Powers beyond the ordinary include both magic and religion. In this regard, the question arises about the relationship between these two phenomena, each of which is characterized by communication with the sacred. Without going into details, we will only note that magic means the manipulation of impersonal power with the help of special techniques, witchcraft in the name of achieving specific goals that correspond to the interests of the individual, not related to moral assessments. Its effectiveness depends on the accuracy of ritual magical actions and adherence to tradition.
Magic is associated with the stereotyping of human activity, while the religious rationalization of human activity is carried out in a different context - when the existence
is no longer fully ensured by tradition, and the sacred is transformed from an impersonal force diffused in the world into a divine personality rising above the profane world.
At the same time, there is a structural similarity between magic and religion - Weber draws attention to this when he introduces the concept of “magical symbolism.” At a certain stage, the real sacrifice is replaced, for example in a funeral ceremony, with a symbolic sacrifice, a drawing of a sacrificial animal, some parts of its body, etc. To a greater or lesser extent, the magical meaning of ritual action is preserved in religion. To understand religion, it is therefore important to identify the differences between religious symbols not only from magical ones, but in general from non-religious ones.
If the deity, i.e. omnipotent “other being” is in another world, then people gain access to this power in those actions that constitute practice religious life(cult activity) and the purpose of which is to serve as a connecting bridge between “this world” and the “other world” - a bridge along which the mighty power of the deity can be directed to help powerless people. In a material sense, this bridge is represented by “holy places”, which are simultaneously located both in “this world” and beyond (for example, the church is considered the “house of God”), intermediaries - “holy people” (clergymen, hermits, shamans, inspired prophets), endowed with the ability to establish contact with the forces of another world, despite the fact that they themselves still live in this world. This “connecting bridge” is represented not only by cult activities, but also in mythology and ideas about incarnations, reincarnations of deities who manage to be both deities and human beings. The mediator - be it a real human being (for example, a shaman) or a mythological god-man - is endowed with “borderline” features: he is both mortal and immortal. "The power of the Holy Spirit" is a magical power in the general sense of "sacred action", but it is also a sexual power - capable of impregnating women.
An important characteristic of every religion is its attitude towards magic and religion as “ideal types”, i.e. the degree of presence of magical elements in it and the degree of its rationalization: in some religions there is more of one, in others - of the other. Depending on this, the type of attitude towards the world inherent in a given religion is formed. The general trend of religious evolution is
Ber defines it as “the disenchantment of the world” and the strengthening of religious rationalization.
Ritual and myth. In many religions, the central place is not belief, but ritual behavior. So, in Judaism, for example, what is required of a believer, first of all, is not knowledge of dogmas, but certain, strictly regulated behavior, compliance with many instructions and rituals.
In the broadest sense of the word, ritual is a set of repeated, regularly performed actions in an established order. Ritual action is a form of socially sanctioned symbolic behavior and, unlike custom, is devoid of utilitarian and practical goals. Its purpose is different - it plays a communicative role, symbolizes certain meanings and attitudes in relationships in both everyday and official life, and plays a significant role in social education, control, exercise of power, etc. Ritual, unlike etiquette, is associated with conviction in its deep value sense.
Religious rituals, together with corresponding beliefs, are aimed at “sacred things”. A magical ritual is, in fact, a witchcraft action, a conspiracy, a spell, a technique for influencing the phenomena of the surrounding world. The performer of this action is the individual, not the collective. A magical ritual is pragmatically oriented - more towards a “material” result than towards values of a symbolic order. The meaning of magical action is not to “serve” a higher power, but to serve human needs.
In religious and theological works, this moment is reflected in the form of a contrast between archaic beliefs with the “ugly crust of magic” growing on them - “reverence for the Supreme.” A. Men characterizes magic as “a mechanical way to earn the favor of mysterious forces, to make them work for oneself” according to the principle: “I gave it to you - you give it to me.” “People were convinced that certain rituals, with natural necessity, should achieve what they wanted.”1
People would not be people if they did not give meaning to what surrounds them and what they themselves do. The essence of culture is the urgent demand for people that some meaning be established in the concrete reality surrounding us. With its deepest roots, the recognition of meaning, the endowment of meaning by
1. Men A. Sacrament, word, image. L., 1991. P. 9.
goes into the depths of the cult. A cult ritual - a sacred act, a sacrament, and not myths or dogmas of religious doctrine, and especially not rules of behavior - constitutes the core of religion. In ancient religion, belief in certain sets of myths was not necessary as a characteristic of true religion. And morality is not the essence of religion. Rituals mean more to society than words and thoughts; thanks to rituals, religion becomes part of the social order in ancient societies, taking root in common system values, including the ethical values of the community, which with its help became a common system of behavior patterns for everyone. Some religions may be more ethical than others, but if a religion becomes morality, it ceases to be a religion.
The basis of the magical action is the idea that everything is connected to everything, the “logic of participation,” as L. Levy-Bruhl puts it. It is realized in magical actions. At this level, magical action is not yet based on a specific cosmology. Only with its appearance (the creation myth) is the magical action transformed into a religious ritual - the image of creation. In religions, the strategic goal of thinking and action becomes the preservation of the sacred order of the universe, the cosmos in the fight against the threat of chaos.
Human society in primitive ideas itself acts as a part of the cosmos: everything is part of the cosmos, which forms the highest value. For such a consciousness, only that which is sacralized (marked sacredly) is essential, genuine, and real, and only that which is part of the cosmos, deducible from it, and involved in it, is sacralized. In the sacralized world, according to V.N. Toporov, and only in such a world do the rules of organization take shape, because outside this world there is chaos, the kingdom of chance, the absence of life. Religious ritual is therefore associated with mythological consciousness as the main way of understanding the world and resolving contradictions.
The man of this period saw precisely in ritual the meaning of life and its purpose. This is a religious, not a magical ritual. It is focused on values of a sign order. It is the action that ensures the salvation of “one’s” space and its control. Reproducing the act of creation in ritual actualizes the structure of existence, giving it emphasized symbolism, and serves as a guarantee of the safety and prosperity of the collective. Cosmological myth is a guide to life for a person of that era.
Only in ritual is it achieved highest level sacredness, and at the same time in it a person gains a feeling of the greatest fullness of life.
