Archaeology of religion and ritual
Encyclopedia
The archaeology of religion and ritual is a growing field of study within archaeology
that applies ideas from religious studies
, theory and methods, anthropological theory, and archaeological and historical methods and theories to the study of religion
and ritual
in past human societies from a material perspective.
New Fire ceremony
) or the material correlates of religion as a totalized worldview (for example, Elizabeth Kyder-Reid’s study of the Southern Redemptorists’ reconfiguration of landscape and artifacts to reflect their ideals of community and poverty in material form ).
As in religious studies
and the anthropology of religion
, many archaeologists differentiate between “world religions,” and “traditional” or “indigenous religions.” “World religions” are defined by Bowie (2000: 26) as:
while indigenous religions are defined as:
However, Timothy Insoll (2004: 9) has argued that these categorizations arise from a much-critiqued neo-evolutionary perspective. Strict dichotomies of religious forms may also contribute to skewing research toward state religions, leaving household
religious practice, and the relationships between these, under-investigated (a trend noted by Elson and Smith, 2001 ). Insoll (2004:9) argues that archaeologists may contribute to blurring the boundaries of world and indigenous religions.
The archaeology of religion also incorporates related anthropological or religious concepts and terms such as magic
, tradition
, symbolism
, and the sacred
.
, which encompasses a broad range of perspectives. These include: Émile Durkheim
’s functionalist understanding of religion as serving to separate the sacred and the profane
;Karl Marx
’s idea of religion as “the opium of the masses” or a false consciousness, Clifford Geertz
’s loose definition of religion as a “system of symbols” that orders the world, Victor Turner
’s work on ritual, including rites of passage
and liminality
, Max Weber
’s religious types and thoughts on the relationship between economics and religion; Claude Lévi-Strauss
’ structuralist understandings of totemism
and myth; and Mary Douglas
’ idea of the division of “purity and danger
”.
that structures social life and personal experience. Therefore, entire artifact assemblages (rather than specifically “religious” artifacts, such as rosary beads) can be interpreted according to the ways that they simultaneously create, display, and constrain notions of self according to religious ideas. For example, John Chenowith (2009) interpreted ceramic assemblages and burials according to Quaker ideals of plainness and modesty.
Because social identity is both imposed and negotiated through social practice, including material practice, archaeologies of religion increasingly incorporate practice-based theory. Building upon Anthony Giddens
’ idea of structuration and Pierre Bourdieu
’s ideas of both practice and cultural capital, theories of material practice posit that people use material goods to negotiate their places within social structures. Examples of the archaeological interpretation of religion and ritual as part of social negotiation, transformation or reinforcement include Chenowith’s work on Quaker religious practice, Kyder-Reid’s work on the Southern Redemptorists, and Timothy Pauketat’s work on feasting in Cahokia
(Pauketat et al., 2002 ).
. John Janusek’s study of Tiwanaku
religion, for example, explored the ways that religion served to integrate societies within the Andean state. Colonial
regimes frequently justified expansion through a commitment to religious conversion; archaeologies of coloniality may therefore intersect with the archaeology of religion. James Delle’s 2001 article on missions and landscape in Jamaica
and Barbara Voss’ work on missions, sexuality
and empire
demonstrate how religion has intersected with colonial regimes.
This research combines archaeological and anthropological method and theory with historical method and theory. In addition to recovering, recording, and analyzing material culture, historical archaeologists use archives, oral histories, ethnohistorical accounts. Researchers read texts critically, emphasizing the historical context of the documents (especially regarding underrepresented peoples whose voices may be distorted or missing) in order to better understand religious practices that may have been discouraged or even severely punished. Combined archaeological, historical, and anthropological data sets may contradict each other, or the material record may illuminate the details of covert or syncretic religious practice, as well as resistance to dominant religious forms. For example, our understanding of the religious practice of enslaved peoples in the United States (e.g. Leone and Frye 2001, Fennell 2007 ) has increased dramatically thanks to research in historical archaeology.
and landscapes. Theories of materiality and landscape serve to connect human activities, experiences, and behaviors to social practices, including religion. Theories of embodiment also serve to interpret human remains as they relate to religion and ritual.
The archaeology of religion makes use of the same material evidence as other branches of archaeology, but certain artifact classes are particularly emphasized in studying religion and ritual in the past:
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
that applies ideas from religious studies
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
, theory and methods, anthropological theory, and archaeological and historical methods and theories to the study of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
in past human societies from a material perspective.
Definitions
Religion may be defined as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs,” whereas ritual is “an established or prescribed procedure for a religious or other rite.” Archaeologists may study the material traces of religious ritual (for example, the ritual destruction of ceramic vessels during the AztecAztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
New Fire ceremony
New Fire ceremony
The New Fire ceremony was an Aztec ceremony performed once every 52 years — a full cycle of the Aztec calendar— in order to stave off the end of the world....
) or the material correlates of religion as a totalized worldview (for example, Elizabeth Kyder-Reid’s study of the Southern Redemptorists’ reconfiguration of landscape and artifacts to reflect their ideals of community and poverty in material form ).
As in religious studies
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
and the anthropology of religion
Anthropology of religion
The anthropology of religion involves the study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures.-History:...
, many archaeologists differentiate between “world religions,” and “traditional” or “indigenous religions.” “World religions” are defined by Bowie (2000: 26) as:
- Based on written scriptures.
- Has a notion of salvation, often from outside.
- Universal, or potentially universal.
- Can subsume or supplant primal religions.
- Often forms a separate sphere of activity.
while indigenous religions are defined as:
- Oral, or if literate, lacks written/formal scriptures and creeds.
- ‘This worldly’.
- Confined to a single language or ethnic group.
- Form basis from which world religions have developed.
- Religious and social life are inseparable.
However, Timothy Insoll (2004: 9) has argued that these categorizations arise from a much-critiqued neo-evolutionary perspective. Strict dichotomies of religious forms may also contribute to skewing research toward state religions, leaving household
Household
The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....
religious practice, and the relationships between these, under-investigated (a trend noted by Elson and Smith, 2001 ). Insoll (2004:9) argues that archaeologists may contribute to blurring the boundaries of world and indigenous religions.
The archaeology of religion also incorporates related anthropological or religious concepts and terms such as magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
, symbolism
Religious symbolism
Religious symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork, events, or natural phenomena, by a religion. Religions view religious texts, rituals, and works of art as symbols of compelling ideas or ideals...
, and the sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
.
Anthropology of Religion
Theory within the archaeology of religion borrows heavily from the anthropology of religionAnthropology of religion
The anthropology of religion involves the study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures.-History:...
, which encompasses a broad range of perspectives. These include: Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
’s functionalist understanding of religion as serving to separate the sacred and the profane
Sacred-profane dichotomy
French sociologist Émile Durkheim considered the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane to be the central characteristic of religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden." In Durkheim's theory, the...
;Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
’s idea of religion as “the opium of the masses” or a false consciousness, Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until...
’s loose definition of religion as a “system of symbols” that orders the world, Victor Turner
Victor Turner
Victor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage...
’s work on ritual, including rites of passage
Rites of Passage
Rites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...
and liminality
Liminality
Liminality is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van...
, Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
’s religious types and thoughts on the relationship between economics and religion; Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
’ structuralist understandings of totemism
Totemism
Totemism is a system of belief in which humans are said to have kinship or a mystical relationship with a spirit-being, such as an animal or plant...
and myth; and Mary Douglas
Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism....
’ idea of the division of “purity and danger
Purity and Danger
Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo is the best known book by the influential anthropologist and cultural theorist Mary Douglas. In 1991 the Times Literary Supplement listed it as one of the hundred most influential non-fiction books published since 1945...
”.
Religion, Identity, and Practice
Archaeological studies of religion increasingly recognize religion as an organizing principle in social life, rather than as a separate sphere of activity. They include religion as an axis of identityIdentity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
that structures social life and personal experience. Therefore, entire artifact assemblages (rather than specifically “religious” artifacts, such as rosary beads) can be interpreted according to the ways that they simultaneously create, display, and constrain notions of self according to religious ideas. For example, John Chenowith (2009) interpreted ceramic assemblages and burials according to Quaker ideals of plainness and modesty.
