Synopses & Reviews
This comparative reader takes an anthropological approach to the study of religious beliefs and practices, both strange and familiar. The engaging articles on all key issues related to the anthropology of religion grab the attention of students, while giving them an excellent foundation in contemporary ideas and approaches in the field. The multiple authors included in each chapter represent a range of interests, geographic foci, and ways of looking at each subject. Divided into 10 chapters, this book begins with a broad view of anthropological ways of looking at religion and moves on to some of the core topics within the subject, such as myth, ritual, and the various types of religious specialties.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Anthropological Study of Religion 1. Clifford Geertz, Religion 2. Marvin Harris, Why We Became Religious and The Evolution of the Spirit World 3. Dorothy Lee, Religious Perspectives in Anthropology 4. Claude E. Stipe, Anthropologists Versus Missionaries: The Influence of Presuppositions *5. Pamela Moro, Thai Buddhism and the Popularity of Amulets in Anthropological Perspective Chapter 2: Myth, Symbolism, and Taboo 6. Scott Leonard and Michael McClure, The Study of Mythology 7. John Beattie, Nyoro Myth 8. Claude Levi-Strauss, Harelips and Twins: The Splitting of a Myth *9. Eric R. Wolf, The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol 10. Mary Douglas, Taboo 11. Mary Lee Daugherty, Serpent-Handling as Sacrament Chapter 3: Ritual 12. Victor W. Turner, Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage *13. Michael Atwood Mason, "I Bow My Head to the Ground": Creating Bodily Experience Through Initiation 14. Barbara G. Myerhoff, Return to Wirikuta: Ritual Reversal and Symbolic Continuity on the Peyote Hunt of the Huichol Indians 15. Roy A. Rappaport, Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations Among a New Guinea People *16. Thomas J. Csordas, A Handmaid's Tale 17. Horace Miner, Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Chapter 4: Shamans, Priests, and Prophets 18. Victor Turner, Religious Specialists *19. Piers Vitebsky, Shamanism 20. Michael Fobes Brown, Dark Side of the Shaman 21. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, Training for the Priesthood Among the Kogi of Colombia 22. Michael Barkun, Reflections After Waco: Millennialists and the State Chapter 5: Altered States of Consciousness and the Religious Use of Drugs *23. I. M. Lewis, Trance, Possession, Shamanism, and Sex *24. Sydney M. Greenfield, Hypnosis and Trance Induction in the Spirit Surgeries of Brazilian Spiritist Healer-Mediums 25. Mike Kiyaani and Thomas J. Csordas, On the Peyote Road 26. Peter T. Furst and Michael D. Coe, Ritual Enemas 27. Michael Harner, The Sound of Rushing Water *28. Scott Hutson, The Rave: Spiritual Healing in Modern Western Subcultures Chapter 6: Ethnomedicine: Religion and Healing 29. Arthur C. Lehmann, Eyes of the Ngangas: Ethnomedicine and Power in Central African Republic 30. L. A. Rebhun, Swallowing Frogs: Anger and Illness in Northeast Brazil 249 31. William Wedenoja, Mothering and the Practice of "Balm" in Jamaica *32. Anne F. Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 7: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Divination, and Magic 33. James L. Brain, An Anthropological Perspective on the Witchcraze 34. Naomi M. McPherson, Sorcery and Concepts of Deviance Among the Kabana, West New Britain 35. T. M. Luhrmann, The Goat and the Gazelle: Witchcraft 36. E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Consulting the Poison Oracle Among the Azande 37. Bronislaw Malinowski, Rational Mastery by Man of His Surroundings 38. George Gmelch, Baseball Magic Chapter 8: Ghosts, Souls, and Ancestors: Power of the Dead 39. Paul Barber, The Real Vampire 40. Karen McCarthy Brown, Vodou 41. Peter A. Metcalf, Death Be Not Strange 42. Stanley Brandes, The Cremated Catholic: The Ends of a Deceased Guatemalan Chapter 9: Old and New Religions: The Changing Spiritual Landscape 43. Anthony F. C. Wallace, Revitalization Movements 44. Alice Beck Kehoe, The Ghost Dance Religion 45. Peter M. Worsley, Cargo Cults 46. William F. Lewis, Urban Rastas in Kingston, Jamaica *47. Susan Friend Harding, Speaking Is Believing *48. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Islamic Law: The Foundation of Muslim Practice and a Measure of Social and Political Change Chapter 10: Religion as Global Culture: Migration, Media, and Other Transnational Forces 49. Homa Hoodfar, The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: Veiling Practices and Muslim Women *50. Penny Van Esterik, Ritual and the Performance of Buddhist Identity Among Lao Buddhists in North America 51. Mark Juergensmeyer, Religious Terror and Global War 52. Lisle Dalton, Eric Michael Mazur, and Monica Siems, Homer the Heretic and Charlie Church: Parody, Piety, and Pluralism in The Simpsons Glossary Bibliography Index