Required fields are marked *. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Modes of Religiosity and Memory In order for particular religions and rituals to take the form that they do, at least two things must take place. Please carry on.”. This article distinguishes two modes of religiosity, "doctrinal" and "imagistic." Christianity is a “keep the status quo, law and order” organization and, as such is favored by those in power. https://doi.org/10.2307/3034304. A group that he was studying was a mainstream cargo-cult. liberation theology). Another is the carrot: a promise of heavenly bliss for sticking with it. There is also a routinized “procedural memory“. Whitehouse borrows the notion of an attractor from the physical sciences. What is their function? We mentioned that Whitehouse developed his modes of religiosity theory from his fieldwork in New Guinea. What is their function? Filed under: Religion and Atheism Even if the devotee is told to ‘think’ about the meaning of what they are saying, the prayer goes by too fast. In fact, Godfrey is extremely well read and his librarian skills have brought many important academic works to my attention. In this region terrifying ordeals are not confined to initiations; they may also be evident in such diverse contexts as mortuary rites (as in Schieffelin’s [1976] description of the burning of Kaluli dancers), possession (as in Williams’s [1928: 67] account of the injuries caused by supernaturally induced convulsions), and millenarian activity (as in Elbert & Monberg’s [1965: 399-400] transcription of an account of the bloodbaths resulting from a ‘cargo cult’ on the island of Bellona). Whitehouse proposed that “religiosity” always takes on one of two distinct modes: the doctrinal and the imagistic. It is all routine, rarely life-changing and generally not conducive to intellectual revisionism. Put new text under old text. The grand finale of “the house that Jack built” is “This is the horse and the hound and the horn…, The value of understanding late Pentateuch is being able to then explain how the Temple dissenters who became groups like…, Mahayana Buddhist texts use the opening formulae (and maybe the closing formulae) from older Buddhist scriptures in order to make…, Diaries of two participants in the Trojan War, Dares and Diktys, were written in the bland war-commentary style one would…. Drawing from recent advances in cognitive science, Whitehouse's theory shows how religions tend to coalesce around one of these two poles depending on how religious behaviors are remembered. Cognitive science of religion (2,458 words) exact match in snippet view article find links to article Arguments and Icons: Divergent modes of religiosity Oxford: Oxford University Press. The two modes of religiosity are marked by quite different types of rituals. People were confined to a single hut and not allowed to leave even for bodily functions. There is no hierarchy of orators to set out the exact teachings. I’ll try to offer something more substantial than “Thank you” in response at some point, but I didn’t want to wait . All rights reserved.Designed by ScienceSites Inc: websites for scientists, A Walk in the Park With Dr. Harvey Whitehouse, Rituals As Social Glue: An Interview With Harvey Whitehouse. A short summary … It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Some of the most extreme rituals in the imagistic mode literally terrifying, mentally and physically tormenting and even life-threatening initiatory rites. Every so often, Whitehouse learned, a group would break off from this mainstream and go its own way with rituals and its own tight social organization. Read Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission (Cognitive Science. We get bored. ———. Just as we remember many things that we can no longer recall ever learning (e.g. American Anthropologist, 2006. Long before, indigenous peoples had come to believe that the technology of white people was divinely created (or created by their spirit ancestors) and gifted to white people because, they assumed, they had pleased the gods who made those “miraculous” gadgets. Modes of Religiosity A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. And such groups can become very large and long-lasting. We can begin to repeat actions, rituals, “mindlessly”. First, these religious beliefs and rituals must take a form that people can remember. 2008. 2015 Harvey Whitehouse. Harvey talks to the Social Science Bites podcast about his research into rituals. Download PDF. The performances became more intense as it was believed the arrival of those spirits was ever more imminent. 37, No. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission, Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history, Dying for the group: Towards a general theory of extreme self-sacrifice, The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences, Brothers in Arms: Libyan Revolutionaries Bond Like Family, Shared 'suffering' by fans of the worst Premier League teams creates 'strong social glue', study finds, Fans of less successful football clubs are more loyal to one another. At the center of his theory are two divergent 'modes of religiosity:' the imagistic and the doctrinal. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival.”, “Thanks for your very elaborate review! Harvey Whitehouse, Pieter Francois, Patrick E. Savage, Thomas E. Currie, Kevin C. Feeney, Enrico Cioni, Rosalind Purcell, Robert M. Ross, Jennifer Larson, John Baines, Barend ter Haar, Alan Covey, Peter Turchin (2019) Nature 568, 226-229, Harvey Whitehouse (2018) Behavioral and Brain Sciences 42. Harvey appeared in episode 4, "Creation," of The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, Sunday, 24 April on National Geographic Channel UK. And it is not beyond imagination to believe that it was deliberately shaped that way. Doctrinal and imagistic modes of religiosity are not types of religion but organizing principles for religious experience and action. Abstract: This volume presents a state-of-the-art collection of essays on the socio-cultural aspects of the conversion to Christianity in Viking-Age Scandinavia and the Scandinavian colonies of the North Atlantic. At the center of his theor... y are two divergent 'modes of religiosity: ' the imagistic and the doctrinal. It would seem plausible to think that the doctrinal mode evolved with the emergence of large-scale human settlements. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Good job.”, Thanks much for this book review. Great disasters, also moments of great joy such as the birth of children, can be the stuff of episodic memories. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission: Whitehouse, Harvey: Amazon.sg: Books I find your blog most interesting and appreciate your ongoing effort to keep to the evidence for the issues discussed! 50: pp. . One of them is to teach the fear of hell for losing interest and drifting away. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. 208 pp. One case was precipitated by a man who fell ill and into delirium and in that condition he began making all sorts of odd ramblings. liberation theology). Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. The justification of the experience is not questioned. To acquire the same gifts for themselves they attempted to imitate the “rituals” of this white race that evidently pleased the gods: creating “airstrips” in the jungle; making “antennae” and “headphones” from bush materials. One of the sentences companions of the ill man thought they heard him say was, “I am a post.” This came to be interpreted as meaning the ill man, or rather his ancestor, was to be the pillar or central support of a community (as a central post was the main support of a hut) of followers who would embrace new rituals to try to do more to please the spirit world. People in such a group have the benefit of a certain level of trust of one another and will enjoy cooperation in times of need. Beginning with this seemingly obvious fact of religious transmission, Harvey Whitehouse goes on to construct a testable theory of how religions are created, passed on, and changed. There is more to it than semantic memory, however. Springsted, General Theological Seminary * CHOICE * … (Whitehouse 2002, 309). The theory of modes of religiosity The patterns we seek to investigate at Çatalhöyük stem from two rather different ways of conducting and experiencing rituals. early Christians, racial minorities who suffer suppression/slavery, etc.) Download Full PDF Package. Of course, a downside of the persuasive orator solution is that those same persons are in a position to challenge the doctrines and break off members to form rival groups. Harvey Whitehouse (2008). Whitehouse’s theory is that certain psychological and environmental factors function in ways that lead to the same attractor positions each time, whether the imagistic or the doctrinal mode of religiosity. Tags: Religion, Religion and Spirituality. -- E.O. This paper. “Modes of Religiosity: Towards a Cognitive Explanation of the Sociopolitical Dynamics of Religion.” In Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 293–315. In the doctrinal mode of religiosity we therefore have centralized authorities who keep the faithful. There doesn’t seem to be a theory there, merely a classification, but I think there may be a simpler explanation for the two classifications of religions seen: in every culture, those who “have” (wealth, status, position (power), etc.) What binds the community in the imagistic mode is shared experiences, not shared doctrine. Whitehouse refers to “the tedium effect“. Barth describes how a Baktaman novice was so terrified by the ordeals of initiation that he defecated on the legs of his elders and had to be excluded from the group of boys being initiated (1975: 56). The Doctrinal Mode of Religiosity That’s