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Religion (Anthropology)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Religion represents an ideal subject for anthropologists. It is, on the one hand, a human universal—all groups of people develop complexes of symbols, rituals, and beliefs that connect their own experience to the essential nature of the universe. They do this, however, in a bewildering variety of ways. Religions may involve one god, or no gods, or thousands of gods; they may favor simple family rituals or elaborate state festivals; they may value individual transcendence, community ceremonialism, Dionysian ecstasy, or any number of other conceptions of ultimate good. The anthropology of religion explores how these different forms of religion come to be, how they change, and what they mean for the nature of human experience. Religion has stood at the center of anthropological research since the discipline began in the mid-19th century, and its development has reflected trends in the discipline generally. The early studies of James Frazer, E. B. Tylor, Émile Durkheim, and others tended to focus on classifying religions and developing models of religious evolution. Later studies turned to smaller-scale ethnography, examining the ways that individual religious systems functioned within their particular social environments. More recently, anthropologists have focused on dynamics of power and identity in religion, with particular focus on the ways that religion intersects with conceptions of gender, ethnicity, and nation. They have also looked increasingly at religious change and the influence of modern and postmodern social forms on religious life. This article outlines the scope of the anthropological literature on religion, drawing both on classic and more-recent studies. We begin with discussions of the nature, origin, and function of religion then turn to four main areas of anthropological work: religious symbolism, including ritual and myth; techniques of managing and manipulating the sacred, including magic, healing, and witchcraft; dynamics of religion, including religious change and secularization; and religion’s connection to personal identity, including gender, ethnicity, and the question of religious conversion.
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  5. Textbooks
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  7. The entries in this section represent the upsurge in strong textbooks in the anthropology of religion since the early 1990s. Lessa and Vogt 1972, once the standard reader in the field, remains a valuable archive of classic articles. Lambek 2008 includes some of the same articles, as well as examples of more-recent scholarship. Hicks 2010 and Moro 2012 offer more-accessible selections of articles and excerpts, organized around themes with useful introductions. Morris 2006, Bowen 2010, and Bowie 2006 take a different approach, each providing a thoughtful synthetic account by a single author. Scupin 2008 organizes its presentation around different religious traditions, rather than topical subjects.
  8.  
  9. Bowen, John R. 2010. Religions in practice: An approach to the anthropology of religion. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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  11. An excellent comprehensive introduction to the anthropology of religion, written by a leading scholar in the field. Bowen sets theoretical ideas in the context of ethnographic examples, emphasizing religion as a lived activity, not merely a set of beliefs or ideas. First published in 1997 (Boston: Allyn & Bacon).
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  13. Bowie, Fiona. 2006. The anthropology of religion: An introduction. 2d ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  15. This engaging introduction to the anthropology of religion, first published in 1999, focuses particularly on the experiential and personal dimensions of religious action.
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  17. Hicks, David, ed. 2010. Ritual and belief: Readings in the anthropology of religion. 3d ed. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.
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  19. An excellent reader in religion across cultures that includes both classic theoretical articles and ethnographies of new religious movements. First published in 1999 (Boston: McGraw-Hill College).
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  21. Lambek, Michael, ed. 2008. A reader in the anthropology of religion. 2d ed. Blackwell Anthologies in Social and Cultural Anthropology 2. Oxford: Blackwell.
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  23. A sound collection of significant articles in the history of the anthropology of religion, this volume (first published in 2001) provides an excellent introduction to the field for the advanced student.
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  25. Lessa, William A., and Evon Z. Vogt, eds. 1972. Reader in comparative religion: An anthropological approach. 3d ed. New York: Harper & Row.
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  27. Long a standard textbook in the anthropology of religion, first published in 1958 (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson), this collection of articles and excerpts can seem rather dated and stiff to current students. As a resource for classic theory in the field, however, it still has no equal.
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  29. Moro, Pamela A., ed. 2012. Magic, witchcraft, and religion: A reader in the anthropology of religion. 9th ed. Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill.
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  31. This is the latest edition of a very popular collection of readings on the anthropology of religion. The selection is excellent, and the chosen articles are both readable and interesting. Previous editions were compiled by Moro and James E. Myers.
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  33. Morris, Brian. 2006. Religion and anthropology: A critical introduction. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  35. A readable and masterful review of non-Western religious traditions, from an anthropological perspective, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, shamanism, African and Afro-Caribbean religions, and the New Age.
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  37. Scupin, Raymond, ed. 2008. Religion and culture: An anthropological focus. 2d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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  39. Scupin approaches the field by focusing on different religious traditions, ranging from aboriginal and African religions to the Western world religions and the New Age.
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  41. Approaches to Defining Religion
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  43. These works represent influential efforts to find a working definition of religion, a central but particularly difficult project in anthropology. Klass 1995 provides an excellent introduction to the question of definition, reviewing, in a lively and accessible account, the different approaches that have been used. Evans-Pritchard 1965 explores this question in depth in the author’s classic analysis of early anthropological understandings of religion. Geertz 1973 offers perhaps the most widely used definition among anthropologists of religion; the approach in Spiro 1966 may be slightly more widespread in anthropology as a whole, defining religion in terms of the supernatural. Stark and Bainbridge 1987 uses a rational-choice model widely influential in sociology and some parts of anthropology. Asad 1993 critiques all these approaches as ethnocentric, arguing for an understanding of religion that incorporates ideas of discipline and power as much as belief and symbolism.
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  45. Asad, Talal. 1993. Genealogies of religion: Discipline and reasons of power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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  47. This widely cited book argues that understandings of religion in anthropology have been rooted in Western conceptions of belief that not only misrepresent other religions but also overlook the role of bodily discipline in Christianity.
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  49. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1965. Theories of primitive religion. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  51. This brief but very influential book, written by one of the giants of British social anthropology, lays out the history of approaches to understanding religion in anthropology before the 1960s. Reprinted as recently as 2004 (Oxford: Clarendon).
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  53. Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Religion as a cultural system. In The interpretation of cultures. By Clifford Geertz, 87–125. New York: Basic Books.
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  55. Geertz articulates a definition of religion rooted in symbolism, arguing that religious systems are fundamentally different ways of creating symbolic worlds. While critiques have been made of Geertz’s reliance on the term “symbol,” this definition remains the most widely used among anthropologists of religion.
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  57. Klass, Morton. 1995. Ordered universes: Approaches to the anthropology of religion. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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  59. An unusually well-written and accessible guide to the basic questions of definition, scope, and method that inform the anthropology of religion.
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  61. Spiro, Melford E. 1966. Religion: Problems of definition and explanation. In Anthropological approaches to the study of religion. Edited by Michael Banton, 85–126. A.S.A. Monographs 3. New York: Praeger.
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  63. In this tightly argued chapter, Spiro proposes a definition of religion as a phenomenon involving superhuman beings, a formulation intended to avoid the difficulties inherent in the term “supernatural.” This definition has become quite influential, particularly in the sociology of religion. Republished as recently as 2007 (New York: Routledge).
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  65. Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1987. A theory of religion. Toronto Studies in Religion 2. New York: Peter Lang.
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  67. This book represents one of the most systematic attempts to define religion formally, one rooted in the rational-choice model that its authors helped develop.
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  69. Origins
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  71. These references reflect the major approaches that anthropologists have taken to the compelling, if fundamentally unanswerable, question of how religion originated. Tylor 2010 exemplifies an intellectual approach, seeing religion as an understandable if mistaken attempt to explain the natural world. Freud 2005 attributes religion to the psychodynamics of early human history; Kroeber 1920 shows both the fatal weaknesses of Freud’s argument and the reasons for its enduring appeal. Durkheim 2008 traces religion’s origins to the need to bind societies together. Guthrie 1995 argues that religion emerges from the human tendency to anthropomorphism. Atran 2002 proposes an evolutionary explanation for religion’s origins, reflecting a widespread interest in evolutionary psychology since the late 20th century.
  72.  
  73. Atran, Scott. 2002. In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of religion. Evolution and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  75. Provides one of the most grounded evolutionary arguments for the origins of religion, tracing it to social and psychological dynamics that emerge out of hard-wired features of the human brain.
