Religion is belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces. Super natural beings are gods and goddesses, ghosts, and souls.

1. Religion
Sociology of Religion
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2. What is Religion?
F. C. Wallace
 Religion - is belief and ritual concerned with
supernatural beings, powers, and forces
 Super natural beings are gods and goddesses,
ghosts, and souls.
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3.  Other sacred forces are impersonal.
 In many societies, people believe they can benefit
from or manipulate supernatural forces.
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4. William L. Reese
 Religion is defined as bodies of people who
gather together regularly for worship.
 They accept a set of doctrines involving the
relationship between the individual and
divinity, the supernatural, or whatever is
taken to be the ultimate nature of reality.
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5. Emile Durkheim
 Durkheim argued that the religion was not
divinely or supernaturally inspired, but was
a product of society.
 Durkheim saw religion as a critical part of
the social system. Religion acted as a
source of solidarity and identification for
the individuals within a society.
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6. Victor Turner
Religion comes from the word
“communitas”, an intense community spirit, a
feeling of great social solidarity, equality, and
togetherness.
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7.  He said, religion provided a meaning for life,
it provided authority figures, and most
importantly, it reinforced the morals and
social norms held collectively by all within a
society.
 Religion provides social control, cohesion,
and purpose for people.
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8. Peter Berger
 argued that religion is a human
construction, a social universe of
meaning projecting a sacred cosmos.
 Religion is constructed to be a canopy of
sacred objects and meanings.
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9.  The sacred canopy is maintained by the
social order, and in turn makes the
objective social order subjectively
legitimated to every individual.
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10. Origins of Religion
 Evolution of Religion by E. B. Taylor
(1871-1958)
 Religion originated to explain things people did
not understand
 Animism  Polytheism  Monotheism
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11. Animism:
Animism is a belief in spiritual beings; soul and
body
 Mana
 Melanesians’ belief. Mana is a sacred
impersonal force existing in the universe
 Mana can reside in people, animals,
plants and objects.
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12.  Taboo
Taboo – contacting the highest
chiefs’ mana can be dangerous to
the commoners.
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13. Kinds of Religion
 Religions are parts of particular cultures,
and cultural differences show up
systematically in religious beliefs and
practices.
 4 types of religion by Anthony Wallace
 Shamanic religions (Animism)
 Communal religions (Polytheism)
 Olympian religions (Polytheism)
 Monotheistic religions (Monotheism)
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14. Shamanistic Religion
 Shaman is a part time
religious practitioner
 Shaman mediates between
people and supernatural
beings and forces
 Shamans also often
practice medicine
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15.  Shamans often set themselves off
symbolically from ordinary people by
ambiguous sex or gender role.
 All societies have shamanic religion but it is
most characteristic of foraging societies
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16. Shamanistic Religion
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17. Communal Religion
 In addition to Shamans, communal religion has
community rituals such as harvest ceremonies
and rites of passage.
 They usually do not have full time religious
specialists.
 They believe in several deities (polytheism)
 Communal religions are more typical of farming
societies
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18. Olympian Religion
 The term Olympian comes from mount
Olympus, home of the classical Greek
gods thus Olympian religions are
polytheistic, gods with specialized
functions (gods of love, war the sea and
death…)
 Olympian religions arose with state
organization and marked social
stratification
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19.  Olympian religions have full time religious
specialists, like priests
 Like the state itself, the priesthood is
hierarchically and bureaucratically organized
 Olympian religions were characteristics of many
non-industrialized nation-state such as Aztecs of
Mexico, and classical Greece and Rome.
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20. Monotheistic Religion
 They have full time religious specialists
 In Monotheistic religions, all supernatural
phenomena are manifestations of a single
eternal, omniscient, omnipotent and
omnipresent supreme being.
