Anthropology of Religion: Religion, Ethics, Social Life

What is religion? And what is religion for anthropology? Is it centered on beliefs or representations or practices or rites? What do we study when we study religion? What do people get out of their engagement with religion? Is justice possible within the framework of religion today? What is the force of religious worldviews in shaping people's ideas about how to live? How does technology mediate religious experience? How does globalization impact religious forms, experiences, and identities? These are some of the questions we will address in this course through our reading of ethnographic, theoretical, and critical texts.