ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the origins of religion, relying in large measure on the summary provided by Edward Norbeck. It reviews some of the traditional theories about how and why religion originated. The chapter discusses an example of the seemingly intractable conflicts that beset the anthropological study of religion. Hindus, in contrast, perceive revelation as something incremental, capable of change and refinement over time, something in fact essentially evolutionary: is believed to appear among humans in many guises and in many different places and times. According to Hinduism, revelation preserves and uplifts, but it would fail if it became too revolutionary, if it stepped too far beyond the comprehension of its listeners. Norbeck's emotionalistic theories are ones that imply that "religion ultimately sprang from various affective or emotional states automatically evoked in man in the events of daily life"–those that propose that religion came into existence as a coalescence of the awe and fear early humans experienced.
