Anthropology of Eastern Religions

The world’s “great” religions depend on traditions of serious scholarship, dedicated to preserving their key texts but also to understanding them and, therefore, to debating what understanding itself is and how best to do it. They also have important public missions of many kinds, and their ideas and organizations influence many other important institutions, including government, law, education, and kinship. Anthropology of Eastern Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies is a comparative survey of the world’s major religious traditions as professional enterprises and, often, as social movements. Documenting the principle ideas behind eastern religious traditions from an anthropological perspective, Murray J. Leaf demonstrates how these ideas have been used in building internal organizations that mobilize or fail to mobilize external support.

Leaf offers a careful, useful, and balanced study of the anthropology of Eastern and Western religions. Rather than focusing on the philosophy or theology of religion, these volumes discuss religious traditions' ideas about organized human life; the institutions, strategies, and organizations they create to facilitate community; and their constituencies. One volume treats early Vedantic, Jain, Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, and Japanese traditions and practices. The other volume investigates what generally are considered Western religious traditions because of their widespread influence in Europe and the Americas. Arctic, African, and American Indian cultures are omitted. Leaf economically sets up each volume with introductory chapters that have similar structures but tailor specific content to the volume at hand. Both volumes offer literature reviews rather than anthropological field observations. Eastern Religions begins with a reflection on Vedantan thinking: what 'all experience manifests, and that cannot in any way be shaped or injured by experience.' Next, Leaf offers a philosophical discussion of the Four Noble Truths, right knowledge, rebirth, and organizations before taking up the Buddhist traditions that flowed from Siddhartha's experiences. The discussion of Hinduism focuses on sociological/anthropological concerns, including the Laws of Manu, caste, and property rights, before turning to the gods and bhakti (the guru-disciple relationship). Leaf discusses violence in connection with the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad-Gita. He identifies Sikhism (the Indian religion he knows best) as the most vital of the Indian religions; discusses Sikh organizations, gurdwaras, and institutions; and describes Sikh ceremonies. The discussion of Taoism is confined to beliefs, and Buddhism is treated only briefly. Chinese legalism is subsumed under law, control, and legitimacy. The equally ambitious volume on Western religions describes the backgrounds to medieval and modern Western culture, then moves on to Judaism (from the Bible to the present), early Christianity, Islam, and later Christianity. . . .Leaf writes for a general university-type audience, and does not presuppose knowledge of the history of any of the Western religions. His discussion of African American churches reveals his in-depth knowledge of socioeconomic issues. Both volumes include photographs, some by the author. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students; general readers.

Murray J. Leaf is professor of anthropology and political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas.