ABSTRACT
“Religion” is said tobe universal among humans, but that is a European (and Euro-American) label for a variety of customs that other societies may not separate out from the rest of their customs. “Religion” may be said to be a worldview, a habitus, what people recognize as reality. Our science is a way of seeing reality, that we define as different from religions in that science recognizes only this-world phenomena that any human could observe. Religions’ concept of reality likely includes beings or power normally invisible to most people, though felt by some. Anthropologists study how religious ideas and rituals can bond communities, or endorse war. Rites of passage––rituals marking stages of a person’s life––may be tied to a religion, or be secular, such as birthday observances. Because what we label “religion” can be recognized in all known natural human communities, we can suppose it was part of the lives of our ancestors for perhaps 100,000 years, but all religions change over the years and none are likely to represent an ancient belief or practice.
