Anthropology of religion from Russian

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Potnia Theron a statue from Çatalhöyük

Anthropology of religion is a branch of cultural anthropology that includes the psychology of religion and the sociology of religion . The area of ​​research in this discipline is archaic beliefs in traditional societies, new religions and new religious movements , the problem of the relationship between magic, religion and science  . The anthropology of religion has interdisciplinary connections with other areas of cultural anthropology ( psychological anthropology , economic anthropology , environmental anthropology , medical anthropology , art anthropology), as well as beyond. The anthropology of religion is closely connected with various areas of religious studies , it studies such issues as thinking and culture, ritual and altered states of consciousness , the interaction of confessional and ethnopsychological aspects of behavioral stereotypes in different cultures, the relationship between norm and pathology, the regulatory and psychotherapeutic functions of religion  .

Definition of religion

Despite the interest of the scientific community in the study of religion, there is currently no unified anthropological theory of religion. A generally accepted methodology for studying religious beliefs and rituals has not been developed either. Researchers in the field have never been able to reach a consensus either on the definition of the term "religion" or on the content of this term. Attempts to define religion, ranging from the definition of religion formulated by E. Tylor in 1871 as "beliefs in spiritual beings" to more complex definitions by Clifford Geertz and Milford Spiro , have met with serious objections  . At the same time, the definition of K. Geertz turned out to be the most influential in the anthropology of religion of the 20th century. .

Definition of religion K. Giertz

The definition given by K. Geertz in 1973 is as follows: “religion is: (1) a system of symbols that contributes to (2) the emergence of strong, comprehensive and stable moods and motivations in people, (3) forming ideas about the general order being and (4) giving these representations a halo of reality in such a way that (5) these moods and motivations seem to be the only real ones”  .

This definition has been criticized by experts because it is not well suited for field research, although it can be useful in theoretical discussions. The main difficulty in finding an accurate and comprehensive definition of religion is that religion is not a concrete thing, but a theoretical abstraction . Other definitions of religion formulated by researchers in the 20th century, following Emile Durkheim, are based on the opposition of the concepts of "natural" / "supernatural" or "profane" / "sacred". These alternative definitions turned out to be no more acceptable than Geertz's, since it is difficult in many cases to draw a clear line between "natural" and "supernatural", so this distinction can vary greatly depending on personal views and on the views prevailing in a particular society  .

Definition of religion E. A. Torchinova.

Famous Russian religious scholar E. A. TorchinovAnalyzing the concept of religion, he noted that there are a huge number of variants of this definition. As an example proving the unsatisfactoriness of the "natural"/"supernatural" dichotomy, he pointed out that scientific ideas can also serve as ideas that presuppose belief in the supernatural, which differ sharply from the ideas that dominate the generally accepted scientific paradigm. Thus, the provisions of the theory of relativity or quantum physics could well be perceived by scientists of the 18th century as a complete mysticism and fantasy. As a result of the analysis, E. A. Torchinov concluded that “... neither the very concept of the supernatural is adequate to characterize religion, .

Another unresolved problem in the anthropology of religion has to do with the role played by religious faith. If in Christianity the concept of faith occupies a central place, then the situation is quite different with many other religions. There is a long discussion among scholars as to how acceptable the conclusions non-believers draw about religious beliefs are. Although some of the leading psychologists of religion and sociologists of religion are adherents of the religions they study, the vast majority of anthropologists of religion are skeptics, materialists, and reductionists. However, a number of anthropologists believe that any religion can only be truly understood "from the inside". Many anthropologists of religion studying new religious movementsare themselves members of these movements. In the 20th century, field research and the participant observation method began to be widely used in anthropology . This has led anthropologists to focus more on the study of particular issues and less on broad generalizations. Modern research is more about specific beliefs in a specific place, and less about abstract speculation on issues related to religion  .

Prerequisites for the development of the anthropology of religion

The Doctrine of Man and Religion in the Middle Ages

Christian tradition

The accumulation of anthropological knowledge about religion was carried out throughout the long development of the history of human society. Already in the Middle Ages, we see the posing of questions that will largely determine the design and progress of the anthropology of religion as a scientific discipline. The central problem of the medieval anthropology of religion can be considered the question of the natural/acquired religiosity of a person.

St. John of Damascus believed that religion was implanted in man by God: “However, God did not leave us in complete ignorance; for the knowledge that God exists, He Himself planted in the nature of everyone. And the very creation of the world, its preservation and management proclaim the greatness of the Godhead (Wisdom 13:5)…. He, being omniscient and providing for the good of everyone, revealed to us what we need to know, and what we cannot bear, he kept silent about that ”  . In man, God united the visible and invisible essences: his body was created from the earth, and God gave his soul, rational and thinking, by his inspiration, and the mind is inherent in the soul, it is an integral part of it . Damascene rejects Origen's position on the creation of the soul before the creation of the body and claims that they are created simultaneously. He defines the soul itself as: “a living, incorporeal being, by nature invisible to bodily eyes, immortal, endowed with mind and reason ... acting through an organic body and giving life to it, ... capable of wanting and acting, changeable in will, like a created being " .

Damascene interprets the expression “In the image and likeness of God” as follows: being created in the image means the ability to think and be free, and in the likeness it implies likeness to God in virtue, as far as it is possible for a person.

The resurrection of man signifies a secondary union of soul and body, for the soul of man is immortal, and therefore only the body subject to earthly death will resurrect in the proper sense and become incorruptible. After Sunday, the wicked and sinners will be given over to eternal fire, while good people will be enlightened and will contemplate God and will themselves be contemplated by him  .

Saint John understands sin as “an excess of desire”, a useless desire and pleasure, something unnatural, “a voluntary departure from what is in accordance with nature.” God created man without sin, sin is not in the very nature of man, but in his free will. With the assistance of the grace of God, a person can succeed in good, and if he departs from God, he can end up in evil.

Blessed Augustine Aurelius , developing the doctrine of original sin , claims that the sin of Adam and Eve damages human nature, and sin is not a substance, but a will. Man is not only capable of sinning, he is incapable of not sinning (see the treatises "De spiritu et littera", "De natura et gratia" and "Contra Julianum").

But a person can be saved. In the work of salvation, the leading role is given to the Church:

"Only he is saved who has Christ as his head, and only he who is in His body, which is the church, has Christ as head." A person has seven virtues: three are theological, invested in us by God (faith, hope, love), the rest are acquired (prudence, moderation, courage, justice). Bliss. Augustine invests in the last four understandings that are completely different from the ancient: they all, in one way or another, represent a declaration of love for God, a search for God in oneself and the world.

At the same time, man, the only one of all God's creations, has a soul. This is what distinguishes him, including from animals, the latter receive knowledge through sensuality. The soul is not material, it is "a rational substance adapted to control the body"  , it was created in the image of God so that it could use the mind and intellect to know and contemplate God  . Absolute knowledge is available only to God , who is everywhere entirely, including in the mind of man. But the true Divine world is in our memory, we can, with the help of thinking, actualize the fullness of knowledge and truth. Memory here in the tradition of Neoplatonismis interpreted very broadly - these are actually memories, and acts of will, and self-knowledge  .

The last remark is important in light of the consideration of natural theology. Augustine used the term "theologia naturalis" itself, but in the context of criticism of pagan religion and theology, in particular Varro  . He criticized her for deifying the world, endowing the soul with someone other than a person. However, in addition to such a natural theology, he singled out an internal natural theology, which is the self-knowledge of the soul as the image of God, for like is known by like and it is God who gives man knowledge  .

Thomas Aquinas , the teacher of the Roman Catholic Church, was the first to clearly distinguish 2 types of theology in the “ Summary of Theology ”: philosophical theology, or “divine science” (scientia divina), and divinely revealed theology, or “sacred teaching” (sacra doctrina). 1st uses the natural light of reason, that same natural theology; The 2nd, more sublime and perfect, turns to the light of divine Revelation”  .

The soul and body of a person must exist in harmony, because they are connected as form and matter, the soul is substantial, but it receives its full expression only through the body  (tradition coming from Aristotle ): “Being connected with the body is inherent in the soul according to its nature, like how the upward movement is inherent in a light body”  , “... some types of soul activity are carried out without the mediation of a bodily organ; such is thought and will. Consequently, the forces of these types of activity are in the soul as in their subject. However, other activities of the soul are carried out through the bodily organs”  .

According to Aquinas , a person who commits a mortal sin is doomed to eternal punishment. It is only through divine grace that man can be freed from sin. Man is meant to contemplate and know God. The idea of ​​God comes naturally: knowledge of the world is a consequence of the existence of God.

