Department of Anthropology College of Arts & Sciences The University of Alabama

Myth, Ritual, and Magic
ANT 419
(Studies in the Anthropology of Religion)

 

Charles W. Nuckolls, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama

telephone: 348-8202
email: cnuckoll@tenhoor.as.ua.edu
webpage: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/nuckolls.htm

This course explores the anthropology of religion from two perspectives, sociological and psychodynamic.  The first is associated with the sociology of Max Weber, and focuses on the relationships between religious orientation and attitudes toward the world, especially as these attitudes inform economy.  Why did capitalism arise first, and flourish best, in the Protestant countries of northern Europe?  Weber proposes that religion, in this case, provided the ideological underpinning necessary to the formation of the capitalist profit motives.  But if that is so, how did capitalism eventually succeed in countries that are not Protestant, or even Christian, such as Japan?  We will ask how the Weber hypothesis works when it is applied cross-culturally.  The ethnographic focus will be Japan.  The second perspective we will examine is psychodynamic, and informed first and foremost by the theories of Sigmund Freud.  How do religious symbols become motivating in individual experience?  Why do some people, but not others, become religious practitioners?  Here our readings concentrate on the ethnography of South Asia, both Hindu India and Buddhist Sri Lanka.  We will look in detail at the life experiences of spirit mediums and diviners, of those who claim to speak with the gods, and of those who claim to be gods themselves.

 Requirements

This is reading and writing intensive course.  All students must keep up with, if not ahead, of the assigned readings, and must be prepared to discuss them in class.  There will be two “pop” quizzes through the semester (more if needed) to test reading comprehension.  Two papers will be assigned.  The first, due March 1st, will address the topic of Part One, “religion and economy.”  The second one will focus on the psychodynamics of religious experience, and will be due the last day of class.  In addition, a research report based on the final paper will be presented in class, and the presenter will lead a discussion on his or her topic.  The last two weeks of the course will be given to these presentations.

 Books Available for Purchase:

 (Note:  articles to be read in Weeks 3, 4, and 14 are available in the Anthropology lounge, in the basement of tenHoor Hall.  Check out a copy and make your own, returning the original to the lounge within 24 hours.  Do this soon, or you will experience frustration and delay later.)

 Part One:  Religion and Economy -- the Weber Hypothesis

            January 11 (Thursday):  Orientation to Part One

   Week One: Religion and Economy

 January 16 (Tuesday):

            Weber, Max  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 

January 18 (Thursday):

             Weber, Max  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

 Week Two: Religion and Economy

         January 23 (Tuesday): 

            Weber, Max  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

        January 25 (Thursday):

             Weber, Max  con’t.

 Week Three:  Religion and Explanation

         January 30 (Tuesday):

             Nuckolls, Charles “The Anthropology of Explanation,”  Anthropological Quarterly

         February 1 (Thursday)

             Nuckolls, Charles “Genesis”

 Week Four: The Weber Hypothesis in Japan -- Does it Work?

        February 6 (Tuesday):

Pelzel, John  “Human nature in the Japanese myth,” In T. Lebra and W. Lebra eds. Japanese Culture and Behavior.  Honolulu: U of Hawaii Press, 1986.

        February 8 (Thursday)

           Rohlen, Thomas “‘Spiritual education’ in a Japanese Bank,” in Lebra and Lebra

 Week Five:  Japan, con’t.

        February 13 (Tuesday)

           Davis, Winston  Part One, pp. 1-45.

         February 15 (Thursday)

           Davis, Winston  Part Two, pp. 45-113.

 Week Six:  Japan, con’t.

        February 20 (Tuesday)

             Davis, Winston  Part Three, pp. 113-189.

        February 22 (Thursday)

            Davis, Part Three, con’t

 Week Seven :  Japan, con’t.

         February 27 (Tuesday)

            Davis, Winston  Part Four, pp.  229-271

         March 1 (Thursday)

            First Paper Due at the Beginning of Class

 Part Two:  Religion and the Self

Week Eight:  Religion and the Self -- Psychodynamic Approaches

         March 6 (Tuesday):

            Freud, Sigmund  Future of an Illusion. 

         March 8 (Thursday)

            Freud, con’t

 Week Nine:    

        March 13 (Tuesday)

            Freud, con’t.

         March 15 (Thursday):

             Freud, con’t.

 Week Ten:  Religion in South Asia

         March 20 (Tuesday):  Introduction

         March 22 (Thursday):  No Class.  Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting

Week Eleven:  SPRING BREAK

Week Twelve:  Spirit Possession and Division

         April 3 (Tuesday):

            Obeyesekere, G.  Medusa’s Hair

         April 5 (Thursday): 

            Obeyesekere, G.  con’t

 Week Thirteen:  Spirit Possession and Division con’t.

         April 10 (Tuesday):

             Obeyesekere, G.  con’t

         April 12 (Thursday):

             Obeyesekere, G.  con’t

 Week Fourteen:  Spirit Possession in Jalari Possession

         April 17 (Tuesday):

             Nuckolls, C.  “Spirit Possession,”

         April 18 (Thursday)

             Nuckolls, C.  “Notes on a Defrocked Priest,”

 Week Fifteen: Student Research Reports

        April 24 (Tuesday): reports

         April 26 (Thursday):  reports

 Week Sixteen: Student Research Reports

         May 1 (Tuesday): reports

         May 3 (Thursday): Final Paper due at the beginning of class

 

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