Student Resources

Learning Objectives

Chapter 1

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Explain the anthropological perspective on religion.
2. Review the holistic approach used by the discipline of anthropology.
3. Examine how anthropology studies human societies.
4. Compare the emic perspective to the etic perspective.
5. Examine the concept of cultural relativism and its uses in anthropology.
6. Explain the concept of culture.
7. Describe the numerous definitions of religion.
8. Contrast the various approaches to the study of religion.
9. Discuss the biological basis of religion.

Chapter 2

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Explore the nature of myths and how they portray a groups worldview.
2. Differentiate between folktales, legends, urban legends, and myths.
3. Explain the different approaches taken to understand myths including functional analysis, structura analysis, and symbolic analysis.
4. Review the common themes presented in myths including those of origin, apocalypse, trickster, and heroes.
5. Examine the work and conclusions of Joseph Campbell including his concern for modern human society and it's lack of myth and meaning.

Chapter 3

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Define the concept of symbol in that it is arbitrary, displays displacement, and has openness.
2. Discuss religious symbols and their connection to religious practice and ritual.
3. Explain the importance of art and artistic symbolism in religion.
4. Discriminate between concepts of sacred time and time based on astronomical observations.
5. Examine the Mayan view of time. Explain the two Mayan calendar systems.
6. Show how periodic rituals are a feature of calendars.
7. Explain how sacred time and space are integrated into the concept of totenism.
8. Review how music and dance both reflect symbolism in religious ritual.

Chapter 4

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Contrast the concept of ritual in daily life to that of ritual in religion.
2. Examine the basics of ritual performance.
3. Describe the various types of ritual including prescriptive, situational, crisis, periodic and occasional.
4. Classify rituals using Anthony Wallace's categories: technological, therapy, ideological, salvation, and revitalization.
5. Explore examples of social rites of intensification.
6. Show how prayer, offerings, and sacrifice are all social rites of intensification.
7. Analyze the purpose of rights of passage.
8. Describe coming-of-age rituals.
9. Explain how alterations of the human body reflect religious belief.
10. Explain the importance of the journey to a sacred place, or pilgrimage.
11. Review the functions of religious obligations.

Chapter 5

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Identify the characteristics of altered states of consciousness.
2. Examine the factors bringing about an altered state of consciousness.
3. Explore the biological basis of altered states of consciousness including the association with the sympathetic system of the brain.
4. Review the importance of fasting, sacred pain, drugs, and ritual setting in achieving altered states of consciousness.
5. Explain how the religious use of drugs to achieve altered states of consciousness is strongly influenced by cultural expectations.

Chapter 6

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Describe the role and functions of a shaman.
2. Explain what types of societies have shamanism.
3. Explore the role of Pentacostal healer as shaman through the process of “laying on of hands.”
4. Differentiate between shamanism and neoshamanism.
5. Define the term “priest.”
6. Explain the roles of the priest and contrast those with the roles of the shaman.
7. Discriminate between the healer and the diviner.
8. Show how a “prophet” differs from both the shaman and the priest.

Chapter 7

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Separate the concept of magic from illusion.
2. Define magic as a term in religious study and practice.
3. Explain the concept of science in terms of empirical observations.
4. Review the rules of magic including the Law of Sympathy, the Law of Similarity, and the Law of Contagion.
5. Relate the Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion to homeopathic magic and contagious magic respectively.
6. Analyze the function of magic.
7. Debate the role of magic in a society's religious practices.
8. Describe the function of magic rituals and how spells are used with the manipulation of material objects.
9. Compare the functions and expectations of magic versus sorcery.
10. Define the term “neo-pagan.” Show how Wicca functions as a neo-pagan religion.
11. Define the concept of “divination.”
12. Review the many forms of divination including inspirational, non-inspirational, fortuitous, and deliberate.
13. Appraise several divination methods.
14. Reflect on the origins of the ordeal and its usefulness in religion practice.

Chapter 8

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Define the term “soul” as used in anthropology.
2. Review the variation in the concept of the soul amongst various societies.
3. Show how the concept of the soul is tied to ideas about death, especially the concept of the “afterlife.”
4. Display knowledge of several examples of the concept of the soul.
5. Define the term “ancestor” as used in the study of religion in anthropology.
6. Discuss the change in attitude by anthropologists over the concept of “ancestor worship.”
7. Examine the connection between the body and soul and how one or the other remains connected with the world of the living after death through the concepts of “ghosts,” “vampires,” and “zombies.”
8. Describe the reasons for death rituals.
9. Explore the function of funeral rituals.
10. Appraise the various methods used for the disposal of the body.
11. Compare U.S. death rituals in the nineteenth century to those of today.

