Dimitris Xygalatas - Mental Culture: Classical Social Theory and the Cognitive Science of Religion

MENTAL CULTURE

Religion, Cognition and Culture

Series Editors: Jeppe Sinding Jensen and Armin W. Geertz, Aarhus University

This series is based on a broadly conceived cognitive science of religion. It explores the role of religion and culture in cognitive formation and brings together methods, theories and approaches from the humanities, social sciences, cognitive sciences, psychology and the neurosciences. The series is associated with the Religion, Cognition and Culture (RCC) research unit at the Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University (www.rcc.au.dk).

The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria
Dimitris Xygalatas

Mental Culture: Classical Social Theory and the Cognitive Science of Religion
Edited by Dimitris Xygalatas and William W. McCorkle Jr

Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture
Edited by Armin W. Geertz

Past Minds: Studies in Cognitive Historiography
Edited by Luther H. Martin and Jesper Srensen

Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture: Image and Word in the Mind of Narrative
Edited by Armin W. Geertz and Jeppe Sinding Jensen

Mental Culture

Classical Social Theory and the Cognitive Science of Religion

Edited by

Dimitris Xygalatas and William W. McCorkle Jr

First published in 2013 by Acumen

Published 2014 by Routledge

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Editorial matter and selection Dimitris Xygalatas and William W. McCorkle Jr, 2013.

Individual essays individual contributors, 2013

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ISBN: 978-1-84465-664-6 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-84465-742-1 (paperback)

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Contents

William W. McCorkle Jr and Dimitris Xygalatas

Robert McCauley

Stewart Guthrie

Jason Slone

Harvey Whitehouse

Ann Taves

Konrad Talmont-Kaminski

Joseph Bulbulia

Gordon Ingram

Tanya M. Luhrmann

Pascal Boyer

Armin W. Geertz

Edward Slingerland

Luther H. Martin and Ilkka Pyysiinen

Pascal Boyer is Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory at Washington University, St. Louis. His publications include Religion Explained (2001) and Tradition as Truth and Communication (2006).

Joseph Bulbulia teaches in the Religious Studies Programme at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and publishes in psychology, philosophy and evolutionary religious studies.

Armin W. Geertz is Professor in the History of Religions at the Department of Culture and Society, Section for the Study of Religion, and Chair of the Religion, Cognition and Culture research unit (RCC), Aarhus University, Denmark. His publications in the cognitive science of religion range from articles and chapters on evolutionary theory, atheism, the neurobiology of prayer and introductions to the cognitive science of religion. He is co-editor of Acumens Religion, Cognition and Culture series and senior co-editor of Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Stewart Elliott Guthrie is Professor Emeritus at Fordham University. His publications include A Cognitive Theory of Religion (1980), A Japanese New Religion: Rissh Ksei-kai in a Mountain Hamlet (1988) and Faces in the Clouds (1993).

Gordon Ingram is a Lecturer in Psychology at Bath Spa University. He has published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology.

Tanya Marie Luhrmann is the Watkins University Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department. Her publications include Of Two Minds (2000) and When God Talks Back (2012).

Luther H. Martin is Professor Emeritus of Religion at the University of Vermont. His publications include The Academic Study of Religion During the Cold War: East and West (2001) and Theoretical Frameworks for the Study of Graeco-Roman Religions (2003). He is senior editor for the Journal of Cognitive Historiography, and a series editor on Bloomsbury Academics Scientific Study of Religion series.

Robert N. McCauley is William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University. His publications include Rethinking Religion (1993; with E. Thomas Lawson), Bringing Ritual to Mind (2002; with E. Thomas Lawson) and Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not (2012).

William W. McCorkle Jr. served from 20112013 as Director of Experimental Research at LEVYNA (Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion) and Associate Professor and Research Specialist in the Department for the Study of Religions at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. His publications include Ritualizing the Disposal of the Deceased: From Corpse to Concept (2010), and he is the managing editor for the Journal of Cognitive Historiography.

Ilkka Pyysiinen is University Lecturer in the Study of Religions at Helskinki University. His publications include Supernatural Agents: Why We Believe in Souls, Gods, and Buddhas (2009) and Magic, Miracles, and Religion: A Scientists Perspective (2004).

D. Jason Slone is Associate Professor of Cognition and Culture at Tiffin University. His publications include Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldnt (2004) and he is the editor of Religion and Cognition: A Reader (2006) as well as a forthcoming volume on sexual selection theories of religiosity called The Attraction of Religion: Connecting Religion, Sex, and Evolution.

Edward Slingerland is Professor of Asian Studies and Canada Research Chair in Chinese Thought and Embodied Cognition at the University of British Columbia. His publications include What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture (2008) and he is the editor of Creating Consilience: Integrating the Sciences and Humanities