(RELI 448N Week 1 Assignment)
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
- Textbook: Chapter 1
- Lesson
- Minimum of 2 scholarly sources (1 for the etic view, and 1 for the emic view. Your source for the emic view should come from someone who writes with authority in the religion you chose. For example, if you chose Buddhism, you could use a quotation from His Holiness, Dalai Lama XIV).
Instructions
- Make sure to read the lesson this week to learn about etic and emic perspectives so that you can appropriately apply them in this assignment. In an essay, apply the etic and emic perspectives to your own religion or a religion with which you have some familiarity.
- How would your tradition … described etically? Remember that this is an outsider’s perspective of what can … measured, studied, or observed.
- How would it … described emically? Remember that this is an insider’s perspective as seen by practitioners
- Make sure that you are using at least one source for each approach and include citations from the assigned readings and additional scholarly sources.
Click on the following link to view an example: Link: Shinto Example
Etic
Shintoism is the indigenous religious practice of the Japanese archipelago. Having no specific founder, the practices and belief of Shinto (the Way of the Gods) can … traced to Japanese pre-history (Molloy, 2018, p. 246). As an animistic tradition, 1. Shinto is focused on the veneration of nature spirits, the worship of ancestors, and observance of seasonal rites. What can … the primitive form of Shinto was strongly related to the formation of an agricultural culture … Shinto developed from the worship (matsuri) 2. performed in relation to the agricultural activities engaged in by those communal societies (Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1985, p. 147). Though there are no universally held doctrines in Shintoism, there are some unifying practices and texts. The Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) both relate the myths of Japan … creation and the subsequent emergence of culture and society (Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1985, p. 1-11). 3. These texts provide the foundation for the nature-based religions that would eventually become Shintoism, including some of the 3earliest recorded prayers to the kami (gods, or nature spirits), called norito (Molloy, 2018, p.253).
Central to Shinto practice is the idea of matsuri, or worship of the kami. Matsuri can have multiple forms and purposes, including … giving thanks, presenting offerings, divination, announcing, praise, and making vows (Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1985, p. 232). Sometimes special celebrations, or festivals, are also … to as matsuri, as they serve as offerings to the kami.
Traditionally, Shinto has marked the seasons with special practices, particularly for planting and harvesting..Because respect for nature is at the heart of Shinto, 4 reverential objects and small shrines are sometimes placed in the midst of forests, in fields, or on mountains (Molloy, 2018, p. 257). It is not uncommon to find such small shrines, … kamidana (lit. table for the god), in Japanese homes. In offering daily prayers at these small shrines, the Japanese people connect with the indigenous practices of revering the natural world.
Emic
To further explore the beliefs and practices of Shinto, we can observe comments that are made about Shinto belief, as it is expressed by those who follow Shinto’s principles. 5 On the subject of worship: Matsuri is a service … to the kami, it is submission, and it is a point of contact between kami and human beings. It is a time when unity is … between the kami and human worshiper, a oneness between kami and man.
In order to achieve this oneness, purification and sanctification are … , and a performance of worship with true heart and true mind (Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1985, p. 235). Shinto priest, Yukitaka Yamamoto says, Shinto reflects an awareness of the Divine that calls for man to live according to the Kami so that he can find happiness and fulfillment in experiencing the basic joys of life… The human 6soul inclines naturally toward the Kami and 6. can … cultivated to become more deeply-related through the right kind of activities. This is a matter for attention every day. People seeking to … close to the Kami should work at showing cleanness, brightness and diligence in all they do and should seek to cultivate harmony in personal relations. (Kami no Michi, 1987). Having no founder, and no overarching hierarchical authority, Shinto allows for syncretic practice, rejecting nothing that supports the basic joys of life, and which brings human beings closer to the Divine. 7. A Shinto believer who denounces other religions is not a real Shinto believer. A real Shinto believer can … at home in a Shinto shrine at New Year, a Buddhist Temple at the Obon festival for the souls of the ancestors or a Christian Church on Christmas Eve. All of these make individual sense. They are authentic. They complement each other. This principle applies not simply to religion but to all the cultures of mankind (Kami no Michi, 1987).
Match Overview
- Observation based on analysis of religious text
- Observed historical development of Shinto
- Observation of available texts
- Observation of traditional practice
- Understanding of the meaning of the principles – not direct statement of principles from religious texts.
- Belief about religious traditions.
- Shows relationship to the religions around it.
