ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the religious lives of a broad range of human communities from an anthropological perspective. The holistic nature of anthropology is seen in the various divisions of the field. Traditional anthropologists speak of four-fields anthropology. These four fields are physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology. The goal of anthropology is to study the broad range of human beliefs and behaviors, to discover what it means to be human. The holistic approach sees human behavior as a complex set of interacting behaviors and ideas. Religion is not separated out from other dimensions of life but is fully integrated into the fabric of beliefs and behavior. The book describes five approaches that anthropologists have used to study religion: evolutionary, Marxist, functional, interpretive, and psychosocial.
