Introduction
The common debate amongst many anthropologists is whether there exists a distinction between the supernatural and the natural in all cultures. The essay will analyze the views of two anthropologiwho include roger Ivar Lohmann who concurred that there exists a distinction between the supernatural and the natural and said “yes” in his article “The Supernatural Is Everywhere: Defining Qualities of Religion in Melanesia and Beyond” (Lohmann, 2003). Similarly, the essay will also analyze the opposing view of Fredrich P.Lampe who said “No” in his article “Creating a Second-Storey Woman: Introduced Delineation between Natural and Supernatural in Melanesia” (Lampe, 2003). Despite the fact that both Lohman and Lampe had valid points in their arguments, Lohmann’s argument had a lot of evidence and was more persuasive when compared to Lampe’s arguments.
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The summary and view of roger Ivar Lohmann
Lohmann who is a cultural anthropologist argues that cosmology or super-naturalistic worldview is central virtually to all religions. To him, supernatural is an idea that is ubiquitous, although in each and every society, it is expressed differently. The supernatural’s core is giving conscious will or preference to things that do not have it. Therefore, Lohmann (2003) indicated that things such as luck, kharma and fate are also in the supernatural’s realm. According to Lohmann, supernatural forms part of the daily experiences of people in West in a similar way to the experience of people in Papua New Guinea or southwest pacific where and whom he worked.
According to Lohmann (2003), the supernatural’s etic category is a mental model that is omnipresent, and depicts one or more volitional, sentient agencies that are understood to be eventual cause of physical reality elements cause, and are biologically substrate independent. Lohmann further elaborates that some people tend to criticize the supernatural as misleading or ethnocentric. He further continues to say that these people have a belief that spiritual powers do not form part of the “natural” world (Lohmann, 2003). Moreover, these critical individuals further make claims that the supernatural world is not real while the natural world is real. These, according to Lohmann (2003) does not represent whatsoever the views of the people who have a belief in the world of spirits. In their eyes, both worlds are real but separate (Lohmann, 2003).
Lohmann (2003) pointed out that when the natural and the supernatural world are distinguished, the concept of supernatural makes a clarification on both the scientific position on religious behaviors major source, and also improves people’s ability to understand worldviews of religion. When talking about the Melanesians, Lohmann (2003) highlights that sometimes they are characterized as lacking the concept of supernatural. The Melanesians have a belief that the spirits instead of inhabiting an object, they can take the objects physical form. He further argues that the Melanesians have an understanding that some spirits at least are visible and tangible, therefore the supernatural beings tend to appear in the cosmologies (Lohmann, 2003). According to Lohmann (2003), this implies that all cultures in the world have the supernatural idea and how it is interpreted is what is brought into question.
In his conclusion, Lohmann (2003) says that supernatural and natural distinction is necessary and is significant in understanding religions for both emic and etic points of view.
Summary and view of Fredrich P. Lampe
Lampe (2003), on the other hand, discusses about how the distinction between the supernatural and the natural in all cultures does not exists. To begin, his arguments is questionable since his article does not provide clear definition of what is “supernatural ” and this takes a huge toll on his persuasion. He argues that “supernatural” is inappropriate and problematic term just like the term “primitive.” Therefore, if the society accepts the term supernatural, it will be very easy for people to be ethnocentric and make assumptions that anything that is supernatural is unreal and hence false.
Lampe (2003) gives a descriptive analogy of how university of Technology’s dormitory was built. In the beginning years when the university was being founded, the students’ body was male exclusively, but eventually it was changed coed. Lamp (2003) further elaborates how there was need of protecting the female students from the male students, therefore, the female students were housed on the dormitory’s second floor on top of the first year students but under the males of upper division. The first year students had a belief that the female sexual fluids had a power that probably would cause potential danger to students; therefore they refused sleeping in their rooms and would sleep on the floors of their counterparts of upper division. From the analogy, there is no clear tie and coherence in the author; hence, to the reader it is not persuasive for the position to take. The article of Lampe also gives an example of women in Melanesia who would reside in the “menstrual hut.” The women were not allowed to make contact with any other person or the rest of the group, be it in food handling or in socializing among others. This was because of the belief and fears amongst people that women while menstruating, if she handled stuffs would taint them.
