Literature Global Religion
Week 1
Geertz, C. (1973). Religion as a cultural system.
- Religion is a system of symbols which
o Establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men
by
A motivation is a persisting tendency, a chronic inclination to perform
certain sorts of acts and experience certain sorts of feeling in certain
sorts of situations,
Motives are thus neither acts (that is, intentional behaviors) nor
feelings, but liabilities to perform particular classes of act or have
particular classes of feeling. And when we say that a man is religious,
that is, motivated by religion, this is at least pan—though only part—
of what we mean.
o Formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and
We ordinarily believe that we can meaningfully participate in an
understandable universe. However, when we face bafflement,
suffering, and moral dilemmas . . . Religion gives meaning through a
cosmology or philosophy of the universe.
o Clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that
making the religious conceptions of reality seem true by presenting
them artistically in an appealing and persuasive way.
o The moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
in other words: the religionist feels that his or her feelings and action
commitments seem to come from God (or are in tune with deepest
Reality). E.g., a person makes an excellent moral decision and feels a
new divine invasion of his or her soul.
- Geertz means by ‘symbol’
o A bearer of meaning, e.g., an object, event, quality, or relation
o A tangible, public, observable, concrete embodiment of ideas, attitudes,
judgements, longings or beliefs
o Something outside the organism influencing the social and psychological
processes that shape public behaviors
- Examples of symbols
o The number 6, written down
o the Cross
o a painting [one that conveys meaning]
o a word, e.g., "God," "reality," "woman."
o a story
o a ritual
o a "holy book"
- Sacred symbols function to
o Interpret reality and shape behavior
o Support received beliefs by invoking deeply felt moral and aesthetic
sentiments as experienctial evidence for truth
o Depict preferences as imposed by reality
1
, o Synthesize a people’s ethos: the tone, character and quality of their life, its
moral and aesthetic style and mood
- The anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first, an
analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the
religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and
psychological processes
Asad, T. (1983). Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz
- Geertz: emphasis on meaning
- But that omits the crucial dimension of power, since it ignores that varying social
conditions for the production of knowledge, and that its initial plausibility derives
from the fact that it resembles the privatised forms of religion so characteristic of
modern (Christian) society, in which power and knowledge are no longer significantly
generated by religious institution
- Definition culture Geertz: an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied
in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means
of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and
their attitude toward life
o This suggests a distanced spectator role isolation from social practices and
discourses closes off the possibility of examining how knowledge and
attitudes are related to material conditions and social activities, and to what
extent they are formed by them
- Geertz: The anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first,
an analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the
religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and
psychological processes
o If religious symbols are understood, on the analogy with words, as vehicles for
meaning, can such meanings be established independently of the form of life
in which they are used
o Two stages rather are on: The anthropological study of religion is therefore a
two-stage operation: first, an analysis of the system of meanings embodied in
the symbols which make up the religion proper, and, second, the relating of
these systems to social-structural and psychological processes. The
anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first, an
analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up
the religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-
structural and psychological processes
- The anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first, an
analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the
religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and
psychological processes
Csordas, T. (2009). Modalities of Transnational Transcendence.
- Transnational transcendence > existence of modalities of religious intersubjectivity
that are both experientially compelling and transcend cultural borders and
boundaries
2
, - Religion and globalization > implies relation of religion and globalization as two
separate analytic domains, with the sense of globalization being the dominant one of
economic globalization
- Globalization of religion > world-as-neutral-network image in which religious
manifestations can issue from any node and proceed in any direction or in a kind of
postmodern free-floating-signifier image in which religious impulses are decentered
and float like dandelion seeds in the breeze of the cultural imaginary
- Csordas proposes two aspects of religions that must be attended to in determining
whether or not they travel well
o Portable practice > rites that can be easily learned, require relatively little
esoteric knowledge or paraphernalia, can be performed without commitment
to an elaborate ideological or institutional apparatus (yoaga(
o Transposable message > basis of appeal contained in religious tenets,
premises, or promises can find footing across diverse linguistic and cultural
settings
- By which means do religion traverse geographic and cultural spaces
o Missionization > missionaries spreading religion
o Migration > transnational population movements
o Mobility > individuals moving in the contemporary globalizing world
o Mediatization > beyond television, radio and print media, cassette tapes have
been a powerful form of spread of religious ideas
- Four intersubjective modalities in which the globalization of religion is taking place
o In which the local religious imagination takes up the encroachments of global
economy and technology (coca cola bottle for bushmen)
o Pan indigenous: taking place at the initiative of those people without history
whose agency and ability to give voice in the dominant society is still reluctant
to acknowledge
o Reverse direction, from the margins to the metropole
o World religions and their trajectories within the cultural space of globalization
- Maybe we’re not seeing a resurgence of religion, but starting to recognize the same
age-old waters of religion as they fill the newly constructed channels that flow
between the local and global
o Globalization AS religion
WTO/IMF as global church, neoliberalism as canon law
Kapferer, B. et al. (2010) Religiosities toward a Future – in Pursuit of the New Millennium
- As a broad statement, insofar as religion is connected to the political interests of the
nation-state, it is the political that plays the key role in defining the relevant aspects
of the religious
- There seems to be a link between what appears to be the return of the religious and
reconfigurations of political and social realities attendant on what is loosely referred
to as globalization. The increasing power of religion in the framing, organization, and
motivation for social and political action may be associated with the break-up and
fragmentation of formerly dominant socio-political orders and the social dislocations,
redistribution and movement of populations brought about by such developments
- Point of article
3
Week 1
Geertz, C. (1973). Religion as a cultural system.
