Description
Scitus Academics LLC Anthropology of Religion by Kerr Payne
The anthropological study of religion attends to religious life through the
study of everyday practices. Rather than understanding religion as a set of
beliefs, anthropologists examine the ways that practices and belief are
constitutive of each other via a broad spectrum of representations, embodiments
and ethical and social practices. These everyday practices are constituted
by and constituting of many aspects of social life including gender,
desire, performance, politics and power. Anthropologists thus recognize
that religious life is a thoroughly social practice, and yet identifiable as
transformative and sometimes mysterious subject of investigation. Anthropologists
of religion are not concerned with discovering the truth or falsehood
of religion. They are more interested in how religious ideas express a
people's cosmology, i.e. notions of how the universe is organized and the
role of humans within the world. Many study rituals which incorporate symbols,
and note how these often help to bring communities together in times
of crisis or special points in the calendar.
Anthropology of Religion outlines the scope of the anthropological literature
on religion, drawing both on classic and more-recent studies. It
supports anthropological approaches to the study of religion from all the
subdisciplines; cultural anthropology, archaeology, physical anthropology,
linguistic anthropology and others. In the later twentieth century, debate has
arisen concerning the scope of the anthropology of religion. Do anthropologists
of religion only study religions in tribal settings? Is it exclusively the
study of non-Western religions? Is it to be limited to the study of religion
among oppressed and marginalized people? The focus of anthropological
study has shifted from the study of tribal to modern religions. A number of
well-received studies have analyzed religion in developing societies,
Europe, and the United States. A number of promising studies have focused
on ritual and ritual forms. From this perspective, rituals are seen as the
fundamental unit of religious expression and the building blocks for all
religions.
This compilation will serve as an excellent tool for scholars, practitioners
and academics working in the field of migration and religion.