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American Religious History: Indigenous Religion

An overview of resources available on American religious history at Yale Library.

Disclaimer

Religion is not a discrete sphere of indigenous life and culture. Rather, religion suffuses the whole lives of indigenous peoples. Still, indigenous communities have adapted to centuries of oppression by adopting the concept of religion as a legal category—ensuring the right to the free exercise of religious practices in the public square. At the present moment, multidisciplinary researchers across the fields of anthropology, history, American studies, religious studies, and others are pursuing new avenues of scholarship to come to a better understanding of this evolving phenomenon of religion in indigenous life. To that end, this guide is intended to serve as a starting point for research in the growing academic field of indigenous religion.

Reference Works