AN 3200 ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION, RITUAL, AND MYTH
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9:05-9:55am
Rounds 307
Fall, 2011
KATHERINE C. DONAHUE
ROUNDS 317
TEL: 535-2424
EMAIL: kdonahue@plymouth.edu
OFFICE HOURS: MWF 10-11am; Tues. 2-3pm, or by appointment
Explores human belief systems through analysis of selected religions, rituals, myths,
legends, and folktales cross-culturally. Examines various Freudian, Jungian, symbolic,
and anthropological interpretations of the meanings and uses of these traditions from
selected areas, such as Africa, Oceania, Asia, Europe, North or South America. Selected
topics include shamanic traditions, vodou and Santeria, creation myths, legends of heroes
and heroines, the motifs in folktales, with a limited section on religions of the Great
Traditions. Falls. Prerequisite: AN 2210 or SO 2220.
Film, art, and music will be included in the course. Symbolism and various
interpretations of meaning of themes, images, and motifs will be explored.
TEXTS:
Donahue, Katherine C. 2007. Slave of Allah: Zacarias Moussaoui vs. The USA. London:
Pluto Press.
Randall, Linda. 2011. Finding Grace in the Concert Hall: Community and Meaning
among Springsteen Fans. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Stein, Rebecca and Philip Stein. 2005 or more recent. The Anthropology of Religion,
Magic, and Witchcraft. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
READINGS
Aguilar, Manuel. 2001. “The Skeleton that Eats Maize,” Pre-Columbian Art Research
Institute (PARI) Journal. San Francisco. Vol. II, No.3, Summer 2001. Available
in class or Moodle.
Donahue, Katherine. 2008. “Anthropology of Religion” Encyclopedia of Life Support
Systems. Available in Moodle.
Reist, Nancy. 1997. “Counting Stars by Candlelight: An Analysis of the Mythic Appeal
of the Grateful Dead.” Journal of Popular Culture, Spring, Vol 30(4), 183-209.
Available in Moodle.
Assigned readings, available as handouts or in Moodle.
Week 1. 8/31 Introduction to the anthropology of religion, ritual, myth.
How do anthropologists study these aspects of human life? Discussion of
class assignments, research, papers, exams.
For discussion on Friday: Stein and Stein: Ch. 1.
On your own: What do you know about vodou/voodoo? How would you
study it?
Week 2. 9/7. Religions of the Great Traditions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Old and Invented Traditions.
No class Monday, September 5 (Labor Day)
Lecture, and discussion of Stein, Ch. 2, Mythology
On your own: Which comes first, Myth or Ritual?
Read Donahue, “Anthropology of Religion” Located in Readings for this
course, on Moodle.
Fri. 9/9 Research topic: What topic interests you?
Week 3. 9/12. Ritual and mythology; what is the relationship?
What are secular rituals?
Read: Stein, Ch. 4, Ritual; Randall, Introduction and Ch. 1-2
On your own: Depiction of myth and ritual in film. Can you think of an
example? Or, can you describe a secular ritual?
Wed. 9/14 Discussion of your research topic: Time to narrow it down
Fri. 9/16 Hand in brief discussion of your research topic (a
paragraph should do)
Week 4. 9/19. What are religious symbols?
Read: Stein and Stein, Ch. 3, Randall, Ch. 3, 4
Religious Symbols; Turner on the Ndembu
Week 5. 9/26 Out of their bodies and minds? Divine callings? Zombies, shamans,
prophets, and musicians.
Read: Stein, Ch. 5, Altered States of Consciousness.
Read: Reist, Nancy. 1997. “Counting Stars by Candlelight: An Analysis of
the Mythic Appeal of the Grateful Dead.” Journal of Popular Culture,
Spring, Vol 30(4), 183-209.
Available in Moodle
Read: Randall, Ch. 5, 6
On your own: what possible relationship might there be between
musicians and shamans?
Week 6. 10/3 What is magic? Does it serve a purpose?
Read: Stein, Ch. 7, Magic and Divination.
On your own: Do you use methods of divination? or,
Is there a relationship between baseball and magic?
Film: Azande and Evans Pritchard.
“Dear Kate” letter about paper due Wed. Oct. 5.
Week 7. 10/12 No Class October 10, Columbus Day.
Exam I.
Where do witches come from?
Read: Stein, Ch. 10, Witchcraft.
On your own: How do you think about witches? Where do those ideas
come from?
Week 8. 10/17. Where are the gods, spirits, and ancestors?
Read: Finish Randall;
Stein, Ch. 9, Gods and Sprits Film: Haiti and vodou
Week 9. 10/24. Halloween and All Saints/Souls/Day of the Dead:
Mesoamerican Belief Systems
Read: Stein, Ch. 8, Souls, Ghosts, and Death, and Manuel Aguilar, “The
Skeleton that Eats Maize,” handout.
On your own: Take a look at www.mesoweb.com
Week 10. 10/31. Religions of the Great Traditions: Islam
The Koran: http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/HolKora.html
Read: Donahue, Slave of Allah Introduction and Ch. 1
Draft of paper due in class 11/4; peer review
Week 11.
11/7 What is syncretism? Where do new religious movements come
from?
Read: Stein, Ch. 11, Syncretism and Religious Movements.
What did the US learn about Zacarias Moussaoui and al Qaeda?
Donahue, Ch. 2 and 3.
Week 12. 11/14 Why did Moussaoui join al Qaeda?
Read: Donahue, Ch. 4 and 5
Week 13. 11/21. Does Islam have borders?
No class 11/23 and 11/25 (Thanksgiving Break)
Read: Donahue, Ch. 6, 7, and 8
Week 14. 11/28 Paper Due Wed. 11/30
Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, and Christmas
Discussion of your own work: student presentations
Week 15. 12/5 Writing and analyzing myth, religion, and ritual; student presentations
FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, December 13; 8 am-10:30 am
ASSIGNMENTS: There will be a paper/presentation, as well as two exams. The paper
will be on a topic decided upon by the two of us, in conference. The paper will be
approximately 10-15 pages long, but you will work on throughout the semester, and we
will discuss drafts of it as the semester progresses.
Evaluation: Exam 1: 30%
Exam 2: 30%
Paper or Project: 30%
Participation and discussion of topic: 10%
Attendance: Most definitely. The class is no fun without you, and you
don’t learn anything from class discussions by not being there. If you have more than
three unexcused absences, I may take up to ten points off your final grade.
Students will be asked to discuss their work on papers or other projects. This course will
have a seminar format, so class discussion will be an important part of the course.
Exams will have several components, drawing on assignments done both outside and
inside class. The paper can be done in any number of formats, which are discussed in a
separate handout. One part of that paper will include discussion with the class of some
aspect of the topic. This project is also described in a separate handout.
Interesting websites:
American Anthropological Association: www.aaanet.org.
Society for the Anthropology of Religion: http://www.aaanet.org/sar
And really good links: http://www.aaanet.org/sar/LINKS.html
Which include sources such as:
Kent, University of, at Canterbury, WWW Resources for the Study of Religions http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/thrs/resources/Index.htm#textsites
and
Librarians' Index to the Internet, Library of California, Religion Topics http://www.lii.org/search/file/religion
See also:
Harvard: Center for the Study of World Religions:
http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/index.html
Beliefnet: Interesting site with information on various religions, and more.
www.beliefnet.com
The Koran: http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/HolKora.html
Archaeological sites of interest:
The Cave of Lascaux: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
The Cave of Chauvet (even older than Lascaux)
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/
Mesoamerican Cultures (good for articles, photographs from the National Museum of
Anthropology, Mexico City): http://www.mesoweb.com/