Islamic tradition

The question of the natural or acquired nature of human religion was asked not only by Western European thinkers. One of the brightest representatives of the philosophy of the East in the period of the Middle Ages is Ibn Tufeil (1110 −1185) (Latinized name - Abubazer)  . Like many Arab philosophers, Ibn Tufeil had a wide range of interests: he studied medicine, mathematics, astronomy and poetry. Unfortunately, the only work of Ibn Tufeil, which has survived to this day, is "The Tale of Haya, the son of Yakzan" ("The Living One, the son of the Waking One"). This treatise tells the story of Hay, the son of Yakzan, who grew up in the natural conditions of a desert island. Particular attention is paid to the development of human cognition: the transition from sensory to logical cognition and further unity with God: reduce their multitude to a given general idea, and the sensible people they speak of are those who practice this method of speculation” . According to this work, a person is able to independently achieve higher knowledge through his own reflections. The gradual development of human thinking from the stage of empirical perception to pure intuitive knowledge will lead a person to the contemplation of the Absolute Being, accessible only through self-limitation and hard mental work. Achieving the One is the highest goal and the most cherished desire of every person striving for knowledge of the true existence of this world.

It should be noted that it is in this work that we can observe the first attempt at a logical proof of the existence of God  , which we later find in the famous medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas . The hero of the story independently comes to the idea of ​​God through reflections on the root cause of our world, namely: “He saw: if we accept the point of view according to which the world arose, coming into being after it was non-existent, then we would have to recognize that the world could not enter into being on its own, that for it there must necessarily be some active principle that brought it into being, that this principle cannot be perceived by any of the senses”  . More Ibn Tufeilgives an apophatic characterization of the One as “imperceptible by the senses”, as something that “cannot be imagined in the imagination”, something that “cannot act as a carrier of signs inherent in bodies”. It is this reflection that prompts Haya to think about the existence of a certain “supreme agent”, who undoubtedly should have “... both power over the world and knowledge about it:“ Doesn’t the one who created it know, but He is penetrating, aware? Qur'an 67:14). The final formulation of the idea of ​​God as the root cause of being appears to us in this form: "... the whole world appears as something causally conditioned and created in relation to this agent in an indispensable sense:" His order, when he wants something, is only to say to Him: „ Be!“ - and it arises ”(Quran, 36:82)"  .

In this work, Ibn Tufeil raises the question of the “self-generation” of a person from clay: “In the bowels of the island there was one cavity, in which for many years a thickness of clay wandered ... and in this thickness of clay the first rudiments of life began to appear”  . However, according to the philosopher, only the Almighty can fill this thickness of clay with life, for only he has such power: ), having formed such a strong unity with it that it can no longer be separated from the body either in sensory perception or mentally, for this spirit, as it has been proven, pours out from Allah (he is great and glorious) with the same constancy with which sunlight poured out into the world." Reflections like these tell us that Ibn Tufeilattributed a divine origin to man: even a lump of clay by the power of Allah Almighty is capable of becoming a man.

Based on these considerations, we can say that already in the XII century, the idea of ​​a certain “innate” religiosity of a person, which has the ability to develop through consistent reflections on the world and God, begins to take shape. The philosopher also raises questions regarding the divine nature of man, while taking into account the achievements of contemporary natural science knowledge.

The Doctrine of Man and Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

The scientific revolution that began in England at the end of the 17th century gradually spread its influence to all European countries: France , Germany , Holland , etc. Europe of that period experienced an incredible intellectual upsurge: ideas were expressed that proclaimed the primacy of rational knowledge and the rejection of the traditional confessional worldview, popularization of knowledge, freethinking, the authority of science, the importance of humanism, etc. It is important to note that the ideology of the Enlightenment (XVIII century) was already developed by J. Locke, the main ideas of which laid the foundation for the further development of philosophy, built on the cult of the human mind. The greatest contribution to the development of science was made by the French Enlightenment represented by Voltaire (1694-1778), J.-J. Rousseau (1712-1778), D. Diderot (1713-1784), P. Holbach (1723-1789). It was the French philosophy of the Enlightenment that laid the foundation for the further development of the anthropology of religion as an independent discipline.

It should be noted that the representatives of the French Enlightenment paid much attention to issues related to the philosophy of religion. However, now, the central figure of philosophy has become not God , but a person with faith in his limitless possibilities. In the history of Western philosophy, this change has been called the "anthropological turn." In this vein, it is necessary to mention the philosophical ideas of Voltaire: here it is important to note his deistic concept, according to which God is the “Supreme Mind”, who only once created the Universe as a “machine of nature”, but no longer takes part in the affairs of mankind. The thinker argued that a person should stop talking about the sky: “It seems to me that we were created not for such metaphysics, but in order to honor God, cultivate the land that he gave us, and help each other in this short life”  . The concept of the "anthropological turn" in philosophy received its final form at the end of the New Age with the advent of I. Kant, who formulated questions that turn the gaze of philosophy straight to the person. It was the French philosophy of the Enlightenment that laid the foundation for the further development of the anthropology of religion as an independent discipline.

Consideration of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, directly related to anthropology, should begin with the ideas of J.-J. Rousseau . According to Levi-Strauss , Rousseau is the father of anthropology and its spiritual inspirer: “Rousseau was not only the forerunner of anthropology, but also its founder. First, he gave it a practical basis by writing his "Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality between people", in which he posed the problem of the relationship between nature and civilization and which can be considered the first scientific study in general anthropology; secondly, he gave it a theoretical justification, remarkably clearly and concisely pointing out the independent tasks of anthropology, which are different from the tasks of history and ethics”  . Levi-StraussI am sure that in his work "Experience on the origin of languages," Rousseau also laid the foundations for the methodology for the study of human society: "When you want to study people, you need to look around you, but in order to study a person, you must learn to look into the distance; in order to discover properties, one must first observe the differences”  . It is also important to note that Rousseau, for the first time in the history of philosophy, separated his “I” from “he”, thereby objectifying his philosophy as much as possible, which Levi-Strauss called the “principle of absolute objectivity”: “It is Rousseau who is the author of the famous saying “I am another (anthropologists do the same before showing that other people are people like themselves, or in other words, the “other” is the “me”)” . It was this that became an important step for the future development of anthropology: “The revolution in the minds made by Rousseau, which preceded the anthropological revolution and laid the foundation for it, consists in the rejection of the forced identification of any culture with its own culture, or of an individual member of any culture with that image. or with the role that this culture is trying to impose on him"  .

The birth of ethnology

For many centuries, practically in all corners of the world, ethnographic knowledge about near and far neighboring peoples has been accumulated. We already find ethnographic materials among the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia , Egypt , and Persia . The study of other peoples was carried out in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome . The events of the Middle Ages : mass crusades, colonization of lands, an active missionary movement, aroused the interest of Europeans in the countries of the Arab East. However, it was the philosophy of the Enlightenment that served as the basis for the emergence of ethnology.as an independent discipline. The legacy of J.-J. Rousseau , in particular, the idea of ​​a “noble savage”, who later evolved into a modern civilized person, who no longer lives according to the laws of nature, but according to the rules of society. Thus, mankind gradually accumulated extensive ethnographic material, which served as the foundation for the development of an independent science of peoples.

In this regard, it is absolutely necessary to mention Giambattista Vico(1668-1744), who is rightly called one of the fathers of ethnology. In his work "Foundations of a New Science Concerning the General Nature of Nations", published in 1725, Vico put forward the idea of ​​the progressive development of mankind, according to which a nation passes through three distinct stages. This transition concerns all spheres of society. Religion, state structure and language show this especially clearly. Thus, in the sphere of religion, each nation passes through three stages of development, each of which corresponds to a certain form of government and language. So, for example, the Age of the Gods is characterized by a theocratic form of government, when the clergy are at the head, and the language used is entirely sacred and hieroglyphic, in the Age of Heroes the people are ruled by the local nobility, which speaks of an aristocratic form of government, while the language used is symbolic, . Also, one should not forget that each of these three centuries has its own character: in the Age of the Gods, people were religious, in the Age of Heroes - angry and unrestrained, and in the Age of People, each person is honest and ready to fulfill his duty to the state and society. It was Vico who laid the foundation for the formation of a civilizational approach to the study of primitive societies. In his research, he also argues that abstraction and awareness of the universal principles of their life are not alien to primitive peoples: primitive peoples, in his eyes, become, as it were, “children” of the human race, capable of developing to the level of a civilized person contemporary to him.

