Functional study of Rituals

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

In his book, 'Elementary forms of religious life' (1912), set the stage for functional analysis from the earlier emphasis on evolution. Durkheim showed how the Totemic rituals establish within the participants;

• sense of oneness
• sense of solidarity
• sense of commitment
• sense of morality

He also showed how the Totemic rituals led to a harmonious relationship between nature and humans. Every time the Totemic rituals were performed, all the values become reemphasized and reaffirmed. The repetitive nature of rituals was to recreate the collective sentiments of the people - a process necessary for survival. 

A. R. Radcliffe Brown (1881-1955)

Followed Durkheim to give a structural-functional analysis of collective rituals. He introduced the terms 'ritual value' and 'ritual status' to describe the symbolic significance of collective rituals. He showed the significance of taboos/prescriptions and prohibitions in creating a ritual status and thereby giving a ritual value to an object. (Ritual values are social values necessary for maintaining necessary sentiments essential for social reproduction and solidarity.) 

His hypothesis - rituals, by their restrictions on action, create anxiety that is just right to make a person realize the importance of a relationship. In this analysis, importance is given to the function of rituals for social structure.

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942)

His hypothesis - explains rituals as relieving anxiety rather than creating anxiety. In this analysis, importance is given to the function of rituals for individuals.

All human beings have certain amount of rational knowledge about the tasks we do. In spite, a certain degree of uncertainty prevails. The role of rituals is to take care of this 'grey area' which no amount of skill or knowledge can cover. The more dangerous the result of failure, greater the anxiety, more elaborate the rituals. For example, in his study of the Trobrianders, a seafaring community of Pacific Islands, Malinowski showed that when they are fishing in backwaters or otherwise safe zones, the fishermen perform little rituals, but they always perform elaborate rituals when they are venturing out in the deep sea or any long distance voyage where the risk factor is high.

The performance of rituals can be rationalized by the positive mindset/confidence it builds in an individual, who feels satisfied at having done all that could be, including those that are beyond human control and only the supernatural can take care of. 

In his book, 'The Coral gardens and their Magic' (1935), he showed how rituals performed by magicians help to regulate agricultural work and imposes rational time schedule that actually helps in scientific management of productive activities. Once activities are projected as a sacred duty, there is greater compliance and less chance of people defaulting. 

Reference: IGNOU Study Materials

Cultural Relativism and Ethnocentrism

Cultural relativism : 

• Cultural Relativism/ Cultural determinism approach was first formulated by Franz Boas in North America in the 19th century. He says no culture should be judged by the standards of another. Cultural relativism views people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture. It places a priority on understanding other cultures, rather than dismissing them as “strange” or “exotic.” Any part of a culture must be viewed from within its cultural context-not that of the observer or the notion that there are no universal standards by which all cultures may be evaluated. Cultures must be analyzed with reference to their own histories and cultural traits understood in terms of the cultural whole. (IGNOU)
• J.F. Lafitau (1724) - insisted that alien ways of life should be observed and described not according to prevailing European standards of what is proper/moral, but by consideration of the conditions under which these ways of life exist.
• The anthropological practice of suspending judgment and seeking to understand another culture on its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living.  
• Examine each culture within the context of its own beliefs.
• Acknowledges that other societies are, like our own, reasonable responses to the circumstances they must deal with.
• The notion that judgments should not be made concerning the merits of one way of life over another.
• The attempt to understand and evaluate each cultural system in terms of its own internally consistent logic. (Miller et al.)
• The argument that behavior in a particular culture should not be judged by the standards of another. (Kottak)
• Resistance to 'universal' assumptions about socio-cultural processes.
• The proposition that cultural differences should not be judged by absolute standards. (A History of Anthropological theory)

(Relativism - judgments, truths, or moral values have no absolutes, and can only be understood relative to the situation/ individuals involved.)

Ethnocentrism : 

• The opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct and the only true way of being fully human.
• Creates prejudice against other ethnic groups.
• Tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to apply its own cultural values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures. (Kottak)
• Scholar's own moral system formed the basis by which other phenomena are judged. 
• The tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one's own culture. (Miller et al.)
• The white Europeans presenting their own culture as a benchmark for civilization put all other societies on an evolutionary scale. They justified each society as being at different levels of evolution based on their technological knowledge. Thus, giving rise to ‘cultural ethnocentrism’. This concept devalued the comparative method, as it was used mainly to accentuate the scholars' own society as ‘superior’ to the societies of the people under study. (IGNOU)
• In his book “Folkways” Sociologist William Graham Sumner coined the term ethnocentrism to refer to the tendency to assume that one’s culture and way of life are superior to all others. (Sumner 1906)
• As students of Anthropology, we must shed our cultural biases or the assumption that our own culture is superior. Only when we accept our own culture as one among the many other cultures that exist in human societies across the World we will be able to conduct a proper study. 

References: Collected

Holism in Anthropology

Man is the only creature in the animal kingdom having two aspects: biological and cultural.

• Anthropology explores both - the biological and cultural aspects of man.
• In contrast to other disciplines like psychology, economics, zoology, and others, anthropology does not only study one aspect of human life but covers all dimensions of humanity. Only anthropology explores the entire panorama of human experiences.
• As well as studying humanity as a whole, it also seeks to comprehend the differences within it. That is the diversity and variation among human beings - across time and space.

Thus, Anthropology is the 'holistic science of man' --- a science of the sum of human existence.

It is this multifaceted holistic approach that makes it unique and accounts for the wide scope of the field. 

Anthropology has a 'four-field' approach that encompasses:

1. Physical/Biological Anthropology
2. Social/Cultural Anthropology
3. Archaeological Anthropology
4. Linguistic Anthropology

Each of these unique subdisciplines contributes to the understanding of different aspects of human beings in a holistic way. 

Examples: 

• Capacity for learning a language is genetically programmed in our DNA (our biology); however, our environment determines which language/s we end up learning (our culture).
• Anthropologists study Kinship not only as a cultural aspect. but also studies the variety of kinship patterns in different societies across the World.
• Anthropology is equally interested in the lifeways of a Polynesian farmer, and a Japanese businessman.

Anthropological study has the deepest possible time frame - starting from the earliest beginnings of human ancestors millions of years ago to the present. The broad time frame covered by anthropology is important because they believe any insights about contemporary human adaptations, either biological or cultural should be made with eye to past adaptations. 

To conclude, anthropology does not limit itself to

• any particular aspect of humanity
• any particular group of people
• any particular period in time

It is this holistic approach through which anthropologists are able to gain an understanding of humanity.

References: Collected from various sources.