Ecology, Meaning, and Religion

by Roy A. Rappaport, Ruth Terrill (Artist)

"Two enterprises have proceeded in anthropology since ts earliest days. One, objective in its aspirations and inspired by biological disciplines, seeks explanation and is concerned to discover laws and causes. The other, subjective in its orientation and influenced by philosophy, linguistics, and the humatities, attempts interpretation and seeks to elucidate meanings. I take any raditcal separation of the two to be misguided, for the relationship between tem, with all of its difficulty, ambiguity, and tension, is a reflection of, or metaphor for, the condition of a species that lives in terms of meanings in a physical world devoid of intrinsic meaning but subject to causal law. The concept of adaptatioon when applied to human society must take account of meaning as well as cause, and of the complex dynamic of their relationship." -from the book.

Genres: Anthropology

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Roy A. Rappaport was an American anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.

Reviews

[Tom Uytterhoeven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Rappapport does not offer a general theory of religion in this book, I think anyone interested in religious studies could benefit from reading his essays. Dating from 1979, Rappaport obviously does not use current evolutionary approaches to culture. But that does not mean that his treatment of e.g. function and meaning of ritual, and how both relate to each other does not offer insights that can trigger your own thinking about religion and culture in general, on the contrary!