Abstract

The anthropology of religion offers a comprehensive framework for understanding how human societies conceptualize the sacred organize rituals and make sense of existential realities. Rooted in cross-cultural analysis this field examines religious beliefs and practices not as isolated phenomena but as deeply embedded in social political and cultural systems. This paper explores key anthropological insights into the nature and function of religion focusing on rituals as expressions of collective identity beliefs as cognitive and symbolic structures and the dynamic relationship between religion and social change. Drawing from both classical theories and contemporary ethnographic studies the paper emphasizes how religion continues to evolve in response to modernity globalization and sociopolitical pressures while retaining its capacity to offer meaning cohesion and resistance in diverse contexts.