SA2602 Book review
Syncretism/anti-syncretism: the politics of religious synthesis
Charles Stewart, Rosalind Shaw,1994
Syncretism, a controversial topic in anthropology yet occur to me a rather new and unfamiliar subject. Reading Stewart and Shaw’s work would be my first encounter to the idea and discussion of syncretism, and aided as an introduction to syncretism. Thus the aim of this book review is to show my understanding, merely as a novice reader trying to get a glimpse of the seemingly obscure term and discourse about syncretism, and evaluation on this literature.
Syncretism/anti-syncretism: the politics of religious synthesis aim to redefine syncretism, re-examine the idea of syncretism and discuss syncretism as subject of debate between religion and ritual. Composed of 10 chapters by several contributors, this book covers the subject in aspects of syncretism in colonial subject as dominance and subversion(Kempf), syncretism as tolerance and as hierarchical encompassment (van der Veer); unintentional making of syncretism via translation(Meyer) and misinterpretation lead to form of anti-syncretism(Yalcin-Hackmann). I will focus on Charles Stewart’s Syncretism as a dimension of nationalist discourse in modern Greece and Lale Yalcin-Hackmann’s Are fireworks is Islamic? Towards an understanding of Turkish migrants and Islam in Germany.
Yalcin-Hackmann argues that any investigation of syncretic tendencies in migrant culture and religion has to handle the problem of
Judaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people. The word “Judaism” derives from the Greek Ioudaismos, a term first used in the Intertestamental Period by Greek-speaking Jews to distinguish their religion from Hellenism. The unifying principles of Judaism are an identity by covenant with God as His “chosen
Searching back to its beginnings, religion has a profound impact on cultural identity through the presence of deep and ancient roots that connect a people to their glorious, memorable and often idealized histories. By equating a given religion with the success of a society often times national pride and religious pride become intertwined. Though this manifests itself differently in each country, throughout all four surveyed this attribute seemed to be present.
Caleb L. Fry and Lauren T. Rios Department of Anthropology Lake Tahoe Community College One College Drive South Lake Tahoe, California 96150 USA Faculty Advisor: Daryl G. Frazetti Abstract
Bruilly, E., O'Brien, J., Palmer and Palmer, M. (1997) Religions of the World, Great Britain: Macdonald Young.
Is religion alone that powerful enough to coerce an abundance of immigrants to start afresh with a new country? One of the main reasons immigrants move to the United States or any nation for that matter is for religious freedom and independence. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, readers follow the lives and narratives of two different women and their struggle to survive their brutal society. Through the book, the subject of religion and its impact on the two women is broached and further explored. In Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, religion serves as justification of several aspects of the Afghan society; religion is used to justify violence, patriarchy, and discrimination against women.
This struggle for change displays the countless changes in values that surround this topic. Before, the religious groups fought to have their religious freedom. Now, with the changing values and views of another group, this stability is being threatened. As such, the struggles of change is brought forth. (Perreaux, 2013).
Is religion alone that powerful enough to coerce an abundance of immigrants to start afresh with a new country? One of the main reasons immigrants move to the United States or any nation for that matter is for religious freedom and independence. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, readers follow the lives and narratives of two different women and their struggle to survive their brutal society. Through the book, the subject of religion and its impact on the two women is broached and further explored. In Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, religion serves as justification of several aspects of the Afghan society; religion is used to justify violence, patriarchy, and discrimination against women and other minority groups.
Religion and Education is a society "norm", meaning it is very typical. Norms such as these are apart of what keeps our society balanced. Society is a giant system of interconnected parts that work together to maintain a state of balance; Or is society just in a state of perpetual conflict? Rather than conformity, balance is maintained through domination and power of the higher class. Two Sociologist set out to find the answer of how our society remains relatively stable and gave us two theories. The "Conflict theory" and "Functionalist Theory". Though these Sociologist both agree that religion and education help maintain societies stability, there reasoning behind it couldn 't be more opposite.
Nye discusses the term “religion” twice as a noun, once as an adjective, and once as a verb. One noun represents religion as a “universal” aspect of humanity, the other noun signifies a specific religion, the adjective form describes a behavior or experience, and the verb is the act of practicing, itself. The various meanings of the term “religion” as demonstrated by these parts of speech set up the basis for the fact that religion has a multitude of implications. Nye focuses on these complexities, and, in particular, draws attention to religion’s variations cross-culturally. He writes how even within the same religion, religious practices and beliefs can differ greatly. He also explains how the word “religion” itself is difficult to translate into other languages, and some cultures do not even have a word for it. Nevertheless, Nye argues that, rather than the as a term, religion can be translated globally in terms of the kind of life it prescribes.
Indigenous religions exist in every climate around the world and exhibit a wide range of differences in their stories, language, customs, and views of the afterlife. Within indigenous communities, religion, social behavior, art, and music are so intertwined that their religion is a significant part of their culture and virtually inseparable from it. These religions originally developed and thrived in isolation from one another and are some of the earliest examples of religious practice and belief. The modern world; however, has taken its toll on these groups and many of their stories, customs, and beliefs have been lost to, or replaced by, those brought in as a result of popular culture and the missionary work of Christians and Muslims.
I believe that Syncretism and dualism are both good descriptions of the situation of native peoples in North America. Before the American Revolution when New France, New Spain, and New England first came in to contact, harsh invasive ways were not the only methods used in attempting to assimilate Amerindians into European culture and religion.
The stories which humans tell about their origins are always cherished and held in high regard. In fact, no culture has existed which has not created or attempted to create some story of origins. Every culture has had some means in which to say this is where we came from. Especially in cultures where religion found itself prevalent, the mythology of origins became not only a status or anthropology but also a theology. In which case, we find that Christianity is not alone in this struggle, though our struggle may be unique in kind.
As of today, the world’s two largest religions Christianity and Islam share an estimated 3.6 billion members, more than half of the world’s population. On the surface, they appear to have almost nothing in common, however, as one goes beyond the surface and examines the other factors such as the rituals, beliefs, ethics, founders, and convictions, the two religions share many similarities. However, in order to truly see and understand these similarities and differences, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam.
Since the emergence of anthropology in the late 1800’s, the customs and methods of this academic discipline have been altered in many ways. It is assumed that in the early years of anthropology, theorists relied on travelers in order to articulate their theories (Dahl 2017). This practice is known as armchair anthropology and involves creating theories without any fieldwork. Some examples of famous armchair anthropologists include Edward Burnett Tylor and James Frazer. The work of both theorists involved no travelling or conducting of fieldwork. Early anthropology focused on primitive cultures and how societies transformed from being barbaric to civilized. In modern days, anthropology is discovering new topics to study every day and the information relies a great amount on fieldwork and lab work conducted by anthropologists to support their findings. As some of the early methods of anthropology continue to be used by anthropology, more are being developed in order to produce more efficient research and theories.
The two that I want to compare and contrast is the conflict theory and the symbolic interaction theory in religion. Conflict theorist say that religion legitimates the social inequalities of society. By this, they mean that religion teaches that the existing social arrangements of a society represent what God desire for, example during the Middle Ages, Christian theologians taught the divine rights of kings. This meant that God determined who would become king and set him on the throne. It was The king ruled in God’s place, and it was the duty of a king’s subjects to be loyal to him. To disobey the king was to disobey God. Symbolic interactionist focus on the meanings that people give their experiences. All religions use symbols to provide