After recently watching “The Cove” and a Mad Men episode titled “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” — a clever allusion to Ruth Benedict’s justly famous cultural study of Japan, I decided it was time to bone up on Japanese religions. Japan is a multi-faceted nation and getting your head around its history, culture and people [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Classifications of Religion'
Dolphins, Chimps & Japanese Religions
September 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Magic and Religion
Tags:Buddhisms·cetaceans·chimp abuse·chimp colonies·chimp experimentation·chimp research·chimpanzees·Confucianism·dolphins·Japan·Japanese·Japanese religion·Mad Men·magic·National Institute of Health·primitive religion·Robert Bellah·Ruth Benedict·Shintoism·syncretism·Taoism·The Chrysanthemum and the Sword·The Cove·Tokugawa Religion
Phylogeny of Religions
September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Sooner or later any serious student or historian of religion will encounter Jonathan Z. Smith, he of the infamous quip — “there is no data for religion. Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study.” A curious statement indeed coming from one of the most prominent historians of religion, whose entire career and oeuvre [...]
Tags:classification schemes·costly signaling·essentializing·F. Max Muller·group level selection·Imagining Religion: From Bablyon to Jonestown·increased fertility·Jonathan Z. Smith·moral glue·multilinear evolution·religious cartography·religious classification·religious history·religious phylogeny·religious taxonomy·ritual signaling·science of religion·social cohesion·unilinear evolution
African Witchcraft & American Religion
August 31st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Ritual and Religion
Over at Live Science, Benjamin Radford stereotypically reports — with no irony and little thought — that “Belief in Witchcraft Widespread in Africa” is prevalent:
A new Gallup poll found that belief in magic is widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with over half of respondents saying they personally believe in witchcraft. Studies in 18 countries show belief [...]
Tags:Africa·Africans·angels·Benjamin Radford·Christianity·demons·Gallup Poll·helplessness·Islam·Ivory Coast·lack of control·magic·propitiation·religiosity·sorcery·spirits·supernatural beings·supernatural forces·Uganda·witchcraft
Chimp Attacks & Non-Retribution
August 29th, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Evolution and Selection
A recent study in the American Journal of Primatology examined chimp attacks on humans in Guinea, West Africa. There were not many — only 11 attacks, all non-fatal, between 1995 and 2009. Because chimps are often subject to human predation and eaten as bushmeat, one might expect that such attacks would be followed by swift [...]
Tags:Aboriginal·Aborigines·bonobo·bushmeat·chimp attacks·chimpanzees·chimps·Emile Durkheim·Guinea·Inside the Minds of Animals·Jeffrey Kluger·Kanzi·Kimberly Hocking·last common ancestor·totem beliefs·totemism·totems·West Africa
Morality without God, Buddhism as Religion, and Christian Empire
August 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Morality and Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Power and Religion
Incredibly, there are three articles over at HuffPo Religion that I have recently bookmarked for brief discussion here. There are of course about ten others which reflect the liberal, progressive, ecumenical, and mystical view of religion adhered to by a tiny minority of people, and which will be of interest mostly to the highly educated [...]
Tags:Buddhist history·Christianity as state religion·Constantine·Constantine's conversion·Darwinism and the Moral Argument for God·Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche·early Christianity·empire·evolved morality·foragers·Fran de Waal·hunter-gatherers·Is Buddhism a Religion·Marc Hauser·Michael Ruse·moral code·morality·natural morality·non-religious morality·Paul Wagler·primates·privatization of religious belief·proto-morality·Rodney Stark·secular·Siddhartha·Talal Asad·westernized Buddhism
Triumph of the Texts: Religion as Word
July 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Methodology of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism
Nearly 5,500 years ago or about 3,500 BCE, the Sumerians began writing about supernatural matters; in a sense, this marks the origin of what most people today understand as “religion.” This relatively modern and provincially Western understanding of religion is on full display in Paul Raushenbush’s article introducing HuffPo Religion’s new series on religious texts [...]
Tags:Bhagavad Gita·books·Buddhist·category of religion·Christian presuppositions·doctrinal·Edward Said·essentializing·Harvey Whitehouse·Hindu·imagistic·Jonathan Z. Smith·non-written traditions·orientalism·Paul Raushenbush·religion as academic creation·religion as text·religion as writing·religions of the book·religious writings·scriptures·shamanisms·shamanist·shamans·Sumeria·Sumerians·texts·The Word·theologians·theology·transcendence·transcendent·Vedic·word·writing
