Rafael Karsten on Society and Religion

Rafael Karsten (1879–1956), an anthropologist of religion and professor of moral philosophy, was both a researcher of comparative religion and a field ethnographer. In the pre-Second World War period, Karsten was internationally regarded as one of the leading authorities on South American indigenous religions. At the beginning of the chapter, I examine Karsten’s understanding of sociology, society, and the methods of sociology and comparative religion. I then analyse Karsten’s study of religion, particularly his theory of the emotional origins of religion, presented in The Origin of Worship: A Study in Primitive Religion (1905) and The Origins of Religion (1935). Finally, I discuss Karsten’s ideas about the change of religious beliefs. The chapter illuminates the importance of Westermarck, Darwin, and other evolutionary thinkers for Karsten’s approach to society and religion.