Magijos ir religijos analizė Bronislavo Malinovskio kultūros koncepcijos kontekste
| Author |
|---|
Songinaitė, Neda |
| Date | Issue | Start Page | End Page |
|---|---|---|---|
2003 | 9(37) | 133 | 144 |
Bronislavas Kasparas Malinovskis (1884-1942) yra lenkų kilmės britų mokslininkas, vienas iš įtakingiausių socialinės antropologijos klasikų ir jos pradininkų. Šioje mokslinėje disciplinoje nuo pat pradžių pagrindinis dėmesys buvo telkiamas į tradicinių visuomenių problematiką ir buvo siekiama atskleisti bendražmogiškosios kultūros funkcionavimo ir vystymosi dėsningumus. Socialinių mokslų istorijoje Malinovskio vardas yra siejamas visų pirma su funkcionalizmo mokyklos įkūrimu XX amžiaus antrajame dešimtmetyje. Funkcionalistinis Malinovskio požiūris į religiją ir magiją reiškia jo siekimą analizuoti visų pirma jų socialines funkcijas arba vaidmenį, kurį atlieka visuomenės kultūros kaip visumos išsaugojimui ir tęstinumui.
Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (1884-1942) Polish British anthropologist, through the acquisition of an outstanding education and many years of fieldwork, became an influential British anthropologist and the founder of the field of Social Anthropology known as Functionalism, holding the belief that all the components of society interlock to form a well-balanced system, where all aspects and elements are functional and in that they fulfill the biological and psychological (or other) needs of human beings. He emphasized characteristics of beliefs, ceremonies, customs, institutions. religion, magic and sexual taboos. Malinowski indicated that the preservation of culture is essential for continuity and survival of each society. In primitive societies, where the science or some other consistent scientific knowledge system did not exist, an essential importance have sacred phenomenon linked with beliefs in supernatural forces, especially those of magic, or with ideas about beings, spirits, ghosts, dead ancestors, or gods. Without those beliefs primitive man could not master his practical difficulties as he has done, neither could man have advanced to the higher stages of culture. Both magic and religion arise and function in situations of emotional stress: crises of life, death and initiation into tribal mysteries or unhappy love. Both open up escapes from such situation and such impasses as offer no empirical way out except by ritual and belief into domain of the supernatural. Magic and religion are based on mythological tradition, both exist in the atmosphere of miraculous and they both are surrounded by taboos and observances which mark off their acts from those of the profane world. Within the domain of the sacred magic and religion have distinctions: magic as a practical art consisting of acts which arc only means to a deficit and expected to follow later on; religion as a body of self-contained acts being themselves the fulfillment of their purpose. Cultural functions of magic, religion and science Malinovski indicates as following: the function of primitive knowledge is that it bestows on man an immense biological advantage, setting him far above all the rest of creation. Religious faith establishes, fixes and enhances all valuable mental attitudes. Beliefs embodied and maintained by cult and ceremonial has an immense biological value, and so reveals to primitive man truth in the wider, pragmatic sense of the word. The function of magic is to ritualize man’s optimism, to enhance his faith in the victory of hope over fear. Magic supplies primitive man with a number of ready-made ritual acts and beliefs, with a deficit mental and practical technique which serves to bridge over the dangerous gaps in every important event or critical situation. Malinowski did not succeed to analyze in details all sociological implications of religion, nevertheless, even the statement that the origin of religion partly is connected with the social factors, meant completely qualitatively new anthropological analysis type in the beginning of the XX-th century. Malinowski, while analyzing the magic with practical-cognitive orientation proved that primitive science has its origin in magic but not in religion as far as the school of E. Dürkheim declared. Nevertheless Malinowski clearly distinguished the magic and primitive „science“. The form of Malinowski magic' analysis discovered new ways of the scientific reality perception because he was the first one to demonstrate the possibility to use the magic rituals as symbols. The interpretation of primitive myths of Malinowski has an extraordinary importance in modern social anthropology. The saying „mythological chart“ which has become an impartial component of the modern anthropological dictionary means direct and pragmatic myth' function and its completion is necessary for the social order and its justification by sacred ancestors.