Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Shamanism
- 2 Buddhism and Spirit-Cults
- 3 Islam and Popular Religion
- 4 Hinduism and New Religious Movements
- 5 Christianity and Religion in Africa
- 6 African-American Religions
- 7 Religions in Melanesia
- 8 Neopaganism and the New Age Movement
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Shamanism
- 2 Buddhism and Spirit-Cults
- 3 Islam and Popular Religion
- 4 Hinduism and New Religious Movements
- 5 Christianity and Religion in Africa
- 6 African-American Religions
- 7 Religions in Melanesia
- 8 Neopaganism and the New Age Movement
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
I have been teaching a course on the Anthropology of Religion at Goldsmiths' College, off and on, for almost thirty years. My writing of Anthropological Studies of Religion was in fact motivated by a felt need for an introductory text on the subject, even though I knew that some elitist Oxbridge scholars held such texts in general disdain. Indeed, one well-known anthropologist severely rebuked me for even teaching anthropology as a subsidiary subject at Goldsmiths, insisting that anthropology could be taught adequately only at a postgraduate level. Having failed my eleven-plus, I left school at the age of fifteen to work in an iron foundry, and, failing to get into a university because I lacked any ‘A’ levels, I have always found such elitist attitudes quite deplorable. When, along with Jane Hoy of the University of London-Extra-Mural Department, I initiated a Certificate of Anthropology, supported by my colleagues at Goldsmiths' College, I found great difficulty in convincing my anthropological colleagues at other universities that the certificate had any value as an access course. Typically, more than a decade later, when academics had discovered that anthropology was being widely taught outside of universities, a resource guide was published, Discovering Anthropology, that completely ignored these earlier initiatives. It is worth noting also that, because of these elitist attitudes, anthropology is the only university discipline that is not a part of the school curriculum, even though Britain is a multicultural society!
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religion and AnthropologyA Critical Introduction, pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005