anthropology's task

is not to judge but to discover what people believe in, and to relate their beliefs operationally to other aspects of their culture and society.

The anthropologist's task is to discover what people believe in, and to relate their beliefs operationally to other aspects of their culture and society. He has neither the skills nor the authority to pronounce upon the absolute 'truth' of ecstatic manifestations in different cultures. Nor is it his business to assess whether other people's perceptions of divine truth are more or less compatible with those embodied within his own religious heritage, whatever he may feel about the latter. Indeed I would go further. Such judgements might be more fittingly left to the jurisdiction of the powers which are held to inspire religious feeling. Certainly, at least, it is not for the anthropologist to attempt to usurp the role of the gods whose worship he studies (Lewis, 2003 p.24)

anthropology's task, n.Definitions

anthropology's task