ABSTRACT
It is still commonplace to find scholars of religion who maintain that any imposition from outside risks nullifying the authentic meanings and disclosures of those understood to be religious insiders. Classification is every bit as important as definition, in this process of intellection, if by the former we mean not just naming but also devising a system that makes it possible to decide that the items of the world have relationships with each other. Classification has a long history—as long, one could argue, as there has been human beings intent on making claims about their world and the items within it. Classification is closely linked to basic, socially formative acts, making it hardly the innocent activity that it is sometimes taken to be. In the study of religion, the interest to group what one considered like with like, in distinction from that which was assumed to be different, dates to the earliest period in the field’s history.
