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| How do anthropologists define religion? Ans: For anthropologists, religion is a cultural universal, and it encompasses beliefs and behavior concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces. What functions does religion serve? Ans: Anthropologists have long studied religion, and have realized that religion can serve many functions in society. First, it can provide comfort and psychological security. It accomplishes this by providing explanations for events that may be out of people's control; sometimes religion offers to exert control over these forces or events. Second, religion can also increase anxiety by forcing people to participate in rituals that are formal, invariant, and earnest acts. However, by forcing many people to participate in these events together, sometimes during a rite of passage, these rituals can promote a shared sense of community and fellowship. Third, religion can establish and maintain social control through a series of moral and ethical beliefs along with real and imagined rewards and punishments. Finally, religion can have ecological functions by cementing adaptive environmental practices into group beliefs. What do accusations of witchcraft accomplish? Ans: Accusations of witchcraft are sometimes examples of leveling mechanisms, which are customs or social actions that operate to reduce differences in wealth and thus to bring standouts in line with community norms. Witchcraft accusations are especially prominent in tribal or peasant communities, and are used against people who stand out economically, especially if they appear to be benefiting at the expense of others. How are multiple genders and religion associated? Ans: Shamans and other religious specialists often set themselves off symbolically from other people by assuming a different or ambiguous sex or gender role. Transvestism or the rejection of traditional sex roles is one way to achieve this differentiation. Among many tribes of North America, men who reject the male role of hunter, raider, or warrior play special ritual roles. |