Religions in Practice: An Approach to the Anthropology of Religion

by John R. Bowen

• ISBN13: 9780205200115
• ISBN10: 0205200117
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-12-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
1 Elements and Theories of Religion	1	(20)
Defining "Religion"	3	(3)
Three Approaches to Religion	6	(9)
Religion as Intellectual Activity	6	(2)
Religion in Society: I. Durkheim	8	(3)
Religion in Society: II. Marx and Weber	11	(2)
Religion and Emotions	13	(2)
Religions in Practice	15	(6)
Victor Turner on Symbols and Ritual	16	(1)
Claude Levi-Strauss and the Structural Study of Myth	17	(1)
Clifford Geertz and the Diversity of Religious Ideas	18	(1)
Practices, Contexts, Diversity	18	(3)
2 Doctrine and Practice in Tension	21	(20)
Changing Western Ideas of Religion	21	(6)
Religion as a "Belief System"	22	(1)
Other Religions, Other Models	23	(2)
Imposed Definitions of "Religion"	25	(1)
Wana Practices and Indonesian Definitions	26	(1)
Combining Religious Practices in Japan	27	(11)
Practice and "Belief"	28	(1)
Shinto and Spirits	29	(1)
Spirits and Social Change	30	(2)
Buddhism and Souls	32	(2)
The State and Religion	34	(4)
From Practice to Doctrine in Islamic Law	38	(3)
3 Transitions in Life and Death	41	(26)
Sequence and the Liminal Stage of Rituals	42	(2)
Reshaping, Reversing, Communitas	43	(1)
The Creation of Life and Fertility	44	(6)
Producing Men and Women	44	(1)
Regenerating Life from Death	45	(1)
Asmat Headhunting and Birth through Death	46	(3)
Secondary Burial	49	(1)
Grief, Fear, and Ritual	50	(6)
Ritual and Emotions	50	(1)
Is Grief Universal?	51	(1)
Emotions and Their Expressions	52	(1)
Initiation, Secrecy, and Fear	53	(1)
Hopi Whipping and Disenchantment	54	(1)
New Guinea Traumas and Homosexuality	54	(2)
Representing and Creating the Social Order	56	(4)
Gender Differentiation and Initiation	56	(1)
The Bar and Bat Mitzvah	57	(1)
Death Ritual and the Social Order	57	(1)
From Spirit to Household God in Japan	58	(2)
Debates about Death; Debates about Life	60	(7)
Teaching the Soul	61	(2)
Chanting for the Sake of the Spirit	63	(2)
Catholic Masses for the Dead	65	(2)
4 Extending Our Powers: "Magic" and Healing	67	(15)
Understanding "Magic"	68	(3)
Likeness and Contact	68	(1)
Magic and Anxiety	69	(1)
Crop Magic and Change in the United States	70	(1)
Healing and Culture	71	(2)
Giving Birth in Panama and Malaysia	71	(1)
Faith and Healing in Christian Science	72	(1)
Trance, Possession, and Healing	73	(3)
Afro-Brazilian Trances	74	(1)
Shared Healing in Southern Africa	74	(2)
Modern Magic in Japanese New Religions	76	(6)
Purification and Apocalypse	76	(1)
Amulets and Ancestors	77	(2)
Trance Psychology	79	(1)
Who Joins the New Religions?	80	(1)
Magic and Religion	81	(1)
5 Explaining Misfortune: Witchcraft and Sorcery	82	(19)
Religion and Explanation	82	(3)
Karma in South Asia	83	(1)
Suffering as Part of God's Plan	84	(1)
Sorcery as a Focus on Practitioners	85	(2)
Southeast Asian Neutral Practitioners	85	(1)
Sorcery and Leadership in Melanesia	86	(1)
Distrust and Navajo Sorcery	87	(1)
Witchcraft and Moral Accounts of Misfortune	87	(2)
Witchcraft as a Characteristic of the Individual	89	(5)
Azande Ideas of Bodily Substance	89	(1)
Explaining Misfortune	90	(2)
Consulting Oracles	92	(1)
African Witchcraft and Social Change	93	(1)
Witchcraft as Satan versus God	94	(7)
New England Puritans	94	(1)
Evil and Accusations	95	(1)
The Salem Outbreak of 1692	96	(2)
Salem and Disruption of the Moral Community	98	(1)
Evidence and Confessions	99	(2)
6 Sacrifice Contested	101	(24)
The Logic of Sacrifice	102	(2)
Nuer Cows and Cucumbers	102	(1)
Kwaio Sacrifice to Ancestors	103	(1)
Sacrifice and Society	104	(8)
Torajan Buffalo Sacrifice and Social Mobility	104	(1)
The Islamic Feast of Sacrifice	105	(1)
Gayo Observances	106	(2)
Objections to Ritual Efficacy	108	(2)
Issues of Comparison	110	(1)
Moroccan Muslim Sacrifice: Reaffirming Male Dominance	111	(1)
Other Moroccan Forms of the Sacrifice Ritual	111	(1)
Movements away from Sacrifice	112	(13)
Judaic Sacrifice and the Rise of Law	113	(2)
Sacrifice and Offerings in Hinduism	115	(2)
Sacrifice Contested	117	(2)
The Roots of Indian Sacrifice	119	(1)
Vegetable Offerings	120	(3)
Reform and Devotional Movements	123	(2)
