10.3: Elements of Religion - Cosmologies and the Supernatural

ELEMENTS OF RELIGION

Despite the wide variety of supernatural beliefs found in cultures around the world, most belief systems do share some common elements. The first of these characteristic is cosmology, an explanation for the origin or history of the world. Religious cosmologies provide “big picture” explanations for how human life was created and provide a perspective on the forces or powers at work in the world. A second characteristic of religion is a belief in the supernatural, a realm beyond direct human experience. This belief could include a God or gods, but this is not a requirement. Quite a few religious beliefs, as discussed below, involve more abstract ideas about supernatural forces. Most religions also share a third characteristic: rules governing behavior. These rules define proper conduct for individuals and for society as a whole and are oriented toward bringing individual actions into harmony with spiritual beliefs. A fourth element is rituals. Rituals are behaviors or practices that are formal, stylized, and repetitive performed as a social act (Kottak 2012). Often rituals serve a religious purpose and are usually supervised by religious specialists. Rituals may be oriented toward the supernatural, such as rituals designed to please the gods, but at the same time they address the needs of individuals or the community as a whole. Funeral rituals, for instance, may be designed to ensure the passage of a deceased person to the afterlife, but also simultaneously provide emotional comfort to those who are grieving and provide an outlet for the community to express care and support.

Definition: ritual

Behaviors or practices that are formal, stylized, and repetitive performed as a social act.

Religious Cosmologies

Religious cosmologies are ways of explaining the origin of the universe and the principles or “order” that governs reality. In its simplest form, a cosmology can be an origin story, an explanation for the history, present state, and possible futures of the world and the origins of the people, spirits, divinities, and forces that populate it. The ancient Greeks had an origin story that began with an act of creation from Chaos, the first thing to exist. The deities Erebus, representing darkness, and Nyx, representing night, were born from Chaos. Nyx gave birth to Aether (light) and Hemera (day). Hemera and Nyx took turns exiting the underworld, creating the phenomenon of day and night. Aether and Hemera next created Gaia (Earth), the mother of all life, who gave birth to the sky, the mountains, the sea, and eventually to a pantheon of gods. One of these gods, Prometheus, shaped humans out of mud and gave them the gift of fire. This origin story reflects many significant cultural ideas. One of these is the depiction of a world organized into a hierarchy with gods at the top and humans obligated to honor them.

Definition: cosmology

An explanation for the origin or history of the world.

Traditional Navajo origin stories provide a different view of the organization of the universe. These stories suggested that the world is a set of fourteen stacked “plates” or “platters.” Creation began at the lowest levels and gradually spread to the top. The lower levels contained animals like insects as well as animal-people and bird-people who lived in their own fully-formed worlds with distinct cultures and societies. At the top level, First Man and First Woman eventually emerged and began making preparations for other humans, creating a sweat lodge, hoghan (traditional house), and preparing sacred medicine bundles. During a special ceremony, the first human men and women were formed and they created those who followed.^[21] Like the Greek origin story, the Navajo cosmology explains human identity and emphasizes the debt humans owe to their supernatural ancestors.

The first two chapters of the Biblical Book of Genesis, which is the foundation for both Judaism and Christianity, describe the creation of the world and all living creatures. The exact words vary in different translations, but describe a God responsible for creating the world and everything in it: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The six-day process began with the division of light from darkness, land from water, and heaven from earth. On the fifth day, “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.”^[22] On the sixth day, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”^[23] This cosmology differs from the others in describing an act of creation by a single deity, God, but shares with the Greek and Navajo versions a description of creation that emphasizes the relationship between people and their creator.

Reading these cosmologies also raises the question of how they should be interpreted. Are these origin stories regarded as literal truth in the cultures in which they originated? Or, are the stories metaphorical and symbolic? There is no simple answer to this question. Within any culture, individuals may disagree about the nature of their own religious traditions. Christians, for instance, differ in the extent to which they view the contents of the Bible as fact. Cultural relativism requires that anthropologists avoid making judgments about whether any cultural idea, including religious beliefs, is “correct” or “true.” Instead, a more useful approach is to try to understand the multiple ways people interpret or make sense of their religious beliefs. In addition it is important to consider the function a religious cosmology has in the wider society. As Bronislaw Malinowski observed, a myth or origin story is not an “idle tale, but a hard-worked active force.”^[24]

Belief in the Supernatural

Another characteristic shared by most religions is a concept of the supernatural, spirits, divinities, or forces not governed by natural laws. The supernatural can take many forms. Some supernatural entities are anthropomorphic, having human characteristics. Other supernatural forces are more generalized, seen in phenomena like the power of the wind. The amount of involvement that supernatural forces or entities have in the lives of humans varies cross-culturally.

Definition: supernatural

Describes entities or forces not governed by natural laws.

Definition: anthropomorphic

An object or being that has human characteristics.

Abstract Forces

Many cultures are organized around belief in an impersonal supernatural force, a type of religion known as animatism. The idea of mana is one example. The word itself comes from Oceania and may originally have meant “powerful wind,” “lightning” or “storm.” Today, it still refers to power, but in a more general sense. Aram Oroi, a pastor from the Solomon Islands, has compared mana to turning on a flashlight: “You sense something powerful but unseen, and then—click—its power is made manifest in the world.”^[25] Traditionally, the ability to accumulate mana in certain locations, or in one’s own body, was to become potent or successful.^[26] Certain locations such as mountains or ancient sites (marae) have particularly strong mana. Likewise, individual behaviors, including sexual or violent acts, were traditionally viewed as ways to accumulate mana for oneself.

Definition: animatism

A religious system organized around a belief in an impersonal supernatural force.

Interestingly, the idea of mana has spread far beyond its original cultural context. In 1993, Richard Garfield incorporated the idea in the card game Magic: The Gathering. Players of the game, which has sold millions of copies since its introduction, use mana as a source of power to battle wizards and magical creatures. Mana is also a source of power in the immensely popular computer game World of Warcraft.^[27] These examples do show cultural appropriation, the act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning. However, they also demonstrate how compelling animist ideas about abstract supernatural power are across cultures. Another well-known example of animatism in popular culture is “the Force” depicted in the George Lucas Star Wars films. The Force is depicted as flowing through everything and is used by Luke Skywalker as a source of potency and insight when he destroys the Death Star.

Definition: cultural appropriation

The act of copying an idea from another culture and in the process distorting its meaning.

Spirits

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A spirit house in Thailand provides shelter for local spirits.

The line between the natural and the supernatural can be blurry. Many people believe that humans have a supernatural or spiritual element that coexists within their natural bodies. In Christianity, this element is called the soul. In Hinduism, it is the atman.^[28] The Tausūg, a group who live in the Philippines, believe that the soul has four parts: a transcendent soul that stays in the spiritual realm even when a person is alive; a life-soul that is attached to the body, but can move through dreams; the breath, which is always attached to the body, and the spirit-soul, which is like a person’s shadow.^[29]

Many people believe that the spirit survives after an individual dies, sometimes remaining on Earth and sometimes departing for a supernatural realm. Spirits, or “ghosts,” who remain on Earth may continue to play an active role in the lives of their families and communities. Some will be well-intentioned and others will be malevolent. Almost universally, spirits of the deceased are assumed to be needy and to make demands on the living. For this reason, many cultures have traditions for the veneration of the dead, rituals intended to honor the deceased, or to win their favor or cooperation. When treated properly, ancestor spirits can be messengers to gods, and can act on behalf of the living after receiving prayers or requests. If they are displeased, ancestor spirits can become aggravated and wreak havoc on the living through illness and suffering. To avoid these problems, offerings in the form of favorite foods, drinks, and gifts are made to appease the spirits. In China, as well as in many other countries, filial piety requires that the living continue to care for the ancestors. ^[30] In Madagascar, where bad luck and misfortune can be attributed to spirits of the dead who believe they have been neglected, a body may be repeatedly exhumed and shown respect by cleaning the bones.^[31]

Definition: filial piety

A tradition requiring that the young provide care for the elderly and in some cases ancestral spirits.

