View source for Anthropology of religion

{{Short description|Study of religion in relation to other social institutions}}
{{Expand Russian|date=April 2022}}{{Anthropology of religion}}
{{Anthropology|social/cultural}}
'''Anthropology of religion''' is the study of [[religion]] in relation to other social [[institution]]s, and the comparison of [[religious belief]]s and [[Ritual#Religious rituals|practices]] across [[culture]]s.{{sfnm |1a1=Adams |1y=2017 |2a1=Eller |2y=2007 |2p=2}} The anthropology of religion, as a field, overlaps with but is distinct from the field of Religious Studies. The history of anthropology of religion is a history of striving to understand how other people view and navigate the world. This history involves deciding what religion is, what it does, and how it functions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boddy |first=Janice |title=A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion |last2=Lambek |first2=Michael |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2013 |location=Hoboken, NJ}}</ref> Today, one of the main concerns of anthropologists of religion is defining religion, which is a theoretical undertaking in and of itself. Scholars such as Edward Tylor, Emile Durkheim, E.E. Evans Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, and Talal Asad have all grappled with defining and characterizing religion anthropologically.

==History==
In the 19th century [[cultural anthropology]] was dominated by an interest in [[cultural evolution]]; most [[anthropologist]]s assumed a simple distinction between "primitive" and "modern" religion and tried to provide accounts of how the former evolved into the latter.{{citation needed|date= April 2015}}

Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917), sometimes called the “father of anthropology,” took an evolutionary approach to religion. Tylor defined religion as a “belief in spiritual beings” but did not believe all religions were equal or equally “true.” His evolutionary perspective is evident in his book (1871) ''Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Language, Art, and Custom,'' in which he proposed a taxonomy of religions and believed that “primitive” religions were a result of cognitive errors. In other words, these beliefs explained natural phenomena that the people or culture did not fully understand. He called this “animism,” which included attributing a spirit to inanimate objects.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bielo |first=James |title=Anthropology of Religion: The Basics |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |edition=1st |location=London}}</ref>

James George Frazer (1854-1941), most well-known for his book ''The Golden Bough,'' also approached the study of religion from an evolutionist perspective. Frazer's hierarchy of religions included different stages: first magic, then religious, and ending in scientific. Frazer argues that magic becomes an increasingly futile practice as religious systems develop.<ref name=":0" /> This is when the religious phase begins, in which the world is explained through reference to divine beings who intervene in the world. In the final stage, elites see religion as insufficient or incorrectly addressing world phenomena and begin to seek to understand the world through laws of nature.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Guthrie |first=Stewart E. |title=Anthropological Theories of Religion |date=2006 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-atheism/anthropological-theories-of-religion/B781D301DB66CC55C8AABB5CEA641F7F |work=The Cambridge Companion to Atheism |pages=283–299 |editor-last=Martin |editor-first=Michael |access-date=2023-12-27 |series=Cambridge Companions to Philosophy |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84270-9}}</ref>

Towards the end of the 19th century, anthropologists of religion began to question the distinctions between magic and religion made by Tylor and Frazer. William Robertson Smith (1846-1894) in ''Lectures of the Religion of the Semites (1899)'' proposed the idea of the totem. For Smith, social groups worshiped totems which represented their ancestors and worshipping totemic items accounted for the emergence of religions. Thus, Smith's theory of totemism rose in prominent within the field of anthropology of religion, challenging and in some instances fully replacing Tylor's theory of animism.

Durkheim (1858-1917) expanded on the concept of the totem, viewing religion as a collective societal force. For him, religious forces are essentially collective societal forces, embodied in the totem. The society imparts the totem with its power, meaning, and existence, which in turn gives the god or the religion its significance. In “Origins of Belief,” Durkheim posits that a totem is symbolic of society, or as he calls it, of the clan, and of the god. As Durkheim puts it, “the totem is the visible body of God.” The actual totem itself can be an insignificant object, such as an animal, or a cross of wood. However, despite its apparently insignificant nature as a physical thing, Durkheim argues that a totem is actually the clan itself. However, individuals are not cognizant of his/her veneration of society through his/her veneration of the totem. Rather, they believe that the totem is something which comes from outside of their consciousness, essentially, according to Durkheim “society gives the sensation of a perpetual dependence.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Durkheim |first=Emile |title=The Elementary Forms of Religious Life |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |location=Oxford |translator-last=Cosman |translator-first=Carol}}</ref>

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) moved away from the inquiry into the origins of the religion shifting the theory of religion to focus on religion as a function of the social world. In his essay, “Magic, Science, and Religion,” Malinowski argues that religion in its social and psychological functions promotes social integration and community. Malinowski separates the categories of religion and magic in specifying that magic is used for functional ends: to solve problems or achieve objectives where other methods have failed.<ref name=":1" />

E.E. Evans Pritchard (1902-1973) is most famous for his work on witchcraft. His book ''[[Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande]]'' approaches witchcraft as a cohesive and internally consistent system of knowing. While Pritchard believed that religious systems were a reflection of social environment, he was primarily concerned with thought patterns and logic within belief systems.

