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Cultures of belief

Mair, Jonathan (2013) Cultures of belief. Anthropological Theory, 12 (4). pp. 448-466. ISSN 1463-4996. E-ISSN 1741-2641. (doi:10.1177/1463499612469588) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:57897)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1463499612469588

Abstract

In popular thought about the meaning of religion, as well as established debates in anthropology, religious belief is interpreted as either a commitment to a clear set of propositions, or as a non-literal, symbolic, ethical or social commitment. Anthropologists have tended to support the latter of these positions, so much so that this can now be seen as the ‘anthropological’ position; it is also characteristic of the view of scholars in related disciplines, such as religious studies. This article argues for a third possibility: that religious (and other) believers are often engaged in complex, reflexive practices that stipulate specific cognitive and non-cognitive relationships to propositional content. This is demonstrated with reference to contemporary Buddhism in Inner Mongolia, China. The author argues that the existence of such cultures of belief demonstrates there is a need for a systematic anthropological theory of belief and suggests some sources that may contribute to its formulation

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/1463499612469588
Uncontrolled keywords: Belief, Buddhism, China, cognition, Inner Mongolia, religion
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Funders: [UNSPECIFIED] St John's College, Cambridge
Depositing User: Jonathan Mair
Date Deposited: 04 May 2017 09:22 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:23 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/57897 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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