Preface to Second Edition xi General Introduction 1 Part I The Context of Understanding and Debate 19 Opening Frameworks 21 Introduction 21 1 Religion in Primitive Culture 23Edward Burnett Tylor 2 The Elementary Forms of Religious Life 34Emile Durkheim 3 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 48Max Weber 4 Religion as a Cultural System 57Clifford Geertz Skeptical Rejoinders 77Introduction 77 5 Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough 79Ludwig Wittgenstein 6 Religion, Totemism and Symbolism 82W. E. H. Stanner 7 Remarks on the Verb “To Believe” 90Jean Pouillon 8 Christians as Believers 97Malcolm Ruel 9 The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category 110Talal Asad Part II Poiesis: The Composition of Religious Worlds 127 Signs and Symbols 129Introduction 129 10 The Logic of Signs and Symbols 131Susanne K. Langer 11 The Problem of Symbols 139E. E. Evans-Pritchard 12 On Key Symbols 151Sherry B. Ortner 13 The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol 160Eric R. Wolf Structure, Function, and Interpretation 167 Introduction 167 14 Myth in Primitive Psychology 168Bronislaw Malinowski 15 Folk Dialectics of Nature and Culture 176Marshall Sahlins 16 Land Animals, Pure and Impure 183Mary Douglas 17 A Jivaro Version of Totem and Taboo 196Claude Lévi-Strauss 18 Text-Building, Epistemology, and Aesthetics in Javanese Shadow Theatre 206Alton L. Becker Moral Inversions and Spaces of Disorder 225Introduction 225 19 The Winnebago Trickster Figure 226Paul Radin 20 Witchcraft and Sexual Relations: An Exploration in the Social and Semantic Implications of the Structure of Belief 238Raymond C. Kelly 21 The Politics and Poetics of Transgression 253Peter Stallybrass and Allon White Conceptualizing the Cosmos 265Introduction 265 22 Closure and Multiplication: An Essay on Polynesian Cosmology and Ritual 267Alfred Gell 23 Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism 280Eduardo Viveiros de Castro Part III Praxis: Religious Action 299 The Movement in Ritual: Emergence 301Introduction 301 24 The Control of Experience: Symbolic Action 302Godfrey Lienhardt 25 Form and Meaning of Magical Acts 311Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah 26 Liminality and Communitas 326Victor Turner Gender, Subjectivity, and the Body 341 Introduction 341 27 “Jewish Comes Up in You from the Roots” 342Barbara Myerhoff 28 Fate in Relation to the Social Structure 350Meyer Fortes 29 Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience 356Gananath Obeyesekere 30 Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: The Cultural Therapeutics of Possession and Trance 368Janice Boddy 31 The Poetics of Time in Mayan Divination 386Dennis Tedlock What Ritual Does: The Foundations of Order 397 Introduction 397 32 The Disconnection between Power and Rank as a Process 398Maurice Bloch 33 Enactments of Meaning 410Roy A. Rappaport Part IV Historical Dynamics: Power, Modernity, and Change 429 Capitalism, Colonialism, Christianity, and Conflict 431 Introduction 431 34 New Heaven, New Earth 432Kenelm Burridge 35 The Genesis of Capitalism amongst a South American Peasantry: Devil’s Labor and the Baptism of Money 447Michael Taussig 36 The Colonization of Consciousness 464John and Jean Comaroff 37 Convicted by the Holy Spirit: The Rhetoric of Fundamental Baptist Conversion 479Susan F. Harding 38 On Being Shege in Kinshasa: Children, the Occult and the Street 495Filip De Boeck Religious Ethics and Politics in the State, Public Sphere, and Transnational Scene 507Introduction 507 39 Civil Religion in America 509Robert N. Bellah 40 Shamanic Practices and the State in Northern Asia: Views from the Center and Periphery 519Caroline Humphrey 41 “Using the Past to Negate the Present”: Ritual Ethics and State Rationality in Ancient China 533Mayfair Mei-hui Yang 42 Passional Preaching, Aural Sensibility, and the Islamic Revival in Cairo 544Charles Hirschkind 43 Moral Landscapes: Ethical Discourses among Orthodox and Diaspora Jains 560Anne Vallely 44 Candomblé in Pink, Green and Black: Re-scripting the Afro-Brazilian Religious Heritage in the Public Sphere of Salvador, Bahia 573Mattijs van de Port 45 Martyr vs. Martyr: The Sacred Language of Violence 590Galit Hasan-Rokem Afterword 597 46 Evidence and Presence, Spectral and Other 598Stephan Palmié Part V Research Tools 611 A Guide to the Literature 613 Bibliography 630 Index 673

In the second edition of the highly acclaimed Reader in the Anthropology of Religion, Michael Lambek collects some of the most significant classic and contemporary writings on the subject, creating an unparalleled guide to the past, present, and future of the field. Including nine additional selections, among them classic pieces by Pouillon, Burridge, and Meyerhoff, as well as more contemporary work by Harding, De Boeck, and Palmié, this volume examines numerous aspects of religion in a diversity of cultures, and expands upon the idea of what we mean by 'religion', linking it to some of the broader questions of culture and politics. Lambek begins with a general introduction to familiarize the reader with the subject matter, and then prefaces each selection with helpful contextual remarks and suggestions for further reading. Additionally, the inclusion of research tools and an extensive bibliography lends unsurpassed accessibility to this text.

"A delicious smorgasbord of writings on a variety of religious traditions by scholars both well-known and emergent. This book belongs in the collection of every serious student of religion."—Mari Womack, University of California, Los Angeles "A rich selection of both core texts and supplemental exemplars. I recommend it."—William H. Swatos, Jr., Baylor University "A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion is an excellent resource for students in anthropology and religious studies, demonstrating a range of classical as well as more recent approaches and debates. It would work equally well as a course reader and as a reference work to extend a particular aspect or topic in the anthropology of religion."—Fiona Bowie, University of Bristol

Part I: The Context of Understanding and Debate:. Part II: Poiesis: The Composition of Religious Worlds:. Part III: Praxis: Religious Action:. Part IV: Historical Dynamics: Power, Modernity, and Change:. Part V: Research Tools: