ANTH 209 Lecture Notes - Theism, Fetishism, Ethnography
5 Jun 2012
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Analyzing what"s happening in front of you e. g. prayers, chants, rituals. If these things aren"t there, then it"s not a religion. Trying to find the universal features in religions and to define religions by that. Religious experience: religion on the ground, in the populace, and the tensions felt there. Attempts to overcome the prejudicial, western-biased understanding of religion. Stages of material advancement corresponded with those of a spiritual nature. Every society has a belief in a spiritual being. Sb: affect the material world and the life of humans. Easy to venerate them and prohibitions are created easily. Man could have evolved from non-religious past (least advanced stage) Stages: atheism, fetishism, totemism, shamanism, idolatry, theism. Belief that the shaman can be possessed by ghosts/souls. The belief in one deity or supreme being. Social and economical spheres of human activity are strongly linked. No culture can be judged through the values of another.
