ANTH 2667: The anthropology of religion—a guide to the unit
Starting points for your research
For your research project, you should a choose a topic that you would like to learn more about, and is related to religion as a cross-cultural and diverse phenomenon. This can seem a little daunting, but there are a lot of books written by anthropologists who have worked all over the world, in many different cultures, and with people who are part of many different religious traditions both large and small. Below are several highly recommended starting points. These books are in the Fisher Library two-hour loan collection. This list is somewhat selective; you are not limited to what is here. If you have a specific place, community or tradition that you want to explore, and you are having trouble finding a good starting point, you should immediately email Ryan for advice. (Librarians are also good sources of research help too!)
Appadurai, Arjun. 1981. Worship and Conflict under Colonial Rule: A South Indian Case. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Asad, Talal. 1993. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Austin-Broos, Diane J. 1997. Jamaica Genesis: Religion and the Politics of Moral Orders. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bao, Jiemin. 2015. Creating a Buddhist Community: A Thai Temple in Silicon Valley. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Bielo, James S. 2011. Emerging Evangelicals: Faith, Modernity, and the Desire for Authenticity. New York: NYU Press.
Blanes, Ruy Llera. 2014. A Prophetic Trajectory: Ideologies of Place, Time and Belonging in an Angolan Religious Movement. New York: Berghahn Books.
Blanes, Ruy, and Diana Espírito Santo, eds. 2013. The Social Life of Spirits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boddy, Janice. 1989. Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan. Madison, Wisc.: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Brightman, Robert. 1993. Grateful Prey: Rock Cree Human-Animal Relationships. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Brown, Candy Gunther. 2011. Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brown, Karen McCarthy. 2011. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. 3rd Revised edition. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Burridge, Kenelm. 1969. New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities. New York: Schocken Books.
Cahn, Peter S. 2011. Direct Sales and Direct Faith in Latin America. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chua, Liana. 2012. The Christianity of Culture: Conversion, Ethnic Citizenship, and the Matter of Religion in Malaysian Borneo. Basingstoke, Eng.: Palgrave Macmillan.
Daswani, Girish. 2015. Looking Back, Moving Forward: Transformation and Ethical Practice in the Ghanaian Church of Pentecost. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press.
Deeb, Lara. 2008. An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i Lebanon. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Elisha, Omri. 2011. Moral Ambition: Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Eskridge, Larry. 2013. God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Falk, Monica Lindberg. 2007. Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand. Singapore: NIAS Press.
Fuller, Christopher John. 2003. The Renewal of the Priesthood: Modernity and Traditionalism in a South Indian Temple. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Geertz, Clifford. 1971. Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Handman, Courtney. 2015. Critical Christianity: Translation and Denominational Conflict in Papua New Guinea. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Harding, Susan Friend. 2000. The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Keane, Webb. 2007. Christian Moderns: Freedom And Fetish in the Mission Encounter. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Kenyon, Susan M. 2012. Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan: The Red Wind of Sennar. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Laidlaw, James. 1995. Riches and Renunciation: Religion, Economy, and Society among the Jains. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lambek, Michael. 1981. Human Spirits: A Cultural Account of Trance in Mayotte. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lofton, Kathryn. 2011. Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Luhrmann, T. M. 2012. When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. New York: Knopf.
Lukens-Bull, Ronald. 2005. A Peaceful Jihad: Negotiating Identity and Modernity in Muslim Java. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Makley, Charlene E. 2007. The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China. 1st ed. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Marshall, Ruth. 2009. Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mayblin, Maya. 2010. Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil: Virtuous Husbands, Powerful Wives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
McIntosh, Janet. 2009. The Edge of Islam: Power, Personhood, and Ethnoreligious Boundaries on the Kenya Coast. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Mittermaier, Amira. 2010. Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Mosse, David. 2013. The Saint in the Banyan Tree: Christianity and Caste Society in India. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Myerhoff, Barbara G. 1976. Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Nelson, John K. 2000. Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Pasieka, Agnieszka. 2015. Hierarchy and Pluralism: Living Religious Difference in Catholic Poland. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Peel, J. D. Y. 2003. Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.
Robbins, Joel. 2004. Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Rocha, Cristina. 2006. Zen in Brazil: The Quest for Cosmopolitan Modernity. Topics in Contemporary Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Romberg, Raquel. 2003. Witchcraft and Welfare: Spiritual Capital and the Business of Magic in Modern Puerto Rico. 1st ed. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press.
Rudnyckyj, Daromir. 2011. Spiritual Economies: Islam, Globalization, and the Afterlife of Development. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Samuels, Jeffrey. 2010. Attracting the Heart: Social Relations and the Aesthetics of Emotion in Sri Lankan Monastic Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Schober, Juliane. 2011. Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies, and Civil Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Stromberg, Peter G. 1993. Language and Self-Transformation: A Study of the Christian Conversion Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tomlinson, Matt. 2009. In God’s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Werbner, Richard. 2011. Holy Hustlers, Schism, and Prophecy: Apostolic Reformation in Botswana. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
Wiegele, Katharine L. 2004. Investing in Miracles: El Shaddai and the Transformation of Popular Catholicism in the Philippines. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.