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  77. Durkheim, Émile. 2008. The elementary forms of religious life. Edited by Mark S. Cladis. Translated by Carol Cosman. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  79. A lightly abridged version of Durkheim’s classic study of the origins of religion, first published in French in 1912 as Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse (Paris: Édition Alcan). Durkheim argued that religion arose not out of intellectual or psychological processes, but rather out of the need to bind societies together. This approach to religion has been extremely influential in the development of anthropology, and while the specifics of Durkheim’s data have been heavily criticized, his essential approach has stood the test of time.
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  81. Freud, Sigmund. 2005. Totem and taboo: Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics. Translated by A. A. Brill. New York: Barnes & Noble.
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  83. This classic work, first published in 1913, argued that religion originated in the dramatic events that also generated the Oedipus complex at the dawn of human culture. While largely dismissed by anthropologists, this argument has been enormously influential in the way that psychologists and the lay public have conceptualized early religion.
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  85. Guthrie, Stewart Elliott. 1995. Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  87. Guthrie argues that religion emerges out of the human tendency to project anthropomorphic representations of the world. His argument merges evolutionary and cognitive approaches to religion, using a particularly sensitive grasp both of ethnographic data and cognitive psychology.
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  89. Kroeber, Alfred L. 1920. Totem and taboo: An ethnologic psychoanalysis. American Anthropologist 22.1: 48–55.
  90. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1920.22.1.02a00050Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  91. In this article, Kroeber demolishes Freud’s argument from a scientific perspective but at the same time explores the reasons for its appeal and suggests some lessons it may have for anthropologists. Almost a century later, no better response to “Totem and Taboo” has been written.
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  93. Tylor, Edward Burnett. 2010. Primitive culture: Researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom. 2 vols. Cambridge Library Collection. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  95. First published in 1871 (London: J. Murray), this massive study includes Tylor’s very influential account of the origins of religion. He traces the origins of animism to human confusion about the nature of dreams, then he follows these beliefs to the religions of the present. While the specifics of Tylor’s argument have been severely criticized, the basic idea of religion as having originated in a flawed effort to understand the world remains central to many anthropological definitions.
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  97. Functions
  98.  
  99. The works in this section reflect different approaches to understanding the function of religion in human affairs. Radcliffe-Brown 1952 represents a classic interpretation of religion in terms of its social function, arguing that religion makes people behave in ways that help society to work better. Simmons 1980 indicates one of the difficulties of this position—the ability of political inequality and social change to turn such behaviors into dysfunctional ones. Malinowski 1992 focuses on the psychological functions of religion, with a particular emphasis on the ability of magic to help people navigate difficult passages in life. Lévi-Strauss 1963 views religion in terms of its cognitive functions, its role in helping to structure human thought. Dirks 1994 considers religion as a political instrument, while Rappaport 2000 explores its role in helping humans adapt to the natural environment.
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  101. Dirks, Nicholas B. 1994. Ritual and resistance: Subversion as social fact. In Culture/power/history: A reader in contemporary social theory. Edited by Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, 483–503. Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  103. Dirks examines the political dimensions of the Aiyanar festival in southern India, showing how both hegemonic and counterhegemonic symbols were integral to the event. On a broader level, he argues for an understanding of ritual both as a means of asserting power and a forum for contesting it.
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  105. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1963. Totemism. Translated by Rodney Needham. Beacon Paperbacks 157. Boston: Beacon.
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  107. Perhaps the most readable of Lévi-Strauss’s works, this brief volume provides both an introduction to his thought and a penetrating argument about totemism. Rejecting the evolutionist approaches of Émile Durkheim and Lewis Henry Morgan, Lévi-Strauss portrays totemism not as a primitive form of belief, but as a way of making sense of the world, a set of models and concepts through which other features of reality can be cognitively apprehended.
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  109. Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1992. Magic, science and religion and other essays. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
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  111. This reprint of Malinowski’s classic essays includes his influential argument that magic allows people to overcome the anxiety associated with unpredictable situations. While much of his argument sounds dated today, his insights about the psychological value of magic remain convincing.
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  113. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1952. Religion and society. In Structure and function in primitive society. By A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, 153–177. New York: Free Press.
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  115. A brief, well-written discussion of the social importance of religious practice, making the point that it is the actions that religion encourages that really affect its function in society. This article is an excellent example of the intelligence and sophistication of Radcliffe-Brown’s approach, which is often unfairly dismissed.
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  117. Rappaport, Roy A. 2000. Pigs for the ancestors: Ritual in the ecology of a New Guinea people. 2d ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland.
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  119. First published in 1967 (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press), this landmark work explores the ecological significance of ritual sacrifice in New Guinea. Rappaport argues that a close examination of the patterns of sacrifice reveals a practical logic behind what can seem to be an irrational practice.
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  121. Simmons, William S. 1980. Powerlessness, exploitation, and the soul-eating witch: An analysis of Badyaranke witchcraft. American Ethnologist 7.3: 447–465.
  122. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1980.7.3.02a00040Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  123. On the basis of fieldwork in Senegal, Simmons argues that the functions of witchcraft in a small-scale society can be distorted by political relationships with the outside world. The article demonstrates the ways that social change can turn functional systems into dysfunctional ones.
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  125. Religious Symbolism
  126.  
  127. This section focuses on one of the primary concerns of the anthropology of religion: symbolism, and the ways that symbols are used, understood, and changed in the course of religious action. The cited works are organized around five key issues in religious symbolism: ritual, myth, rules of purity and pollution, ideas about death and the afterlife, and religious syncretism.
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  129. The Place of Ritual
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  131. The analysis of ritual has dominated much anthropological writing on religion, and the works in this section offer a sampling of the approaches that have emerged. Bell 1997 provides a wide-ranging introduction to the topic. Van Gennep 2011 and Turner 1969 focus on rites of passage, the moments of transition that occasion the most-elaborate and instructive ritual activities. La Fontaine 1985 focuses on initiation rites around the world, combining theoretical analysis with a wealth of ethnographic detail. The political dimensions of ritual emerge clearly in Leach 1964, Mahmood 2001, Bloch 1991, and Boissevain 1969. Knauft 2005 provides an ethnography of ritual change in a small-scale society, accessible for students and nonspecialists.
  132.  
  133. Bell, Catherine. 1997. Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  135. A wide-ranging and comprehensive work on anthropological approaches to understanding ritual.
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  137. Bloch, Maurice. 1991. Prey into hunter: The politics of religious experience. Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures 1984. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  138. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511621581Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139. On the basis of his Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures, this short volume explicates Bloch’s dialectical approach to ritual, arguing that a common conceptual framework underlies ritual around the world and helps account for its political consequences.
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  141. Boissevain, Jeremy. 1969. Saints and fireworks: Religion and politics in rural Malta. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology 30. London: Athlone.
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  143. The importance of ritual in political conflict emerges with outstanding clarity in this ethnography, which traces the interaction of religion and political rivalry in a rural Mediterranean society. Republished as recently as 2004 (Oxford: Berg).
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  145. Knauft, Bruce. 2005. The Gebusi: Lives transformed in a rainforest world. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
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  147. An excellent introduction to the place of ritual in everyday life in a small rainforest society. The author portrays ritual both in its traditional form and as it has developed following the incorporation of the group into the larger society.
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  149. La Fontaine, Jean S. 1985. Initiation: Ritual drama and secret knowledge across the world. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
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  151. A rich ethnographic study of initiation rituals around the world, with abundant examples and lively theoretical analysis.
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  153. Leach, Edmund R. 1964. Political systems of highland Burma: A study of Kachin social structure. Monographs of Social Anthropology 44. London: Athlone.
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  155. This classic ethnography, first published in 1954 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press), delineates the place of ritual practice in the political interactions of two ethnic groups in the mountains of Burma. In doing so, the author provides an important and influential new definition of ritual action in human society. Republished as recently as 2004 (Oxford: Berg).
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  157. Mahmood, Saba. 2001. Rehearsed spontaneity and the conventionality of ritual: Disciplines of şalat. American Ethnologist 28.4: 827–853.
  158. DOI: 10.1525/ae.2001.28.4.827Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. This article offers a particularly sensitive analysis of a long-standing concern in the anthropology of religion: the place of individual emotion in ritual. The author explores the ways that the disciplines of ritual both shape and enable the expression of emotion among the Egyptian Muslim women in her study.
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  161. Turner, Victor. 1969. The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.
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  163. Turner’s masterful analysis of the process of ritual gives special attention to the symbols associated with liminality, which he associates with anti-structure both during rituals and in the larger society. This book remains the definitive treatment of rites of passage in anthropology. Republished as recently as 2009 (New York: Aldine Transaction).
