Framework: How We Analyze Any Religion
Purpose
Create a single, repeatable schema that works for Celtic, Norse, Greek, ATR, Indigenous Americas, Eastern, and Abrahamic systems without overlap or gaps.
Method basis (condensed)
- Comparative dimensions. Built to be compatible with Ninian Smart’s “seven dimensions” (ritual, myth, doctrine, ethics, social, experience, material), which ensures coverage across practice, belief, organization, and artifacts.
- Religion as culture. Treats religion as a symbolic system that orders a world, following Geertz’s classic account, so our variables map symbols → practices → institutions.
- Social function. Keeps Durkheim’s sacred/profane split and religion’s role in social cohesion clearly separated from belief content. That’s why “Social Function & Law” is its own variable.
- Ritual theory. Distinguishes what people do (Ritual & Practice) from who organizes it (Specialists & Institutions), drawing on Bell and Turner (liminality/communitas).
- Boundary and purity. Handles taboos, oaths, pollution rules under “Social Function & Law” and “Symbolism & Cultural Expression,” informed by Mary Douglas.
- Memory and change. Tracks canons, traditions, syncretism, decline, and revival under “Contact & Transformation,” following Jan Assmann’s cultural-memory approach.
- Definition discipline. Uses Bruce Lincoln’s emphasis on authority, discourse, community, and institution to keep our “Identity/Scope” and “Institutions” variables crisp.
The 12 non-overlapping variables
Identity and Scope
Names (endonyms/exonyms). Peoples or schools. Core era(s) and footprint.
Why: anchors the unit of analysis before interpretation.
Historical Context
Origins → peak → decline → survivals. Geographic spread. Polity links.
Why: separates time/space from belief so causality isn’t muddled.
Sources of Evidence
Archaeology, inscriptions, internal texts, outside reports, oral/ethnographic survivals.
Why: keeps epistemic basis explicit before claims.
Pantheon and Supernatural Beings
High deity/deities, lesser gods, spirits, ancestors; functional mapping.
Why: “who” the actors are, without mixing with cosmology.
Cosmology and Myth
Creation, world-structure, sacred time, fate, hero cycles, culture-bearers.
Why: “how the world works,” not “who populates it.”
Ritual and Practice
Daily worship, sacrifice, offerings, prayer, dance; festivals/calendars; magic, divination, healing, initiation.
Why: observable acts, separate from organization.
Sacred Space and Material Culture
Natural sites (groves, springs, caves, mountains); built sites (temples, shrines); objects (idols, tools, vestments), iconography basics.
Why: places/objects as distinct data from acts or beliefs.
Religious Specialists and Institutions
Priests, shamans, druids, oracles; gender roles; training, initiation, authority, councils, schools.
Why: “who runs it,” separate from rites or myths.
Social Function and Law
Kingship ties; oaths and taboos; purity/pollution regimes; moral codes; how religion structures order and cohesion.
Why: isolates the Durkheim/Douglas layer from cosmology or ritual.
Death and Afterlife
Soul doctrines; underworld/heavens/reincarnation; funerary customs; ancestor cult.
Why: high-signal domain that often cross-cuts pantheon/cosmology.
Symbolism and Cultural Expression
Icon sets, sacred animals/celestial signs, music/dance/drama, scripts or runes, emblematic colors/numbers.
Why: separates expressive media from spaces/objects and from rites.
Contact and Transformation
Syncretism; polemics; canonization; reform; suppression; diaspora; revivalism and reconstruction.
Why: captures change over time using cultural-memory mechanics.
Why this covers everything (and doesn’t double-count)
- “Who” vs “How”: Pantheon (who) is distinct from Cosmology (how).
- “Do” vs “Organize”: Ritual & Practice (do) is distinct from Specialists & Institutions (organize).
- “Place/Object” vs “Symbol/Style”: Sacred Space & Material Culture (where/what) is distinct from Symbolism & Cultural Expression (how it’s signified).
- “Belief” vs “Order”: Cosmology/Myth and Pantheon ≠ Social Function & Law (cohesion, taboo, purity).
These separations follow core theory lines (Smart, Geertz, Durkheim, Bell, Turner, Douglas).
Crosswalk to classic frameworks
- Smart’s 7 dimensions → this 12:
Ritual → 6; Mythic → 5; Doctrinal → 4/5; Ethical/Legal → 9; Social/Institutional → 8/9; Experiential → 6/11; Material → 7/11. - Geertz: symbols → 11; models-of/models-for reality → 5; moods/motivations enacted in ritual → 6; institutions → 8/9.
- Durkheim: sacred/profane boundary and solidarity → 9.
- Bell/Turner: ritual differentiation and liminality/communitas → 6, with leadership in 8.
- Douglas: taboo/purity systems → 9 and symbolic boundaries in 11.
- Assmann: canon/tradition, transmission, and reformulations → 12.
How to use it (template)
Copy this block and fill it for any tradition:
1. Identity & Scope:
2. Historical Context:
3. Sources of Evidence:
4. Pantheon & Supernatural Beings:
5. Cosmology & Myth:
6. Ritual & Practice:
7. Sacred Space & Material Culture:
8. Religious Specialists & Institutions:
9. Social Function & Law:
10. Death & Afterlife:
11. Symbolism & Cultural Expression:
12. Contact & Transformation: