General Information:

• Philip Harland: pharland – at – yorku – dot – ca
• Meetings: Fridays 11:30-2:20, Accolade Building West 306, or by zoom link listed below in some cases
• Zoom link for Friday meetings (when needed and indicated by prof, or if necessary): https://yorku.zoom.us/j/92070904400
  • Note: This is an in-person class, but there may be occasions when we may all need to switch to remote by zoom.  Without fail, we will always meet at the allotted time on Fridays at 11:30 either in person or on zoom using the same link each time.  Fishbowls occur in the same way for either format (in person or on zoom).  I will communicate with students by email in the event that a zoom meeting on a particular Friday is more appropriate for us all at the time.  But if you somehow miss such an email and discover an empty classroom, simply click onto the zoom link wherever you are, and you will find us.  In the event that you have any signs of illness of any kind, you will use the same zoom link (to join the rest of us who are in person).  In-person is of course more conducive to a more positive student experience, but no individual should come on campus if that individual has any symptoms of any illness.
• Office hours: TBA or by appointment.  Zoom: https://yorku.zoom.us/j/92070904400

Course description:

This course explores interdisciplinary approaches to the study of religion through an examination of a variety of methods.  You will learn how to:

• Interpret human cultures using a range of tools from various disciplines, including history, sociology, anthropology, social psychology, and postcolonial studies.
• Explore cultural practices and ideologies in a variety of contexts throughout the world.
• Analyze how modern preconceptions or assumptions of scholars and students affect the study of human cultures.
• Confront difficulties with defining and studying “religion” in postcolonial contexts.
• Understand the origins and nature of Religious Studies as an interdisciplinary field.
• Learn how to critically analyze scholarly writing and argument.
• Improve your writing and presentation skills.

Required Readings:

• Linked readings (in pdf form) throughout the course outline below (either with course password or via passport York library system).
• For book review 1: Brent Nongbri, Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). (ebook link; you will need to download gradually in installments of 115 pages in order to get the entire work).
• For book review 2: Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East” (London: Routledge, 1999).  (ebook link)

Other library resources we use for readings:

• John Hinnells, ed., The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, Routledge Religion Companions (London: Taylor and Francis, 2005) (ebook link)

Evaluation (all written assignments due BEFORE class by email attachment, preferably PDF):

• Engagement and participation, discussions in class or zoom meetings, and surprize quizzes at the start of meetings: 20%
• Fishbowl discussion co-leadership for 15 minutes x 2 (students are marked individually and have two opportunities): 15%
• Article presentation, 15 minutes maximum: 15%
• Reading response, due week 3: two pages double-spaced, 12 point font: 10%
• Book review 1 (on Nongbri), due week 6: 6 pages double-spaced: 20%
  • Academic integrity quiz (link; must be completed before or with submission of assignment 1 (send a screen shot of your 100% test result as an attachment along with the book review)
• Book review 2 (on King), due week 11: five pages double-spaced: 20%

Important things to know:

• Readings and participation: Read and study materials before meetings.
• Penalties for lateness: Assignments are due at the beginning of class (hardcopy). Late submissions will be penalized by one full grade (e.g. from a B to a C) and a further grade for each additional day beyond the due date.
• Academic honesty and plagiarism policies: Absolutely no form of plagiarism will be tolerated. Study York’s policies here and here.
• Password protected files for the course, which are used under fair dealing provisions for the purpose of education, are for course use only and should not be redistributed in any form.

_____________________

Key Questions to engage throughout the course in the fishbowl, in discussions, in article presentations, and in the reading response:

• Overall, we want to think about: what is a scholar doing, how does she go about it, what tools is she using, and what are the results?  Also, where are some of the strengths and weaknesses in this overall approach?  What does the method highlight or miss?  In other words, while we are interested in what scholars study or talk about, we are more interested in how they go about it, in the nuances of their procedure, and in what types of things come out of the procedure.
• How would you describe the scholar’s approach?  What is the primary discipline in which a scholar is trained and how does that affect their approach?  What disciplines do these tools come from and is there interdisciplinarity?  E.g.: What is sociology, anthropology, ritual studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, etc?  What methods, tools, or approaches does a particular scholar take and what are the procedures involved?
• What assumptions and categories are at work?  What theories or assumptions underlie the positions espoused?  What categories, concepts or terms are used and how are they defined (or are they defined)?  How self-conscious or explicit is a scholar about her stance, assumptions or the categories she employs?
• What impact does the scholar’s position have?  How do the social and cultural settings of scholars affect how they approach their subject and what they do or do not see?  What position does the scholar view the world from and how does this shape both the methods and results?  In what ways may imperialism, colonialism and the postcolonial situation impact such studies?
• What problems do these studies raise regarding our use of categories, particularly “religion” and the “religious”?
• What theorizing is done?  How careful is a scholar in moving from the specific to the general?  How do they go about theorizing from case studies?
• What does the scholar argue and is it convincing?  What are the principal aims of a scholar?
• What kinds of materials or evidence does the scholar employ?  How does selection of evidence affect the results?
• How does the approach of one scholar compare to others we have encountered?  What difference does methodology make for the results of what we find?  How does the scholar engage the findings, arguments, or theories of other scholars, particularly with regard to methods and theories?

‗_‗_‗_‗_‗_‗_‗_‗_‗_

Discussion schedule:

Week 1 (Sept 10): Intro (by zoom): https://yorku.zoom.us/j/92070904400

Week 2 (Sept 17): Sociological approaches 1 – Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) on religion as society

• Readings (everyone): Durkheim, “Origins of These Beliefs (Conclusion),” excerpts (link); Matthias Koenig, “Emile Durkheim and the Sociology of Religion”, pages 1-9, up to “Durkheimian Legacies” (link); Riesebrodt and Konieczny, “Sociology of Religion” in Routledge Companion, focussing on pages 125-134 as an overview of how the discipline of sociology approaches things (link).
• Documentary film in class (or before class if remote): “Edward Said On Orientalism [1998]” (first 28 minutes; link)

Week 3 (Sept 24): Framing our exploration of methods in the study of religion (with insights from postcolonialism)

• Readings: Chidester, “Frontiers of Comparison,” pages 1-20 (link); Nye, “Decolonizing the Study of Religion” (link)
• Video to prepare us for anthropological approaches: “Strange Beliefs – Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard” (53 minutes; link)

**Reading response (2 pages double-spaced) due at beginning of class: What are some problems each of our articles from this week pose for our discussion of methods in the study of religion and for the relationship between colonialism and the category of “religion”?  What lessons do we take from these problems?**

Week 4 (Oct 1): Cultural anthropological approaches 1 – Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) on “witchcraft” and “religion”

• Readings (everyone): E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “The Notion of Witchcraft [among the Azande] Explains Unfortunate Events” (link); Pals, “Society’s ‘Construct of the Heart’: E. E. Evans-Pritchard,” excerpts (link)
• Fishbowl team (students who together begin our discussion for the first 15 minutes of class): Umar, Minahil, Tania, Daniel, Ian
  
• Article presentations (only the presenter reads the article):
  • Masquelier, “When Spirits Start Veiling: The Case of the Veiled She-Devil in a Muslim Town of Niger” (link – Tiana)
  • Evans-Pritchard, “Sorcery and Native Opinion,” pages 22-40 only (link); Evans-Pritchard, Excerpts from Nuer Religion (link); Arens, “Evans-Pritchard and the Prophets” (link); Johnson, “Evans-Pritchard, the Nuer, and the Sudan Political Service” (link)

Week 5 (Oct 8): Cultural anthropological approaches 2 – Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) on culture and symbolic systems

