Anthropology of Belief 2: Ethnography of Belief
In this final lecture, we looked at exceptionalist and ethnographic approaches to belief.
Exceptionalist Approaches: After considering Needham's arguments in more detail, we looked at Malcolm Ruel's arguments in 'Christians as Believers'. Ruel argued that the meaning of 'belief' has changed radically through the history of Christianity, identifying 4 distinct stages. If we acknowledge the historicity of the Christian roots of the English term 'belief', he concluded, we must avoid trying to apply it to other contexts as if it were a universal.
Ethnographic approaches: Beginning with Asad's call to pay attention to the role of power in creating the conditions of possibility of historical forms of belief, we looked in detail at Veyne's description of different modalities of belief, corresponding as he saw it to different regimes or programmes of truth, in the context of classical myth.
Finally, I thought out the consequences of the ethnographic approach to belief by applying it to the context of Buddhism in Inner Mongolia, northern China.
| File | Description | File size |
|---|---|---|
 Anthropology of Belief - Lecture 2 - Presentation | Anthropology of Belief 2: Ethnographic Approaches to Beliefs | 658 Kb |
| Anthropology of Belief - Lecture 2 - Handout | Anthropology of Belief 2: Ethnographic Approaches to Beliefs | 83 Kb |