Another prominent representative of the XVIII century. is Ch. de Brosse (1709-1777). His works, devoted to the history of navigation to the Southern lands, are full of high-quality and detailed ethnographic material about the peoples of America, Africa, Asia  , which later served as the basis for many religious studies related to the development of primitive forms of beliefs. In his works “On the cult of fetish gods, or Comparison of the ancient religion of Egypt with the modern religion of Nigritia” (1760) and “The Oracle of Dodona” (1766), de Brosse puts forward the theory of fetishism, according to modern researchers, creating this concept, de Brosse was inspired by the work D. Hume "The Natural History of Religion" (1757), according to which the first form of people's religion was polytheism . Based on his research, Ch. de Brosse supplements Hume's concept, saying that the fetishistic nature of beliefs was inherent in the polytheism of primitive peoples.

However, despite such a wealth of ethnographic material and research on its comprehension, ethnology as an independent science of cultures and peoples was officially recognized only in 1839 with the establishment of the Paris Society of Ethnology. This happened largely thanks to J.-J. Ampère , who already in 1830 compiled a classification of the humanities, in which he singled out ethnology as a field of knowledge about peoples.

D. Hume on the nature of man and religion

English skeptic David Hume in the treatise "Dialogues on Natural Religion" and on natural theology, and on natural religion. "Criticism of natural (or rational) theology is an important part of Hume's logic or doctrine of knowledge"  .

And he considers fear and, in general, the psychological side of the human personality (including the hope of avoiding what inspires fear) to be the basis of natural religion: “the best and even the only way to awaken a proper religious consciousness in every person is to evoke in him the correct ideas about human disasters. and human depravity."  .

It is worth noting that Hume singles out rational and emotional sides in human nature, the latter prevailing. In the emotional side, passions and affects rule, while the rational side allows you to create abstractions. Natural religion is the religion of the emotions , polytheism

It is difficult to say how Hume understood the soul, because he preferred to refrain from answering the question about the existence of the soul, God and the world, in the best traditions of agnosticism .

From polytheism , monotheism is born , as a more complex worldview, but in history they replace each other according to the principle of "ebb and flow". The tendency observed in people to rise from idolatry to theism works in the opposite direction - from theism to descend again to idolatry. Reaching the idea of ​​a single deity, whose attributes are infinity and spirituality, people are not able to constantly hold on to this idea. The imagination, moving away from abstract ideas, begins to again give the objects of worship greater certainty, embodying them in images more characteristic of the way of thinking, for the refined ideas of the one and all-good God are less characteristic of the weak human mind.

Thus, Hume analyzes religions in the light of their natural history, relying on the legacy of free-thinking philosophers of past generations, as well as data from ethnology and other sciences. And, despite the use of the term "natural religion", the English skeptic rejects the assumption of the existence of an innate religious feeling  .

Anthropology of religion

The anthropological study of religion began in the second half of the 19th century within the framework of the emerging cultural anthropology at that time. The works of Max Muller , Edward Tylor , James Fraser , William Robertson-Smith , which have retained their relevance to this day, are devoted to these issues .. All four scholars were armchair theorists writing in Britain on religions in traditional societies. They were all amateurs, although Muller spoke Sanskrit, Tylor was a student of Mexican cultural heritage, Smith was an expert on Semitic languages, and Fraser was an expert in classical languages ​​and literature. However, it was they who first proposed the use of scientific methods for the comparative analysis of religious beliefs and practices. The research approaches of the early anthropologists of religion were greatly influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Mueller and Fraser were agnostics, while Tylor and Smith called themselves devout Christians. In addition, the early anthropologists of religion were characterized by Eurocentrism  .

Cognitive Religious Studies and Anthropology of Religion

One of the modern approaches in religious studies and in the anthropology of religion, in particular, is cognitive religious science .. Cognitive religious studies are based on the data of cognitive and evolutionary sciences and constitute the methodological basis for research in the field of the anthropology of religion. Cognitive religious scholars try to explain religious behavior and religious ideas from the point of view of the structure of human consciousness, based on the theory of modularity of consciousness, the innate grammar of ritual, ontological categories of consciousness, theories of intuitive biology, physics and psychology, and the theory of modes of religiosity. The areas of study of cognitive religious studies include: the problem of the origin of religion, the classification and explanation of religious ritual, the relationship between folk and doctrinal religion, the study of religious experience, religious violence, and religious ideas. , Emma Cohen , Scott Atran , Harvey Whitehouse .

Anthropology of religion in Britain

Anthropology of Religion by Edward Tylor

At the stage of formation of a mature European ethnology, Edward Tylor made a great contribution to the British anthropology of religion.. English ethnographer, researcher of primitive culture, professor at Oxford University. One of the founders of the evolutionary school in ethnography and anthropology. His main works: "Anahuac, or Mexico and Mexicans, ancient and modern", "Studies in the field of ancient history of mankind", "Primitive culture", "Anthropology: An introduction to the study of man and civilization", "Primitive culture: Studies in the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art and customs". Eduard Tylor in his works presented the richest information about the characteristics of the life of different peoples, and also outlined the theoretical methods and ways of studying the previous stages of cultural development. The central issue of his reflections was religion in its development from the simplest forms of beliefs to modern complex types of world religions. Tylor considered the main task to comprehend the development of religion by creating a theoretical concept akin to the philosophy of religion. He constantly drew attention to the relationship between ancient man and the surrounding world, calling this approach the philosophy of nature and man. As one of the largest Russian specialists in cultural anthropology A. Belik notes, Tylor’s great merit and the most important merit of his work “Primitive Culture” is to single out animation as an object of special analysis and to prove the existence of such a human ability as “animation of the inanimate” .

The Anthropology of Religion by James Fraser

The work of James Fraser entitled "The Golden Bough " (1890) is devoted to the consideration of the most ancient layers of archaic mythologies and religions. Fraser devoted his whole life to the comparative study of the magical and religious beliefs of various peoples and attempts to comprehend them typologically. These ideas of his were reflected in the following studies: "Faith in Immortality and the Cult of the Dead" (1911-1912), "Folklore in the Old Testament" (1918-1919), "The Cult of Nature" (1926), "Myths about the Origin of Fire" ( 1930), "Creation and Evolution in Primitive Cosmogonies" (1935), etc.

A. Belik points out that Frazer's reasoning about magic, religion and science encourages reflection in the 21st century . This is due to the fact that Fraser (like Tylor) posed "eternal" questions, the answers to which each new generation of researchers is trying to find. At the same time, Fraser held completely different views on the relationship between magic, religion and science compared to Tylor. He believed that religious action is not necessarily and not in all cases takes the form of a ritual, expressed in the utterance of prayers, the performance of sacrifices and other ritual actions. Fraser pointed out that “magic thinking is based on two principles. The first one says: like produces like. <...> According to the second principle, things that have come into interaction with each other continue to interact at a distance after the termination of contact. From these two principles of thinking, he singled out two types of magic - imitative and contagious. Imitative magic consists in making an impact on a phenomenon or event through its imitation and reproduction. Contagious magic consists in influencing a person through an object that has been in contact with him for some time. Thus, magic, according to Frazer, can be an integral part of some religions. Frazer dismissed the principles of resemblance and contagion as falsely scientific, and considered magic more of an art than a science. He tried to find a common basis for imitative and contagious magic in sympathetic magic. Fraser stated that both types of magic "may be designated by the single term sympathetic magic, since in both cases it is admitted, .

The result of the idea of ​​universal interconnection is a certain picture of the world in which one action causes other actions, and all events are interconnected. The reason can be called an evil spirit, witchcraft, etc., but it is always subject to certain rules (even if they are false from the point of view of modern science). Frazer considered the magical view of the world to be completely different from the religious one. A magical look means an active search for ways to influence the world around. According to Frazer, the fundamental assumption of magic is identical with the views of modern science: both magic and science are based on a firm belief in the order and uniformity of natural phenomena  .

Anthropology of Religion by Edward Evans-Pritchard (1902–1973)

Edward Evans-Pritchard(1902–1973) English scholar of social anthropology, especially noted for his classical studies of African cultures. Usually he is ranked as a structural-functional school of anthropology, but the analysis of his works shows his significant differences with the pillars of this direction: Radcliffe-Brown and Malinovsky. Influenced by the French sociological school of functionalist anthropologists, he generally shared their approach to the study of society and made a significant contribution to the development of the structural-functional tradition with his studies of kinship and religion. An empiricist, he gave priority to ethnographic fieldwork in anthropology and conducted intensive fieldwork himself, mainly in South Sudan, collecting extensive ethnographic material on the Azande, Nuer, Anuak, Luo, Shilluk, .