Because social identity is both imposed and negotiated through social practice, including material practice, archaeologies of religion increasingly incorporate practice-based theory. Building upon Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens is a British sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern contributors in the field of sociology, the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29...
’ idea of structuration and Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher.Starting from the role of economic capital for social positioning, Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location,...
’s ideas of both practice and cultural capital, theories of material practice posit that people use material goods to negotiate their places within social structures. Examples of the archaeological interpretation of religion and ritual as part of social negotiation, transformation or reinforcement include Chenowith’s work on Quaker religious practice, Kyder-Reid’s work on the Southern Redemptorists, and Timothy Pauketat’s work on feasting in Cahokia
Cahokia
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the area of an ancient indigenous city located in the American Bottom floodplain, between East Saint Louis and Collinsville in south-western Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The site included 120 human-built earthwork mounds...
(Pauketat et al., 2002 ).
Religion, Power, and Inequality
Because religion and political power are often intertwined (Firth 1981, Wolf 1991) particularly in early states, the archaeology of religion may also engage theories of power and inequalitySocial inequality
Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status. Areas of potential social inequality include voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing and other...
. John Janusek’s study of Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku
Tiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...
religion, for example, explored the ways that religion served to integrate societies within the Andean state. Colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
regimes frequently justified expansion through a commitment to religious conversion; archaeologies of coloniality may therefore intersect with the archaeology of religion. James Delle’s 2001 article on missions and landscape in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and Barbara Voss’ work on missions, sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
and empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
demonstrate how religion has intersected with colonial regimes.
Historical Method and Theory
Historical archaeologists have made major contributions to the understanding of the religion and ritual of peoples who have remained underrepresented (or misrepresented) in the historical record, such as colonized peoples, indigenous peoples, and enslaved peoples. Mandatory religious conversion was common in many colonial situations (e.g. the Spanish colonization of the Americas), which led to syncretic religious practice, rejection or resistance to new religions, covert practice of indigenous religions, and/or misunderstandings and misinterpretations of both indigenous and colonizer religions (Hanks 2010 Klor de Alva 1982, Wernke 2007).This research combines archaeological and anthropological method and theory with historical method and theory. In addition to recovering, recording, and analyzing material culture, historical archaeologists use archives, oral histories, ethnohistorical accounts. Researchers read texts critically, emphasizing the historical context of the documents (especially regarding underrepresented peoples whose voices may be distorted or missing) in order to better understand religious practices that may have been discouraged or even severely punished. Combined archaeological, historical, and anthropological data sets may contradict each other, or the material record may illuminate the details of covert or syncretic religious practice, as well as resistance to dominant religious forms. For example, our understanding of the religious practice of enslaved peoples in the United States (e.g. Leone and Frye 2001, Fennell 2007 ) has increased dramatically thanks to research in historical archaeology.
Material Correlates
Because archaeology studies human history through objects, buildings, bodies, and spaces, archaeologists must engage theories that connect anthropological and sociological theories of religion to material cultureMaterial culture
In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Studying a culture's relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed...
and landscapes. Theories of materiality and landscape serve to connect human activities, experiences, and behaviors to social practices, including religion. Theories of embodiment also serve to interpret human remains as they relate to religion and ritual.
The archaeology of religion makes use of the same material evidence as other branches of archaeology, but certain artifact classes are particularly emphasized in studying religion and ritual in the past:
- Human remains and burialBurialBurial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
assemblages can offer many clues to religious and ritual activity. Human remains themselves are used in all branches of archaeology for information on sex, age, occupation, and disease. Methods of interment (including burial position, cremation, burial location, primary and secondary burials, etc.) contribute to understanding changing religious practice, as well as social difference within groups (e.g. Lohmann 2005 ). Total burial contexts, i.e., the setting, artifactsArtifact (archaeology)An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
, ecofacts, and human remains themselves, may provide evidence of religious beliefs about deathDeathDeath is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
and the afterworld.
- Religious buildings, such as templeTempleA temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
complexes, kivas, and missions, are often used to examine communal religious and ritual activity (e.g. Barnes 1995, Graham 1998, Reid et al. 1997 ). Part of archaeoastronomyArchaeoastronomyArchaeoastronomy is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures." Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern...
is the investigation of how buildings are aligned to astral bodies and events, such as solstices, which often coincide with religious or ritual activities. Archaeological examinations of religious buildings can reveal unequal access to religious knowledge and ritual. Religious buildings frequently contain religious iconography that provides insight into the symbolic dimensions of religious life.
