ANT 124: Religion in Society and Culture

What is the relationship between religion, science and modernity? How did colonialism impact religious ideas and practices in the colonies and the metropole? How are the body and the senses significant for religious life? Can we analyze the relationship between religion and modern/postmodern cityscapes, ecology, and diasporas? What kinds of religious ideas inform utopian imaginations? This course addresses these questions with an emphasis on several world areas and cultures. It will focus on some classic essays in the anthropology of religion as well as ethnographic/historical studies of religion in culture and society. It engages with case-studies and films embracing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, and other traditions.