MMW 11 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Tuff, Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts
30 Oct 2016
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Lecture - ancient egyptian spells, halloween, & vernacular religion: What"s religion: difficult to find a definition that resonates well with different kinds of groups, most people"s defi(cid:374)itio(cid:374): belief in the supernatural beings or forces and all activities associated with such belief. Definition also brings into consideration practices like magic, sorcery, taboo, spirit possession, and magic -> people tend to call this superstition -> more useful term is vernacular religion. Includes all of this superstition -> suggests we have to include this in our definition of vernacular religion. Reducing anxiety: religion is good at manipulating human anxiety and suffering, practices considered superstition have social and psychological functions. Religion makes the world meaningful: religion also involves suffering -> issues get addressed in religious ways. Tuff that we do(cid:374)"t wa(cid:374)t to i(cid:374)(cid:272)lude i(cid:374) our defi(cid:374)itio(cid:374) of religio(cid:374) Explaining disaster: religion explains various natural forces ie. floods.
