Anthropology 274 - THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION

Spring
2018
01
4.00
Pinky Hota
TTh 10:30-11:50
Smith College
30264-S18
SEELYE 204
phota@smith.edu
What can anthropologists teach us about religion as a social phenomenon? This course traces significant anthropological approaches to the study of religion, asking what these approaches contribute to our understanding of religion in the contemporary world. Topics include religious experience and rationality; myth, ritual and magic; rites of passage; function and meaning; power and alienation; religion and politics. Readings are drawn from important texts in the history of anthropology and from contemporary ethnographies of religion.
Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.