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Huron University College
Religious Studies 2700G:
Sociology and Anthropology of Religion
Mondays, 8:30am-11:30am
HC W106
Instructor: Andrea S. Allen
aallen65.uwo.ca
This course surveys studies of religion within the disciplines of sociology and anthropology.
In the course of covering methodologies, major figures, concepts and categories, particular
attention will be given to time, space, structure, ritual, the sacred, practice, identity, and
meaning as observed in historical and contemporary religious communities.
Course Objectives:
1)
Recognize and critically engage some of the major social scientific approaches
and debates to the study of religion.
2)
Understand how religion is shaped by culture and power.
3)
Develop nuanced awareness of how socio-political and historical factors
influence perceptions and experiences of religion.
4)
Reflect, both personally and analytically, on the implications of the study of
religion in relation to our material and everyday realities.
5)
Augment proficiency in critical thinking, research, and analytical skills.
6)
Improve oral and written communication.
Course Requirements:
Class Participation
Two Short Papers (3-4 pages)
Midterm Exam
Ethnographic Paper (7-8 pages)
15%
30% (15% each)
25%
30%
Course Materials:
All required readings will be made available on the course OWL Sakai website:
https://owl.uwo.ca/portal
Assignments & Method of Evaluation of Assignments:
Class participation (15% of final grade): An excessive number of absences (i.e., more than two)
will result in a deduction from your participation grade. Regular lateness to class may also
result in deductions. Disruptive behavior (described in the Policies section) will result in
deductions as well. In addition, participation in class discussion and an overall engagement
in the course are required. The participation grade will be based upon the following criteria:
how regularly one participates in discussions; whether or not one exhibits that he/she has
done the readings; whether or not one is respectful toward professor and classmates;
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whether or not one speaks excessively, keeping others from speaking or interrupting them;
whether or not one’s comments demonstrate that she/he have analyzed the material; and
whether or not one asks questions in class.
Midterm (25% of final grade): midterm will involve short answer questions, identifications,
and/or essay questions. The midterm will cover all course material, e.g., required texts,
lectures, and films, up until the midterm. (Further guidelines will be posted on OWL and
discussed in class). Midterm Date: February 9, 2015
Two short essays (30% of your grade): The three-four page essays should cover only the readings
that were assigned on or before the assignment is due. The essay must have a thesis. Thesis
must be italicized in essay. The essay should address an interesting theme that struck you
from the readings, a short critique, or a comparison of an aspect of the readings. The essay
must be double-spaced, in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, with no extraneous spaces
between paragraphs. Papers are to be handed in at the beginning of class. Detailed
instructions and guidance will be provided in class and on the course website. Paper due
dates: January 26, 2015; March 16, 2015
Ethnographic project: (30% of your grade for seven-eight page paper); First, students will attend and
observe religious and spiritual services of any religious or spiritual tradition. Guided by the
readings and lectures, students will describe and analyze their ethnographic experiences in an
essay. The essay must have a thesis. The essay must be between seven-eight pages, doublespaced with no extraneous spaces between paragraphs. In addition, students will be
expected to give a presentation about their ethnographic project. Guidelines for the
ethnographic project will be discussed in class and posted on OWL. Due date: April 6, 2015
Additional Statements:
Submitting Assignments:
Please hand in hard copies of all written assignments in RS 2700G; you are also
required to submit electronic copies of all written assignments (excluding
tests/exams) to Turnitin.com through the course Owl links.
Deadlines are registered as the date/time these assignments are due to Turnitin, and
late penalties are assessed based on the submission time to the Turnitin site – so
please don’t forget to load your paper to Turnitin on time! Again, we also need hard
copies to mark, so assignments not handed in during class must be deposited in the
Huron essay drop box, located near the Huron College Information Desk.
Essays not submitted to Turnitin will receive grades converted to 0.
Policy on Missed/Late Assignments: students who submit assignments late
without making a prior agreement with the Instructor, or without a valid medical
certificate, will be penalized 3% for every 24-hour period past the assignment
deadline (also see #8. Accommodations for Absences for more information).
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Attendance Policy: an excessive number of absences (i.e., more than two) will result in a
deduction from your participation grade. Regular lateness to class may also result in
deductions.
Policy on classroom etiquette: in order to maintain a respectful and productive learning
environment, it is essential that students arrive at class ready to listen and attend to lectures
and films. Disrespectful and disruptive behaviour during class will not be tolerated and will
affect one’s participation grade. Disrespectful and disruptive behaviour includes the
following: texting or talking on mobile phones, chatting on or browsing Facebook or other
social media sites, persistent talking during lectures or films, wearing headphones, emailing,
and/or surfing the Internet for non-class purposes. Students observed to be engaging in this
behaviour during class will be asked to stop. If disruptive behaviour persists, the professor
will use her discretion and judgment in deciding how best to deal with the situation.
