Benson Saler
Brown 209
Department of Anthropology
Brandeis University
P.O. Box 549110, MS 006
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
saler@brandeis.edu
(781) 736-2221
CURRENT MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS
Comparative religion, psychological anthropology, Americana
Background and Description
Benson Saler is Professor Emeritus; he retired in 2000. He is a cultural anthropologist with particular interests in the anthropology of religion and epistemological issues, especially as they relate to the development and use of analytical categories. He received a B.A from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to teaching at Brandeis, he taught at the University of Connecticut and in the summer program of Columbia University. He also spent a year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as The Sir Isaac Wolfson Visiting Professor.
His doctoral ethnographic fieldwork was among a Maya-Quiché population in the Pacific piedmont of Guatemala. The most widely known publication stemming from that research is an article, “Nagual, Witch, and Sorcerer in a Quiché Village,” originally published in 1964 and subsequently anthologized and also republished in a Spanish translation. Later fieldwork focused on the Wayú or Guajiro Indians of northern Colombia and Venezuela. His principal published work based on that research is a 120 page general ethnography, Los Wayú (Guajiro), issued in Spanish in 1988 by the Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales of Caracas in the third volume of a series (Los aborígines de Venezuela) dedicated to ancient and contemporary indigenous peoples of Venezuela.
In the 1990s Dr. Saler began ethnographic and library research on various aspects of American “popular culture,” and he co-authored with Charles A. Ziegler and Charles B. Moore a book entitled UFO Crash at Roswell: the Genesis of a Modern Myth. Published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1997, it was re-issued as a paperback in 2003.
Dr. Saler’s interests in the anthropology of religion and attendant epistemological issues are represented by a number of publications over the years, including his book Conceptualizing Religion: Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories, first published by Brill in 1993 and then re-issued by Berghahn as a paperback with a new Preface in 2000. In 1997 Dr. Saler was elected President of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, an independent scholarly organization. When that Society merged with others to form the Anthropology of Religion Section of the American Anthropological Association, he served as Interim Vice President of the new organization and he was the Program Chair of its first annual meeting.
PUBLICATIONS
Books/Monographs:
Secondary Beliefs and the Alien Abduction Phenomenon. In Alien Worlds: Social and Religious Dimensions of the UFO Phenomenon, ed. Dianna Tumminia. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press (forthcoming, 2007).
Los Wayú (Guajiro). In Los aborígenes de Venezuela, Vol.3, ed. Walter Coppens, Bernarda Escalante, and Jacques Lizot, 25-145. Caracas: Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales/Monte Avila Editores, 1988.
Conceptualizing Religion: Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993. (Paperback edition, with a Preface for the Paperback Edition, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2000).
UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth. Saler, Benson, Charles A. Ziegler, and Charles B. Moore. Washington: The Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997 (paperback edition 2003).
Articles and Comments:
Saler, Benson and Charles A. Ziegler, "Atheism and the Apotheosis of Agency," Temenos. 42(2):7-41, 2006.
Saler, Benson, and Charles A. Ziegler, "Dracula and Carmilla: Monsters and the Mind," Philosophy and Literature. 29 (1): 218-227, 2005.
"Finding Wayś Religion," Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques. 31(2): 255-270, 2005.
"Towards a Realistic and Relevant 'Science of Religion,'" Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. 16(3): 205-233, 2004.
"Shamanism and Spiritualism in a Quiché-speaking Indian Community in Guatemala," Bulletin of the Philadelphia Anthropological Society. 13 (2): 1-9, 1960.
"Unsuccessful Practitioners in a Bicultural Guatemalan Community," Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalytic Review. 49(2): 103-118, 1962.
Migration and Ceremonial Ties Among the Maya. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 18(4):336-340, 1962.
