Transcript Religion and Med

Religion and Healing in
Human Culture
Functions of Religion
Types of Supernatural Forces
Religious Practitioners
Revitalization Movements
Medical Anthropology
Different Causes of Illnesses
Variation in Illness across Culture Boundaries
Culture-Bound Syndromes
Medical Pluralism
What is Religion?
• Belief and ritual
concerned with
supernatural
beings, powers,
and forces.
– Probably existed
since Neanderthal
times, according
to archaeological
evidence.
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• Religions fill many social
and psychological
functions and needs:
– to explain death
– to give hope
– to explain the natural realm
and help cope with it
– to offer enlightenment
– as a survival function
– as a boundary
maintenance mechanism
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Communication with the Divine
• Prayer – to ask a
supernatural for
something.
• Magic – to compel
a supernatural to
do something.
– Sorcerers / witches
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• People communicate
with the supernatural
in many ways,
– Spontaneous or
rehearsed
– Aloud or thought
– Possession?
– Divination
• Seeking specific advice
from the supernatural
– Trance
• physical trauma,
hallucinogens and music
• Over 90% of all cultures
trance in worship.
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Types of Supernatural Forces
• Anthropologists group these forces into four
major categories:
–
–
–
–
deities
ancestral spirits
animatism
animism
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Deities
• Always great, often
remote beings who
control the universe & its
creation.
• Few religions are
monotheistic (one deity)
in nature
– Judaism, Christianity and
Islam, all with similar roots.
– Sikhism
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• Most deity religions are polytheistic (more than one god):
– Hinduism, Shinto, Haitian vodoun, many ancient state religions,
etc.
• Some pantheons have overarching, all-important gods:
– Zeus /Jupiter (Greco-Roman)
– Ometeotl (Aztec)
– Brahman (ब्रह्मन ्, Hindu)
– Dryghten (complementary Goddess and God, Wicca)
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Ancestral Spirits
• Souls of the deceased
who intercede in human
affairs
• They may be prone to our
problems
– In some African religions,
ancestral spirits can die a
second time.
– In China, the living must
provide for the dead
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• We must not offend them
– Ex.: the Zuni katsinas (provide rain)
• Not all ancestors are worshiped
– Ex.: Catholic saints.
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Animism
• Nature – and
everything in it – is
inhabited by all sorts
of spirits.
– The most widespread
of all belief systems
– Prevalent in foraging
societies.
• The spirits are less
remote than deities
– Good, bad, neutral.
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• Some familiar
examples:
– the Irish bean sidhe
(banshee)
– the English Lady of the
Lake
– faeries, gnomes, trolls,
etc.
– ghosts (esp. those of
animals and things)
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Animatism
• Belief in impersonal,
overarching energies /
forces (luck, fate, karma
and dharma, “The
Force”)
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Ex.: Māna and Tapu in the Pacific
• Melanesians and
Polynesians believe
in māna, a “power just
beyond the senses.”
– Objects accumulate
māna over time,
becoming holier and
more powerful.
• Tapu (taboo) is a
negative type of
māna.
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• Different supernatural forces can intermingle in
the same religion, such as:
– Roman religion – gods (Jupiter), ancestral spirits
(lares)
– Vodoun – combination of Catholic monotheism &
ancestor devotion (saints), Yoruba polytheism &
animatism, and Taíno animism
– Christianity – God, saints, holy relics
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Life After Death?
• Different religious systems
have different beliefs about an
afterlife.
– Christian/Muslim concept of
Heaven and Hell
– Lugbara ancestors
– Zuni katsinas
– Hindu reincarnation
– Chamula Maya blend Catholic
and Maya beliefs
• The dead go to the Underworld to
live like they did before
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Religious Practitioners
• Anthropologists recognize four major
groups of religions practitioners:
– Shamans
– Sorcerers / Witches
– Mediums
– Priests
• Any of these positions can be ascribed or
achieved, depending on the society.
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Shamans
• Part-time religious
figures who are
healers
– Can use magic for
good or bad
• Christian evangelical
faith healers may use
elements of
shamanism.
