 Hello, everyone. I'm Elena Chai from the Faculty of Social Sciences. Today I'm going to share some thoughts about beliefs and richer. I will talk about belief first, then richer. And the ultimate aim of these two topics will be summed up by my colleague, Mr Kelvin, on how belief systems and riches are manifested within societies in Borneo. First and foremost, let us ponder upon the word belief. It is a noun. Understanding a noun can sometimes be perplexing. So let us try to make it easier to understand by using the verb belief. As a verb, when we say belief in something, it means there is a positive attitude towards something we deem to be true. So we accept the truth or it's of opinion that this is the truth. Whether or not it is justified truth or unjustified one. This is an apple. When someone says apple is full of vitamin C, eating an apple a day is good for health. Yes, I believe. So I'm justified to believe it is good for my health. Therefore, I eat an apple a day. When someone says education is the key to success, if I want to be successful, I believe that I have to have education. I'm justified into believing education is the door to success. So how are these beliefs acquired with justified and unjustified truth? It could be justified through scientifically proven publications such as the level of nutrition in an apple. It could be socially acquired from living examples of people who obtain higher education and lead a successful life. It is more often than not acquired from the process of socialization dan from the interaction between members in the society. A society is the body of individuals living together as members of a community. Its members are bound by established relationship. There is interaction between most members of the community and this is what we call process of socialization. Values, beliefs, pattern of behavior are shared through the process of socialization. Values, beliefs, value, and pattern of behavior that we share is called culture. Culture is the social group that binds society together. There are few elements in culture which are social values, what are desirable in the society, social norms, fortwares, morals, laws, and taboos, social institutions, family, education, and economic government. We have the material products, cultural artifacts such as buildings, music dance, arts, language, words, and system people use to communicate among one another in the society. Just now, we talked about apple and education. Those were the profan beliefs. Profan means ordinary element in everyday life. Apple, toothbrush, cup, handphone, are profan items. Going to work, going to school, eating a meal are profan activities. The opposite of profan is sacred. Bible, Koran, cross, incense, rosary, tasbeer are sacred items. Performing solat, attending Sunday Mass, chanting the mantra are sacred activities. These activities involve some sense of religious city. Now, let's talk about religious belief. What is religious belief? It is the attitude towards supernatural, mythological, spiritual aspect of a religion. People acquire religious beliefs like profan beliefs through the process of socialization since beliefs are generated within the context of a society. In mass religion, there exists a belief in anthropomorphic supernatural beings such as gods, deities, spirits. There's a feeling of reverence, deep respect and awe of fear towards the beings. When we talk about religious ritual, it is the performance of a regulated pattern or sequence activities, recurring activities. It usually involves manipulation of symbols such as prayers, offerings to connect, communicate with the anthropomorphic supernatural beings such as gods, deities and spirits. In the Buddhist temple, I pray to the heaven's deity first by bowing three times. Then I pray to the man deity standing bowing three times. Then kneeling and I convey my wishes or my prayers Every temple I go to, I will do the same. The sequence of the activities will be the same too. So this is called ritual. We saw three settings of religious ritual in a Buddhist temple, in a church and in a mosque. It is all in a formal context in an institutionalized setting. There is the house of worship, the church, the mosque and the temple. There is the proper conduct of all doctrine guiding the do's and the don'ts. There is a systematic chance or prayers. This is what we call as official or institutionalized religion. What about those without doctrine? No laws for do's and don'ts, no systematic chance or prayers. What do we call them? Well, it is sometimes called traditional belief, popular belief, folk belief or pagan belief. Because it is defined against in comparison with the official and institutionalized religion. Most of these beliefs predate the official ones. There should not be discrimination to religious beliefs that is outside the context to what we usually know. There are many other beliefs that is not the so-called official or institutionalized religion. As students of cultural anthropology, we must look at beliefs and rituals from the perspective of cultural relativism. The beliefs and behavior of a society should be assessed within the context of the society from the people's own values, not based upon the values of the observer. For example, animal sacrifice may be objectionary act. We may think it is cruel, but it is a common feature of many society in the world. There is no universal yardstick on how culture, society, ritual beliefs should be measured. No one society, culture, ritual beliefs is more superior nor inferior than another. Well, students, that's all about my sharing for you today. And I hope you have enjoyed this session. Remember, eating an apple a day is good for your health.