• Readings (everyone): Geertz, “Ethos, World View, and Analysis of Sacred Symbols” (link); Hackett, “Anthropology of Religion” in Routledge Companion, pages 144-153 and 157 (link)
• Fishbowl team (students who begin our discussion for the first 15 minutes of class): Bianca, Matthew, Irish
• Article presentations (only the presenter reads the article):
  • Geertz, “‘Internal Conversion’ in Contemporary Bali” (link)
  • Open: Geertz, “Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example” (link); Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” (link); Fox, “Why Do Balinese Make Offerings?” (link); Schlehe, “Concepts of Asia, the West and the Self in Contemporary Indonesia” (link); Bacigalupo, “The Mapuche Man Who Became a Woman Shaman” (link)

*Reading week Oct. 9-15*

Week 6 (Oct 22): Discussion of Nongbri’s Before Religion

• Readings (everyone): Nongbri, Before Religion (ebook link)

**Book review 1 (Nongbri) due**

Week 7 (Oct 29): Sociological approaches 2 – New Religious Movements in modern contexts

• Videos (watch before meeting): “Sociology of Religion (Prof. Peter Kivisto of Augustana College)” (15 minutes; link); “Patocka Memorial Lecture: Peter L. Berger – Toward a New Paradigm for Modernity and Religion” (starting at 15:45, watching 1 hour; link)
• Readings (everyone): Dawson, “Churches, Sects, and Cults” excerpt (for background on church-sect typologies; link) Wilson, “The Cultural Context of Religious Deviance,” excerpts from Magic and the Millenium (link); Dawson, “Who Joins New Religious Movements and Why” (link)
• Fishbowl team (students who begin our discussion for the first 15 minutes of class): Tiana, Ian
• Article presentations (only the presenter reads the article):
  • Sedgwick, “Sects in the Islamic World” (link – Umar)
  • Clark, “Japanese New Religious Movements in Brazil” (link – Matthew)
  • Open: Trinh and Hall, “The Violent Path of Aum Shinrikyō” (link); White, “The New Cultus of Antinous: Hadrian’s Deified Lover and Contemporary Queer Paganism” (link); Feraro, “The Return of Baal to the Holy Land” (link)

Week 8 (Nov 5): Social Psychological approaches: Intergroup relations and processes of identification

• Videos (watch before meeting): “Introduction to Social Psychology (Prof. Brenda Major)” (5 minutes; link);  “The Science of ‘Us vs. Them’: Social Identity Theory” (13 minutes; link)
• Readings (everyone): Verkuyten and Yildiz, “Muslim Immigrants and Religious Group Feelings: Self-Identification and Attitudes Among Sunni and Alevi Turkish-Dutch” (link); Cherry, “Differences of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation” (link) for some definitions to help you understand the main article by Jackson and Hunsberger, “An Intergroup Perspective on Religion and Prejudice” (link)
• Fishbowl team (students who begin our discussion for the first 15 minutes of class): Umar, Minahil, Tania, Daniel
  
• Article presentations (only the presenter reads the article):
  • Saroglou, Yzerbyt, and Kaschten, “Meta-stereotypes of Groups with Opposite Religious Views” (link – Irish)
  • Open: Hakola, “Social Identities and Group Phenomena in Second Temple Judaism” (link); Esler, “Social Identity and the Epistle to the Galatians” (link); Harland, “Other Diasporas” (link to the entire book – find the chapter); Curtis and Olson, “Identification with Religion” (link)
• Video (in class as a glimpse ahead to next week): Ronald Grimes, “Ritual Studies: Practicing the Craft” (link)

*Nov. 12: Last date to drop a Fall course without receiving a grade*

Week 9 (Nov 12): Ritual studies approaches

• Readings (everyone): Bell, “Basic Genres of Ritual Action” (link); Waterson, “Children’s Perspectives on Ritual and its Responsibilities among the Sa’dan Toraja of Sulawesi (Indonesia)” (link)
• Fishbowl team (students who begin our discussion for the first 15 minutes of class): Irish, Matthew, Tiana
  
