Religion | Anthropology | U.P.S.C.

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Evolutionary approach - Animism and Animatism:
1. Animism: E B Tylor- primitive culture 1871
Doctrines of Tylor for development of religion:
1. Doctrine of continuance
2. Doctrine of embodiment / possession
3. Doctrine of fetishism.
Criticism:
1. Many scholars criticized Tylor’s theory for being too intellectual and not dealing with the
the emotional component of religion.
2. Belief in the soul is just one feature of religion, others include values, morals, rituals, law, etc which was not discussed by Tylor.
3. A theory not based on fieldwork is not considered a good theory.
Animatism: RR Marett -a belief in impersonal supernatural forces - preceded the creation of spirits eg mana of Melanesia
Criticism:
1. By saying Melanesians were living in conditions as primitive as those of early man, Marett wants to convince us that ever since early man became man Melanesians have not changed a bit which is practically not possible.
Psychological or Symbolic approach studied by Freud
totem - prohibition of killing of a Totem animal that is father substitute.
Criticism:-
Freud has assumed that the patriarchal nuclear family is the universal family.
Freud presupposed the herds, the kind of relationship and emotions that existed in that
society, which forms the core of the theory. It may or may not be true.
Acc. To psychoanalytical appr,oach the transmission of information depends on the
inheritance quality of mind but it has been proved that transmission happens through
culture enculturationtion.
Acc. To f,reud the unconscious sexual attraction towards mother causes hostility towards
father, but there is no such hostility in Trobriand islanders.
A. To Malinowski there is no mention of a father in the myths of Trobriand islanders, but
focus on mother, son, and brother.
Sociological approach
Emile Durkheim in his book" Elementary forms of the religious beliefs" - Totemism is a religious system based on a wide variety of special relationships between an individual or a group and its totem.
Criticism:-
In Arunta also totem is not sacred to everyone.
Postmodernist Mestrovic (1997) argued that Durkheim’s ideas cannot be applied to modern
society as diversity has fragmented the collective conscience.
The functionalist perspective of Durkheim cant be applied to other religions.
Functional approThe approachoach of Malinowski - magic
Trobriand islanders- arisen to reduce the anxiety in the crisis situation
Criticism:-
A. To Pritchard Religion arises from the sentiments of the soc,iety not the individual.
It ignores the role religion plays in the promotion of cultural change.
it does not explain the conflict between the communities on the basis of religious pluralism.
A. To Worsley, the approach is applicable to the closed and simple societies but not to the
modern and post-modern societies.
Brown’s approach - Taboo
survival of the group is more important than the survival of individual- customary prohibition of the parents from eating certain foods, calling of the personal names of the expected father and mother - fear of supernatural control and punishment that brings about this adherence.
Criticism:-
This approach is not applicable to the religiously plural societies as well as secular societies.
It does not explains the conflict created by religion in society.
It doesn't explain the secularization of religion.

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