Premium
Anthropology of Religion
Author(s) -
Bowie Fiona
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00091.x
Subject(s) - ethnography , perspective (graphical) , anthropology , field (mathematics) , participant observation , epistemology , psychology , sociology , philosophy , art , mathematics , pure mathematics , visual arts
An anthropological approach to religion is characterised by engagement with the people studied through participant observation in the field. Although the ethnographer might be changed by this experience, the majority of anthropologists are constrained by academic and cultural conventions that prevent them from fully engaging with it. The challenge for anthropologists is to find a language that moves beyond the security of phenomenological or scientific approaches to religion, without becoming apologists for any one theological perspective.