Malinowski

• Malinowski lived as an participant-observer on the Trobriand Islands between 1914 and 1918
• Life-crises

  • he argued that one of religion's main functions was to help individuals and society deal with emotional events that may compromise the stability of society, eg. death, puberty, birth.
  • death for example can be socially disruptive as it forces people to endure long periods of grief, as they struggle to sever emotional ties to the deceased
  • religion aids through ritual and belief; belief in the afterlife and the promise of reunion in a better place, and funeral ceremonies (ritual) that offer closure, support from other members of society and catharsis
• Control

  • a second function of religion is helping people to deal with situations in which the outcome cannot be predicted or controlled
  • he investigated this by contrasting the ways in which the islanders behaved when fishing via the lagoon versus in the ocean
  • he theorised that when people are in control of a situation and able to utilise their own knowledge and skills to produce predictable outcomes, there is less of a reliance on religion
• Lagoon vs Ocean

  • when fishing in the calm, inland waters of the lagoon, the islanders were guaranteed great success in catching fish, and thus no religious rituals were carried out
  • however when fishing in the perilous and volatile nature of the ocean, the task of fishing becomes much more difficult, and so the Trobriand islanders would engage in religious rituals in hopes of a favorable outcome
• what distinguishes Malinowski from Durkheim is that Malinowski theorised that religion was used as a tool to bring reassurance and solidarity in times of emotional stress that threaten to disrupt order in society, however, both believe that it promotes social solidarity and a value consensus