A review of anthropological and sociological works dealing with secularisation in Malta

Abstract

For this dissertation I have chosen to pursue a library research rather than fieldwork, since what I will be covering but rather, is not directly secularisation in Malta, but rather, how secularisation is perceived by different people and different groups. For this I will be looking at writings by both anthropologists and sociologists and comparing and contrasting them. This is going to serve a dual purpose. Firstly I will be dealing directly with Paul Sant Cassia's questioning of the different views and methods of research by anthropologists and sociologists. Secondly, I will be using the convenience of having two seemingly opposing views as an aid, because I believe that it is largely through difference that we can really understand what we are looking at. I will start by creating a context, a general background on theories and definitions of secularisation. I will then proceed to describe the context that is more relevant to me, that is, the Maltese context. Once this outline is defined, I will go into specific ‘case studies', which in my case will be particular writings that deal specifically with Malta and the concept of secularisation.