Ryan Schram's Anthrocyclopaedia

Anthropology presentations and learning resources

User Tools

Site Tools


2667:weekly_plan_and_assigned_readings

**This is an old revision of the document!**

Weekly plan and assigned readings

I. Defining religion

01.03 Why is religion interesting and problematic?
We will discuss the unique weekly cycle this class follows, the assignments, and the research project. We will also share ideas about why religion is interesting and problematic.
12.03 Bring an example of a religious practice you would like to know more about.
Read: Unit outline and assignments, Durkheim*
Write: Describe an example of a religious practice, and how you learned about it.
Research: Tutorials will meet in Fisher Library this week for a library lab session.
19.03 Why do so many, perhaps all, cultures have religions?
Read: Douglas, Ortner
Write: State your answer to the question of the week, and explain your position using examples and reasoning.
Research: This is a good time to browse the stacks. Read widely in several topic areas, and find out what you are curious about.
26.03 Why would someone join a religious commune?
Read: Palmer
Write: State your answer to the week's question, and explain your position using examples and reasoning.
Research: By now, it would be good to have found one or more detailed ethnographies (p. 6) on your topic. Consult with Ryan if you want some ideas.

II. Religion and the economy

02.04 Protestant theology created Western modernity.
Read: Haynes, Robbins, Robbins*, Cannell*
Write: Discuss the following: Each of these readings presents Christianity in relation to personhood. What do the authors claim about this? What was their best evidence for their claims?
09.04 Classes cancelled for Christian-Jewish syncretic festivals.
16.04 Religion is the opiate of the masses, or religious ideas give legitimacy to the social order and power structure.
Read: Rudnyckyj, Wiegele, Cahn*
Write: Agree or disagree with this week's claim. Explain your reasoning and reflect on the facts you take from Rudnyckyj, Wiegele, and your own reading.
Research: Topic statement due on Wednesday, 11:59 p.m.

III. Enchantments

23.04 Why do people pray for health in West Africa?
Read: Omenyo, Meyer*, Jorgensen*, Werbner*
Write: Give one question and one observation about 'spiritual warfare'.
Research: What is the main question - the why question - you want to ask? How many different ways can it be answered?
30.04 Witchcraft and sorcery are out of control in PNG.
Read: Jorgensen, Wesch*, Schram*
Write: Reject or defend the above thesis. Propose some possible solutions and discuss the pros and cons of them.
Research: Progress report due on Wednesday, 11:59 p.m.
07.05 You can learn to be possessed.
Read: Luhrmann, and watch Deren online
Write: Give one question and one observation about 'hearing God' and other Vineyard practices.
Research: Start reading the 'feed forward' papers and consider how you would advise the authors to make their claims stronger.

IV. Religion and public life

14.05 The world is getting more secular. Some conservatives just haven't caught up.
Read: Deeb, Mahmood*, Harding*, Brenner*
Write: Why do we see an apparent increase in 'public piety' in late modernity, both in the US and the Islamic world?
Research: Writing workshop in tutorial.
21.05 Liberal democracies must outlaw blasphemy in order to promote tolerance.
Read: Keane, Weill*
Write: Take a stand on this week's claim and discuss your reasons based on the readings and other facts you have found.
Research: Thesis statement and paper outline due on Wednesday, 11:59 p.m.
28.05 Religion can change the world.
Read: Hertzberg, Adams*
Write: Take a stand on the claim that religious movements, political or not, produce greater social change than secular political activism.
Research: Writing workshop in tutorial.
11.06 Final paper due on 11 June.

Unit readings

Required readings

Deeb, Lara. 2009. “Piety Politics and the Role of a Transnational Feminist Analysis.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15: S112–26.

Deren, Maya, Cherel Ito, and Teiji Ito. ca. 1947–1954. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Documentary. http://youtu.be/2YIO_dxyJio?t=1m27s.

Douglas, Mary. 2002 [1966]. “The Abominations of Leviticus.” In Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, 51–71. London: Routledge.

Haynes, Naomi. 2012. “Pentecostalism and the Morality of Money: Prosperity, Inequality, and Religious Sociality on the Zambian Copperbelt.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 18 (1): 123–39. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9655.2011.01734.x.

Hertzberg, Michael. 2014. “The March of the Monks: On the Political Repertoire of Buddhist Monks in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.” In The Great Diversity: Trajectories of Asian Development, edited by Christopher M. Dent and Camilla Brautaset, 103–16. Wageningen, Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers.

