Religion or Culture?

Our discussion on Friday about religions, cults, etc. makes me wonder about religion and culture. I know religion is part of culture but sometimes the way we talk about religion in societies make me wonder where culture fits. In Geertz's definition religion influences moods and motivations but I anthropology I learn about culture creating "powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations". I suppose one could argue that the symbols that make up religion deal with "a general order of existence" where culture doesn't have to deal with that like consumerism. It's part of our culture but is not a religion, however it and religions have similar characteristics. Maybe I should be looking at culture as the umbrella and religion as one of the things under it, but their similarities confuse me I suppose. I don't think we can say the religion or culture came first, because I think there is evidence of both. In a previous class we talked about how churchs' positions on sex and marriage where probably adopted because of health and legitimacy issues. This ideas of health and whose child is whose and who gets what most likely existed in the society before the church just used it to connect with the people. One can assume similar ideas were behind the food laws of many different religions. I do think that establishing orders of existence came first with religion. Now it can considered cultural I think because we have orders of existence ideas that don't depend on religions, but that has only come with relatively recent scientific advancements. Religion has also shaped culture because some of it's values will be placed into society and effect things non-religious in nature. An example of this would be the effect of the Puritan values on our economic system. In many ways religion has infused itself into culture or culture borrows some previously religious symbol but meaning will change. One eaxmple we talked about in class was when the Jamaican tourism video used Bob Marley's song as a symbol of Jamaica not Rastafari.

Elements of New Religions

Especially in the case of Baha'i one can see that the leader is very important. Perhaps this book is a bit biased because it is a biography of Baha'u'llah (picture on the left) not a book about how Baha'i started, but this book makes Baha'u'llah seem like the reason Baha'i came into existence and was able to sustain itself. The same can be said for the Babis, without Baha'u'llah that movement would have collapsed too. As he moved to and from different places during exile, it seems like the Babis community in the city he left would fall apart without him and in the city he moved to he would build back up or create a Babis community. The impression I got from the book was that Baha'u'llah was kind of single-handedly keeping these Babis/Baha'i ideas afloat.

Another important element that helped this movement was the non-violence. I think Baha'u'llah had experience enough violence from other religions that he knew it was not helpful to anyone. The fact that the Babis still had things in common with the main religion of the region was helpful and harmful. Helpful because you read in the book several stories about Baha'u'llah connecting with other religions through common characters such as the martyr Imam Husayn. Harmful because I think it scared the existing establishment. The creation of Baha'i was a long process. It is building upon the group the great Bab was leading so has been in the making for awhile.

Evolution of Bob Marley

Im Still Waiting - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Simmer Down - Bob Marley & The Wailers



The picture and two songs that I've posted above are from Marley's first albumThe Wailing Wailers, when he was part of group called The Wailers. The people playing in this group with him change through out his career. The Wailing Wailers was released in 1965. Marley would have been 20. From what I've read it sounds like Marley first close experience with Rastafari came when he left school to focused on music and befriended a famous rastafari Jamiacan singere Joe Higgs. However it should be noted that also on Marley's first album is a version of the song "One Love". His next albums comes 6 and 8 years later. You can hear some that some of his ideas are starting to fall into place, but he still isn't the Bob Marley that everyone knows. An example of this is the song 400 Years that is posted below.

400 Years - Bob Marley & The Wailers

In 1974 on the album Natty Dread we see the Bob Marley we are more familiar with, with songs like "No Woman No Cry", "Natty Dread", "So Jah Seh", etc. I still think his sound is a little different that what come later but ... I also think his lyric writing skills got better over time. I just thought it was interesting to see how his music changed over the years.

Rastafari Symbols

In the video on Rastafari some of the symbols I found were the signs posted around the village, the houses, the fire on top of the mountain, and the turban/dreadlocks. My interpretation of these symbols is not solely based on the video. I am applying the reading to video to assist in the understanding of the symbols. The signs with R/X placed around the village are I think perhaps the most symbolic of the Rastafari outlook on society, right over wrong and black over white. All of the houses being painted red, green, yellow, and black I also feel is symbolic of their homeland Africa. The fire on the mountain top that remain continually lit could represent the ever present divinity within everything and that connects everything. The video didn't say a whole lot about the significance of the turban that I could understand, but it did mention dreadlocks. The symbolism of the dreads in the video supports all that the book said about them but in the video you can see the dreadlocks are treated with a sort of reverence that show the importance of the dreads and what they stand for.