In the life of archaic communities, rituals occupied a central place. Mythology served as a kind of explanation of it, a commentary on it. Durkheim drew attention to this circumstance. Analyzing the descriptions of ritual in the religious life of the Australian aborigines, he identified the phenomenon of excitement (expressive symbolization, in Parsons' terminology). The essence of this phenomenon is that the participants in the ritual - collective, i.e. already a religious, and not a magical action, are in a state of strong emotional excitement, exaltation, which, according to Durkheim, is psychologically genuine and at the same time socially ordered. The “scenario” of action and patterns of behavior, interactions between participants in the ritual, are developed in detail and prescribe who should do what at one time or another. Thus, although arousal is genuine in a psychological sense, it cannot be considered a spontaneous reaction to immediate stimuli. This ordering and organized nature of ritual is determined by the fact that ritual actions are imbued with symbolic meanings that relate to the structure and situation of the social system. Rituals, according to Durkheim, not only reinforce, but also generate what he calls “faith.”
The correlation of myth with the social system is based on the fact that mythological symbols do not simply point to something or refer to something else. They, in their sensory quality, are rather themselves perceived as this “other”, are this “other”1. According to Losev, complete identification in primitive cultures of man with a mythical totem is a characteristic property of mythological symbolization: the totem animal and the clan are identified in the minds of the Australian aborigine. Participants in the ritual truly feel like mythical symbolic creatures whose actions they reproduce in the ritual. This identification makes it possible to simultaneously be oneself and something else. The identification of a thing and an idea in a symbol in early cultures leads to the fact that a “sacred thing” is treated as if it itself were what it symbolizes (similar to this in the Orthodox
1. Losev A.F. Dialectics of myth // Myth, number, essence. M., 1994.
In the consciousness, the icon is not just an image of the face of God, but the face of God itself). In modern secular systems of symbolization, political or any other kind, no one ever identifies a symbol with what it symbolizes.
Another level of correlation between religion and sociality is that the primary function religious ritual consists in the formation and strengthening of solidarity, which is based on a common code of ritual symbolism. Not a single object in ritual is itself, it always acts as a symbol of something else; all operations with objects in ritual are operations with symbols, performed according to established rules and having meaning for those real objects of which they are symbols.
Thus, the sacrifice of a horse in the Vedic ritual models almost the entire cosmos, since each part of the sacrificial animal corresponds to a specific world phenomenon (the head of the sacrificial horse is the dawn, the eye is the sun, the breath is the wind, the ear is the moon, the legs are parts of the world.. .). The entire cosmos arises again every year from this sacrificed horse, the world is created anew in the course of the ritual.
E. Leach, who studied the symbolic system, including ritual, myth, religious ethics and worldview, came to the conclusion that ritual is a kind of “repository” of knowledge: the corresponding rituals can contain information relating, for example, to economic activity, in the form symbols that have power over people and determine their behavior. They are passed on from generation to generation, influencing the worldview and the ethos associated with it, influencing to a large extent through ritual and worship.
The Christian Church, professing the religion of “spirit and truth,” did not abolish temple worship, rituals, and cult as an external symbol of spiritual service. Modern theologians, condemning “ritualism,” recall that the founder of Christianity reproached the Jewish clergy and lawyers for reducing the highest religious duty to rituals and statutes; he wanted something else:
“I want mercy, not sacrifice.” For God, more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices are “purification of the heart,” justice, faith, and moral achievement. However, religious faith lives in the symbolism of ritual, and, according to the Orthodox priest, it is not enough to carry God in the heart and strive to do His will in everyday life. Eucharist (thanksgiving), which is called “bloodless”
"noy sacrifice" and which is a sacred meal, is the fundamental mystery of the Christian church, the central moment of worship, symbolizing the true presence of the God-man in His Church: the sign of the presence of Christ in the Church are the mysteries-sacraments, through which the unity of man with God is accomplished again and again.
So, ritual belongs to the area of religious practice, orthopraxy, while myth belongs to the cognitive component of religion, orthodoxy. They are connected in such a way that the myth defines the boundaries of understanding the ritual and gives it a rationale, although this is not necessarily on a conscious level.
The advantage of a symbol over a concept is that it does not require preliminary “work of the mind,” “school of thinking,” or logical discipline. Symbols are perceived much easier and simpler than intellectual definitions, they are grasped “on the fly” on the basis of emotions, experiences, and beliefs that do not require and cannot be defined in any strict way.
Since ritual actions are oriented towards religious symbols, myths that determine their meaning, they are seen as completely different from the outwardly similar actions of a person in “ordinary” life: in the Christian sacrament of communion, a person “tastes the body and blood of Christ” not in order to quench hunger and thirst. A ritual acquires its meaning and becomes a ritual only in the context of the corresponding mythological belief.
Only in the context of the Gospel story about the last meal of Jesus and his disciples ("The Last Supper") does the very ritual of the Christian Eucharist - communion with bread and wine - make sense. Only in the context of the myth of original sin does ritual cleansing from sin, the sacrament of confession, make sense.
Myth is not an explanation of the ritual, but its justification, the rooting of the transitory in the eternal. Ritual is the dramatization of a myth, the embodiment of symbols into living reality. Ritual can express, however, what is not expressed in the language of myth, is not verbalizable. He speaks sign language, dance, "body language." In mythological consciousness, everything that is a movement of the body is also a movement of the soul. Lévi-Strauss saw the task not as understanding how people “think in myths,” with the help of myths, but in showing how “myths live in us.”
The myth takes on visible features in ritual, although the ritual can be performed without a clear awareness of the meaning inherent in the myth. Faith receives embodiment visible to everyone. Ritual, worship -
the pen in action, in the behavior, in the relationships of the believer. With the help of ritual, believers come into contact with “sacred time,” become contemporaries of the events of “sacred history,” and gain “eternal life.” Moreover, in the ritual, “sacred time” is, as it were, created, since time has meaning in the case when something happens in it.
