Conceptualizing Religion: Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories | BERGHAHN BOOKS
Join our Email List Berghahn Books Logo

berghahn New York · Oxford

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
Browse
Conceptualizing Religion: Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories

View Table of Contents


Email Newsletters

Sign up for our email newsletters to get customized updates on new Berghahn publications.

Click here to select your preferences

Conceptualizing Religion

Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories

Benson Saler

312 pages, bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-57181-219-3 $34.95/£27.95 / Pb / Published (December 1999)


View CartYour country: - edit Recommend to your LibraryAvailable in GOBI®

Reviews

"In this study, the author displays an astonishing knowledge of the field, an outstanding command of the literature and a most remarkable width of scope."  · The Journal of Indo-European Studies

"... a timely and useful addition to current discussions on the topic."  · American Anthropologist

"This is the best book on conceptualizing religion that I have come across for many years. All issues related to the definition of religion are dealt with extensively and in depth, without losing sight of the contribution of the author himself."  · Bijdragen, tijdschrift voor filosofie en theologie

Description

How might we transform a folk category - in this case religion - into a analytical category suitable for cross-cultural research? In this volume, the author addresses that question. He critically explores various approaches to the problem of conceptualizing religion, particularly with respect to certain disciplinary interests of anthropologists. He argues that the concept of family resemblances, as that concept has been refined and extended in prototype theory in the contemporary cognitive sciences, is the most plausible analytical strategy for resolving the central problem of the book. In the solution proposed, religion is conceptualized as an affair of "more or less" rather than a matter of "yes or no," and no sharp line is drawn between religion and non-religion.

Benson Saler is Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University and a former Interim Vice PResident of the Anthropology of Religion Section of the American Anthropological Association. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, and the United States. His current research is largely dircted to certain aspects of "popular culture" in the United States.

Subject: Anthropology of ReligionTheory and Methodology


Contents

Back to Top



Library Recommendation Form

Dear Librarian,

I would like to recommend Conceptualizing Religion Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories for the library. Please include it in your next purchasing review with my strong recommendation. The RRP is: $34.95

I recommend this title for the following reasons:

BENEFIT FOR THE LIBRARY: This book will be a valuable addition to the library's collection.

REFERENCE: I will refer to this book for my research/teaching work.

STUDENT REFERRAL: I will regularly refer my students to the book to assist their studies.

OWN AFFILIATION: I am an editor/contributor to this book or another book in the Series (where applicable) and/or on the Editorial Board of the Series, of which this volume is part.