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This clear and engaging guide introduces students to key areas of the field and shows how to apply an anthropological approach to the study of religion in the contemporary world. Written by an experienced teacher, it covers major traditional topics including definitions, theories, and beliefs, as well as symbols, myth, and ritual. The book also explores important but often overlooked issues such as morality, violence, fundamentalism, secularization, and new religious movements. The chapters all contain lively case studies of religions practiced around the world.
The third edition of
Introducing Anthropology of Religion is fully updated and contains additional content on material religion, visual religion, and affect theory, and a new chapter takes a closer look at medical and health topics. The author encourages the reader to engage throughout with the unifying themes of race, gender, and power, and how these themes are intertwined with anthropology of religion. Images, a glossary, and questions for discussion are included and additional resources are provided via a companion website.
List of contents
1. Studying Religion Anthropologically: Definitions and Theories 2. Beliefs, Beings, and Bodies 3. Symbols, Specialists, and Substance 4. Religious Language: Words of Truth, Words of Power 5. Ritual: Religion in Action 6. Religion and Morality: Forming Society, Transforming Self 7. Religion, Medicine, and Wellness 8. Religious Change and New Religious Movements 9. Translocal or "World" Religions 10. Religious Fundamentalism 11. Religious Violence 12. Secularism and Irreligion Glossary
About the author
Jack David Eller is a retired Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Community College of Denver and Head of Anthropology of Religion for the Global Center for Religion Research in Denver, USA. He is the author of a major introductory textbook,
Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives (fourth edition, 2020).
Summary
This clear and engaging guide introduces students to key areas of the field and shows how to apply an anthropological approach to the study of religion in the contemporary world.