The social significance of ritual is the establishment of connections between people, the assimilation of beliefs, religious attitudes and values, etc. Every ritual is an action aimed at establishing and maintaining order; it is a ritual. Gods die without performing rituals; the death of a person is necessarily accompanied by them. The ritual signifies the power of society over the individual. In ritual, the individual establishes a connection with the group, society, and in belief - with the cosmic order. Ritual fear is the fear of violating the divine order. A person feels the need for ritual as a “ceremonial completion” of everyday routine at every turning point in his life. The ritual embodiment of faith is a tribute to the physical nature of man, which must be recognized in all its vitality and, if possible, spiritualized. The Christian cross is a symbol not only of the crucifixion, death and suffering of God, but also a reflection of the ideal.
Healers Club. Everything on one site. Healers, psychics, clairvoyants. Primitive mythology. A complex of beliefs and ideas of the primitive Download zip archive: Magic and Religion - zip. Download mp3: Magic and Religion - mp3. mythology of ancient Greece beliefs of primitive man primitive people abstract blood magic The main stages of the emergence of religion in primitive society. Primitive beliefs in the era of patriarchy. Pre-religious period. Development of rituals and myths. Esoteric forum Talisman of any complexity. White magic will help solve your problems. Call! Religion in primitive society Abstracts:: primitive animal beliefs of the ancient Germans Program Religion in the history of culture magic of numbers Magic. Magical help Magician and sorcerer Belief? primitive people religion of ancient rome
religion of ancient Egypt religion as a social institution Malinovsky B. Magic and primitive experience religion of ancient Greece Primitive forms of religion, myth - abstract April 6, 2004 Primitive beliefs and cults. The relationship between magic and religion. Totemism. Taboo. Initiation system. Mythology and religion. Types of myths. Primitive beliefs beliefs of the ancient Egyptians Primitive beliefs. Animism. Fetishism. Magic. Totemism. The problem of primitive monotheism. Religion and mythology. System of rituals. primitive beliefs Professional work, many years of experience, guaranteed results! Works similar to the abstract: Primitive beliefs - D. D. Fraser The Golden Bough. Study of magic and religion, Studio Religion and mythology, Primitive beliefs, Abstracts Mythology of Australia to primitive peoples forms of beliefs and cults - totemism, animism, magic. In the more developed forms of religion of primitive society that arose from magic, religion was completely exhausted by the practical beliefs associated with them. art and its connection with primitive beliefs and cults. and spiritual culture of the ancient world. and its varieties. mythology of the Slavs Totemism, primitive mythology and primitive religion // Yuri Semyonov
magic name magic, witchcraft, love spell, esotericism, clairvoyance, astrology, predictions World of Psychics Totemism is a complex of beliefs and rituals of a primitive society associated with ideas about Frazer D. The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion. Department of Education of the City of Moscow Magic. Clairvoyance. primitive drawings religion of China Viking mythology Religion in primitive society - abstract Ask a question to a lawyer. Free answers to all types of legal questions. So, “primitive” beliefs are religion, but what is myth and what is the mood between them - towards religious feeling, and actions - towards worship and magic. But in general, the sum of myths, mythology, was the worldview of our distant people mythology of the ancient Slavs Mayan beliefs primitive people pictures mythology of ancient Egypt religion of Israel - Religion and mythology - Primitive beliefs Slavic beliefs
religion of Japan Magic forum Fortune cosmoenergetics, magic, astrology, fortune telling, esotericism, feng shui, mysticism, UFOs. Magic and Religion Primitive beliefs Home page Headings Religion and mythology Magic and religion. From relative animal to ancestor animal. Religion and mythology, Primitive beliefs, Abstracts. Magic Along with totemism, magic occupied a significant place in human life. voodoo magic Religion and mythology - Primitive beliefs. Magic Along with totemism, magic occupied a significant place in human life. According to the purposes of influence, magic is the religion of Luther, mythology as a historical type of worldview, the beliefs of the ancient Greeks. A real solution to problems. Rare books on magic. Dedicated training. Abstract Religion and mythology Religion and culture Abstract: Primitive beliefs - - Bank of abstracts magic of gold jewelry magic of love mythology fire magic primitive tribes
beliefs of the Eastern Slavs religion magic of money Matyushova. History of world religions. beliefs of primitive people Primitive beliefs. Accepted by: Radchenko A. A. Belgorod 2004 Plan. 1. The birth of religion. 2. Mythology of Australia. 3. Totemism. 4. Magic. 5. Fetishism. mythology is We see that the foundations of magical beliefs and practices are not taken out of thin air; the typical and most developed mythology in primitive societies is the mythology of magic. Both magic and religion are directly based on the mythological tradition. Unlike religions, the supernatural in the most ancient magical, animistic, totemistic and other primitive beliefs is not personified. Bewitch a man Culture and religion. Religion as a form of culture mythology of ancient Rome beliefs Newest discovery psychologists: The Secret of Love Love Words mythology and religion primeval wars free download For those who have tried everything and nothing helped! primitive forms of religion, magic of beauty - Abstracts - Religion and mythology - Religion in primitive society. Primitive beliefs in the era of patriarchy. Pre-religious period. In primitive society, totemism, magic, fetishism, mythology, and animism arise. magic of gold December 19, 2007 Study of magic and religion. Image by Ola. religions and primitive beliefs, to identify the earthly sources of the religious worldview. religion, and still less because I derive all mythology from it. Totemism is a complex of beliefs and rituals of a primitive society, a complex vision of the world and human influence on environment, which manifests itself in magic. Mythology and beyond the primitive order throughout history mythology and philosophy primitive wars beliefs of the ancient Slavs magic Religious beliefs. Estimated genesis and history - The main religion of India VIP magic religion Islam Indian beliefs
Having originated in ancient times, magic was preserved and continued to develop over thousands of years. Usually, magical rituals were performed by special people - sorcerers and shamans, among whom, especially in ancient times, women apparently predominated. These sorcerers and shamans, usually people of a nervous and even hysterical nature, sincerely believed in their ability to communicate with spirits, convey to them the requests and hopes of the collective, and interpret their will. The magical rite of communion with spirits (shamanic ritual) consisted in the fact that through certain ritual actions, special in each case, the shaman, with muttering, singing, dancing, jumping, with the sounds of a tambourine, drum or bell, brought himself to a state of ecstasy (if the ritual was performed publicly, the spectators who followed his actions usually reached a state of ecstasy along with him, becoming, as it were, accomplices of the ritual). After this, the shaman often fell into a trance, did not see or hear anything - it was believed that it was at this moment that his contact with the world of spirits occurred.
