Identifies kernel ideas of interest for the study of religion. This book acknowledges Dumont's contribution to kinship studies and focuses on subjects of interest to students and scholars of religion: concepts such as sacred and profane, pure and impure, transcendence, values, ideology, hierarchy, and cross cultural comparison.

Chapter 1: What Can We Learn from Louis Dumont? Chapter 2: A Contrarian's Most Contrarian Notion: Dumont on Hierarchy Chapter 3: Our Individualism and Its Religious Origins Chapter 4: The Comparative Risks of Comparison: On Not "Remaining Caged within Our Own Frame of Reference" Chapter 5: Conclusion: Dumont's Morality and Social Cosmology

Ivan Strenski is Professor and Holstein Endowed Chairholder in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside.