Anthropology Assignment Religion Study

There are a number of elements that’s define the religion of a community such as ways of worship, rites of passage , the sacrament, the general moral perception and the way community is organized spiritually (Klass,2018). The idea of religion developed from wise men, prophets or people with exemplary lives in history who came up with revelations of believing in something, like the Supreme God in the case of Christians and following doctrines that ensure morality is maintained. Religion can therefore be considered a devotion to faith and service to humanity, God and any other supernatural being that a people believe is very important to them. The three elements that define a religion are faith, religious practices and unity of believers, which comprises of a people who share the same faith (Murphy,2018).

Religion plays a great social and psychological function. Natural things such as rocks, tress and a cloud can be considered to be having its unique spirit. As a result the spirits are believed to have posses identifiable characteristics and personalities which can be of significance in conveying certain message to humanity such as warning. These kinds of spirits can either be benevolent, malevolent or neutral depending on the perception of the community and what they believe in. the spirits can be irritated or pleased by human beings and can either be mischievous or lovable and what becomes important is for the community to ensure full satisfaction of the spirits to avoid displeasing them (Luyaluka, 2017). Displeasing them can result to serious consequences and bad omen to the community.

This kind of religions shows is full of contradictory aspects attributed by many myths and stories which fin ally cause lack of standardization of a god that exists (Eller, 2014) According to Hoansi, death, illness and any misfortune that befalls the community is blamed on the supernatural powers. Healing of illnesses is done by casting spells, use of natural herbs and shamanistic healing styles. According to the community they believe in the effectiveness of their healing. In real sense, the practices might not be as effective as modern medicine since the potential risk of using spells and magic is unknown and uncontrolled (Stein and Philip, 2017). 2 Art can be anything that can evoke emotions and potentially anything be it clothes, some forms of decorations, music, or even something as simple as hairstyle or a tattoo.

With nonverbal communication sarcasm, genuineness and deception can be read often through facial expression such as use of gestures, posture and appearance when observed. Perfect nonverbal cues speak volumes but necessitates that the two communicating parties be present in person and with good visual ability to observe and interpret the message that appears on the face of the receiver or respondent. The posture, gestures and facial expression can convey a lot of information about and individual. Nonverbal cues gave rise to sign language where people can totally communicate using gestures. A lot of can be derived from a speaker without them saying a word. The purposes of the body art included attempts to change the natural appearance and look more attractive especially to the opposite sex , to create attention or a way of conforming to new customs of a culture.

Body art could also be used to make an outgoing statement regarding wealth or social status. The most common body arts include tattoos, body painting , scarification, piercing, permanent makeup, body shaping and aesthetic dentistry (Sanz et al. Gwihaba dancers were a group of performers, musicians and singer who had come to attend an annual competition of a traditional culture in Batswana. The dancers had come all the way from as far as North West districts in the3 country and after the gathering the whole group decided to call themselves the name Gwihaba dancers after a famous cave. The norms that guided the well morals of the traditional community have been neglected and people have turned to new ways of life, new lifestyle and have started developing new values which do not conform to the ancient society.

Among the advantages of modernization include enlightening the society and fighting conservative cultures such as male chauvinism and women oppression (Bussemakers, 2017). Structural violence are the systematic ways in which the societal organizations disadvantages some individuals and generally it does not affect specific or targeted group of people. The structural violence is therefore a framework that sets up people to be affected by behaviors. Structures means social relations and arrangements in the form of legal, religion, politics , economy and culture which govern and shape how individuals interact with the social systems. Finally, the word is advocating for diversity, there has been increased intermarriages in the 21st century which can easily lead to extinction of small communities thus finishing the cultural heritage of such a community (Lee,2012).