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  165. van Gennep, Arnold. 2011. The rites of passage. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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  167. First published in French as Les rites de passage in 1908 (Paris: E. Nourry), this study introduced the basic classification of rites of passage and their three-stage structure, which has been used in anthropology ever since. Well worth reading both for its analysis and for its ethnographic examples, as well as for its foreshadowing of Turner’s later works.
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  169. The Place of Myth
  170.  
  171. While mythology has an extensive literature of its own, much of it deriving from classics and literary studies, anthropological studies have been foundational to the modern understanding of myth. Some of the works listed here represent key texts in the history of anthropological approaches to the subject. Lévi-Strauss 1983 laid the groundwork for structuralist analysis, while Campbell 1973 inspired a range of Jungian approaches; Eliade 2005 established a number of basic concepts that have influenced anthropology since its initial publication in 1954. Bettelheim 1977 and some of the essays in Dundes 1991 exemplify psychoanalytic approaches, which have retained more influence in mythology than in most areas of anthropology. Gow 2001 and Melly 2011 offer strong examples of early-21st-century ethnographic applications of these theories, while Civrieux 1997 provides rich ethnographic material that students and scholars may analyze for themselves.
  172.  
  173. Bettelheim, Bruno. 1977. The uses of enchantment: The meaning and importance of fairy tales. New York: Vintage.
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  175. Bettelheim discusses the psychoanalytic meanings of fairy tales, in this controversial but undeniably thought-provoking study.
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  177. Campbell, Joseph. 1973. The hero with a thousand faces. 2d ed. Bollingen 17. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  179. Campbell’s Jungian approach to understanding myth became extremely popular following a television documentary about his work in the 1980s. It has garnered far less popularity among anthropologists, who tend to regard Jungian theory with considerable suspicion. Nonetheless, the book remains a readable and influential study of hero myths, raising issues that are widely pursued by anthropologists using other theoretical lenses. Republished in English (3d edition) as recently as 2008 (Novato, CA: New World Library).
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  181. Civrieux, Marc de. 1997. Watunna: An Orinoco creation cycle. Edited and translated by David M. Guss. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  183. One of the most complete and compelling accounts of the mythology of an Amerindian group, this volume provides an excellent starting point for students interested in studying a mythological system in its entirety.
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  185. Dundes, Alan, ed. 1991. The blood libel legend: A casebook in anti-Semitic folklore. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
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  187. These essays, edited by one of anthropology’s leading folklorists, offer examples of the dark side of myth and folklore, a phenomenon often understated in functional and interpretive discussions of mythology.
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  189. Eliade, Mircea. 2005. The myth of the eternal return: Cosmos and history. 2d ed. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Bollingen 46. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  191. Eliade regards the distinction between sacred and profane as the cornerstone of religion, and in this seminal work he applies this framework to the understanding of myth. First published in 1954, its inventive theory and wealth of examples have made it widely influential in the study of myth.
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  193. Gow, Peter. 2001. An Amazonian myth and its history. Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  195. Gow draws on Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist approach to myth in this study, which tries to incorporate historical and political dimensions of mythological phenomena that Lévi-Strauss tended to neglect.
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  197. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1983. The raw and the cooked. Translated by John Weightman and Doreen Weightman. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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  199. The first volume of a 4-book series known as Mythologiques, this landmark study analyzes 187 myths of an Amazonian tribe. Lévi-Strauss argues that the symbolic oppositions underlying these myths provide models for the cognitive organization of the culture. Like much of Lévi-Strauss’s writing, this book is both difficult and immensely rewarding for those who can work through it.
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  201. Melly, Caroline M. 2011. Titanic tales of missing men: Reconfigurations of national identity and gendered presence in Dakar, Senegal. American Ethnologist 38.2: 361–376.
  202. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01311.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. An evocative example of the development of new mythologies in postcolonial Africa.
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  205. Purity and Pollution
  206.  
  207. The works in this section explore rules about purity and pollution, subjects central to all religious systems. Douglas 1984, perhaps the defining anthropological work on the subject, delineates the symbolic logics that underlie ideas about pollution, applying them to a range of examples. Bielo 2011 shows how this analysis can illuminate modern religious movements in the West. Radcliffe-Brown 1952 discusses the social functions of pollution rules, while Lindenbaum 1972 and Harris 1985 present influential models of their ecological functions. The influence of pollution beliefs reaches its apogee in caste systems, explored memorably in Dumont 1980. On a smaller scale, Furth and Shu-yueh 1992 discusses a critical question in the anthropology of pollution: its effect on the politics of gender.
  208.  
  209. Bielo, James S. 2011. Purity, danger, and redemption: Notes on urban missional evangelicals. American Ethnologist 38.2: 267–280.
  210. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01305.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. This article applies Mary Douglas’s model of purity and pollution to a modern missionary movement in the United States, showing how ideas about purity shape divisions among evangelical Protestants.
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  213. Douglas, Mary. 1984. Purity and danger: An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Ark.
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  215. This analysis of purity and pollution beliefs, first published in 1966 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), remains the definitive study of the phenomenon, as well as one of the most lively and interesting works in the anthropology of religion. Republished as recently as 2006 (London: Routledge).
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  217. Dumont, Louis. 1980. Homo hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications. Rev. ed. Translated by Mark Sainsbury, Louis Dumont, and Basia Gulati. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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  219. Dumont’s massive and controversial work is one of the defining studies of the Indian caste system, one that illustrates the enormous impact that rules about purity and pollution can have on social organization.
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  221. Furth, Charlotte, and Ch’en Shu-yueh. 1992. Chinese medicine and the anthropology of menstruation in contemporary Taiwan. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 6.1: 27–48.
  222. DOI: 10.1525/maq.1992.6.1.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. This article addresses an important concern in anthropological studies of purity and pollution: their differential impact on genders. Menstrual pollution is a particularly potent symbol in many cultures, one that can substantially limit women’s participation in social activity. While some authors have seen such taboos as a form of oppression, this article suggests a more complex view, especially in contrast with biomedical understandings of menstruation.
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  225. Harris, Marvin. 1985. The sacred cow and the abominable pig: Riddles of food and culture. New York: Simon & Schuster.
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  227. Harris’s entertaining and accessible book makes an aggressive case for cultural materialism, arguing that rules about purity and pollution promote ecologically rational behavior. His analysis clashes directly and pointedly with Douglas 1984.
  228. Find this resource:
  229. Lindenbaum, Shirley. 1972. Sorcerers, ghosts, and polluting women: An analysis of religious belief and population control. Ethnology 11.3: 241–253.
  230. DOI: 10.2307/3773218Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231. Based on ethnography in highland New Guinea, Lindenbaum argues that the restrictions on sexuality imposed by pollution beliefs have an important ecological function: by limiting opportunities for sexual activity, they act as a form of birth control.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1952. Taboo. In Structure and function in primitive society. By A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, 133–152. New York: Free Press.
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235. In this classic article, Radcliffe-Brown analyzes taboo in his characteristically functionalist style, arguing that food prohibitions tend to guide individuals toward socially beneficial behaviors. His discussion focuses particularly on taboos associated with pregnancy in the Andaman Islands, but the theory applies much more generally.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Death and the Afterlife
  238.  
  239. The works in this section deal with a key issue for most religious traditions: handling the emotional, theological, and logistical challenges of death. Metcalf and Huntington 1991 provides a comprehensive discussion of the ritual aspects of death, while Robben 2004 contains readings on the subject more broadly. The remaining works are primarily ethnographic. Tsuji 2006 and Smith 2004 explore the cultural politics of funerary ritual. Bloch and Parry 1982 focuses on the connection between death and rebirth. Cátedra 1992 and Ochoa 2010 offer exceptionally well-observed discussions of notions of person, death, and spirituality in local cultures.
  240.  
