Pain or Prayer: Anthropologist Studies Religions

by Kate Douglas - abc News

Thanks to rod-the-farmer for the link.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/anthropologist-religions-based-strict-teachings-rituals-cults/story?id=9420403

You may not be Christian, or religious, but if you live in almost any developed country, you will find it hard to get away from Christmas rituals at this time of year. Of course, many of them are secular: where would the holidays be without rampant consumerism, drunken partying, over-indulgence and family feuds? Then there are the rituals whose religious origins have all but faded, such as Santa Claus.

But while Christmas rituals can be exciting for children, they certainly don't have any of the high drama of those practiced by other faiths.

Take the Australian Aboriginal religious initiation rites that includes scalp biting, fingernail extraction and cutting the initiate's penis with a stone knife, without which a man is not considered spiritually mature.

Or the extremes of the sacred fire dances performed in New Guinea, where in order to commune with their ancestors men enter a trance state wearing masks decorated with blood drawn agonisingly from their own tongues.

By contrast, the most extreme ritual a Christian is likely to engage in is being dunked during baptism. Why do some religions have rituals that are so much more traumatic than others?
...
Continue reading
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/anthropologist-religions-based-strict-teachings-rituals-cults/story?id=9420403

Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009 | Permalink

Comments 1 - 11 of 11 |

Reload Comments

Page Numbers

1. Comment #445043 by Lucas on December 28, 2009 at 3:06 pm

Pain, particularly when inflicted through self-mutilation, is one of the many ways to create certain states in the brain (euphoria, a feeling of the numinous, etc.), some of which are identified as spiritual or religious by those who don't understand their bodies and brains. Yep.

Typical for an anthropologist to focus on the rituals. Not that he's not mostly right, but there's nothing particularly revelatory here. All of this was covered in my undergraduate anthropology, sociology, and religion courses. Even Dunbar's criticisms seem pretty easily explainable to me, and I'm no professor. Are these guys working in a vacuum?

EXREL does look like an interesting project though.

Other Comments by Lucas

2. Comment #445068 by Dave Porter on December 28, 2009 at 4:53 pm

"So what distinguishes the fairies from the gods?"

Nothing, they are all make-believe.

Other Comments by Dave Porter

3. Comment #445075 by Fortinbras on December 28, 2009 at 5:41 pm

Professor Harvey Whitehouse is working on a project to study religion with funding from the Templeton Foundation, according to the University of Oxford website that is given a link on page 3 of this article.

Other Comments by Fortinbras

4. Comment #445076 by black wolf on December 28, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Templeteon, eh? That's as good a reason as any I suppose, to separate superstition from religious belief on superficialities. Still, he did manage to sting a few religious sensibilities, judging from the comments at abcnews.

Other Comments by black wolf

5. Comment #445094 by Lucas on December 28, 2009 at 8:02 pm

Fortinbras - Ah well, that explains a lot.

Other Comments by Lucas

6. Comment #445125 by The Truth, the light on December 28, 2009 at 9:57 pm

By contrast, the most extreme ritual a Christian is likely to engage in is being dunked during baptism...

How about the loonies that nail themselves to a cross or Catholic priests that bugger young boys.

Other Comments by The Truth, the light

7. Comment #445325 by Reckless Monkey on December 30, 2009 at 1:00 am

Seems to me it's just about suspension of disbelief. If cause pain to yourself you have more emotional weight hanging on the outcome.

You see this with people who pay enormous amounts of money for magnets to improve fuel flow in cars (insert any quackery you like here). If you spent $10 and didn't notice any improvement most people would easily conclude it was a con. Spend $1000 dollars and I bet you'd have a very hard time letting go. Also small tribes need to have cohesion to survive, large communities can let go of some of the more extreme religious rites. If you listed all the to-do's in the Bible you'd find I think it largely as extreme as any other. Can't eat pork, can have women worshipping if menstruating, circumcision etc.

You also notice that cost in an agricultural society is borne by sacrificing wealth (kill a goat or sheep or your son) in a small tribe of hunter gatherers you don't really own anything you can't do without so I would think that an argument could be made that physically harming yourself may be the only solution.

Other Comments by Reckless Monkey

8. Comment #445337 by iur on December 30, 2009 at 2:56 am

Guilt...

Other Comments by iur

9. Comment #445338 by iur on December 30, 2009 at 2:57 am

1. Comment #445043 by Lucas

African religions hit the drums for hours... with the same result.

Other Comments by iur

10. Comment #445464 by Christopher Davis on December 30, 2009 at 3:22 pm

Regarding comment #2 by Dave Porter

Actually, I think it's age that makes all the difference. Once you hit 8-9 you realize that Santa Claus is just plain silly. A white-haired old guy who watches everything you do good and bad and then rewards you accordingly? Get real!

But God! Now that's a believable character! Welcome to adulthood.

Other Comments by Christopher Davis

11. Comment #445669 by InYourFaceNewYorker on December 31, 2009 at 4:27 am

I would be interested to see if brain imaging studies would how similarities between religious fanatics and secular people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

I also wonder if it could be said that succumbing to religious fanaticism is a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

Julie

Other Comments by InYourFaceNewYorker

Reload Comments