Chapter 9

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Define the term “spirit” as used in anthropology.
2. Discuss the Dani view of the supernatural.
3. Define the term “guardian spirit” as used in anthropology.
4. Examine the Native American vision quest in relationship to guardian spirits.
5. Examine the Muslim conscious being named “jinn.”
6. Explain the function of spirit possession.
7. Examine the spirit beings known as “angels” and “demons” to Christianity.
8. Review the powers of gods.
9. Critique the concept of anthropomorphism in relationship to gods.
10. Chart the entire pantheon of gods known to humanity and their functions.
11. Review various gods and goddesses from many different cultures and societies.
12. Differentiate between polytheism and monotheism.

Chapter 10

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Explain how a witch can be a witch and not even know it.
2. Reflect on the meaning of witchcraft accusations.
3. Illustrate why people who practiced healing and midwifery were often accused of practicing witchcraft.
4. Dramatize, through the use of examples, the concept of witchcraft in small-scale societies as being evil.
5. Show how witchcraft beliefs functioned to provide explanations for misfortune and a means of actively dealing with the perceived cause.
6. Correlate a belief in witchcraft and the disease of AIDS in Haiti.
7. Demonstrate the connection between the pagan beliefs of some Euro-Americans and practices revolving around witchcraft including sorcery.
8. Review the reasons for the witchcraze in Europe and how the concept of Satan fits into this period.
9. Critique the witchcraze in the United States and England.
10. Explain the major function of Euro-American witchcraft beliefs.
11. Analyze the modern concept of the witch hunt and its application in modern America.

Chapter 11

At the completion of the chapter the student will be able to:

1. Review the mechanisms of cultural change including discovery, invention, and diffusion.
2. Contrast discovery, invention, and diffusion with acculturation.
3. Analyze the reasons for syncretism and give several examples.
4. Explain the necessity for revitalization movements in many societies.
5. Critique the John Frum Cult as a cargo cult.
6. Evaluate the reasons for the Ghost Dance of 1890.
7. Explain the concept of “choice fatigue” and how it relates to the creation of the new religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
8. Explore the effect of the publication of the Witch Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray in 1921.
9. Analyze the growing popularity of Wicca in America.
10. Evaluate the term “cult” in both its correct and “normal” usages.
11. Demonstrate knowledge of “high demand religions.”
12. Analyze the impact of new religions on society and debate their negative versus positive effects.
13. Explore the causes and functions of fundamentalism in religion.

Interactive Quiz

Recommended Readings

Chapter 1

1. On the Strange and the Familiar in Recent Anthropological Thought by Melford E. Spiro
2. From Ethnographer to Comparativist and Back Again by Terence E. Hays
3. Evolution of a Biological Anthropologist by Katharine Miltion (particularly the chapters "Problems in Human Ecology" and "Satisfied with Science")

Chapter 2

1. from The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
2. The Myth of Religious Superiority by Paul F. Knitter
3. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade

Chapter 3

1. The Sound of Love by Rumi
2. The Dao de Jing (The Tao Te Ching), I: Embodiment of Tao, translated by Stan Rosenthal
3. Everything Lives in God Hilgegard of Bingen

Chapter 4

1. The Passover Story: Seder Meal Ceremony
2. How to Perform: Salaat
3. Baptism: Book of Common Prayer
4. "Disputing the Myth of the Sexual Dysfunction of Circumcised Women: An Interview with Fuambai Ahmadu" by Fuambai Ahmadu and Richard Shweder

Chapter 5

1. The Great Vision, Black Elk
2. Of Water and Spirits, Malidoma Patrice Somé
3. Visions of the Mother, Parahamsa Yogananda

Chapter 6

1. Roman Catholic Women Priests
2. Introduction: When Prophets Die: The Succession Crisis in New Religions by J. Gordon Melton
3. The Sikh Gurus' Vision of an Ideal Society

Chapter 7

1. Witchcraft by Diane Mariechild
2. The myth of Religious Superiority by Paul F. Knitter
3. Child Sacrifice in Uganda?: The BBC, "Witch Doctors" and Anthropologists by Pat Caplan

Chapter 8

1. What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula
2. Awakening to Perfection by Zhang Boduan
3. Buddhism Is Not What You Think by Steve Hagen

Chapter 9

1. Abraham's Covenant from Genesis
2. A Medieval Argument for the Existence of God by Anselm of Canterbury
3. The Qur'an, Part I, XIV: The Chapter of Abraham

Chapter 10

1. Child Sacrifice in Uganda? The BBC, Witch Doctors, and Anthropologists, by Pat Caplan
2. Human Rights Violations by Paul C. Rosenblatt

Chapter 11

1. Fundamentalism as an American Phenomenon by George M. Marsden
2. Alternative Religions by Stephen J. Hunt
3. "Introduction" in Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe, and Japan by John R. Hall