Transcript Cultural Explanations of Life and Death

Communication
between cultures
8TH EDITION
Chapter 5
Worldview: Cultural
Explanations of
Life and Death
© Cengage 2012
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Key Ideas
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Worldview
Worldview and culture
Manifestations of worldview
Religion
Overview of major world religions
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Worldview
• The worldview of a people is the way they
interpret reality and events, including images of
themselves and how they relate to the world around
them. (Bailey and Peoples 2011, p. 31)
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Worldview
• Worldview topics
– What is the purpose of life?
– Is the world ruled by law, chance, or “God”?
– What is the right way to live?
– What are the origins of the universe and how did
life begin?
– What happens when we die?
– What are the sources of knowledge?
– What is good and bad and right and wrong?
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Worldview and culture
• Culture provides a large portion of an
individual's worldview
• Worldview’ refers to the manner in which a
culture sees and expresses its relation to the world
around it. (Toelken 1996, p. 245)
• Worldview is imposed by collective wisdom as
a basis for sanctioned actions that enable
survival and adaptation
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Manifestations of worldview
• Worldview deals with how people perceive the
world and communicate within it
• A link between worldview and behavior are
seen in how a culture perceives the business
arena
– Foundational to business conduct are religious
and philosophical beliefs
– These beliefs are foundational to role perceptions,
behavior codes, ethics and how economic activites
are conducted
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Manifestations of worldview
• Constructs of worldview
– Religion as worldview
– Secularism as worldview
• Rejection of miracles and supernatural being
• Set of ethical standards based on Humanism
• The finality of death
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Manifestations of worldview
– Spirituality as a worldview
• Self-discovery is important. Think not only about what
you are but what you choose to be.
• Learn to value silence, solitude, and quiet meditation.
• Practice mindfulness. Learn to observe your
environment and how you behave when you are in that
environment.
• Engage is creative self-expression. Connect yourself to
activities such as yoga, dance, music, and other such
activities.
• Seek simplicity in your lifestyle.
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Religion
• Religion comes from the Latin religare which
means to tie
• Religion and the sacred
– Provides explanations as values to the
unexplainable
– Provides principles and beliefs for issues
regarding the nature of life and death
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Religion
• Religion and personal conduct
– Establishes notions of right and wrong
– Responds to basic human need to understand the
purpose of life
• Religion in the 21st century
– Globalization and religion – growing call to
separate religion from other areas of life
– Conflict and religion – growing violence among
people of various religious convictions
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Religion
• Elements of religion
– Speculation – religions helps to explain the
unexplainable
– Scared writing
– Religious rituals – through rituals members of a
religion recall and reaffirm important beliefs
– Ethics
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Christianity
• Major beliefs
• Single God who created the universe and also gave the
world his only son, Jesus Christ who gave his life on
the cross.
• The gravest problem in human life is sin
• Christianity is a total worldview that includes both the
religious and the secular dimensions of life because
Jesus lived among the people and suffered he
understands human pain, problems, and enticements.
• Man and woman are created in God's image.
• God is personal
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Christianity
• Cultural Expressions of Christianity
– Christianity and community – community and
fellowship through the church
– Christianity and individualism – individuals are
unique
– Christianity and doing – stresses hard work
– Christianity and the future – courage in the face
of adversity
– Christian notions of death – the afterlife of
heaven or hell
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Judaism
• Core Beliefs
– One universal and eternal God, the creator and
sovereign of all that exists
– Each person must be obedient to God-given
commandments in the Torah (the first five books
of the Bible)
– Humans are inherently pure and good and are
given free will
– Humans can live any way they choose and have
only to bear the consequences
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Judaism
• Branches of Judiasm
– Orthodox -retains as much as possible from the
traditional religious teachings found in classical
and ancient writings
– Reform - an attempt in the late eighteenth century
to modernize many of the long-established Jewish
practices so that Jews worldwide could assimilate
into non-Jewish communities without losing their
Jewish identity
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Judaism
• Branches of Judiasm
– Conservative Judaism - believe many of the rules,
rituals, and traditions of Orthodox practice are
necessary if Jewish identity is to be maintained
• Cultural expressions of Judaism
– Opposition and persecution
• oppression, genocide and persecution in history
• Jews have a hard time trusting non-Jews
– Learning – Jews have stressed education
throughout their history
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Judaism
• Cultural expressions of Judaism
– Justice – ensure moral treatment of others
– Family and community
• Larger Jewish community
• Immediate family
– Jewish notions about death
• Death is a natural process
• The Torah has no clear reference to afterlife at all
• The role of the family and community is important
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Islam
• Origins
– Muhammad received a revelation from God in 610
C.E.
– The messages were recorded in the Koran
– Messages established the social order that was to
become Islam
– Community and religion were one
– Muhammad established the city-state of Medina
– Missionary zeal of Islam helped it spread
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Islam
• Core Beliefs
– One God –Allah
– Belief in angels
– The Koran – the sacred text of Muslims
– Submission – submit to God and his will
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Islam
• Core Beliefs
– Predestination
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God is aware of everything.
God is the creator of everything.
God has documented all that has happened.
“Whatever God wills to happen happens, and whatever
He wills not to happen does not happen
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Islam
• Core Beliefs
– Judgment
• And those who believe and do good deeds, they are the
dwellers of Paradise, they dwell therein forever.” (Koran,
2.82)
• “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will not
be accepted from him and he will be one of the losers in the
Hereafter.” (Koran, 3:85)
• “Those who have disbelieved and died in disbelief, the earth
full of gold would not be accepted from any of them if it
were offered as a ransom. They have a painful punishment,
and they will have no helpers.” (Koran, 3:91)
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Islam
• Core Beliefs
– Five pillars of Islam
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Statement of belief
Prayer
Alms
Fasting
Pilgrimage.
