ENGLISH

Cognitive Aspects of Religious Symbolism

By Pascal Boyer

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
1993
ISBN
052143288X, 9780521432887
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (2068787 bytes)
Pages
256\256
Time added
2014-05-12 16:32:57

Description

How are religious ideas presented, acquired and transmitted? Confronted with religious practices, anthropologists have typically been content with sociological generalizations, informed by vague, intuitive models of cognitive processes. Yet the modern cognitive theories promise a fresh understanding of how religious ideas are learnt; and if the same cognitive processes can be shown to underlie all religious ideologies, then the comparative study of religions will be placed on a wholly new footing. The present book is a contribution to this ambitious programme. In closely focused essays, a group of anthropologists debate the particular nature of religious concepts and categories, and begin to specify the cognitive constraints on cultural acquisition and transmission.

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