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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Write short note: Origins of religious beliefs and practices in premodern societies.

  • UPSC 2005
  • Religion and Society

Nineteenth-century scholars believed that finding religion's earliest form among "primitive" peoples would reveal its essence. Their answers fall into evolutionist-psychological, sociological and psychoanalytic theories, followed by a functionalist turn that set the origin question aside.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Evolutionist and psychological theories
  • Sociological and psychoanalytic theories
  • The functionalist turn
  • Evans-Pritchard's verdict
  • Indian evidence
  • Conclusion

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