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21. World Religion
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22. World Religion
 World religions according to their degree of internal unity and diversity
 The unified religions mean that they have doctorial similarity amongst the sub
groups, they have less diversity in ritual practice and organization. The diverse
religions are the opposite
Most Unified Most diverse
Baha’i
Zoroastrianism
Sikhism
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Taoism
Christianity
Buddhism
Hinduism
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23. Function of Religion
 Religion provides meanings and
explanation
 Religion helps to cope with uncertainty,
stress and anxiety
 Religion establish solidarity amongst the
members
 Religion enforces social control
 Religion helps to cope with social changes
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24. Meanings and Explanation
 Beliefs in souls – explains dream, trance and
death
 Beliefs in supernatural force – explains
differential success that people cannot
understand in ordinary, natural terms
 People fail at hunting war because success
comes (or does not come) from the supernatural
world.
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25. Uncertainty, Stress and Anxiety
 Religion helps people to cope with
uncertainty, anxiety, and stress.
 Religion helps people face death and endure
life crisis.
 Religion helps people get through significant
life events such as birth, puberty, marriage
and death.
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26. Magic
 People face uncertainty and danger, they
turn to magic
 Magic refers to supernatural techniques
intended to accomplish specific goals. The
techniques including spells, formulas, and
incantations used with deities or with
impersonal forces
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27.  Malinowski who studied Trobriand
Islanders found that they use magic when
they were sailing, because they cannot
control matters such as wind, weather,
and the fish supply.
 Despite our improving technical skills, we
cannot still control every out come, and
magic persists in contemporary societies.
 Practicing of magic is widely observed,
and can be associated with animism,
mana, polytheism or monotheism.
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28. 28

29. Rites of Passage
 Rites of passage mark any change in place,
condition, social position or age:
 From boyhood to manhood
 From nonmember to member
 From single to married
 From employed to retired
 , retirement part, graduation …etc.
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30.  Rites of passage includes variety of rituals
and activities such as, circumcision,
confirmations, wedding, baptisms,
fraternity initiation
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31. Rites of passage have three phase:
Separation  Liminality  Incorporation
 Separation
 People withdraw from the group and begin
moving from one place or status to another
 Incorporation:
 People return to the society/ group to complete
the rite
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32. Rites of Passage
 Liminality (rites)
 Liminal people occupy ambiguous social
positions
 They are cut off from normal social contacts
 People experiencing liminality together form
a community of equal.
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33.  Social distinctions that have existed before
or will exist afterward are temporarily
forgotten.
 Liminal people experience the same
treatment and conditions and must act
alike
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34. Solidarity
Religion serves the social function of creating solidarity among
people
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35. Solidarity
Totemism
 Totem can be animals, plants or
geographic features
 Members of each totemic group believe
themselves to be descendants of their
totem.
 Killing or eating one’s own totemic
animal is taboo.
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36.  Totemic taboo was lifted once a year when
people assembled for ceremonies
dedicated to the totem, and the annual
rites were believed to be necessary for the
totem’s survival and reproduction.
 Totems are sacred emblems symbolizing
common identity and to maintain the
solidarity of the members.
 In totemic rites people gather together to
honor their totem and by doing so, they
maintain the social oneness.
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37. Social Control
Code of Ethics
 Religions especially the formal organized
ones prescribe a code of ethnics and
morality to guide behavior
 Judaic Ten Commandants
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38.  Moral codes are ways of maintaining order
and stability
 Codes of morality and ethics are repeated
constantly in religious sermons, catechisms, and
the like, they become internalized
psychologically.
 They guide behavior and produce regret, guilt,
shame, and the need for forgiveness, expiation,
and absolution when they are not followed.
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39. Witchcraft
 The witchcraft accusations often are
directed at socially marginal or anomalous
individuals.
 Marriage, and post marital living arrangement
 Going out late
 Economically one benefited expensive of others
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40.  Witchcraft accusation becomes a leveling
mechanism, a custom or social action that
operates to reduce differences in wealth
and other aspects of life – a kind of social
control.
 Religions offer rewards to ensure people’s
proper behavior, such as fellowship of the
religious community and punishments, such
as the threat of being cast out or
excommunicated.
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41. Social Control
 Throughout history, political leaders have
used religion to promote and justify their
views and policies.
 Secular leaders use religion to justify
social control. Seeking power, they use
religious rhetoric to get it.
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42. The case of Taliban
 By 1996 the Taliban movement had firmly
imposed an extreme form of social control in
the name of religion of Afghanistan and its
people
 The Taliban attempted to create their version of
an Islamic society.
