This course is an overview of anthropological approaches to the study of religion. The primary emphases are on the manner in which anthropologists engage religion in the field and on understanding religious practice in cross-cultural perspective. Ethnographic methods will be highlighted throughout the course, and such methods will be linked to the theoretical approaches that have shaped and continue to shape the anthropology of religion. Cases studies will demonstrate ethnographers at work in the study of what some have called “great” and “little” traditions, and these will be contrasted with interdisciplinary work on transnational religion, especially in the Americas. The articulation of practice with religious discourse in both local and global context will serve as a basis for interpreting religion from an anthropological perspective.
- Teacher: Matt Samson