Bid’a

the Arabic term for illicit innovation or novelty in religion

Canon

the set of standardized, official writings or doctrines and practices of a religion

Christian Exodus

an American Christian movement working to relocate a large number of Christians to a state (for instance, South Carolina), where they can institute a Christian culture

Christian Identity

a Christian movement that attributes true Christianity to the white race, going so far as to brand other races “the spawn of Satan” or subhuman “mud people”; see also Anglo-Israelism

Cognitive evolutionary theory

the approach to religion (and other complex behaviors) that suggests that specific cognitive and social characteristics developed during human evolution that make such complex behaviors possible and likely

Communitas

in Victor Turner’s ritual model, the condition of undifferentiated and structureless existence; the unity that characterizes the state of liminality, when the ritual actor is between social statuses

Contagious magic

the belief and practice that objects that come in contact with each other have some supernatural connection with each other

Conversion

used most commonly in Christian parlance, the allegedly sudden and complete break with the past and the adoption of a new religious belief and identity

Cosmogony

notions about the origin of the universe

Cosmology

notions about the order or structure of ultimate reality

Costly signaling theory

the idea that religions feature difficult and difficult-to-fake actions because those actions demonstrate social commitment and cooperation

Cultural relativism

the part of the anthropological perspective that insists that we understand and judge the behavior of another culture in terms of its standards of good, normal, moral, legal, etc. rather than our own

Da’wa

Arabic for “inviting,” often understood as a synonym in Islam for conversion

Deism

the religious idea of a god that created the universe but takes little interest in humans and does not intervene in human affairs

Diaspora

the dispersion of a social group from its historical homeland (often applied specifically to the Jewish community)

Diffusion

the spread of items of culture from one society to another

Diffusionism

the nineteenth-century ethnological or anthropological position or theory that culture, or specific cultural practices, objects, or institutions, had appeared once or at most a few times and spread out from their original center

Discursive tradition

for Talal Asad, discourses or ways of talking and interpreting that seek to instruct religious practitioners regarding the correct form and purpose of a given practice that, precisely because it is established, has a history

Distributed personhood

the idea, associated with Alfred Gell, that a person can be “distributed,” that is all of his or her “parts” need not be physically attached but can be located in other persons, places, and objects

Divination

the use of religious techniques to “read” information from the supernatural world

Diviner

a religious specialist who uses one of many techniques to “read” information from the supernatural world

Entheogen

a chemical substance that induces a religious-type experience

Eschatology

notions about the end of the world

Ethnography

a written account or description of a particular culture, usually including its environment, economic system, kinship arrangements, political systems, and religious beliefs, and often including some discussion of culture change

Ethno-religious conflict

violence between ethnic or identity groups that has religion as one of its elements of identity or of conflicting interest

Euhemerism

the notion that the idea of gods or spirits derives from modified or exaggerated accounts of actual people and events

Folklore

the “traditional,” usually oral, literature of a society, consisting of various genres such as myth, legend, folk-tale, song, proverb, and many others

Functionalism

the method, and eventually the theory, that a cultural trait can be investigated for the contribution it makes to the survival of individual humans, the operation of other cultural items, or the culture as a whole

Fundamentalism

a type of cultural/revitalization movement in which members attempt to address perceived social problems or disadvantages by restoring the perceived “fundamentals” or oldest, most important, and most “genuine” elements of culture

Ghost

a religious or spiritual being, generally regarded to be the disembodied spiritual part of a deceased human

Gush Emunim

The Bloc of the Faithful), an extremist Jewish group that emerged in the early 1970s following the Israeli success of the Six Day War in 1967, supporting the state of Israel and eager to expand its territory to include all of ancient Israel’s land

Haredim

literally “those who tremble,” a collection of like-minded Jewish organizations and communities, including Neturei Karta and Toldot Aharon, that share some ideas and values, like a strict observance of all scriptural laws and a theological opposition to Zionism and the secular state of Israel

Hierophany

an appearance of the sacred amidst the profane or mundane

Hindutva

a form of Hindu nationalism in India, which asserts Hinduism as the true religion of all Indians and the Indian subcontinent as the sacred homeland of Hindus

