The Encyclopedia of World Religions

160 S Friends, Society of

For functionalists, function does not mean purpose. People do perform religious actions for particular purposes. For example, in the middle of a drought people living in a farming community may pray for rain. But functionalists would not consider the function of the PRAYER to be obtain ing rain. That is because praying for rain does not actually produce it. Malinowski liked to say that the function of religious rituals was to fulfill bio logical and psychological needs. Thus, a prayer for rain in the middle of a drought may function to relieve anxiety. A scholar who influenced Malinowski tremen dously was Émile D URKHEIM . Unlike Malinowski, Durkheim emphasized social, not psychological, functions. For him, one important function of reli gion was that it integrated people into a society. A later sociologist, Peter Berger, suggested that religion functioned to legitimate cultural creations. For example, in North America children have tra ditionally taken their father’s last name. But they could just as easily take their mother’s. Religion, Berger said, helped make current practices seem legitimate. In the N EW T ESTAMENT the apostle P AUL writes that the father is the head of the family, just as J ESUS is the head of the church. Functionalism has had its critics. Some accuse it of justifying the way things are. According to them, functionalism assumes that society works. It overlooks aspects of society that may need to be changed. This criticism may apply to some function alists. It does not apply to all. For example, Karl M ARX made claims about religion that are similar to functionalism. He called religion the opiate of the masses. He meant that religion helped people tolerate miserable social circumstances. But for Marx that was not a good thing. Like opium, reli gion robbed the masses of energy. As a result, they failed to do what was needed to eliminate their misery. Other critics of functionalism question just how much it actually explains. Consider the exam ple of the farming community praying for rain. Psychological tests can show whether a particu lar prayer actually alleviates anxiety. But does that

the head of a horde. He kept all the women for himself. One day in frustration his sons banded together and killed him. Their guilt was respon sible for the creation of religion. No one believes this story any more. Never theless, many people agree with Freud when he sees myths as expressing psychological realities. Freud also wrote about RITUALS . He called them “collective neuroses.” Just as neurotic people perform senseless, repetitive acts, religious people perform rituals. Clearly, Freud himself had little interest in religion. He was convinced that when human beings left the childhood of their race behind, the illusion of religion would disappear like a mirage. Freud’s ideas had a major impact on 20th century thought. But toward the end of the century many criticized psychoanalysis as “pseudoscience.” The anthropologist Bronislaw M ALINOWSKI coined the word “functionalism.” He used it to describe what he thought scholars should do when they study cultures, including religions. Until his time anthropologists had tried to identify the stages through which culture and religion had evolved ( see EVOLUTION AND RELIGION ). A good exam ple is James George F RAZER ’s famous book, The Golden Bough. Malinowski suggested that scholars do something else instead. He suggested that they limit themselves to a single culture and study that culture as a functioning whole. This starting point determined the goal of studying religious beliefs or RITUALS . According to Malinowski, scholars should explain these beliefs and rituals in terms of what functions they fulfill, that is, in terms of what they do for the culture as a whole. Almost every soci ologist and anthropologist who studied religions followed Malinowski’s advice until the 1960s. Friends, Society of See QUAKERS . functionalism One of the most popular theories of religion in the 20th century. Functionalism has been especially important to social scientists.