Email Policy: if you have any questions or concerns related to the course, feel free to
contact me through OWL, the course website. I will try to respond within 48 hours. If
there is an emergency, please contact me at aallen65@uwo.ca. Please use your Western
email account in order to reduce the chance that your email will be labelled as spam. In
addition, I will send out emails regularly in this course. I expect that you will check your
email and the course website at least once a day. Failure to check your email regularly will
not be considered an excuse for failing to complete an assignment or for failing to do so
according to specified directions. Finally, if you email me, please follow proper letter-writing
etiquette.
Statement on Use of Electronic Devices during Tests and Exams: if the use of
electronic devices during tests and exams is required for either medical or non-medical
academic accommodation, then such documentation must be submitted by the student
directly to your Faculty’s Dean’s office (or academic counselor), and not to the instructor.
Statement on Academic Offences: Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students
are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a
Scholastic Offence, at the following web site:
http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.”
Plagiarism-detecting Software/Computer Marking:
All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the
commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection
of plagiarism. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents
in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently
submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently
between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com ( http://www.turnitin.com ).
B) Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for
similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that
may indicate cheating.
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Support Services:
UWO Registrar’s Office: http://www.registrar.uwo.ca
Huron’s Faculty of Theology, Office of the Dean:
http://www.huronuc.on.ca/faculty_of_theology/info_for_current_students
Faculty of Theology office: srice@uwo.ca, 519-438-7224, ext. 289
Huron’s Writing Skills Centre: http://www.huronuc.on.ca/student_life/writing_services
UWO’s Mental Health website: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ Students
who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to this website for a complete list of
options about how to obtain help.
UWO Student Support and Development Services:
http://communications.uwo.ca/current_students/student_services.htm
Accommodation for absences:
If documentation is required for either medical or non-medical academic accommodation, then such
documentation must be submitted by the student directly to your Faculty’s Dean’s office (or academic
counselor), and not to the instructor. For the Faculty of Theology, all such documentation must be submitted
to room A227. It will be the Dean`s office that will determine if accommodation is warranted.
Non-medical absences for assignments: students who submit assignments late
without making a prior agreement with the Instructor, or without a valid medical
certificate, will be penalized 3% for every 24-hour period past the assignment
deadline.
Non-medical absences from mid-terms: documentation and a request for relief
should be submitted to the Dean’s Office in order for accommodation to be
considered.
C)
Medical absences: See also the Policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness
—Undergraduate Students, at http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/medical.pdf)
For work representing 10% or more of the overall grade for the course, a student must
present documentation indicating that the student was seriously affected by illness and could
not reasonably be expected to meet his/her academic responsibilities. Documentation must
be submitted as soon as possible to your Faculty Dean’s office (Huron Arts & Social Science
students should take their documentation to the Academic Counsellor, through the
Academic Services Centre at Huron), together with a Request for Relief specifying the nature
of the accommodation requested. The request and documentation will be assessed and
appropriate accommodation will be determined by the Dean’s office in consultation with the
instructor(s.) Academic accommodation will be granted ONLY where the documentation
indicates that the onset, duration and severity of the illness are such that the student could
not reasonably be expected to complete his/her academic responsibilities.
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The UWO Student Medical Certificate (SMC) and Request for Relief are available at the
Student Centre website (https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/index.cfm), Huron
University College Academic Counselling website (www.huronuc.on.ca) or from the Dean’s
Office or Academic Services Centre at Huron.
Required Articles:
Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category.”
A reader in the anthropology of religion. Michael Lambek, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2008. 110-126.
Steven Bruce (2002) “The Secularization Paradigm.” God is Dead: Secularization in the
West. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 1-44.
Peter Clarke (1993). “Why women are priests and teachers in Bahian Candomble.”
Women as teachers and disciples in traditional and new religions. Elizabeth Puttick and Peter
B. Clarke, eds. Lewiston : E. Mellen Press.
Mary Douglas (2002 [1966]). Excerpts, Purity and Danger. London; New York:
Routledge.
Carol B. Duncan, “Aunt(y) Jemima in Toronto Spiritual Baptist Experience: Spiritual
Mother or Servile Woman?” This spot of ground: Spiritual Baptists in Toronto. Waterloo,
ON. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008. 215-246.
Emile Durkheim, “Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.” A reader in the
anthropology of religion. Michael Lambek, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2002.
34-49.
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Excerpt from Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande,
New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. 127-145.
Laara Fitznor, “The power of indigenous knowledge: Naming and identity and
colonization in Canada.” Indigenous peoples' wisdom and power: Affirming our knowledge
through narratives. Julian E. Kunnie and Nomalungelo I. Goduka eds. Aldershot,
Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006. 51-77.
Inger Furseth (2006). “Religion in contemporary sociology and cultural analysis.”
Introduction to the Sociology and Anthropology of Religion. Aldershot, England; Burlington,
VT: Ashgate. 49-74.
Geertz, Clifford (2005). “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight.” Daedalus
134(4): 56-86.
Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System.” A reader in the anthropology of religion.
Michael Lambek, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2002, 57-78.
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Sarah Lamb (2005). Excerpts from “The Politics of Dirt and Gender: Body
Techniques in Bengali India." Dirt, Unrest and Difference: critical perspectives on
the body's surface. Adeline Masquelier (ed.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press.
Claude Levi-Strauss (2012). “The Structural Study of Myth.” Critical theory: a reader for
literary and cultural studies. Robert Dale Parker, ed. New York: Oxford University
Press, 74-82.
Renee Linklater, “Decolonizing our Spirits: Cultural Knowledge and Indigenous
Healing.” Women and indigenous religions. Sylvia Marcos, ed. Santa Barbara: Praeger,
2010. 217-232.
Karl Marx, “Alienation in Work.” Sociology: windows on society: an anthology. Los
Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Co., 2002. 241-244.
Karl Marx, “Introduction.” Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Annette Jolin and
Joseph O'Malley, trans. Edited with an introduction. and notes by Joseph O'Malley.
Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1970. 131132.
Meredith B. McGuire, “New-Old Directions in the Social Scientific Study of
Religion: Ethnography, Phenomenology, and the Human Body.” Personal knowledge
and beyond: reshaping the ethnography of religion. James V. Spickard, J. Shawn Landres, and
Meredith B. McGuire, eds. New York: New York University Press, 2002. 195-211.
Keith Roberts, “The Cultural Construction of Religion: Experience, Myth, Ritual.”
Religion in Sociological Perspective. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 2012. 66-89.
Keith Roberts, “Secularization: Religion in Decline and in Transformation?” Religion
in Sociological Perspective. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 2012. 325-347.
Rodney Stark, “Religion, Magic & Science.” Exploring the Religious Life. Baltimore:
John Hopkins Press, 2004. 1-20.
Victor Turner, “Liminality and Communitas.” The performance studies reader. 2nd
edition. London; New York: Routledge, 2007. 89-97.
Thomas A. Tweed, “Between the Living and the Dead: Fieldwork, History, and the
Interpreter's Position.” Personal knowledge and beyond : reshaping the ethnography of religion.
James V. Spickard, J. Shawn Landres, and Meredith B. McGuire, eds. New York:
New York University Press, 2002. 63-74.
Robert Voeks, “Religion of the Orixas.” Sacred Leaves of Candomblé. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1997. 51-68.
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Max Weber, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.” A reader in the
anthropology of religion. Michael Lambek, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. 2002.
50-60.
Course Schedule
Module 1: Introduction to Sociology and Anthropology of Religion
January 5
Week 1: Introduction
January 12
Week 2 : Religion, Modernity, and Industrialization
Emile Durkheim, “Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.”
Karl Marx, Excerpt from “Introduction,” Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and
“Alienation in Work.”
Max Weber, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.”
January 19
Week 3: Religion and Society
Geertz, Clifford (2005). “Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight.”
Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System”
January 26 (FIRST SHORT ESSAY PAPER DUE)
Week 4: Religion, anthropology, and sociology
Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category.”
Inger Furseth, “Religion in contemporary sociology and cultural analysis”
February 2
Week 5: Ethnography and Religion
Meredith B. McGuire, “New-Old Directions in the Social Scientific Study of
Religion: Ethnography, Phenomenology, and the Human Body”
Thomas A. Tweed, “Between the Living and the Dead: Fieldwork, History, and the
Interpreter's Position”
February 9
Week 6: Midterm
February 16-20
Week 7: Reading Week
Module 2: Issues: Myth, Purity, Magic, and Secularization
February 23
Week 6: Myth and Ritual
Claude Levi-Strauss, “The Structural Study of Myth”
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Keith Roberts “The Cultural Construction of Religion: Experience, Myth, Ritual”
Victor Turner, “Liminality and Communitas”
March 2
Week 9: Magic and Rationality
Rodney Stark, “Religion, Magic & Science.”
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Excerpt from Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande.
Film: Strange Beliefs
March 9
Week 10: Purity
Mary Douglas, Excerpts, Purity and Danger.
Sarah Lamb, “The Politics of Dirt and Gender: Body Techniques in Bengali India."
March 16 (SECOND SHORT ESSAY PAPER DUE)
Week 11: Secularization
Steven Bruce, “The Secularization Paradigm.” God is Dead: Secularization in the
West.”
Keith Roberts, “Secularization: Religion in Decline and in Transformation?”
Module 3: Case Studies
March 23
Week 12: Case Study: Aboriginal Religious Experiences in Canada
Renee Linklater, “Decolonizing our Spirits: Cultural Knowledge and Indigenous
Healing”
Laara Fitznor, “The power of indigenous knowledge: Naming and identity and
colonization in Canada”
Film: Spirit Doctors
March 30
Week 13: Case Study: Caribbean Women’s Religious Experiences in Canada
Carol B. Duncan, “Aunt(y) Jemima in Toronto Spiritual Baptist Experience: Spiritual
Mother or Servile Woman?”
April 6 (ETHNOGRAPHIC PAPER DUE)
Week 14: Case Study: Candomblé in Brazil
Peter Clarke (1993). “Why women are priests and teachers in Bahian Candomblé.”
Women as teachers and disciples in traditional and new religions. Elizabeth Puttick
and Peter B. Clarke, eds. Lewiston : E. Mellen Press.
Robert Voeks (1997). “Religion of the Orixas.” Sacred Leaves of Candomblé.
Austin: University of Texas Press. 51-68.