Patterns of Thought in Africa and the West: Essays on Magic, Religion and Science [Hardcover]

A collection of Robin Horton's classic papers on African religion (196090), presenting a wide-ranging enquiry into religious thought.The anthropologist Robin Horton is widely regarded as one of the most creative and critical thinkers of his generation. This collection of some of his classic papers on African religion, written between l960 and l990 is also a wide-ranging enquiry into religious thought, particularly its relationship to aesthetic and scientific thought. Horton criticises recent orthodoxies in this area, and instead proposes an 'Intellectualist' alternative which stresses similarities between the religious and the scientific.The anthropologist Robin Horton is widely regarded as one of the most creative and critical thinkers of his generation. This collection of some of his classic papers on African religion, written between l960 and l990 is also a wide-ranging enquiry into religious thought, particularly its relationship to aesthetic and scientific thought. Horton criticises recent orthodoxies in this area, and instead proposes an 'Intellectualist' alternative which stresses similarities between the religious and the scientific.The anthropologist Robin Horton is widely regarded as one of the most creative and critical thinkers of his generation. This collection of some of his classic papers on African religion, written between l960 and l990 is also a wide-ranging inquiry into religious thought, particularly its relationship to aesthetic and scientific thought. Horton criticizes recent orthodoxies in this area, and instead proposes an Intellectualist alternative that stresses similarities between the religious and the scientific.Introduction; Part I. Beginnings: l. A definition of religion, and its uses; Part II. Mainly Critical: 2. Neo-Tylorianism: sound sense or sinister prejudice?; 3. Levy-Bruhl, Durkheim and the scientific revolution; 4. Back to Frazer?; 5. Professor Winch on safari; 6. Judaeo-Christian spectacles: boon or bane to the study of Afrl“%