Studying
|
REL 237
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Who is...?
Thomas
Hobbes
Claude
Levi-Strauss
This course is a general survey of some classic studies of religion's
social, political, and psychological functions. This semester, the
course uses the topic of sacrifice, and the history of theories
of sacrifice, as the entry into the issue of the role played by
those cultural practices we group together as "religion."
The course therefore takes a general anthropocentric approach, insomuch
as ritual behavior and ritual institutions are studied as a thoroughly
human, historical forms of behavior that, like all other forms of
human behavior, can be studied in a non-religious manner.
The course consists of readings, lectures, class discussion, student
presentations, and a final essay that requires students to apply
a theory of sacrifice to specific ethnographic data.
Syllabus Fall 2001
(PDF)
Syllabus Spring
2004 (PDF)
Sample
Abstract
Course Resources
If the academic study of religion is a new subject area for you,
please read at least one of the following brief essays (all are
PDF files):
What is the Academic Study of Religion?
Religion:
A Survey
The
Problem of Definition
Looking for an online
dictionary?
Remember, that apart from resources in Gorgas Library's reference
section, the Encyclopedia of Religion, along with other reference
resources and samples of faculty books, are all available in the
Department's library (Manly 200-A), open usually until noon each
day, or by appointment.
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Call for Sacrifice," April 28,
1942
Haitian Vodou Background
Readings (PDF)
For additional background on Haitian vodou, consider the following:
Maya
Deren (1917-1961) avant-garde filmmaker who shot our video,
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti
Basic
Description of Vodou
Basic
Concepts and Glossary
Popular
(mis)representations of Vodou
The
Concept of the Soul in Vodou
National Public Radio's February 9-11 "Radio Expedition"
series on Vodun
in West Africa, specifically in Benin and Togo (small countries
located on the southwest shore of West Africa, immediately west
of Nigeria, and immediately east of Ghana). This is well worth listening
to as background for your final assignment. Note: you will need
a high speed internet connection to listen to these radio reports.
About our Books and Authors...
Jeff Carter (on the right in this photo)
received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in the History
of Religions and is the Founder and Director of the cross-disciplinary
Castle
Rock Institute, in Brevard North Carolina, which combines classes
in the Humanities and oudoor adventure.
The participants in the conference proceeding entitled Violent
Origins--among them are Jonathan
Z. Smith, Rene
Girard, Walter
Burkert, and Burton
Mack--are among the leading scholars of religion studying the
history and function of ritual and sacrifice. Note: Smith's
work is the focus of REL
490 this semester, inspired in part by his recent Aronov
Lecture on our campus.
The Guide to the Study of Religion is an edited collection
of essays that each explores a key analytic concept or method used
by scholars in the study of religion, conceived as a cultural practice.
We will use several of these essays and the book should be useful
to you in many other courses. See the following article on one of
the Guide authors we are reading: William
("Bill") Arnal as well as this link for a sample of
Bruce
Lincoln's most recent work.
Brian Morris's Anthropological Studies of Religion is one
of the most comprehensive surveys of the history of the study of
religion practiced as part of the human sciences. Morris is an emeritus
professor in the Department of Anthropology Goldsmiths
College, University of London.
Read a recent essay by Prof. McCutcheon on the insider/outsider problem (PDF)
