Ebook: The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu of Zambia

Recently both the research and theoretical concerns of
many anthropologists have once again been directed toward the
role of symbols—religious, mythic, aesthetic, political, and even
economic—in social and cultural processes. Whether this revival
is a belated response to developments in other disciplines (psychology,
ethology, philosophy, linguistics, to name only a few),
or whether it reflects a return to a central concern after a period
of neglect, is difficult to say. In recent field studies, anthropologists
have been collecting myths and rituals in the context
of social action, and improvements in anthropological field
technique have produced data that are richer and more refined
than heretofore; these new data have probably challenged
theoreticians to provide more adequate explanatory frames.
Whatever may have been the causes, there is no denying a renewed
curiosity about the nature of the connections between
culture, cognition, and perception, as these connections are revealed
in symbolic forms.