Primitive religion theories

Author's name: Evans British Publisher: Istifham Publishing Year of publication: 2024 Literary classification: Humanities Brief about the book: This book reviews comprehensively and critically those anthropological theories that appeared in the 19th century and early 20th century and tried to give an explanation for the emergence of religion. And these found their salvation in the religions and beliefs of primitive peoples and tribes as an explanation for the sources of the religious phenomenon and its origins, assuming that these peoples and tribes possess the simplest institutions and believe in the forms of religion and their beliefs in their earliest forms such as totemism. And despite the religiosity of the author Evans British, he simplifies the opinions of those who studied this phenomenon objectively and clearly, reviewing the theories of famous anthropologists and their most prominent propositions such as the theories of James Frazer, Edward Tylor, Max Müller, and William Robertson Smith. Or those who studied extensively the emergence of the religious phenomenon from outside this specialization, such as sociologist Emile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, psychologist Sigmund Freud, and philosopher Lévi-Braille, who explained primitive mentality. And perhaps the most prominent criticism the writer directed at them is that in their theoretical construction they relied on guesswork and speculation rather than on solid material evidence, influenced by the widespread theory of evolution of their time. He criticizes many of them for being "armchair" scholars who formulated their theories while sitting in their comfortable offices, writing about peoples as they wished, without ever having seen any of them in their lives...