Religious institutions such as churches count as only one of the social institutions within a society. Others include government, education and family institutions.

Education is a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms. • John J. Macionis. • It is the social institution through which society provides its members with knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values.

Religion describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns. Religion is a social institution because it includes beliefs and practices that serve the needs of society. Religion is also an example of a cultural universal because it is found in all societies in one form or another.

Durkheim identified three essential elements of religion: (1) belief in the sacred; (2) religious groups, or cults; and (3) ritual.

Summarize theories developed by anthropologists to explain the importance of supernatural beliefs in human communities. Identify the four elements of religion (cosmology, belief in the supernatural, rules of behavior, and rituals) and explain how each element contributes to religious practices.

Joachim Wach — Religion is 3 things: a belief system, a ritual worship system, and a moral system of social relationships.

These aspects are: beliefs, myths and other stories, sacred texts and other religious writings (such as formal creeds), rituals, symbols, social structures, ethical principles and oral or written codes of behaviour, and religious experience and spirituality.

9.1: Elements of Religion

• God(s) and forces in the public square.
• Sacred symbols (re)defining what is real.
• Sacred stories connecting past, present and future.
• A community worshiping and acting together.

An overview of the three main religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the three major religions in the world.

Something that the five major world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam) have in common is a sense of community. A sense of community provides group cohesion and identity, as well as a way for rituals and traditions to be passed down from generation to generation.

Largest religious groups