Blog Entry 4: Group Topic, The Study of Religion

Who knew I could have such a difficult time defining religion. It is a term very widely used in the news, in class, and in everyday language because it is what we study, talk, and debate about, but when it comes down to actually defining “religion,” I honestly do not have a clue. This is my very first religion course in University, since high school, where I learned that religion is the study of other peoples’ beliefs and values, and those beliefs are what forms their different cultures. We know that there are many different types of religion. For example, there is Catholicism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and the list can go on and on. But how does one obtain the standing of religion? What makes something religious? What are the characteristics or features that gives something the title of “religion?” I can put all my beliefs in a list together, give it a name, and call it my religion. Does that count?

Merriam Webster defines religion as the service and worship of God or the supernatural; commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance; or a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices. I realized that 2 out of 3 of those definitions have the term “religious” in them. So what constitutes something as “religious?” Religious can be defined as relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity. So the dictionary gives us a general term. But we also have to consider that there are different views and perceptions on religion, thus give us different definitions of religion as well.

The essentialist definition of religion is a belief in Spiritual Beings; believing in this or that. Sociologically speaking, religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into on single moral community called a Church and all those who adhere to them. The functionalist definition of religion is more concerned with what religion does rather than what religion is.

A common word used however, is belief. It is what one believes in that makes up or constitutes a portion of religion. It is the mental statement of a claim as truth. Since some people believe in God, and for example, the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them done to you), this makes them Catholic and the religion of Catholicism emerges. I know it is not just those two things that make up Catholicism but those are certain aspects of it. Catholics believe God to be true and to them, therefore he is. It is also to say that Jewish people believe in the Torah, therefore, they believe that it is true, and that constitutes their religion of Judaism. Sometimes it makes me wonder who first used the term “religion” and on what basis and grounds they used that term for.

According the University of Alabama, to answer “What is the study of religion?”-  they can say that it is the disciplined inquiry of but one aspect of human cultural practices – an aspect identified, by the definition we choose to use, a definition that suits our purposes and our curiosities. They are saying that there can be many different definitions of religion and it is our own perspectives and beliefs that allow us the will and freedom to interpret it how we want. People know what their religion is, even atheists, and it is those beliefs for their culture and religion that gives them their own definition of religion and what in their minds and from those beliefs and values, constitutes something as religious.

Blog Entry 3: Sogdian Letters

Up until this reading, I had no idea that “Sogdian” was the name used for the ancient civilization of an Iranian people. I was unaware that this word even existed. It is quite amazing that the Sogdians were an integral part of the Silk Road for such a long time: between the 4th and 9th centuries CE! The Sogdians became dominant as traveling merchants, occupying a key position along the Silk Road and eventually, even their language  became the common language of the Silk Road. They ended up playing a huge role in the culture movement of philosophies and religion, such as Manicheism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. The Sogdians did a lot of trading on the Silk Road and were mainly responsible for the transportation to China of the grapevine and alfalfa (or lucerne grass). They also carried the special mare’s teat grapes from the oasis of Khocho and sold luxury goods from the west to the Chinese; Sassanian silverware from Persia, glass vessels and beads from Syria and Babylon, amber from the Baltic, Mediterranean coral, brass for Buddhist images, and purple woollen cloth from Rome. They themselves bought silk, copied the Chinese copper coinage and used Chinese paper.

As I mentioned before, I had never heard of Sogdian. I’m always curious as to how these names originated and who invented these particular names for certain people. It is also interesting to note how certain religions and philosophies can come about from a group of people. Also, the 5 letters (documents) that Aurel Stein discovered seemed a bit vague and general to me. How does one go about interpreting the letters? What do they look for? And how are they sure that these ancient letters of are Sogdian descent?

These are the questions that ran through my mind this week. It was certainly amazing that this group that I had no idea existed had so much to do with the Silk Road during the 4th to the 9th centuries; from trading to languages to religion, culture, and philosophy. However, it was the obscurity of the name that had me wondering the origins of the name and how these names are chosen or invented, and how the languages and religions are formed because of a certain group of people (their civilization).

Sogdian Area:

Blog Entry 2: Hou Hanshu Translations

Ethnography is a branch of anthropology. It is a methodological strategy used to provide descriptions of human societies, which as a methodology sets down the nature of the study (i.e. to describe people through writing). Ethnographic studies are usually holistic founded on the idea that humans are best understood in the fullest possible context. The typical ethnography is a document written about a  particular people, almost always based at where the culture begins and ends. It follows an outline to include a history of the culture, followed by an analysis of the physical geography inhabited by the people under study. I believe that any document that is ethnographic, would constitute under historical writing, because culture and geography are written about these people and specific dates of events are given. In both ethnography and historical writing, a writing of history is made based on a critical analysis, evaluation, and selection of  source materials and compositions.

I would say that the Hou Hanshu translations definitely falls under the category of ethnography and historical writing. The translations give a historical account as well as a geographical background. I was surprised to read the extent of how violent Chinese societies and states were, just to obtain power. There was much bloodshed between warring states, from kings and commanders being attacked and murdered, to others being beheaded and displayed for the towns to see. It’s amazing to see how far people and states would go in war just to be the state in charge and the reigning king in power.

I was also amazed at the number of kingdoms that formed in the Western Regions (55!), and how far they stretched. The kingdoms of the Western Regions subject to the Interior (China) stretched more than 2,495 km from east to west, and more than 416 km from south to north. At the extreme east were the Yumen and Yang frontier-passes. To the west, they stretched to the Pamirs. To the north and south were high mountains, and in the centre was the Tarim river. It’s remarkable to think that this route was travelled on by foot, a distance so far that planes are used today to travel that kind of distance.