ABSTRACT
Typologising religious organisations In simple, small-scale societies religion is integrated into the whole fabric of life to such an extent that in many languages there is no word to express the ideas covered by the concept of religion in English. If we disentangle the aspects of life that might be included in that concept, we find that most of them are part of the everyday activities of the individual. In such societies the only social organisations are those connected with kinship and territory. In so far as there are cults these are family cults connected with the family’s continuing relationship with its ancestors, and the ritual activities of such cults tend to be led by the head of the family. But even in such societies, specific roles related to ‘religious’ activities begin to emerge. The first such role is that of the Shaman who specialises in contact with spirits and in healing, both of which functions require skills and abilities that are not universally, or even widely, distributed in society.
