Charakter wierzeń religijnych ludów Nowej Gwinei

Abstract

Materials presented in the article apply to the mainland of Northeast New Guinea taking no account of Papua and West Irian. In the first part of the article is described question of magic to religion relation with regard to New Guinea. Specialists in matters of religion in the West distinguish between magic and religion and they are of opinion that the two are two self-contained cultural realities. But it does not refer to New Guinea; none of three classic distinctions between the two, propounded by E. B. Tylor, J. G . Frazer, B. M alinowski and E. Durkheim, can be consistently substantiated by the evidence available. Religion and magic show some differences, but the dominant function of both is the same: they are a means of fostering socio-economic welfare, so they can be considered together only. The second part of the article talks the beliefs in spirit-beings over, who can be classified into four groups: creative and/or regulative spirit-beings (deities, cultural heroes); autonomous spirit-beings who have no creative and/or regulative functions (demons – masalai, Pucks – sanguma, tricksters – man bilong trik); spirits of the living (souls – devil bilong man) and the dead (ancestors – tambaran, turnfruna); totems (pisin) and occult forces (pawa). In the third part of the article mention is made of practices by which man assumes that he must maintain correct relationship with gods and tage. An efforts to secure the social and religious order as well as a good relationship with supernatural beings find its expression in a number of various rites performed either in the curse of calendar cycle or when the opportunity occurs in individual’s and group’s lifetime. Any social and economic action is determined by the religious beliefs, which perform threefold function, that was represented in the fourth part of the article. Religion serves to explain and validate the total cosmic order; it tells men how the physical world, the economic resources as well man and his socio-political systems came into existence. It explains also why there is good and evil in the world, why man has to die and what happens to him after death. Religion is the philosophy of life, it has a cognitive function. Religion provides men with the techniques to keep the world operating properly. Religious knowledge is real knowledge which tells men how to master the world by performing ritual which guarantees success in important economic, social and biological undertakings. All people have a considerable store of factual knowledge and practical skills, but this is not regarded as real knowledge. Furthermore this knowledge and the skills are not just secular, but they are penetrated with religious explanations and rituals. Religion is the technology of life, it has a predominant pragmatic function. Most anthropologists and sociologists try to explain religion in New Guinea as a cognitive and pragmatic system only. They may also try to explain religion from a social and psychological point of view; they reckon that many religious institutions and rituals are only symbols or reactions of man’s psychological and social problems. All these attempts are very valid but they are also limited and therefore incomplete. Empirical sciences will have difficulties in discovering in beliefs and rituals signals of transcendence. Nevertheless traditional religious beliefs reveal man’s existential dependence on a Mystery which some people call God and traditional rituals are also a sign of man’s commitment to this Mystery. Religion is the expression of the spirituality of life, it has a hidden theological function.