Course Description
Supernatural belief systems the world over range from shamanism, witchcraft, and sorcery to world religions. Course focuses on the cultural relevance and contradictions of contemporary religious beliefs and practices to modern life, especially healthcare. The goal is to understand religious phenomena through the anthropological lens of cultural relativism.
Athena Title
Religion Magic Witchcraft
Pre or Corequisite
ANTH 1102 or ANTH 1102E or ANTH 2120H
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Explain and distinguish between magic, witchcraft, and religion. 2. Recognize and articulate other key terminology, theoretical orientations, guiding principles, and methods of anthropology in understanding religious behavior and practices. 3. Apply the principle of cultural relativism by reflexively examining one's own belief systems and considering reasons why these are both similar and different to the belief systems of other people around the world. 4. Apply a holistic approach toward the analysis of cultural beliefs and practices. 5. Understand ethnographic methods.
Topical Outline
- History of the study of religion in anthropology, how it differs from other fields like theology and religious studies, foundational scholars, and an overview of theoretical approaches to religion as a cultural phenomenon. - Topical introduction to animism, shamanism, totemism, magic, witchcraft, sorcery, and world religions that will highlight rituals, rites of passage, and pilgrimage. - Overview of the role of gender, the body, and boundary maintenance in religion with a focus on the concepts of purity and pollution, sacred and profane. - Other topics that will be explored include environmental cosmologies, mythology, and the role of religious beliefs and rituals in healthcare. - The topics will be explored within specific geographical contexts that include Africa, North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. - Students will also undertake an ethnographic project throughout the semester that will include an observation of a religious event and an interview that they will then analyze and synthesize with class materials.
Syllabus