Sociocultural anthropologists have taken increasing interest in the global communities established by Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, but the many streams of Eastern Christianity have so far been neglected. Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective fills this gap in the literature. The essays in this pioneering collection examine the primary distinguishing features of the Eastern traditions—iconography, hymnology, ritual, and pilgrimage—through meticulous ethnographic analysis. Particular attention is paid to the revitalization of Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches that were repressed under Marxist-Leninist regimes.
Chris Hann is a founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany. Hermann Goltz holds the chair for theology and culture of the Eastern Orthodox Churches at the Theological Faculty of the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
"This collection of essays is a welcome and refreshing gift in a virtual desert. There has been very little comparative anthropological research on the Eastern churches, and this volume will fill that gap."—Michael Herzfeld, author of Evicted from Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome
"At long last there is a book on the anthropology of Christianity that devotes direct and sustained attention to the diverse Eastern Christian Churches—both Orthodox and Catholic. This book should be read by anyone who thinks anthropologically about Christianity. Scales will fall from their eyes and they will behold an entire wing of Christianity that has, until now, gone mostly unnoticed and practically untheorized."—Douglas Rogers, author of The Old Faith and the Russian Land: A Historical Ethnography of Ethics in the Urals
392 pp.6 x 9Illus: 25 b/w photographs, 1 line illustration, 1 map, 3 tables, 2 music examples
9780520260559$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
May 2010