THE SUPERNATURAL IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

REL S424/ANTH 424, Fall 2016

Tu/Th, 4:00 PM – 5:15 PM
Room: M-120

Professor: Drew Thomases

Religious Studies
Email: dthomases@sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays & Thursdays, 1-2 P.M., AL-672

Course Description:
This course explores the horizon where anthropology and religious studies meet, more specifically,
that disciplinary place where we explore what it means for people across the globe to act religiously.
In a world where gods and ghosts and demons roam free, what is our role, as scholars, in analyzing
and understanding the supernatural? How do we come to terms with people who see spirits when
we see a wall? Here, we will address a wide range of subject matter, including but not limited to
magic, Rastafari and reggae, drugs and religious experience, possession, and yoga. We aim to
approach these issues with both sympathy and a critical eye, affirming the very human element
behind the supernatural.
All assignments will be available on Blackboard.

Course Learning Outcomes:

In this course, students will learn to:
• Identify key concepts in the anthropology of religion.
• Contextualize topics and traditions within their particular ethnographic setting.
• Recognize the social aspects of religious life.
• Make connections between specifics of different religious traditions, and broader concerns
in the study of religion.

Assessment Criteria:
1) Attendance and Participation
Students are expected to come to every class on time and prepared. Although I will not take
attendance during class, attendance will be reflected in your quizzes (see below). Students who
regularly make positive contributions to class discussions and display serious engagement with
required readings will receive extra credit towards their final grades.

2) Quizzes (20%)
There will be a “syllabus quiz,” which students will complete online in the first week of class. The
quiz covers some of the basic features of the syllabus; it can be taken multiple times, and is
considered incomplete until the student scores 100%. In addition, students will be given short pop-
quizzes at the beginning of three of our class meetings. The purpose of the quizzes is to ensure that
students have done the required readings and have come to the lectures. Quizzes cannot be made

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up; students who are absent or tardy will receive a “0” for the quiz, with the notable exception of a
family emergency or receiving a note from a doctor for illness.

3) Midterm Exam (30%)

There will be a midterm exam on Oct. 11, during class. It will cover what we have learned—from
lecture, discussion, and the reading—up to that point.

4) Ethnographic Essay (20%)

For this essay, students are assigned to take their studies outside—on the road and to the streets—
and explore religion as it exists in San Diego. Pick a church, temple, mosque, synagogue, festival, or
any other event or place that somehow exhibits religion in practice. Write a short ethnographic
essay, of 2-3 pages, that details your visit and summarizes some of your findings. Look to the
ethnographic readings that we have read in class for guidance and inspiration. Papers are due in draft
form on Nov. 10, when they will be peer-reviewed by members of the class, and then in final form
(with draft attached) on Nov. 17.

5) Final Exam (30%)

The final exam will be cumulative—covering everything from the first week to the last—and held on
December 13.

Course Policies:
Lateness: Assignments not handed in by their due dates will be marked off a full letter grade each
day late.

Electronic Devices: All phones and electronic devices must be silent during our class period. I
strongly encourage you to turn off all phones during class.

Students with Disabilities:

If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is
your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any delay in
the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as
possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations based
upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with an accommodation
letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Academic Honesty:
The University adheres to a strict policy regarding cheating and plagiarism. These activities will not
be tolerated in this class. Become familiar with the policy
(http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/srr/conduct1.html). Any cheating or plagiarism will result in failing this
class and a disciplinary review by Student Affairs.

Examples of Plagiarism include but are not limited to:

• Using sources verbatim or paraphrasing without giving proper attribution (this can include
phrases, sentences, paragraphs and/or pages of work)

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 • Copying and pasting work from an online or offline source directly and calling it your own
• Using information you find from an online or offline source without giving the author credit
• Replacing words or phrases from another source and inserting your own words or phrases
• Submitting a piece of work you did for one class to another class
If you have questions on what is plagiarism, please consult the policy
(http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/srr/conduct1.html) and this helpful guide from the Library:
(http://infodome.sdsu.edu/infolit/exploratorium/Standard_5/plagiarism.pdf)

Turnitin:
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual
similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be
included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of
detecting plagiarism of such papers. You may submit your papers in such a way that no identifying
information about you is included. Another option is that you may request, in writing, that your
papers not be submitted to Turnitin.com. However, if you choose this option you will be required to
provide documentation to substantiate that the papers are your original work and do not include any
plagiarized material.

Schedule:
Week One
Aug. 30: Introduction to understanding the Anthropology of religion

Sept. 1: What is the Sacred?

• Emile Durkheim, “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life,” A Reader in the Anthropology of
Religion, pp. 34-49.

Week Two
Sept. 6: Religion as a Cultural System
• Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System,” A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion, pp.
61-82.

