Folk religion

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For religions sometimes described as "folk religions" or "ethnic religions", see Ethnic religion.

In

ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of a religion; but outside official doctrine and practices.[1]

The term "folk religion" is generally held to encompass two related but separate subjects. The first is the religious dimension of

Vodun and Santería, and similar mixtures of formal religions with folk cultures. In China, folk Protestantism had its origins with the Taiping Rebellion.[2]

church or similar religious society, and who have not made a formal profession of faith in a particular creed, to have religious weddings or funerals, or (among Christians) to have their children baptised.[1]

Definition

In

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, John Bowker characterized "folk religion" as either "religion which occurs in small, local communities which does not adhere to the norms of large systems" or "the appropriation of religious beliefs and practices at a popular level."[3]

African communities.[5]

Yoder's third definition was that often employed within folkloristics, which held that folk religion was "the interaction of belief, ritual, custom, and mythology in traditional societies", representing that which was often pejoratively characterised as superstition.[6] The fourth definition provided by Yoder stated that folk religion represented the "folk interpretation and expression of religion". Noting that this definition would not encompass beliefs that were largely unconnected from organised religion, such as in witchcraft, he therefore altered this definition by including the concept of "folk religiosity", thereby defining folk religion as "the deposit in culture of folk religiosity, the full range of folk attitudes to religion".[7] His fifth and final definition represented a "practical working definition" that combined elements from these various other definitions. Thus, he summarized folk religion as "the totality of all those views and practices of religion that exist among the people apart from and alongside the strictly theological and liturgical forms of the official religion".[8]

Yoder described "folk religion" as existing "in a complex society in relation to and in tension with the organized religion(s) of that society. Its relatively unorganized character differentiates it from organized religion".[9]

Alternately, the sociologist of religion Matthias Zic Varul defined "folk religion" as "the relatively un-reflected aspect of ordinary practices and beliefs that are oriented towards, or productive of, something beyond the immediate here-and-now: everyday transcendence".[10]

In sociology, folk religion is often contrasted with elite religion. Folk religion is defined as the beliefs, practices, rituals and symbols originating from sources other than the religion's leadership. Folk religion in many instances is tolerated by the religion's leadership, although they may consider it an error.[11] A similar concept is lived religion, the study of religion as practiced by believers.

Historical development

In Europe the study of "folk religion" emerged from the study of religiöse Volkskunde, a German term which was used in reference to "the religious dimension of folk-culture, or the folk-cultural dimension of religion".

shrines.[14]

In the Americas, the study of folk religion developed among

John Messenger's at Indiana University and Don Yoder's at the University of Pennsylvania.[16]
Although the subject of folk religion fell within the remit of scholars operating in both folkloristics and religious studies, by 1974 Yoder noted that U.S.-based academics in the latter continued to largely ignore it, instead focusing on the study of theology and institutionalised religion; he contrasted this with the situation in Europe, where historians of religion had devoted much time to studying folk religiosity.[17] He also lamented that many U.S.-based folklorists also neglected the subject of religion because it did not fit within the standard genre-based system for cataloguing folklore.[18]

The term "folk religion" came to be increasingly rejected in the 1990s and 2000s by scholars seeking more precise terminology.[19]

Problems and critique

Yoder noted that one problem with the use of the term "folk religion" was that it did not fit into the work of those scholars who used the term "religion" in reference solely to

magic".[20] Yoder noted that scholars adopting these perspectives often preferred the term "folk belief" over "folk religion".[20]

A second problem with the use of "folk religion" that Yoder highlighted was that some scholars, particularly those operating in the sociology of religion, used the term as a synonym for ethnic religion (which is alternately known as national religion or tribal religion), meaning a religion closely tied to a particular ethnic or national group and is thus contrasted with a "universal religion" which cuts across ethnic and national boundaries.[21] Among the scholars to have adopted this use of terminology are E. Wilbur Bock.[22]

The folklorist Leonard Norman Primiano argued that the use of "folk religion", as well as related terms like "popular religion" and "unofficial religion", by scholars, does "an extreme disservice" to the forms of religiosity that scholars are examining, because – in his opinion – such terms are "residualistic, [and] derogatory".[23] He argued that using such terminology implies that there is "a pure element" to religion "which is in some way transformed, even contaminated, by its exposure to human communities".[24] As a corrective, he suggested that scholars use "vernacular religion" as an alternative.[25] Defining this term, Primiano stated that "vernacular religion" is, "by definition, religion as it is lived: as human beings encounter, understand, interpret, and practice it. Since religion inherently involves interpretation, it is impossible for the religion of an individual not to be vernacular".[26]

