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New Age Religions
Wow, this is it..
Turn in your Divination project
Today; lecture then our last group project
Then final prep……
Mechanisms of Cultural ChangeSmall and Large Scale Societies
Thomas Jefferson
"Every generation needs a new revolution."
Technologically Simple Societies
Relative isolation generally means — slow change
Change does occur
2 ways;
Discovery
Innovation
Discovery
A new awareness of something in the environment
• Jared Diamond
InventionUsing technology at hand to come up with a solution
Non-isolated Societies
Societies that are exposed to other ideas
Movement of cultural traits through:
Diffusion
Diffusion
The Apparent movement of cultural traits from one society to another
Tech more likely than social
Sometimes a single idea can lead to:
Stimulus Diffusion, a new idea stimulated by another
More Terms
Acculturation
One society possibly forcing another to:
Assimilate, take in another cultures ideas, information, ect…
Check Haitian Vodou pg. 232-235
Questions?
How did Vodou beliefs arise?
What kinds of Gods does Vodou worship?
What are chromolithographs?
How are they syncretic?
Revitalization Movements
The movements occur as a way to stand against acculturation
Not always religious — Chicano movement in the U.S.
Different Types
Nativistic Movements
• Big gap between dominant & subordinate cultures
• Push to remove dominant • Return to Past • Ghost Dance pg.240
Revivalistic Movements
• Bring back golden age
New Religious Movements
These Religious movement usually come from another older religion
Denomination: A religious group that differs on just a few points from the mainstream religion
What is a Cult?
Cults
Def Historically, a form or system of religious worship
Can include devotion of a person or thing
For example the cult of Mary
Neutral Def. a small, recently created, and spiritually innovated group
However, hard to define:
Within Christianity they can label some sects as cults, who deviate from the religious norm
Popularized by media to refer to mind control or dooms day believers
New Religious Movements vs High Demand Religions
In Groups read pages. 245-246 What are New religious movements? What are High Demand Religions?
How is mind control used? Why is this bad?
https://www.ted.com/talks/ex_moonie_diane_benscoter_how_cults
_think?language=en#t-361270
Can Evolution Explain Religion?
Chimps, do they believe?
Well they believe in groups
Group Selection
Alturism
Multilevel Selection
Tribalism
Chimpanzee Territorial Defense!!
DAVID P. WATTS and JOHN C. MITANI!
❖ Some males can benefit from defending a territory
❖ Protecting Resources, Mates, Children (connected to status)
❖ Cost (injury) vs Benefit (building cooperation, possible within-group rival assessment, maybe word gets back)
❖ Selection for cooperation
❖ Alliance formation among males
❖ What about the “free riders” & Can evolution explain all this?
Group Selection❖ Can we explain group behavior with evolution?
❖ First, do humans need to belong…
❖ According to the American Psychological Association, YES
❖ Socially alienated people are shown to have a multitude of behavioral, emotional, & physical problems
❖ Group Selection: in biology, a type of natural selection that acts collectively on all members of a given group. Group selection may also be defined as selection in which traits evolve according to the fitness (survival and reproductive success) of groups or, mathematically, as selection in which overall group fitness is higher or lower than the mean of the individual members’ fitness values. Typically the group under selection is a small cohesive social unit, and members’ interactions are of an altruistic nature (http://www.britannica.com/science/group-selection).
❖ What is Altruism?
Altruism: is when we act to promote someone else's welfare, even at a risk or cost to ourselves.!
❖ Kin Selection
❖ Reciprocal Altruism
What Does This All Mean?!
❖ E. O. Wilson claims we evolved to live in Groups
❖ Under something called,
❖ Multi Level Selection-between group competition led to the evolution of groups
❖ The most successful group wins
Tribalism!“People must have a tribe” (E.O. Wilson). !
❖ “Modern groups are psychologically equivalent to the tribes of ancient history and prehistory. As such, these groups are directly descended from the bands of primitive prehumans. The instinct that binds them together is a biological product of group selection” (E.O.Wilson The Social Conquest of Earth).
❖ Tribe: a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader (According to Google).
❖ Today we are as tribal as ever, not just a single tribe but multiple tribes-people like familiar/like minded groups: clubs, politics, religious sects, & sports teams
❖ Sports Teams - Modern Tribalism at it’s best/worst
❖ In-group bias, this could be taught to us by who we play with as children
❖ encouraging kids to play with neighboring children can lead to this type of bias
❖ you are comfortable with what you know
❖ Prepared learning - inborn ability to do something (i.e. language, incest avoidance)
❖ Are instincts driven by Natural Selection?
Jedi Church?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF5ebRiNBk4
Jedi Doctrine
No official doctrine or scripture
All living things share the living FORCE
The Force binds us all together (think of a God as that force)
Two sides — Good (light) vs Evil (dark)
Something inside tells us right & wrong
The Last Assignment……
You guys/gals spread some knowledge
One group does Cargo Cults, next Mormonism, Wiccan, What are Cults, Branch Davidians, UFO/Heavens Gate, & Raelians
All necessary information
Break it down for the class
