Problems and Ideas Concerning Ideology in the Construction of "Religion" and "Ritual" as Analytical Concepts

Normalized Categories in Archaeology and Other Disciplines

Abstract

Religion and ritual occur more and more frequently in archaeoiogical interpretations. Concepts have by nature a universal character and this in turn may easily lead to obscurities and evasive reasoning. My article focuses on two books in which the authors (Talal Asad and Catherine Bell) emphasize the compiexity behind these notions. They discuss how and why they are often used in such ahistorical terms. They also stress something that we tend to forget regardless of which subject we belong to, namely, that these concepts have been formed in modern Western history. I conclude by giving some examples of doctoral theses from the last decade and how they employ religion and ritual in their interprerarions.