The ethology of art and religion
The ethology of religion is a successful but insufficiently recognized discipline in its own right. I argue that it could become a more effective tool in the understanding of religion if it were to absorb the insights of the ethology of art expressed by writers such as Ellen Dissanayake, Denis Dutto...
| Published in: | Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Morcelliana
[2017]
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| In: |
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Religion
/ Art
/ The Holy
/ Definition
/ Behavioral research
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | The ethology of religion is a successful but insufficiently recognized discipline in its own right. I argue that it could become a more effective tool in the understanding of religion if it were to absorb the insights of the ethology of art expressed by writers such as Ellen Dissanayake, Denis Dutton, and Brian Boyd, among others. Specifically, we must recognise certain similarities in the behaviours now described as "art" and "religion". These similarities imply that inaccuracies in the contemporary understanding of art, which call for the improvement of the concept by the application of ethology, find a close parallel in the understanding of religion, which requires similar improvement. The understanding of art as involving cognitions that have been adaptive, serving a purpose in human development that contributed to survival and reproduction, can also be applied to religion. Further useful insights are incorporated from the anthropology of art and elsewhere that suggest a recognition of art (and religion) as agents, suggesting what this contribution may have been and illuminating a category of cognitive behaviour that can be recognized as ancestral to both art and religion. Finally, this is argued to mobilise a definition of religion that does not dismiss the term as an entirely socially constructed (and therefore hopelessly ethnocentric and self-serving) category, nor does it remove religion from the scope of naturalistic investigation by invoking supernatural categories. |
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| ISSN: | 0081-6175 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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