نوع مقاله : علمی-پژوهشی

نویسندگان

• قربان علمی ¹
• نازنین جلیلی ²

¹ استاد ادیان و عرفان، دانشگاه تهران، (نویسنده مسئول)

² دانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد ادیان و عرفان، دانشگاه تهران،

چکیده

این مقاله، به روش توصیفی و تحلیلی به بررسی مفهوم و ویژگی‌های مانا و امر قدسی در نظام فکری مارت ‌پرداخته است. او که در درجه نخست، بر انسان‌شناسی دین تمرکز دارد، بر عاطفه و احساس به‌عنوان اصل اساسی روان‌شناسی تحلیلی ذهن و شخصیت انسان و مولفه‌های روان‌شناختی باور دینی نیز تأکید ‌کرده و به‌جای آنیمیسم تایلر، پیشاآنیمیسم یا آنیماتیسم (تجربه مانا) را به‌عنوان صورت نخستین و اصیل تجربه دینی، عرضه داشت. مارت از متعلق آگاهی دینی تعبیر به مانا یا امر قدسی می‌کند. احساس مانا، احساس حضور یک قدرت یا نیروی شگفت‌انگیز و رازآلود است که گوهر دین ابتدایی را تشکیل می‌دهد. اساساً دین در پاسخ به احساس هیبت و در ارتباط با آن شکل‌گرفته است. احساس مانا آمیزه‌ای از احساس هراس، اعجاب و جاذبه است که در انسان ایجاد هیبت می‌کند. تعریف حداقلی او از دین، شامل فرمول تابو – مانا است که تابو، جنبه منفی و سلبی امر قدسی یا موجود فراطبیعی است، که"نباید بی‌محابا به آن نزدیک شد." در جنبه مثبت و ایجابی آن مانا است. چیزهایی که مانا دارند، تابو نیز هستند. مانای مارت، برخلاف کودرینگتون، قدرت نیست، بلکه کاملاً ماورای طبیعی، یعنی مذهبی و هسته اصلی دین است.

کلیدواژه‌ها

• دین
• امر قدسی
• ماوراءالطبیعه
• مارت
• مانا

عنوان مقاله [English]

Mana and sacredness in Marett's thought

نویسندگان [English]

• ghorban elmi ¹
• Nazanin جلیلی ²

¹ Professor of Religions and Mysticism, University of Tehran (Corresponding Author

² M.A. in Religions and Mysticism, University of Tehran

چکیده [English]

Abstract
This article, in a descriptive and analytical way, has investigated the concept and characteristics of Mana and the sacred in Marett's intellectual system. He, who primarily focuses on the anthropology of religion, emphasized emotion and feeling as the basic principle of analytical psychology of mind and human personality and the psychological components of religious belief, and instead of Tyler's animism, he offered pre-animism or animatism (the experience of Mana) as the first and the original religious experience. Marett interprets the subject of religious consciousness as Mana or sacred. The feeling of Mana is the feeling of the presence of a wonderful and mysterious power or force that forms the essence of primitive religion. Basically, religion was formed in response to the feeling of awe and in connection with it. The feeling of Mana is a mixture of fear, wonder and attraction that creates awe in humans. His minimal definition of religion includes the taboo-Mana formula, where taboo is the negative aspect of a sacred or supernatural entity, which "should not be approached without restraint." In its positive aspect, it is named Mana. Things that have Mana are also taboo. Marett's Mana, unlike Codrington's, is not power, but is entirely supernatural, i.e. religious and the core of religion.
Key words: religion, sacred, supernatural, Marett, Mana
 
 
 
