Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions

Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions PDF Author: James L. Cox
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317157052
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
The study of indigenous religions has become an important academic field, particularly since the religious practices of indigenous peoples are being transformed by forces of globalization and transcontinental migration. This book will further our understanding of indigenous religions by first considering key methodological issues related to defining and contextualizing the religious practices of indigenous societies, both historically and in socio-cultural situations. Two further sections of the book analyse cases derived from European contexts, which are often overlooked in discussion of indigenous religions, and in two traditional areas of study: South America and Africa.

Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions

Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions PDF Author: James L. Cox
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317157052
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
The study of indigenous religions has become an important academic field, particularly since the religious practices of indigenous peoples are being transformed by forces of globalization and transcontinental migration. This book will further our understanding of indigenous religions by first considering key methodological issues related to defining and contextualizing the religious practices of indigenous societies, both historically and in socio-cultural situations. Two further sections of the book analyse cases derived from European contexts, which are often overlooked in discussion of indigenous religions, and in two traditional areas of study: South America and Africa.

Deep Blue

Deep Blue PDF Author: Sylvie Shaw
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317488180
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Nature religions look to rivers, lakes and oceans for inspiration and spiritual transformation. 'Deep Blue' brings together the work of influential scholars in the field of nature religion, ranging across anthropology, mythology, sociology and psychology. The essays examine the interrelationship between spiritual practice, critical thinking, and environmental concern. Tracing the ancient history of humanity's close relationship with both salt and fresh water, the book calls for a sustainable relationship with water in contemporary western culture. 'Deep Blue' will be of interest to students of paganism and religion, environmental researchers and activists, and all those involved in the intersection between religion and ecology.

Religious Categories and the Construction of the Indigenous

Religious Categories and the Construction of the Indigenous PDF Author: Christopher Hartney
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900432898X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This volume significantly advances the academic debate surrounding the taxonomy and the categorisation of ‘indigenous religion’. Developing approaches from leading scholars in the field, this edited volume provides the space for established and rising voices to discuss the highly problematic topic of how indigenous 'religion' can be defined and conceptualised. Constructing the Indigenous highlights the central issues in the debate between those supporting and refining current academic frameworks and those who would argue that present thinking remains too dependant on misunderstandings that arise from definitions of religion that are too inflexible, and from problems caused by the World Religion paradigm. This book will prove essential reading for those that wish to engage with contemporary discussions regarding the definitions of religion and their relations to the indigenous category. Contributors are: Zoe Alderton, Steve Bevis, James L. Cox, Christopher Hartney, Graham Harvey, Milad Milani, Bjørn Ola Tafjord, Daniel J. Tower, Garry W. Trompf, and Jack Tsonis.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion

The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion PDF Author: Adam Possamai
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1529721962
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2399

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Book Description
The SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion takes a three-pronged look at this, namely investigating the role of religion in society; unpacking and evaluating the significance of religion in and on human history; and tracing and outlining the social forces and influences that shape religion. This encyclopedia covers a range of themes from: • fundamental topics like definitions • secularization • dimensions of religiosity to such emerging issues as civil religion • new religious movements This Encyclopedia also addresses contemporary dilemmas such as fundamentalism and extremism and the role of gender in religion.

Progress and Its Impact on the Nagas

Progress and Its Impact on the Nagas PDF Author: Tezenlo Thong
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317075315
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
The term ’progress’ is a modern Western notion that life is always improving and advancing toward an ideal state. It is a vital modern concept which underlies geographic explorations and scientific and technological inventions as well as the desire to harness nature in order to increase human beings’ ease and comfort. With the advent of Western colonization and to the great detriment of the colonized, the notion of progress began to perniciously and pervasively permeate across cultures. This book details the impact of the notion of progress on the Nagas and their culture. The interaction between the Nagas and the West, beginning with British military conquest and followed by American missionary intrusion, has resulted in the gradual demise of Naga culture. It is almost a cliché to assert that since the colonial contact, the long evolved Naga traditional values are being replaced by Western values. Consequences are still being felt in the lack of sense of direction and confusion among the Nagas today. Just like other Indigenous Peoples, whose history is characterized by traumatic cultural turmoil because of colonial interference, the Nagas have long been engaged in self-shame, self-negation and self-sabotage.

Dynamics of Religion

Dynamics of Religion PDF Author: Christoph Bochinger
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110451107
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1425

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Book Description
Religious ideas, practices, discourses, institutions, and social expressions are in constant flux. This volume addresses the internal and external dynamics, interactions between individuals, religious communities, and local as well as global society. The contributions concentrate on four areas: 1. Contemporary religion in the public sphere: The Tactics of (In)visibility among Religious Communities in Europe; Religion Intersecting De-nationalization and Re-nationalization in Post-Apartheid South Africa; 2. Religious transformations: Forms of Religious Communities in Global Society; Political Contributions of Ancestral Cosmologies and the Decolonization of Religious Beliefs; Esoteric Tradition as Poetic Invention; 3. Focus on the individual: Religion and Life Trajectories of Islamists; Angels, Animals and Religious Change in Antiquity and Today; Gaining Access to the Radically Unfamiliar in Today’s Religion; Religion between Individuals and Collectives; 4. Narrating religion: Entangled Knowledge Cultures and the Creation of Religions in Mongolia and Europe; Global Intellectual History and the Dynamics of Religion; On Representing Judaism.

Spirits and Trance in Brazil

Spirits and Trance in Brazil PDF Author: Bettina E. Schmidt
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474255698
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Bettina E. Schmidt explores experiences usually labelled as spirit possession, a highly contested and challenged term, using extensive ethnographic research conducted in São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil and home to a range of religions which practice spirit possession. The book is enriched by excerpts from interviews with people about their experiences. It focuses on spirit possession in Afro-Brazilian religions and spiritism, as well as discussing the notion of exorcism in Charismatic Christian communities. Spirits and Trance in Brazil: An Anthropology of Religious Experience is divided into three sections which present the three main areas in the study of spirit possession. The first section looks at the social dimension of spirit possession, in particular gender roles associated with spirit possession in Brazil and racial stratification of the communities. It shows how gender roles and racial composition have adapted alongside changes in society in the last 100 years. The second section focuses on the way people interpret their practice. It shows that the interpretations of this practice depend on the human relationship to the possessing entities. The third section explores a relatively new field of research, the Western discourse of mind/body dualism and the wide field of cognition and embodiment. All sections together confirm the significance of discussing spirit possession within a wider framework that embraces physical elements as well as cultural and social ones. Bringing together sociological, anthropological, phenomenological and religious studies approaches, this book offers a new perspective on the study of spirit possession.

International Handbook of Practical Theology

International Handbook of Practical Theology PDF Author: Birgit Weyel
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110618397
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 586

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Book Description
Practical theology has outgrown its traditional pastoral paradigm. The articles in this handbook recognize that faith, spirituality, and lived religion, within and beyond institutional communities, refer to realms of cultures, ritual practices, and symbolic orders, whose boundaries are not clearly defined and whose contents are shifting. The International Handbook of Practical Theology offers insightful transcultural conceptions of religion and religious matters gathered from various cultures and traditions of faith. The first section presents ‘concepts of religion’. Chapters have to do with considerations of the conceptualizing of religion in the fields of ‘anthropology’, ‘community’, ‘family’, ‘institution’, ‘law’, ‘media’, and ‘politics’ among others. The second section is dedicated to case studies of ‘religious practices’ from the perspective of their actors. The third section presents major theoretical discourses that explore the globally significant diversity and multiplicity of religion. Altogether, sixty-one authors from different parts of the world encourage a rethinking of religious practice in an expanded, transcultural, globalized, and postcolonial world.

The Demise of Norse Religion

The Demise of Norse Religion PDF Author: Olof Sundqvist
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111199037
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 509

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Book Description


Religion and its Evolution

Religion and its Evolution PDF Author: Carl Brusse
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003814158
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This book examines why individuals and communities invest heavily in their religious life through multi-disciplinary perspectives. It pursues philosophical, psychological, deep time historical and adaptive answers to this question. Religion is a profoundly puzzling phenomenon from an evolutionary perspective. Commitment to religions are typically expensive, and most of the beliefs that motivate them cannot be true (since religious belief systems are inconsistent with one another). Yet some form of religion seems to be universal and resilient in historically known cultures – though not, if archaeology is to be trusted, in human communities early in the evolution of our species. We have collectively invented religion over about the last 100,000 years. Stemming from an interdisciplinary workshop, this book grapples with these challenges and features diverse contributions: some offer evolutionary and historical analyses, identifying hidden adaptive benefits to religion independent of the veracity of religious belief. Others see connections between religious commitment and commitment to the social norms that make cooperative life possible and explore aspects of human psychology that make religious belief tempting. Broad in scope and theoretically ambitious, Religion and Its Evolution: Signals, Norms and Secret Histories will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of religious studies, sciences of religion, psychology, anthropology, the cultural evolution of religion and the sociology of religion. This book was originally published as a special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior.