PRIMITIVE MATERIALS TRADITION

RELIGION FEATURE OF SOCIAL LIFE

Unexplainable Experiences of People o Life & death & Dreams o Faulty Rationality/Cognitive Error -wrong use of reason -led to the conception/belief of spirits

RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT
Spirits o Life & Anima becomes separated from the body o All beings have spirits -reasonable but faulty o Friendly Spirits & Bad Spirits o Most powerful spirits o Development of Animism

TYPE OF SENTIMENT/FUNCTION
Cognitive Religious Sentiment -provides answers & explanations about unknowable & fearsome experiences

ANIMISM (Tylor)

NATURISM (Muller)

*TYLOR & MULLER

Unexplainable Experiences of People Divine Agents o Natural Disasters & Fearsome Phenomena o Causing natural events/phenomena o Faulty Rationality/Cognitive Error -wrong use of reason -led to the conception/belief of divine agents 1. The cognitive error/mistake of religion (regardless if it actually holds truth or not) 2. Religion helped people explain & understand/make sense of what is going on around them 3. Also applies to modern religion 4. Why religion persists: it made men cognitively sane & stable 5. Particular experiences led to the conceptualization of concepts Traumatic Father & Son Relationship/ Oedipus Complex o Neurosis -mental imbalance that causes anxiety, stress esp. when confronted w/ feared abject o Led to the conception of father-substitute to overcome neurosis 1. Oedipus complex is NOT universal Emotional Laden Relationships & Problematic Relationships/Experiences - fragile & vulnerable condition o Led to the conception of a father-god -triggered the need for a protector & secure father-god Social Relationships & Individual/Social Experiences - Collective Morality Totemism 1. Do not harm/kill totem 2. Incest taboo -So much like Oedipus complex

Cognitive Religious Sentiment -provides answers & explanations about unknowable & fearsome experiences

TOTEMISM (Freud)

Ethical Religious Sentiment -prescribed moral standards & normative behavior Control libido Control aggression (towards father/totem)

*CRITICISM ON FREUD

TOTEMISM (Freud Revision)

Conceptualization of a Father-God -comforting & protective, makes us feel secure

Provides protection & security to overcome the fragility of human condition

TOTEMISM (Durkheim)

False Attribution -beliefs & moral prescriptions came from a deity b/c no other can coerce people to follow dictates o Collective Conscience -nonmaterial social fact External Coercive o Development of Totemism & other religions

Ethical Religious Sentiment -prescribed moral standards & normative behavior -for social cohesion