NewsCenter

UB Expert

Phillips Stevens, Jr.

Expertise:

• Religion, cults and cultural change
• Ghosts, hauntings, superstition and belief in the occult.

An internationally prominent anthropologist, he has spent 25 years studying religion, cults and cultural change. Brings a historical, psychological and cross-cultural perspective to his analysis of specific events and movements in U.S. and elsewhere. Says there are similarities among cults: many have a charismatic leader, they isolate themselves from the outside world as part of a search for "a higher truth" and the intrusion of outsiders often leads them to take up arms, or prompts a confrontation or tragedy. While mainstream society views mass suicides such as those at Jonestown and involving members of the Order of the Solar Temple and Heaven's Gate with shock, he says their deaths may have powerful religious meaning for those involved.

Stevens says the "general naivete" of Americans regarding beliefs and assumptions of religions other than their own, especially fundamentalist religious groups of the Middle East, hampers their ability to understand discussions about those suspected of being responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Assessment of previous terrorist attacks focused on "poor uneducated young men in socioeconomic dead-end situations who were understood to be fairly easily convinced that by conducting a Jihad in the name of Allah, they would be assured a place in the ranks of Islamic martyrs and a guaranteed eternal life in Paradise, which is far, far better than this life."

Office: 716-645-2302; 645-2082
Email: pstevens@buffalo.edu