Аnthropology of Religion

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of History

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

1 year, 1 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Questions of religion have been central to anthropology from its beginnings and remain so today when religion (re)emerges as a global force. While early scholarship perceived religious phenomena through the skeptical lens of secular science, recent critiques have brought up anthropology’s own orthodoxies and the need for theoretical and methodological renewal. Every new paradigm took up the challenge to explain religion and its pervasiveness in human culture and society. The anthropology of religion emerged out of such creative tensions as a vibrant field of theoretical inquiry and impressive scholarship. The course is structured around major themes that have shaped the study of religion, exploring topics such as discipline, agency, gender, mediation, the secular and secularism, religious worlds, and the ethnography of religion, aiming for a deep and critical understanding of religion in various cultures and societies.

Learning Objectives

• The aim of the course is to introduce students into current theoretical debates in the filed of anthropology of religion.
• The aim of the course is to discuss anthropological approach to the study of religion

Expected Learning Outcomes

• A student compares research design
• Able to solve professional problems based on synthesis and analysis

Course Contents

• Introductory Session
• Critiques of “Religion”
• Ethnography of Religion
• Religious Discipline, Agency, and Gender
• Religion and Mediation
• Religion World-Making: Time
• Secular, Secularism, and Secularization

Assessment Elements

• seminar participation
  specifically for one presentation on the course readings
• final essay exam
  This is an essay-long discussion based on two questions (each contributing 35% to the total grade of the at-home essay) that will be randomly selected from the exam question list for each student and sent at the beginning of the evaluation week. The exam asks students to debate across empirical material and different approaches covered in the course. Specifically, in answering each of these questions, students are required to use at least three different pieces of writing from the course syllabus, ensuring not to repeat material in the discussion of each of the two questions. Essay length: 2000-4000 words for both questions (each response must have at least 1000 words). Each question within the essay will be evaluated based on the following criteria: structure (adherence to the word count for each question), use of sources (incorporation of at least three distinct readings from the syllabus for each response), analytical rigor (ability to critically assess the merits and limitations of the approaches studied), comprehension (demonstration of a thorough understanding of the course content), and originality (development of a unique perspective in addressing each question, without recycling arguments or examples from the texts).

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 1st module
  0.7 * final essay exam + 0.3 * seminar participation

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• James S Bielo. (2015). Anthropology of Religion: The Basics. Routledge.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Bielo, J. S. (2016). A companion to the anthropology of religion. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 24(1), 103–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12247

Authors

• PINTODEABREU KLETOZHUNIOR -
• LYUBAVINA SVETLANA VYACHESLAVOVNA