Historical materialism

the theory, associated with Karl Marx, that material or economic conditions shape society, so that each particular society is a formation based on the material conditions and relations of the particular moment in history

Holism

the part of the anthropological perspective that entails consideration of every part of a culture in relation to every other part and to the whole

Honor killing

the killing, usually of females, when their behavior has brought shame or dishonor on a family through her behavior, such as premarital sex or “dating” outside the preferred categories

Humanism

a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion; a philosophy that places humanity as the highest principle

Ideological ritual

according to Anthony Wallace, a type of ritual that aims at social control, in which individuals, groups, or society in its entirety are moved, influenced, and manipulated

Inculturation

an official policy of the Catholic Church, intended to inject religion into the wider society and as well as to inject the local culture into religion, resulting in multiple local Christianities

Innovation

the invention or discovery of new cultural items

Interaction code

according to John Skorupski, a specialized set of behaviors that establish or maintain (or destroy) an equilibrium, or mutual agreement, among the people involved in an interaction as to their relative standing or roles, and their reciprocal commitments and obligations

Irredentism

from the Italian irredenta for unredeemed, a type of revitalization movement to reclaim and reoccupy a lost homeland

Jihad

the Arabic term for “struggle,” including both struggle with oneself and violent struggle against others

Laïcité

the official French policy of state secularism

Laiklik

the Turkish term for state secularism

Liminality

most associated with the work of Victor Turner, the condition of being “in between” or “on the margins” of social roles, in particular of being in transition (as during ritual) between one social role and another

Liturgy

the most formal, fixed, and weighty of rituals, in which the exact gestures, objects, and words must be used in the precisely correct ways in order for the ritual to “succeed”

Mana

a supernatural force or energy recognized by some Pacific Island societies, which gives its human bearers power or efficacy

Martyrdom

giving one’s life for a cause, including but not limited to a religious cause

Megachurch

a modern (sub)urban form of Christianity, featuring large church facilities, multiple religious and social activities aimed at specific niches, and often very mild forms of worship

Messianism

based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, a type of revitalization movement that insists that a messiah or “anointed one” will appear (or has appeared) to lead the society to salvation and happiness

Millenarianism

a type of revitalization movement aimed at preparing for and perhaps bringing about the end of the “present era,” however that era is understood, and replacing it with a new and better existence

Modernism

a type of revitalization movement intended to adopt the characteristics of a foreign and “modern” society, in the process abandoning some or all of the “traditional” characteristics of the society undergoing the movement.  See also vitalism

Modes of religiosity

the idea, associated most closely with Harvey Whitehouse, that there are two distinct forms or modes of religion, one based on doctrine and the other based on images and emotion-laden experience

Monolatry

the devotion to one god among the many gods acknowledged to exist

Monotheism

the religious position that one and only one god exists

Mulid

an Islamic celebration, most associated with Sufism, usually related to the birthday of the prophet Muhammad

Nativism

a type of revitalization movement aimed at perpetuating, restoring, or reviving “traditional” cultural practices or characteristics, which are thought to be the source of the group’s strength and to be threatened or lost

Occult economy

according to John and Jean Comaroff, the deployment, real or imagined, of magical means for material ends, including ritual murder, the sale of body parts, and the putative production of zombies

Ontology

ideas about what kinds of things (beings, forces, etc.) exist

Oracle

a religious specialist (or any religious object or process) with the power to forecast the future or answer questions through communication with or manipulation of supernatural forces

Orientalism

most associated with Edward Said, the claim that Western thinking and research on Islam (and the wider “Eastern” world) has been based on assumptions that render Islam and non-Western societies exotic, incomprehensible, anti-modern, and inferior—the complete “other” of Western society

Paganism

a loose assortment of religious or traditionalist movements or religions that celebrates local or pre-Christian ideas and identities

Pantheism

a form of theism in which it is claimed that “everything” is god, that the universe and all of the material world is the same thing as god, that god is “immanent” in and co-extensive with the physical world

Participant observation

the anthropological field method in which we travel to the society we want to study and spend long periods of time there, not only watching but joining in their culture as much as possible