Nagual, Witch, and Sorcerer in a Quiché Village. Ethnology 3(3):305-328, 1964. Reprinted in Magic, Witchcraft, and Curing, ed. John Midddleton, 69-99,New York: Natural History Press, 1967. Subsequently reprinted by The University of Texas Press. Also published in a Spanish translation: Nagual, brujo, y hechicero en un pueblo Quiché, Guatemala: Cuadernos del Seminario de Integración Social Guatemalteca, No. 20, 1969, 53 pages.
The Departure of the Dueño. Journal of the Folklore Institute 2:31-42, 1965.
Religious Conversion and Self-Aggrandizement: A Guatemalan Case. Practical Anthropology 12(3):107-114, 1965.
Foster's Image of Limited Good: An Example of Anthropological Explanation. Kaplan, David and Benson Saler. American Anthropologist 68(1):202-206, 1966.
Beliefs, Disbeliefs, and Unbeliefs. Anthropological Quarterly 41(1):29-33, 1967.
Sorcery in Santiago El Palmar. In Systems of North American Indian Witchcraft and Sorcery, ed. Deward Walker, 125-146, Moscow, Idaho: Anthropological Monographs of the University of Idaho, No. 1, 1970.
Ritual. Liturgy 18(1):10-18, 1973.
Comments on Robert A. Hahn's "Understanding Beliefs," Current Anthropology 14(3):227, 1973.
Spiritual Power in Santiago El Palmar. In The Anthropology of Power: Ethnographic Studies from Asia, Oceania and the New World, ed. Raymond Fogelson and Richard Adams, 287-297, New York: Academic Press, 1977.
Supernatural as a Western Category. Ethos 5(1):31-53, 1977.
Comments on Stewart Guthrie's "A Cognitive Theory of Religion," Current Anthropology 21(2):197, 1980.
Ethnographies and Refutations. The Eastern Anthropologist 37(3):215-225, 1984.
Principios de compensación y el valor de las personas en la sociedad Guajira. Montalban 17:53-65, 1986.
Religio and the Definition of Religion. Cultural Anthropology 2(3):395-399, 1987.
Skwaipa Wayú: Liability and Disputes Among the Guajiro of Colombia and Venezuela. The World and I 3(11): 620-631, 1988.
Amerindian Hidalgos: Impression Management Among the Guajiro of Colombia and Venezuela. The World and I 4(12):664-675, 1989.
The Guajiro. In "Borders and Peripheries in Lowland South America," Working Papers on South American Indians 4(1983):37-40, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, 1992.
Cultural Anthropology and the Definition of Religion. In "The Notion of 'Religion' in Comparative Research," Selected Proceedings of the XVIth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Rome, 1990, ed. Ugo Bianchi, 831-836, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1994.
Priest/Priestess, In The HarperColins Dictionary of Religion, Jonathan Z. Smith (ed.), 858-860, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995.
E.B. Tylor and the Anthropology of Religion. Marburg Journal of Religion 2(1), 1997 (2,410 words). http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb11/religionswissenschaft/journal
Conceptualizing Religion: The Matter of Boundaries. In Vergleichen und Verstehen in der Religionswissenschaft, ed. Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, 27-35, Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997.
Lévy-Bruhl, Participation, and Rationality, In Rationality and the Study of Religion,. ed. Jeppe Sinding Jensen and Luther H. Martin, 44-64. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press 1997.
Family Resemblance and the Definition of Religion. Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 25(3):391-404, 1999.
Biology and Religion: On Establishing a Problematic. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 11(4):386-394, 1999.
Responses. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 12 (1/2):323-338, 2000. Also published in Perspectives on Method and Theory in the Study of Religion: Adjunct Proceedings of the XVIIth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Mexico City, 1995, ed. Armin Geertz and Russell T .McCutcheon, 323-338. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000. (Responses to four papers read in a session at the XVIIth Congress on the book Conceptualizing Religion.)
Ziegler, Charles and Benson Saler. The Roswell Incident. In UFOs and Popular Culture: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Myth, ed. James R .Lewis, 258-262. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2000.
