Ordered Universes
Subtitle: Approaches To The Anthropology Of Religion
By: Morton Klass
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 191
ISBN-13: 9780429493379
Subjects: Social sciences; Social Sciences; Sciences sociales
Description: "This innovative introduction to the anthropological study of religion challenges traditional categories and assumptions, arguing that too many of them reflect ethnocentric perspectives long discarded by contemporary anthropologists. The continued use of such terms as supernatural" and cult" inescapably communicates that what is under study is not as real or true as the beliefs of the observer. This conflict between the axioms of science and Western scholarship and those of the belief systems under study can be avoided with careful attention to terminology and underlying assumptions. Ordered Universes introduces and explores important anthropological issues, concerns, and findings about the institution of religion approached as a human cultural universal. Klass applies a non-ethnocentric perspective to each topic, relying on contemporary anthropological theories and using approaches deriving from other subdivisions of the discipline. Offering operational, non-judgmental definitions that avoid taking a position on whether the belief under study is true" and providing examples from ethnographic (and other) literature on religion, Klass explores values, beliefs, witchcraft, shamans, sacrifice, ghosts, revitalization, and many other concepts. In the final chapters, he considers the emergence of new religious movements and leaders and evaluates the continuing ideological conflict between proponents of scientistic, fundamentalist, and post-rationalist systems of thought."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1 At Play in the Sacred Grove  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 2 The Noisome Bog  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 3 The Definitional Daisy Chain  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 4 The Problem with Supernatural  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 5 An Operational Definition of Religion  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 6 The Value of Values  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 7 Assumptions, Beliefs, and Facts  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 8 Exploring Explanation: Why Do People Die?  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 9 Clerical Orders  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 10 What Kind of Shaman Would You Want?  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 11 Community and Conflict  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 12 On the Other Side of the Forest  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 13 The Incorporeal Dimension  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 14 Divining the Divine  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 15 Into the Land of Moriah  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 16 A Myth Is As Good  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 17 Wondrous Portals  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 18 When Worldviews Collide  -- Morton Klass; title: chapter 19 The Modern Hosts of Heaven -- Morton Klass.