Anthropological Study Of Religion

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, the anthropological approaches of religion have been explored and recognized through theories and ideas of many anthropologists. To anthropologists, not only is religion been known as a “unified cultural system” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 24), but it is an intense collection of beliefs, cultural systems and world views. In addition, anthropological approaches of religion are studied by social scientists, such as sociologists, psychologists, political scientists and economists. In the nineteenth century, anthropological study of religion has been known from the works of Edward Burnett Tylor, Fredrich Max Muller, and James G. Fraser while Clifford J. Geertz and other anthropologists’ theories are

known in the twentieth century. To many social scientists, religion is known to exist in all societies; it is a “highly visible” concept and according to Raymond T. Firth, it is a “massive output of human enterprise” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 25). It centers around the ideas of beliefs and cannot be easily defined since it “has no single, unambiguous material referent” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 25).
Around the past four decades, anthropologists have struggled with the concepts between cultures from an emic, or insiders, perspective and etic, or outsiders, perspective and the thought of “defining religion.” No where is the tension more evident in the anthropological study of religion. Anthropological studies of religion are known to be “balanced, nuanced, and reflective/reflexive” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 25) in their approach to other cultures where religious beliefs and practises are a recognition of humankind’s resources. Throughout the nineteenth century, anthropologists have been more concerned on the “primitive” religions, where no “pure plays” exists in tribal religions and is very much influenced by major world religions. Anthropological studies of religion have been originated with theories of Max Muller, William Robertson Smith, Edward Burnett Tylor and James G. Frazer. These “armchair theorists” proposed that religions are comparative to study based on the rules of scientific methods and specific “methodological procedures” of religious beliefs and practises. At the same time, these men have struggled with issues regarding the beliefs, symbolic forms and relationships between belief and ritual of religion.
Fredrick Max Muller was best known for his interpretations and use of linguistic models for the study of world religion and debates with Edward B. Tylor about the origins of religion. He reasoned that religion has started with the human approach of natural phenomena and is the experience of the infinite, which is provoked by nature. To Muller, religion is understood as a “disease of language” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 28); he believed that myths would transform concepts of religion into stories and reality and god is mistakenly transformed into imagined personalities. Muller implied that the study of religion is related to the study of culture and has been criticized for thinking that religions are like languages, which is classified into “families.” Edward Burnett Tylor, who was the founder of British social anthropology, was the first to define culture, religion and explained the concept of animism. Tylor proposed a definition of religion that incorporates what he saw as the “deeper motives” of all people and claimed that the belief is “spiritual beings” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 28). Tylor insisted that the concept of animism is divided into two dogmas: the first dogma suggesting that the soul of the individual is capable of continued existence after death while the second dogma is concerned with other spirits and beliefs in souls and the afterlife.
Surprisingly, Tylor’s theories and ideas of religion have influenced other scholars, mainly Andrew Lang and James Frazer.

According to Frazer, magic has foreshadowed religion and represent a point of view that evolves around the principle that nature can be controlled by supernatural entities. Based on his theories of magic, he believed that magic comes in two forms: imitative magic, which is based on the the concept of “like influences like” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 30) and contagious magic, which is based on the hunch that when two objects come in contact, both would continue to influence each other. In addition, Frazer concludes that religion: appears whenever magical spells and enchantments do not work to get the desired results and shapes the evolution of science. Around the twentieth century, many anthropologists have conveyed first-hand observation research through people, which have changed the aspect of anthropology of religion. Most of the anthropological studies of religion evolve around the theories of Clifford J Geertz, whose beliefs of cultural systems has become a central focus on all definitions of religion in the twentieth

century.
Clifford J Geertz has found religion as a “cultural system” and the “process of religious syncretism” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p.

24). He was best known for his examination of the meaning of religious symbols and his study of religion as a “complex, literate societies” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 31). Geertz believed that religious symbols are a representation of the way things are modeled and serve as a guide for directing human activities and justifying the “ideas, values and lifestyles of society” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 31). In addition, Geertz interpret religion as “a system which acts to initiate a powerful and long-lasting moods and motivation in men” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 31) by expressing order and a realistic idea around moods and motivations. Geertz believes that the study of religion occurs in two stages: the first stage looks at the system of meanings incorporated within the religious symbols while the second stage relies on the systems to “social structures and psychological processes” (Beyer, Clarke, 2009, p. 31). Although Geertz theories and ideas were given much importance, there were a few critical effect on the anthropological study of religion: religion as a practical discipline, separation between the psychological and sociological approaches of culture and religion and the impacts of religious ideas to the

society.
Through the works of many theorists, such as Fredrich Max Muller, Levi-Strauss, Clifford J Geertz, Victor Turner, the study of symbolic forms becomes a main concept in the anthropological study of religion. Anthropologists have realized that there has been no anthropological theory of religion and no procedure for the study of religious beliefs and practises. In the late twentieth century, many exponents of anthropology of religion paid attention to local variants of major world religions and/or impacts of world religion in developing countries rather than isolated tribal groups. Anthropologists have noted that religions are highly dynamic and the role of religion in promoting social changes has been explored and recognized that religion is not only just a cultural system. It is the merge of cultural systems; all religions are understood best as products of “syncretism” and/or correspondence with outside cultures. In the late twentieth century, although symbolic approaches of religion have continued to dominate the field, few anthropologists have focused on the biological and experimental models of religion as well as became concerned with the concept of meaning. Since then, major anthropological studies have coped with religion in developing or the developed world.