The Purpose of Religion in Functionalist, Conflict, and Symbolic Perspectives
In the contemporary society, the role of religion in human life has led to the establishment of various schools of thoughts. Religion is defined as a system of practises or behaviours that are adopted by a people and considered to be sacred. The functionalists believe its existence is to fulfil the everyday needs of people and to give life meaning (Snodgrass, 2016). Those who follow the conflict perspective, view religion as being responsible for stratification of the society and causing inequality in the society. In the symbolic view, the purpose of it is to give meaning to the lives of the people by making some practices sacred.
Rituals and their Religion Factors
Religion entails activities with symbolic significance that are set aside and performed during religious ceremonies referred to as rituals. These activities are known to the members are often practised. For example, In the Islamic religion, one is not permitted to enter the mosque with shoes as the place is considered holy.
Rituals and Magic as Addressed in the Nacerima Article
About the Nicirema Cultures, various rituals were included in their everyday lives performed for or on their bodies (Lang, 2012). They firmly believed that our bodies are ugly, and they tend to be prone to diseases as well debility. Ceremonies and rituals are therefore carried out to escape these misfortunes. Every household in this community was expected to own a shrine in their house where that was purposed for these practices. Powerful individual in this community would possess many shrines constructed with stones while the poor applied pottery plaques on the walls of the shrine.
My Personal Reflection in Respect to Nacerime
Taking one such ritual is the mouth ritual that is perfumed by specialists who are considered as holy-mouth-men by the members of this community. They believe that the mouth has some supernatural influence especially on all social relationships in the community. This ritual is considered important as it impacts on the community as a whole and affects its social cohesiveness. There was a strong belief that the moral and oral characteristics of people had a strong relationship between them. For this reason was an ablution ritual that was performed by the children for the purpose of improving their morality.
The significance of this ritual was to protect their teeth from falling out and prevent bleedings and shrinking of jaws (Snodgrass, 2016). If this occurred, they believed that they would face rejection from their friends, and they would not find someone to love them and marry them. It was also for the reason of improving the moral fibre of the community.
This ritual was to be performed by each member of the community on a daily basis (Miner, 1956). To accomplish this ritual, one would combine some power that was believed to have magic and hog’s hair and put in your mouth. The individual would then be required to move the bundle of hair in a series of gestures that is highly formalised. This practice was revolted people who did not belong to this community.
Conclusion
Religious activities impact on the lives of the individuals in different ways at an individual as well as social level. They may have negative or positive consequences depending on the meanings associated with them. Religion, therefore, brings some sense to the people lives.
References
Lang, A. (2012). Myth, Ritual, and Religion. Lanham, Marylan]: Start Classics.
Miner, H.. (1956). Body Ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist, 58(3), 503–507.
Snodgrass, M. E. (2016). The Voodoo Encyclopedia: Magic, Ritual, and Religion. Booklist, (12). 8