- Within landscape archaeology, sacred landscapes are an increasingly important focus of study (e.g. Clendinnen 1980 ). Landscapes are imbued with sacred meaning throughout the world; aboriginal Australian songlinesSonglinesSonglines, also called Dreaming tracks by Indigenous Australians within the animist indigenous belief system, are paths across the land which mark the route followed by localised 'creator-beings' during the Dreaming...
, and the related belief that mythical events are marked on the landscape, are one example. Human modifications to landscapes, such as Kyder-Reid’s study of the Redemtorists’ modifications of their estate to emphasize communality, may point to the enactment of religious views.
- Religious iconography, symbols, ethnographic texts and ethnographic analogy are important tools that archaeologists use to compare with the material record to examine religions in the past (e.g. Clendinnen 1980, Elson and Smith 2001 ). Though texts are not direct “windows to the past,” particularly for societies with few or no written records, they are valuable lines of evidence that may be contradicted or supported by the material record.
- Common artifact classes such as ceramics have been increasingly reinterpreted within a religious framework. According to the idea of religion as a form of social practice and a total worldview, any artifact may potentially be used to embody religious ideas and ideals in material form. Patterns of artifact and ecofact use within ritual contexts may expose preferences or sacred meanings of certain materials; the ritual use of pinePinePines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
among the ancient Maya is one example (Morehart, Lentz, and Prufer 2005 ).
Africa
- Evolving religious structure in Egypt (Baines 1987)
- Ritual and political process in Tanzania (Hakansson 1998)
- Tswana religion and Christianity in Botswana and South Africa (Reid et. Al. 1997)
Americas
- Contemporary Maya shrines (Brown 2004)
- Landscape and Yucatec Maya religious practice (Clendinnen 1980)
- Christian missions in the Americas (Graham 1998)
- Religion and the State in the Andes (Janusek 2006)
- Religious architecture and religious transformation in colonial Peru (Wernke 2007)
- Early American slavery and African American religion (Leone and Frye 2001), Fennell (2007)
Asia
- Buddhism in India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia (Barnes 1995)
- Early Hinduism in Rajasthan (Hooja 2004)
Europe
- Christianity and Anglo-Saxon burial practices (Crawford 2004)
- Religion in Minoan Crete (Herva 2006)
- Women and medieval burials (Gilchrist 2008)
Australia/South Pacific
- Burials and religious practice in Papua New Guinea (Lohmann 2005)
- Dreaming cosmology and Australian seascapes (McNiven 2003)
Modern religious use of archaeological sites
Contemporary religious groups often claim archaeological sites as part of their heritage, and make use of archaeological sites and artifacts in their religious practice (e.g. Wallis 2003 ). These practices and religious interpretations of sites may clash with archaeological interpretations, leading to disputes about heritage, preservation, use of sites, and the “ownership” of history (Bender 1999 ).Biblical Archaeology
Biblical archaeology is a field of archaeology that seeks to correlate events in the Bible with concrete archaeological sites and artifacts (Meyers 1984, Richardson 1916).See also
- Anthropology of Feasting
- Landscape ArchaeologyLandscape archaeologyLandscape archaeology is the study of the ways in which people in the past constructed and used the environment around them. Landscape archaeology is inherently multidisciplinary in its approach to the study of culture, and is used by both pre-historical, classic, and historic archaeologists...
- EmbodimentEmbodimentEmbodied or embodiment may refer to:in psychology and philosophy,*Embodied cognition , a position in cognitive science and the philosophy of mind emphasizing the role that the body plays in shaping the mind...
- Mexican American Archaeology
- Household ArchaeologyHousehold ArchaeologyHousehold archaeology has a long history of anthropological inquiry. Archaeological investigations of the household serve as a microcosm for the greater social universe. The household serves as a space for socialization processes...
- Anthropology of ReligionAnthropology of religionThe anthropology of religion involves the study of religious institutions in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures.-History:...