For development studies to fulfil its potential by providing
analysis of social phenomena for the sake of improving people’s
lives, it is important to adopt an interpretivist method
of analysis. This can portray the religious values and beliefs
held by adherents, as well as the meaning of rituals in which
they participate and symbols they use, through their eyes as
far as possible. Social scientists working in development studies
should strive not to interpose their own religious and cultural
assumptions between themselves and their subjects, but
recognize that ultimately, observation is always filtered by
the observer’s own lenses. Judging whether the religious values
and practices on which they report are innocuous with respect
to development objectives can potentially make a positive contribution
to the achievement of such objectives, but the reality
that the specification of development objectives is itself influenced,
often implicitly, by the cultural assumptions of domestic
and international development actors (and social scientists)
external to the groups under study, is not to be forgotten.