Jorgensen, Dan. 2014. “Preying on Those Close to Home: Witchcraft Violence in a Papua New Guinea Village.” The Australian Journal of Anthropology [Early View]. doi:10.1111/taja.12105.

Keane, Webb. 2009. “Freedom and Blasphemy: On Indonesian Press Bans and Danish Cartoons.” Public Culture 21 (1): 47–76. doi:10.1215/08992363–2008–021.

Luhrmann, Tanya M. 2004. “Metakinesis: How God Becomes Intimate in Contemporary U.S. Christianity.” American Anthropologist 106 (3): 518–28. doi:10.1525/aa.2004.106.3.518.

Omenyo, Cephas. 2011. “New Wine in an Old Wine Bottle?: Charismatic Healing in the Mainline Churches in Ghana.” In Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing, edited by Candy Gunther Brown, 231–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ortner, Sherry B. 1973. “Sherpa Purity.” American Anthropologist 75 (1): 49–63. doi:10.2307/672339.

Palmer, Susan J. 2010. “The Twelve Tribes: Preparing the Bride for Yahshua’s Return.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 13 (3): 59–80. doi:10.1525/nr.2010.13.3.59.

Robbins, J. 1998. “Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Desire among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Ethnology 37 (4): 299–316. doi:10.2307/3773784.

Rudnyckyj, Daromir. 2009. “Market Islam in Indonesia.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15: S183–201. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9655.2009.01549.x.

Wiegele, Katharine L. 2013. “Reframing Suffering and Success through the El Shaddai Movement of the Philippines.” Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 5 (2): 66–88. http://ejournals.ph/index.php?journal=dlsu-apssr&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=6741.

Recommended readings

Brenner, Suzanne. 1996. “Reconstructing Self and Society: Javanese Muslim Women and ‘the Veil.’” American Ethnologist 23 (4): 673–97. doi:10.1525/ae.1996.23.4.02a00010.

Adams, Brad. Burma–Crackdown: Repression of the 2007 Popular Protests in Burma. Human Rights Watch. New York, December 2007. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/burma1207web.pdf.

Cahn, Peter S. 2006. “Building Down and Dreaming Up: Finding Faith in a Mexican Multilevel Marketer.” American Ethnologist 33 (1): 126–42. doi:10.1525/ae.2006.33.1.126.

Cannell, Fenella. 2005. “The Christianity of Anthropology*.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (2): 335–56. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9655.2005.00239.x.

Durkheim, Emile. 2008 [1912]. “The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.” In A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion, edited by Michael Lambek, 34–47. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing.

Harding, Susan. 1991. “Representing Fundamentalism: The Problem of the Repugnant Cultural Other.” Social Research 58 (2): 373–93.

Jorgensen, Dan. 2005. “Third Wave Evangelism and the Politics of the Global in Papua New Guinea: Spiritual Warfare and the Recreation of Place in Telefolmin.” Oceania 75 (4): 444–61.

Mahmood, Saba. 2001. “Rehearsed Spontaneity and the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of Şalat.” American Ethnologist 28 (4): 827–53. doi:10.1525/ae.2001.28.4.827.

Meyer, Birgit. 1998. “‘Make a Complete Break with the Past.’ Memory and Post-Colonial Modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostalist Discourse.” Journal of Religion in Africa 28 (3): 316–49. doi:10.2307/1581573.

Robbins, Joel. 2001. “God Is Nothing but Talk: Modernity, Language, and Prayer in a Papua New Guinea Society.” American Anthropologist, New Series, 103 (4): 901–12.

Schram, Ryan. 2010. “Witches’ Wealth: Witchcraft, Confession, and Christianity in Auhelawa, Papua New Guinea.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16 (4): 726–42. doi:10.1111/j.1467–9655.2010.01650.x.

Weill, Nicolas. 2006. “What’s in a Scarf?: The Debate on Laïcité in France.” French Politics, Culture & Society 24 (1): 59–73.

Wesch, Michael. 2007. “A Witch Hunt in New Guinea: Anthropology on Trial.” Anthropology and Humanism 32 (1): 4–17. doi:10.1525/ahu.2007.32.1.4.

2667/weekly_plan_and_assigned_readings.1422147690.txt.gz · Last modified: 2015/01/24 17:01 by Ryan Schram (admin)