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

MYTH, RITUAL, AND MAGIC Anthropology 419-001 an introduction to the anthropology of religion for the advanced student

Fall, 2001 Professor: Dr. M.D. Murphy Class Time and Place: Wednesdays 2-4:30 p.m., 119 ten Hoor Office: 24C ten Hoor Office Hrs: Tues & Thurs: 2-3:30 p.m.; & by appointment email: mdmurphy@tenhoor.as.ua.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course of lectures, discussions, films and readings introduces the advanced student to anthropological approaches to the study of religion. Topics to be covered include myth, ritual, magic, witchcraft, shamanism, the prehistory of religion, pilgrimage, marianism and the social organization and development of religion. This course carries "W" designation, therefore writing proficiency is required for a passing grade. Prerequisites: 12 hours in anthropology, graduate standing, or permission of the instructor.

READINGS

A photocopied compilation of the readings (articles and book chapters) is available at the University Suppy Store. See schedule of readings below.

EXAMINATIONS

• Midterm Exam: October 24.
• Final Exam: Thursday, December 13, 2-4:30 p.m..

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Each writing assignment requires carefully edited prose and will be graded for intellectual content, originality, comprehension of reading material, coherence, logic, organization, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and prose style. Writing proficiency is an absolute requirement for passing the course.

Reviews Every third week week each student must submit a review of one of that week's assigned readings. For organizational purposes each student will be assigned to one of three groups (Groups A , B, and C) and will be responsible for a total of four reviews. The review should be a minimum of 3 pages long (750 words) and must be typewritten, double-spaced, paginated, stapled, and begin with a complete citation of the work being reviewed. Reviews may be returned for rewriting. Not following the  General Guidelines for Reviews and Papers will cause points to be deducted. Students are responsible for retaining copies of all written work.

GENERAL WEB PAGES FOR THE COURSE

• Course Web Page on the Anthropology of Religion This page is designed specifically to assist the students in this course.
• Catholicism  
• Anthropology of Roman Catholicism Bibliography
• Anthropology Department Web Site: This web site provides comprehensive information about UA anthropology programs, faculty and facilties.
• Library Research in Anthropology Web Site: A guide to conducting library research in anthropology at UA.
• Anthropology on the Internet: A jump site to interesting anthropology sites on the Internet.
• Writing Tools for Anthropology Students: A guide to improving your writing.

CLASS PARTICIPATION

Each week students will be assigned to lead the discussion of particular readings. Student performance of this task, as well as general contribution to discussion, will be evaluated. Class participation will be evaluated separately from attendance. That is, the quality of participation is assessed independent of deducting points for poor attendance.

PROMPTNESS AND PUNCTUALITY

All class assignments must be completed on schedule or the grade will suffer

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Attendance at every class meeting is a non-negotiable requirement. More than two unexcused absence will lower the grade for the course at the rate of 5% per absence.

GRADING POLICY

The final grade for the course will be based on the following formulae:

Reviews = 30%; Midterm = 30%; Final = 30%; Class Participation = 10%

MAKE-UP EXAMINATION POLICY & TERM PAPERS

Students who miss the midterm--for whatever reason--will be required to write a 15-20 page, typewritten paper on a topic approved by the instructor in advance. Those who wish to substitute a paper for the mid-term may do so but plans should be made early in the term.

====TOPICAL SCHEDULE & READING ASSIGNMENTS====

AUGUST 22: ORIENTATION TO THE COURSE

AUGUST 29: THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION (Group A)

• Spiro, Melford E. (1987) Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation. In Culture and Human Nature: The Theoretical Papers of Melford E. Spiro. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 187-222. 
• Lowie, Robert (1963) Religion in Human Life. American Anthropologist 65:532-542. 
• Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1962) Religion and the Anthropologists: The Aquinas Lecture, 1959. In E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Social Anthropology and Other Essays. New York: The Free Press. Pp. 155-171.
  John K. Nelson's Field Statement on the Anthropology of Religion
  James Dow's Bibliography for the Anthropology of Religion

SEPTEMBER 5: THEORY IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION I (Group B)

Intellectualist, Functionalist and Psychodynamic Approaches

• Tylor, E.B. (1871) Animism.  From Primitive Culture. London: John Murray.
• Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1945) Religion and Society. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 75: 33-43.
• Spiro, Melford E. (1987) Religious Systems as Culturally Constituted Defense Mechanisms. In Culture and Human Nature: Theoretical Papers of Melford E. Spiro. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp.145-160.

