Robin Horton is an English social anthropologist and philosopher whose specializ ed study in comparative religion since the 1950s

has challenged and expanded the views in the study of the anthropology of religion. He is notable for his scien tific approach to the study of religion. This formed the basis for his analysis of African thought that was published in two installments in 1967.[1] His work c ontinues to be viewed as important in understanding traditional African religiou s approaches. Horton has lived in Africa for more than four decades, where he co ntinues to conduct research on African indigenous religions, magic, mythology an d rituals.[2] During forty years of residence in Africa, he has worked as a rese archer and a professor of philosophy and religion at several universities includ ing the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and the University of Ife in Nigeria. Contents 1 Family Life 2 Theoretical Contributions 3 Professional career 4 Honors 5 Selected Works 6 Co-Author 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 10 Bibliography Family Life Robin William Gray Horton and his sister were born to William Gray Horton and Gw en Horton. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel of the Scots Guard[3] who was als o part of the British Bobsleigh at the 1924 Winter Olympics national team and hi s grandfather was the american impressionist painter William Samuel Horton. His mother, Gwendolen Anna Le Bas Horton, was the elder daughter of an iron merchant from St. Brelade, Jersey and sister to Molly Brocas Burrows, the sculptor, and the painter Edward Le Bas (1904-1966).[1]. Horton's sister-in-law is renowned Ni gerian sculptor Sokari Douglas Camp. Theoretical Contributions Robin Horton viewed religion from an ethnoscience approach, where he linked reli gious understanding with scientific inquiry. He viewed the two as having a simil ar approach of methodically unveiling the complex to achieve order and understan ding from chaos. Horton's analysis of African magic (paranormal) and mythology c oncludes that there is an overarching theory that lies behind the commonly accep ted theory and that forms the basis of these beliefs. He sees mystical systems t hat drive "primitive" religions as theoretical structures that are dictated by c oncrete rules and are used to understand, in an interactive way, revealed anomal ies, much like scientific endeavors theorize the physical world. This literal ap proach is a reflection of striving to have a concrete and thus scientific method of studying and explaining the world they live in. One of his classic works in the anthropology of religion is his supportive analy sis of one of the works of noted anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor published i n 1968. In "Neo-Tylorianism: Sound Sense or Sinister Prejudice?", Robin Horton a rgues that the superimposition of a western mindset in the interpretation of non -western religion is misguided; for instance, he states that animism should be t aken at face value without the rationalization that it symbolically represents a social or political structure and that this by no means indicates that the "pri mitive" religion is held by a less intelligent people group. Horton is quick to point out that for Edward Burnett Tylor in the 1800s, it was acceptable to perce ive "primitives" as having an older version of the same thought processes of the "civilized" and that by looking at western religion with a background of "primi