The influence that E. E. Evans-Pritchard had on anthropology can be described in the words of the historiographer John Van Maanen, who, speaking of the state of modern anthropology, noted that:

“the authority of such cultural heroes as Boas, Malinowski, Furse and Evans-Pritchard overshadows modern field ethnographers and gives their work the appearance of a respected and justified activity ...”  .

More details about Pritchard's contribution to the formation of the methodology of anthropology, about his main works and scientific views, as well as a brief biographical note, can be found in the main article about him.

Anthropology of religion in France

French researchers in the XVIII-XIX centuries. create the prerequisites for the formation of the anthropology of religion. At this time, there is an active accumulation of ethnographic data, extensive material is being collected about the beliefs and life of both ancient peoples and modern African and American tribes. Already in the XVIII century. comparative descriptions of various religions have been offered. In France, the voluminous work “Religious Rites and Ceremonies of All the Peoples of the World” was published, the books of J. F. Lafito (“Morals of the Savages of America”) and N. Frere (“General Discourse on the Essence of the Religion of the Greeks”, “On Religious Holidays in Persian annual cycle", "Studies in the Religious and Philosophical Traditions of the Indians"). Charles Dupuispublished a multi-volume work entitled The Origin of All Cults, or the Great Religion. In 1760 Charles de Brosse 's On the Cult of the Fetish Gods, or Comparison of the Ancient Religion of Egypt with the Modern Religion of Nigritiya, was published. In it, de Brosse, developing the ideas of D. Hume about polytheism as the original religion of mankind, argues that this initial polytheism was in the nature of fetishism, that is, the cult of worship of animals and inanimate objects. In the 20s of the XIX century. the work of Benjamin-Constant de Rebecq "On Religion Considered in Its Origin, Forms and Development" appeared.

Emile Durkheim (1868-1917) is the founder of the sociological concept of religion. He considered many problems of the functioning and formation of early forms of religious beliefs, taking into account the emotional and psychological states of human communities. The French sociologist sharply criticized Tylor and Frazer for their position that religion arose as a result of error, illusion, empty fantasy. According to him, religion is a social fact, that is, it is a full-fledged social phenomenon that has an impact on society as a whole and on each individual separately  .

A special place in ethnological discussions in the first third of the 20th century. occupied by the French philosopher, ethnologist, researcher of primitive thinking Lucien Levy-Bruhl (1857-1939). His most famous works are Primitive Thinking (1922), Supernatural and Natural in Primitive Thinking (1931), Primitive Mythology (1935). Levy-Bruhl believed that different types of thinking correspond to different socio-historical types of society, and he distinguished between primitive thinking and the thinking of civilized societies. The originality of primitive thinking, according to the scientist, determines the nature of the corresponding "collective ideas" (Levy-Bruhl borrowed this term from E. Durkheim)  .

Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009) French philosopher and anthropologist, founder of anthropological structuralism. His followers: Jacques Lacan  and Roland Barthes  . The first is a French philosopher and psychiatrist, as well as the creator of structural psychoanalysis, which is based on the ideas of K. Levi-Strauss and his predecessor Ferdinand de Saussure , rethought from the standpoint of Freudianism. The second is a French philosopher and literary critic, an adherent of structural analysis in the field of mythology.

Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957) is a French folklorist and ethnographer, a representative of the "dynamic" school in France, where A. Hubert and M. Mauss became his followers  . The first is a sociologist and anthropologist, as well as the founder of the French sociology of religion. The second is a French ethnographer and sociologist. Arnold van Gennep's ideas about the stages of rites of passage were further supported by the English anthropologist Victor Turner  , who studied the liminal periods of communities and the state of the collective.

Anthropology of Religion by Émile Durkheim

Émile Durkheim (1868-1917), French sociologist and philosopher, founder of the French sociological school . The forerunner of structural-functional analysis in anthropology. As a sociologist, Durkheim perceives man primarily as a being constituted by society. Durkheim's concept of religion is connected with this understanding of man. The book " Elementary Forms of Religious Life. The Totemic System in Australia " is Durkheim's main work on religion. In "Suicide. A sociological study "it also touches on the problems of religion - it studies the influence of various faiths on suicide.

Definition of religion

Durkheim defines religion as follows: “Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred things that are separate and forbidden; beliefs and practices that unite in a separate spiritual community all those who joined them are called the church" . The second part of the definition, Durkheim emphasizes that the idea of ​​religion is inseparable from the idea of ​​the church, meaning that religion should be considered as a collective phenomenon. Religion, in his opinion, is a full-fledged social phenomenon that has an impact both on society as a whole and on each individual separately. The sociologist believed that society, to a greater extent than the individual, can claim to be the source of sacred and profane norms. Durkheim introduces the concept of "collective representations" - these are ideas (beliefs, moral concepts) that a person receives not from his individual life experience, but as a result of the impact on him of customs, upbringing, public opinion.

A look at the origins of religion

Durkheim considered the oldest form of religion totemism , since in totemism there are no influences and borrowings from other religions and, at the same time, it corresponds to the simplest form of social organization). Totemism, according to Durkheim, is a kind of impersonal god, a supernatural magical power that has spread into a myriad of objects (such as the orenda among the Iroquois, the wakan among the Sioux Dakota tribes). The concept of "soul", found among the Australian tribes, Durkheim considered as the totemic principle of "mana", embodied in every individual.

The concept of religion

Religious phenomena, according to Durkheim, are divided into two main categories: beliefs and rituals. “Religious representations are collective representations expressing collective realities; rites are modes of action that arise only in groups that have gathered together and are designed to arouse, maintain or restore certain mental states of these groups ”  . At the same time, a rite can be determined only after a religious belief is determined. Religious beliefs are expressed in ideas about the nature of sacred things and the relationship of these things either with each other or with secular things. Religious rites can be characterized as rules of conduct that establish how a person should behave with sacred things.

Durkheim believed that religious beliefs streamline primitive society. Using the example of the life of the Australian tribes, he shows that periods of scattered existence in small groups or alone alternate with a period of concentrated accumulations for rituals and ceremonies. Thus, an idea of ​​the secular and the sacred arises: the secular area includes everything that is associated with a lonely and difficult existence, and the sense of that upsurge that evokes a sense of collectivity during festive celebrations belongs to the sacred area; the world of the sacred is "a world that is doubly ideal"  . According to Durkheim, mass religious ceremonies are necessary to maintain a sense of solidarity in a primitive society. Religion becomes a way of identifying oneself with a particular social group.

Answering the question about the characteristics of a religious phenomenon, Durkheim excludes such characteristics as the concepts of the mysterious and the deity. The sociologist argues that the concept of the mysterious (supernatural) is relatively recent, and presupposes the opposite idea, the idea of ​​the natural. This process took place in connection with the development of science; on the contrary, in the eyes of our ancestors, the whole world appeared as something supernatural, as something that could not be rationally explained. Durkheim also points out that religion cannot be defined by the idea of ​​gods or spirits, since there are rites without gods and there are cult relations, the purpose of which is not to unite man and deity.

Thus, denying the ideas of the supernatural and the deity. Durkheim recognizes two characteristic features of religion:

• the concept of the world of sacred things, which are protected and separated by prohibitions from the world of secular things. All religious beliefs have a common feature - "the division of the world into two areas, of which one includes everything that is sacred, the other - everything that is secular"  . The sociologist emphasizes the antagonism of these worlds, one can belong to one of them only if one completely leaves the other.
• the presence of collective beliefs and rituals that generate the excitement of individuals who feel like a single whole, a collective; at the same time, the feelings of the individual are intensified, he feels changed and transforms the environment around him, endows certain symbols with the meaning of the sacred.

Criticism

Durkheim's position has been repeatedly criticized by a number of anthropologists. In particular, his contemporary, Arnold van Gennep , argued that Durkheim disposed and freely interpreted data received from traders and travelers who did not know the language and customs of the peoples in question. E. Evans-Pritchard assessed Durkheim's legacy even more negatively : "Durkheim violated all possible rules of a critical approach to scientific research and all possible rules of logic."

Connection between suicide and religion

Conducting statistical observations on various confessional environments, Durkheim draws attention to the fact that among Protestants the percentage of suicides is much higher than among Catholics and Jews. The scientist comes to the conclusion that religion affects the reduction of the suicide rate by strengthening the ties of believers in the community, develops protective regulations, sanctifies them and makes them mandatory. Precisely because "the Protestant church is not as closely united as the rest, it does not have the same moderating influence on suicide"  .

Apprentices

The ideas of Emile Durkheim had a significant impact on the development of the French sociological school. His students were such prominent scientists as M. Moss , M. Halbwachs , S. Bugle , P. Fauconnet , F. Simian .

