The Anthropology of Western Religions

The Anthropology of Western Religions
Author: Murray J. Leaf
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2014-05-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0739192396

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.

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.

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.

Religions in Practice

Religions in Practice
Author: John R. Bowen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 574
Release: 2015-08-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317344472

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 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.

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...

The Western Construction of Religion

The Western Construction of Religion
Author: Daniel Dubuisson
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2003-06-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780801873201

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.

The Anthropology of Eastern Religions

The Anthropology of Eastern Religions
Author: Murray J. Leaf
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Anthropology of religion
ISBN: 9780739194904

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. Anthropology of Eastern 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 eastern 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 Religious Charisma

The Anthropology of Religious Charisma
Author: C. Lindholm
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2013-12-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137377631

According to Max Weber, charisma is opposed to bureaucratic order. This collection reveals the limits of that formula. The contributors show how charisma is a part of cultural frameworks while retaining its ecstatic character among American and Italian Catholics, Syrian Sufis, Taiwanese Buddhists, Hassidic Jews, and Amazonian shamans, among others.