Religion is a broad concept that has been applied to a range of social practices, from tribal totems and ancestor worship to monotheistic systems of belief in one god. Some of the earliest historical religions arose along the Nile River in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Over time, such beliefs incorporated ideas about creation, the universe, and morality and ritualized worship. They also included myths about gods and goddesses as well as rules for behavior, a code of conduct, a community of believers, and sacred places, symbols, and days.
In the modern period, scholars have analyzed the concept of religion through various approaches. For example, psychologists who study the mind believe that religion fulfills human needs like a need to create meaning in life or a need to feel connected to others. Neuroscientists think that certain areas of the brain are active during religious experiences. Anthropologists, such as Talal Asad, have used Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach to suggest that the anthropology of religion is inextricably linked to the structure and discipline of power.
It is common today to view religion as a taxon for sets of social practices rather than a category that requires any belief in unusual realities. But, as with other abstract concepts that sort cultural types, questions arise about how to understand this concept. Two issues are particularly relevant. One concerns the emergence of new kinds of practices that get tagged as religion, such as Jediism. The other involves the question of whether the term should be defined in terms of a set of necessary and sufficient properties that describe a religion or if it should be understood as a “family resemblance” concept.