Fieldwork on Religion and Superstitions

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FIELDWORK ON RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS Religion is a worldview in which people personify cosmic forces and find ways to deal with them that is like the ways they deal with powerful human beings in their society. Religions are organized in two terms, which are dogma-orthodoxy and heterodoxy. Dogma-orthodox religions are delimitated by some resources like holy writs and according to these religions the truth may not be questioned, in the opposite heterodox religions varied even conflicting interpretations. However it is discussed lately that people who belong to dogma-orthodox religions can believe in magic and apply in their daily life both religion practices and magic practices. In this field work I will focus on practices and beliefs of religion and superstitions in dogma-orthodox religions, in order to research in the field I have made two interviews with members of different religions about this topic. One of my interviews was with N.C.(72), who is a Muslim lady. The interview started with questions about her religious view and she said that she has two Qurans in her house. After that I wanted to question her religious practices, which refer to rituals. Rituals are repetitive social practices of religion, one of them is ritual worship (namaz) in Islam. N.C. said that she prays every Friday but when she was young she also did the ritual worship five times a day and also she says that she feels herself uncomfortable when she did not pray on that Friday. This shows us that N.C. is a person, who has religious beliefs and has a strong connection to rituals of Islam. After that I asked questions about superstitions especially about magic. The article “ Faith, Religion an the Supernatural” written by Sylvia Wing Önder is about “nazar” the evil eye and also different healing systems in a majorly muslim society living in Medreseönü. It is observed in this population
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