This requires religion’s elements and workings to be described, which Geertz attempts to do: Within this process of the development of knowledge Geertz attempts to articulate the function of religious symbols, notably how “sacred symbols function within the cultural context.” Religion and religious activity are shaped by culture and it is important to approach the topic of religion as being an integral element to culture itself. Anthropologist Talal Asad suggests Geertz to have provided “the most influential, certainly the most accomplished, anthropological definition of religion to have appeared in the last two decades” (1).įor Geertz, the pathway to religion is culture which he defined as a “historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols” and “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life” (2). Anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) is a well-known name within Religion Studies for his understanding of religion being a “cultural system.” This he articulated in his essay Religion as a Cultural System (1966) which examined anthropological approaches to religion.
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