  241. Bloch, Maurice, and Jonathan Parry, eds. 1982. Death and the regeneration of life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  242. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511607646Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. This collection of ethnographic essays explores different ways that cultural ideas about death intersect with ideas about social and natural renewal.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Cátedra, María. 1992. This world, other worlds: Sickness, suicide, death, and the afterlife among the Vaqueiros de Alzada of Spain. Translated by William A. Christian Jr. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. This evocative ethnography explores attitudes toward death and spirituality among the Vaqueiros de Alzada, a cattle-herding group in highland Spain with a very high rate of suicide. The book explores conceptions of grace, death, and the afterlife with extraordinary sensitivity.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Metcalf, Peter, and Richard Huntington. 1991. Celebrations of death: The anthropology of mortuary ritual. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. An outstanding review of theoretical and ethnographic issues in rituals surrounding death, including examples from a range of times and societal types. First published in 1979; revised second edition published in 2008.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Ochoa, Todd Ramón. 2010. Society of the dead: Quita Manaquita and Palo praise in Cuba. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  254. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520256835.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. This striking ethnography explores the interaction of ideas about death, sorcery, and spirituality in an Afro-Caribbean affliction society.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Robben, Antonius C. G. M., ed. 2004. Death, mourning, and burial: A cross-cultural reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. A collection of classic readings on the anthropology of death, representing a variety of ethnographic and topical areas.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2004. Burials and belonging in Nigeria: Rural–urban relations and social inequality in a contemporary African ritual. American Anthropologist 106.3: 569–579.
  262. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2004.106.3.569Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. Funeral rites provide a focal point for tensions among cultural models, a point demonstrated by this study of urban-rural differences among migrants in Nigeria.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Tsuji, Yohko. 2006. Mortuary rituals in Japan: The hegemony of tradition and the motivations of individuals. Ethos 34.3: 391–431.
  266. DOI: 10.1525/eth.2006.34.3.391Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Tsuji analyzes modern Japanese funerary practice, focusing on the interaction between traditionalist cultural expectations and desires for individual self-expression.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Syncretism
  270.  
  271. These sources offer ethnographic portraits of syncretism, the blending of religious traditions associated with colonialism, migration, and other kinds of culture contact. Stewart and Shaw 1994 provides an excellent starting point on the subject, collecting a broad set of studies both of syncretism and of reactions against it. Watanabe 1990, Brown and Bick 1987, and Matory 1994 draw on different ethnographic examples to make a common point: that syncretism is not merely a random blending of traditions, but an actively constructed process that reflects the interests and strategies of specific actors. The complexity of these interacting agendas appears vividly in Beatty 2006, a discussion of a Catholic canonization in Mexico; Taylor 1987 provides a background for this example, laying out the syncretic strands involved in the veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
  272.  
  273. Beatty, Andrew. 2006. The pope in Mexico: Syncretism in public ritual. American Anthropologist 108.2: 324–335.
  274. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2006.108.2.324Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. This article highlights the differences that can occur in perceptions of syncretic processes, focusing on interpretations of Pope John Paul II’s 2002 canonization of a Mexican man associated with the Virgin of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Brown, Diana De G., and Mario Bick. 1987. Religion, class, and context: Continuities and discontinuities in Brazilian Umbanda. American Ethnologist 14.1: 73–93.
  278. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1987.14.1.02a00050Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. This article discusses the syncretic elements of Umbanda, a Brazilian spirit possession religion strongly influenced by African, Catholic, and New World traditions.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Matory, J. Lorand. 1994. Rival empires: Islam and the religions of spirit possession among the Òyóo-Yorùbá. American Ethnologist 21.3: 495–515.
  282. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1994.21.3.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. A close examination of the historical patterns of interaction between Islam and trance religions in a Nigerian society, this article unfolds a range of social and political forces influencing the shape of syncretic religiosity.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Stewart, Charles, and Rosalind Shaw, eds. 1994. Syncretism/anti-syncretism: The politics of religious synthesis. New York: Routledge.
  286. DOI: 10.4324/9780203451090Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. This volume collects ethnographic essays on religious syncretism as well as anti-syncretic movements around the world. The authors emphasize that syncretism does not just happen but reflects the interests and agendas of politically motivated actors.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Taylor, William B. 1987. The Virgin of Guadalupe in New Spain: An inquiry into the social history of Marian devotion. American Ethnologist 14.1: 9–33.
  290. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1987.14.1.02a00020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. Taylor explores the history of devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe in detail, discussing its place in syncretic cults as well as the nationalist imagination in Mexico.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Watanabe, John M. 1990. From saints to shibboleths: Image, structure, and identity in Maya religious syncretism. American Ethnologist 17.1: 131–150.
  294. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1990.17.1.02a00080Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. Watanabe analyzes the merging of Catholic saints and Mayan deities in the religious system of a Guatemalan village. The blending of these traditions is not random, he argues; the syncretism emphasizes specific aspects of local community and identity, making the union of these two traditions serve distinct local ends.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Techniques of the Sacred
  298.  
  299. The sources in this section focus on what we might call techniques of the sacred, ways in which religious symbols are used and manipulated for practical ends. Anthropological study in this area has focused particularly on the areas of magic, trance and healing, and witchcraft.
  300.  
  301. Magic
  302.  
  303. These works exemplify anthropological approaches to magic, the practical manipulation of the supernatural central to many religious systems. Frazer 1951 lays a foundation for most work on magic that follows it, proposing a classification of magical action that has endured for over a century, since it was first published in 1890. Hammond 1970 explicates some of the definitional problems associated with thinking about magic. Lévi-Strauss 1966, Tambiah 1990, and Horton 1997 represent three landmark theoretical analyses of magical thinking; in very different ways, each presents magic as a system of thought different from, but not inferior to, that of modern science. Gmelch 1993 provides an entertaining application of Bronislaw Malinowski’s approach to magic to a familiar example. Comaroff and Comaroff 1999 explores the ways that magical practice has developed in the volatile political world of modern Africa.
  304.  
  305. Comaroff, Jean, and John L. Comaroff. 1999. Occult economies and the violence of abstraction: Notes from the South African postcolony. American Ethnologist 26.2: 279–303.
  306. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1999.26.2.279Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. The authors provide a vivid discussion of the ways that political dynamics in postcolonial Africa have produced an abundance of new forms of magical belief and practice.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Frazer, James George. 1951. The golden bough: A study in magic and religion. 3d rev. ed. New York: Macmillan.
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  311. This abridged version of Frazer’s magnum opus (originally published in 1890) provides a manageable version of its first publication as a twelve-volume work (London: Macmillan, 1906–1915). Frazer’s distinction between types of sympathetic magic remains essential to anthropological thinking today, even as the vast majority of his conclusions and characterizations have been undermined by subsequent research. Republished as recently as 2009 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press).
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Gmelch, George. 1993. Baseball magic. In Magic, witchcraft, and religion: An anthropological study of the supernatural. 3d ed. Edited by Arthur C. Lehmann and James E. Myers, 276–282. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. This classic article, originally published in 1971, brilliantly applies Malinowski’s argument about magic to superstitions among baseball players. Seventh edition published in 2008 (Boston: McGraw-Hill), edited by Pamela A. Moro, Lehmann, and Myers.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Hammond, Dorothy. 1970. Magic: A problem in semantics. American Anthropologist 72.6: 1349–1356.
  318. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1970.72.6.02a00080Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. A concise and comprehensive account of the problems associated with defining magic from an anthropological perspective. Hammond provides both an excellent history of anthropological approaches to magic and a well-reasoned case for its redefinition.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Horton, Robin. 1997. Patterns of thought in Africa and the West: Essays on magic, religion and science. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. This collection of essays by Horton includes some of his most influential discussions of the relationship between magic and science. He makes an eloquent case for treating magic seriously as a system of thought, rather than dismissing it as a fraud or a mistake.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The savage mind. Nature of Human Society. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. One of the great works both of anthropology and of 20th-century intellectual history, The Savage Mind lays out Lévi-Strauss’s approach to understanding mythic and magical thought. Reprinted as recently as 2000.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. 1990. Magic, science, and religion and the scope of rationality. Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures 1984. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. Tambiah reviews three distinctive approaches to understanding magic in anthropology, tying them to parallel debates in the intellectual history of Western religion and arguing for a more complex understanding of the relationship among religion, magic, and rationality.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Trance and Healing
  334.  
  335. These sources focus on two related techniques of devotion—ecstatic religiosity and ritual healing. Lewis 2003 and Klass 2003 provide excellent general accounts of the phenomenon of trance, exploring both the social and the psychological dimensions of the possession experience. Ong 1988 explores some of the political and gender patterns associated with trance, while Cohen and Barrett 2008 tries to account for its differential occurrence across cultures. The centrality of trance to much ritual healing is explored in Csordas 1988 and Lévi-Strauss 1993. Dein 2002 discusses the significance of language in ritual healing, drawing on case studies among Lubavitcher Hasidim, while Csordas 1999 addresses its relation to personal and social identities in the author’s ethnography of Navajo youth.
  336.  
  337. Cohen, Emma, and Justin L. Barrett. 2008. Conceptualizing spirit possession: Ethnographic and experimental evidence. Ethos 36.2: 246–267.
  338. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1352.2008.00013.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. The authors argue that experimental evidence indicates a common root to human ideas about spirit possession, one rooted in the cognitive systems underlying human perception of the world.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Csordas, Thomas J. 1988. Elements of charismatic persuasion and healing. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 2.2: 121–142.
  342. DOI: 10.1525/maq.1988.2.2.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Argues that a deep analysis of the embodied experience of charismatic healing can enrich our understanding of how and why ritual healing affects the experience of illness. The article explores two cases of healing in a Catholic Pentecostal group.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Csordas, Thomas J. 1999. Ritual healing and the politics of identity in contemporary Navajo society. American Ethnologist 26.1: 3–23.
  346. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. This article tries to push beyond the frameworks of analysis that had previously dominated studies of ritual healing, suggesting that the process functions not so much to assert or impose political identities, but to express notions of self and belonging. Its illustrations of Navajo healing are evocative and rich.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Dein, Simon. 2002. The power of words: Healing narratives among Lubavitcher Hasidim. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16.1: 41–63.
  350. DOI: 10.1525/maq.2002.16.1.41Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Focuses on the way that members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group in New York use language in their healing rituals, suggesting that the power of the rituals is intimately linked to the manipulation of words.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Klass, Morton. 2003. Mind over mind: The anthropology and psychology of spirit possession. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. A lively and thoughtful exploration of the psychological and cultural dimensions of spirit possession, drawing on the author’s extensive fieldwork in the Caribbean and South Asia.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1993. The sorcerer and his magic. In Magic, witchcraft, and religion: An anthropological study of the supernatural. 3d ed. Edited by Arthur C. Lehmann and James E. Myers, 169–178. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Lévi-Strauss argues that the effectiveness of shamanic healing derives from the integration of linguistic and cultural symbols in the healing process.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Lewis, I. M. 2003. Ecstatic religion: A study of shamanism and spirit possession. 3d ed. London: Routledge.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. First published in 1971, this landmark study of shamanism and spirit possession explores a wide range of ecstatic religious traditions. Lewis’s suggestion that ecstatic religiosity offers a means of expression for society’s oppressed, particularly women, has been widely influential in studies of trance.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Ong, Aihwa. 1988. The production of possession: Spirits and the multinational corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist 15.1: 28–42.
  366. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1988.15.1.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. Ong presents a fascinating case study of trance possession in a Malaysian factory, one in which rival explanations by workers and employers reflect different political and cultural agendas. Her analysis has broader implications for the role of religion as a resource for resistance to economic exploitation.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Witchcraft
  370.  
  371. The pieces in this section provide an introduction to anthropological scholarship on witchcraft, a phenomenon with striking similarities across a wide range of cultures. Mair 1976 gives a broad and accessible overview of the questions anthropologists have asked about witchcraft. Evans-Pritchard 1976, an ethnography of witchcraft and magic in an African society, has been the defining study of the phenomenon since its initial 1937 publication. Godbeer 1994 explores the cultural and religious background for the Salem witchcraft outbreaks in 1692. The remaining studies discuss aspects of witchcraft in the modern world. Both Luhrmann 1989 and Stephen 1999 focus on psychological dynamics in modern witchcraft. Stewart and Strathern 2004, Moore and Sanders 2001, and James 2012 try to understand witchcraft in the context of political tensions and conflicts of the postcolonial era.
  372.  
  373. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1976. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande. Abridged ed. Oxford: Clarendon.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. This is an abridged version of what is widely regarded as the single most influential work on witchcraft and magic in anthropology, first published in 1937. Its analysis of the social and psychological functions of witchcraft beliefs, as well as its brilliant ethnographic description, has made it the essential starting point for anthropological studies of witchcraft for generations.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Godbeer, Richard. 1994. The devil’s dominion: Magic and religion in early New England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  379. This book places the witchcraft outbreaks in the village of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 within the context of English beliefs about magic and the occult at the time. It provides a very rich background for students and scholars interested in Salem witchcraft.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. James, Erica Caple. 2012. Witchcraft, bureaucraft, and the social life of (US) aid In Haiti. Cultural Anthropology 27.1: 50–75.
  382. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1360.2012.01126.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. This article demonstrates the enduring influence of witchcraft in modern society, by showing ways that ideas about bureaucracy and international aid follow many of the patterns associated with traditional beliefs about witchcraft.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Luhrmann, Tanya M. 1989. Persuasions of the witch’s craft: Ritual magic in contemporary England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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  387. A sensitive exploration of the world of New Age witchcraft in late-20th-century England, on the basis of the author’s fieldwork in the 1980s.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Mair, Lucy. 1976. Witchcraft. World University Library. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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  391. Mair provides a thorough, very accessible introduction to anthropological work on witchcraft, with a focus on its manifestation in African societies. An excellent resource for those new to the subject. First published in 1969.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Moore, Henrietta L., and Todd Sanders, eds. 2001. Magical interpretations, material realities: Modernity, witchcraft, and the occult in postcolonial Africa. London: Routledge.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. This collection of essays shows the diversity and complexity of witchcraft beliefs in modern Africa, where postcolonial political and cultural developments have produced a range of new permutations of ideas about the occult.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Stephen, Michele. 1999. Witchcraft, grief, and the ambivalence of emotions. American Ethnologist 26.3: 711–737.
  398. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1999.26.3.711Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. An intriguing article reflecting on the psychological significance of witchcraft beliefs, drawing on the theory of psychoanalyst Melanie Klein and focusing on the ambivalence associated with the process of mourning.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Stewart, Pamela J., and Andrew Strathern. 2004. Witchcraft, sorcery, rumors, and gossip. New Departures in Anthropology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  403. The authors of this intriguing book argue that the dynamics underlying witchcraft outbreaks inform other kinds of social processes in modern society. It provides an instructive application of anthropological theory to modern culture.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Religious Personages
  406.  
  407. Religion is not just about ideas and actions, but about people, and the dynamics of religion often turn on the actions of particular kinds of actors. This section focuses on two kinds of religious personages of particular interest to anthropology: on the one hand, Religious Leaders, and on the other hand, the Saints, Demons, and Holy Ones who represent religious ideals.
  408.  
  409. Religious Leaders
  410.  
  411. The following works discuss the role of leaders in religious movements. Eliade 2004 is a foundational study of shamanism, the form of religious leadership that has drawn the most attention from anthropologists. Noll 1983 addresses some of the key disputes in anthropology regarding the mental state of shamans, while Connor and Samuel 2001 and Jakobsen 1999 offer vivid modern ethnographic studies. Harner 1990 exemplifies the use of anthropological work in the modern neoshamanism movement. Fuller 1984 discusses priesthood, another important form of religious leadership, while Dein 2011 and Lindholm 2002 focus on charismatic and messianic leaders.
  412.  
  413. Connor, Linda H., and Geoffrey Samuel, eds. 2001. Healing powers and modernity: Traditional medicine, shamanism, and science in Asian societies. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. This collection of ethnographic essays discusses the interaction of shamanic healing and biomedicine in a range of Asian societies. It provides an excellent resource on the place of shamanism in modern cultures.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Dein, Simon. 2011. Lubavitcher messianism: What really happens when prophecy fails? Continuum Studies in Jewish Thought. London: Continuum.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. Dein’s ethnography offers a fascinating case study of Lubavitcher Hasidism, which came to prominence under the charismatic leadership of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The death of Rabbi Schneerson, regarded as the messiah by many of his followers, presented an existential quandary whose aftermath provides instructive lessons for understanding religious leadership.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Eliade, Mircea. 2004. Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy. Translated by William R. Trask. Bollingen 76. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. First published in French in 1951 (Le chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l’extase, Paris: Payot), Eliade’s book attempts to delineate shamanism as a religion and to place it in the history of human religious action. While his conclusions have been criticized as too broad, he draws together an extraordinary wealth of information on shamanic practices across cultures.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Fuller, C. J. 1984. Servants of the goddess: The priests of a south Indian temple. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology 47. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. This rich ethnography explores the complex role and status of priests at a major temple in Tamil Nadu, showing the ways that caste relationships and government policy influence their authority and daily life.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Harner, Michael. 1990. The way of the shaman. 10th anniversary ed. New York: Harper & Row.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. Harner’s controversial book draws on his anthropological studies of Jivaro shamanism to create a do-it-yourself guide for aspiring shamans in the West. The book has been enormously influential in the neoshamanism movement but has attracted intense criticism from many anthropological scholars.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Jakobsen, Merete Demant. 1999. Shamanism: Traditional and contemporary approaches to the mastery of spirits and healing. New York: Berghahn.
