This module is not currently running in 2021 to 2022.
This module is focused on a diverse range of approaches deployed by anthropologists to the study of religion, and belief and symbolic systems. It introduces a range of an-thropological insights to the ongoing transformations of religious traditions and belief systems vis-à-vis colonial encounters, post-colonial settings, as well as globalisation. The aim of the module is to familiarize students with the complex interactions between lived religious practice, religious traditions, and the ways in which these are intertwined with other domains of social life, politics, economics and ideology. The key topics covered in this module focus on ritual and sacrifice; witchcraft and sorcery; secularisation and fundamentalism; millennialism and conversion; cosmology and ideology; human and non-human relationships; modes of religiosity, rationality and belief; mediation and ethics. This module will develop students’ awareness of the strengths and limitations of anthropological insights compared to other disciplinary perspectives on religion such as theology, cognitive science or sociology.
The teaching structure of the module is 12 1-hour lectures + 12 1-hour seminars = 24 contact hours
This module contributes:
BA in Social Anthropology and BA in Social Anthropology with a Year Abroad; BSc in An-thropology; BSc Anthropology with a year in Japan/year in Europe
Assessment is by 50% coursework and 50% unseen examination. The coursework comprises: contribution to seminar discussion that will be calculated according to a point-based system that will be explained at the beginning of the module (10%); one 15 minutes long seminar presentation based on student’s selection from at least two key readings (10%); one assessed essay of 1,500 words (30%).
Abramson, A. and M. Holbraad eds. (2014) Framing Cosmologies: The Anthropology of Worlds. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Bloch, M. (1992) Prey Into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience. Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press.
Bloch, M. (2012) Anthropology and the Cognitive Challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-sity Press.
Bowie, F. (2006) The Anthropology of Religion: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell
Lambek, M. (ed.) 2001. A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lambek, M. ed. (2013) A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell.
Whitehouse, H. and J. Laidlaw eds. (2007) Religion, Anthropology, and Cognitive Science. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successful completion of this module, students should:
1. Be conversant with the main themes and trends of the anthropology of religion
2. Have cultivated an in-depth critical understanding of the historical depth and cultural diversity of a number of religious traditions, symbolic systems, rituals and practices both inside and outside 'Western' and modern contexts, and at regional, national and global levels
3. Have acquired a critical understanding of the historical development of those anthropological debates and theories
4. Be able to apply anthropological insights to the ongoing transformations of these traditions vis-à-vis colonial encounters, post-colonial settings, as well as globalisation e.g. ritual and sacrifice; witchcraft and sorcery; secularisation and fundamentalism; millennialism and conversion; and to develop awareness of the strengths and limitations of these insights compared to other disciplinary perspectives on social life, politics, economics and ideology
5. Be knowledgeable about key theoretical contributions of the anthropology of re-ligion to the wider discipline and their leading role in shaping wider anthropolog-ical debates and disciplinary reflexivity
6. Be able to analyse and communicate their understanding of anthropological texts in both written and spoken form
7. Be able to construct coherent and logical arguments, particularly in written form, which combine theoretical writings with the discussion of ethnographic data.
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