In ancient times, magical rituals were perhaps more general in nature and less differentiated. Later their differentiation reached significant proportions. Modern ethnographers, in particular S. A. Tokarev, divide magic according to methods of influence: contact (contact of the bearer of magical power - a sorcerer-shaman or a magic amulet - with an object), initial (a magical act is aimed at an inaccessible object, due to which only the beginning is carried out desired action, the end of which is provided to supernatural forces), partial (indirect effect on hair, food, etc.), imitative (impact on the likeness of an object). According to the purposes of influence, magic is divided into harmful, military, commercial, healing, etc.
In general, magic as a series of ritual rites was brought to life by the real needs of society, which, due to certain unpredictable circumstances of existence, dictated this kind of path of communication with the world of supernatural forces. However, at the same time, magic played a significant role in consolidating pre-logical thinking in people’s minds, which played an important role in the process of forming religious consciousness. Indeed, as magical thinking developed, it began to seem more and more obvious and self-evident to a person that the desired result depends not so much on purposeful action, but on incidental circumstances shrouded in the magic of the supernatural. And this led to the fact that many specific phenomena and even individual objects began to be perceived as carriers of magical power.
Primitive arose fetishism, the essence of which comes down to attributing magical powers to individual objects that can influence the course of events and obtain the desired result. The idea of a fetish arose as both harmful (a corpse was considered as such, which was what caused concerns about burial, tabooing of a corpse, the rite of purification after the funeral rite, etc.) and useful.
Fetishism manifested itself in the creation of idols - objects made of wood, clay and other materials and various kinds amulets, talismans. Idols and amulets were seen as objectified carriers of particles of that supernatural power that was attributed to the world of spirits, ancestors and totems. Sorcerers-shamans often dealt with fetishes of this kind when they influenced the likeness of an object according to the techniques of contact and imitative magic.
Fetishism was, as it were, the final stage of the process of formation of the entire complex of early religious ideas of primitive man. In fact, animism with its spiritualization of nature and ancestors and totemism with its cult of the same dead ancestors and totems meant that in the minds of primitive people there appeared the idea of the existence, along with the world of real things, of an illusory, supernatural world, and within the framework of this second world with of all the incorporeality of its inhabitants, the mind of primitive man saw the same indisputable reality as in the first. In practice, this meant that the primitive collective placed responsibility for actions and events that were not determined by obvious cause-and-effect relationships and depended on the will of chance on the otherworldly forces of the supernatural world. To communicate with this world, to attract its forces to their side, primitive people turned to the help of magic, the reliance on which greatly strengthened the sector of pre-logical, magical thinking in their minds. And finally, the emergence of fetishes showed that magical power not only has the ability to move in time and space, but can also end up in objects of the real world.
Thus, in the consciousness of primitive people, in the process of the formation of tribal society, a fairly clear, harmonious and extensive complex of early religious ideas was developed. Its essence boiled down to the fact that the supernatural world with its enormous potential, free will and magical power is an integral and almost the main part of the real existence of man. It is the forces of this world that regulate the laws of nature and society, and therefore due respect for them is the primary duty of the collective if it wants to exist normally, be provided with food, and be under someone’s protection. Over time, this idea of the world became self-evident, natural; the entire spiritual life of society flowed in its mainstream for many tens of thousands of years - at least until the Neolithic era, and for more backward peoples much later, in some cases right up to the present day. .
Primitive mythology. The complex of beliefs and ideas of primitive man, as well as his whole real life with all its difficulties, problems and achievements, were reflected in the oral tradition, which, becoming entrenched in the minds and acquiring fantastic details over time, contributed to the birth of myths, the emergence of primitive mythology.
Mythopoetic creativity has always been closely connected with the spiritual life and religious ideas of people. This is easy to understand: since the basis of the spiritual life of primitive man was his relationship with a totem, the cult of dead ancestors, the spiritualization of the world or the transfer of magical power to idols and amulets, then it is not surprising that the central place in mythology was occupied by zooanthropomorphic ancestors or deified heroes who could any miracles. The names of the so-called cultural heroes in myths were usually associated with the most important inventions or innovations, be it the making of fire or the establishment of forms of family and marriage, the manufacture of weapons and tools, or the establishment of rules of initiation. Great place In primitive mythology, cosmogonic subjects were also occupied, that is, legends about the origin of the earth and sky, the sun and moon, plants and animals, and finally, man. The influence of totemism is clearly visible in myths: spirits often have the magical ability to reincarnate and change their appearance; Marital ties between a person and an animal, or even a fantastic monster, are considered commonplace.
In primitive mythology, those most important connections between life and death, nature and culture, masculine and feminine, which were previously comprehended by man in the process of his observations and study of the laws of the world, were usually captured in figurative form. The analysis of these most important confrontations, as well as the main mythological plots in general, is now one of the important sources for the reconstruction of the most ancient stages of human history, for the knowledge of those important patterns that were characteristic of the life of primitive man. In particular, this analysis allows us to raise the question of the large role played by cultural influences and borrowings in primitive society.
BORROWING AND INTERACTION OF CULTURES
Specialists are well aware of how closed the primitive groups were, how clearly the basic social opposition “friends and foes”, enshrined in the norms of totemism, operated. Naturally, this to a large extent protected this ethnic community from outside influences. And yet, these influences not only existed, but also, seeping through the narrowest cracks, had a significant impact on both the material and spiritual lives of people. In the example of mythology, these influences and the cultural borrowings associated with them are especially clear.
It is unlikely that similar mythological stories arose among each small tribe independently and regardless of what its neighbors had at their disposal. Quite the opposite: despite totemic oppositions, communication with neighbors has always opened channels for influence, especially in the sphere of spiritual culture. The plots of myths spread and were easily perceived by those whose level of culture, existence, spiritual life and religious ideas at least somewhat corresponded to the plot twists reflected in a particular myth. Of course, this did not mean that the same names, story details, and plot twists wandered from tribe to tribe across continents. All this partially changed, acquired additions, mixed with already existing local legends, took on a different color, a new ending, etc. In other words, each people introduced something of its own into the legend, so that over time it became its own myth. And yet the basis of the plot was preserved, which is quite easily reconstructed today by specialists in the field of structural anthropology, in particular the famous French scientist C. Lévi-Strauss.