7 Prohibitions and Boundaries	125	(17)
Taboos, Eating, and Social Inequality	126	(4)
Hawaiian Taboo and Captain Cook	127	(2)
Purity and Pollution in India	129	(1)
Taboos and Community in Judaism	130	(10)
The Prohibitions of Leviticus	130	(1)
Explanation I: Purity and Danger	131	(1)
Explanation II: Ecology and Survival	132	(1)
Passover and History	133	(1)
Ritual Life Today	134	(2)
Movable Boundaries	136	(1)
The Lubavitchers of Brooklyn	137	(1)
A Fundamentalist Christian Parallel	138	(1)
What Is the "Jewish Community"?	139	(1)
Muslim Comparisons: Whom Should You Marry?	140	(2)
8 Objects, Images, and Worship	142	(28)
Conveying Meaning through Symbols	142	(2)
Embodying Deities	144	(1)
Masks in West Africa	144	(4)
Relics and Images in Catholicism	148	(5)
The History of Relics and the Host	148	(2)
Images versus Relics	150	(1)
A More Hierarchical Ritual	151	(2)
Christ Incarnate	153	(1)
Mary and Marys in European Societies	153	(9)
Marian Apparitions and Modern Life	155	(2)
Spanish Shrines	157	(1)
Many in One	158	(1)
A Japanese Comparison	159	(1)
Generalized Devotions	160	(1)
Jesus, Mary, and the Nation-State	161	(1)
Relics and Images in Buddhist Politics	162	(1)
Translating Religion across Cultures: Mary in the Americans	162	(8)
Two-Brothers Myths	163	(1)
The Virgin of Guadalupe	163	(1)
Guadalupe and Mexican Resistance to Spain	164	(2)
Africa to Brazil: The Role of Images	166	(1)
Umbanda in Rio	167	(3)
9 Sacred Speech and Divine Power	170	(22)
The Qur'an as Recitation of God's Speech	171	(3)
The Creative Power of Navajo Speech and Song	174	(3)
Speech and Grace in Protestant Churches	177	(15)
The Letter and the Spirit of Scripture	177	(2)
Quaker Speech and Silence	179	(2)
Political Challenge and Religious Change	181	(2)
Election and Signs	183	(2)
Singing and Certainty among U.S. Primitive Baptists	185	(2)
Two Models of Church Authority	187	(1)
Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches	188	(4)
10 Places and Pilgrims	192	(19)
Centers and Directions	192	(3)
Chinese Geomancy	194	(1)
Japanese Temples and Branches	194	(1)
Dimensions of Pilgrimage	195	(1)
The Pilgrimage to Mecca	196	(8)
Following the Footsteps of Muhammad	197	(1)
Rites of Separation	198	(1)
Moving in the Liminal State	199	(2)
The Central Events	201	(1)
Reintegration to Normal Life	201	(2)
How Is It Meaningful?	203	(1)
Contrasts in Pilgrimage from Japan and India	204	(7)
Circling Shikoku	204	(3)
Bathing at Benares	207	(4)
11 Religious Authority and Religious Movements	211	(23)
Saints as Exemplars and as Sources of Assistance	212	(4)
Acharn Man, a Buddhist Forest Dweller	213	(1)
Sathya Sai Baba, a Jet-Age Holy Man	214	(2)
Prophets and Social Change	216	(3)
The Problem of the Prophet's Continuity	216	(2)
The Birth of Prophecy in the Sudan	218	(1)
Revitalization Movements: Messiahs, Millennia, and Revivals	219	(6)
Land, Wealth, and Religious Visions	220	(1)
Maori Prophecies in New Zealand	221	(1)
"Cargo Cults" in Samoa and New Guinea	221	(2)
The Ghost Dance in North America	223	(1)
Christian Millenarian Movements in the United States	224	(1)
Mormon Prophecy and Authority	225	(4)
Joseph Smith, Prophet	225	(2)
The New Prophet and Conflicts with the United States	227	(1)
Authority and History Today	228	(1)
Muhammad and His Successors	229	(5)
Muhammad as Messenger and Prophet	230	(1)
Who Rules after Muhammad?	231	(1)
The Development of the Shi'i	231	(1)
Masters and Disciples in Sufi Orders	232	(2)
12 The Place of Religions in Modern Nation-States	234	(23)
Religious Nationalisms	235	(5)
Church and Nation in Poland	236	(1)
Hindu Nationalism in India	237	(3)
Religion and State Law	240	(5)
Gender and Marriage in Israel Jewish Law	241	(2)
Islamic Courts and Culture in Indonesia	243	(2)
Religious Minorities and Public Religions	245	(3)
Kwaio Strategies for Recognition	245	(2)
Protestants in the Pueblos	247	(1)
Catholics in China	248	(1)
Minority Religions in Europe: Toleration or Public Recognition?	248	(3)
French Secularism versus Headscarves in Schools	248	(2)
The National Church in Britain	250	(1)
The Crucifix in Bavaria	250	(1)
Religion, Nation, and State in the United States	251	(6)
Religion in the Early Centuries	252	(1)
Balancing Rights and Tradition in a Pluralistic Nation	253	(4)
References	257	(8)
Index	265