Anthropology

Katie Ludwig
Anthropology 102
April 22, 2002

The definition of religion is a set of belief’s and practices concerned with supernatural beings, powers and forces. The supernatural is a phenomenon that cannot be explained by natural laws. There are four patterns of religious organization. They are individualistic cults, Shamanistic cults, communal cults and Ecclesiastical cults. An individualistic cult is when an individual has a relationship with a spirit and the spirit aids that person throughout their life. The spirit gives you power and knowledge. People fast, pray, drink and perform self-mutilation for the spirit. They also have hallucinations of the spirit where the spirit tells the person what to do, how to wear their hair, how to be a good warrior, whether or not to be married, etc.
In West and Central Africa, many people perform witchcraft. Witchcraft is considered to be an individualistic cult. E.E. Evans-Pritchard speaks of the Zande from Africa in the book Witch...