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Flashcards by Kalyanii Garrido, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Kalyanii Garrido
almost 10 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Durkheim: The sacred and the profane | The sacred and the profane: sacred- Symbols representing something of great power, forbidden, create feelings of fear,wonder and are surrounded by taboos. The profane are things with no special significance. For D. people are worshiping society itself when they worship they worship these sacred items as society is the only thing powerful enough to command such feelings. |
| Durkheim: Totemism | Durkheim believed that the essence of all religion could be found by studying it in its simplest form, the simplest type of society, clan society. He used studies for the Arunta, an aboriginal tribe. Arunta clans consist of bands of kin who come together to perform rituals involving worship of a sacred totem. D. argues that when they are worshiping their totemic animal, they are really worshiping society. |
| Durkheim: the collective consciousness | For Durkheim, the sacred symbol represents society's collective conscience/ consciousness( shared norms, values, beliefs and knowledge which makes social harmony possible). He also believes that shared religious rituals reinforce the collective conscience and makes individuals feel integrated into society, giving them purpose. |
| Durkeim: cognitive functions of religion | Durkheim argues that in order to share our thoughts and feelings with others, we need categories such as time, space, substance, number. etc... and the same categories as others in order to understand one another and express ourselves. He believes that religion provides these basic categories with ideas of the creator into being at the beginning of time and the devision of tribes into clans. Religion is the origin of human thought for D. |
| Parsons: values and meaning | Parsons sees religion as helping people cope with unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcomes, he also identifies 2 other main functions of religion in contemporary society: -creates and legitimates society's central values (it creates and legitimates society's basic norms and values by sacralising them) -it is the primary thought of meaning (offers ultimate questions about the human condition such as why the good suffer and why some die young). |
| Malinowski: psychological functions of religion | Agrees that religion promotes solidarity, however, he sees it as doing so by performing psychological functions for individuals, helping them cope with emotional stress that would undermine social solidarity. He identifies 2 situations in which religion performs this role: 1. where the outcome is important but uncontrollable and uncertain (he uses his study of the trobriand islanders as an example) ocean fishing is dangerous and uncertain, and is always accompanied by 'canoe magic'- rituals safe and successful expeditions. 2. at life crises- events such as birth, puberty, marriage and death, Eg. the funeral rituals reinforce solidarity. Malinowski argues that death is the main reason for the existence of religion. |
| Robert Bellah | Bellah argues that civil religion integrates society in a way that individual religions can't. American civil religion involves loyalty to the nation-state and a belief in god, both of which are equated with being a true American,It is expressed in various rituals, symbols and beliefs such as he pledge of allegiance to the flag, singing the national anthem. etc.. |
| Religion as ideology (marxism) | For Marx religion operates as an ideological weapon of the ruling class to legitimate the suffering of the poor as something inevitable and god-given. Religion misleads the poor into believing that their suffering is virtuous and they will be favoured in the afterlife. For example, according to christianity it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Such ideas create a false consciousness (a distorted view of reality that prevents the poor from acting to change the situation) Similarly, Lenin describes religion as a 'spiritual gin'. religion also legitimates the power and privilege of the rich by making their position appear to be divinely ordinary. |
| Religion and alienation (marxism) | Marx sees religion as a product of alienation (becoming separated from or losing control over something that one has produced). Under capitalism workers are alienated because they do not own what they produce and have no control over the production process, and thus no freedom to express their nature as creative beings. |
| Evidence of patriarchy (feminism) | Although the formal teachings of religions often stress equality between sexes, there is considerable evidence of patriarchy within many of them, for example: religious organisations are mainly male dominated (orthodox judaism and catholicism forbid women to become priests), places of worship often segregate sexes (eg. seating women behind screens), sacred texts often feature the doings of male gods and are often written and interpreted by men, religious laws and customs may give women fewer rights (in access to divorce, how many spouses they may marry, decision making, dress code. etc...) |
| Woodhead: religious feminism | Woodhead criticises feminist explanations that simply equate religion with patriarchy and oppression of women. although she accepts that that much traditional religion is patriarchal, she balieves that this is not true of all religion and argues that there are some 'religious forms of feminism'( ways in which women use religion to gain greater freedom and respect). She argues that the hijab may empower women mean that they are given more respect as people rather than treated as sexual objects by men. Also a strongly held belief among evangelicals is that men should respect women, this gives men power to influence men's behaviour by insising that they practice what they preach and refrain from 'macho behaviour'. Furthermore she argues that the position of women in religion is changing. |
| Religion as a conservative force | Religion can be seen as a conservative force in two different senses: 1. it is often seen as a conservative force in the sense of being 'traditional', defending traditional customs, institutions, moral views, roles etc. It upholds traditional beliefs about how society should be organised. 2. It is conservative because it functions to conserve or preserve things as they are. It stabilises and maintains the status quo. |
| Religion's conservative beliefs | Most religions have traditional conservative beliefs about moral issues and many of them oppose changes that would allow individuals more freedom in personal and sexual matters ( the catholic church forbids abortion, divorce and artificial contraception). Similarly most religions uphold family values and often favour patriarchal domestic devision of labour. Traditional conservative values are also a predominant part of other non-christian religions such as hinduism. |
| Religion's conservative functions | Consensus (functionalism), capitalism (marxism) and patriarchy (feminism). |
| Weber: religion as a force for change | Weber notes that many past societies have had capitalism in the sense of greed and wealth, which they often spent on luxury consumption. However, modern capitalism is unique, he argues, because it is based on the systematic, efficient, rational pursuit of profit for its own sake rather than for consumption, similar to calvinism. Calvinists had several distinct beliefs: 1.predestination 2. divine transcendence (god was so far above and beyond this world and so incomparably greater than any mortal. 3. asceticism (self discipline and self denial, refraining from luxuries) 4. The idea of vocation or calling (they believed their calling was to glorify god's name through their work. Thus their idea of a calling meant constant, methodical work in an occupation, however work could not earn salvation, it was simply a religious duty). |
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