Pentecostalism

a form of Christianity, usually Protestant, which emphasizes “gifts of the spirit” such as speaking in tongues, ecstatic experiences, and religious healing

Pilgrimage

movement or travel to religious sites or for religious purposes, involving moving out of everyday space and into and through religious/sacred space

Pollution

those substances, objects, actions, and perhaps thoughts that cause a person to be “unclean”

Polytheism

the religious position that two or more gods exist

Prayer

a form of linguistic religious behavior in which humans speak and interact with supernatural beings

Priest

a religious specialist, often full-time, who is trained in a religious tradition and acts as a functionary of a religious institution to lead ritual and perpetuate the religious institution

Primitive mentality

the assumption, associated with Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, that tribal peoples (and certain other humans) think in a distinctive and inferior way

Prophe

t—a human who speaks for or receives messages from spirits

Prosociality

the performance of actions that benefit others at a personal cost

Reconstructionism

also known as Dominionism, a Christian movement aimed at “reconstructing” modern society in conformity with Christian (specifically Old Testament) values and institutions

Revitalization movement

according to Anthony Wallace, the deliberate, organized, and self-conscious effort by members of a society to create a more satisfying culture

Rite of intensification

a form of ritual in which members of the society are brought into greater communion, in which social bonds are intensified

Rite of passage

a form of ritual intended to accompany or accomplish a change of status or role of the participants, such as initiation (change from youth to adult) or marriage

Ritual process

according to Victor Turner, the common structure of ritual actions, which involve separation from everyday life and roles, liminality, and then transformation and re-integration into society

Sacrifice

a ritual behavior in which something is destroyed or killed, as a form of offering to or communication with supernatural beings, which is usually believed to affect the social or spiritual condition of the sacrificer

Salafism

from the Arabic salafiyyah for “the ancestors” or “the early years,” a form of Islam that stresses the piety and practices of the founding generation of Islam and their original (and thereby authoritative) religion

Salvation ritual

according to Anthony Wallace, the type of ritual that seeks to cause change of personality

Sannyasin

a Hindu male who renounces home and family and embarks on an itinerant spiritual life

Sati

the traditional Indian practice in which a widow commits suicide by throwing herself on her dead husband’s funeral pyre

Secular

from the Latin saeculum for the present era or generation, that which is distinctive of a particular time-period rather than eternal, or that which relates to the present everyday world as opposed to the eternal spiritual world

Secularization theory

the nineteenth- and twentieth-century position that modern society is incompatible with religion, leading to an inevitable decline in the presence or importance of religion

Self-mortification

any of a variety of practices aimed at inflicting discomfort and pain on the self, up to and including death

Shahadat

the Arabic term for martyrdom (literally “witness”)

Shahid

the Arabic term for a martyr

Shaman

a religious specialist, usually part-time, who has personal power, based on unique life experiences or apprenticeship to a senior shaman, to communicate, interact, and sometimes struggle with supernatural beings or forces, often to heal

Shari’a

Islamic law

Sicarii

an ancient Jewish sect of knife-bearers, active during the Roman occupation, who attacked enemies in broad daylight and killed them with a short sword

Social drama

a public, symbolic scenes (usually ritualized) in which the conflicts or disharmonies of society are played out

Sorcerer

a religious specialist who uses techniques, including spells and potions, to achieve supernatural effects

Sorcery

the use of religious techniques to achieve supernatural effects, usually malevolent ones

Soul

a religious concept of a non-material component or components of a living human. It is widely believed that a soul survives the death of the body, at least temporarily, and continues in another form of existence

State secularism

the official promotion of secularism (perhaps even anti-religion) by the government

Structural functionalism

the theory that the function of a cultural trait, particularly an institution, is the creation and preservation of social order and social integration

Structuralism

the theory, associated most closely with Claude Levi-Strauss, that the significance of an item (word, role, practice, belief) is not so much in the particular item but in its relationship to others. In other words, the “structure” of multiple items and the location of any one in relation to others is most important

Symbol

an object, gesture, sound, or image that “stands for” some other idea or concept or object.  Something that has “meaning,” particularly when the meaning is arbitrary and conventional and thus culturally relative

