How Jews think about and work with objects is the subject of this fascinating and original study of the interplay between material culture and Jewish thought. Ken Koltun-Fromm draws from philosophy,
Charisma and Myth combines an interdisciplinary examination of myth with the newest developments in the application of charisma theory to history and social life. Through scores of examples ranging fr
Through the ethnography of a Catholic community in Northeast Brazil, Maya Mayblin offers a vivid and provocative rethink of gendered portrayals of Catholic life. For the residents of Santa Lucia, life
Looking at religion from an evolutionary perspective, Kardong (biology, Washington State U.) updates and rewrites his previous book Origin of God (2004) to argue that religion was an evolutionary nece
In Social Memory in Ancient and Colonial Mesoamerica, Amos Megged uncovers the missing links in Mesoamerican peoples' quest for their collective past. Analyzing ancient repositories of knowledge, as well as social and religious practices, he uncovers the unique procedures and formulas by which social memory was communicated and how it operated in Mesoamerica prior to the Spanish conquest. He also explores how cherished and revived practices evolved, how they were adapted to changing circumstances, and how they helped various ethnic groups cope with the tribulations of colonization and Christianization. Megged's volume also suggests how social and cultural historians, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists can rethink indigenous representations of the past while taking into account the deep transformations in Mexican society during the colonial era.
While social scientists, beginning with Weber, envisioned a secularized world, religion today is forthrightly becoming a defining feature of life all around the globe. The book as a whole explores th
Despland (religion, Concordia U., Montreal) describes how French sociologist Roger Bastide (1898-1974) conducted a range of studies on the Afro-Brazilian religion that was vibrant in the northeast--es
Satan in America tells the story of America's complicated relationship with the devil. "New light" evangelists of the eighteenth century, enslaved African Americans, demagogic politicians, and modern
Generations X and Y are plugged into the contemporary world of consumption, popular culture, and the internet. These generations treat knowledge and belief as a more flexible concept, often focusing o
What is it about religion that appeals to people? Why do religions and religious beliefs persist in the face of increasing secularisation, harsh criticism and even political persecution? Robert Hinde
In the engaging style that made his book The Prayer of Jabez popular with millions around the world, Bruce Wilkinson is asking more life-changing questions: Why are experiences of the miraculous so ra
Working from the Province of the Special Territory of Yogyakarta in the south-central part of Java, Daniels (Hofstra U., US) examines the variety of local projections for desirable futures, whether de
King (sociology, Queen's College, Belfast) explores how people use the popular material culture of religion such as mass-produced statues, pictures, crosses, holy water fonts, beads, and crucifixes al
Six essays by Mauss, Henri Hubert, and Robert Hertz, all students or colleagues of sociology French pioneer Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) represent some of the earliest contributions to the sociology of
Ritual and the Sacred discusses some of the most important issues of modern socio-political life through the lens of a neo-Durkheimian perspective. Building on the main lesson of Durkheim's Elementary
In Society, Spirituality, and the Sacred, Swenson draws on both Weber's Charisma and Routinization of Charisma and Thomas O'Dea's Dilemmas of the Institutionalization of Religion to reveal how religio
Zafirovski (sociology, U. of North Texas) argues that the destiny, like the genesis, of the US is essentially embedded and and predicted by Calvinism, in the form of the Puritanism of its English-Amer
Key Thinkers in the Sociology of Religion takes a focused look at the foremost figures in the development of the field. From the groundbreaking work of Max Weber, right up to that of contemporary writ