 Various repressive measures were instituted:
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43.  Taliban barred women from work and girls from
school
 Females past puberty were prohibited from
talking to unrelated men.
 Taliban banned playing cards, listening to music,
keeping pigeons, flying kites.
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44. Reward
 Religions also maintain the social order by
stressing the temporary and fleeting nature of this
life
 Rewards in an afterlife, reincarnation…etc.
 Such beliefs serve to reinforce the status quo,
people accept what they have now, knowing they
can expect something better in the afterlife or the
next life if they follow religious guidelines.
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45. Religion and Social Changes
 Like political organization religion helps
maintain social order
 Like political mobilization, religious energy
can be harnessed not just for change but also
for revolution
 Reacting to conquest or to actual or
perceived foreign domination, religious
leaders may seek to alter or revitalize their
society
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46. Revitalization movements
 Revitalization movements are social movements
that occur in times of change in which religious
leaders emerge and undertake to alter or revitalize a
society
 Christianity originated as a revitalization movement
 Jesus was one of several prophets who preached new
religious doctrines while the Middle East was under
Roman rule.
 It was a time of social unrest, when a foreign power
ruled the land
 Jesus inspired a new, enduring and major religion.
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47. Revitalization Movements
 Handsome Lake religion
 Marginalization of Iroquois
 Vision of Handsome Lake started having visions. The
visions offered a plan for coping with the new order.
 The teaching of Handsome Lake produced a new
church and religion, and this new religion
(revitalization movement) helped the Iroquois adapt
to and survive in a modified environment.
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48.  Handsome Lake religion emerged when
natives have regular contact with
industrial societies but lack their wealth,
technology, and living standards.
 The religion is an attempt to explain
European domination and wealth and to
achieve similar success magically by
mimicking European behavior and
manipulating symbols of the desired
lifestyle.
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49. Syncretisms
 Syncretisms are cultural mixes, including religious
blends that emerge from acculturation.
 The cargo cults of Melanesia and Papua New Guinea
 The cargo cults are mixture of Christian doctrine
with aboriginal beliefs.
 Many cults have used elements of European
culture as sacred objects. The rationale is that
Europeans use these objects to have wealth thus
they should mimic Europeans use or treat objects.
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50.  Some cargo cult prophets proclaimed that
success would come through a reversal of
European domination and native subjugation.
 Cargo cults are religious responses to the
expansion of the world capitalist economy.
 Cargo cults however had political and economic
results. Previously Melanesians were separated by
geography, language, and customs, but being
members of the same cults and followers of the
same prophets, Melanesians started forming large
groups.
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51. Fundamentalism
 Fundamentalism is Antimordernist
movements in various religions.
Antimodearnism is the rejection of the
modern in favor of what is perceived as an
earlier, purer, and better way of life.
 Fundamentalism is a modern
phenomenon, based on a strong feeling
among its adherents of alienation from the
surrounding modern culture.
 Fundamentalists assert an identity
separate from the larger religious group
51 which they arose.

52.  Fundamentalists advocate strict fidelity to
the “true” religious principles.
 Fundamentalists also seek to rescue
religion from absorption into modern,
Western culture.
 Fundamentalists see a sharp divide
between themselves and other religions,
and between a “sacred” view of life and the
“secular” world and “nominal religion”
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53. Wrap-up
 Religion is a cultural universal, consists of
belief and behavior concerned with
supernatural beings, powers and forces.
Religion encompasses the feelings,
meanings and congregations associated with
such beliefs and behavior.
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54.  E. B. Taylor introduced evolution of
religions as Animism  Polytheism 
Monotheism, and considered that
animism is the religion’s earliest and
most basic form.
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55.  A. Wallace introduced 4 types of
religion: Shamanistic, Communal,
Olympian, and Monotheistic religion
 Religions have several functions:
 They provide meanings and
explanation (magic)
 They enable to cope with
uncertainty, stress and anxiety
(magic, rites of passage)
 They establish solidarity
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56.  They provide social control (witchcraft,
codes of ethics)
 They enable to cope with social
changes (revitalization, syncretism,
fundamentalism)
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