the anthropological study of buddhism and society,or more precisely,the study of religion and society in those countries where theravada buddhism is dominant[sri lanka, burma/myanmar,thailand,cambodia,and laos]has since the early 1860s, unlike the anthropological studies of hinduism,been strongly influenced by weber.some of this influence can be traced through such scholars as ames, who were trained at harvard,or by those suchas myself,who had a close relationship with the "harvard school"a second strand is associated with spiro and nash,two scholars who were at the universtiy of chicago in the1950s,where they were strongly influenced by the work on development bing undertaken in other deparments at chicago at the time. both worked in burma in the late1950s. spiro's distinctive synthesis between weberian and freudian approaches in his work on burma markedly shaped the work of his student,obeyesekere.