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  435. Jakobsen contrasts traditional Greenlandic shamanism with modern shamanic movements in the West, on the basis of fieldwork with both. The book includes a concise review of the use of shamanism both in anthropological and popular discourse.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Lindholm, Charles. 2002. Culture, charisma, and consciousness: The case of the Rajneeshee. Ethos 30.4: 357–375.
  438. DOI: 10.1525/eth.2002.30.4.357Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. Lindholm presents a compelling model of charismatic leadership drawn from Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, applying it to the ethnographic case of the American religious movement centered on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Noll, Richard. 1983. Shamanism and schizophrenia: A state-specific approach to the “schizophrenia metaphor” of shamanic states. American Ethnologist 10.3: 443–459.
  442. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1983.10.3.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Noll systematically rebuts the association of shamanism with schizophrenia, arguing that the two involve qualitatively different types of dissociation.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Saints, Demons, and Holy Ones
  446.  
  447. These sources contain studies of the figures that represent ideals of good and evil in religious traditions: saints, demons, and holy people. Gudeman 1976 discusses a frequent topic in the anthropology of Catholicism: the symbolic importance of saints and the celebrations that surround them. Bilu and Ben-Ari 1992 discusses how sainthood gets created, using an example from modern Israel. The tension between saint veneration and temporal structures of authority animates the contributions in Schielke 2008 and Denton 2004, while Obeyesekere 1984 explores the psychological dynamics behind the behaviors of ecstatic holy men and women. Taussig 2010 and Kapferer 1991 discuss the opposite extreme: beliefs about demonic figures and techniques for dealing with them. Bilu 2013 discusses an emerging messianic figure in modern Hasidism.
  448.  
  449. Bilu, Yoram. 2013. “We want to see our king”: Apparitions in messianic Habad. Ethos 41.1: 98–126.
  450. DOI: 10.1111/etho.12004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Bilu discusses the factors behind a recent upsurge in visions of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the deceased charismatic leader of the Lubavitcher Hasidim.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Bilu, Yoram, and Eyal Ben-Ari. 1992. The making of modern saints: Manufactured charisma and the Abu-Hatseiras of Israel. American Ethnologist 19.4: 672–687.
  454. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1992.19.4.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. This article analyzes the development of a cult of sainthood around two holy men in modern Israel. The authors link the process both to the manipulation of their public image and to sainthood traditions imported by North African Jewish immigrants.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Denton, Lynn Teskey. 2004. Female ascetics in Hinduism. Edited by Steven Collins. SUNY Series in Hindu Studies. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. This ethnography explores the world of female Hindu ascetics in Benares, discussing both their spiritual experiences and their role as holy women in a religious tradition often defined by male asceticism.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Gudeman, Stephen. 1976. Saints, symbols, and ceremonies. American Ethnologist 3.4: 709–729.
  462. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1976.3.4.02a00090Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. This ethnographic study sketches the importance of saint veneration to the ritual life of a Panamanian village, patterns that the author argues are typical of Latin American Catholicism more broadly.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Kapferer, Bruce. 1991. A celebration of demons: Exorcism and the aesthetics of healing in Sri Lanka. 2d ed. Explorations in Anthropology. Oxford: Berg.
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  467. Kapferer describes the rich complex of religious and cultural beliefs about demons that underlie the dramatic exorcism rites of Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1984. Medusa’s hair: An essay on personal symbols and religious experience. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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  471. Obeyesekere’s rich cultural and psychological study unpacks the meanings of bodily symbolism for ecstatic priests and priestesses at the ceremonial center of Kataragama in Sri Lanka. First published in 1981; reprinted as recently as 2008.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Schielke, Samuli. 2008. Policing ambiguity: Muslim saints-day festivals and the moral geography of public space in Egypt. American Ethnologist 35.4: 539–552.
  474. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00097.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. This article explores the tension between the festivity and chaos of Egyptian saints-day festivals and the efforts by the state to control public space and behavior.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Taussig, Michael T. 2010. The devil and commodity fetishism in South America. 30th anniversary ed. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. This classic work, first published in 1980, uses a Marxist framework to understand images of the devil in the folklore and religion of the poor in South America.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Dynamics
  482.  
  483. The studies in this section focus on the kinds of change and development associated with religious groups. They are grouped under three headings, each of them important subjects of modern anthropological study: Religion and Political Dynamics, Secularization, Religious Movements, and Fundamentalism.
  484.  
  485. Religion and Political Dynamics
  486.  
  487. These sources discuss the role of religion in political movements and conflicts. Kertzer 1980 describes open conflicts between clerical and anticlerical forces in Italian political struggles. Comaroff 1985, by contrast, reveals the political power of religious action when open political resistance is impossible. The multiple possibilities for religion’s political role emerge in the Indian religious movements described in Dube 1998 and Chatterji 2009, one of which promotes minority rights and one of which violently opposes them. Hegland 1998 places this dynamic at an intimate level, showing the political significance of women’s personal devotions in a patriarchal Islamic setting.
  488.  
  489. Chatterji, Angana P. 2009. Violent gods: Hindu nationalism in India’s present; Narratives from Orissa. Gurgaon, India: Three Essays Collective.
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. This impassioned ethnography traces the rise of the Sangh Parivar movement in India, which used violence against minorities and non-Hindus to promote a Hindu nationalist program.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Comaroff, Jean. 1985. Body of power, spirit of resistance: The culture and history of a South African people. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  494. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. Comaroff’s landmark study examines the ways that indigenous South Africans transformed the religious imagery of the colonial powers to oppose the economic and political inequalities of the apartheid state.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Dube, Saurabh. 1998. Untouchable pasts: Religion, identity, and power among a central Indian community, 1780–1950. SUNY Series in Hindu Studies. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. Dube recounts the development of the Satnampath movement in central India in the 19th and 20th centuries. The movement employed religious imagery to challenge both caste and gender hierarchies that disenfranchised the low-caste men and women who joined it.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Hegland, Mary Elaine. 1998. Flagellation and fundamentalism: (Trans)forming meaning, identity, and gender through Pakistani women’s rituals of mourning. American Ethnologist 25.2: 240–266.
  502. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1998.25.2.240Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Hegland portrays mourning rituals among Pakistani women as an alternative route to self-empowerment in a society where patriarchal political structures exclude them almost entirely.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Kertzer, David. 1980. Comrades and Christians: Religion and political struggle in communist Italy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Kertzer’s study traces the ground-level manifestations of the struggle between communists and Catholics for political control of the Italian state.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Secularization
  510.  
  511. The following sources discuss secularization, the apparent decline of religion in the face of modernization. While the inevitability of secularization was assumed in most of social science for decades, the concept came under attack in the 1980s from works such as Hadden 1987 and Stark and Bainbridge 1985. Anthropological studies such as Buckser 2011 found evidence opposing secularization, which led to studies such as Asad 2003; Scott and Hirschkind 2006; and Calhoun, et al. 2011, which interrogate secularism as a concept and ask how it might be studied as an anthropological subject. As Agrama 2012 points out, secularization does not always mean what anthropologists tend to assume it does.
  512.  
  513. Agrama, Hussein Ali. 2012. Reflections on secularism, democracy, and politics in Egypt. American Ethnologist 39.1: 26–31.
  514. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01342.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Argues that what has often been perceived as secularism in the revolutionary Middle East actually represents asecularism, a disengagement with secularism that carries very different implications for democracy.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Asad, Talal. 2003. Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity. Cultural Memory in the Present. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Asad argues for an anthropology of the secular, seeing the secular not simply as the absence of religion but as an existential formation that takes different forms depending on the religious tradition out of which it emerges.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Buckser, Andrew. 2011. Secularization, religiosity, and the anthropology of Jewry. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 10.2: 205–222.
