Functionalism and religion

FUNCTIONALISM AND Religion

• Functions of religion -
• Socialisation
• The
• major function of religion is to socialise society’s members into a VALUE
• CONSENSUS investing values with sacred
• quality. These values become ‘moral codes’ that society agrees to revere and
• socialise children into. Consequently such codes regulate social behaviour.
• Social
• integration
• Encouraging
• collective worship enables individuals to express their shared values and
• strengthens group unity. It foster the development of a COLLECTIVE
• CONSCIENCE or moral community so that
• deviant behaviour is restrained and social change is restricted.
• Preventing
• anomie
• If
• society were to become less integrated and their behaviour less regulated, a
• state of anomie could occur (a state of normlessness), whereby society could
• not function because its members would not know how to behave relative to one
• another.

DURKHEIM

• Totemism
• Durkheim
• studied the practice of totemism amongst the central Australian Arunta tribe of
• aborigines.
• A
• totem is an object such as a tree or an animal that has divine properties which
• is usually named after the name of the tribe or group.
• ØWhen
• worshipping the totem, people are really worshipping society.
• Religious
• belief such as totemism, ceremonies and rituals, act as a kind of social glue
• which binds people together.
• During
• these times GROUP SOLIDARITY is affirmed and heightened.
• The
• continued acts of group worship and celebration through ritual and ceremony
• serves to forge GROUP IDENTITY and create and promote SOCIAL COHERSION.
• Collective
• conscience
• The
• COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE is the shared norms, values, belief and knowledge that
• make social life and co-operation between individuals possible.
• For
• Durkheim, shared regular religious rituals reinforce the collective conscience
• and maintain social integration, therefore preventing any damaging social
• change.

MALINOWSKI

• Malinowski
• was one of the worlds first anthropologist to live for a long period of time in
• a small scale society in which he studied. – Focused on both social and
• psychological functions.
• Life
• crises
• In
• all societies by particularly small scale societies life crises such as birth,
• puberty, marriage and death are potentially disruptive.
• This
• is for a number of reasons like high mortality and arranged marriages.
• This
• is when religious ritual is typically used to bind people together and comfort
• bereaved – funerals etc.
• Times
• of stress and anxiety
• In
• situations and activities where the outcome is important by uncertain and
• uncontrollable, religious rituals may be used.
• Malinowski
• studied of the Trobriand Islanders he found that when fishing ijn
• safe and well-known areas no ritual was used.
• However
• in water where success and survival was uncertain, religious ritual was often
• used in order to increase peoples sense of self control, diminishes anxiety and
• unifies the group.

PARSONS

• Provides
• answers to the big questions
• Some
• of the questions which religion answers include questions about humanity and
• the world.
• For
• example questions about suffering, justice and death.
• By
• providing these explanations religion makes sense of the apparently
• meaningless, helps people to adjust to their situation and promote social
• stability.
• Provides
• core norms and values
• Parsons
• said that religion provided core values and norms which it sacralises and
• legitimates.
• By
• establishing and legitimizing norms and values religion promotes social
• consensus which parsons believed to be essential for order and stability in
• society.

EVALUATION

• Ignores
• the examples of religion being a negative and as an instrument of oppression
• e.g. conflict in Northern Ireland.
• Fails
• to explain the origins of social institutions… how did they arise in the first
• place.
• Durkheim
• based his ideas on secondary sources (may be unreliable, invalid and out of
• date).
• Durkheim
• studied small scale societies which are very different to todays more complex
• societies which have religious pluralism (religion is diluted – postmodernism).
• Ignores
• and does not say why or how religion came about.
• If
• society is become secularized, how can religion fulfill all of these functions?