Cultural Anthropology and the many Functions of Religion

Abstract

lReligion has many interprétations, many facts and a host of functions. In the two precedmg papers lts mam function-even if the mterpetation varied-was either a sociological or a structural one: religion gives a group cohésion and orders a universe. Yet human life is not always ordered, neither is respect for or obédience to the group everywhere paramount. The erratic mdividual often moves from the more or less straight and narrow path his culture has laid out for mm, not only causing lots of trouble and strife, but paving the way for religious innovation and cultural change. American anthropology m several of lts mynad facets, has given ample attention to this dialectic relation between an individual and his religion. The dialectic is quite clear: just as any individual is the product of his society and vice versa the society sterns from individuals, any religion not only is imposed upon lts participants, but to a large extent is moulded by these very personalities it has been instrumental in shaping. Of course this sounds like the age old chicken-and-egg problem; so to avoid any insoluble dilemma let me rephrase the question: what kind of function does religion perform for the individual participant? Let us start with the first question. The experiment in survival called homo sapiens does not live just with his brams, but to a large extent with his glands too. Emotions, though heavily underplayed in religious

Fundamentos teóricos del Materialismo histórico para una Estética de la imagen en sociedades mesoamericanas

“…Esta conducta no sólo afecta la elección de ideas a socializar, sino la de espacios a utilizar 116 , a los cuales se les asigna una atribución física y conceptual, lo que solemos denominar "paisaje." 117 La religión, entonces, tiene la función de dar cohesión al grupo, y de mantener el orden del universo 118 , y, como estrategia para su estudio, deben vincularse las condiciones ideales y materiales de existencia, cuantificables y calificables, en términos de evidencia material.…”