Anthropology of Religion

This course aims to provide an introduction to the anthropology of religion, including the works and lives of key-figures in the field, significant concepts and theories, methodology and important topics in the anthropological study of religion.
The course is structured around five important scholars, each representing a different paradigm in the anthropology of religion: E.B. Tylor, É. Durkheim, B. Malinowski, C. Lévi-Strauss and C. Geertz. In relation to their work the three key-concepts of religion, culture and society will be discussed and the different approaches to the anthropological investigation of religion will be highlighted. In addition to lectures that introduce the biographies and contributions of these scholars selected articles will be discussed in seminar sessions that thematically relate to the content of the lectures. Moreover, students will be asked to read the monograph "Living Without the Dead" by Piers Vitebsky (2017), a book that relates to many crucial themes in the anthropology of religion, including animism, shamanism, ritual, religious change, colonialism and indigenous vs. “world religions”. Reading this will enable students to appreciate the depth of the religious phenomena and life-worlds anthropologists investigate. We will engage with aspects of this book every week, parallel to our discussions of religion, society and culture in relation to the selected key-scholars in the anthropology of religion.