the weber thesis has inspired a large body of work on the relationship between religion and economy in the societies in which the dogmas of the major religions of the world have been widely adhered to. many anthropologists have also taken up this project. however, because their studies have focused on contemporary societies, they have for the most part reformulated weber's thesis to ask not why in the past did capitalism not emerge in a society with a non-western religion, but instead how people in such a society today confront the expansion of industrial capitalism from the west.