Selected Readings in the Anthropology of Religion: Theoretical and Methodological Essays (Contributions to the Study of Anthropology)

Over the last four decades, anthropologists have grappled with the dialectical relationship between the examination of cultures from the emic, or insider, perspective, and the etic, or outsider, perspective. Nowhere is this creative tension more evident than in the anthropological study of religion. In this volume, anthropologists and religious studies scholars come to terms not only with a landscape that has shifted fundamentally, but a landscape that is still shifting. Essays in this collection raise new and important issues for the anthropological study of religion in new and important ways. In intensely personal essays, a number of contributors address two fundamental concerns in the study of religion: (1) how should anthropologists deal with the beliefs and practices of others?, and (2) how should anthropologists deal with their own religious backgrounds and beliefs as these may affect their understanding of the beliefs and practices of others? A partial resolution to both questions is necessary before the anthropological study of religion can advance to a higher level.