Anthropology of Folk Religion

Charles Leslie’s work, Anthropology of Folk Religion, is a fundamental reference text that comprehensively analyzes the functions of religious practices within everyday life and their connections to social relations and cultural structures, examining folk religion from an anthropological perspective. Leslie views folk religion not merely as the “sub-layers” of official religions, but rather as ways in which societies make sense of the world, cope with uncertainty, produce collective identity, and strengthen social solidarity. The book examines themes such as the origins of folk beliefs, rituals, sacred spaces, healing practices, and relationships with spirits and ancestors, supported by ethnographic examples. According to Leslie, folk religion is a dynamic structure consisting of oral tradition, ritual performance, symbolic behavior, and cultural memory. Therefore, folk religion is not a static set of beliefs, but rather the sum of a society’s creative responses to social change. The work discusses the effects of modernization, urbanization, and globalization on folk religion, particularly through ethnographic observations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Leslie explains the relationship between official-doctrinal religion and folk religion not through opposition, but through processes of continuous interaction, reinterpretation, and cultural adaptation.