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oathkeepr
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social origin of categories of human understanding
- the categories came through religious origins
- collective representations are a vast cooperative effort that extends through space and time
- repeated history
- people categorize based on collective experience (religion)
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Definition of religion
- Difference between sacred/profane
- Rituals and beliefs
- Having a moral community
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Sacred and Profane
- Profane is the daily life
- Sacred is set around prohibitions, rituals elevate the object, place, or group
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Totemism
- system of beliefs where humans are believed to have a special relationship with an object, animal or plant AKA a totem
- Example Oski Bear for Berkeley student
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the nature of religion as a social creation
- Things are sacred when there is a moral consensus on their sacredness.
- Religions are collective representations, i.e. they are system of ideas by which people represent their society and the world to themselves.
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Two types of Rites
Negative and Positive
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Negative rites
- a mark to differentiate sacred from profane
- Rites of prohibition / asceticism: abstinence, retreats, fasts
- Purpose is to detach oneself from the profane world
- mental and physical suffering to purify body/soul
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Positive rites
- Purpose is to affirm one’s relation with the realm of the sacred; usually in the form of celebration
- Prepared by negative rites
- Rites of consecration, sacrifice
- Example: graduation, parades, funerals
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social function of symbols and rites (Durkheim's functionalism)
Functionalism: refers to the idea that religion and social rights serve the function of increasing solidarity and affirming collective consciousness
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Rites: (definition given in lecture)
Rituals definition
- Rites: “rules of conduct relative to sacred things”
- Rituals: organized around sacred objects as its focal point and organized into cultic practice, was the fundamental source of the “collective conscience” that provides individuals with meaning and binds them into a community
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