Experts have proven quite a long time ago that the number of main mythological plots is small - these plots are not only well studied, but even numbered. Without going into details, it is worth noting that this kind of general unity of plots is clearly visible in the example of myths about the universe, including constructions on the theme of the so-called world tree, the world axis, the world mountain, the emergence of things and beings, including humans, in as a result of the dismemberment of the body of a primordial giant, etc. There is a lot in common in cosmological and cosmogonic myths, in ideas about the afterlife, about heaven and celestial beings. We are not talking about the fact that all the stories arose somewhere in one place and spread from there. What is meant is something else: no matter where and no matter what appears in the plane of interest to us, sooner or later it becomes the property of all those who were prepared to perceive the mentioned innovation. This applies to both great discoveries in the material sphere (the wheel, agriculture, metal processing, etc.) and innovations in the sphere of ideas, which is what we are talking about now. The sphere of ideas is by no means limited to mythology.
The borrowing of similar ideas and ideas, the mutual influence of cultures and the equalization of cultural potential through the use of the achievements of nations that have come forward has always been the law of human development. If this mechanism of interaction did not work, and each nation would have to reinvent everything, the picture of the world would be completely different. The result of the mechanism of diffusion of cultural achievements can be considered that, ultimately, the same forms in approximately the same complex characterized the religious ideas of sapient people already at the stage of the Upper Paleolithic.
Keywords of this page: , .
History of British social anthropology Alexey Alekseevich Nikishenkov
3.1.2. Religion, magic, mythology
Malinovsky generally shared the division of phenomena in traditional societies into “sacred” and “profane” proposed by E. Durkheim. He derived the nature of the “sacred,” i.e., religion and magic, not from social consciousness, but from the psychology of the individual. According to his biopsychological doctrine, the researcher considered religion and magic to be “cultural correspondences” designed to satisfy certain biopsychic needs of a person. Developing this a priori thesis, Malinovsky built his “pragmatic theory” of religion, magic and mythology. The starting point of his “pragmatic theory” of magic was the recognition of the fact that in “primitive” societies human capabilities are very limited. The feeling of weakness prompts a person to look for “additions” to his positive knowledge and available technical means. He “attempts to control the forces of nature directly, with the help of “special knowledge,” i.e., magic. Thus, magic, according to Malinovsky, is a person’s attempt to achieve fulfillment, at least illusory, of “strong and impossible desires.”
Without magic, Malinovsky argues, primitive man “could neither cope with the practical difficulties of life, nor achieve higher levels of culture.” The scientist explains this statement by the fact that the function performed by magic is necessary, and it is necessary not so much for society as for each of its constituent individuals: “... The function of magic is to ritualize a person’s optimism, to increase his faith in the triumph of hope over fear. Magic brings to a person the predominance of confidence over doubt, perseverance over indecision, optimism over pessimism.” In the same vein, the researcher solves the question of the roots and functions of religion.
The emergence of religion, according to Malinovsky, was caused by man's fear of death and those phenomena that he could not explain, of natural and social forces that he could not resist. The function of religion, the scientist believes, is that it “introduces, fixes and strengthens all valuable mental attitudes, such as reverence for traditions, harmony with the surrounding nature, courage and firmness in the fight against difficulties and in the face of death. Religious beliefs, embodied in cult and ceremonies, have enormous biological value and, as such, represent to primitive people truth in the broad pragmatic sense of the word.” The definitions of magic and religion given by Malinovsky show that both of these phenomena merge in his concept, although Malinovsky declaratively joined J. Frazer’s thesis about their fundamental difference. The “pragmatic theory” assigned to mythology an auxiliary role as a kind of repository of religious plots, images, magic spells, etc.
The consoling, illusory-compensatory function of religion attracted the attention of philosophers long before Malinovsky. L. Feuerbach once spoke about the nature of this function, rooted in the fundamental contradiction between the “will and ability” of people. This position was developed by the classics of Marxism, who, along with the analysis of the material conditions of the emergence and existence of religion, never lost sight of the fact that it is also “a direct, that is, emotional, form of people’s relationship to the alien forces dominating them, natural and public." K. Marx, in his work “Toward a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law,” defines religion as “the illusory happiness of the people,” “the sigh of an oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world,” and, ultimately, as “the opium of the people.”
“Pragmatic theory,” expressing Malinovsky’s most general ideas about the nature of religion, does not, however, cover all of his ideas about the meaning of this phenomenon in a specific pre-class society. In this issue, the dichotomy was especially clearly manifested. scientific thinking anthropologist. His ideas about religion are located, as it were, on different levels– general sociological and empirical. If the source of the first is a priori worldview, then the source of the second is the reality observed in the Trobriands.
Malinovsky's specific scientific conclusions about the role of religion, magic and mythology in Trobriand society are the result of a complex interaction between the two indicated trends, a collision of ideological bias with factual material. Malinovsky was one of the first to draw attention to the specifics of the existence of religious ideas in pre-class society - to their vagueness, inconsistency, in fact, to the absence of a clear, logically coherent religious system. He was one of the first in anthropology to pose the problem of creating a special methodology for studying these ideas, a problem that is extremely important and controversial to this day.
Having not received a coherent description from the Trobrianders of their ideas about the souls of the dead ( baloma), Malinovsky proposed an indirect way of isolating the invariant features of religious ideas - either through their manifestations in ritual practice, the procedure of which is strictly regulated by tradition, or through spontaneous expressions of religious ideas in everyday activities. He believed that “all people, even those who are not able to express in words what they think about the “baloma” ... nevertheless always behave in a certain way towards it, adhering to certain rules of custom and fulfilling certain canons of emotional reactions." This empirical and methodological position acquired the character of a leading principle both in the description of the religious and magical activities of the Trobrianders, and in its interpretation. According to this principle, "religious ideas must be studied in their operations in the space of social dimensions; they must be considered in the light of the different modes of thought and the various institutions in which they can be traced."
