In order for there to be a belief system, there must be believers, so who are the beings who are believing in your religion? What is their society like? As we spoke about at the beginning of the semester, pay attention to the environment where the culture lives. b. The rituals of the religion (While you can have as many rituals in your religion as you would like, you need to have at least three different categories of rituals: Protective, Therapy, Rite of Passages, Hunting and Gathering Rites of Intensification, etc…) c. The nature of the sacred in the religion (What is it that makes the believers feel that this is a religion? What about it is sacred to them?) d. The supernatural beings that are important to the religion (Does your religion have gods or ancestor spirits, or …) e. Describe at least three important symbols for the religion. (Remember that symbols can be a wide range of different thing – are there visual or musical symbols? Gestures or actions?…) f. The role that the supernatural plays in the culture’s social values, ethics and morality g. The communal social structure (Durkheim emphasizes that religion is a communal activity, what about your religion promotes that view?) h. The role of the religious specialists in the religion (Do you have Priests or Shamans? Healers? Prophets? Diviners? …) i. The mythology of the religion and/or Founders and reformers if applicable (How did the religion get started? What stories do the believers tell?)