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Islam
• Cultural expressions of Islam
– Message and response to Jihad
– A complete way of life – no distinction between
religion and society and governs all affairs public
and private
– Gender – gender roles are in a state of flux in
many Islamic countries
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Islam
• Cultural expressions of Islam
– Islamic notions about death
• Judgment, reward and punishment key themes
• Description of after life
• Day of Judgment (Day of Resurrection) when people
will be resurrected for God’s judgment according to
their beliefs and deeds.
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Hinduism
• Origins
– No central founder
– Most historians trace the origins of Hinduism to a
time four thousand years ago when a group of lightskinned Aryan Indo-European tribes invaded what is
now northern India
– Aryans moved into the Indus Valley, a blending of
cultures took place, since as “they mixed with native
peoples, they shared customs, traditions, rites,
symbols, and myths
– Movement spread by the communication of sacred
texts
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Hinduism
• Sacred Texts
– The Vedas
– The Upanishads
– The Bhagavad-Gita – three courses
• The discipline of knowledge, jnana-yoga
• The discipline of action, karma-yoga
• The discipline of devotion, bhakti-yoga.
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Hinduism
• Core beliefs
– Divine in everything – interconnectedness across
time and space
– Ultimate reality – physical world is not the only
reality
– Braham – the ultimate level of reality,
philosophical absolute, serenely blissful, beyond
all ethical or metaphysical limitations
– Multiple paths
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Hinduism
• Cultural expressions of Hinduism
– Complete way of life – pervades every part of a
person’s life
– Dharma – how people live and treat each other
– Karma – reaction and action can have good or bad
consequences
– Four stages of life
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Student
Householder
Forest dweller
Ascetic
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Hinduism
• Notions about death
– The soul is immortal
– Reincarnation
– Hindus learn not to fear death or grieve over the
death of loved ones
– A person’s soul does not die but passes into
another reincarnation
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Buddhism
• Origins
– In Buddhism, it is Buddha who is “the person who
has epitomized the human situation
– Founded by an Indian prince named Siddhartha
Gautama
– He became known as the Enlightened One
– Until his death at 80 in 483 B.C.E., Buddha
traveled throughout the Ganges Valley sharing
his insights with anyone who would listen
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Buddhism
• Core beliefs
– Buddha is not a God but a man
– All individuals have the potential to seek truth on
their own
– Four Noble Truths
• Life is suffering
• Much of our suffering is caused by craving, self-desire,
attachment, anger, envy, greed, ignorance, and self-delusion
regarding the nature of reality
• Because suffering has a cause it can be eliminated
• The Remedy (the eight fold plan)
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Buddhism
• The Eight Fold Plan
– Wisdom
• Right view is achieving a correct understanding and
accepting the reality and origins of suffering and the ways
leading to the cessation of suffering.
• Right purpose is being free from ill will, cruelty, and
untruthfulness toward the self and others.
– Ethical Conduct
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
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Buddhism
• The Eight Fold Plan
– Mental Discipline
• Right Efforts
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration
• Cultural expressions of Buddhism
– Use of silence
– Impermanency
– Karma
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Buddhism
• Buddhist notions about death
– Large portion of Buddha’s teaching focuses on
death
– It is inevitable
– A person is reborn
– Past Karma is rebirth itself
– A person’s past deeds play a role how many times
he or she is reborn
– Once there is enough good Karma a person will
experience Nirmana
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Confucianism
• No formal priesthood and almost no
congregational life
• Confucius the man
– Confucius was born in 551 B.C.E.
– What Confucius taught grew out of his observations
about the human condition in China during his
lifetime.
– Confucius asserted that government must be founded
on virtue, and that all citizens must be attentive to the
duties of their position
– Three thousand people came to study under him and
over seventy became well-established scholars
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Confucianism
• Core beliefs
– People are basically good and only have to learn
– By education a common man can become superior
– Deep commitment to social harmony
– Honoring upper members - son and father; minister
and ruler; wife and husband
• Sacred Writings – The Analects (sayings)
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Confucianism
• Cultural Expressions of Confucianism
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Jen (humanism)
Li (rituals, rites, proprieties, conventions)
Te (power)
Wen (the arts)
• Confucianism and communication
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Confucianism teaches empathy
Be aware of status and role relationships
Be aware of social etiquette
Confucianism encourages the use of indirect language
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Confucianism
• Confucian notions about death
– Not interested in death or after life
– Strive to live the best possible life while here on
earth
– Confucius urged his followers to engage in formal
practices ranging from funerals to the building of
small family shrines to honor the dead
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Summary
• Worldview is a culture’s orientation toward
God, humanity, nature, the universe, life,
death, sickness, and other philosophical issues
concerning existence.
• Although worldview is communicated in a
variety of ways (such as secularism and
spirituality), religion is the predominant
element of culture from which one’s
worldview is derived.
© Cengage 2012
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Summary
• Although all religions have some unique features,
they share many similarities. These include,
among other things, speculation about the
meaning of life, sacred writings, rituals, and
ethics.
• The six most prominent religious traditions are
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Confucianism. These traditions
present their members with advice on how to live
life and they offer explanations about death.
© Cengage 2012
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Communication
between cultures
8TH EDITION
Chapter 5
Worldview: Cultural
Explanations of
Life and Death
© Cengage 2012
Chapter 5 Worldview: Cultural Explanations of Life and Death
41