Such a methodological prescription, essentially denying the narrowness of the “pragmatic theory,” corresponds to the real state of affairs in pre-class society, which is characterized by “the sacralization of social ideas and norms, relationships, groups and institutions. Religious consciousness dominates. Religious groups coincide with ethnic communities. Religious activity forms an indispensable link in the overall social activities. Religious relationships are “superimposed” on other social connections. Social institutions combine religious and secular power.”
Malinovsky rightly believed that every primitive society has a certain stock of knowledge, based on experience and organized in a rational way, and this knowledge is intricately intertwined with ignorance. Starting from this position, he came to a number of interesting conclusions about the importance of religion in different spheres of life of the Trobrianders. Particularly notable was Malinovsky's contribution to the study of the role of mythology in pre-class society. Contemporaries, not without reason, perceived it as a “revolution” in this branch of anthropology.
Malinovsky's predecessors, who studied the mythology of primitive and ancient peoples, dealt, as a rule, with texts, but not with the life of the peoples themselves, among whom these myths existed. Ancient myths reached the modern era in a form greatly distorted by literary processing; the myths of modern pre-class and early class societies came into the hands of scientists as disparate stories that had lost their original appearance from the retelling of random people - travelers, missionaries, traders, etc. All this inevitably led to a certain limitation of the theories of myth created by scientists.
By the time Malinovsky came out in print with his interpretation of “primitive” mythology, E. Tylor’s ideas about primitive mythology, as well as the ideas of the “mythological school” of M. Muller, were most widespread in Western science. If Tylor viewed primitive mythology as the result of man’s attempts to explain the world around him with the meager means of his “primitive” intellect, then representatives of Muller’s school saw the reason for the appearance of mythological plots in the “disease of language” of primitive people, who resorted to metaphors, presenting meteorological phenomena in the form of supernatural characters.
A fundamentally new vision of “primitive” mythology allowed Malinovsky to reveal the limitations of the armchair interpretation of the nature of myth and myth-making. The scientist showed that Tylor's and Müller's interpretations of myth are attempts to impose on some imaginary “savage” their own rationalistic position, the position of a contemplator and thinker, which is least suitable for real representatives of pre-class society. “Based on my own study of living myths among savages,” writes Malinovsky, “I must admit that primitive man is characterized to an extremely small extent by a purely scientific or poetic interest in nature; symbolic creativity is given extremely little space in his ideas and stories; myth in reality is not an idle rhapsody or an aimless outpouring of vain imagination, but an intensively working, extremely important cultural force.”
The mythology of pre-class society was presented for the first time in the fullness of its diverse social functions namely Malinovsky. Myth in his interpretation “expresses and gives special meaning to religious beliefs, codifies them; it protects and strengthens morality, it promotes the effectiveness of ritual, and it contains practical guidelines for human activity.” In a word, mythology is the “charter” of all social institutions of “primitive” society. In this capacity, myth is considered as a set of social attitudes, rules of behavior, norms of customary law, embodied in the plots of the sacred past, i.e., it acts as a regulator of social activity in an unliterate society. E. M. Meletinsky rightly called this interpretation of myth Malinovsky’s discovery, which laid the foundation for a fundamentally new direction in the study of mythology.
Malinovsky's view of the regulating role of myth in pre-class society reveals the characteristic features of this phenomenon as a unique synthesis of misconceptions and objective judgments. Here knowledge appears in the form of ignorance, objective reality is reflected inadequately, but in this reflection there is an element of truth, dressed in fantastic clothes of fiction. This interpretation of mythology makes its consideration a necessary element in the study of any sphere of spiritual culture of pre-class society and, in particular, religion and magic.
If the connection between mythology and religion has always been obvious to scientists, then its connection with magic was discovered by Malinowski and convincingly illustrated with Trobriand material. The naive and absurd, from a European point of view, determinism of magical actions received a new interpretation thanks to Malinovsky’s research. The anthropologist came to the conclusion that the Trobrianders resort to magical actions not only and not so much because they incorrectly understand the objective cause-and-effect relationship of phenomena, but because the sacred characters of their myths behave in a similar way in similar cases. The magical act itself looks like a dramatization of a certain mythological plot, through which those who perform it seem to join the sacred mythical world. Desired result“is achieved” not as a result of performing a certain action, but as a result of the “transfer” of the emerging life situation into another state - into the mythological “space-time”, where special laws apply and where people’s assistants are the spirits of ancestors, cultural heroes, etc.
Magic, according to Malinovsky, is completely based on mythology: magic spells are nothing more than a certain piece of myth; the need and content of certain magical rituals in various situations are determined by the structure and content of mythology. The consideration of magic in its connection with mythology revealed a whole layer of new concepts for British social anthropology in the first third of the twentieth century. qualities of this phenomenon - systemic qualities that did not stem from the internal nature of the magical act, but were determined by the place of this act in the worldview of society.
Malinovsky did not stop at analyzing systemic qualities magical ritual only in the plane of its connections with mythology. He went further, revealing the functional connections of magic with the main spheres of life in Trobriand society - the economy and social organization. Analyzing the significance of magic in Trobriand agriculture, Malinovsky comes to the conclusion that “magic always accompanies agricultural work and is not practiced from time to time, as soon as it arises.” a special case or at the behest of whim, but as an essential part of the whole system of agricultural labor,” which “does not allow the honest observer to dismiss it as a mere appendage.” At the same time, the scientist states a paradoxical duality in the consciousness of the Trobrianders - they know very well and can rationally explain what is required to achieve a good harvest, but at the same time they are absolutely sure that without magical rituals you will not get it and, explaining this, they refer to the myth that in which a cultural hero performs a magical rite.
What is the reason for this inconsistency? Malinowski attaches special scientific importance to the answer to this question: “The relationship between supernatural means of control over the natural course of things and rational technology is one of the most important problems for the sociologist.” Magic rituals, in Malinovsky’s interpretation, are a kind of mechanism of connection between mythology as the focus of tribal tradition and the practical activities of people. Through a magical ritual, the implementation of centuries-old experience embedded in mythological legends is carried out, including the experience of cultivating cultivated plants and organizing this technological process. Magic ritual affirms and maintains in the minds of people the value of this experience, attributing to it a sacred meaning by referring to the authority of mythical ancestors. Magi ( tovosi), responsible for rituals that promote the growth of yams ( megwakeda), at the same time they are also organizers of collective work; they are usually recognized experts in agricultural matters.
