Course | Madison College Outline of Instruction

20809285The Anthropology of Myth, Magic and Religion

Course Information

Description

An anthropological course designed to explore and examine the place of magic and religion in human culture. Students will look closely and critically at ‘world religions’ (Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, etc.) with analytical exploration of smaller-scale religious and magical practices (shamanism, Wicca, new Age, Cargo Cults, etc.). The forms that magic and religion have taken in human cultures, both past and present, will be covered. Prerequisite: any college-level social science course.

Total Credits

Course Competencies

Explore the major social-scientific and anthropological theories of myth, magic and religions

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explain those theories that treat religion as a cognitive system (e.g., Tylor, Geertz, Horton)

you explore those theories that treat religion as a reflex of the social system (e.g., Durkheim, Marx)

you explore those theories that treat religion as a psychological system (e.g., Malinowski, Mead)

you explore the writings of other important scholars of religion (e.g., Weber)

you explore the weaknesses and strengths of each of the theories
Explore the difficulties inherent in defining certain major terms in the study of religion and magic (e.g., "religion", "belief", "possession")

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore the difference between monothetic and polythetic classification

you explore the importance of the cultural context in the definition of such ideas as "magic", "religion", "evil", "witchcraft", etc.

you differentiate between so-called "world religions" such as Christianity and Buddhism and local, regional, tribal or national religions

you explore how the experiential component of cultural practices confounds objective explanations of magic and religion
Explore various cultural systems that link healing the body and/or society with appeals to the supernatural

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you distinguish between "disease" as a natural phenomenon and "illness" as a cultural phenomenon

you explore the overlap between medical systems (i.e., indigenous systems of healing disease and illness) and magic-religious systems

you explore the roles of shamans, sorcerors and/or spirit-mediums in various societies
Explore various cultural systems for the construction and organization of magico-religious authority

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore how the emergence of types of religious fuctionaries is correlated with certain forms of social organization

you compare and contrast the various magic-religious functionaries (e.g., shamans, priests, and spirit-mediums)

you explore different forms of power (e.g., authority, influence) in terms of culturally approved forms of magico-religious practice

you explore how magic and religion are used in various cultural contexts to provide justification for certain political acts and worldviews
Explore how various magico-religious systems are shaped by and also shape the political-economic contexts of their practice

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore ideas expressed by the terms "the colonization of consciousness" and "the consciousness of colonization"

you explore why and how indigenous political responses to European colonialism emerged through a magico-religious discourse

you explore syncretism and anti-syncretism as important cultural processes that have (in part) mediated and shaped the contact and on-going relationships between various societies
Explore the linkages between magico-religious practices and other cultural practices (e.g., the exercise of power, notions of selfhood, gender, kinship, etc...)

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

through the content of a library and interview based research paper

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore how magico-religious practices are linked to cultural notions of gender and sexuality

you explore how magico-religious practices are linked to cultural notions of kinship, alliance, and descent

you explore how magico-religious practices are linked to cultural notions of the proper exercise of secular power (i.e., power not directly linked to supernatural meditation)

you explore how magico-religious practices are linked to cultural notions and definitions of the material economy

you explore how magico-religious practices are linked to cultural notions and definitions of group membership

you explore how magico-religious practices are linked to cultural notions of purity versus impurity, cleanliness versus dirtiness
Explore magico-religious practices as cultural attempts to understand and resolve the place of "evil" in the world

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, through and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore the idea of theodicy

you explore "witchcraft", "sorcer": and "witch" as anthropological concepts

you explore the notion of "evil" as it is understood in various societies

you explore magic and religion as attempts to understand, explain and resolve the presence of culturally defined notions of "evil"
Explore how magico-religious practices provide their practitioners and believers with a worldview capable of explaining the natural and cultural environment

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussion s or video presentations

you explore such anthropological concepts as "mazeway", "propriospect" and "worldview"

you explore magico-religious systems as cultural systems (i.e., as systems that provide meaning about the world)

you explore why even small changes in magically- or religiously-inspired worldviews may be so threatening

you compare and contrast magico-religion systems and so-called "conspiracy theories"
Explore the place of magico-religious rituals and ceremonies in the maintenance of or transformation of cultural values and social structure

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you use the anthropological concept of of "ritual"

you use the anthropological concept of "social drama"

you explore how rituals and ceremonies may express, maintain and justify a society's structures of inequalities

you explore how rituals and ceremonies may destabilize, counteract and topple a society's structures of inequalities

you use appropriately the term "ideology" in the context of magico-religious practice
Differentiante between phenomena as trance, altered states of consciousness, and possession

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you distinguish between natural facts (as in trance) from cultural facts (as in possession)

you explore the idea of "altered states of consciousness"

you explore how altered states of consciousness are achieved for religious purposes in some societies through the use of repetitive stimuli (e.g., rhythmic drumming, dancing, chanting)

you explore how altered states of consciousness are achieved for religious purposes in some societies through the use of various mind-altering and hallucinogenic substances (e.g., ayahuascan, peyote)
Explore how magico-religious thinking is distinguishable from scientific thinking

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore the philosophies that underpin modern scientific and social-scientific practice

you differentiate between "theology" and "theory" and between "faith" and "reason"

you differentiate among "rationality", "irrationality" and "non-rationality"

you explore how normal modes of human cognition tend to be symbolic and metaphorical and therefore are non-rational

you explore the relevance of the idea of anthropomorphism to the study of myth, magic and religion
Explore the major theories regarding the origins of religion

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough and critical essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses to objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you explore the various theories and scenarios that have been offered to explain the origin of religion as a cultural practice

you explore the various archaeological findings that appear to be the earliest examples of magico-religious practice