Introduction / Stephen D. Glazier -- Pt. 1. Looking at Religion Anthropologically : Reading "Snake Handling": Critical Reflections / Jim Brickhead ; The Study of Religion in American Society / Melinda Bollar Wagner ; Science, Religion, and Anthropology / James Lett ; Thinking about Magic / Michael F. Brown -- Pt 2. The Study of Ritual : Ritual and Current Studies of Ritual: Overview / Bobby C. Alexander ; African Ritual / Mathias Guenther ; Ritual Performances in India / Peter J. Claus ; Ritual in East Asia: Japan / Mary Evelyn Tucker ; Rituals among Native North Americans / John A. Grim ; Ritual in the United States / Madeline Duntley -- Pt. 3. Little and Great Traditions : The Anthropology of Islam / Gregory Starrett ; Hinduism in Context: Approaching a Religious Tradition through External Sources / Cynthia Keppley Mahmood ; Buddhist Communities: Historical Precedents and Ethnographic Paradigms / Todd T. Lewis ; The Pilgrimage to Magdalena / Mary I. O'Connor -- Pt. 4. Shamanism and Religious Consciousness : Altered States of Consciousness and Religious Behavior / Michael Winkelman ; Shamanism / Joan B. Townsend ; The Cycle of Meaning: Some Methodological Implications of Biogenetic Structural Theory / Charles D. Laughlin ; The Origin of an Illusion / Stewart Elliott Guthrie ; The Sacred Integration of the Cultural Self: An Anthropological Approach to the Study of Religion / Jacob Pandian -- Select Topical Bibliography -- Index -- About the Editor and Contributors.