HomePhilippine Association for the Sociology of Religion Journalvol. 3 no. 1 (2023)

Learning from the Navajo: Rethinking Religion for a Post-Colonial Era

James Spickard

Discipline: Religion

 

Abstract:

This address explores the importance of generating concepts from non-Euro-American religious spaces to understand religions worldwide. As an example, it shows how the Navajo concept of hózh? highlights the socially transformative role of experience in religious settings — something that Euro-American sociologies typically fail to grasp. It then argues that such insights are of universal rather than of parochial importance. A truly post-colonial sociology needs to put treat insights from all societies, cultures, and civilizations as potential sources of understanding.



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