The archaeology of religion

In the early years of the twenty-first century religion is again commonly a basis for intense solidarities, interwoven with, and often fundamental to, national and ethnic identities. If the role of religion in the West may have appeared to be of declining importance during the twentieth century (Towler 1974: vii), we now have plentiful reminders that such secularisation was by no means universal; multi-religious ethnic groups appear to be rare (Enloe 1980). On the other hand, in twentieth-century Japan, in some ways a byword for secular modernity, we encounter the paradox where the sum total of Japanese adherents to the main religions of Shinto, Buddhism and Christianity reputedly exceeds 200 per cent of the current population. Individuals are active in more than one religious tradition, while several traditions may be combined in one religious activity; funerals are commonly Buddhist while births and marriages are Shinto. We find a ‘secular’ country that is also home to many tens of thousands of shrines

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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  Open Access•Yorke M Rowan•Archeological Papers of the…•2011

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