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Anthropology of Religion
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:5.00
Study Course Accepted:08.03.2024 13:53:46
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | KSK_044 | LQF level: | Level 7 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 4.00 | ECTS: | 6.00 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Sociology; Social Anthropology | Target Audience: | Social Anthropology | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Michael Francis Strmiska | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf rsu[pnkts]lv | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 6 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 12 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 18 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 36 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 48 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | Knowledge of the major social theories and the main theoretical directions in social anthropology is desirable. | ||||||||
| Objective: | To provide a general overview of the anthropology of religion, summarising the main topics and concepts in the study of religion that have been addressed by social anthropologists and representatives of other social sciences as well as the humanities. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | The Place of Religious Research in Anthropology | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 6.00 | auditorium | |||||||
| 2 | The Main Directions of the Anthropology of Religion, (e.g. Ritual, Various Religious Traditions, Religion and Science) | Lectures | 5.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 6.00 | auditorium | |||||||
| 3 | Main Problems and Studies of Religion, Study of Anthropological Literature | Classes | 6.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | Students must study the required readings independently and prepare the required papers and oral presentations. Students prepare for seminars independently, visit the library and use available digital resources to prepare for face-to-face classes. The specific objectives are updated annually and described on the e-learning platform. To assess the overall quality of the study course, the student must complete the course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | Independent work (50%), a written exam (50%). | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | |||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | As a result of completing the study course, students gain knowledge of the most important theories in the anthropology of religion, becoming familiar with the main concepts and topics in the anthropology of religion and the approaches of different theoretical schools. | ||||||||
| Skills: | As a result of completing the study course, students will be able to analyse and compare theoretical texts and gain skills in presenting opinions in written or oral form, based on both newly acquired theoretical knowledge and empirical observations. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | Students will be able to critically evaluate the theoretical and empirical material covered in this study course, use it to interpret and analyse other theoretical and empirical material, and apply it to practical problem solving and research. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Lambek, M., ed. 2008. A reader in the anthropology of religion. Oxford: Blackwell. | ||||||||
| 2 | Gīrcs, K. 1998. Kultūru interpretācija. Rīga: Izdevniecība AGB. (latviešu plūsmai) | ||||||||
| 3 | Asad, T. 2003. Formations of the secular : Christianity, Islam, modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press. | ||||||||
| 4 | Bowie, Fiona. 2008. 'Anthropology of Religion.' Religion Compass 2(5):862-874. | ||||||||
| 5 | Engelke, Matthew. 2002. 'The problem of belief: Evans-Pritchard and Victor Turner on the inner life.' Anthropology Today 18(6):3-8. | ||||||||
| 6 | Miner, Horace. 1956. 'Body ritual among the Nacirema.' American Anthropologist 58(3):503-07. | ||||||||
| 7 | Durkheim, Emile. 2008. 'The Elementary Forms of Religions Life.' In A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion edited by Michael Lambek, 34-49. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley-Blackwell. | ||||||||
| 8 | Geertz, Clifford. 1993. 'Religion as a cultural system.' In The interpretation of cultures: selected essays, 87-125. New York: Basic Books. | ||||||||
| 9 | Asad, Talal. 2008. 'The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category.' In A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion edited by Michael Lambek, 115-132. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley-Blackwell | ||||||||
| 10 | Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1976. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Chapter 1 AND Chapter 2 | ||||||||
| 11 | Geschiere, Peter. 1998. 'Globalization and the power of indeterminate meaning: witchcraft and spirit cults in Africa and East Asia.' Development and Change 29(4):811-837. | ||||||||
| 12 | Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1967. 'The story of Asdiwal.' In The structural study of myth and totemism edited by Edmund Leach, 1-47. Tavistock Publications Londres. | ||||||||
| 13 | Douglas, Mary. 1967. 'The meaning of myth.' In The structural study of myth and totemism, 49-69. London: Tavistock. | ||||||||
| 14 | Turner, Victor. 1987. 'Betwixt and between: The liminal period in rites of passage.' In: The forest of symbols. 46-55. | ||||||||
| 15 | Gennep, Arnold van. 2010. The rites of passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 1 AND Chapter 2 (pp 1-25) | ||||||||
| 16 | Bloch, Maurice. 1992. Prey into hunter: the politics of religious experience. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press. Chapter 2: Initiation | ||||||||
| 17 | Hertz, Robert. 2004. 'A Contribution to the Study of the Collective Representation of Death.' In Death and the right hand, 197-212. London: Cohen and West. | ||||||||
| 18 | Lienhardt, Godfrey. 1961a. 'The control of experience: symbolic action.' In Divinity and experience: the religion of the Dinka, 252-297. Clarendon Press Oxford. | ||||||||
| 19 | Lienhardt, Godfrey. 1967. 'Burial Alive.' In Divinity and experience: the religion of the Dinka, 298-320. Clarendon Press Oxford. | ||||||||
| 20 | Chau, Adam Yuet. 2008. 'The sensorial production of the social.' Ethnos 73(4):485-504. | ||||||||
| 21 | Luhrmann, Tanya M. 2007. 'How do you learn to know that it is God who speaks?' In Learning religion: Anthropological approaches, 83-102. New York, Oxford, Berghahn Books | ||||||||
| 22 | Bowie, Fiona. 2003. 'An anthropology of religious experience: spirituality, gender and cultural transmission in the Focolare movement.' Ethnos 68(1):49-72. | ||||||||
| 23 | Mahmood, Saba. 2001. 'Rehearsed spontaneity and the conventionality of ritual: Disciplines of \cSalat.' American Ethnologist 28(4):827-853. | ||||||||
| 24 | Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1984. Medusa's hair : an essay on personal symbols and religious experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (p 13-52) | ||||||||
| 25 | Coleman, Simon. 2002. 'Do you believe in pilgrimage? Communitas, contestation and beyond.' Anthropological theory 2(3):355-368. | ||||||||
| 26 | Wolf, Eric R. 1958. 'The Virgin of Guadalupe: a Mexican national symbol.' The Journal of American Folklore 71(279):34-39 | ||||||||
| 27 | Conklin, Beth A. 1995. '"thus are our bodies, thus was our custom": mortuary cannibalism in an Amazonian society.' American Ethnologist 22(1):75-101. | ||||||||
| 28 | Danforth, L M. 1982. 'Death in Potamia.' In The death rituals in rural Greece, 9-23. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. | ||||||||
| 29 | Elmore, Mark. 2014. 'Contemporary Hindu Approaches to Death. Living with the Dead.' In Death and religion in a changing world edited by Kathleen Garces-Foley, 23-44. Routledge | ||||||||
