E. B. Tylor and the Anthropology of Religion

PAPER PREPARED FOR THE 95th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER 21, 1996In light of the retrospective theme of this Annual Meeting, it is fitting that we pay homage to Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917). His appointment as Reader in Anthropology at Oxford in 1884 was the first academic appointment of an anthropologist qua anthropologist in the English-speaking world. And in his two volume classic, Primitive Culture (1871), Tylor, as Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952:150-151) observe, "was deliberately establishing a science by defining its subject matter." Yet although Tylor is not far removed from us in time, and while he writes in a language very similar to our own, we might nevertheless take note of Lesley Hartley's lines, "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there" (Prologue, The Go-Between, 1953). Despite Tylor's pleasing and seemingly lucid prose, his concerns, sensitivities, and insensitivities do not fully match ours. If we are to improve our scholarly understanding and appreciation of his efforts, we must try to learn as best we can what Tylor was against as well as what he advocated, and what he hoped to achieve within the context of the intellectual ambiance in which he operated

Atheism and the Apotheosis of Agency

This paper suggests that biological factors ought to be considered in attempting to explain distributions of theism and atheism across populations. In advancing our argument, we consider two recent efforts to explain atheism. The first, entered by William S. Bainbridge, is in the tradition of sociological theorizing. The second, proffered by Justin L. Barrett, is an example of theorizing within the framework of the recently developed cognitive science of religion. While these two approaches are different in important respects, they both opt for environmental explanations of atheism. We give reasons for regarding purely environmental explanations as unsatisfactory both with regard to atheism and with regard to some (but not all) expressions of religiosity. We offer, moreover, a suggested modification of Barrett's approach that introduces a hypothesized heritable biological argument so that it accounts for more of what we know about atheism

THE ROAD FROM EL PALMAR: CHANGE, CONTINUITY, AND CONSERVATISM IN A QUICHE COMMUNITY

Abstract not availabl

THE ROAD FROM EL PALMAR: CHANGE, CONTINUITY, AND CONSERVATISM IN A QUICHE COMMUNITY

Abstract not availabl