Category: Social Anthropology
Family and its Salient Features: Definition and Scope of Family: The word “Family” has been taken from the Roman word “famulus” meaning a servant and the Latin word “familia” meaning “household”. In Roman law, the word “famulus” denotes the group of producers and slaves and other servants as well as members connected by common descent or …
Difference Between Religion and Magic: Religion and magic are the two basic techniques of dealing with the supernatural. The first is a means of seeking spiritual rapport on the basis of subordination to animistic beings. The second is a technique of gaining external control over supernatural powers, animistic and manaistic. Magic differs from religion in the …
Social Functions of Religion: Religion has three aspects- rituals, beliefs and organization. Rituals deal with religious behaviour. Beliefs deal with the sources as well as the patterns of faith. The organization deals with the mechanism by which religions manage the behaviour, expectations, status and rule of the members concerned. The following are the universal functions of …
Psychological and Functional Theories of Religion: Psychological Theories of Religion: Sigmund Freud in his book ‘Totem and Taboo’ accepted totemism as the earliest form of religion but deferred from Durkheim in explaining the theory of totemism. According to him, in prehistoric times people lived in hordes. Each horde contained men and women. The senior-most male monopolized …
Evolutionary Theories of Religion: Animism: The earliest anthropological theory about the evolution of religion is given by E. B. Tylor in his book “Primitive Culture”. He argued the speculation amongst early humans about the events associated with life, death, dreams, sleep led them to the notion that two entities inhabited the body, one active during the …
Types of Exchange: Most of what is produced by human labour are distributed by means of exchange. Exchange refers to the pattern of giving and receiving valuable objects and services. Human beings can not live without exchanging their labour or the products of their labour with one another. The pattern of exchange varies from one society …
