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Table of Contents
ANTH 2667: The anthropology of religion—a guide to the unit
Weekly plan and assigned readings
I. Defining religion
| 05.03 | Why is religion interesting and problematic? |
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| 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. |
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| 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? |
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| 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? |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 16.04 | Religion is the opiate of the masses, or religious ideas give legitimacy to the social order and power structure. |
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| 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? |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
| 04.06 | To be revealed... |
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| 11.06 | Final paper due on 11 June. |
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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.