Religion, Anthropology, and Cognitive Science

Part of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series, this book examines longstanding debates in the anthropology of religion concerning the connections between ritual and meaning, belief, politics, emotion, development, and gender. But it examines these 'old' topics from a radically new perspective: that of the cognitive science of religion. As such the volume identifies potential solutions to established problems but it also sets out a program for future research in the field. The volume includes a substantial introduction from Harvey Whitehouse and James Laidlaw who highlight the connections between key issues in the history of religious anthropology and the latest findings of scientific psychology. This volume, they argue, presents us with potential solutions to old problems but also with a series of new and exciting challenges.

Harvey Whitehouse is a professor of social anthropology at Oxford University and a professorial fellow of Magdalen College. James Laidlaw is a professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, England.