Religion and culture : revisiting a close relative

Religion and culture always exist in a close relation. Together with aesthetics and ethics, religion constitutes culture. As ethnicity becomes part of the related concepts, the relation with religion needs explanation. This article wants to emphasise that when studying religion, a study of culture is necessary. This statement is argued from three positions: (1) cultural migrations occurring worldwide, (2) religion as cultural identity marker causing the borders between culture and religion to blur and (3) the location of religion within culture causing religion to act as custodian of culture. This results in a situation where any signs of animosity towards culture are interpreted as opposition towards religion. All three arguments necessitate studying ethnicity when studying religion.This article was presented at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Religions in Southern Africa (ASRSA), which formed part of the Third Joint Conference of Academic Societies in the field of Religion and Theology, 11–15 July 2016 at the University of Pretoria.This research is part of the project, ‘Religion and Culture’, directed by Prof. Dr Jaco Beyers, Department Science of Religion and Missiology, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.http://www.hts.org.zaam2017Science of Religion and Missiolog