Cultural Anthropology essay Question: See details?

Question

What is the relationship between religion, government and artistic expression? (By comparing and contrasting the practices of tribes with states including examples of ritual and artistic expression. I also need good examples of tribes and states for comparing). Thank you all very much.

Answer 1

Religion, government and artistic expression are interwoven in a particular society.

Religion dictates the morality of each action and sets forth what is the correct and moral way to do it.

Government, on the other hand, sets forth the standards for which actors in a society must act through laws and orders; it tells the people what ought to be done and what ought not to do.

Artistic expresion is the representation of reality or feelings of an individual through a medium.

Usually, religion shapes what kind of government a society has and dictates too what is good taste in art. This is true among Islamic states where its religion requires a certain form of government which in turn makes laws based on its teachings. Artistry in these societies are limited to representations of abstract ideas, avoiding human and animal represenatations.

Answer 2

The Aztec tribal nation, who called themselves "Mexica" (May Shee kah) believed that the God desired blood, but at the same time there was overpopulation, so often religious beliefs are used to justify convienent behaviors. So human sacrifice helped satisfy the Gods and had some small effect on population control.  Some anthropologist also say that human sacrifice and cannibalism also was needed due to not enough protein available. There government leaders were also spiritual leaders and they believed the government rulers were divine and had a direct relationship to the creator and were almost Gods themselves.  All of the Aztec art re-enforced the religious beliefs and re-enforced sacrifice and the need for sacrifice.  There was also a lot of art depicting actual sacrifice.  There were songs about sacrifice.

Look at our own country....we have a difficult time electing non-christian people.  There is only one Muslim in the Senate or House.  And when JFK was running people were actually scared that the pope would have a strong influence on the country and the JFK might take orders from him.  Look at the Vatican that is actually seen as its own country and they have a vote and a place at the United Nations.