THE “ROOTS” OF RELIGION AND CULTURE
by Dr. L. J. Joshi, Executive Director, RICCS

Lankapalli Jayaprakash Joshi is the Executive Director of the Research Institute for Cultural and Contemporary Studies, which he founded five years ago.

One, religion; culture, the other.

Both are not just concepts, not just words, but they’re realities of every society.

Do you know of any society that hasn’t a religion? 

Not even the most populous nation in the world: 
China – officially a Communist country!

In China, even a casual American tourist will find that not opium but religion is the ‘in thing.’

If I may further expand on that:  In case you did not know, there are more Christians in China than in the U.S.

There are more than 300 million Chinese who have chosen Christianity over Communism!

Contrast that--to the entire U.S. population of 292 million. 

So religion is everywhere – wherever people are. 

No wonder, we the Homo sapiens are also known as religious animals. 

But what is religion?  Seriously!  Tell me have you ever thought of what the word religion means?

Relegere is the Latin word from which our English word religion is derived.

Relegere means “to bind” – like the caveman bound his bunch of sticks to use for firewood. 

However shocking it might be for you: 

There is no God in religion!

In other words, you can be religious without having to add God as a component. 

For anthropologists, religion traditionally meant:  belief in the supernatural. 

And for those who do believe in God – that is the supernatural being.

Now you can see where both the Christian theologians and the cultural anthropologists can agree on religion:  Belief in God or the supernatural. 

FROM RELIGION TO CULTURE.

You may not want to be labeled as a religious fanatic; but you will be mighty pleased if somebody complimented you – that you’re cultured.

Can you be a religious person and be a cultured person at the same time?  Think about it!!!

Did you notice we’ve already introduced the word ‘culture,’ when we referred to cultural anthropologists? 

Who is a cultural anthropologist?  It’s not that difficult to explain.  An anthropologist studies cultures of people.

Well known Hollywood actor, Tom Selleck, has another hobby.  That is to cultivate avocados!

In Ventura County, north of Hollywood, he has acres and acres of farm land where he grows avocados.  He has acquired the skills of cultivating avocados to incredible scientific precision!

Do you see a similarity of meanings between culture and cultivation?

If you do, then you got the meaning of culture. 

Culture is an agricultural term applied to describe people and their norms.

No brainer!  Do you also see the word culture in the term agriculture? 

In Greek, the word agros means a field or a farm.  Farming a field can also be described as agriculture. 

In our effort of finding the meanings for religion and culture, we traveled from ancient China to literary Greece. 

We talk of Greek culture, Greek mythology, but not so much about Greek religion.

Similarly, not many of us may have studied Chinese religions, (such as Confucianism and Taoism), but many of us are no less fascinated by Chinese culture. 

Maybe, it’s like yin and yang (a major Chinese contribution to human thought). 

There is no yin without yang. There is no yang without yin.

There is no black without white. There is no white without black.

There is no male without female. There is no female without male.  

There is no culture without religion. There is no religion without culture. 

Two concepts!  Two words!! Two realities!!!