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of religion in respects to the social-cultural dynamic of a religion in a region.

The dominant form of collecting data is usually an ethnography, which largely consists of the researcher, with permission, actively attending, observing, and interacting with the people and religion he or she is studying. The researcher will have to have a firm understanding of the language as well as the people he or she is studying. Of course there is the question of whether a non-native anthropologist to the region can ever really understand the people he or she is studying.

There are many complications regarding the anthropology of religion. It is a broad discipline and a very complex as well as sensitive one. The discipline must respect the people's privacy, integrity, and ethics. When studying a religion it is also necessary to understand the culture; the people's ways of thought and behavior. An anthropologist cannot assume that the people he or she is studying will have a western mentality and way of thought, nor that the religion, say Christianity, will be the same in one country as it is in another. Of course in the process of doing so, we must be as specific as we can as to what kind of Christianity it is, and if there is an Orthodoxy or a standard for which we can compare that religion. The anthropology of religion is indeed a complicated one. Although I have only skimmed the discipline and probably did not do justice to all its complexities, it is a fascinating area of study and one that needs to be done for the betterment and understanding of humanity.

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