If humans contain a supernatural spirit, essence, or soul, it is logical to think that non-human entities may have their own sparks of the divine. Religions based on the idea that plants, animals, inanimate objects, and even natural phenomena like weather have a spiritual or supernatural element are called animism. The first anthropological description of animism came from Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, who believed it was the earliest type of religious practice to develop in human societies. ^[32] Tylor suggested that ordinary parts of the human experience, such as dreaming, formed the basis for spiritual beliefs. When people dream, they may perceive that they have traveled to another place, or may be able to communicate with deceased members of their families. This sense of altered consciousness gives rise to ideas that the world is more than it seems. Tylor suggested that these experiences, combined with a pressing need to answer questions about the meaning of life, were the basis for all religious systems.^[33] He also assumed that animist religions evolved into what he viewed as more sophisticated religious systems involving a God or gods.

Definition: animism

A religious system organized around a belief that plants, animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena have a spiritual or supernatural element.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): The first torii at the entrance to Nikkō Tōshō-gū, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.

Today, Tylor’s views about the evolution of religion are considered misguided. No belief system is inherently more sophisticated than another. Several animist religions exist today and have millions of adherents. One of the most well-known is Shintoism, the traditional religion of Japan. Shintoism recognizes spirits known as kami that exist in plants, animals, rocks, places and sometimes people. Certain locations have particularly strong connections to the kami, including mountains, forests, waterfalls, and shrines. Shinto shrines in Japan are marked by torii gates that mark the separation between ordinary reality and sacred space (Figure10.3.2).

Gods

The most powerful non-human spirits are gods, though in practice there is no universal definition of a “god” that would be recognized by all people. In general, gods are extremely powerful and not part of nature—not human, or animal. Despite their unnaturalness, many gods have personalities or qualities that are recognizable and relatable to humans. They are often anthropomorphic, imagined in human form, or zoomorphic, imagined in animal form. In some religions, gods interact directly with humans while in others they are more remote.

Definition: zoomorphic

An object or being that has animal characteristics.

Anthropologists categorize belief systems organized around a God or gods using the terms monotheism and polytheism. Monotheistic religions recognize a single supreme God. The largest monotheistic religions in the world today are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Together these religions have more than 3.8 billion adherents worldwide.^[34]Polytheistic religions include several gods. Hinduism, one of the world’s largest polytheistic religions with more than 1 billion practitioners, has a pantheon of deities each with different capabilities and concerns.^[35]

Definition: monotheistic

A religious systems that recognize a single supreme God.

Definition: polytheistic

A religious systems that recognize several gods.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kottak, Conrad P. Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012.

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NOTES

21. Sam D. Gill, Sacred Words: A Study of Navajo Religion and Prayer (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1981), 52. ↵
22. Gen. 1:21 NASB ↵
23. Gen. 1:27 NASB ↵
24. Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1984[1926]), 199 ↵
25. The quote comes from Aram Oroi, “Press the button, mama!:”Mana and Christianity on Makira in the Solomon Islands” (paper presented at the Australia and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools Conference held in Auckland, June/July 2013). His work is cited in Alex Golub, “The History of Mana: How an Austronesian Concept Became a Video Game Mechanic” The Appendix 2 no. 2 (2014) http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/4/the-history-of-mana-how-an-austronesian-concept-became-a-video-game-mechanic↵
26. Roger M. Keesing, “Rethinking ‘Mana’” Journal of Anthropological Research 40 no. 1 (1984):137-156. ↵
27. Alex Golub, “The History of Mana.” ↵
28. Jack David Eller, Introducing Anthropology of Religion.↵
29. Thomas M. Kiefer, The Tausūg: Violence and Law in a Philippine Moslem Society (New York: Holt Rinehart, 1972). ↵
30. Charles Ikels, Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.) ↵
31. “Madagascar’s Dance with the Dead,” BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7562898.stm. ↵
32. Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture. ↵
33. Edward B. Tylor, “The Limits of Savage Religion” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21(1892): 283–301. ↵
34. Pew Research Center, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” April 2, 2015 http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/↵
35. The characterization of Hinduism as polytheistic is contested. The deities in Hinduism can be viewed as a manifestation of Brahman, the most significant supernatural force. ↵

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Adapted From

"Religion" by Sashur Henninger-Rener, Pasadena City College. In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition, Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges, 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0.