Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: Theory Chapter 1. The Religious: Can It Be Defined? Chapter 2. Human Evolution and the Origins and Evolution of Religious Behavior Chapter 3. The Independent Variable: Interaction with the Habitat Chapter 4. Dependent Variables Ritual Behavior The Religious Trance The Alternate Reality Good Fortune, Misfortune, and the Rituals of Divination Ethics and Its Relation to Religious Behavior The Semantics of OReligionO Part Two: Ethnography Chapter 5. The Hunter-Gatherers Chapter 6. The Horticulturalists Chapter 7. The Agriculturalists Chapter 8. The Nomadic Pastoralists Chapter 9. The City Dwellers Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

OAn important book which deserves the careful attention of serious students of religion.O NReligious Studies Review Anthropologist and spiritual explorer Felicitas Goodman offers a Ounified field theoryO of religion as human behavior. She examines ritual, the religious trance, alternate reality, ethics and moral code, and the named category designating religion.