In the minds of the Trobrianders, the idea of ownership of a particular piece of land is often associated with the sacred connection of the magician with this site, although in reality its real owner is a certain community or its division. “Magic performed for the village community as a whole (including several settlements. - A.N.), villages, and at times for a subdivision of a village (subclan. – A.N.), has its own “tovoshi” (magician) and its own system of “tovoshi” (magic), and this is perhaps the main expression of the unity (of the listed divisions. - A.N.)". The described situation means that the land-ownership and real production-territorial structure of Trobriand society in the minds of its members appear in an “inverted” form as the structure of magical activity and the hierarchy of persons producing it. And this is not surprising, since it is magicians who usually stand at the head of teams that gather to work together.
Empirically reflected by Malinovsky, the picture of the “overlay” of magical practice on the structure of the productive activity of the Trobrianders includes another significant aspect - the role of magic in their social organization. Indeed, in this society, the magician is often united in one person with the leader or head of the community, which follows from the characteristic principle throughout Melanesia of the correspondence of the sacred status with the social-possessory status.
Malinovsky gives an interesting interpretation of the connections between the mythology of the Trobrianders and their kinship systems. Myths, he argues, contain norms governing relationships between various kin groups. The researcher confirms this by the fact that the relationships between mythological creatures represent codified norms of behavior. So, for example, a mythological plot telling about all sorts of meetings and adventures of the Dog, Pig and Crocodile is nothing more than norms of relations between the most important totemic groups bearing the names of these creatures, generalized on the basis of specific logic. The relationships of the Trobrianders with the souls of the dead and the souls of the dead among themselves are transformed, sacralized types of relationships between different categories of classificatory relatives. This is due to the fact that “social division, an individual’s belonging to a clan or subclan is preserved through all his rebirths,” which gives significant social and regulatory significance to the cult of ancestors, who act here as sacred guardians of traditional norms of behavior.
Malinovsky’s specific empirical interpretation of religion, magic and mythology of the Trobrianders, which was the result of certain logical possibilities of this level of methodology, made an unconditional positive contribution to the study of the problem. But, recognizing this, we must pay attention to the limitations of such an interpretation.
The limiting influence of Malinovsky’s a priori guidelines on his specific conclusions was expressed, first of all, in focusing on the positive side of religious functions and in a complete refusal to see their negative sides (the dogmas of “universal functionality” and “functional necessity”). Malinovsky unreasonably equated socially useful phenomena, the functioning of which has a religious-magical aspect, with religion itself. Speaking about the illusory-compensatory function of religion, he did not want to notice its other features - the constant fear of black magic, the fear of evil spirits that fetter the will and mind of a person.
Briefly summarizing the conclusions from the analysis of Malinovsky’s concrete scientific interpretation of the factual material on the Trobriands, which represents a modeling type of explanation, we can conclude the following. Intuitive fictional descriptiveness as a consequence of the operational uncertainty of methods has led to the fact that explanations of factual material have turned out to be extremely vague and ambiguous; they seem to be guessed when reading Malinovsky’s monographs. One can never say with complete certainty how he evaluates this or that fact. Rather, the fact speaks for itself rather than Malinovsky talking about it.
Many of the principles of his specific methods, which in themselves were certain methodological achievements, in practice often had an undesirable effect. Thus, the principle of reflecting phenomena in their interrelationship led to factual overload - the researcher’s analytical thought, isolating invariant relationships that express not directly visible, but significant connections in society, was lost behind the huge amount of materials used. The principle of a modeling explanation of a phenomenon through showing its role in the general cultural context contributed to the dissolution of the qualitative specificity of this phenomenon in many others.
The result of all this was the absence of a clear theoretical analysis of the institutions of kinship and religion of pre-class society, and a logical conclusion about their qualitative specificity. Malinovsky's conclusions on these problems do not represent a coherent system of views, they are only a series of observed empirical patterns, not explanations, but only sketches of explanations, not a solution to the problem, but its formulation and indication of possible directions for solution. The noted analytical weaknesses, however, are more than compensated for by the literary gift of Malinovsky, who had the mysterious ability in his works to describe the phenomena being studied in such a way that these descriptions spoke much more about reality than the interpretation that generalizes them.
From the book Ritual in Ancient Mesopotamia author Emelyanov Vladimir VladimirovichRitual and magic In the works of German Assyriologists, it has long been customary to divide rituals into cult and magical ones. At the same time, royal-temple rituals are called cult, and community rituals associated with healing are called magical. Initially I wanted to call this part of the book
From the book Cosmic secrets of the mounds author Shilov Yuri Alekseevich From book Ancient Greece author Lyapustin Boris Sergeevich From the book Culture of Ancient Rome. In two volumes. Volume 1 author Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich1. THE ANCIENT ROMAN RELIGION - THE RELIGION OF THE COMMUNITY We, essentially, do not have reliable data about the ancient Roman religion. Information about it came through the interpretation of authors who wrote when many of the early beliefs and institutions had already been forgotten, became incomprehensible and were interpreted in
From the book Classical Demonology author Amphiteatrov Alexander Valentinovich From the book Russian Health author Shatunov Maxim ValentinovichMagic Christianity distinguished between two types of magic, but both of them revolved around devils. In one case, these relationships are built on the principles of voluntary contact: the Devil undertakes to provide such and such services to the magician, and the magician, in payment for this, undertakes to give him his soul.
