“Throughout the term, we saw that different Anthropologists make use of symbol (or, more broadly, the notion of meaning) as an important theoretical concept to understand religion & ritual. CRITICALLY discuss the different usages of the notion of symbol/meaning in the anthropology of religion.

Essay Title:
“Throughout the term, we saw that different Anthropologists make use of symbol (or, more broadly, the notion of meaning) as an important theoretical concept to understand religion & ritual. CRITICALLY discuss the different usages of the notion of symbol/meaning in the anthropology of religion.

This essay MUST be double-spaced, using HYPERLINKS within the text that correspond to VALID references as a footnote at the bottom of each page.

The bibliography DOES NOT count towards the words count.

ALL references must be done in the HARVARD style.

You must talk about anthropologist Malinowski’s opinions on “religion, magic and science”, Robin Horton (“patterns of thought in Africa and the West” book.

Also – The Durkheimian Perspective (“Why do people perform magical/religious behaviours” as ‘symbolic functionalism’)…you MUST use the following quote from Durkheim (In Lessa, pg 29):

“A religion is a unifying system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite, into one single-moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them”

Please also mention Evans-Pritchard “Theories of primitive Religion”

Also – Social Transmission Hypothesis (mention Radcliffe-Brown)

Malinowski “symblic-functionalism”)

Symblolic Functionalism of Victor Turner (eg the dominant symbols in Ndembu rituals.

Also – ‘The structuralist analysis of myth’ from Claude Levi-Strauss

Also – Religion as a cultural system – Clifford Geertz

Finally – ‘The ritual form hypothesis’ from Thomas Lawson and Robert McCawley

Please keep in touch with me, I can provide a certain level of assistance.

This essay is classed as “Extended” so the length of words comes secondary to the depth of detail and critique it should contain in the forms of discussion and argument etc.

Thanks in advance.

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