tive" religions one is able to better ascertain universals in religious progress ion. Through this unity in the study of western and non-western religious system s, one can gain a better perspective of both. He faults the view that modern wes tern religion provides the monopolistic dictionary useful in the interpretation of all other religious languages.[2] When he lived in New Calabar among the Kalabari people, Horton studied the proce sses that lead to social change (Douglas 1969).[4] He attributes an intellectual ist view to religion and rejects the symbolic, Durkeheimian, understanding of re ligion, as patronizing to the so called "primitives" who have a literal approach to their beliefs. However, one of his critics who held to the symbolistic appro ach, anthropologist John H. Beattie, argued that traditional/primitive religions were symbolic because the cultures that held to these beliefs did so in cases w here there was no empirical explanation to a phenomenon; thus it was attributed to the supernatural, such as spirits and any physical representations of such, w ere merely symbolic. Professional career Beginning in 1960s, Horton published his theories of religion in several journal articles and books. His scientific approach to the understanding of "primitive" religion was groundbreaking in an era during which the prevailing view was a We stern elitist conceptualization of "primitive" religion as a construct of less i ntelligent "savages" and "barbarians" (terms now considered to be anachronistic and pejorative). Horton conducted his fieldwork in Nike in northern Igboland, Ni geria and among the Kalabari people of the eastern Niger Delta. In 1965, under the commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria's Department of Antiquities, Horton produced a compilation of 72 Kalabari Ijo Art photographs a ccompanied by a booklet explaining the meaning and utility of these artistic obj ects within the Kalabari culture.[5] The photographs p visual record of native a rt of the Kalabari people, serves as a reference for tradition practices that ar e continually subject to mutating influences through acculturation such as has h appened in the region during the years that followed colonization. Some of his p hotographs are archived at the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI), labelled as MS 345, MS 349. [2] Horton worked as a Senior Research Fellow and a lecturer in social anthropology at the Institute of African Studies for the University of Ibadan before moving t o the University of Port Harcourt as a professor of philosophy and comparative r eligion. At the University of Ibadan he collaborated with Ruth Finnegan who, at that time (1965-1969) was also lecturing at the university in socio-anthropology . This collaboration lead to the work later published in 1973, titled "Modes of Thought: Essay of thinking in Western and non-Western societies". In the mid 197 0s, Professor Horton served as faculty on the Department of Sociology at the Uni versity of Ife now known as Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. Published in 1997, his works Patterns of Thought in the Africa and the West: Mag ic, Religion and Science is a compilation of some of his classic essays publishe d between 1960-1990. His work continues to influence new scholars in the field o f anthropology of religion.[6] As of October 1, 2012, Professor Robin Horton's a ppointment as an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Religious and Cultural Studies at the University of Port Harcourt was renewed for another 5 ye ars.[7] Honors Named as a notable Nigerian historian in the City of Port Harcourt's 2012 bi d for World Book Capital in 2014. Part of the editorial board of the Kiabara Journal of Humanities 1981[8] 1951 Recipient of Scholarship Award in Natural Sciences; New College, Oxford University[3]

2nd Lt., for the Scots Guards.[9] Selected Works Patterns of Thought in Africa and the West: Essays on Magic, Religion and Sc ience (1997) ISBN 9780521369268 Kalabari Sculpture. Dept. of Antiquities, Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1965 Destiny and the Unconscious in West Africa. Africa: Journal of the Internati onal African Institute, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr., 1961), pp. 110 116 African Traditional Thought and Western Science. Africa: Journal of the Inte rnational African Institute, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Jan., 1967), pp. 50-71; Vol. 37, No . 2 (Apr., 1967), pp. 155 187 The Kalabari "Ekine" Society: A Borderland of Religion and Art. Africa: Jour nal of the International African Institute, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 94 11 4 Ritual man in Africa. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute , Vol. 34, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 85 104 The Kalabari World-View: An Outline and Interpretation. Africa: Journal of t he International African Institute, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jul., 1962), pp. 197 220 African Conversion. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr., 1971), pp. 85 108 On the Rationality of Conversion. Part I. Africa: Journal of the Internation al African Institute, Vol. 45, No. 3 (1975), pp. 219 235 On the Rationality of Conversion. Part II. Africa: Journal of the Internatio nal African Institute, Vol. 45, No. 4 (1975), pp. 373 399 The High God: A Comment on Father O'Connell's Paper. Man, Vol. 62, (Sep., 19 62), pp. 137 140 Judaeo-Christian Spectacles: Boon or Bane to the Study of African Religions? (Les lunettes jud?o-chr?tiennes: aubaine ou fl?au pour l'?tude des religions af ricaines?) Cahiers d'?tudes africaines, Vol. 24, Cahier 96 (1984), pp. 391 436 Co-Author Robin Horton, J. D. Y. Peel. Conversion and Confusion: A Rejoinder on Christ ianity in Eastern Nigeria. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienn e des ?tudes Africaines, Vol. 10, No. 3 (1976), pp. 481 498 Max Gluckman, G. Dieterlen and Robin Horton. "Daryll Forde: Further Tributes ". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), pp. 1 10. J. F. Ade Ajayi and Robin Horton. "Michael Crowder, 1934-88". Africa: Journa l of the International African Institute Vol. 59, No. 1, 1989 pp. 110 118