  522. DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2011.580979Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. This article reviews anthropological studies of Jewish secularization, arguing that what is often viewed as the decline of Jewish religious life actually represents a transition to emerging forms of religious engagement.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Calhoun, Craig, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, eds. 2011. Rethinking secularism. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. This collection of essays by leading authors from a variety of social-science disciplines strives to rethink the meanings of secularism, secularization, and religion in the postmodern context.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Hadden, Jeffrey K. 1987. Toward desacralizing secularization theory. Social Forces 65.3: 587–611.
  530. DOI: 10.1093/sf/65.3.587Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. This seminal article was among the first to directly challenge the secularization model that had dominated social-scientific models of religion since Auguste Comte.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Scott, David, and Charles Hirschkind, eds. 2006. Powers of the secular modern: Talal Asad and his interlocutors. Cultural Memory in the Present. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. This key collection of essays advances some of the questions raised in Asad’s Formations of the Secular (Asad 2003), laying the foundation for an anthropology of secularism.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1985. The future of religion: Secularization, revival, and cult formation. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. Using a rational-choice approach to religion, Stark and Bainbridge argue that secularization is merely one moment in a cycle of decline and renewal that inevitably characterizes modern societies.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Religious Movements
  542.  
  543. This section contains studies of religiously inspired social movements, a key focus of anthropological studies of religion. Wallace 1956 presents a framework for thinking about religious movements that has shaped the field since its publication. The rest of these citations involve ethnographic studies of different religious movements: Wallace 1970 on the Handsome Lake movement, Simmons 1983 on the Great Awakening; La Barre 1992 on the Holiness movement; and Haynes 2013 on the prosperity gospel. Cohn 1970, Worsley 1987, and Bessire 2011 deal with apocalyptic movements, whose visions of the imminent end of the world push them to extremes of commitment and often violence.
  544.  
  545. Bessire, Lucas. 2011. Apocalyptic futures: The violent transformation of moral human life among Ayoreo-speaking people of the Paraguayan Gran Chaco. American Ethnologist 38.4: 743–757.
  546. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01334.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547. This article discusses the emergence of apocalyptic beliefs in the wake of experiences of violence and dispossession among an indigenous group in South America.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Cohn, Norman. 1970. The pursuit of the millennium: Revolutionary millenarians and mystical anarchists of the Middle Ages. Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
  550. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. Cohn’s landmark study remains a defining work on the history of millenarian movements, exploring the cultural and political phenomena that underlay their emergence in the Middle Ages.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Haynes, Naomi. 2013. On the potential and problems of Pentecostal exchange. American Anthropologist 115.1: 85–95.
  554. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01537.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555. Hayes presents an ethnographic study of the rise of the Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Zambia, discussing the attractions and dangers of this Protestant movement.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. La Barre, Weston. 1992. They shall take up serpents: Psychology of the southern snake-handling cult. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
  558. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. La Barre presents a lively and detailed account of the rise of snake-handling cults in the American South, though his psychoanalytic approach to explaining them can sound dated today. Originally published in 1962 (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press).
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Simmons, William S. 1983. Red Yankees: Narragansett conversion in the Great Awakening. American Ethnologist 10.2: 253–271.
  562. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1983.10.2.02a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  563. Simmons explores the reasons for an indigenous community’s conversion to the Great Awakening, a Christian religious movement that swept the American colonies in the 1740s.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Wallace, Anthony F. C. 1956. Revitalization movements. American Anthropologist 58.2: 264–281.
  566. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1956.58.2.02a00040Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  567. This classic article provides a model for understanding revitalization movements—religious movements that attempt to create a more satisfying society. While it is largely based on Native American phenomena, Wallace’s argument applies effectively to many religious movements worldwide.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Wallace, Anthony F. C. 1970. The death and rebirth of the Seneca: The history and culture of the great Iroquois nation, their destruction and demoralization, and their cultural revival at the hands of the Indian visionary, Handsome Lake. Borzoi Books. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  570. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. Wallace’s exploration of the rise, decline, and renaissance of the religious movement associated with Seneca prophet Handsome Lake remains one of the most comprehensive ethnographic treatments of a religious movement.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Worsley, Peter. 1987. The trumpet shall sound: A study of “cargo cults” in Melanesia. 2d ed. New York: Schocken.
  574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. The definitive study of Melanesian cargo cults, millennial groups whose apocalypse was associated with the return of cargo-carrying military airmen. First published in 1957 (London: MacGibbon & Kee).
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Fundamentalism
  578.  
  579. These articles address the rapidly growing phenomenon of religious fundamentalism. Antoun 2001 and Nagata 2001 discuss some of the thorny problems in finding a meaningful cross-cultural definition of fundamentalism. The other sources each give ethnographic sketches of particular fundamentalist movements. Harding 2000 focuses on American Christian fundamentalism. Goldschmidt 2006, Jacobson 2006, and Buckser 2005 portray Jewish movements in different parts of the world, while Falcone 2012 looks at Hindu fundamentalism in the United States. Luhrmann 2012, while focused on a nonfundamentalist evangelical group, explores issues central to many conservative Christian movements in the United States.
  580.  
  581. Antoun, Richard T. 2001. Understanding fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic, and Jewish movements. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
  582. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. A thorough and balanced look at fundamentalist movements in the Abramic religious traditions. The different meanings of what fundamentalism can be and the sorts of relationships between belief and worldly experience are sensitively explored.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Buckser, Andrew. 2005. Chabad in Copenhagen: Fundamentalism and modernity in Jewish Denmark. Ethnology 44.2: 125–145.
  586. DOI: 10.2307/3773993Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  587. While fundamentalism and liberal religion are often portrayed as implacable enemies, in practice they can have a much more positive relationship. This article explores the extent to which the dilemmas of Jewish identity in modern Copenhagen give the deeply Orthodox Chabad movement a powerful appeal in the Jewish community.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Falcone, Jessica Marie. 2012. Putting the “fun” in fundamentalism: Religious nationalism and the split self at Hindutva summer camps in the United States. Ethos 40.2: 164–195.
  590. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1352.2012.01245.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. This article explores ideas about self and group identity among adherents of a fundamentalist Hindu movement in the United States.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Goldschmidt, Henry. 2006. Race and religion among the chosen peoples of Crown Heights. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
  594. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595. Goldschmidt explores the contentious and complex relationship between African American and Jewish residents of the Crown Heights district in New York.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Harding, Susan Friend. 2000. The book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist language and politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  598. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. Harding discusses the use of language in the expansion of Jerry Falwell’s fundamentalist religious movement in the 1980s in the United States. The book’s focus is on the political dimensions of religious speech and culture.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Jacobson, Shari. 2006. Modernity, conservative religious movements, and the female subject: Newly ultraorthodox Sephardi women in Buenos Aires. American Anthropologist 108.2: 336–346.
  602. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2006.108.2.336Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  603. Jacobson’s analysis of Orthodox Jewish women in Buenos Aires suggests a more complex relationship between religion and modernity than scholars of fundamentalism often envision. For the women in her study, adherence to Haredi religiosity is associated with modernity and progress, not a retreat from the world.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Luhrmann, Tanya M. 2012. When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship with God. New York: Vintage.
  606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607. An extraordinarily sensitive and insightful discussion of the experience of communication with the divine among members of a charismatic congregation known as the Vineyard. Both the ethnography and the theoretical analysis reveal the depths of complexity in a style of spiritual experience that anthropologists have seldom explored in depth.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Nagata, Judith. 2001. Beyond theology: Toward an anthropology of “fundamentalism.” American Anthropologist 103.2: 481–498.
  610. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2001.103.2.481Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  611. Nagata addresses some of the theoretical and definitional problems associated with the anthropological study of fundamentalism.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Identity
  614.  
  615. This section draws together studies of the connection between religion and the identities of individuals. These studies fall into three main areas: religion and Ethnicity, religion and Gender, and religious Conversion.
  616.  
  617. Ethnicity
  618.  
  619. These studies focus on the interaction between religion and ethnic identity. Gans 1994 represents an influential account of this relationship in the modern setting; Selka 2007 explores its development in the Candomble religion of Brazil. Several studies address this question among Jews, for whom questions of ethnic and religious identity have been particularly central throughout the modern era. Boyarin 1996 provides a discussion of the existential problems associated with modern Jewish identity and religiosity, Goldschmidt 2006 discusses identities in a setting of high tension with neighboring groups, and Buckser 2003 addresses dilemmas of Jewish identity in a setting where such tensions are all but absent. Crumbley 2000 explores notions of self and ethnicity among members of a black Sanctified Church whose ideology combines elements of African, Jewish, and Christian identities.