- Religion is a system of symbols which
o Establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men
by
A motivation is a persisting tendency, a chronic inclination to perform
certain sorts of acts and experience certain sorts of feeling in certain
sorts of situations,
Motives are thus neither acts (that is, intentional behaviors) nor
feelings, but liabilities to perform particular classes of act or have
particular classes of feeling. And when we say that a man is religious,
that is, motivated by religion, this is at least pan—though only part—
of what we mean.
o Formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and
We ordinarily believe that we can meaningfully participate in an
understandable universe. However, when we face bafflement,
suffering, and moral dilemmas . . . Religion gives meaning through a
cosmology or philosophy of the universe.
o Clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that
making the religious conceptions of reality seem true by presenting
them artistically in an appealing and persuasive way.
o The moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic
in other words: the religionist feels that his or her feelings and action
commitments seem to come from God (or are in tune with deepest
Reality). E.g., a person makes an excellent moral decision and feels a
new divine invasion of his or her soul.
- Geertz means by ‘symbol’
o A bearer of meaning, e.g., an object, event, quality, or relation
o A tangible, public, observable, concrete embodiment of ideas, attitudes,
judgements, longings or beliefs
o Something outside the organism influencing the social and psychological
processes that shape public behaviors
- Examples of symbols
o The number 6, written down
o the Cross
o a painting [one that conveys meaning]
o a word, e.g., "God," "reality," "woman."
o a story
o a ritual
o a "holy book"
- Sacred symbols function to
o Interpret reality and shape behavior
o Support received beliefs by invoking deeply felt moral and aesthetic
sentiments as experienctial evidence for truth
o Depict preferences as imposed by reality
1
, o Synthesize a people’s ethos: the tone, character and quality of their life, its
moral and aesthetic style and mood
- The anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first, an
analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the
religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and
psychological processes
Asad, T. (1983). Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz
- Geertz: emphasis on meaning
- But that omits the crucial dimension of power, since it ignores that varying social
conditions for the production of knowledge, and that its initial plausibility derives
from the fact that it resembles the privatised forms of religion so characteristic of
modern (Christian) society, in which power and knowledge are no longer significantly
generated by religious institution
- Definition culture Geertz: an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied
in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means
of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and
their attitude toward life
o This suggests a distanced spectator role isolation from social practices and
discourses closes off the possibility of examining how knowledge and
attitudes are related to material conditions and social activities, and to what
extent they are formed by them
- Geertz: The anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first,
an analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the
religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and
psychological processes
o If religious symbols are understood, on the analogy with words, as vehicles for
meaning, can such meanings be established independently of the form of life
in which they are used
o Two stages rather are on: The anthropological study of religion is therefore a
two-stage operation: first, an analysis of the system of meanings embodied in
the symbols which make up the religion proper, and, second, the relating of
these systems to social-structural and psychological processes. The
anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first, an
analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up
the religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-
structural and psychological processes
- The anthropological study of religion is therefore a two-stage operation: first, an
analysis of the system of meanings embodied in the symbols which make up the
religion proper, and, second, the relating of these systems to social-structural and
psychological processes
Csordas, T. (2009). Modalities of Transnational Transcendence.
- Transnational transcendence > existence of modalities of religious intersubjectivity
that are both experientially compelling and transcend cultural borders and
boundaries
2
, - Religion and globalization > implies relation of religion and globalization as two
separate analytic domains, with the sense of globalization being the dominant one of
economic globalization
- Globalization of religion > world-as-neutral-network image in which religious
manifestations can issue from any node and proceed in any direction or in a kind of
postmodern free-floating-signifier image in which religious impulses are decentered
and float like dandelion seeds in the breeze of the cultural imaginary
- Csordas proposes two aspects of religions that must be attended to in determining
whether or not they travel well
o Portable practice > rites that can be easily learned, require relatively little
esoteric knowledge or paraphernalia, can be performed without commitment
to an elaborate ideological or institutional apparatus (yoaga(
o Transposable message > basis of appeal contained in religious tenets,
premises, or promises can find footing across diverse linguistic and cultural
settings
- By which means do religion traverse geographic and cultural spaces
o Missionization > missionaries spreading religion
o Migration > transnational population movements
o Mobility > individuals moving in the contemporary globalizing world
o Mediatization > beyond television, radio and print media, cassette tapes have
been a powerful form of spread of religious ideas
- Four intersubjective modalities in which the globalization of religion is taking place
o In which the local religious imagination takes up the encroachments of global
economy and technology (coca cola bottle for bushmen)
o Pan indigenous: taking place at the initiative of those people without history
whose agency and ability to give voice in the dominant society is still reluctant
to acknowledge
o Reverse direction, from the margins to the metropole
o World religions and their trajectories within the cultural space of globalization
- Maybe we’re not seeing a resurgence of religion, but starting to recognize the same
age-old waters of religion as they fill the newly constructed channels that flow
between the local and global
o Globalization AS religion
WTO/IMF as global church, neoliberalism as canon law
Kapferer, B. et al. (2010) Religiosities toward a Future – in Pursuit of the New Millennium
- As a broad statement, insofar as religion is connected to the political interests of the
nation-state, it is the political that plays the key role in defining the relevant aspects
of the religious
- There seems to be a link between what appears to be the return of the religious and
reconfigurations of political and social realities attendant on what is loosely referred
to as globalization. The increasing power of religion in the framing, organization, and
motivation for social and political action may be associated with the break-up and
fragmentation of formerly dominant socio-political orders and the social dislocations,
redistribution and movement of populations brought about by such developments
- Point of article
3