 
Introduction
Robert Ranulph Marett, a British anthropologist, was a supporter of the evolutionist school of cultural anthropology. He primarily focused on the anthropology of religion. Marett's first academic position was a philosophy teaching chair in Oxford, where he became interested in anthropology after reading the book "Tradition and Myth" by Andrew Long. In 1910, Marett succeeded Tylor in the chair of cultural anthropology in Oxford. Criticizing Tylor's theory that early religion was belief in spirits, he proposed the theory of pre-animism and belief in a power called Mana. He believed that in Mana, we have evidence of a pre-animism stage; the stage in which the feeling dominates the thought or in which the thought is still not separated from the feeling. Marett was influential in bringing Mana to a wide English-speaking audience. His attempts to use this concept to explore the nature of supernatural and magical power are particularly telling of the difficulties that modern social theorists faced in trying to address issues of religion and social power. Therefore, in the opinion of this anthropologist, we see a new orientation in the study of primitive religion. His analysis of the history of religion was published for the first time in the book "The Threshold of Religion" published in 1909 and then elaborated in his other works. The first article of this book, which was published under the title "Pre-animistic religion" and which earned Marett's fame this way, contained his most key and original ideas, especially the concept of Mana, which is the subject of this article.
Research methodology
The method of this writing is descriptive-analytical and in some cases content analysis, which wants to present a general and clear picture of his attitude and opinion about the subject of religious experience. what is his approach in the field of the science of religion? What is his conceptualization of religion and religious evolution? It examines the concept and characteristics of Mana and sacred matter in Mart's intellectual system and answers the question of what the concept of Mana has as a subject of religious awareness, especially among primitive people.
Discussion
In order to understand the concept of Mana and sacred matter and its position and characteristics in Marett's theory of science of religion, one must first define and perceive religion. In the first step of his theorizing, Marett presented the definition of religion and after pointing out the difficulties of this matter, he said: "It can be considered as an abbreviation of a composite or concrete state of the mind, in which different feelings and ideas, together and directly are stimulation and source of action. To define and express the nature of religion, it should be said that "The Threshold of Religion", Marett's most important book about the nature and origin of religion, focuses on the concept of "threshold" between the natural world and the supernatural. Therefore, he considers religion to be the transition to the world beyond nature and communicating with God or Mana. In his explanation, Marett, instead of religion, pays attention to religiosity and considers it a feeling of awe and amazement in facing the mysterious and inexplicable aspects of the world, and this feeling of the sacred is the basis of all religious experiences. Therefore, the nature of religion or religious experience is to find ways through which people seek to connect with the Divine. Marett considers early religion not to be "belief in spirits" but animatism, or the feeling and belief in "Mana". In discussing what constitutes religious consciousness, Marett believes that despite the endless quarrels over words, anthropologists seem to be largely in agreement about the realities with which religion deals. These realities belong to the mental system and the objective system, and at the same time they are so related that they all have a common feature. Marett does not know a better term to express that common feature than "sacred matter".
Conclusion
Criticizing Tylor's theory, Marett considers it "short-sighted and limited because of its too much rationalism" and calls religion the feeling and experience of Mana (power). Marett says that religion is basically based on emotions and feelings and ideas and concepts are of secondary importance in it. This view had a great influence on the later studies of religion. Rudolf Otto's conception and understanding of the sacred was influenced by it, and Marett had an influence on sociologists of early religion such as Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, etc. The root of Mana is in the Pacific Ocean region. Marett's point of view in explaining the origin of religion is one of the emotionalist points of view. By criticizing the rationalist theories before him, with a psychological approach, Marett considers the individual experience of primitive man as a fundamental factor in the origin of religion and emphasizes the emotional dimension of this experience. Marett considers the origin of religion to be a feeling that is a mixture of fear, respect and amazement, which is induced in the primitive man when he encounters the world around him. He considers beliefs to be merely the manifestation of hidden roots - that is, feelings - which are the source of religious rituals and behaviors, and beliefs play a secondary role in religion. The primitive man sees his surroundings full of objects and phenomena that are mysterious to him. He attributes this mysterious feature to a transcendental and mysterious "force" that cannot be "perceived" but can be "felt" and is all-pervasive. According to Mart, this feeling is the focus of a stage in the history of the evolution of religion, which he calls "supernaturalism" and believes that this stage is the precursor to the emergence of human religious thought. In the pre-animist theory, a vague force called Mana takes the first place and belongs to religious consciousness. In criticizing Mart's point of view, it should be said that the primitive man in Marett's view is an excessively dreamy and passive creature who constantly feels "fear mixed with awe" that the world around him instills in him; He is afraid and trembling. But ethnological data shows that primitive man is not so much subject to nature.
 

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

• religion
• sacred
• supernatural
• Marett
• mana