Cover: Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions, from Harvard University PressCover: Creation of the Sacred in PAPERBACK

Creation of the Sacred

Tracks of Biology in Early Religions

Product Details

PAPERBACK

Print on Demand

$37.00 • £32.95 • €33.95

ISBN 9780674175709

Publication Date: 01/13/1998

Short

272 pages

6 x 9 inches

World

Add to Cart

Media Requests:

Related Subjects

  • Preface
  • 1. Culture in a Landscape: Situating Religion
    • Beyond Culture
    • Sociobiology?
    • A Common World: Reduction and Validation
  • 2. Escape and Offerings
    • Finger Sacrifice
    • Biology, Fantasy, and Ritual
    • Castration and Circumcision
    • Scapegoats
    • Life for Life
  • 3. The Core of a Tale
    • “Caught up in Tales”
    • The Propp Sequence: The Quest
    • From Biological Programs to Semantic Chains
    • The Shaman’s Tale
    • The Initiation Tale: The Maiden’s Tragedy
  • 4. Hierarchy
    • The Awareness of Rank
    • Rituals of Submission
    • The Strategy of Praise
    • Two-Tiered Power
    • The Language of Power: The Envoy
  • 5. Guilt and Causality
    • Religious Therapy and the Search for Guilt
    • Present Sufferings
    • The Foundation of Cults
    • The Mediators: Risks and Opportunities
    • Explanatory Models: Fetters, Wrath, Pollution
  • 6. The Reciprocity of Giving
    • Le don in Perspective
    • Giving in Religion
    • Genealogy of Morality?
    • Failing Reciprocity: Religious Criticism
    • Failing Reciprocity: The Facts of Ritual
    • Gift and Sacrifice
    • Aversion and Offerings: From Panic to Stability
  • 7. The Validation of Signs: A Cosmos of Sense
    • Accepting Signs: Divination
    • Decision through Signs: The Ordeal
    • Creating Signs: Territory and Body
    • Language Validated: The Oath
  • Conclusion
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

Recent News

Black lives matter. Black voices matter. A statement from HUP »

From Our Blog

The Burnout Challenge

On Burnout Today with Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter

In The Burnout Challenge, leading researchers of burnout Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter focus on what occurs when the conditions and requirements set by a workplace are out of sync with the needs of people who work there. These “mismatches,” ranging from work overload to value conflicts, cause both workers and workplaces to suffer…