The Anthropology of Western Religions

The Anthropology of Western Religions PDF Author: Murray J. Leaf
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739192396
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
The world’s “great” religions depend on traditions of serious scholarship, dedicated to preserving their key texts but also to understanding them and, therefore, to debating what understanding itself is and how best to do it. They also have important public missions of many kinds, and their ideas and organizations influence many other important institutions, including government, law, education, and kinship. The Anthropology of Western Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies is a comparative survey of the world’s major religious traditions as professional enterprises and, often, as social movements. Documenting the principle ideas behind Western religious traditions from an anthropological perspective, Murray J. Leaf demonstrates how these ideas have been used in building internal organizations that mobilize or fail to mobilize external support.

The Anthropology of Western Religions

The Anthropology of Western Religions PDF Author: Murray J. Leaf
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739192396
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book Here

Book Description
The world’s “great” religions depend on traditions of serious scholarship, dedicated to preserving their key texts but also to understanding them and, therefore, to debating what understanding itself is and how best to do it. They also have important public missions of many kinds, and their ideas and organizations influence many other important institutions, including government, law, education, and kinship. The Anthropology of Western Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies is a comparative survey of the world’s major religious traditions as professional enterprises and, often, as social movements. Documenting the principle ideas behind Western religious traditions from an anthropological perspective, Murray J. Leaf demonstrates how these ideas have been used in building internal organizations that mobilize or fail to mobilize external support.

Introducing Anthropology of Religion

Introducing Anthropology of Religion PDF Author: Jack David Eller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134131925
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
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 PDF Author: Richley H. Crapo
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This text offers an alternative to the case-driven approach that the sole use of a reader tends to foster. It provides students with ways of conceptualizing what religion is, what its social and psychological functions are, the nature of religious symbolism and religious behaviour, and the organizational structure of religions. All the standard topics are covered (e.g., ideology and symbolism, ritual and ceremony, organizational forms, and social and psychological functions of religion) as well as ones of more recent interest such as religion and gender, the psychology of religion, and pilgrimage. - Extended narrative examples illustrate the theoretical and analytic discussions in the text, expose students to a variety of different religions, and provide real-world examples of the concepts of each chapter. - An integrated student study guide (self-test materials) at the end of each chapter allows students to evaluate their own mastery of each chapter, determine what they need to review further, and prepare for course tests. - The text is copiously illustrated with ethnographic examples from both western and non-western religions.

Religions in Practice

Religions in Practice PDF Author: John R. Bowen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317344472
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
Examines religious practices from an anthropological perspective Religions in Practice, 6/e, offers an issues-oriented perspective on everyday religious behaviors – prayer, sacrifice, initiation, healing, etc. – by focusing on such topics as transnationalism, gender, and religious laws. The text examines a full spectrum of religions, from small-scale societies to major, established religions. The in-depth treatment of Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity is particularly noteworthy and easily supplemented with field projects directly related to the text.

The Anthropology of Religious Conversion

The Anthropology of Religious Conversion PDF Author: Andrew Buckser
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742517783
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Table of contents

The Western Construction of Religion

The Western Construction of Religion PDF Author: Daniel Dubuisson
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801873201
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The Western Construction of Religion not only provides a critical assessment of the whole history of religionas it is understood in the West but offers better ways of constructing the study of this central part of human experience.

Anthropology of Religion

Anthropology of Religion PDF Author: Kerr Payne
Publisher: Socialy Press
ISBN: 9781681177588
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
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, ie: notions of how the universe is organised 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 marginalised people? The focus of anthropological study has shifted from the study of tribal to modern religions. A number of well-received studies have analysed 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.

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

The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft -- Pearson eText PDF Author: Rebecca L Stein
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317350219
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
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.

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics PDF Author: James S Bielo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317542827
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
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.

Anthropology and Religion

Anthropology and Religion PDF Author: Robert L. Winzeler
Publisher: AltaMira Press
ISBN: 0759121915
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Drawing from ethnographic examples found throughout the world, this revised and updated text offers an introduction to what anthropologists know or think about religion, how they have studied it, and how they have interpreted or explained it since the late nineteenth century. Robert Winzeler’s balanced consideration of classic topics, basic concepts, and new developments in the anthropological study of religion moves beyond cultural anthropology and ethnography to gather information from physical anthropology, prehistory, and archaeology. Written as a sophisticated but accessible treatment of the issues, Anthropology and Religion is a key text for upper-division courses.