WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2016-2017       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Anthropology of Black Religions in the Americas

RELI 268
Spring 2017 not offered
Crosslisting: AFAM 387, LAST 268, ANTH 267
Certificates: International Relations, International Relations, International Relations

This course examines Afro-Creole religions and cultural expressions in selected communities throughout the Atlantic world. How were religious communities created under colonial domination? Under what conditions were religions shaped, and what shapes did they take? How are African-based religions produced through aesthetics and the ritual arts of spiritual talk and sermons, song, dance, drumming, and medicine-making? How do these religions continue to survive, thrive, and, in some cases, grow in the current historical period? This course will pay special attention to the yearly ritual cycle and its attendant festivals: Christmas, carnivals, Lent, Easter, saints' days, feasts, and pilgrimages, as well as the emergent spiritual and aesthetic traditions such as Capoeira and Rara. We will study Orisha religions like La Regla de Ocha, or Lukumi, in Cuba and the Latino U.S.; Candomble in Brazil; Vodou in Haiti; and Garifuna traditions and spiritism in Puerto Rico.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS RELI
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (AFAM-MN)(AFAM)(AMST)(ANTH)(CBST-MN)(CEAS-Phil/Reli)(CGST-MN)(LAST)(RELI-MN)(RELI)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459