Case Study Supplement

DREEMS: The Six Dimensions of Religion
Doctrine: Important truths expressed in religious form. These may be propositional or experiential, objective or subjective. They teach about the world, the universe, and the relationship of people within the larger structures. May or may not be directly related to "real life". They may be organized in a stand-alone fashion, or scattered within the mythic, ethical, and ritual structures. Answer "What is truth about the world, people, and the unseen powers?"	Ritual: Regularized ceremonies of life which provide "places" of security 1) through reparation for broken taboo ,2) events which mark transition from one phase of life to another, and 3) intensifying social cohesion through participation with the community in culturally important celebrations.
Ethics: Values of how people are to behave as they relate to other people, animals, and the world. These are found on the personal, group, and social level. They are deeply interwoven into the cultural values and doctrine, and often enshrined in heroic (or evil) acts discussed in cultural myth. They provide the maps which we negotiate as we live and interact with others.	Experience: How we feel the transcendent in our lives and whether we consider that experience to be a significant element of our religious lives. Can range from the mundane to the sublime, though generally focused more on the latter. Includes such things as dreams, visions, out-of-the-body events, trance, possession, shamanic journeys, and so on.
Myth: The stories of a culture which reflect its thinking about the world, itself, its laws and values. Myth concretizes important values for the culture and enables those values to be passed from generation to generation. Technically focused in timeless stories of creation, redemption and human/divine drama (Scripture, epics and classics). On an informal level found in folklore, fairy stories, and proverbs.	Social: The element of religion that expresses the linking of people to each other, built on the cultural values of how people are to relate socially in religious contexts. Includes social institutions (see below) as well as the sense of belonging inculcated through socially -experienced religious events. For the types of institutions and their importance, see the AKEEL system description below and overleaf.

Social Institutions: A Summary Chart of the AKEEL System

System		Need	Elements
A	Association	Polarization of people with similar purposes and/or objectives	Symbols or slogans, purpose (formal or informal), number of persons belonging
K	Kinship	Biological reproduction of new members	Descent, authority, residence, inheritance, marriage
E	Education	To provide new members with the knowledge, values, and skills of the society	Formal: schools, universities, trade schools Informal: books, television, newspaper, effective others Nonformal: Kin, friends, peer groups
E	Economics	To distribute the goods and services which sustain the livelihood of its members	Types of enterprises, population of persons who work, ecology, systems of exchange and means of payment
L	Law, Political	To maintain internal order and to regulate relations with others	Government: courts, city hall, police Public Utilities and services

The Social Dimension of Contextualization:
Human Social Institutions

In every culture we must face the fact of human institutions which together give cohesiveness to the culture and facilitate the functioning of all elements of life. AKEEL is a helpful acronym for the first letters of the individual systems (modified from the KEEPRAH paradigm presented in Harris and Moran, "Understanding Cultural Differences," pp. 62-72 to fit the particularities of the INTR 532 case studies and the Hiebert and Meneses discussion):

A = Association. The associational system of a community is one of the more difficult categories to conceptualize. It would include social groupings such as unions, clubs, societies, cooperatives, parties, etc. These are often seen within the other institutions (e.g., alumni associations, political parties, and economic cooperatives)

K = Kinship. Every society must provide for the biological reproduction of new members and see that they are nourished and cared for during infancy and childhood. Nearly everywhere it is the family which provides the basic context for the performance of these activities. Most of the early training and socialization of children also takes place within the family.

K = Education. Education (formal, non-formal, and informal) is a facet of the socialization process necessary to all societies. As an institutional term, education refers to all those activities which, in any way, directly or indirectly, contribute to providing new members, either by birth or immigration, with the knowledge, values and skills of the society. These are transmitted to the new member in order to prepare her or him to live and function within the society in a socially acceptable manner with some degree of independence.

E = Economics. Every culture must have some way of producing and distributing the goods and services which sustain the lives of its members. The set of institutions and roles which are organized around the performance of these activities constitutes the economic system of the culture. Often there is an idealized portrait of what that system is which may not correspond to the actual events of life for the average person.

L = Law, Legal, and Politics. All communities or cultures must have some means of maintaining internal order and, at the same time, regulating their relations with other communities or cultures. Internal threats to a culture's existence come from the competition for power, here defined as the control over human, man-made, and natural resources. Since the availability of such resources has ultimate limits in any community (or culture) conflict of images and plans over the use of those resources in inevitable. The political system, therefore, is the network of institutions and social roles which exist to control the competition for power.