Course Schedule:

Week 1:  January 10-12:  Studying Religion through Practice and Social Theory in the Anthropology of Religion.
Read:  Bowen, Chapters 1 and 2.

Defining "Religion;" An Anthropological Approach to Studying Religion; Religion as an Intellectual Activity, Religion in Social Life; and the Psychology of Religion.

Week 2:  January 17-19: Ideas and Practices of "Religion" in Europe and Elsewhere

Read:  Bowen, Chapter 3.

Western Ideas of Religion; Other Religions, Other Models; and Combining Religious Practices in Japan .

Video: Shinto

Week 3:  January 24-26: Ritual Transitions and the Context of Social Relations

Read: Bowen, Chapter 4.

Sequence and the Liminal Stage of Rituals, Grief and Ritual, Initiation, Secrecy, and Fear, and Death and Life Debates
Video: Guardians of the Flutes

Week 4: January 31- February 2: Gender, Religion, and Ethnography.
Read: Bowen, Chapter 5.

Creating Gender through Ritual; Reanalysis through the Lens of Gender.
Articulating Women's Perspectives through Spirits; Religious Patriarchy and its Challenges; Women and Islamic Dress.
Video: Born Again Muslims (Beyond the Veil Series).

Week 5:  February 7-9:  Magic Patterns, Powers, and the Self

Read:  Bowen, Chapter 6.

Magic, Patterns, and Causes; Explaining misfortune; the New Age, and Wicca.

Start reading Covington’s Salvation on Sand Mountain

Week 6:  February 14-16: Magic and Healing Through Religion 

Read: Bowen, Chapter 7.

Healing and Culture; Prayer, Trance, Possession, and Healing; and Modern Magic in Japanese New Religions.
Be prepared to discuss Covington ’s Salvation on Sand Mountain and Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

Start reading Stoller and Olkes: In Sorcery’s Shadow

Midterm: February 16, 2006

Week 7: February 21-23: Explaining Misfortune: Sorcery, Witchcraft and Modernity
Read: Bowen, Chapter 7.

Religion and Explanation; Sorcery as a Focus on Practitioners; Witchcraft and Moral Accounts of Misfortune; Witchcraft as a Characteristic of the Individual; Witchcraft as Satan versus God.

Video: Strange Beliefs

Week 8:  Feb. 28-March 2:  Objects, Images, and Worship 

Be prepared to Discuss In Sorcery’s Shadow

Read: Bowen, Chapter 9.

Conveying Meaning through Symbols; Masks in West Africa ; Images and Offerings in Hinduism; Relics and Images in Catholicism.
Mary and Marys in European Societies

Week 9:  March 7-9: Crossing Cultural Boundaries
Read: Bowen, Chapter 10.

Converting; Translating: Mary in the Americas ; Adapting: Islamic Sacrifice in New Cultures.

Start reading Wolfe’s The Hadj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca

Week 10: Spring Break: March 14-16

Week 11:  March 21-23: Sacred Speech and Divine Power
Read: Bowen, Chapter 11.

The Qur'an as Recitation of God's Speech; the Creative Power of Navajo Speech and Song; Speech and Grace in Protestant Churches.
Video: Sacred Sounds

Weeks 12&13:  March 28-30-April 4-6:  Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, and Identity

Read: Bowen, Chapter 12.

Centers and Directions; Dimensions of Pilgrimage; the Pilgrimage to Mecca .
Contrasts in Pilgrimage from Japan and India .
 Be prepared to Discuss Wolfe’s The Hadj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca

Video: The Shrine.    

Ethnographic Project due April 11, 2006

Week 14: April 11-13: Saints, Visions, and Prophets
Read: Bowen, Chapter 13.

Saints as Exemplars and as Source of Assistance; Prophets and Social Change; Revitalization Movements: Messiahs, Millennia, and Revivals, Mormon Prophecy and Authority, Muhammad and His Successors.

Video: Ghost Dance.

Week 15: April 18-20:  Religion, Violence, and War

Read: Bowen, Chapter 14.

Cults, Sects, and Violence; Struggle and Authority in Islam.

Video: The Holy Warriors (Beyond the Veil Series).

Week 16: April 25-27: The Place of Religions in Modern Nations and States
Read: Bowen, Chapter 15.

Religious Nationalisms; Religion and State Law; Religious Minorities and Public recognition; Religion, Nation, and State in the United States .

Week 17: May 1-5: Finals Week