Kapaló was critical of this approach, deeming it "mistaken" and arguing that switching from "folk religion" to "vernacular religion" results in the scholar "picking up a different selection of things from the world".[27] He cautioned that both terms carried an "ideological and semantic load" and warned scholars to pay attention to the associations that each word had.[28]

Chinese folk religion

Stories regarding some of these gods are collected into the body of Chinese mythology. By the 11th century (Song period), these practices had been blended with Buddhist ideas of karma (one's own doing) and rebirth, and Taoist teachings about hierarchies of deities, to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways until the present day.[29]

Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized with

People's Republic of China, more than 30% of the population follows Chinese popular religion or Taoism.[31]

Despite being heavily suppressed during the last two centuries, from the

Cai Shen worship.[40]

The term Shenism was first published by AJA Elliot in 1955 to describe Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia.[41]

Indigenous Philippine folk religions

Main article: Indigenous Philippine folk religions

Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. Generally, these indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anitism or Bathalism.[42] Some of these beliefs stem from pre-Christian religions that were especially influenced by Hinduism and were regarded by the Spanish as "myths" and "superstitions" in an effort to de-legitimize legitimate precolonial beliefs by forcefully replacing those native beliefs with colonial Catholic Christian myths and superstitions. Today, some of these precolonial beliefs are still held by Filipinos, especially in the provinces.

Folk Christianity

Main articles: Christian mythology, Folk Catholicism, and Folk Orthodoxy
amulets
.

Folk Christianity is defined differently by various scholars. Christianity as most people live it – a term used to "overcome the division of beliefs into Orthodox and unorthodox",[43] Christianity as impacted by superstition as practiced by certain geographical Christian groups,[44] and Christianity defined "in cultural terms without reference to the theologies and histories."[45]

Folk Islam

Further information:
Kebatinan, Abangan, Adat, and Islam and astrology

Folk Islam is an

umbrella term used to collectively describe forms of Islam that incorporate native folk beliefs and practices.[46] Folk Islam has been described as the Islam of the "urban poor, country people, and tribes",[47] in contrast to orthodox or "High" Islam (Gellner, 1992).[48] Sufism
and Sufi concepts are often integrated into Folk Islam.

Various practices and beliefs have been identified with the concept of "folk Islam". They include the following:

Folk Judaism

See also: Beta Israel

In one of the first major academic works on the subject, titled Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion, Joshua Trachtenberg provided a definition of Jewish folk religion as consisting of ideas and practices that, whilst not meeting with the approval of religious leaders, enjoyed wide popularity such that they must be included in what he termed the field of religion.[55] This included unorthodox beliefs about demons and angels, and magical practices.

Later studies have emphasized the significance of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem to the many Jewish folk customs linked to mourning and in particular to the belief in hibbut ha-qever (torture of the grave) a belief that the dead are tortured in their grave for three days after burial by demons until they remember their names. This idea began with early eschatological aggadah and was then further developed by the kabbalists.[56]

Matronit, and Lilith.[59]

Writer Stephen Sharot has stated that Jewish popular religion in common with other forms of folk religion, has a focus on the

halakah, magicians claimed to use unorthodox magical rituals to help people in everyday life. He points to the example of a relatively professionalised type of magician being the ba'alei shem of Poland, who beginning in the 16th century thrived with the popularity of practical Kabbalah in the 18th century. These ba'alei shem promised to use their knowledge of the names of god, and the angels, along with exorcism, chiromancy, and herbal medicine to bring harm to enemies, and success in areas of social life such as marriage, and childbirth.[60]

Charles Liebman has written that the essence of the folk religion of American Jews is their social ties to one another, illustrated by the finding that religious practices that would prevent social integration – such as a strict interpretation of dietary laws and the Sabbath – have been abandoned, whilst the practices that are followed – such as the Passover Seder, social rites of passage, and the High Holy Days- are ones that strengthen Jewish family and community integration.[61] Liebman described the rituals and beliefs of contemporary Jewish folk religion in his works, The Ambivalent American Jew (1973) and American Jewry: Identity and Affiliation.

Folk Hinduism

June McDaniel (2007) classifies

animistic belief based on locality. These religions have their own priests, who worship regional deities.[64]

During the 19th century, scholars had divided Hinduism and

Indus valley culture.[68]

See also

Part of a series on
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Background
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References

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Sources

Further reading

External links
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