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Religion and morality: An anthropological comment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2006

Maurice Bloch
Maurice Bloch*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics, London, WC2 2AE, United Kingdom College de France, Chaire Europe´enne, 75724 Paris Cedex 05, France http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/anthropology/mauricebloch.htm
*
M.E.Bloch@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract:

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This commentary criticises Bering on two counts. First, because we do not know what he attributes to natural selection and what he sees as derived representations. Second, Bering's ethnography of religion is inadequate. People who practise ancestor worship are not concerned with their own survival but with that of others. Many supernatural beings are not thought of as morally motivated.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , October 2006 , pp. 465 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006