Insiders and Outsiders in the Anthropology of Christianity

Bibliographic Data

ID20045027
AuthorsBrian M Howell (0000-0003-4548-3969, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages137-150
Publication date2026-02-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology of Religion (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/9780191822285.003.0008
OpenAlexW7124988475
ISBN9780191822285
LanguageEN
References cited21

Though some have argued that anthropology is a resolutely secular space, the question of how anthropologists’ personal religious beliefs relate to their work has been a relevant issue in anthropology since its foundations in the nineteenth century. Given the reflexive turn in the latter half of the twentieth century, these questions have only become more pressing. At the same time, to speak of “insiders” and “outsiders” in the anthropology of Christianity raises fundamental questions of how one exists “inside” a voluntary community defined by faith, where the boundaries are contested and ephemeral. This chapter draws on conversations about insider/outsider anthropology to consider how the subject position of the researcher helps with the conceptualization of Christianity as an ethnographic object and the nature of knowledge in such work

Anthropology of religion · Applied anthropology · Christianity · Conceptualization · Ethnography · Object (grammar) · Reflexivity · Subject (documents) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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