Sept. 8: The Ritual Process

• Victor Turner, “Liminality and Communitas,” A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion, pp. 358-
374.

Week Three
Sept. 13: Taboo
• Mary Douglas, “Taboo,” Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, pp. 76-80.
• Sigmund Freud, Selections from Totem and Taboo, in Introducing Religion, 74-83

Sept. 15: Myth

• John Beattie, “Nyoro Myth,” Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, pp. 63-67
• Claude Levi-Strauss, “Harelips and Twins: The Splitting of a Myth,” Magic, Witchcraft, and
Religion, pp. 68-71.

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Week Four
Sept: 20: Religious Experience
• Robert Sharf, “Experience,” Critical Terms for Religious Studies, pp. 94-116.

Sept. 22: Experiencing Magic as Anthropologist

• Edith Turner, “A Visible Spirit Form in Zambia,” Being Changed by Cross-Cultural Encounters,
pp. 71-95.

Week Five
Sept. 27: Why Does “the Body” Matter?
• Marcel Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” Economy and Society, pp. 70-87.

Sept. 29: Religion and the Senses

• Charles Hirschkind, “Passional Preaching, Aural Sensibility, and the Islamic Revival in
Cairo,” American Ethnologist (2001): pp. 623-642.

Week Six
Oct. 4: Drugs, Festivals, and Ethnographic Authority
• McKim Marriott, “Holi: The Feast of Love,” The Life of Hinduism, pp. 99-112.

Oct. 6: MIDTERM REVIEW

Week Seven
Oct. 11: MIDTERM

Oct. 13: Reggae and Religion

• Hugh Urban, “Rastafari: Messianism, Music, and Ganja,” New Age, Neopagan, and New
Religious Movements, pp. 114-134.

Week Eight
Oct. 18: Hip-Hop, Atheism, and African American Identity
• Guest Speaker, Dr. Roy Whitaker
• Reading TBD

Oct. 20: NO CLASS

Week Nine
Oct. 25: Divination
• E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “Consulting the Poison Oracle Among the Azande,” Magic, Witchcraft,
and Religion, pp. 290-295.

Oct. 27: Witchcraft

• T.M. Luhrmann, “The Goat and the Gazelle: Witchcraft,” Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, pp.
281-289.

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Week Ten
Nov. 1: Shamans
• William Howells, “The Shaman: A Siberian Spiritualist, Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, pp. 155-
162

Nov. 3: Healing and Medicine

• William Wedenoja, “Mothering and the Practice of ‘Balm’ in Jamaica,” Magic, Witchcraft, and
Religion, pp. 230-238.

Week Eleven
Nov. 8: Possession
• Janice Boddy, “Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan,” American Ethnologist (1988): pp. 4-24.

Nov. 10: Peer-review of Ethnographic Essays

Week Twelve
Nov. 15: Immigration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage
• Malcolm X and Alex Haley, “Mecca,” The Autobiography of Malcolm X, pp. 172-194.

Nov. 17: Yoga and Globalization

• Ethnographic Essays Are Due
• Michelle Goldberg, “Iyengar and the Invention of Yoga,” The New Yorker (23 Aug. 2014).
• Kyla Calvert, “Promoting Hinduism? Parents Demand Removal of School Yoga Class,”
available at http://www.npr.org/2013/01/09/168613461/promoting-hinduism-parents-
demand-removal-of-school-yoga-class.
• Sandip Roy, “Yoga: A Positively Un-Indian Experience,” available at
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/29/132207910/yoga-a-positively-un-indian-experience.

Week Thirteen
Nov. 22: NO CLASS

Nov. 24: NO CLASS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Week Fourteen
Nov. 29: Transnational Christianity
• Guest Speaker, Dr. Rebecca Bartel
• Reading TBD

Dec. 1: Religious Violence I

• Gavin Flood, Introduction to Hinduism, pp. 262-265.
• John Stratton Hawley, “Militant Hinduism: Ayodhya and the Momentum of Hindu
Nationalism,” pp. 257-265.

Week Fifteen
Dec. 6: Religious Violence II
• Ricardo Kaulessar, “‘Dotbusters’ Victim Looks Back,” Hudson Reporter (3 May 2009).
• Amardeep Singh, “Being Sikh in America,” New York Times (7 Aug. 2012).

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 • Samuel Freedman, “If the Sikh Temple Had Been a Mosque,” New York Times (10 Aug.
2012).
• Simran Jeet Singh, “Through the Eyes of Sikh Kids: A Profound Lesson in Tolerance,”
Journal Interactive (25 Aug. 2012).

Dec. 8: REVIEW FOR FINAL EXAM

Week Sixteen:
Dec: 13: FINAL EXAM