Mana (religious practice)

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In various Austronesian languages, mana is a transcendent force that can be transferred to people, but also to natural phenomena, among other things through achievements and deeds. Mana plays a central role in the traditional cultural and religious beliefs of the peoples of Oceania and here in particular in the Polynesian religion . According to Robert Marett , this force is the basis of the idea of animatism .

As an essential element of the Huna doctrine, which is derived from the ethnic-religious traditions of Hawaii , it has found its way into Western ideas from esotericism and neo-shamanism .

Basic meaning

In its elementary meaning, mana simply means power , be it spiritual or worldly in nature. The Polynesian culture sees no fundamental difference here: A person who is characterized by great abilities, strength and self-confidence has a significant mana and thus - according to the Polynesian conviction - inevitably also great spiritual energy.

The concept of this spiritual energy can be compared within certain limits with similar ideas from other cultures such as B. Qi (Ch'i, Japanese Ki ), Prana , Orgone and Psi power . Mana describes a universal life force that flows in every appearance of worldly reality and fills it with life. Mana in the sense of the Polynesian approach must be tied to a concrete form: Accordingly, every stone, every tree and also every person has their own personal mana , a spiritual-energetic power potential that is fed equally from worldly and spiritual components.

Mana and tapu - both names from the Pacific cultural area - are two reference variables that, like action and reaction, cannot be separated from one another: Mana is the stigma that becomes independent and that triggers a precisely defined behavior (of a living being, an object, a state ), Tapu is the appropriate (distancing) precautionary measure.

Cultural classification

In the Polynesian view of the world there was no difference between “ otherworldly ” and “ worldly ” forces. For the Polynesians (as well as for many Indians of North America and other indigenous cultures), both were equally real and involved in shaping the reality they experienced every day . So one had to take this fact into account in everyday behavior.

Since mana had a very pragmatic content as a spiritual force in the Polynesian view, it was generally assumed that a high social position (and thus power) must also grant its wearer a high spiritual status. In this way, in Polynesian society, inherited titles of nobility or functions passed on by family as experts in various fields were given a high spiritual status. This resulted in a problem of its own, which often could only be solved by fighting with closely related opponents with the death of one of the parties involved. The practice of many Polynesian societies, through adoption, to bring talented members of a lesser branch of the family closer to the original lineage is explained here: To be closer to power also meant to have more mana for the honored person.

The Polynesian social order exemplifies the difficulty of transferring such a religious and ideological concept to the order of a society. Yet this concept has allowed Polynesian culture to survive for millennia in one of the most dangerous and most difficult-to-maintain settlements on our planet.

Decline

This inseparability of spiritual and worldly thinking in Polynesian culture also had disastrous consequences when the culture of the Polynesians met that of the Europeans. Based on the idea that worldly power inevitably also represented spiritual power, many peoples of Polynesia submitted to the superior weapons of the Europeans without offering any significant cultural resistance . If, for example, the Māori in New Zealand were subject to British troops, they naturally assumed that the conquerors had better or greater mana . As a result, it was easy for the British to assert their alleged cultural and religious superiority in the conquered areas. Much of the content of the Polynesian cultural tradition was thus irrevocably lost.

view

In the past few decades, Polynesian culture has experienced a decisive renaissance. The concept of mana in the pragmatic Polynesian sense is also finding new recognition.

Use in religious studies

As a scientific term is Mana primarily with the theory of pre-animism of Robert Ranulph Marett connected. In his book The Threshold of Religion (1909) , he advocated the theory that early religions were by no means characterized by metaphysical concepts of the soul, but referred to non-personified, extra-everyday powers. Furthermore, in such communities there is no intellectual differentiation between profane nature influencing and magical or religious practices. (See also: Dead ends in ethnological research on religion ).

Use in popular culture

The term first found its way into popular culture through its use in Larry Niven's short story Not Long Before the End , published in 1969 , in which mana is described as a natural resource with the help of which wizards are able to cast spells.

In this sense, the term was picked up and popularized in numerous works. The term mana, as a designation for a form of spiritual energy, is part of the standard vocabulary, especially in computer games , but also in general in fantasy media of all kinds (see Mana (games) ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Gibbons: Atlas of Faith. The religions of the world. Translation from English, Frederking & Thaler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-89405-719-0 , p. 93.
  2. ↑ Markus Porsche-Ludwig, Jürgen Bellers (ed.): Handbook of the religions of the world. Volumes 1 and 2, Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen 2012, ISBN 978-3-88309-727-5 , p. 94f.
  3. ↑ Marvin Harris: Cultural Anthropology - A Textbook. From the American by Sylvia M. Schomburg-Scherff, Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1989, ISBN 3-593-33976-5 , p. 281.