From the book The Greatness of Ancient Egypt author Murray MargaretChapter 2. Religion, mythology, philosophy What is the human worldview? What are its forms and where do they come from? Frankly speaking, these are the most difficult questions. Not everyone can resolve them, if at all possible. Despite these apparent difficulties, it is still worth
From the book Myths, legends and traditions of the Celts author Rolleston ThomasMagic Egypt is called the birthplace of magic, mainly due to the biblical tale of the miracles of Egyptian magicians, who were opposed by the miracles of Moses and Aaron, who turned out to be winners in this kind of “competition”. It is almost impossible to differentiate between
From book Everyday life Florence in the time of Dante by Antonetti PierreChapter 2 Religion of the Celts. Ireland and the religion of the Celts We have already said that of all the Celtic peoples, the Irish are of particular interest, because their culture has preserved and brought to us many features of the culture of the ancient Celts. And yet, even they do not share their religion
From book Sex life savages of Northwestern Melanesia author Malinowski Bronislav From the book Structural Anthropology author Lévi-Strauss Claude From the book The most incredible in the world - sex, rituals, customs author Talalai StanislavMagic and religion
From the book Geniuses of the Renaissance [Collection of articles] author Biographies and memoirs Team of authors -- From the book Magic, Science and Religion author Malinowski BronislavRenaissance Magic Magic allows a scientist not to be just a passive observer, it gives the opportunity to act, actively comprehend Nature, cooperate with it, not break its laws, but follow them, delving into their essence, into this driving force that supports eternal life
Both magic and religion originate and function in situations of emotional stress, such as life-cycle crises and dead ends, death and tribal initiation, unhappy love and unsatisfied hatred. Both magic and religion offer a way out of situations and conditions that do not have any empirical resolution, only through ritual and belief in the supernatural. This area of religion embraces the belief in ghosts and spirits, mythical guardians of tribal secrets, primitive messengers of providence; in magic - faith in its primordial strength and power. Both magic and religion are based strictly on mythological tradition and both exist in an atmosphere of miracle, in an atmosphere of constant manifestations of miraculous power. Both of them are surrounded by prohibitions and regulations that delimit their sphere of influence from the profane world.
What then distinguishes magic from religion? As a starting point we have chosen the most distinct and clear distinction: we have defined magic as a practical art in the realm of the sacred, consisting of actions that are only means to achieve the end expected as their consequence; religion - as a set of self-sufficient acts, the purpose of which is achieved by their very implementation. Now we can trace this difference more deeply. The practical craft of magic has its own limited, narrowly defined technique: a spell, a ritual and the presence of a performer - this is what forms its simple trinity, a kind of magical Trinity. Religion, with its complex aspects and aims, has no such simple technique, and its unity can be found not in the form of its actions or even in the uniformity of its content, but rather in the function it performs and in the value sense of its faith and ritual. And again, the belief in magic, in accordance with its uncomplicated practical character, is extremely simple. It always consists of a belief in the ability of a person to achieve certain certain results through certain spells and rituals. In religion we have the whole world supernatural objects of faith: the pantheon of spirits and demons, the benevolent powers of the totem, the guardian spirit, the tribal All-Father and the image of the afterlife form the second supernatural reality of primitive man. The mythology of the religion is also more varied, complex and creative. It is usually centered around various tenets of faith and develops them into cosmogony, tales of the deeds of cultural heroes, gods and demigods. The mythology of magic, despite all its significance, consists only of invariably repeated reaffirmations of primary achievements.
Magic, a special art intended for special purposes, in any of its forms one day becomes the property of man and must then be passed on along a strictly defined line from generation to generation. Therefore, from the earliest times it remains in the hands of the chosen ones, and the very first profession of mankind is that of the sorcerer or healer. Religion, on the contrary, in primitive conditions is a matter for everyone, in which everyone takes an active and equal part. Each member of the tribe must undergo initiation, and then he himself participates in the initiations of others, each one laments, mourns, digs a grave and remembers, and in due time each, in turn, will also be mourned and remembered. Spirits exist for everyone, and everyone becomes a spirit. The only specialization in religion - that is, early spiritualistic mediumship - is not a profession, but an individual gift. Another difference between magic and religion is the play of black and white in witchcraft. Religion in its early stages is not characterized by such an obvious opposition of good and evil, beneficial and harmful forces. This is also due to the practical nature of magic, which strives for specific, easily assessed results, while early religion, although inherently moral, operates with fatal, irreparable events, and also comes into contact with forces and beings much more powerful than humans. It is not her business to redo human affairs. The aphorism that fear created the gods in the universe in the first place seems definitely untrue in the light of anthropology.
To fully understand the difference between religion and magic and to have a clear picture of the tripartite constellation of magic, religion and science, let us briefly outline the cultural function of each. The function of primitive knowledge and its significance have already been discussed, and it is indeed not difficult to understand it. By introducing man to his environment, allowing him to use the forces of nature, science and primitive knowledge give him a huge biological advantage, raising him high above the rest of the universe. We came to an understanding of the function of religion and its significance in the review of the beliefs and cults of the savage presented above. There we showed that religious faith grounds, consolidates and develops all useful attitudes, such as respect for tradition, harmony with the outside world, courage and self-control in the fight against difficulties and in the face of death. This faith, embodied in cult and ritual and supported by them, has enormous biological significance and reveals to the person of a primitive culture the truth in a broader, pragmatic sense of the word.
What is the cultural function of magic? We have seen that any instinct and emotion, any practical activity can lead a person to a dead end or lead him to an abyss - when the gaps in his knowledge, the limitations of his ability to observe and think in decisive moment make him helpless. The human body reacts to this with a spontaneous explosion of emotions, in which the rudiments of magical behavior and rudimentary faith in its effectiveness are born. Magic consolidates this faith and this rudimentary ritual, casting them into standard forms sanctified by tradition. Thus, magic provides primitive man with ready-made ritual methods of action and beliefs, certain spiritual and material techniques, which at critical moments can serve as bridges across dangerous chasms. Magic allows a person to confidently go about his important affairs, maintain stability and integrity of the psyche during outbursts of anger, in attacks of hatred, in unrequited love, in moments of despair and anxiety. The function of magic is to ritualize human optimism, to strengthen his belief in the victory of hope over fear. Magic is evidence that for a person, confidence is more important than doubt, perseverance is better than hesitation, optimism is preferable to pessimism.
Looking from afar and from high, from the heights of our developed civilization, it is easy for us, who are much more reliably protected, to see all the vulgarity and inconsistency of magic. But without its strength and guidance, early man could not have dealt with his practical difficulties as he did, nor could he have advanced to higher stages of cultural development. This is why in primitive societies magic has such universal distribution and such enormous power. That is why we find magic an invariable companion to every important activity. I think we should see in her the embodiment of the high folly of hope that remains today the best school human character.