Victor Turner (1920-1983) understood religion through the lens of rituals, rites of passage and symbolism. He considered religion to be the lynchpin in cultural systems. In his book ''The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure,'' he proposes his theory of liminality and communitas. He developed liminality from folklorist Arnold Van Gennep. For Turner, the liminal stage is a period of ambiguity or transition where an individual's status in a ritual change from pre-ritual stage to post-ritual. The idea of communitas refers to the common experience of community during a ritual.

Mary Douglas’ (1921-2007) work and topics were inspired by Evans-Pritchard. They both explained social systems in terms of functionalism. She defined religion through the lens of ritual. In her most famous book, ''Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo,'' she compares Western and “primitive” societies in showing that Western societies also relied on “magic” through rituals around purity and pollution, such as teeth brushing. She sees ritual as a collective force or system that places limits on the body. In this way, the image of society is carved onto the body through reiterations of purity and pollution.

Talal Asad (1932-now) is a prominent anthropologist of religion today who focuses on religion and modernity. Asad is well known for his work on religion and power. He has argued that overlooking the history of defining religion can lead us to overlook its imbrication with power. He has also pointed to the ways in which modernity has delimited religion to a certain sphere of life, so that religion can be pointed out or identified in certain ways and not in others. In doing this, he has also called for the development of a religion of secularity.  

Clifford Geertz and Talal Asad publicly debated the “universal” nature of religion. While Geertz, provided an operational definition for religion that allowed for variation across cultures, he saw this definition as encapsulating certain universal features of “religion.” Alternatively, Asad questioned the very existence of “universal religion” in pointing to the ways in which ideas about the universal were rooted in distinctly Christian ideas and traditions. Influenced by Michel Foucault and Edward Said, Asad questions the conceptual assumptions involved in or undergirding the production of knowledge.<ref name=":1" /> This is what led Asad to question the existence of separate sphere of society that could be called or identified as “religion.” In undermining the existence of religion as a separate sphere, Asad points to Western modernity as producing religion as distinct from other parts of society.

One key component of anthropology of religion is ethnographic fieldwork. This is what makes anthropologists who study religion distinct from other Religious Studies scholars. Ethnography is most simply put, the empirical observation and description of individuals, societies, and cultures. For anthropologists of religion, ethnographic fieldwork focuses on religion through the lens of rituals, worship, religious values, and other components of lived religion. Developments in ethnographic approaches to the study of religion or theoretical developments in the ethnographic study of religion have spanned decades.

Evolutionist perspectives were reflective of Darwinian theories of evolution and saw religious systems in a taxonomic and hierarchical way: some religions were closer to the truth than others and Christianity was always at the top of pyramid. Functionalist perspectives aimed to study religion as a part of society that played an important an integral role: non-Christian religions were not compared to Christianity on a sliding scale, but rather taken in context with the whole cultural context. Humanist theories of evolution see religions as products of human culture and invention, rather than metaphysical or supernatural phenomena that “exist” outside of the human cultures that produce them.<ref name=":1" /> Cross-cultural or comparative theories of religion focus on “religion” as something that can be found and compared across all human cultures and societies.

The anthropology of religion today reflects the influence of, or an engagement with, such theorists as [[Karl Marx]] (1818-1883), [[Sigmund Freud's views on religion|Sigmund Freud]] (1856-1939), [[Émile Durkheim]] (1858-1917), and [[Max Weber]] (1864-1920).{{sfnm |1a1=Eller |1y=2007 |1p=22 |2a1=Weber |2y=2002}} Anthropologists of religion are especially concerned with how religious beliefs and practices may reflect political or economic forces; or the social functions of religious beliefs and practices.{{sfn|Eller|2007|p= 4}}{{clarify|date= April 2015}}

Recently, a prominent ethnographer of religion, Robert Orsi, has asked scholars of religion to abandon the empirical approach to ethnography of religion that was co-emergent with modernity. This approach entails the impulse to explain God or gods in people's lives as a function or symbol of some other thing. Orsi asks those who study religion to instead take God and gods as real actors, really present.

