Full Description
This innovative introduction to the anthropological study of religion challenges traditional categories and assumptions, arguing that too many of them reflect ethnocentric perspectives long discarded by contemporary anthropologists. The continued use of such terms as ?supernatural? and ?cult? inescapably communicates that what is under study is not
Contents
Preface -- At Play in the Sacred Grove -- The Noisome Bog -- The Definitional Daisy Chain -- The Problem with Supernatural -- An Operational Definition of Religion -- The Value of Values -- Assumptions, Beliefs, and Facts -- Exploring Explanation: Why Do People Die? -- Clerical Orders -- What Kind of Shaman Would You Want? -- Community and Conflict -- On the Other Side of the Forest -- The Incorporeal Dimension -- Divining the Divine -- Into the Land of Moriah -- A Myth Is As Good -- Wondrous Portals -- When Worldviews Collide -- The Modern Hosts of Heaven
