Discuss the Notion of Unilineal Social Evolution

Discuss the notion of unilineal social evolution in relation to early anthropological theories of religion. What assumptions about “religion” and “culture” are shared by E.B. Tylor and James Frazer, and how have other anthropologists contested those assumptions? Do you think these ideas have any bearing on how “religion” is understood today? What is a “ritual” and how might it be understood anthropologically? Discuss some of the ways in which anthropologists have tried to theorize what rituals are, and what rituals do. What sorts of relationships between living society and spirits, or the spiritual, are cultivated through ritual practices?