Postgraduate Course: Ritual and Religion (PGSP11191)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgrad (School of Social and Political Studies) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | will look at anthropological contributions to the understanding of ritual and religion, starting and ending with moments of especially acute reflection on the place of religion in the contemporary world. Our starting point will be that moment in the late 19th and early 20th century when classic theorists (especially Weber and Durkheim) pondered the place of religion in an age of scientific challenge, and we shall end with contemporary arguments about the boundaries between religion and politics. In between we will investigate the intersection of religion and ritual with a range of topics (economics, gender, sexuality ¿ among others). |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the study of religion and ritual from an anthropological perspective. This course explores fundamental questions related to the definition and study of religious systems and ritual practices and challenges us to reconsider the general categories and classifications used in anthropology, particularly in relation to the concepts of "religion" and "ritual" themselves and related disciplinary distinctions between notions of "science," "magic," and "myth." The general aim is to provide a critical reappraisal of how the notions of ritual and religion have been constructed and used in the comparative study of society and culture. Concentrating on the most influential theories of ritual action and religious commitment, the course addresses the role these constructions have played in organizing a broad discourse on human diversity and the varied nature of human life and experience. Tracing the fluctuating presence of common themes, each session will provide an analysis of more general theoretical paradigms rather than single theorists or individual ethnographies.
2. By the end of the course, through class assignments and tutorial projects that foster a critical appreciation of 'the anthropology of religion and ritual', students should have a clear overview of the main theories of ritual action and religious commitment. In addition, having explored a variety of ethnographies, they should be able to reflect on the possible application of these theories to different ethnographic problems. |
Assessment Information
One 4000 word essay (90%)
Tutorial Participation (10%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Week 1: Major theories in the anthropology of religion
Week 2: Ritual as a form of 'problem airing'
Week 3: Ritual as Oppression
Week 4: Sacrifice in theory
Week 5: Sacrifice in Practice
Week 6: A debate about a definition
Week 7: Islam, Reform, Ethics
Week 8: Religion and Economy
Week 9: The cognitive science of religion
Week 10: Film Screening and Debate
Week 11: Reviewing the Links |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Ammerman, N.T. (1987) Bible Believers: fundamentalists in the modern world. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Christian, W. 1972/1989. Person and God in a Spanish Valley. Princeton: UP.
Ewing, K. 1997. Arguing sainthood: modernity, psychoanalysis, and Islam. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Fader, A. (2009) Mitzvah girls: bringing up the next generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Favret-Saada, J. 1980 Deadly words: witchcraft in the Bocage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Festinger, L., Riecken, H. and Shachter, S. 1956. When prophecy fails. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Keller, E. 2005. Road to clarity: Seventh-Day Adventism in Madagascar. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kwon, H. 2008. Ghosts of War in Vietnam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kugelmass, J. 1996 The Miracle of Intervale Avenue: The Story of a Jewish Congregation in the South Bronx. Columbia University Press.
Lienhardt, G. (1961) Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Luehrmann, S. 2011. Secularism Soviet Style. Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic. Indiana University Press.
Mahmood, S. 2005. The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: UP.
Marsden, M. 2005. Living Islam: Muslim Religious Experience in Pakistan¿s North-West Frontier. Cambridge: UP.
Mayblin, M. 2010. Gender, Catholicism and Morality in Brazil. Palgrave Macmillan.
McIntosh, J. 2009. The edge of Islam. Power, personhood, and ethnoreligious boundaries on the Kenya coast. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Mittermaier, A. 2011 Dreams that Matter. Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Obeyesekere, G. 1981. Medusa's Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. Chicago: UP.
Orsi, R. 2005. Between heaven and earth. The religious worlds people make and the scholars who study them. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ortner, S. 1978. Sherpas Through their Rituals. Cambridge University Press.
Pedersen, M. 2011. Not Quite Shamans. Spirit Worlds and Political Lives in Northern Mongolia. Ithaca and London: Cornell University.
Robbins, J. 2004. Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tuzin, D. 1997 The Cassowary¿s Revenge. The Life and Death of Masculinity in New Guinea Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
The course consists of one two-hour session a week for the whole class, supported by separate seminars with the instructor. The two-hour sessions involve a mixture of lectures, discussions, and videos. The seminars will meet every two weeks and will cover the assigned readings in much greater detail. Each student will lead (or co-lead) one seminar session by making a short presentation at the beginning of a seminar meeting. The schedule of these seminars and the list of presentations will be formulated after the first class meeting. Students should note that attendance and participation in the seminar sessions is compulsory. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Maya Mayblin
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Jessica Barton
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: |
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