ABSTRACT
Tracing the history of the study of religion has resulted in two findings of importance for our theory. One is that a religion seems to be linked to the structures and life of its society, perhaps as a system of signs and practices intertwined with other patterns of activity that affect or describe the way a people lives together. A second is that myths and rituals have come into view as the two primary human preoccupations that we have thought of as religious. This provides us with data for further investigation, and with a focus upon the significance of both myths and rituals as social constructions and practices. We now need to find some links between myths and rituals and social formations. Only then will it be possible to work out a social theory of religion and explore the questions of why and how religions matter.