The rastafari life portrayed in the video is different than the way of life discussed in the book, but both are different than what I had envisioned. All I knew before this class was Bob Marley and pot smoking, but I never had a great understanding of how they fit together. From Marley's music I associated Rastafarian ideals with "one love" and equality and freedom. I was very surprised at the emphasis placed on violence, I expected something like Gandhi's peaceful resistance. I also didn't realize how strongly the rastafians felt about race. I knew it was a black power sort of thing, but I don't know how closed of it is to white people. Reading some of the comments on the video we watched I see that people have different opinions of whether or not white people can be rastafari. I've never before thought of rastafari as a religion probably because as the book says it is very individualized. Because of the "one love" idea I think that all races should be accepted, but if you look at the major ideas outlined in the book it becomes difficult to see these beliefs being adopted completely be whites. I think this race issue will have to be addressed in the rastafarian culture, because I think the younger generations are less likely to view whites as bad. However, I could see this issue being left up to the individual to decide and the elders not changing any ideology for it, but I do think the ideology takes a pretty clear stance on the race issue by associating all whites with Babylon.

Also just to leave thing on an interesting note... one of the mental images I have of Bob Marley is of him shaking his hair like he is in the picture to the left. Now after reading this book I have to wonder if this is Bob Marley caught up in the moment on stage or intentionally releasing the earthforce built up in his dreads to destroy Babylon.

The Charismatic Personality

Earlier this year I saw for the first time the movie Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. It is about Jim Jones and his following and everything leading up to their mass suicide. For a brief explanation of Jim Jones and his church read this http://www.religioustolerance.org/dc_jones.htm. It is just the basics but it will give you an idea of what was going on. The following videos are the first twenty minutes of the movie, but I hope after watching them you will see why I think Jim Jones is an example of the charismatic leader.

Jones clearly has the personality that is talked about in a charismatic leader. This is especially obvious when he is able to get his followers to leave their homes and loved-ones to travel across the country with him. He does get some of his authority from tradition,being a reverend in the church, but his power to break away from the mainstream religion and still keep his congregation comes from his charisma. Jones's movement also seems to fit Weber's theory in that it came about during a time of social unrest because of the fights for racial equality. Jones's church's strong stance on race and emphasis on having members of many races I think makes it hard to deny the effect that the attitudes and struggles faced by people of the times had on the creation of Jones's church. Eventually these ideas of equality spread not just to races but also economic statuses. Jones seem to pride himself on the fact that people from all different backgrounds. Some methods of routinization cal be found in Jones's church. The most obvious one I can think of is how his message is based off the bible. Like the Rastafarian movement he takes something familiar to everyone and frames it in a new light emphasizing certain parts. Despite using tradition as a way to routinize his church some flaws are that he is the only leader. Jones is in charge and has the final say in everything no one would be able to carry-on after him. Also he becomes much more radical over time, which will not gain him more followers. Finally Jones personally just looses it and so his church falls apart. I just thought it was interesting all of the people who could be considered charismatic leaders.

Making Ethiopia Special

This story from the Kebra Negast seems to me to be making Ethiopia into another Israel or holy land. I don't know the story of how Israel became the promise land and was chosen/given to people by god, how it became Zion, but this story is sort of doing the same for Ethiopia. I know we talked a bit about this in class already with New Jerusalem, but I think that the creation of a town referred to as New Jerusalem further demonstrates that an "Israel status" is what Ethiopia is trying to achieve. In the story this status change happens on page 35 when Solomon has a dream that the sun moves from Israel to Ethiopia. The dream even makes it sound as though Ethiopia will be a better place than Israel. "And He [the Sun] paid no heed whatsoever to Israel, and He ascended his former throne." I interpret this to mean the the Sun, or god's power maybe, now resides in Ethiopia, which is much better that Israel because the text states it has ascended its former throne. This story/dream also from my perspective is giving the Ethiopians some guidelines on behavior. When the Sun leaves Israel, the Israelites become angry, and they fight to destroy the Sun. Their actions further strengthen the Sun decision to leave I think, and so this serve as a lesson to Ethiopians that one they are worthy enough to be the throne for the Sun now and two that even when unfortunate things happen they must still behave in accordance with gods rules unlike Israel did. On a side note, that passage about what Israel did to the Sun reminds me a bit of the crucifixion of christ, but I could by reading too much into things.

























