Stones and Bones: Indigenous African Religions and the “Evolution” of World Religions
| Dublin Core | PKP Metadata Items | Metadata for this Document | |
| 1. | Title | Title of document | Stones and Bones: Indigenous African Religions and the “Evolution” of World Religions - Textbook Gods |
| 2. | Creator | Author's name, affiliation, country | James Lewis; University of Tromsø; |
| 3. | Subject | Discipline(s) | Religious Studies; education |
| 4. | Subject | Keyword(s) | textbooks; religious education; world religions; African religions |
| 5. | Subject | Subject classification | Religion: general (HRA) |
| 6. | Description | Abstract | James R. Lewis examines the portrayal of indigenous African religions in world religion textbooks. The chapter is an updated version of an article originally published in 1990. In this volume the article is updated by examining the structures of the texts currently available for world religions survey courses. Thus Lewis’ article addresses a tendency which has been stable for over 20 years. The most significant criticism levelled in his survey is the implicit evolutionary structure reflected in the order of chapters, so that smaller-scale traditional religions, such as the aboriginal religions of sub-Saharan Africa, are typically placed at the beginning of these texts as if to suggest that such religions represent an earlier level of religious development. Lewis argues that almost all relevant textbooks continue to embody this structure, but not every survey text groups currently existing peoples together with prehistoric peoples, and not every such book discusses the religions of contemporary indigenous peoples prior to discussing the dead religions of the classical world. Lewis also comments on how textbooks are perpetuated by being reprinted in new editions and gives examples on how outdated misinformation continues to be reproduced in twelfth and thirteenth editions. |
| 7. | Publisher | Organizing agency, location | Equinox Publishing Ltd |
| 8. | Contributor | Sponsor(s) | |
| 9. | Date | (YYYY-MM-DD) | 01-Apr-2014 |
| 10. | Type | Status & genre | Peer-reviewed Article |
| 11. | Type | Type | textual and theoretical analysis; case study |
| 12. | Format | File format | |
| 13. | Identifier | Uniform Resource Identifier | https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/books/article/view/23881 |
| 14. | Identifier | Digital Object Identifier | 10.1558/equinox.23881 |
| 15. | Source | Journal/conference title; vol., no. (year) | Equinox eBooks Publishing; Textbook Gods |
| 16. | Language | English=en | En |
| 18. | Coverage | Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.) |
global, contemporary |
| 19. | Rights | Copyright and permissions | Copyright 2014 Equinox Publishing Ltd |