Anthropology and Religion

Anthropology and Religion
Author: Robert L. Winzeler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2012
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0759121893

Drawing from ethnographic examples found throughout the world, this revised and updated text, hailed as the "best general text on religion in anthropology available," offers an introduction to what anthropologists know or think about religion, how they have studied it, and how...

Religion and Anthropology

Religion and Anthropology
Author: Brian Morris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780521852418

This important textbook provides a critical introduction to the social anthropology of religion, focusing on more recent classical ethnographies. Comprehensive, free of scholastic jargon, engaging, and comparative in approach, it covers all the major religious traditions that have been studied concretely by anthropologists - Shamanism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and its relation to African and Melanesian religions and contemporary Neopaganism. Eschewing a thematic approach and treating religion as a social institution and not simply as an ideology or symbolic system, the book follows the dual heritage of social anthropology in combining an interpretative understanding and sociological analysis. The book will appeal to all students of anthropology, whether established scholars or initiates to the discipline, as well as to students of the social sciences and religious studies, and for all those interested in comparative religion.

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics
Author: James S Bielo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2015-04-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317542827

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introductory text organized around key issues that all anthropologists of religion face. This book uses a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples to address not only what is studied by anthropologists of religion, but how such studies are approached. It addresses questions such as: How do human agents interact with gods and spirits? What is the nature of doing religious ethnography? Can the immaterial be embodied in the body, language and material objects? What is the role of ritual, time, and place in religion? Why is charisma important for religious movements? How do global processes interact with religions? With international case studies from a range of religious traditions, suggestions for further reading, and inventive reflection boxes, Anthropology of Religion: The Basics is an essential read for students approaching the subject for the first time.

Ordinary Lives and Grand Schemes

Ordinary Lives and Grand Schemes
Author: Samuli Schielke
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2012-06-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0857455079

Everyday practice of religion is complex in its nature, ambivalent and at times contradictory. The task of an anthropology of religious practice is therefore precisely to see how people navigate and make sense of that complexity, and what the significance of religious beliefs and practices in a given setting can be. Rather than putting everyday practice and normative doctrine on different analytical planes, the authors argue that the articulation of religious doctrine is also an everyday practice and must be understood as such.

Introducing Anthropology of Religion

Introducing Anthropology of Religion
Author: Jack David Eller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2007-08-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134131925

This lively and readable survey introduces students to key areas of the field and shows how to apply an anthropological approach to the study of contemporary world religions. Written by an experienced teacher, it covers all of the traditional topics of anthropology of religion, including definitions and theories, beliefs, symbols and language, and ritual and myth, and combines analytic and conceptual discussion with up-to-date ethnography and theory. Eller includes copious examples from religions around the world – both familiar and unfamiliar – and two mini-case studies in each chapter. He also explores classic and contemporary anthropological contributions to important but often overlooked issues such as violence and fundamentalism, morality, secularization, religion in America, and new religious movements. Introducing Anthropology of Religion demonstrates that anthropology is both relevant and essential for understanding the world we inhabit today.

Anthropology of Religion

Anthropology of Religion
Author: Stephen D. Glazier
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 568
Release: 1999-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Chapters by expert contributors overview the most significant topics and trends in the anthropology of religion.

The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft -- Pearson eText

The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft -- Pearson eText
Author: Rebecca L Stein
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2015-08-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317350219

This book emphasizes the major concepts of both anthropology and the anthropology of religion and examines religious expression from a cross-cultural perspective while incorporating key theoretical concepts. It is aimed at students encountering anthropology for the first time.

The Slain God

The Slain God
Author: Timothy Larsen
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014-08-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0191632058

Throughout its entire history, the discipline of anthropology has been perceived as undermining, or even discrediting, Christian faith. Many of its most prominent theorists have been agnostics who assumed that ethnographic findings and theories had exposed religious beliefs to be untenable. E. B. Tylor, the founder of the discipline in Britain, lost his faith through studying anthropology. James Frazer saw the material that he presented in his highly influential work, The Golden Bough, as demonstrating that Christian thought was based on the erroneous thought patterns of 'savages.' On the other hand, some of the most eminent anthropologists have been Christians, including E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, and Edith Turner. Moreover, they openly presented articulate reasons for how their religious convictions cohered with their professional work. Despite being a major site of friction between faith and modern thought, the relationship between anthropology and Christianity has never before been the subject of a book-length study. In this groundbreaking work, Timothy Larsen examines the point where doubt and faith collide with anthropological theory and evidence.

A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion

A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion
Author: Michael Lambek
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Total Pages: 620
Release: 2002
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780631221135

A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion is a collection of some of the most significant classic and contemporary writings on the anthropology of religion. It includes both material whose theme is 'religion' in a straightforward and obvious sense, as well as material that has expanded how we might look at religion - and the horizons of what we mean by 'religion' - linking it to broader questions of culture and politics.