The Anthropology of Religion by Lucien Levy-Bruhl

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939) was a French philosopher, anthropologist and ethnologist . Creator of the theory of primitive "prelogical" thinking.

Levy-Bruhl's main works are Primitive Thinking (1922) and Supernatural and Natural in Primitive Thinking (1931). The anthropologist believed that different types of thinking correspond to different socio-historical types of society. Based on this, Levy-Bruhl contrasts the primitive (pre-logical) thinking and the thinking of civilized societies. The choice of the subject of research was influenced by acquaintance with the works of the English anthropologist J. Fraser ("The Golden Bough ") and the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian (" Historical Notes ")  .

Primitive thinking

Levy-Bruhl uses the term "primitiveness" ("primitiveness") to characterize not a stage of development, but a special type of development of society, chronologically parallel to European (modern), but different from it. Lévy-Bruhl notes that "although the institutions and beliefs of these societies are different from ours, the people who live in them are no more primitive than we are"  . Levy-Bruhl finds the main difference between these types of thinking in the role that "collective ideas" play in the consciousness and behavior of primitive man.

Collective submissions

The anthropologist borrows the concept of “collective representations” from E. Durkheim , but gives them a different definition:

“Representations called collective, if defined only in general terms, without deepening the question of their essence, can be recognized by the following features inherent in all members of a given social group: they are transmitted in it from generation to generation, they are imposed in it on individuals, awakening in them, according to the circumstances, feelings of respect, fear, worship, etc., in relation to their objects, they do not depend for their being on a separate person. This is not because representations presuppose a collective subject distinct from the individuals who make up the social group, but because they exhibit features that cannot be comprehended and understood by merely considering the individual as such. So, for example, language, although it exists, in fact, only in the minds of individuals who speak it, - nevertheless, an undoubted social reality based on the totality of collective ideas. Language imposes itself on each of these personalities, it pre-exists and outlives it. .

Levy-Bruhl believed that the originality of primitive thinking determines the nature of the corresponding collective ideas, and the nature of collective ideas, in turn, is due to the diversity of cultures. In the collective manifestations of the activities of representatives of archaic cultures, susceptibility to emotions and affects is more characteristic. And only in their individual activity do the people of such societies obey the logical laws of thought.

The anthropologist emphasizes that the development of the world in the collective ideas of representatives of archaic cultures is entirely focused on subjective-sensory, mystical forms of perception. For "primitive people", according to Levy-Bruhl, the substitution of real ideas about objects with ideas that are mystical in nature is characteristic:

“Despite everything, the distinction between fetish and poison remains very vague in the minds of many natives. What I call poison is for them only another material form of fetishistic power: poison, like a fetish, acts only by virtue of the presence of the spirit in it. This means that, according to the idea of ​​primitive people, a simple fetish kills just as surely as poison, even more correctly: after all, poison kills only due to its mystical power, which it can be deprived of under certain conditions. The idea of ​​the physical properties of poison, so clear to the mind of a European, does not exist for the mind of an African"  .

Levi Bruhl gives the following signs by which collective representations can be recognized:

1. In collective representations, the image of the object, the emotion it causes, and the motor reaction responding to it are merged.

2. Collective representations are of a mystical nature, which manifests itself in the fact that every real object of the surrounding world is endowed with secret properties that connect it with the supernatural world.

3. Collective representations are interconnected according to the law of participation (community).

Law of participation (community)

According to Levy-Bruhl, primitive thinking is insensitive to experience, treats contradictions with indifference and does not seek to avoid them, "indifferent to logical discipline"  . In primitive thinking, the place of the laws of logical thinking is occupied by the law of participation (participation), the essence of which is that an object (human, animal) can be itself and at the same time be different. With this law, the scientist explains the phenomenon of totemism, when a representative of an archaic society feels unity between himself and his totem (animal, object or natural phenomenon). This type of thinking Levy-Bruhl calls "pre-logical": it is mystical, insensitive to experimental knowledge.

Criticism

The concept of Levy-Bruhl has been subjected to various criticisms.

One of the founders of the psychological trend in US cultural anthropology, Franz Boas , one of the founders of the psychological trend in American cultural anthropology, believed that Levy-Bruhl's main mistake was an inadequate interpretation of ethnographic data. At the same time, he pointed out that it is impossible to draw conclusions about the logical abilities of the society in question on the basis of traditional ideas and customs.

The English psychologist F. Bartlett considered Levy-Bruhl's main mistake that the latter compared the type of thinking found in "primitive" societies with the standards of scientific thinking. In addition, Bartlet pointed out that the thinking of a modern European in his daily life often does not correspond to what Levy-Bruhl characterizes as a modern ("logical") type of thinking.

In later works, under the influence of criticism, the scientist somewhat departed from his positions. Levy-Bruhl, realizing the internal inconsistency of his own concept, gradually softened its main thesis about the "primitive", ("pre-logical") nature of thinking. Subsequently, he actually nullifies the opposition of logical and pre-logical thinking  .

The Anthropology of Religion by Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) French ethnologist, sociologist, ethnographer , philosopher and culturologist . He is also the founder of structural anthropology , the main idea of ​​which was that all cultural systems and institutions of traditional societies (rules of marriage, terms of kinship, myths) can be represented as languages, which, in turn, the author considered as unconsciously functioning systems , since he believed that the human mind at the unconscious level functions the same way in different cultural systems.

Levi-Strauss became a follower of Ferdinand de Saussure  , defending the provisions of structural linguistics. He also supported the sociological theory of Émile Durkheim  , according to which society is a system, an association of individuals, dominated by a coercive system of moral factors; each human community is an independent unit, independent of others.

Definition of religion

In the book "Primitive Thinking" the author establishes the relationship between the concepts of "religion" and "magic", calling the first " anthropomorphism of nature", and the second - "human physiomorphism". He deciphers it as follows: "Religion consists in the humanization of natural laws, and magic - in the naturalization of human actions, that is, in the interpretation of certain human actions as an integral part of physical determinism"  . Claude Levi-Strauss emphasizes that religion and magic could not exist separately, since the concept of "supernatural" exists only for humanity, which ascribes supernatural powers to itself and, in return, provides nature with the powers of its superhuman.

Myth Structure Theory

Claude Levi-Strauss considered myth as a function of a new time reference system, which has two dimensions: synchronous and diachronic  - and, therefore, combines the characteristic features of "language" and "speech". His predecessor, Ferdinand de Saussure, also wrote that language is reversible in time, but speech is not  .

Claude Levi-Strauss suggested that the essence of the myth is bundles of relations, and as a result of combinations of these bundles, the constituent units of the myth are formed, acquiring functional significance. Relations included in one bundle may appear, if considered from a diachronic point of view, at a certain distance from each other, but if one succeeds in uniting them in their "natural" combination, one will thereby be able to represent the myth as a function of a new system of time reference, which satisfies the initial assumptions.

The theory of the dialectical relationship between myth and ritual

In his Structural Anthropology, Claude Levi-Strauss comes to the conclusion that there is not always homology or, in other words, a certain correspondence between myth and rite. Investigating the mythology of the Pawnee Indian tribe , he finds that the rites characteristic of them are directly opposite to the content of one of the myths, but among neighboring tribes he finds a number of rites that confirm this myth. In conclusion, the author writes that “it is necessary to compare myth and ritual not only within the same society, but also with the beliefs and religious rites of neighboring societies. <…> Structural dialectics does not at all contradict historical determinism: it appeals to it and creates a new research tool for it”  .

The Anthropology of Religion by Arnold van Gennep

Arnold van Gennep (1873–1957) was a French folklorist and ethnographer. He is also the first French ethnographer who applied the method of ethnographic mapping. Its meaning lies in the depiction on maps as graphic figurative-sign systems of elements of ethnic culture, in their binding to a certain landscape.

Arnold van Gennep was close to the theory of the comparative method of James Frazer  , who was a representative of the English anthropological school. The scientist himself was a representative of the "dynamic" school in France, which opposed itself to the "animistic" school. The dynamic theory was further developed in Germany by K. T. Preis  , in England by L. R. Farnell  , A.S. Haddon  and E.S. Hartland  , in France A. Hubert  and M. Moss .

Definition of religion

According to Arnold van Gennep, religion is a combination of dynamism - the "impersonal theory of man", and animism - the "theory of personification"  , where a personified force can be represented by a single soul or a multitude of souls, animal or plant power in the form of a totem, anthropomorphic or amorphous power in the form of God or deities. The techniques of religion such as ceremonies, rites, rituals and worship are magic.