From Lampe’s perspective, the westerners tend to view the world through labels and assumptions window. The westerners tend to assume the rest of the world is like them while the fact is opposite. As much as the western worlds may have clear distinction between supernatural (spiritual and religious beliefs) and natural (science and facts), however, that is not true for other cultures. A belief of another society, such as people of New Guinea in what is referred to as religion is their natural, “supernatural” is meaningless to them (Lampe, 2003).
Critical assessment
The essay critically assessed the two articles of the two anthropologists, Lohmann and Lampe, to find out whether distinction exists between the supernatural and the natural in all cultures. The question being raised is whether every society has a belief in the supernatural as a category of reality, separate and distinct from that of the natural world. Endicott & Welsch (2012) defined supernatural as relating to existence order beyond the observable visible universe; cannot be given explanation by the laws of nature or science. For example, reincarnation, polytheism, Holy Spirit, and God or Allah. The essay supported Lohmann’s arguments that there is distinction between supernatural and natural in all cultures.
To begin, Lohmann’s arguments are clear and persuasive based on facts and examples. He begins by providing the definition of “supernatural” and emphasize that it is core to every religion and culture. According to him, all humans can sense the realms of supernatural yet scientifically is hard. Supernatural is viewed amongst humans as universal assumptions, or to a given culture as a unique spiritual reality. For instance, in this regard supernatural is like sex, which just like all common human experience realms, is modeled differently in various traditions to produce various systems of gender. The distinction between gender and sex is necessary in understanding the relationship between cultural models and objective physicality of the physically real (Lohmann, 2003).
Lohmann (2003) argues that there is distinction between supernatural and natural in all cultures and when these are distinguished, the concept of supernatural both makes a clarification on the scientific position on the religious behavior major source, and improves people’s ability in understanding religious worldviews. The supernatural is a real phenomenon with physical effects and causes, which people differently model from one culture to the other. He further suggests that everyone can distinguish naturalistic ideas from super-naturalistic ideas, though the distinction is not salient.
According to Endicott & Welsch (2012) religion and supernatural goes together in every culture. Klass (1995) argued that it becomes confusing when the term “supernatural” is used because its usage suggests that there is distinction between supernatural world that is seen as unauthentic and is unappreciated verses natural and real world. This is also similar to words such as “primitive” “race” which has conflicts. In his article, Lampe (2003) concurs with Klass (1995) by making a suggestion that such words in modern anthropology should be retired. This is because it is very easy to label “supernatural” as irrational and “natural” as conceivable. In his analogy, Lampe (2003) pointed out that Melanesian women hold some powers over men because of their menstrual cycles. This is because the female menstrual fluids are surrounded by a taboo in that any form of contact with a women menstruating or the menstrual blood is a taboo or harmful to men. Therefore, during their menstrual cycles, women seek refuge in menstrual huts to protect the entire community. Some of the regulated precautions include handling and preparations of food, specific sexual relations and physical contact between girls and men when they commence menstruating. However, the fact that in the article of Lampe did not provide any clear definition of “supernatural” lowered his arguments and persuasions greatly. This is because of his example of groups he discussed were portrayed as extremely superstitious towards females. In this case Lampe could have provided definition of “supernatural” as having to do with objects or non-living beings. However, the examples provided by Lampe were primary of men’s cautious attitudes towards the sexual fluids and menstruation of women in certain societies.
In general, the arguments of Lampe was not that much persuasive and did not provide many convincing and stimulating answers to persuade the reader see his argument’s side.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the debate or the essay is of whether or not there exists distinction between the supernatural and natural in all cultures. The essay has discussed both arguments of Lohmann and Lampe from their articles. Both anthropologists and authors provided valid points, but Lohmann’s points generally were better in argument, persuasion, examples and facts. Therefore, the essay supports that there exists distinction between supernatural and natural in all cultures.
References
Endicott, K. M., & Welsch, R. L. (2012). Taking sides. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Klass, M. (1995). Ordered universes: Approaches to the anthropology of religion. Boulder: Westview Press.
Kottak, C. P. (2010). Anthropology: Appreciating human diversity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lampe, F. F. (January 01, 2003). Creating a second-storey woman: Introduced delineation between natural and supernatural in Melanesia. Anthropological Forum, 13, 2, 167-174.
Lohmann, R. I. (January 01, 2003). The supernatural is everywhere: Defining qualities of religion in Melanesia and beyond. Anthropological Forum, 13, 2, 175-185.
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