The recent release of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks has had several salutary effects, not the least of which is to demonstrate there is no such thing as a unified or essentialized “Muslim world” in which various countries whose citizens call themselves Muslims subordinate their conflicting interests to idealized religious goals. The “Muslim world,” in [...]
Tags:American Muslims·Christian world·Egypt·essentializing·idealized·Iran·Islam·Muqtedar Khan·Muslim nations·Muslim world·Pakistan·reified·Saudi Arabia·WikiLeaks
Having just finished Robert Lowie’s classic Indians of the Plains (1954), I thought it appropriate to comment briefly on chapter six, which is titled “Supernaturalism.”
Lowie begins by noting that Indians did not recognize the physical/metaphysical dichotomy that characterizes Western thought, but they “can and did react vehemently to perceptions that are wholly out of the [...]
Tags:Ake Hultkrantz·Apsaroke·Crow·ethnohistory·Indians·Indians of the Plains·Lakota·manitou·maxpe·Plains Indians·Raymond DeMallie·Robert Lowie·Sioux·supernaturalism·wakan·Winnebago
Our friend Lexington is pleased and puzzled by a new book on American religiosity which argues that despite great diversity, religion is a unifying force in America:
[I]t is pleasing to report that two social scientists, Robert Putnam of Harvard University and David Campbell of the University of Notre Dame, have just written a book that [...]
Tags:American Grace·American religion·American religiosity·Aunt Susan effect·Christianity·David Campbell·denominations·faith tradition·Lexington·nationalism·religious diversity·Robert Putnam·The Economist
Over at the Atlantic, Kenneth Brower has written a superb article on the brilliant iconoclast and physicist Freeman Dyson. He undoubtedly qualifies as a genius and one of the world’s leading scientists, which makes his anti-position on global warming either puzzling or quixotic.
One explanation for Dyson’s contrarian stance is that he sees environmentalists as religionists [...]
Tags:Avatar·David Brower·ecology·environmentalism·Ernesto Zedillo·Freeman Dyson·Gaia Hypothesis·global warming·James Lovelock·Kenneth Brower·nature worship·Sierra Club·Vatican·William Nordhaus
Just the other day, I commented on the origin of ritual and noted that Jonathan Z. Smith sees “the thrill of coincidence” as at least a partial explanation. Before rationalists dismiss this thrill as mere superstition, Smith also notes that the same kind of coincidence resides at the heart of scholarship:
The discovery that two events, [...]
Tags:Africa·Assembly of God·Catholics·charismatics·charms·coincidence·evangelicals·exorcism·Foursquare Gospel·Geoffrey MacDonald·Glimpses of African Belief·indigenous beliefs·Johann Hari·Jonathan Z. Smith·Massachusetts·mediums·pagans·Pentecostals·possession·psychics·ritual·rituals·rosaries·saints·Salem·secret interconnection·spells·spiritual tourism·spiritualism·superstitition·The Gathering·The Masque of Africa·The Vault·transubstantiation·V.S. Naipaul·voodoo·Wicca·witchcraft
The British government has, after a lengthy vetting process, recognized Druidism or Druidry as a religion and granted it charitable status. The commissioners in charge of such decisions apparently had a hard time getting their collective heads around the idea that not all religions are monotheistic, textual, dogmatic, priestly, hierarchical, institutionalized, or systematic.
As the Toronto [...]
Tags:Anglican·animism·animist·anthropomorphic deities·Celtic·Charity Commission·city-states·deism·divine kings·Druidism·Druidry·Druids·Gallic·Great Britain·human sacrifice·megalithic structures·Melanie Phillips·nature worship·neo-pagan·Neolithic Revolution·pagan·polytheism·Stonehenge·United Kingdom
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 [...]
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
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
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
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