Classification of rites

Arnold van Gennep first divided all rites into sympathetic and contagious . The first group includes those rituals, which are based on the belief about the impact of like on like, opposite on opposite, words on action. Example: the bride and groom are thrown with coins and grain, thus attracting prosperity to the new family. The second group includes those rituals based on ideas about the ability of the material environment to transmit natural or acquired properties either through direct contact or at a distance. Example: Until now, women in labor in maternity hospitals may be advised to remove all hairpins and undo their hair so that the baby comes out more easily.

Arnold van Gennep also divided the rites into two groups according to the way they act. The first group includes direct ritesperformed without an intermediary and involving an immediate result (curse, corruption, etc.). The second group includes indirect rites , the result of which is the activation of an autonomous or personified force (demon or deity).

Then all the rites were divided into positive and negative . He considered positive or permissive rites to be a manifestation of the will expressed in action, while he simply called negative or forbidding rites taboo. He also divides all rites into dynamic and animistic . He does not give a clear definition to them, however, he deciphers that dynamic rituals are impersonal, and animistic rituals are  personal, representing the personification of an object, prescribing to it the property of a living being.

Having created such a classification, Arnold van Gennep comes to the conclusion that any rite can be simultaneously classified into four categories, and therefore there are 16 classification options for it, four mutually exclusive groups with opposite meanings: animistic / dynamic rites; rites sympathetic/contagious; ceremonies positive/negative; rites direct/indirect. For example, for a pregnant woman, observing the ban on eating mulberries so that this does not affect the child means performing a dynamic contagious direct negative ritual.

With another classification, Arnold van Gennep distinguishes three stages of the rites of passage for any ceremony: preliminary or rites of separation from the former world (funeral ceremonies); liminary or intermediate rites (engagement is an intermediate period between adolescence and marriage); postliminary or rites of inclusion in the new world (wedding ceremonies).

Anthropology of Religion by René Girard

French-American anthropologist, philosopher, culturologist and literary critic René Girard (1923-2015) is the creator of the "mimetic (other Greek μίμησις - imitation) theory" linking religion and violence. The central theme of his works - "Violence and the Sacred" (1972), "Scapegoat" (1982), "I See Satan Falling Like Lightning" (1999) - is the process of institutionalization of ritual sacrifice and its reflection in archaic myths and biblical history . René Girard's main contribution to the modern anthropology of religion is the construction of a theory of the origin of sacrifice, according to which it is established as a result of a "mimetic crisis" to prevent the occurrence of subsequent crises. The study of the problem of the origin of religion, the French philosopher begins with a consideration of desire. A person, according to Girard, does not have his own desires, so he imitates the aspirations of another person: “... a person intensely desires - but he himself does not know exactly what, since he desires being - being, which, as it seems to him, he himself is deprived of and which he thinks someone else has. The subject waits for this other to tell him what to desire in order to have this being. If the model, already, as it seems, endowed with a supreme being, still desires something, then . This other appears as a "model carrier" who, by his desire, points the subject to the desired object, but seeing the confirmation of the value of the latter, prevents attempts to take it away .

The stubbornness of both parties intensifies the conflict and turns it into a struggle of mimetic rivals for the possession of the object of desire, which, with fierce resistance, turns desire into irritation, and itself transforms from a struggle for an object into a struggle with a competitor.  In the course of the conflict, the rivals become similar to each other in their dislike, ceasing into hatred, which gives ground for the replacement of the subject to whom it will be directed.  The growing mimetic conflict is realized in the violence of all-against-all and leads to a mimetic crisis that threatens the existence of society, so it becomes necessary to find its cause. The crowd is the victim, unjustly accused of the crimes that, in the opinion of the crowd, led to the crisis. Increases people's hatred and strengthens their belief in the accusations and the fact that the victim is different from the usual representative of this society.

The performed sacrifice reconciles society thanks to the catharsis that completes the crisis, and the already pacified crowd, seeing the reason for the subsidence of the mimetic conflict in the death of the victim, makes the latter responsible for the peace achieved through its deification.  However, due to this feature of human nature, the mimetic cycle had to be repeated again, so the community created a system of prohibitions to limit rivalry and established the institution of ritual sacrifice to prevent mimetic crises.

Anthropology of religion in the US

The emergence of the American anthropology of religion is usually attributed to the end of the 19th century in the context of the scientific and educational activities of the “historical school” of Franz Boas . The anthropology of religion in the United States initially did not act independently, but as a criticism of evolutionism within the framework of the European tradition (mainly the works of L. G. Morgan , E. B. Tylor, E. Durkheim , and others). The prerequisites for the flourishing of American anthropological thought were the connection with the European intellectual environment (due to the origin, the initial education of anthropologists), as well as the presence of numerous Indian tribes in North America, which eliminated the need for long trips and contributed to local field research.

The main methodological principles of the historical school of anthropology included a careful description of every aspect of the culture of a particular tribe and distrust of broad theoretical generalizations. The characteristic features of research activity include empiricism , attention to psychology, and the study of individual religious experience. American anthropologists considered religion in the context of everyday life, noted the creative nature of its development. They also saw the origins of customs in the unconscious .and in this context, they paid close attention to the family and marriage, since the attitude to religion and the development of certain mental traits are realized primarily in a closed information space - the family. In the process of analyzing aspects of primitive religion, anthropologists were interested in raising the question of the minimum of religion and the formation of new definitions of religion, and not of its origin.

Thus, American scientists clearly separated the subject of their research from theology , followed the principles of objectivity and causality , and used the comparative method.

The Anthropology of Religion by Franz Boas

Based on the fact that not peoples, but cultures served as the object of study, in the USA what was commonly called ethnology in Europe was designated as cultural anthropology , which also includes the anthropology of religion. Franz Boas (1858-1942) was a fundamental critic of the evolutionary approach and a supporter of a special variant of diffusionism in specific regions, closely related to historicism - "diffusionism of cultural areas"  . Boas laid the foundation for the direction of cultural relativism, which excluded a sharp boundary between primitive religions and more complex ones. In this context, the scientist also considered the problem of thinking: Boas did not recognize the differences between the thinking of primitive and "civilized" people  . Also, due to the close interaction of esoteric and exoteric teachings in society , he called for the simultaneous study of the beliefs of ordinary people and representatives of secret societies  .

The anthropologist devoted his entire life to studying the religious ideas of the Kwakiutl Indians  . In the question of the essence of religion, Boas simultaneously relied on the "intellectualist" and "emotionalist" approaches of E. Tylor and R. Marett, respectively. While Boas did not make a "clear distinction between rationalist and religious forms of activity," his definition of religion is as follows: "We may define religion as that group of concepts and actions which spring from the relation of the individual to the external world insofar as these relations are not are considered in terms of physical forces, the action of which is attributed to purely rationalistic considerations ... Those concepts that arise from the relationship of the individual to the external world and whose form depends on imagination and emotion, one can say, form the principles of religion ”  .

Boas' disciples took this approach to religion: as the attitude of the individual to the outside world, formed by imagination and emotion.

Anthropology of Religion by Alexander Goldenweiser

A direct follower and student of Boas , Alexander Goldenweiser (1880-1940), made a great contribution to the anthropology of religion through his study of totemism  . He gave three arguments against E. Durkheim's concept of religion: ethnological, sociological and psychological . The first argument was as follows: the French researcher summed up his theory only under totemic or ceremonial societies, without saying where the religion of other tribes originated from. By the second argument, Goldenweiser criticized Durkheim for the fact that, paying attention to the situation in which the psychology of the masses operates, he did not notice that this situation can strengthen or transform the already existing religious awe, but not create it. The third argument was that the French anthropologist ignored individual religious experience and its spiritual contribution to the formation of the religious life of the whole society.

A distinctive property of religion, Goldenweiser, following R. R. Marett, expressed the term "supernaturalism" (from the English "supernatural" - supernatural), denoting the universal feeling of man in relation to unusual phenomena, which preceded animism or belief in mana . Thus, the American anthropologist did not clearly separate magic and religion, considering them to be different poles of one "religious relationship" . In his opinion, primitive religion combined the features of animism and pre-animism: the primary religion was religious emotion, causing "religious awe", which initially had an impersonal character, but then acquired the character of faith in personal beings (spirits, gods). Mana, according to Goldenweiser, was a direct objectification of religious emotion, an impetus for the creation of "religious awe"  .

As examples of individual religious experience, the anthropologist cites descriptions of similar experiences of shamans among the Chukchi, descriptions of visions and dreams associated with the dance of the sun among North American Indians  . Only through the experience of "religious awe" and the exercise of the will in the representation of magical operations is the actual participation of the individual in the "world of the supernatural" possible.

