Correlations Versus Case Studies: The Case of the Zulu in Swanson’s ‘The Birth of the Gods’
Author(s)
Lang, Graeme
Abstract
Despite a number of interesting studies during the past decade, Guy Swanson’s path-breaking work on the relation between religious belief and social structure in The Birth of the Gods has still not received the extensive analysis, replication, and critique which it deserves and requires and which would make further progress possible. This paper discusses one feature of Swanson’s book not hitherto commented upon: the coding of societies during or after periods of profound social or cultural change. The problems which such coding can cause for interpretations of correlations drawn from large samples of societies are also discussed, using specifically the case of the Zulu from Swanson’s chapter on the social correlates of monotheism.
