Question

A critical introduction into the study of religion.

Explain why Martin treats religion as a social construct—both the category ‘religion’ and the stuff it denotes—using Kessler’s discussion of the Dao and Anselm as examples.

How Society Works: Essentialism Animism and Essentialism According to some of the theories of primitive savages and primitive religion discussed briefly in Chapter 1, religion originated when ancient peoples attempted to understand and explain mysterious forces whose causes were beyond their primitive" understanding. What causes thunder? It must be animated by a thunder god. What causes rain? must be animated by a rain god. According to this theory of religion-called "animism by carly anthropologists these primitives" imagined and projected invisible agents behind natural phenomena when guessing as to their causes. According to EB. Tylor one of the first anthropologists to make this claim, these spirits they projected onto natural phenomena were of course completely flusory, butuvates were nevertheless attempting to be rational. "Tylor wished to show that primitive religion was rational that it arose from observations of the natural world, however inadequate and from logical deductions about them, however faulty that it constituted a crude natural philosophy (Evans-Pritchard 1965, 26). That is, they were like toddlers trying hard to explain natural phenomena-and thus they deserved some credit for their efforts but they were still for the most partnera toddlers For EE Evans-Pritchard later anthropologist-theories of animism presented natives as if they were childish and in obvious need fatherly administration ... (as well as superstitious... (and) incapable of either critical or sustained thought (8). Evans-Pritchard rightly rejected Tylor's theory as an unfair caricature, especially insofar as Tylor had never "been near a primitive people (6) and instead based his theory almost entirely on speculation. While animism as a general theory of religion has largely fallen out of favor, there is nevertheless probably a bit of truth to it. Contemporary theorists and cognitive scientists have demonstrated that most mammals have some tendency toward animism in the sense of a tendency to project agency where there is none: "cats see fluttering leaves as prev, horses see blowing bags as threats, and dogs hear sirens as howls (Guthrie 1993. 391 When we hear moises in our houses at night, we wonder if there are prowlers, burglars, or ghosts-unless we have pets, in which case we tend to assume it's just the cat running around. We seem to automatically assume that there is an agent of some sort causing the noise, rather than dismissing it as the house settling Presumably this tendency offers us an evolutionary advantage animals that hear noises, perceive a predator behind them and run away are more likely to survive longer than those who are predisposed to detect predators at all even if they end up with a few false positives, such as when the wind is just rustling the bushes. U you don't startle at dangerous motions, you'll soon be somebody else's super (Dennett 2007, 100) While few of us today are persuaded that there is a rain god behind main or a thunder god behind thunder. I would argue in a way that we are al still animists-in the sense that we proxect causal agency where non exists -every time we assume that there is some essence to individuals in a social group, an essence that organizes and determines their behavior "Essentialism, however, is perhaps a better word for this than animism One of the most obvious examples of essentialism in recent human history is race essentialism. Prior to the nineteenth century and for most of Western history-Christians assumed that all races had their origin in Adam and Eve. This w as meaning that all

Answer 1

So, here are few instructions on how to present the essay.

Introduction : Brief on the problem you are addressing- here you just have to breif on what is religion and why is it a social construct, also include a little information on the Martin theories.(Note: do not describe the theories or the actual concept in the introdution part.)

Definitions : Define the terms religion and social construct in two or three lines each.

Body : The body of the essay can be written in paragraphs. Firstly start with the actual description of why Martin treats Religion as a social construct. Followed by Kessler’s discussion of the Dao and Anselm. Quote few examples which can brief on the reason why religion is being treated as social construct.

Conlcusion : Summarise the thesis or statement very briefly and give a concluding sentence related to the matter discussed in the body of essay.