Anthropology
Religion and Ritual (Pathway elective)
Module code: L6072E
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay
On this module, you'll explore explanations for religious and ritual phenomena, examining key issues through ethnographic studies of topics like initiation, myth, witchcraft, symbolism and religious experience. You'll also address 'secular' rituals, including events like carnival and Christmas.
Focus areas include:
- how people believe, as much as what they believe
- why rituals are performed, including what they look like.
You'll engage with both classic texts and recent accounts, developing your understanding of the origins and evolution of key arguments in the study of religion and ritual.
Module learning outcomes
- To demonstrate knowledge/understanding of anthropological approaches to understanding religion and ritual.
- To analyse/evaluate/assess main theoretical debates in the field of anthropology of religion and ritual, and an awareness of the history of these debates and how specific theoretical trends have developed over time.
- To relate theory to specific ethnographic contexts of religious and ritual practice.
- To evaluate/compare strengths and weaknesses of anthropological theory that has been developed and deployed to understand actual practices.