Syncretism and Religious Change

Abstract

A superficial view of what happens when a large number of people forsake their former religion for a new one is that some of the old beliefs become mixed with the new. It is a commonplace to hear that folk Catholicism is mixed with pagan survivals, or that newly converted African Christians are “not real Christians” or “have a veneer of Christianity”, because they have not totally abandoned all that they once believed. Such a judgment, however ethnocentric, would be pardonable in a European missionary who held a particular view of Christianity, which itself furnished a clear criterion of “real Christianity”. But similar opinions are often expressed by sociologists and anthropologists who profess themselves neutral with respect to religious belief. They are usually interested in “acculturation” or “culture contact” and consider it of great moment to be able to say how far any particular belief or practice lies along a continuum whose poles are marked “traditional” and “acculturated”. Such assumptions underlay Malinowski's much criticized scheme for the analysis of culture-contact in Africa and the great bulk of the work, by Linton, Wallace, Lanternari and others, on independent religious movements. This tradition of interpretation is still very much alive.

Archaeologies of Buddhist propagation in ancient India: ‘ritual’ and ‘practical’ models of religious change

“…In contrast to traditional 'conversion by the sword' models, Eaton (1993: 218, 264) argues that this system was not overtly concerned with 'conversion' but rather accommodated largely 'non-Brahmanized' communities, which in turn aligned themselves with the Muslim tradition of merging agrarian expansion with religious building activity; wherever a new village was founded, a temple would be established according to the religious affiliation of the local landlord, while the construction of a mosque would ensure that the economic and ideological links with the hinterland were combined with the political ties to the state. There are also parallels with 'religion as technique' models as developed by Peel (1968) in his study of Christianization in west Nigeria. Peel uses a medical analogy to understand Yoruba attitudes towards religion, whereby each religious 'technique' is viewed as an independent means of reaching certain spiritual or social goals, just as a new cough medicine may be used alongside a traditional flu remedy (Peel 1968: 124-5; see also Goody 1975).…”

“The Energy of Others”: Narratives of Envy and Purification among Former Grassroots Community Leaders in Porto Alegre, Brazil

“…For classic anthropological studies of witchcraft in Africa see, for example, Evans-Pritchard 1937;Foster 1965;Peel 1968. 7. For historical perspectives on women, envy, and witchcraft in other Latin American settings, see Osorio 1999 andFew 2002. tual side?"…”

Religion is not associated with HIV infection among women in Malawi

“…It is not known, however, whether such further cate gorizations would have demonstrated differences in HIV, as the theological differences between the religions may be limited, and in some cases, not at present all (84) . In addition, the categorization of areas as rural or urban in Malawi is problematic (41) , thus comparing our results with fi ndings from other countries in terms of urban vs. rural disparities must be done with caution.…”