19th Century Social Evolutionism

Psychoanalyisis    Culture & Personality

Functionalism

SEPT. 12: THEORY IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION II (Group C) Marxist, Cultural Materialist, and Postmodernist Approaches

• Crandon-Malamud, Libbet (1993) Blessings of the Virgin in Capitalist Society:The Transformation of a Rural Bolivian Fiesta. American Anthropologist 95(3): 574-596.
• Harris, Marvin (1966) The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cows. Current Anthropology 7(1): 51-64.
• Scott, David (1992) Anthropology and Colonial Discourse: Aspects of the Demonological Construction of Sinhala Cultural Practice. Cultural Anthropology 7(3): 301-326.

Marxism American Materialism Cultural Materialism

Literary Theories    Postmodernism I    Postmodernim II

SEPTEMBER 19: MYTH (Group A) 

	Doty, William (1986) The Many Dimensions of Myths and Rituals. In Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Pp. 1-40. Dundes, Alan (1962) Earth-Diver: Creation of the Mythopeic Male. American Anthropologist 64: 1032-1051. Leach, Edmund R. (1982) Genesis as Myth. Discovery (May, 1982). Pp. 30-35.           Myths and Mythology

Demarest, Arthur (1987) Archaeology and Religion. In The Encyclopedia of Religion. Mircea Eliade, editor. New York: Macmillan. vol. I:372-379. Rice, Patricia C. (1981) Prehistoric Venuses: Symbols of Motherhood or Womanhood? Journal of Anthropological Research 37(3): 402-414. Knight, Vernon J. (1986) The Institutional Organization of Mississippian Religion. American Antiquity 51(4): 675-687.           Religion and Magic in Archaeology           Pepperdine Institute for the Study of Archaeology and Religion           Rutgers Archaeology and Religious Art Site           Religion and Magic in Archaeology           Pepperdine Institute for the Study of Archaeology and Religion           Rutgers Archaeology and Religious Art Site

OCTOBER 3:  RITUAL (Group C)

• Turner, Victor (1964) Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage. Tlhe Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. University of Washington Press. Pp. 4-20.
• Murphy, Michael D. (1988) The Culture Of Spontaneity and the Politics of Enthusiasm: Catholic Pentecostalism in a California Parish. In Culture and Christianity: The Dialectics of Transformation. George Saunders, ed.. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Pp. 135-158.
• Gerholm, Tomas (1988) On Ritual: A Postmodernist View. Ethnos 53(III-IV): 190-203.
  Ritual in Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East
  Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
  Sharon Morris' Bibliography of Social Anthropological Theories of Ritual

OCTOBER 10: MAGIC (Group A)

• Frazer, Sir James (1911-15) Sympathetic Magic. From The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (12 vols. 3d ed. Cambridge University Press.
• Malinowski, Bronislaw (1955) Rational Mastery by Man of His Surroundings. From Magic, Science and Religion. New York: Doubleday. pp. 25-35.
• Argyrou, Vassos (1993) Under a Spell: The Strategic Use of Magic in Greek Cypriot Society. American Ethnologist 20(2): 256-271.
  Magic
  On the Anthropology of Magic
  A Magic Bibliography
  Magic Bibliographies & Resources

OCTOBER 17: FILMS ON ETHNOGRAPHY OF RELIGION

OCTOBER 24:    MIDTERM    

OCTOBER 31: WITCHCRAFT & SORCERY (Group B)

• Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1937) Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events. From Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxfored: Clarendon Press.
• Obeyesekere, Gananath (1975) Sorcery, Predmediated Murder, and the Canalization of Aggression in Sri Lanka. Ethnology 14(1):1-24.
• Cheal, David and Jane Leverick (1999) Working Magic in Neo-Paganism. Journal of Ritual Studies 13(1): 7-19

Witchcraft    Neo-Paganism

NOVEMBER 7: SHAMANS & OTHER RELIGOUS SPECIALISTS (Group C)

Bogoras, Waldemar (1904-1909) Shamanistic Performance in the Inner Room. From The Chukchee, Vol VII of Franz Boas (ed.) The Jesup North pacific Expedition. American Museum of Natural History. Rasmussen, Knud (1929) A Shaman's Journey to the Sea Spirit.   From Report of the Fifth Thkule Expedition, 1921-1924. Vol. VII, No. I. Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlage.   pp. 123-129. Levi-Strauss, Claude (1963) The Sorcerer and His Magic. From Structural Anthropology. Basic Books. Turner, Victor (1972) Religious Specialists. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. David L. Sills, ed. Vol. 13, pp. 437-44.           Shamanism   Shamanism and Healing  Shamanism Overview