Also another tangent apparently Kebra Negast means Glory of the Kings in Amharic. We talked in class about how the monarchy in ethiopia was extremely strong, and it has just donned on me that this story not only establishes Ethiopia's status that I mentioned earlier but also is the background story of the monarchy. The new Israel status and the monarchy are a self-perpetuating system. The monarchy's power and Ethiopia's status are both supported by the other and their connection through this story.

Comment on Emily Kaplan's Blog About Numbers

I can't post this comment on Emily Kaplan's blog, but I wanted to share it so Emily if you get this it is in response to your post about numbers and what they symbolize. Here is the link to Emily's blog. The post I'm responding to is Symbolic Numbers on May 3. http://emilyskblog.blogspot.com/

I would agree with you that it is very interesting to see how the different religions interpret the same symbol differently. I'd also agree with you that religion is all about interpretation. I feel a bit like a broken record saying this but no two people find the exact same thing in religion. There can be no true religion because everyone's is different. Augustine acknowledges the interpretive difference when he says how wonderful it is the bible can be understood/interpreted in so many different ways. However Augustine would disagree with me when I say there can be no true religion because he claims that eventually everyone will end up in the same place, loving God and loving your neighbor.

"Conceptual Blending and Analogy" and Religion

Gilles Fauconnier's article "Conceptual Blending and Analogy" explains how people seem to innately understand analogies or metaphors. He examines this with an experiment involving a computer. People are able to move and grasp objects on the computer like they would in reality because they apply some of the concepts from real life to the computer and ignore the characteristics of the computer that don't fit. This is conceptual blending. A simpler explanation in my opinion would be something like this, the ability to apply varying levels of concepts, depending on what is needed, from one activity to another. It is a natural thing for humans to automatically do this and so it follows that it would be natural for this to be a frame through which people understand their religions. The psalms uses analogies many times that people seem to clearly understand such as referring to people as sheep or making the story of one person's life an analogy for the rules of God and also their own lives.  Fauconnier discusses briefly in his article how people find analogies based on their personal backgrounds such as the latter psalms metaphor I just mentioned.  We too have talked about this issue in class several times that people all people interpret things differently no two people share the exact same views, ideas, interpretations, etc. Augustine also addresses people's innate ability to analyze as well as views things differently from one another when he exclaims how wonderful of God it was ti create a work, the bible, that can be interpreted in an infinite amount of correct ways as long as the end result of love god love your neighbor remains.  The journeys are all different but everyone will meet at the same place in the end, with god.  If one were to plug religion into the example Fauconnier gives about the boat race with the ghost boat and the present one it might be something like this.  Religious texts are the ghost boat and a person's ideas and experiences are the present boat. Our minds conceptually blend the two with the result not being a comparative boat race, but how the religious text fits into our lives and what message we interpret it as telling us.

Sam Harris

We watched an interview with Sam Harris in class on Friday, and I was very interested in his ideas. The video above is Harris telling us a bit about his background and how 9/11 sparked these recent interests in religion. I agree with some of his ideas about religion and how heavily people base judgements off of it, but at the same time I feel he is speaking in extremes and not being understanding. In this video and his other videos I've watched I always get the impression that he thinks what he believes is right and everyone else is unintelligent for believing in religion. I'm glad that he has learned about other religions and didn't make a blanket judgement like I think many people today do , but I still think Harris is discounting some of the elements of religion. He talks about how people in the US turned to religion after 9/11, and I don't think that is such a bad thing. As I stated above once we start basing all of our decisions on religious ideals that is a problem, especially in a country where not everyone shares those ideals. However comfort is a function of religion. Many of the psalms we read were written as a way to find comfort and reassurance. Even the ur-religions and mounds served to proved comfort to their creators.

If you are interested in more of what Sam Harris has to say check out http://www.samharris.org/. On the website he has links to interesting recent articles on religious topics.