Synopses & Reviews
The anthropological study of religion is at a crossroads. While fewer textbooks on the anthropology of religion are published each year and much of what is available is decades old, religion is playing an increasingly prominent role in society. Scholars from many fields are reading anthropological works on religion with great interest, and such works are cited frequently in books and articles in a range of disciplines. Religion has been found in all societies studied by anthropologists and is one of the hallmarks of human creativity.
This reference book provides a much-needed overview of the most important topics and trends in the anthropology of religion. Chapters by expert contributors examine the varied manifestations of religion in diverse cultural contexts. Among the topics surveyed are shamanism, snake handling, rituals in particular cultural traditions, religion and altered states of consciousness, and the role of science in religion and anthropology. Chapters contain extensive documentation, and a bibliography concludes the volume.
Review
I was most satisified with Glazier's Handbook. In revealing the state of the anthropology of religion as it is, warts and all, this volume offers something to delight, and to offend, everyone. Any reader will learn something new from it while being challenged to ponder the familiar in new ways.Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Review
[Glazier] reveals the state of anthropology of religion as it is, warts and all. There is something here to offend everyone, and something to delight everyone, too. Most important, the cumulative reading of this Handbook will inform any reader of much that he/she did not know, and challenge him or her to ponder it again and again.Anthropology of Consciousness
Review
[P]ractical guide for professional anthropologists and graduate students preparing to undertake primary research in the anthropology of religion.Journal of the Academy of Religion
Synopsis
Chapters by expert contributors overview the most significant topics and trends in the anthropology of religion.
Synopsis
Religion has experienced growing importance in recent years, and interest in the anthropological study of religion has increased as well. This reference book offers a much-needed overview of the most significant topics and concerns in the field. Chapters by expert contributors examine such matters as snake handling, magic and ritual, shamanism, and the role of religion in particular cultures. Chapters contain extensive documentation, and a bibliography concludes the volume.
About the Author
STEPHEN D. GLAZIER is Professor of Anthropology and Graduate Faculty Fellow at the University of Nebraska.
Table of Contents
Introduction by Stephen D. Glazier
Looking at Religion Anthropologically
Reading "Snake Handling": Critical Reflections by Jim Birckhead
The Study of Religion in American Society by Melinda Bollar Wagner
Science, Religion, and Anthropology by James Lett
Thinking About Magic by Michael F. Brown
The Study of Ritual
Ritual and Current Studies of Ritual: Overview by Bobby C. Alexander
African Ritual by Mathias Guenther
Ritual Performance in India by Peter J. Claus
Ritual in East Asia: Japan by Mary Evelyn Tucker
Rituals Among Native North Americans by John A. Grim
Ritual in the United States by Madeline Duntley
Little and Great Traditions
The Anthropology of Islam by Gregory Starrett
Hinduism in Context: Approaching a Religious Tradition Through External Sources by Cynthia Keppley Mahmood
Buddhist Communities: Historical Precedents and Ethnographic Paradigms by Todd T. Lewis
The Pilgrimage to Magdalena by Mary I. O'Connor
Shamanism and Religious Consciousness
Altered States of Consciousness and Religious Behavior by Michael Winkelman
Shamanism by Joan B. Townsend
The Cycle of Meaning: Some Methodological Implications of Biogenetic Structural Theory by Charles D. Laughlin
The Origin of an Illusion by Stewart Guthrie
The Sacred Integration of the Cultural Self: An Anthropological Approach to the Study of Religion by Jacob Pandian
Select Bibliography
Index