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Mediums
• Enter trance states to
heal or to relate
supernatural
messages
• Similar to shamans
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Sorcery and Witchcraft
• Sometimes low-status magic practitioners that are
sometimes of low status in their culture
– Use magic, not prayer; can use magic for good or harm
• NB: A Wicca religious practitioner is a priest and not a
witch.
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Priests
• Full-time religious
practitioners who
officiate at public
events.
• Have a high status in
their society.
– Often consulted as
teachers.
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Revitalization Movements
• Bursts of radical change mixed with resistance
to change are revitalization movements
– Serve as boundary maintenance mechanisms, to
“purify” a religion or unify a culture.
– Ex.: the Ghost Dance movement of the Great Plains
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Religion and Medicine
• Many cultures use supernatural forces to heal.
– Chinese chi, !Kung n/um
• Even in industrial societies, the two sometimes
mix.
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Ethnomedicine
• Study of a culture’s beliefs about
medicine and how to practice it.
– Is an important goal of medical
anthropology.
– Hot vs. cold forces, wet vs. dry
forces, witchcraft or magic as
causes of illness?
– Plants used by indigenous peoples
share many properties similar to
Western chemicals.
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Illness across Culture Boundaries
• Different cultures
recognize different
illnesses and symptoms
– They treat them in different
ways.
• In stratified societies, the
wealthy have access to
the best medicine and
health conditions, and are
in the best health.
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Different Causes of Illness
• Cultures recognize any of
three main causes of illness
– Naturalistic forces
– Emotionalistic forces
– Personalistic forces
• Naturalistic forces cause
illness impersonally
(bacteria, viruses, genes,
chemicals)
– Body over mind/society
– Ex. Western medicine
• Emotionalistic forces cause
illness through emotion
– Ex. susto, induced by fright
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• Personalistic forces cause illness through
supernatural means (sorcery, witchcraft, ghosts,
animatism)
– Most societies attribute some illness to personalistic
forces.
• Includes illness caused by an imbalance of forces in the body
(more hot or cold, more wet or dry); to cure is to rebalance
those forces.
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Medical Anthropology
• The study of sickness and
medicine in their cultural
contexts.
• Is applied anthropology.
• Includes:
– community health
– medical / nursing education
– medical care for different
populations
– International demographics,
epidemiology, etc.)
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Worldwide Epidemics: AIDS
• Anthropologists study different worldwide epidemics
• Ex.: AIDS is among the most widely studied
– Prevalent in much of the world, epidemic in Africa and India.
• Different causes may be more prevalent in different
regions.
– US / Europe – IV drug use, male-to-male sexual contact are
most common causes
– Africa & Asia – male-to-female sexual contact, unsanitary health
conditions are most common causes
• 2001 - roughly 75 to 80% of all cases of HIV / AIDS
worldwide caused by male-to-female sexual contact.
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Example: Recent AIDS Statistics
http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm
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• Different cultures have
different attitudes toward
diseases, such as AIDS
• Ex.: Farmer & Kleinman’s
“AIDS as Human
Suffering”
– US - "Robert" - gay man
about to die from AIDS
• Doctors try to “fix” him
– Haiti - "Anita" - young
woman who got the disease
from her husband
• Dies very quickly, surrounded
by family
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Culture-Bound Syndromes
• Diseases that exist in a
specific cultural context
– Are real diseases, but don’t
exist outside of certain
cultures
• Exs.:
– Anorexia (starvation) and
bulimia (regular purging)
– Susto (loss of the spirit due to
fright)
– Windigo (fear that you are
becoming the legendary
Canadian windigo monster)
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Medical Pluralism
• The coexistence of two or more
medical systems
• Exists in many societies,
especially non-Western societies
that have come into contact with
Western medicine.
– In China, both traditional and
Western medicine are prevalent.
• Many Westerners use nonWestern medicine
–
–
–
–
holistic medicine
acupuncture
chiropractics
yoga / meditation
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Medicine and Ritual
• Rituals are followed in all
medical systems
• Ex.: Pearl Katz’s
observation of "Ritual in
the Operating Room”
– Many rituals served
specific functions, but
some no longer seemed to
– Each is integral to OR
procedure – if broken, you
must begin it all over again.
– Also controls joking in an
operation (when is it taboo)
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