  620.  
  621. Boyarin, Jonathan. 1996. Thinking in Jewish. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  622. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  623. This introspective book of essays, written by an Orthodox Jewish anthropologist, explores the ways that religion and culture shape individual patterns of mind and emotion.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Buckser, Andrew. 2003. After the rescue: Jewish identity and community in contemporary Denmark. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  626. DOI: 10.1057/9781403976864Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. This study explores the development of Jewish identity in the wake of the dramatic rescue of the Danish Jews from Nazi roundups in 1943.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Crumbley, Deidre Helen. 2000. Also chosen: Jews in the imagination and life of a black Sanctified Church. Anthropology and Humanism 25.1: 6–23.
  630. DOI: 10.1525/ahu.2000.25.1.6Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  631. Crumbley discusses the ways that members of an African American Sanctified Church in Philadelphia understand themselves in relation to black, Jewish, and religious identities.
  632. Find this resource:
  633. Gans, Herbert J. 1994. Symbolic ethnicity and symbolic religiosity: Towards a comparison of ethnic and religious acculturation. Ethnic and Racial Studies 17.4: 577–592.
  634. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.1994.9993841Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  635. Gans applies his widely cited model of symbolic ethnicity to American religious acculturation, arguing that religious identities change in characteristic ways in modern societies.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Goldschmidt, Henry. 2006. Race and religion among the chosen peoples of Crown Heights. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
  638. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  639. Goldschmidt’s ethnography describes the complex tensions and relationships among Hasidic Jews and members of African American and Afro-Caribbean communities in New York’s Crown Heights neighborhood.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Selka, Stephen. 2007. Religion and the politics of ethnic identity in Bahia, Brazil. New World Diasporas. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
  642. DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813031712.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643. Selka explores the ways that race, religion, and ethnic identity have interacted in modern Brazil, focusing particularly on views of the Afro-Brazilian tradition known as Candomble.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Gender
  646.  
  647. The readings in this section examine the relationship between gender and religious action. Several examine religion’s role in imposing or contesting patriarchal social systems; Boddy 1989 and Callan 2008 show women using religious systems to express opposition to patriarchy, while Masquelier 2009 explores how complex that effort can be. Lester 2005 and Tuzin 1997 offer studies of the roles of religious institutions in fostering conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Peteet 1994 discusses the formation of rituals of gender identity within a conflict zone. Tedlock 2005 takes a directly activist approach to religion and gender, advocating for the “reclamation” of shamanism as a feminist spiritual path.
  648.  
  649. Boddy, Janice. 1989. Wombs and alien spirits: Women, men, and the Zār cult in northern Sudan. New Directions in Anthropological Writing. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
  650. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  651. Boddy’s ethnography of a healing cult in northern Sudan lays special emphasis on the role of trance possession as a medium for women’s political expression. The Zār cult, whose rites she explores in great depth, creates a forum for the expression of resistance both to patriarchal social formations and to external economic and religious pressures.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Callan, Alyson. 2008. Female saints and the practice of Islam in Sylhet, Bangladesh. American Ethnologist 35.3: 396–412.
  654. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00042.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  655. Callan argues that Islam cannot be understood simply as a system of patriarchy; at times, it can serve as a resource for women in conflicts with patriarchal political structures. She focuses on the experience of female saints in Bangladesh, who use their status to resist disempowering virilocal residence rules.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Lester, Rebecca J. 2005. Jesus in our wombs: Embodying modernity in a Mexican convent. Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity 5. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  658. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  659. Lester’s sensitive ethnography explores the ways that Catholic postulants in a Mexican convent incorporate ideas about femininity and bodily experience into the disciplines of the order.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Masquelier, Adeline. 2009. Women and Islamic revival in a West African town. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
  662. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663. This book describes the rise of and reaction to a charismatic Sufi preacher in a small town in Niger, focusing on the ways that women are affected by and react to the rise of reformist Islam.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Peteet, Julie. 1994. Male gender and rituals of resistance in the Palestinian intifada: A cultural politics of violence. American Ethnologist 21.1: 31–49.
  666. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1994.21.1.02a00020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  667. Peteet’s ethnography of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, portrays violent resistance to Israeli forces as an emerging ritual complex, one that increasingly defines notions of masculinity in the occupied territories.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The woman in the shaman’s body: Reclaiming the feminine in religion and medicine. New York: Bantam.
  670. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  671. Tedlock makes an energetic case for shamanism as a form of feminist consciousness, arguing that anthropological scholarship has systematically marginalized the feminine role in shamanic religion. While her unabashedly activist approach has drawn significant criticism, the influence of the book on feminist and spiritualist discourse has been powerful.
  672. Find this resource:
  673. Tuzin, Donald. 1997. The cassowary’s revenge: The life and death of masculinity in a New Guinea society. Worlds of Desire. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  674. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  675. Tuzin describes in rich detail the collapse of a men’s cult organization in highland New Guinea, and the crisis of masculinity and gender relations that ensues.
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Conversion
  678.  
  679. These studies exemplify a growing interest in anthropology in the study of religious conversion. Several offer collections of short studies of conversion in different cultures: Hefner 1993 focuses on Christian conversion, Pelkmans 2009 concentrates on post-socialist conversion in the former Soviet Union, while Buckser and Glazier 2003 draws from a range of religious traditions. Other studies focus on particular ethnographic settings. Viswanathan 1998 discusses the politics of conversion in the British Empire; McDougall 2009, on conversion to Islam in Melanesia; Cucchiari 1988, on conversion to Christianity in Sicily; Robbins 2004, on conversion to Christianity in Papua New Guinea; and Kravel-Tovi 2012, on conversion to Judaism in Israel.
  680.  
  681. Buckser, Andrew, and Stephen D. Glazier, eds. 2003. The anthropology of religious conversion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  682. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  683. This collection of ethnographic essays examines conversion in a variety of religious traditions, emphasizing the interplay between social and ideological aspects of the conversion experience.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Cucchiari, Salvatore. 1988. “Adapted for heaven”: Conversion and culture in western Sicily. American Ethnologist 15.3: 417–441.
  686. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1988.15.3.02a00010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  687. Cucchiari offers an unusually rich phenomenological account on Christian conversion, arguing for the value of paying attention to the conversion experience rather than its social and cultural correlates.
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Hefner, Robert W., ed. 1993. Conversion to Christianity: Historical and anthropological perspectives on a great transformation. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  690. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520078352.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  691. This influential collection of essays offered one of the first anthropological studies of conversion, focusing on the roles of globalization and modernization in the process.
  692. Find this resource:
  693. Kravel-Tovi, Michal. 2012. Rite of passing: Bureaucratic encounters, dramaturgy, and Jewish conversion in Israel. American Ethnologist 39.2: 371–388.
  694. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01370.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  695. Kravel-Tovi’s study of the dramaturgy of conversion procedures in Israel provides an excellent example of the complex relationship between conversion and institutional structures.
  696. Find this resource:
  697. McDougall, Debra. 2009. Becoming sinless: Converting to Islam in the Christian Solomon Islands. American Anthropologist 111.4: 480–491.
  698. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01157.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  699. McDougall’s ethnography focuses on understandings of sin and self among converts from evangelical Christianity to Islam in this Melanesian society.
  700. Find this resource:
  701. Pelkmans, Mathijs, ed. 2009. Conversion after socialism: Disruptions, modernisms, and technologies of faith in the former Soviet Union. New York: Berghahn.
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703. This fascinating collection presents eight ethnographic studies of religious conversion in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union.
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Robbins, Joel. 2004. Becoming sinners: Christianity and moral torment in a Papua New Guinea society. Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity 4. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  706. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  707. This sensitive ethnographic study of conversion among the Urapmin explores the moral conflicts between Christianity and traditional culture, while demonstrating the high degree of agency and innovation in the converts’ conceptions of their new faith.
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Viswanathan, Gauri. 1998. Outside the fold: Conversion, modernity, and belief. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
  710. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711. Viswanathan’s collection of essays presents conversion as an act of cultural resistance, especially in the context of the construction of identities in the British imperial orbit.
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