Melford Spiro
Caution. This article/definition is in draft form and at this time may constitute no more than rough notes, reminders for required content, or absolutely nothing at all. Content is subject to revision.
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]
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.
