the current study was carried out to investigate the functions of the ritual speech act of ‘ya allah’ (literally meaning ‘o god’) employed by iranians in social interactions. to this end, sixty-two persian native speakers of different age groups, ranging from 35 to 85, of both genders were observed in 250 natural situations such as daily interactions, gatherings, public or private places and lo...

The papers in this issue arose from a conference on the Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity that took place at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) in August, 2003.1 This conference brought together scholars from ten nations and six disciplines (psychology, anthropology, religious studies, biology, philosophy, and cognitive science) to explore new developments at the interface...

Historians of Indian religion agree that in the time between the seventh and fifth centuries BC a fundamental change in the orientation of religious life occurred. among various groups of religious thinkers, both orthodox and unorthodox, new theories developed about human action and its role in relation to repeated births and deaths. These thinkers’ theories on how the world is constructed and ...

emergence of wahhabi thought as an important phenomenon in modern islamic history, had a great impact on political and religious evolutions of middle east. this faction which founded by muhammad ibnabd al-wahhab in najd and expanded after making an alliance with muhammad ibn saud has had a long and specific history. in that context, several contacts between religious and political sides of saud...

Based on the articles brought together for this special issue, this article proposes a transversal analysis and theoretical elaboration of the question of the uses of religious elements for meaning making and boundary work. In order to do so, we will first propose a sociocultural psychological perspective to examine meaning making dynamics. Second, we will apply a boundary work perspective, as ...