Holy Rites and Sacred Sites

For all the secularism of the modern world, religious beliefs and rituals still play a significant part in its daily life. The sociologist, Max Weber, argued that it was the very nature of religious belief that was a key trigger factor in the making of the modern world, in which the rationality that characterized Protestantism enabled the critical breakthroughs at the heart of science, politics and economics; ¹ more recently sociology has eagerly adopted the concept of ‘civil religion’ to describe some of the ideological underpinnings of modern society ² Further, among the most prominent flag-bearers of western culture in the wake of colonial expansion, were the missionaries, particularly in Africa and the Pacific Islands, where the indigenous religions – generally considered and defined as pagan – were in many places largely replaced. Indeed, their success in converting the local inhabitants was often a reflection of the political backing they could rely on. On the basis of an analysis of a few missionaries, Aidan Southall claims that when they, and other strangers to Africa, ‘tried to bring new religions into the smaller African societies, without political protection – whether imposed by their own nation or lent them by local rulers – they failed. But when they worked in the larger African societies, under the political umbrella of the ruler, they achieved spectacular success.’ ³