In our first week of society and lifestyles we were introduced to the topic of religion and society. This involved studying religion in social context. In our first week we discussed religion from both the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’. Religion from the ‘inside’ is the believers approach and religion from the ‘outside’ is the scholarly approach. There are also different types of religion. A established religion is a religion that has established roots and been around for a long time. A sect is a group which depends on voluntary membership and personal commitment. A cult is a group with more radical ideas and practices and usually has deviant and novel beliefs and is known for mind- control and manipulation of its members. We also discussed the functions of religion such as; life crisis, social relations, peace in the community and basic needs.
The independent study task included me researching the anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. I found that Malinowski believed that there were scientific laws of culture that could also be applied to religion. He said that magic was useful because it brought one individual into a leadership position during times of crisis in society. For Malinowski, religion was an institution that fulfils people’s biological and psychological needs.
In the tutorial, we discussed different aspects of religious diversity in groups. Again, my group was asked to focus on Bronislaw Malinowski. I felt that working in groups for this task was very beneficial, as everyone could share their ideas and views on the topic. Religious diversity is an area that I am still unsure of and I intend to do further reading on this area to improve my knowledge.
I now have a better understanding of the different functions of religion. However, I feel like I need to do further research on the other scholars such as Emile Durkheim as most of my research in today’s tasks was based on Bronislaw Malinowski.
This lecture and tutorial group was a great introduction to religion. It has left me keen to look in to the topics of religious diversity, scholars and the different ways that culture influences religion. I intend to do further reading in all of these areas.
