Focusing on more recent classical ethnographies, this important study provides a critical introduction to the social anthropology of religion. It covers all the major religious traditions that have been studied concretely by anthropologists--Shamanism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and its relation to African and Melanesian religions and contemporary Neopaganism. Treating religion as a social institution and not simply as an ideology or symbolic system, the book follows the dual heritage of social anthropology in combining an interpretative approach with sociological analysis.
Focusing on more recent classical ethnographies, this important study provides a critical introduction to the social anthropology of religion. It cove...
What is the cultural importance of insects? Why do we spend a good deal of time and money in the West trying to exterminate insects? How are human-insect relations far more subtle in other societies? From bathtub-invaders to protein-source, insects play a multi-faceted role that has not previously been recognized. To investigate this fully, Brian Morris spent years in Malawi. Here, as in many tropical regions, insects have a profound impact on agriculture, the household, disease, and hence on oral literature, music, art, folklore, recreation, and religion. Much of the complexity of...
What is the cultural importance of insects? Why do we spend a good deal of time and money in the West trying to exterminate insects? How are human-...
Ever since the emergence of human culture, people and animals have co-existed in close proximity. Humans have always recognized both their kinship with animals and their fundamental differences, as animals have always been a threat to humans' well-being. The relationship, therefore, has been complex, intimate, reciprocal, personal, and -- crucially -- ambivalent. It is hardly surprising that animals evoke strong emotions in humans, both positive and negative.
This companion volume to Morris' important earlier work, The Power of Animals, is a sustained investigation of the Malawi...
Ever since the emergence of human culture, people and animals have co-existed in close proximity. Humans have always recognized both their kinship ...
What is the cultural importance of insects? Why do we spend a good deal of time and money in the West trying to exterminate insects? How are human-insect relations far more subtle in other societies? From bathtub-invaders to protein-source, insects play a multi-faceted role that has not previously been recognized. To investigate this fully, Brian Morris spent years in Malawi. Here, as in many tropical regions, insects have a profound impact on agriculture, the household, disease, and hence on oral literature, music, art, folklore, recreation, and religion. Much of the complexity of...
What is the cultural importance of insects? Why do we spend a good deal of time and money in the West trying to exterminate insects? How are human-...
