CONSTRUCTING RELIGION WITHOUT THE SOCIAL: DURKHEIM, LATOUR, AND EXTENDED COGNITION

Author: Day, Matthew1

Source: Zygon, Volume 44, Number 3, September 2009 , pp. 719-737(19)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

Key:
Free Content - Free Content
New Content - New Content
Subscribed Content - Subscribed Content
Free Trial Content - Free Trial Content

Abstract:

.

I take up the question of how models of extended cognition might redirect the academic study of religion. Entering into a conversation of sorts with Emile Durkheim and Bruno Latour regarding the “overtakenness” of social agency, I argue that a robust portrait of extended cognition must redirect our interest in explaining religion in two key ways. First, religious studies should take up the methodological principle of symmetry that informs contemporary histories of science and begin theorizing the efficacy of gods as social actors. Second, theorists of religion should begin noting how the work required to construct spaces in which the gods appear depends on the construction of disciplined and capable subjects.

Keywords: Emile Durkheim; extended cognition; Bruno Latour; sociology of associations

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.01026.x

Affiliations: 1: Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion, Florida State University, 641 University Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1520;, Email: mday@fsu.edu.

The full text electronic article is available for purchase. You will be able to download the full text electronic article after payment.

$41.89 plus tax      Refund Policy

 

OR

Back to top

Key:
Free Content - Free Content
New Content - New Content
Subscribed Content - Subscribed Content
Free Trial Content - Free Trial Content
Share this item with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Page Help Click here for Page Help
Shopping cart
Tools
Sign in






Need to register?
Sign up here
Text size: A | A | A | A