An Anthropology of Religion by Robert Lowy

Robert Harry Loewy (1883–1957) was an American ethnographer and anthropologist who wrote summaries of primitive religion. In his work "Primitive Religion" he writes that "the primacy of the emotional side of consciousness in religion is recognized everywhere"  . He divides the realms of human experience into the everyday world and "the feeling of something beyond what is expected or natural"  . This feeling is often associated with animism, that is, the belief in the existence of spirits or spiritual beings.

The definition of religion, which R. Lowy comes to in his study, is as follows: “religion is a truly universal feature of human culture, but not because all societies have faith in spirits, but because everyone distinguishes in one form or another inspiring reverence, extraordinary manifestations of reality”  . Thus, in this formulation, the emotional side is recognized as more significant.

The religious experience of primitive people was considered using the method of "individual differences". An entire chapter is dedicated to this method in Primitive Religion. F. Boas positively assessed this chapter, because the problem of "individual differences" was one of the most important problems in the American anthropology of religion. R. Lowy says that the individual "is not completely absorbed by his social environment - he reacts to it as an individual, that is, differently from any other member of the group"  . To identify individual characteristics, it is necessary to compare the behavior of those who have similar cultural norms, writes R. Lowy.

In the same work, he considers sensory types . He distinguishes five types: visual, motor, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile. For example, among the Crow Indians , studied by Lowy, visions during fasting are visual. So in primitive society, Lowy emphasized the close connection of religion with other areas of human life.

Anthropology of Religion by Paul Radin

Paul Radin (1883–1959), American anthropologist, student of Boas. The main method used by P. Radin in his work is the “autobiography” method, which consists in recording the stories of the natives about their lives. The anthropologist believes that the personal memories of the natives and their emotions can provide more information and benefit in their study than the work of ethnologists.

Also, when studying the religious ideas of people, it is necessary to build general typologies. P. Radin in his work "Primitive Religion" distinguishes three types of people according to the degree of their religiosity: "truly religious", "occasionally religious" and "indifferently religious" . By its nature, this typology can be classified as sociological. In the book "The World of Primitive Man" P. Radin presents a new typology based on the temperaments of people: "active man" and "thinker", "religious" and "non-religious". Thus, the “effective man” is focused on achieving practical results, not paying attention to his own “I”. The "thinker" also desires practical results, but at the same time can analyze his own states. The typology of P. Radin is based on real facts and observations, which makes it one of the most thorough. The identification of typologies in research has the potential for a deeper and more comprehensive study of primitive religion.

Also an important concept in the studies of P. Radin is "religious temperament". There are two types that belong to thinkers. In the first type, coercion plays a significant role, here feelings are as important as thinking. The second type is more religious than the first. For him, "divine" is primary. Such a typological consideration of a religious person is due to the attention of anthropologists to the concept of "religious formular". This is a person psychologically predisposed to religiosity, who owns authority and power in the primitive community. P. Radin cites shamans , priests and healers as an example . This type of person plays an important role in the development of primitive religion, as he brings his religious ideas to the tribal religion.

P. Radin is also interested in the problem of primitive monotheism . He argued that if belief in a single god existed among several tribes, then it was the concept of a "religious formulator". The anthropologist separated magic and religion and believed that magic has always been associated with religion. Certain features of the transition from magic to religion are distinguished, in which God was considered as a being independent of man.

The main merit of Radin is that he gave his definition of religion, singled out the psychological types of primitive people, studied their behavior and attitude towards religion in general.

An Anthropology of Religion by Ruth Benedict

Ruth Felton Benedict (1887-1948) - American anthropologist, representative of the school of psychological anthropology, student of F. Boas .In his main work "Models of Culture" R. Benedict speaks about the problem of the integrity of each culture. She defends the position of cultural relativism. In her opinion, culture cannot be understood if it is considered in isolation from the whole. According to R. Benedict, it is necessary to unite all its autochthonous and borrowed features by one principle. R. Benedict's approach differed from the approach of the British school in that it described cultural types from the point of view of psychology and the human psyche. While the representatives of the British school believed that the human psyche can only be understood through the study of society. In addition, R. Benedict was the first anthropologist who turned to the psychology of the unconscious and the concept of "supernatural" in her research. With this term, she means "extra-dimension, .

R. Benedict also studied primitive religions. One of her first studies in this area was the analysis of visions during fasting among the Plains Indians. She argues that this religious practice is used almost throughout the continent, but among the Plains Indians it has its own distinctive features. The search for visions in them occurs in adulthood, the practice of inflicting pain, belief in "spirit-amulets" is common. As a result, R. Benedict comes to the conclusion that the religion of the Indians is very heterogeneous and "does not accept classification"  .

An Anthropology of Religion by Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) - American anthropologist, representative of the ethnopsychological school. M. Mead was interested in the socialization of children, in which she saw the key to understanding cultural "personality variations".

Her most famous work is Growing Up in Samoa (1928). In this study, Margaret Mead highlights the many differences between the culture and life of the people of Samoa and America. As a result, Mead concludes that "regardless of whether we approve or disapprove of the solutions to human problems offered by other peoples, our attitude towards our own solutions should be greatly enriched and deepened by comparing them with the same solutions of others"  .

In subsequent field work on the New Guinea mainland, she demonstrated that gender roles differ across societies, depending not only on culture but also on biology. For example, in Balinese culture there is no moment of climax in social relations, there is no real intimacy between mother and child. In Growing Up in New Guinea (1930), Mead compared four Melanesian societies that differed in terms of gender relations. They represent different models of culture. Mead believes that in a traditional society there is no conflict of generations and difficulties in the socialization of adolescents.

Mead writes that "isolated primitive civilizations" differ from modern civilizations in that they lack the possibility of religious choice. American teenagers can choose any religion. In a primitive society, this is impossible, because it is not subject to alien influences.

“There is one set of gods, one obligatory ritual, and if a person does not believe, then the only possibility of disbelief open to him is to believe less than his fellows. He may sneer at their faith, but he has no other faith at his disposal to which he can  .

Mead cites the example of the inhabitants of the island of Manua, where this practice is customary. Here all the inhabitants are Christians of the same sect. Religious conflicts practically do not arise among them, even with the existing differences between members and non-members of the church.

The Anthropology of Religion by Clifford Geertz

Clifford Geertz 's (1926-2006) 'interpretative' doctrine developed differently from the classical period of the American anthropology of religion  . His understanding of religion as a cultural system determined its task in demonstrating the connection between "ethos" (ethical, aesthetic, axiological aspects of culture) and "picture of the world" (epistemological, ontological and cosmogonic aspects)  . Based on this, religion is understood by Geertz as “a system of symbols that contributes to the emergence of strong, all-encompassing and stable moods and motivations in people, forming ideas about the general order of being and giving these ideas a halo of reality in such a way that these moods and motivations seem to be the only real” . Symbols can be any objects, actions, phenomena, properties.

According to Geertz, the anthropological study of religion is divided into two stages: the analysis of the system of meanings embodied in symbols that constitute religion as such, and the correlation of this system with socio-structural and psychological processes. Religious belief is based on the initial recognition of some kind of authority, which is contained in the traditional system of images and transforms everyday experience.

Geertz called the forms of perception of life and construction of the world "perspectives"  . The anthropologist distinguished a religious perspective from a scientific, aesthetic, and common sense perspective. The sense of "true reality" towards which religion aspires guarantees a set of sacred symbols ( the cross , the crescent , etc.) that constitute the religious system and protect it from the factors of worldly experience. Such a vision of the world leads to ritual , because it is in the sacralized action that “ethos” and “picture of the world” merge and the conviction arises that religious concepts reflect reality and religious prescriptions are reasonable.

Thus, people's religious beliefs serve as "a model for what people believe" and "a model for belief itself"  . Signs and symbols are filled with specific content based on the meaning they have for people in the surrounding life. This manifested Geertz's emic approach in the anthropology of religion.

Anthropology of religion in Germany

Magnus Hundt (1449-1519) publishes a book that first mentions the term that later evolved into a scientific discipline. "Anthropology on the dignity, nature and properties of man and on the elements, parts and members of the human body" (Latin "Antropologium de hominis dignitate, natura et proprietatibus, de elementis, partibus et membris humani corporis"), published in Leipzig in 1501 explains the body not only in terms of anatomy and physiology, but also in terms of philosophy and religion. Man, according to Hundt, was created in the image of God and is a microcosm . Based on the fact that a person is a microcosm, he creates a connection between the planets and hills in the palm of his hand, describes its main lines, gives interpretations to the phalanges of the fingers in accordance withmacrocosm , the universe. This approach of Hundt to anthropology shows a special feature of anthropology - its interdisciplinarity. Although anthropology became different over time from the way Hundt described it, it is his book that contains the first mention of the term "anthropology".

