Melford Spiro
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Melford Spiro
Who was he? What did he write about.
Notes
Defines "believe in superhuman beings and in their power to assist or to harm" as a "core variable" in any definition of religion. [1] Thus communism (sports) is not a religious system because it has no reference to superhuman beings.
..."'religion' as 'an institution consisting of culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings'. I should like to examine these variables separately."[2]
"Religion has the same methodological status as other cultural systems; i.e. religious variables are to be explained by the same explanatory schemata- historical, structural, functional, and causal" [3]
Citation and Legal
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Footnotes
- ↑ Spiro, Melford E. “Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation.” In Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, edited by Michael Banton, 85–125. Oxon: Routledge, 2004. p. 94
- ↑ Spiro, Melford E. “Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation.” In Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, edited by Michael Banton, 85–125. Oxon: Routledge, 2004. p. 96.
- ↑ Spiro, Melford E. “Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation.” In Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, edited by Michael Banton, 85–125. Oxon: Routledge, 2004. p. 97.