Other formats:
BibTeX
LaTeX
RIS
@article{1572879,
author = {Lang, Martin and Kundt, Radek},
article_location = {Leiden-Boston-Koeln},
article_number = {1},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341466},
keywords = {cognition; complex adaptive systems; evolution; mechanism; the humanities and the sciences; religion; ritual},
language = {eng},
issn = {0943-3058},
journal = {Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. Journal of the North American Association for the Study of Religion},
title = {Evolutionary, Cognitive, and Contextual Approaches to the Study of Religious Systems : A Proposition of Synthesis},
url = {https://brill.com/view/journals/mtsr/aop/article-10.1163-15700682-12341466.xml?language=en},
volume = {32},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR
ID - 1572879
AU - Lang, Martin - Kundt, Radek
PY - 2020
TI - Evolutionary, Cognitive, and Contextual Approaches to the Study of Religious Systems : A Proposition of Synthesis
JF - Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. Journal of the North American Association for the Study of Religion
VL - 32
IS - 1
SP - 1-46
EP - 1-46
PB - Brill
SN - 09433058
KW - cognition
KW - complex adaptive systems
KW - evolution
KW - mechanism
KW - the humanities and the sciences
KW - religion
KW - ritual
UR - https://brill.com/view/journals/mtsr/aop/article-10.1163-15700682-12341466.xml?language=en
L2 - https://brill.com/view/journals/mtsr/aop/article-10.1163-15700682-12341466.xml?language=en
N2 - The explanatory gap between the life sciences and the humanities that is present in the study of human phenomena impedes productive interdisciplinary examination that such a complex subject requires. Manifested as epistemological tensions over reductionism vs. holism, nature vs. nurture, and the study of micro vs. macro context, the divergent research approaches in the humanities and the sciences produce separate bodies of knowledge that are difficult to reconcile. To remedy this incommensurability, the article proposes to employ the complex adaptive systems approach, which allows to study specific cultural systems in their ecologies and to account for the myriads of factors that constitute such systems, including nonlinear interactions between these factors and their evolution. On a specific example of religious systems, we show that by studying cultural systems in their contextual variability, mechanistic composition, and evolutionary history, the humanities and the sciences should be able to fruitfully collaborate while avoiding previous pitfalls of excessive reductionism, genetic determinism, and sweeping overgeneralizations, on the one hand, and pitfalls of excessive holism, cultural determinism, and aversion to any generalizations, on the other hand.
ER -
LANG, Martin and Radek KUNDT. Evolutionary, Cognitive, and Contextual Approaches to the Study of Religious Systems : A Proposition of Synthesis. \textit{Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. Journal of the North American Association for the Study of Religion}. Leiden-Boston-Koeln: Brill, 2020, vol.~32, No~1, p.~1-46. ISSN~0943-3058. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341466.
|
