Zach Gordon
Professor James Nelson
Anthropology 102
Essay #5
11/4/18
Religion
“One of the most important functions of religion is to explain aspects of the physical and
social environment that are important in the lives of individuals and societies and give them
meaning; they provide a cosmology—a system of beliefs that deals with fundamental questions
in the religious and social order”( NANDA ). There is an estimated 4,200 different religions in
the world the oldest thought to be around 10,000 years old. Religion is “a social process that
helps to order society and provide its members with meaning, unity, peace of mind, and the
