition, sacred significance is often attached to features of the particular environment in which a given group finds itself. Thus, sacred mountains, such as Olympus in Greece, have their resident deities; a river, such as the Ganges (Ganga), may be divinized. Polytheistic Powers, gods, demons, Natural Forces, and Objects Underground rivers have special significance in connecting with the underworld, or nether regions, which can be important as the place of repose of the dead but also as the matrix for the re-creation of life. Geographical locations can also have cosmic significance; e.g., Delphi, Greece, was known as the navel of the earth. Further, many cultures have gods and goddesses associated with the sea. Additional Reading S.G.F. Brandon (ed.), A Dictionary of Comparative Religion (1970), contains articles on the various gods and also on theories of polytheism, and these have bibliographic sections. A useful compendium is the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (1959). One example of the numerous anthropological literature is G.E. Swanson, The Birth of the Gods: The Origin of Primitive Beliefs (1960). Anthropomorphism The interpretation of nonhuman things or events in terms of human characteristics, as when one senses malice in a computer or hears human voices in the wind. Derived from the Greek anthropos (“human”) and morphe (“form”), the term was first used to refer to the attribution of human physical or mental features to deities. By the mid-19th century, however, it had acquired the second, broader meaning of a phenomenon occurring not only in religion but in all areas of human thought and action, including daily life, the arts, and even sciences. Anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism may occur consciously or unconsciously. Most scholars since the time of the English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626) have agreed that the tendency to anthropomorphize hinders the understanding of the world, but it is deep- seated and persistent. Anthropomorphism Explanations Traditional explanations of why people anthropomorphize may be divided into two sorts. One view, held by the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711–76) among others, is that it is done for an intellectual reason: in order to explain an unfamiliar and mysterious world by using the model that humans know best, namely themselves. This account has merit, but it fails to explain why humans anthropomorphize familiar objects, such as pets and household utensils, or why humans spontaneously see faces in random patterns. Anthropomorphism Explanations The second explanation, given by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and others, is that people anthropomorphize for an emotional reason: to make a hostile or indifferent world seem more familiar and therefore less threatening. This also has merit, but it fails to explain why people anthropomorphize in ways that frighten them, as when they hear a door slammed by the wind and think it is an intruder. Anthropomorphism-new A third and more general explanation is that anthropomorphism results from the uncertainty of perception and from the practical need to discern humans, human messages, and human traces in a chronically ambiguous world. Because every sensation may have any or various causes, perception (and with it cognition) is an interpretation, and thus a choice among possibilities. As the historian and psychologist of art Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001) put it, perception is betting. Anthropomorphism-new Those bets that potentially yield the most important information are the most valuable, and the most important information usually concerns other humans. Thus, humans are predisposed to perceive shapes, sounds, and other things and events in terms of human form or action, both in unconscious thought and in the conscious thought to which it gives rise. Anthropomorphism Additional Reading Stewart Elliott Guthrie, Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion (1993), is the most comprehensive treatment of anthropomorphism, both religious and secular. Robert W. Mitchell, Nicholas S. Thompson, and H. Lyn Miles (eds.), Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals (1997), presents diverse views of anthropomorphism, primarily with regard to animals, and includes an essay by Linda R. Caporael and Cecilia M. Heyes, “Why Anthropomorphize? Folk Psychology and Other Stories,” pp. 59–73, which summarizes several theories of secular anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism Additional Reading Epley, Adam Waytz, and John T. Cacioppo, “On Seeing Human: A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism,” Psychological Review 114(4): 864–886 (2007), offers a prediction of circumstances in which people will or will not anthropomorphize. 5. Henotheism In the course of analyzing and recording various beliefs connected with the gods, historians of religions have used certain categories to identify different attitudes toward the gods. Thus, in the latter part of the 19th century, the terms henotheism and kathenotheism were used to refer to the exalting of a particular god as exclusively the highest within the framework of a particular hymn or ritual;
e.g., in the Vedic hymns (the ancient sacred texts of India). *Zeus This process often consisted in loading other gods' attributes on the selected focus of worship. Henotheism-new Henotheism (Greek εἷς θεός heis theos "one god") is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean worshiping a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities. [1] Müller made the term central to his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing conceptions of God. Henotheism Henotheism is based on the belief that god may take any form at any time and still have the same essential nature. The central idea is to understand that one name for god may be used in a circumstance where a particular aspect of god is being represented or worshiped while a different name may be given to or used to describe or worship a different aspect of god in a different circumstance. Henotheism This example does not have to infer the idea of superiority of one over another, but simply that god can exist in many forms at once and offering worship or praise using different names does not have to imply polytheism. Henotheism should be considered a sophisticated version of monotheism in that it allows the worshiper to believe in essentially one Supreme Being and still appreciate and not limit the names, expressions, or manifestations used to describe it. Shiva 7. Monotheism (유일신주의) Belief in the existence of one god, or in the oneness of God; as such, it is distinguished from polytheism, the belief in the existence of many gods, and from atheism, the belief that there is no god. Monotheism characterizes the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and elements of the belief are discernible in numerous other religions. Monotheism Monotheism is characteristic of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which view God as the creator of the world, who oversees and intervenes in human events, and as a beneficent and holy being, the source of the highest good. The monotheism that characterizes Judaism began in ancient Israel with the adoption of Yahweh as the single object of worship and the rejection of the gods of other tribes and nations without, initially, denying their existence. Islam is clear in confessing one, eternal, unbegotten, unequaled God, while Christianity holds that a single God is reflected in the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Additional Reading Theodorus P. van Baaren G. van der Leeuw, Phänomenologie der Religion (1933; Eng. trans., Religion in Essence and Manifestation, 2 vol., 1963); and R. Otto, Das Heilige (1917; Eng. trans., The Idea of the Holy, 2nd ed., 1950). H.R. Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960), is a modern, incisive Protestant theological presentation of absolute monotheism. 8. Asian Religions Asian Religions and many other religious traditions are beyond Tylor’s morphological classification of religions How could we define religious traditions which emphasize the self practice rather than the God or omniscient beings?
Buddhism Confucianism Taoism Hyonmyochido(현묘지도, in Korea) Pilgrim of Jainism Golden Temple (Sikhism) 시크교 사원 인도네시아 보로부 드르 사원
Wheel of Time Mandala 만달라 수행 Epilogue As we have learned, there are many different kinds of religious thinking throughout human history. If we study and classify religions carefully we can better understand where the religions of today came from, and what existed in the past. The study of the classification of religions can help bridge culture and societal gaps, and increase understanding of various types of people. It can also decrease apprehension about other religious thoughts. Quiz What are some forms of religious classifications? Is there a relation between human ev0lution and the way religion has evolved? How? What form of religious classification do you think is most interesting? Why? Do you know people in your culture that fall into any of the classifications we studied in this class? Have Many Happy days!