Symboling

according to Leslie White, bestowing meaning upon a thing or an act, or grasping and appreciating meanings thus bestowed

Sympathetic magic

the idea and practice that objects that have something in common with each other (e.g. the same shape or texture) have some supernatural connection with each other

Syncretism

a type of revitalization movement in which elements of two or more cultural sources are blended into a new and more satisfying cultural arrangement

Taliban

a fundamentalist Islamic movement that seized power in Afghanistan in 1996 and ruled until being ousted by the United States in 2001

Televangelism

the use of modern mass media (especially television) to practice evangelism or spreading of the Christian message

Theism

the religious position that at least one god exists

Theodicy

the practice of explaining the source or cause of suffering or evil in the world, especially in religions that posit a powerful and good god

Totemism

a term, not widely used today, for the religious conception that human individuals or groups have a symbolic or spiritual connection with particular natural species, objects, or phenomena

Traditionalization (also traditioning)

the more or less intentional effort to establish ideas, practices, and institutions as “traditions” and to have those things transmitted or handed down, typically by attaching them to “the past” in some way

Translocal religion

sometimes labeled “world religion,” a religion that co-exists in multiple locations around the world; while it may consider itself a single religion, its local forms are often quite divergent

Vernacular religion

religion in the “local language,” or more broadly, religion that conforms to the ideas, practices, and relations of ordinary people and everyday circumstances, as opposed to official, orthodox, or elite religion

Vitalism

see modernism

Wahhabism

an Islamic movement founded by Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, who advocated a purist form of Islam distinguished by opposition to popular superstitions and innovations and the Islamization of society based on scriptural Islam

Witch

a religious specialist, often conceived as a human with a supernatural ability to harm others, sometimes through possession of an unnatural bodily organ or an unnatural personality; sometimes viewed as an antisocial and even anti-human type who causes misfortune out of excessive greed or anger or jealousy

Witchcraft

the use of the powers of a witch, usually to cause misfortune or harm

Ch 2 Further Reading

• Bird-David. 1999. “‘Animism’ Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology.” Current Anthropology 40 (supplement): S67-91. The essay that launched the contemporary anthropology of animism, discussing a society of hunter-gatherers in India and their relationship to spirits and places.
• Brightman, Marc, Vanessa Elisa Grotti, and Olga Ulturgasheva, eds. 2012. Animism in Rainforest and Tundra: Personhood, Animals, Plants, and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. A collection of essays comparing animism in two major geographical regions, the South American Amazon and Siberia.
• Carlisle, Steven and Gregory M. Simon. 2012. “Believing Selves: Negotiating Social and Psychological Experiences of Belief.” Ethos 40 (3): 221-36. An ethnographic exploration of believing and beliefs in various religious traditions and social contexts.
• Hallowell, A. Irving (1976) “Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View.” In Paul Radin, ed. Contributions to Anthropology: Selected Papers of A. Irving Hallowell. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 357-390. A very influential statement about the personhood and even kin-relation of religious beings.
• Handelman, Don. 2008. “Returning to Cosmology: Thoughts on the Positioning of Belief.” Social Analysis 52 (1): 181-95. A consideration of how ideas about cosmology can help anthropology analyze the concept of belief.
• Harvey, Graham. 2006. Animism: Respecting the Living World. New York: Columbia University Press. A definitive statement about the revived interest in animism, rethinking it as a relationship between humans and the nonhuman world.
• Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2003. “The Supernatural is Everywhere: Defining Qualities of Religion in Melanesia and Beyond.” Anthropological Forum 13 (2): 175-85. A discussion of the concept of “supernatural” and implacability across cultures.
• Spiro, Melford E. and Roy G. D’Andrade. 1958. “A Cross-Cultural Study of Some Supernatural Beliefs.” American Anthropologist 60 (3): 456-66. A brief examination of the concept of belief and the correlation of certain beliefs to other social variables.
• Strong, Sarah M. 2011. Ainu Spirits Singing: The Living World of Chiri Yukie’s Ainu Shinyoshu. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. A translation and analysis of Ainu (northern Japan) chants, describing the personalities and actions of animal spirits.
• Tambiah, Stanley J. 1970. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. London:Cambridge University Press. A classic description of the religious beliefs of villagers in Thailand, illustrating the co-existence of Buddhist and pre-Buddhist spirits and specialists.