On What We May Believe About Beliefs. In Religion in Mind: Cognitive Perspectives on Religious Belief, Ritual, and Experience, ed. Jensine Andresen, 47-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Comparison: Some Suggestions for Improving the Inevitable. Numen 48(3): 267-275, 2001.
The Future of the Anthropology of Religion (Part Two). Anthropology News 43 (9): 52-53, December 2002.
The Ethnographer as Pontifex. In Translating Cultures, ed. Paula G. Rubel and Abraham Rosman, 197-212. Oxford:Berg, 2003.
On Credulity. In Religion as a Human Capacity: A Festschrift in Honor of E. Thomas Lawson, eds. Timothy Light and Brian C. Wilson, 315-329, Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Toward a Realistic and Relevant 'Science of Religion.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 16 (3), 2004 (forthcoming).
Secondary Beliefs and the Alien Abduction Phenomenon. In Alien Gods: Religious Dimensions of the UFO Phenomenon, ed. Dianna Tumminia. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004 (forthcoming).
Saler, Benson and Charles A. Ziegler, Dracula and Carmilla: Monsters and the Mind, Philosophy and Literature (forthcoming).
Finding Wayu Religion. Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 32(1), 2006 (forthcoming).
Book and Film Reviews:
Lessa, William and Evon Z. Vogt, Reader in Comparative Religion, 2nd edition. In American Anthropologist 68(5):1257-1258, 1966.
Eliade, Mircea, Mephistopheles and the Androgyne: Studies in Religious Myth and Symbol. In American Anthropologist 69(2):262-263, 1967.
Pendergast, David M., Palenque: The Walker-Caddy Expedition to the Ancient Maya City, 1839-1840. In The Hispanic American Historical Review, May, 1968:273-274.
Benson, Elizabeth P., The Maya World. In The Hispanic American Historical Review, August, 1968:472-473.
Cordry, Donald and Dorothy, Mexican Indian Costumes. In The Hispanic American Historical Review, August, 1969:564-565.
Scholes, Francis V. and Ralph L. Roys, The Maya-Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel: A Contribution to the History and Ethnography of the Yucatan Peninsula. In Man 4:686-687, 1969.
Cumrine, Lynne S., Ceremonial Exchange as a Mechanism in Tribal Integration Among the Mayos of Northwestern Mexico. In Man 5:337, 1970.
Vogt, Evon Z., Zinacantan: A Maya Community in the Highlands of Chiapas. In American Anthropologist 73:338-340, 1971.
A Reply to Vogt, American Anthropologist 74:202, 1972.
Granada Television of England, The Disappearing World: The War of the Gods. In American Anthropologist 76:210-212, 1974.
Needham. Rodney, Belief, Language, and Experience. In American Anthropologist 76:861-866, 1974.
Hinshaw, Robert, Panajachel: A Guatemalan Town in Thirty-Year Perspective. In The Hispanic American Historical Review 56:497-498, 1976.
Turner, Victor and Edith, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives. In Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 18:432-434, 1979.
Gillespie, Neal C., Charles Darwin and the Problem of Creation. In Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 20:210-211, 1981.
Lincoln, Bruce, Priests, Warriors, and Cattle: A Study in the Ecology of Religions. In Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 21:384-385, 1982.
Peribanayagam, R.S., The Karmic Theater: Self, Society, and Astrology in Jaffna. In Qualitative Sociology 6:385-387, 1983.
Frankiel, Sandra S., Christianity: A Way of Salvation. In Anglican Theological Review 68(3):260-262, 1987.
Fitzgerald, Timothy, The Ideology of Religious Studies. In Religious Studies Review April 2001 , pp.102-104 (review essay).
Denzler, Brenda, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs. In American Ethnologist 29 (3): 761-762, 2002.
Lambek, Michael (ed.), A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion. In “Letters in Canada,” The University of Toronto Quarterly 73 (1):145-146, Winter 2003/4.