Two centuries pass and the anthropology of religion develops. In Germany, it develops from a philosophical understanding of religion. The formation of a secular philosophy of religion began in the 18th century. A significant number of German philosophers such as Kant , Schelling , Hegel , Feuerbach explicate the philosophy of religion as a subject area. Their works, in the absence of extensive and accessible empirical material, are the first attempt to reconstruct the picture of the spread of religion and the evolution of its early forms. Understanding the development of world religions, correlating theoretical constructions with the latest archaeological data provided ground for discussion among philosophers. For example, Hegelsaw witchcraft at the beginning of the development of religion , which leads to the emergence of the cult of animals and fetishism . For anthropologists at that time, it was important to determine the place of archaic beliefs in the activities of the individual, the ratio of the religious and the non-religious. In the 19th century, ethnology appeared in Germany. By the 20th century, the interaction of the philosophy of religion and ethnology developed into the anthropology of religion, not as a collection of individual studies, but as a discipline. In Germany, the anthropology of religion (die Religionsanthropologie) is identical with the ethnology of religion (die Religionsethnologie). The history of the development of the German anthropology of religion in modern studies is poorly represented, therefore, the works of K. I. Nikonov are of great importance today ., who dealt with this issue in domestic religious studies. His work formed the basis of critical philosophical anthropology as a methodology for religious studies.

German ethnology attempted to explain cultural differences through two approaches: evolutionism and diffusionism . The first approach was represented by Adolf Bastian (1826-1905), but later dominated by diffusionism, dating back to Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). His follower was Leo Frobenius (1873-1938), the author of the theory of "cultural morphology" and "cultural circles". It was further developed by Wilhelm Schmidt (1868-1954).

The Anthropology of Religion by Wilhelm Schmidt

Wilhelm Schmidt ( German Wilhelm Schmidt ; February 16, 1868 , Hörde , now part of Dortmund) - February 10, 1954 , Freiburg ) - German ethnographer , anthropologist , sociologist , linguist , historian . Catholic priest , missionary of the Society of the Word of God ( Latin: Societas Verbi Divini, SVD ).

His research, in particular the study of pra -monotheism , unlike its predecessors, gained importance throughout the scientific world. Missionary questions prompted Schmidt to turn, in addition to linguistics and ethnology , to comparative religion. As M. Eliade noted , Schmidt challenged precisely “the non-historical approaches of Tylor , Frazer , and Durkheim, and a host of other anthropologists." Schmidt's 12 volumes are the work "The Origin of the Idea of ​​God", volumes devoted to the religions of "primitive peoples", the religious beliefs of nomadic peoples. Based on the data of anthropological studies, Schmidt argued that the most primitive peoples are those who lack agriculture and cattle breeding. Among such peoples, he ranked the Pygmies of Africa , the natives of Australia , the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and the inhabitants of the Far North  - the Eskimos .. Despite the fact that the researchers were not able to fix the presence of any animistic, totemistic or fetishistic beliefs among these tribes, belief in a single god turns out to be inherent in these small peoples, which confirms the presence in their development of a pra-monotheistic stage, which was later overcome by other peoples. From the point of view of the theory of "cultural circles", later cultures, layered on this original culture, brought with them elements of baser and coarser ideas that obscured the original morally pure image of God. These were totemism , as well as solar and lunar mythology.

Anthropology of Religion by Ellegarde Jensen

Adolf Ellegard Jensen (1899-1965), one of the most prominent post-war ethnologists, belongs to the Frobenius school . At the center of his theoretical work is a sequence of "deep experience", "expression" and "application", which he tries to explore in the religious experiences of indigenous peoples. He criticized evolutionism and other theories of ethnology. He coined the term "Dema-Gottenheit" (from the language of the Papuan people Marind-Anim in Indonesia), meaning a supernatural being, the killing of which gives rise to initiation rituals, thanks to which the existence of people receives some higher meaning. It is also noteworthy that such a murder is not considered a crime, otherwise it would not be periodically reproduced in rituals.

The Anthropology of Religion by Max Scheler

Among the anthropological projects after World War I stands out the project of Max Scheler (1874-1928) on the problem of "the special position of man." This is the position of a spiritual being that transcends the world. The spiritual being distances itself from the biological being, because it is capable of suppressing instincts. These judgments formed the basis of a new approach to the study of human relations with the outside world. Of particular interest are the early works of the philosopher: "On the Phenomenology and Theory of Sympathy and on Love and Hate" and "Formalism in Ethics and the Material Ethics of Values" (1912-1914), devoted to the phenomenology of acts of religious consciousness.

The Anthropology of Religion by Helmut Plesner

Helmut Plesner (1892-1985) saw the foundation of the anthropology of religion not only in the religiosity of man, but also in human nature in general. The task of the anthropology of religion as a modern religious and philosophical paradigm, according to Plesner, is to establish relations with the historical sciences for philosophical and integrative theorizing related to the phenomenology of man. In the course of Plesner 's phenomenological reasoning , the theory of eccentricity was born, which in the anthropology of religion must be theorized. Eccentricity is related to human behavior and is a concept of attitude in a broad sense. Eccentricity means for a person a constant fluctuation between the need to find the missing balance and a new desire to eliminate the balance already achieved in culture and in social life.

Anthropology of Religion by Arnold Gehlen

Arnold Gehlen (1904-1976) sees in Scheler 's studies a dualism not between body and soul, but between soul and animate body. In his research, he retains Scheler 's starting points  - comparisons of man with animals and the doctrine of openness to the world. Gehlen considers religion to be one of the leading social institutions. By virtue of "thinking and interpreting interpretation" [1] , a person "comprehends the world given to him as part of the non-given". “In this way, he “breaks through” the perceived world and “interpolates” what is not perceived everywhere, be it demons, Democritus’ atoms, gods, or something else.”

Since the second half of the XX century. cultural anthropology was developed by the German philosophers Michael Landmann (1913-1984) and Erich Rothaker (1888-1965). Its problems and methods are present in the philosophy of culture, religious studies, and theology. It is worth mentioning Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann (1904-1988), the leading theorist of post-war German ethnology, who was not in the fullest sense an anthropologist of religion, but the results of his research form the basis of modern research.

Anthropology of religion in Russia

A contribution to the domestic anthropology of religion was made by such researchers as N. N. Miklukho-Maclay , S. M. Shirokogorov , V. G. Bogoraz , Nesmelov Viktor Ivanovich , Tokarev Sergey Aleksandrovich .

Anthropology of Religion by VI Nesmelov

Viktor Ivanovich Nesmelov ( January 1 [13], 1863  - June 30, 1937 ) - Russian philosopher and theologian , professor at the Kazan Theological Academy, student of V. A. Snegirev  Author of works on philosophical anthropology, which opened a new direction in religious philosophy and theology.

Nesmelov, in his work "The Science of Man" [2] rethinks the terms "personality", "I", "self-consciousness". The term “personality” is used, on the one hand, in relation to the one God, on the other hand, in relation to a person as the image and likeness of this person. But in acts of self-consciousness, the closest image of this personality is the free, self-existing "I", and Nesmelov does not hesitate to identify it with the personality. The antithetical nature of acts of self-consciousness is manifested in the fact that a person is simultaneously aware of himself both as a free self-existing personality and as a perishable, material, dependent thing of the external world. In these acts, "I" and "matter" are opposed and at the same time inseparable.

Entering into arguments about the dogma of the resurrection, he removes the question of the identity of the resurrected body and the deceased, arguing that "the identity of a person is created exclusively by the unity of his personality" (II. p. 309) [3] . which is provided by self-awareness. Nesmelov directly says that the human personality is “supersensible” by its nature (I. S. 519) [4] , that is, sensual qualities, sensual certainty are ultimately external to it. It "only necessarily assimilates the physical organism as a constant resolution of the constant contradiction in its own activity" (I. 371.) [5]

Anthropology of religion S. A. Tokarev

Main article: Sergey Alexandrovich Tokarev

Among domestic anthropologists of religion, a significant figure is the Soviet ethnographer and religious scholar Sergei Alexandrovich Tokarev (1899-1985) , who developed the concept of the morphological classification of religion and applied the historical-ethnographic method to the study of religion. In his works, he relied on extensive ethnographic material, which he later systematized in his work "Early Forms of Religion" (1964).

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