RLG200H1 Study Guide - Participant Observation, Ethnography, Opiate
Document Summary
Question 3: anthropology of religion/ethnography of religion, the definition of anthropology of religion is to study religions as human cultures. It is also referred to as ethnography for this reason. However, this anthropology does not only concern itself with religions that are big enough to be called. For example, the readings about possession often begin by talking about the broader cultural, social, and family structures of a society before talking about what possession means in that particular society. Lemieux says, anthropology of religion also differentiates between ideals of religion and lived experience: one of the risks in the anthropology religion is projecting one"s own religious bias onto the research. For example, most early anthropologists of religion were extremely christian-centric, and very much othered non-western religions. Additionally, as lemieux mentioned, many ethical issues come up in ethnographic research. For example, an observer may (unintentionally) inappropriately interfere in religious functions while doing participant- observation.