• Article presentations (only the presenter reads the article):
  • Fischer, “Nationalizing Rituals? The Ritual Economy in Malaysia” (link – Minahil)
  • Wallace, “Rethinking Religion, Magic and Witchcraft in South Africa” (link – Ian)
  • Open: Burkert, “The Problem of Ritual Killing” (link); Turner, “Liminality and Communitas” (link); Bell, “Ritual and Society” (link); Hafez, “Schools of Thought in Islamophobia Studies” (link)

Week 10 (Nov 19): Postcolonial approaches, 1 – “World Religions”  and other problematic categories

• Readings (everyone): Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, excerpts (link)
• Fishbowl team (students who begin our discussion for the first 15 minutes of class): Everyone
  
• Article presentations (only the presenter reads the article):
  • Covington-Ward, “Unearthing the Stories of Kongo Female Prophets in Colonial Belgian Congo, 1921–1960” (link – Tania)
  • Kitiarsa, “Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand” (link – Daniel)
  • Open: Said, Orientalism excerpts (link); Hirosue, “The Batak Millenarian Response to the Colonial Order” (link)
• Videos (watch in class): Tomoko Masuzawa interviewed by Kathryn Loften, part 2 starting at the 5:00 minute mark (link) and part 3 (link)

Week 11 (Nov 26): Postcolonial approaches, 2 – Canadian and African contexts as examples – MEETING BY ZOOM THIS WEEK: https://yorku.zoom.us/j/92070904400

• Readings (everyone): Niezen, “Learning to Forget [at residential schools],” pages 46-76 (first 31 pages of the pdf) only (link); Settles, “The Place of Christianity in the Critical Debates of Africana Religious Studies” (link)
• Fishbowl team: Everyone
• Video (watch together via zoom): Birgit Meyer (anthropologist), “What is ‘Religion’ in Africa?” (first 47 minutes; link)

**Book review 2 due**

Week 12 (Dec 3): Discussion of King’s Orientalism and Religion

• Readings (everyone): King, Orientalism and Religion (link)
• Fishbowl team: Everyone

______________________________

ASSIGNMENTS, PRESENTATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS

Fishbowl discussion (first 15 minutes of meeting, students marked individually):

• For most weeks, four or five students on their own will begin discussion of that weeks main readings in their group with the rest of us observing quietly and, eventually (after 15 minutes), joining the discussion.  Our focus questions for the course may be a guide for some issues to explore.  You will also want to show how the current week’s readings relate to other things we have been learning in the course.
• There is no need for the group to meet or discuss things in advance.  In fact, it is preferred that you don’t since this is not a coordinated presentation but rather a somewhat spontaneous discussion based on your own readings of the materials.

Article presentations (usually in the second half of class): 

• Focussing on the scholar’s approach or methods, explain the main arguments of the author while also demonstrating what sorts of subjects and sources occupy the scholar (15 minutes maximum).  Be sure to provide concrete examples of how the scholar approaches evidence

Reading response for week 3 (2 pages double-spaced):

• Write a short analytical piece addressing the following: What are some problems each of our articles from this week pose for our discussion of methods in the study of religion and for the relationship between colonialism and the category of “religion”?  What lessons do we take from these problems?

Academic book reviews (6 pages double-spaced):

• Carefully read and study the assigned book, making note of the main arguments of the author. Write a review of the book, which entails:
  • Outlining the main argument (or point) of the book and how the author builds up this argument in sub-arguments throughout the chapters.
  • Discussing the author’s methods (or approach) and use of evidence to support his or her points.
  • Providing a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the book. Does the author achieve what she set out to do? Is the argument convincing or not, and in what ways? What theoretical assumptions and/or value judgements influence the author’s reconstruction of history? Be sure to provide concrete examples (citing page numbers in parentheses) of the problems or strengths you discuss.
  • IMPORTANT:  A book review essay is NOT a summary of the content of the book.  You may briefly quote a sentence or two from the book, but the main focus should be on you explaining the purpose and argument of the book in your own words.

 

____________________

 

King assignment (future years), intro, chapters 1, 4, 5, 7, 9

REMOVED:

• Video (to watch together at the meeting): Richard King, on Envisioning the Study of Religion in the Twenty-First Century, AAR (link)