RLG100Y1 Lecture Notes - Axis Mundi, James George Frazer, Secularism
Document Summary
Animism, axis mundi, both forms of dualism, fetish, and mana. Classic terms to describe indigenous traditions: tribal, oral, native, primitive. The problems with these term is that, let"s see if it is oral then it illiterate. Primitive implies some sort of lack of sophistication, it is tied into the idea that human culture goes through evolutionary development. Christian scientifically oriented. (james frazer says humans going from magic to religion to science to describe things) Intellectuals suggest that culture and human beings have evolved. Primitive cultures are earlier in evolution and the scientific ones are at the complete end (the last stage in evolution) Secularism will become widespread; religion will be out of the equation. Indigenous traditions: if they are transplanted, they are transplanted forcefully. Tightly bound to some region: durkheim (sociologist) people have tendency to join together in communities, resulting in rituals, and rules, no missionary component to indigenous. But three religions with missionary goals are: christianity, islam, and buddhism.
