Understanding Religion : : Selected Essays / / Benson Saler.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• VerfasserIn: Saler, Benson,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Religion and Reason : Theory in the Study of Religion , 48
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (246 p.)

This volume consists of 12 essays published by the author between the years 1997-2007, a thirteenth paper read at a conference in 2006, and a long introduction prepared specifically for the collection. All of the essays deal with epistemological issues attendant on conceptualizing and defining religion, understanding what is likely to be involved in studying and discussing beliefs, and attempting to explain religion and religions by drawing on the contemporary cognitive and evolutionary sciences. The problem of how best to understand and represent the cultural sensitivities of others is addressed by considering the works of three predecessors, Edward Burnett Tylor, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, and A. Irving Hallowell.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Part I. Orientations -- Introduction -- The Ethnographer as Pontifex -- Part II. Homage to Three Pioneers -- E. B. Tylor and the Anthropology of Religion -- Culture in Phylogenetic Perspective: An Appreciation of the Contributions of A. I. Hallowell -- Part III. Beliefs -- On What We May Believe About Beliefs -- Finding Wayú Religion -- On Credulity -- Secondary Beliefs and the Alien Abduction Phenomenon -- Part IV. Studying Religion: Some Conceptual Issues -- Family Resemblance and the Definition of Religion -- Conceptualizing Religion: The Matter of Boundaries -- Comparison: Some Suggestions for Improving the Inevitable -- Biology and Religion: On Establishing a Problematic -- Toward a Realistic and Relevant „Science of Religion“ -- Backmatter