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Description
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What causes religion? What is it? How should it be studied?
This course will examine some of the answers given to these
questions in the field of Religious Studies. We will look
at two different kinds of Afro-Caribbean religions, namely,
Vodou in Haiti and Rastafarianism in Jamaica, as data for
answers to these questions. Since it is our goal to do more
than merely acquire information, we will also examine some
of the classic theories which have claimed to explain or interpret
religion. Besides comparing religious materials, we will compare
these theoretical paradigms. It is hoped that by this procedure
students will learn how to understand religious and cultural
processes, not simply learn a bunch of facts.
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Studying religion in the University
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The study of religion in the university is conducted along
the same lines and for the same purposes as are all other
forms of disciplined, methodical inquiry. The core premise
of the academic study of religion is that religion, whatever
else it may be, is a human activity, and is one element of
the larger cultural creations of human beings. Within the
context of the university, scholars of religion hold themselves
to the same principles of reasoned argument from evidence
as do all other scholars. We do not seek to teach people how
to be religious, but to study religion as a human phenomenon
which is commensurate with all other human phenomena. Our
task is descriptive and analytical, not normative. We seek
to explicate and understand a religious position, not interpret
one religious position in terms of another.
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Syllabus
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Fall
2007 Syllabus (PDF)
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First
Day Syllabus, etc. (PDF)
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Books (required)
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Pals, Daniel.
Seven Theories of Religion
Oxford University Press
ISBN 0195087259
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Barrett, Sr., Leonard E.
The Rastafarians (1997, 20th Anniv Edition)
Beacon Press
ISBN 0807010391
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Desmangles, Leslie G.
The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti
Univ of NC Press
ISBN 0807843938
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Online Readings
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"Religious
Studies Survey"
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Instructions
for Religious Studies Survey (PDF)
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Classroom Presentation Materials
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Unit I
History
of Haiti (PDF)
Ritual
Cycle of Vodou (PDF)
African
Cross (PDF)
Cosmic Iwas
(PDF)
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Unit II
Tylor
on Myth (PDF)
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Durkheim
on Religion (PDF)
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Durkheim
& Totemism (PDF)
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Freud:
Religion and the Unconscious (PDF)
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Freuds
Two Stories of Religion (PDF)
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Karl
Marx: Religion as the "Optiate of the Masses"
(PDF)
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Ideology
& Optiates Marx's Theory of Religion (PDF)
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Unit III
Rasta
1 (PDF)
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Rasta
2 (PDF)
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Rasta
3 (PDF)
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Rasta
'n' Reggae (PDF)
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Rasta
sects (PDF)
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Unit IV
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Geertz
1 (PDF)
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Geertz
2 (PDF)
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Eliade
1 (PDF)
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Eliade
2 (PDF)
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Marx
2 & Review of Explanatory Theories (PDF)
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