NOVEMBER 14: MARIANISM     (Group A)

Sered, Susan (1991) Rachel, Mary, and Fatima. Cultural Anthropology 6(2): 131-146. Bax, Mart (1990) The Madonna of Medjugorje: Religious Rivalry and the Formation of a Devotional Movement in Yugoslavia. Anthropological Quarterly 63(2): 63-75. Murphy, Michael :Dean (n.d.) Identifying the Virgin Mary. Unpublished ms.           The Cult of the Virgin Mary

NOVEMBER 21: PILGRIMAGE (Group B)

Turner, Victor (1973) The Center Out There: Pilgrim's Goal. History of Religions 21(3): 191-230. Cohen, Erik (1992) Pilgrimage and Tourism: Convergence and Divergence. In Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage. Alan Morinis, editor. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. pp. 47-64. Murphy, Michael Dean (1994) Class, Costume and Community in an Andalusian Pilgrimage. Anthropological Quarterly 67:49-61.           Pilgrimage             Santiago de Compostela           Lourdes Grotto WebCam

Hajar al-Aswad (The Black Stone)

NOVEMBER 28: DISCREDITING RELIGION: Voodoo & Satanism (Group C)

Brown, Karen McCarthy (1987) Voodoo. In The Encyclopedia of Religion. Mircea Eliade, editor. New York: Macmillan. Fritscher, John (1972) Straight From the Witch's Mouth. From Popular Witchcraft. Bowling Green University Popular Press. pp, 89-90, 107-123. Hicks, Robert D. (1991) The Police Model of Satanic Crime. In The Satanism Scare, J.T. Richardson, Joel Best and David G. Bromley, eds.. NY: Aldine de Gruyter. pp. 175-189. (RA)           Voodoo   Satanism   Halloween

DECEMBER 5: RELIGION TRANSFORMED AND TRANSFORMING

Wallace, A.F.C. (1956) Revitalization Movements. American Anthropologist 58: 264-281. Wood, Peter W. (1992) Pilgrimage and Heresy: The Transformation of Faith at a Shrine in Wisconsin. In Sacred Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage. Alan Morinis, editor. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. pp.115-134. Behar, Ruth (1990) The Struggle for the Church: Popular Anticlericalism and Religiosity in Post-Franco Spain. In Religious Orthodoxy and Popular Faith in European Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 76-112.           Academic Studies of New Religions           Religion, Politics & the State

Wovoka

DECEMBER 13: FINAL EXAM Thursday, 2-4:30 pm.

Other Web Sites

Various Religions

General Guidelines for Reviews and Papers
(NOTE: Fail to follow these guidelines at your peril)

• You are responsible for keeping a separate copy of every written assignment that you turn in.
• Your name should appear on every page of every written assignment.
• Number every page.
• Staple the pages together (no paper clips, no plastic covers).
• At the top of the first page of each review provide complete bibliographic information for each article or book chapter. Refer to the American Anthropologist Style Guide for instructions in proper citation style. Simple examples include the following:

Journal Article
Smith, Clarence D. 1967 Prestige and Culture: Early Theories. American Anthropologist 16:214-245.

Book
Smith, Clarence D. 1953 Economics of the Pygmies. 2nd edition. London: Kegan Paul.

Chapter in book with editor(s)
Rohlen, Thomas P. 1981 Education: Policies and Prospects. In Koreans in Japan: Ethnic Conflicts and Accommodation. C. Lee and George DeVos, eds. Pp. 182-222. Berkeley: University of California Press.

 Writing Tips

• Written work will be graded for IDEAS, ORGANIZATION, EXPRESSION.
• The three secrets to good writing are : Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
• Never suggest (by the absence of quotation marks and other citation devices) that someone else's writing is your own. Do not use extensive quotations in a review. Cut-and-paste authorship is not acceptable.
• When you think you have finished your review, read it aloud to yourself, then make changes to rid it of awkwardness, confusion and redundancy.

For additional help in composition, check out the following web sites:

• Elements of Style William Strunk and E.B. White's classic guide to fine writing in English.
• Writing Tools for Anthropology Students at UA
• The University of Victoria's Hypertext Writers' Guide

Geographical Distribution of Case Studies

Return to M.D. Murphy's Page
Return to Anthropology Department Web Page