Abstract
Culture change is of great interest to anthropologists, but none has developed a satisfactory model to explain it. The existence of various approaches to the study of religion points to the multidimensional nature of religion. In order to account for deletion, addition, substitution, and coalescence in religious change, the author proposes the use of models from economics and linguistics (the latter will be handled in the next issue). Economics models provide useful insights through the concepts of value and cost. For experience shows that in religion as in the market place, lowering the price of a “commodity” can also lower its value and therefore its desirability. It is shown also that values are based upon the total worldview of a society. They must also be related to the felt needs of people rather than to artificially ascribed needs. Finally, the author discusses the relevance of the concepts of “unlimited desire” in the face of “limited resources”.
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