== Definition of religion ==

One major problem in the anthropology of religion is the definition of religion itself.{{sfn|Eller|2007|p=7}} At one time{{vague|date=April 2015}} anthropologists believed that certain religious practices and beliefs were more or less universal to all cultures at some point in their development, such as a belief in spirits or [[ghost]]s, the use of [[magic (religion)|magic]] as a means of controlling the [[supernatural]], the use of [[divination]] as a means of discovering occult knowledge, and the performance of [[ritual]]s such as [[prayer]] and [[sacrifice]] as a means of influencing the outcome of various events through a supernatural agency, sometimes taking the form of [[shamanism]] or [[ancestor worship]].{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} According to [[Clifford Geertz]], religion is
{{blockquote|"(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."{{sfn|Geertz|1966|p=4}}}}

Today, religious anthropologists debate, and reject, the cross-cultural validity of these categories (often viewing them as examples of European [[primitivism]]).{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}  Anthropologists have considered various criteria for defining religion &ndash; such as a belief in the supernatural or the reliance on ritual &ndash; but few claim that these criteria are universally valid.{{sfn|Eller|2007|p=7}}

[[Anthony F. C. Wallace]] proposes four categories of religion, each subsequent category subsuming the previous. These are, however, synthetic categories and do not necessarily encompass all religions.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rathman |first=Jessica |title=Anthony Francis Clarke Wallace |url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/uvwxyz/wallace_anthony.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030927142508/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/uvwxyz/wallace_anthony.html |archive-date=27 September 2003 |access-date=22 November 2017}}</ref>

# Individualistic: most basic; simplest. Example: [[vision quest]].
# Shamanistic: part-time religious practitioner, uses religion to heal, to divine, usually on the behalf of a client. The [[Tillamook (tribe)|Tillamook]] have four categories of shaman. Examples of shamans: spiritualists, faith healers, palm readers. Religious authority acquired through one's own means.
# Communal: elaborate set of beliefs and practices; group of people arranged in clans by lineage, age group, or some religious societies; people take on roles based on knowledge, and ancestral worship.
# Ecclesiastical: dominant in agricultural societies and states; are centrally organized and hierarchical in structure, paralleling the organization of states. Typically deprecates competing individualistic and shamanistic cults.

==Specific religious practices and beliefs==
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* {{annotated link|Apotheosis}}
* {{annotated link|Apotropaic magic}}
* {{annotated link|Amulet}}
* {{annotated link|Animism}}
* {{annotated link|Circumcision}}
* {{annotated link|Cult (religious practice)}}
* {{annotated link|Deity}}
* {{annotated link|Demon}}
* {{annotated link|Divination}}
* {{annotated link|Esotericism}}
* {{annotated link|Exorcism}}
* {{annotated link|Evil}}
* {{annotated link|Fertility rite}}
* {{annotated link|Fetishism}}
* {{annotated link|Genius (mythology)}}
* {{annotated link|God}}
* {{annotated link|Ghost}}
* {{annotated link|Greco-Roman mysteries}}
* {{annotated link|Heresy}}
* {{annotated link|Icon}}
* {{annotated link|Immortality}}
* {{annotated link|Intercession}}
* {{annotated link|Kachina}}
* {{annotated link|Magic and religion}}
* {{annotated link|Mana (Oceanian cultures)}}
* {{annotated link|Mask}}
* {{annotated link|Miracle}}
* {{annotated link|Medicine}}
* {{annotated link|Modern paganism}}
* {{annotated link|Monotheism}}
* {{annotated link|Mother goddess}}
* {{annotated link|Mythology}}
* {{annotated link|Necromancy}}
* {{annotated link|New Age}}
* {{annotated link|Occult}}
* {{annotated link|Omen}}
* {{annotated link|Poles in mythology}}
* {{annotated link|Polytheism}}
* {{annotated link|Prayer}}
* [[Magic (paranormal)#Principle of contagion|Principle of contagion]]
* {{annotated link|Prophecy}}
* {{annotated link|Reincarnation}}
* {{annotated link|Religious ecstasy}}
* {{annotated link|Ritual}}
* {{annotated link|Sacred food as offering}}
* {{annotated link|Sacrifice}}
* {{annotated link|Science and religion}}
* {{annotated link|Shamanism}}
* {{annotated link|Spell (paranormal)}}
* {{annotated link|Supernatural}}
* {{annotated link|Supplication}}
* {{annotated link|Sympathetic magic}}
* {{annotated link|Theism}}
* {{annotated link|Totemism}}
* {{annotated link|Veneration of the dead}}
{{div col end}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Religion}}
<!-- alphabetical order please [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->
<!-- please add a short description [[WP:SEEALSO]], via {{subst:AnnotatedListOfLinks}} or {{Annotated link}} -->
{{div col|colwidth=20em|small=yes}}
* ''[[Anthropological Perspectives on Religion]]''
* {{Annotated link |Archaeology of religion and ritual}}
* {{Annotated link |Cognitive science of religion}}
* {{Annotated link |Evolutionary origin of religions}}
* {{Annotated link |Magic and religion}}
* {{Annotated link |Psychology of religion}}
* {{Annotated link |Religious symbolism}}
* {{Annotated link |Rite of passage}}
* {{Annotated link |Sacred–profane dichotomy}}
* {{Annotated link |Sociology of religion}}
* {{Annotated link |Symbolic anthropology}}
{{div col end}}
<!-- alphabetical order please [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|18em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite encyclopedia
|last=Adams
|first=Charles Joseph
|author-link=Charles Joseph Adams
|year=2017
|title=Classification of Religions
|url=https://global.britannica.com/topic/classification-of-religions
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029171225/https://global.britannica.com/topic/classification-of-religions
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=29 October 2020
|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica
|access-date=22 November 2017
}}
* {{cite book|last=Bowie|first=Fiona|year=1999|title=The Anthropology of Religion: An Introduction|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell}}
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* {{cite book|last=Cotrupi|first=Caterina Nella|year=2000|title=Northrop Frye and the Poetics of Process|url=https://archive.org/details/northropfryepoe00cotr|url-access=registration|location=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8141-4}}
* {{cite book|last=Durkheim|first=Émile|author-link=Émile Durkheim|year=1912|title=The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life|title-link=The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life}}
* {{cite book|last=Eller|first=J. D.|year=2007|title=Introducing Anthropology of Religion|location=New York|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-94624-4}}
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* {{cite book
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|year=1966
|chapter=Religion as a Cultural System
|editor-last=Banton
|editor-first=Michael
|editor-link=Michael Banton
|title=Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion
|location=London
|publisher=Tavistock
|publication-date=2006
|pages=1–46
|isbn=978-0-415-33021-3
}}
* {{cite book
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| title=Anthropology of Religion: A Handbook
| location=Westport, CT
| publisher=Praeger
}}
* {{cite book|last=Guthrie|first=Stewart Elliott|year=2000|chapter=Projection|editor1-last=Braun|editor1-first=Willi|editor2-last=McCutcheon|editor2-first=Russell T.|editor2-link=Russell T. McCutcheon|title=Guide to the Study of Religion|location=London|publisher=Cassell|isbn=978-0-304-70176-6}}
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* {{cite book|last=Harvey|first=Van A.|author-link=Van A. Harvey|year=1996|author-mask={{long dash}}|chapter=Projection: A Metaphor in Search of a Theory?|editor-last=Philips|editor-first=D. Z.|editor-link=Dewi Zephaniah Phillips|title=Can Religion Be Explained Away?|series=Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion|location=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|pages=66–82|isbn=978-1-349-24860-5|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-24858-2_4}}
* {{cite book|last=Mackey|first=James Patrick|year=2000|title=The Critique of Theological Reason|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
* {{cite book|last=Manickam|first=T. M.|year=1977|title=Dharma According to Manu and Moses|location=Bangalore|publisher=Dharmaram Publications}}
* {{cite book|last=Marett|first=Robert Ranulph|author-link=Robert Ranulph Marett|year=1932|title=Faith, Hope and, Charity in Primitive Religion|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157613|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan Company|access-date=21 November 2017}}
* {{cite book|last=Nelson|first=John K.|year=1990|title=A Field Statement on the Anthropology of Religion|url=http://inic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/essayonreli.html|location=Berkeley, California|publisher=University of California, Berkeley|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302100725/http://inic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/essayonreli.html|archive-date=2 March 2007|access-date=21 November 2017}}
* {{cite book|last=Pandian|first=Jacob|year=1997|chapter=The Sacred Integration of the Cultural Self: An Anthropological Approach to the Study of Religion|editor-last=Glazier|editor-first=Stephen D.|title=Anthropology of Religion: A Handbook|location=Westport, Connecticut|publisher=Praeger}}
* {{cite journal|last=Walbridge|first=John|year=1998|title=Explaining Away the Greek Gods in Islam|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=59|issue=3|pages=389–403|doi=10.1353/jhi.1998.0030|s2cid=170321617|issn=1086-3222}}
* {{cite book|last=Weber|first=Max|author-link=Max Weber|year=2002|editor1-last=Baehr|editor1-first=Peter R.|editor2-last=Wells|editor2-first=Gordon C.|title=The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism and Other Writings|translator1-last=Baehr|translator1-first=Peter R.|translator2-last=Wells|translator2-first=Gordon C.|location=New York|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-043921-2}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[https://sar.americananthro.org/ The Society for the Anthropology of Religion] within [[American Anthropological Association]]
*[http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/419/419www.htm Anthropology of Religion Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051120225832/http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/419/419www.htm |date=20 November 2005 }} M.D. Murphy, University of Alabama
* Andrew Lang, [http://www.psychanalyse-paris.com/831-Anthropology-and-Religion.html Anthropology and Religion], ''The Making of Religion'', (Chapter II), Longmans, Green, and C<sup>o</sup>, London, New York and Bombay, 1900, pp.&nbsp;39–64.

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[[Category:Anthropology of religion| ]]
[[Category:Religious studies]]