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CS92PROD
The Variety of Religious Expressions: Movements, Mediation, and Embodiment in an Anthro. Perspective
RELI 306
Spring 2014 not offered
Crosslisting: ANTH 313

This course takes as its point of departure today's global proliferation of religious movements and media and explores the following questions: What are the similarities and differences among India's Hindutva movement, Christian Evangelical groups in the United States, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, and protests led by Buddhist monks in Myanmar? What role do various forms of mediation--including the body and embodied practice--and religious texts, cassette sermons, television serials, documentaries, the Internet, and blog sites play in promoting, shaping, spreading, and containing religious practices and belief? A seminar designed for mid- to upper-level undergraduate students who want to learn about the myriad forms of religious expression in today's world, this course consists of three thematic sections. In the first section, we will explore various theorists' attempts to carve out a universal category of religion and the ways in which this categorization has been problematized. In the second thematic section, our class will examine how "religion" comes to be separated analytically from other categories of experience such as politics, economics, and the secular, and we examine how interrelations between these categories are reestablished. In the third and final thematic section, students will bring their sharpened analytic faculties to bear on contemporary religious expressions and examine a variety of contemporary religious media and movements.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS RELI
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (RELI)

Last Updated on DEC-04-2024
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