ANTH 307 - Religion and Spirituality in World Cultures

(3 credits)
Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or ANTH 111 or consent of instructor
This course uses innovative ethnographies and anthropological theories to explore the development of religion, religiosity, religious diversity, religious specialists, myth, ritual and magic. Questions addressed include: Why is there any religion as opposed to no religion? Why do cultures construct the domain of the sacred? How can we ever know other people’s religious lives? In what ways does religion relate to social order? It also explores topics like religion and holy war; religion and ecology; religion and peacemaking; cultural revivalisms; mysticism and visionary religions; ancestor worship, shamanism, sorcery, healing; scripturalism and world religions; secular religion; fundamentalism; and the place of religion, among other ways of knowing. Offered alternate fall semesters. (CGCL; CSOC; CWRT)