Heathens: Primitive Man and His Religions

The Heathens, originally published in 1948, is a description of many of the world's religions by an anthropologist who had a knack for putting complex concepts in popular terms. Although, to our late 20th century sensibilities, the language may sound demeaning and/or patronizing, in fact, once the reader realizes the book's historical setting, it is clear that the author is a gifted communicator and a skillful popularizer. His descriptions were so respected that in 1962 the book was reprinted by The American Museum of Natural History Library for inclusion in its offerings.

From Chapter 1: Scholars were cocking horn-rimmed spectacles at primitive religion for a long time before they saw much of its real nature. Nave in the beginning, the anthropologists collected curios: along with fetishes, kachina dolls, and the like, they brought home stories of bloody funeral rites, or of human sacrifices, or of naughty orgies held on the disarming pretext that they did something good for the crops. In these days, however, the science of man is less simple. The museums are pretty full, and the students are experienced enough now to grasp some of the meaning of what they have found. They have come to see the social and religious practices of an uncivilized people, not as a disorderly set of superstitious habits (which might be straightened out in a hurry by anyone with a white skin), but rather as a framework of dovetailing institutions, which are clung to for the solid reason that they comfort and strengthen their possessors. This is as profoundly true of religion as it is of government and law: religious ideas help in the struggle for existence as verily as a bow and arrow, or a fish trap. Here we have a point of great importance both in our knowledge of supposedly primitive people and in our understanding of religion itself. That is one of the things anthropology has discovered.