1) Good questions! I might add a few more such as: how does the religion interact with and support the culture? Does every household maintain a holy hearth, or are there grandly soaring cathedrals? The former implies a lack of social hierarchy, no need of a religious caste or tithing to support them, reverence towards the women who are the keepers of the hearth, and possibly even no need for the culture to remain settled in one fiercely defended locale. The latter suggests extreme social specialization, strongly or rigidly defined hierarchies, a theocratic government or a ruler by divine right, the requirement of a priesthood to intercede for humanity to the deities, and possibly the existence of cities -- with all the associated disease, poverty, murder, starvation, and slavery which cities often create and unwittingly promote.
2) We live in a society which segregates the secular from the sacred, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon. To earlier societies (I specifically avoid pointlessly judgmental words such as 'primitive' here... :) there was no such separation, however. All of life was sacred and viewed with reverence. It was not until the creation of monotheistic deities believed to exist celestially 'out there' somewhere that the corporeal was viewed with disdain and disgust.
3) From an anthropological sense, deities are often idealized versions of what the culture considered most desirable. Therefore if you can define the culture, you can also by extension define its deities -- and the laws and mores of the culture will be expressed by the deities, in order to give supernatural cachet to the culture's norms.
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momijizukamori and
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Date: 1 Jun 2011 03:42 (UTC)1) Good questions! I might add a few more such as: how does the religion interact with and support the culture? Does every household maintain a holy hearth, or are there grandly soaring cathedrals? The former implies a lack of social hierarchy, no need of a religious caste or tithing to support them, reverence towards the women who are the keepers of the hearth, and possibly even no need for the culture to remain settled in one fiercely defended locale. The latter suggests extreme social specialization, strongly or rigidly defined hierarchies, a theocratic government or a ruler by divine right, the requirement of a priesthood to intercede for humanity to the deities, and possibly the existence of cities -- with all the associated disease, poverty, murder, starvation, and slavery which cities often create and unwittingly promote.
2) We live in a society which segregates the secular from the sacred, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon. To earlier societies (I specifically avoid pointlessly judgmental words such as 'primitive' here... :) there was no such separation, however. All of life was sacred and viewed with reverence. It was not until the creation of monotheistic deities believed to exist celestially 'out there' somewhere that the corporeal was viewed with disdain and disgust.
3) From an anthropological sense, deities are often idealized versions of what the culture considered most desirable. Therefore if you can define the culture, you can also by extension define its deities -- and the laws and mores of the culture will be expressed by the deities, in order to give supernatural cachet to the culture's norms.
Hope that's interesting to start with! :)