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Survival & Spirituality
Have you ever noticed the seemingly huge divide between what people refer to as “primitive” and “advanced” religious and magical traditions? Most of the ones we call primitive today belong to people who aren’t white, first of all. Secondly, these traditions seem to be concerned with very practical matters: praying or casting spells that help you get food, money, mates, etc. On the other hand, the supposedly more advanced traditions are concerned with such highfalutin concepts as Truth, enlightenment, transcendence or Salvation. In other words, they are concerned with things that are not only impractical, but which are generally goddamned hard to describe.
So where does this big gulf come from? Max and I were talking about this the other day, and came up with a possible explanation, so simple I’m surprised it never occurred to before that conversation. In a nutshell, if your life is concerned with survival, your religion is going to be concerned with enhancing survival. If your life is pretty stable, and survival isn’t much of a concern, then you’re freed (or forced) to chase or invent some other spiritual goal.
If you were a sociologist or something, you could put together modern tests of this simply by polling people and correlating their religious ideas and aspirations with their socio-economic standing. Not a foolproof method, of course, since there are likely to be people who fall through the cracks statistically. Poor people and ascetics who care nothing for money, but who want to touch the Face of God. People who are well-off who couldn’t care less about transcendence and whose whole spirituality is bent towards acquiring ever more.
Exceptions aside, it seems like a useful general principle. What do you think? Does it match your experience, and the people you know?
August 30th, 2005 at 10:51 pm
it falls in line with maslow`s hierachy of needs. if you are afraid for your existance you aren`t focusing on metaphysics, you`re praying for food. mind you, there are some religions that seem to promote a spiritual bankrupcy in the most affluent of parishioners.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:02 am
It jibes with the anecdotal evidence of m’eye observation. For instance, when I was living up in Harlem, there were tons of prayer candles (for protection, good luck, money, etc.) in the grocery store; one block south of where I live in Brooklyn, where the income drops, there are again tons of these candles. Two blocks north of me, closer to Burrough Hall and the grocery store (same chain as the other one), carries a much tinier section of these. Of course, the only one I’ve seen buy these candles is myself, but I consider myself a bit of an anomoly in whatever neighborhood I live.
August 31st, 2005 at 2:00 pm
I agree with the maslow comment. You can’t really reach for the “peak experiences” until you have food, shelter, clothing, sex etc, then things can start to get a bit more idealistic
1st generation immigrants in particular aren’t concerned so much w. abstractions but things like “How can I get my green card… why can’t my wife get pregnant… my daughter needs a job… how can I stop gang members from targeting my brother in law” etc. SO they use primitive religious practices to address these concerns
In a similar way, the 1st generation will usually try to establish a foundation (citizenship, start a family)
the 2nd generation try to go to business school and make $$$ and assimilate more, get flashy cars, etc
the 3rd generation can afford to take some chances so maybe they go to art school or take a semester off and go backpacking or whatever - they might even rebel against the middle-class lifestyle! LOL.