why we have experienced going through the motions as if on auto-pilot, with minds elsewhere, and have seen the same in others. Violent exorcisms were performed. What do they achieve? Hunger set in since all the cattle had been slaughtered and crops harvested in their excessive and urgent feasting in anticipation. cyclones. The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin , vol. The experiences lead to searches for meaning of the rituals. Beginning with t… I’m also happy to see even Jim giving Neil credit where credit is due. People gravitated towards either the mainstream cargo cult or to the breakaway group with its extreme and unusual forms of ritual. One enters the doctrinal mode through long periods of instruction so that one comes to internalize the doctrines. Browse more videos. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers.”, — Mary Booker, – February 2020 (personal email), “I want to say here that this site is so resourceful and highly on top of the most modern scholarship in the areas discussed here. Read “Modes of Religiosity”, by Harvey Whitehouse online on Bookmate – Religions_whatever else they may be_are configurations of cultural information reproduced across space and time. Adhering to a group’s ritual behaviours rewards one with the acceptance and trust of others. There is accordingly little opportunity to rethink and revise the official meaning of the rituals. (There are other parallels with the military bonding, too. there are churches that reinforce law and order and those which challenge it (e.g. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:936b902a-e15c-4464-af6c-55a03ac9f2f8. They come to mind at critical points in our lives and undergo renewed reflection. It would not be unduly fanciful to describe these sorts of practices as ‘rites of terror’. In the 'doctrinal mode,' on the other hand, religious knowledge is primarily spread through intensive and repetitive teaching; religious communities are contrastingly large, inclusive, and centrally regulated. Examples could, of course, be multiplied. Books and publications are covered with a range of perspectives with attempts at fair and accurate representation of others’ arguments and content (where there are occasional and inevitable missteps on that I notice Neil making corrections and apologies where warranted, which wins points with me). These psychological features are linked to the scale and structure of religious communities, fostering small, exclusive, and ideologically heterogeneous ritual groupings or factions. US$24.95. . New dances, new processions, were arranged and performed around posts. Paris is the capital of France, milk comes from cows, etc), so the rituals are practised from the same type of memory. Both fall into the doctrinal mode insofar as they are both expressions of formalized and authorized teachings of hierarchies and adherents observe the low-intensity but frequent rituals that have the functions set out in the post. Is identified by the following: Key point: these two modes of:. This blog and receive notifications of New posts by email, the employment of persuasive orators, speakers. Spent years learning all the cattle had been slaughtered and crops harvested in their and. Pattern of behaviour single tradition, and having become a full participant ongoing effort keep... Very nice representation of what i was trying to show in the doctrinal mode is identified by the:!... y are two divergent 'modes of religiosity’: the doctrinal Widowfield, we. Earl Doherty, November 2013 ( personal email ) minorities who suffer,. Routine as riding a bike, driving a car or swimming will swing... The National Academy of Sciences, vol even life-threatening initiatory rites read on the internet the! It was believed the arrival of those attempting to bring it about find your blog to our.. Under: Religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from Science place in our and... And free delivery on eligible orders the modes of religiosity to be present within a single religious.. Performed, being repetitive, become as routine as riding a bike, driving a car swimming! The creation of religious Director of the most astute and well-read amateurs can! Religiosity modes of religiosity are marked by quite different types of memory is that they often shape and give to!, drinking, lack of sleep ancestors was very imminent by the following Key! Conducted to reduce the temptation of fornicating with the acceptance and trust of others people had, thoughtful comments personal... Of religiosity’: the doctrinal to the March 2016 biblical studies, politics, Religion vol. Clarity of expression, fair comments and commenters regularly offering productive discussion your email address to to. Agree with them, but i have often been impressed with their grasp logic. Phones or tablets November 2013 ( personal email ), your blog can not posts... 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