Ch 3 Further Reading

• Comaroff, Jean and John L. Comaroff. 2002. “Alien-Nation: Zombies, Immigrants, and Millennial Capitalism.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 101 (4): 779-805. Two leading anthropologists consider the rise of beliefs about zombies and other malevolent supernatural beings in relation to modern social and economic forces and experiences.
• Dow, James. 1986. “Universal Aspects of Symbolic Healing: A Theoretical Synthesis.” American Anthropologist 88 (1): 56-69. An examination of the cross-cultural use of symbols in healing, exploring the relationship between Western psychotherapy and magical healing.
• Kendall, Laurel, Vu Thi Thanh Tam, and Nguyen Thi Thu Hu’o’ng. 2010. “Beautiful and Efficacious Statues: Magic, Commodities, Agency, and the Production of Sacred Objects in Popular Religion in Vietnam.” Material Religion 6 (1): 60-85. An ethnographic study of Vietnamese religion which renders statues as animated, sacred, and agentive and investigates how believers experience and describe the personhood of statues.
• Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief. A journal dedicated to research on religious images, devotional and liturgical objects, architecture and sacred spaces, works of art and mass-produced artifacts.
• Nadel, S. F. 1952. “Witchcraft in Four African Societies: An Essay in Comparison.” American Anthropologist 54 (1): 18-29. A comparison of witchcraft in Nupe, Gwari, Korongo, and Mesakin societies, examining the variation in witchcraft beliefs and their relationship to social structures and psychological frustrations and anxieties.
• Riches, David. 1994. “Shamanism: The Key to Religion.” Man 29 (2): 381-405. An analytical discussion of shamanism in relation to wider questions of notions of the human person, systems of classification, and the generation of cosmologies.
• Whitehead, Amy. 2013. Religious Statues and Personhood: Testing the Role of Materiality. London: Bloomsbury. A study of two religious statues—a Virgin Mary in Spain and the Glastonbury Goddess in England—that suggests new ways to think about materiality, personhood, and familiar concepts such as animism and fetishism.

Ch 4 Further Reading

• Dein, Simon. 2002. “The Power of Words: Healing Narratives among Lubavitcher Hasidism.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16 (1): 41-63. An interesting case study of the use of religious words and texts in orthodox Jewish healing, which confirms Malinowski’s claim that symbolic measures are only taken when practical actions fail.
• Keane, Webb. 1997. “Religious Language.” Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 47-71. A key essay on the similarities and differences between religious language and ordinary language.
• Keeling, Richard. 1992. Cry for Luck: Sacred Song and Speech among the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok Indians of Northwestern California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. An ethnomusicological study of the song and speech traditions of several Native American societies, including musical notations of songs.
• Leach, Edmund. 1969. Genesis as Myth and Other Essays. London: Jonathan Cape. A collection of essays from a renowned anthropologist, including his famous structural analysis of the Judeo-Christian genesis story.
• Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1955. “The Structural Study of Myth.” The Journal of American Folklore 68 (270): 428-44. Lévi-Strauss’s seminal essay on structuralism and its application to mythology.
• Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. A more detailed statement on the scientific, structural approach to myth.
• Tambiah, Stanley J. 1968. “The Magical Power of Words.” Man 3 (2): 175-208. An important statement on the effectiveness of words from the magical/religious perspective.
• Tedlock, Dennis. 1996 [1085]. Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings, revised and expanded. New York: Touchstone. A classic translation and explanation of the Mayan creation myth.

Ch 5 Further Reading

• Collins, Peter. 2005. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a ‘Ritual.’” Journal of Contemporary Religion 20 (3): 323-42. Based on observations of Quaker religious meetings, the author proposes thirteen different approaches to ritual behavior.
• Deflem, Mathieu. 1991. “Ritual, Anti-Structure, and Religion: A Discussion of Victor Turner’s Processual Symbolic Analysis.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 30 (1): 1-25. A useful summary of Turner’s pivotal work on rites of passage and his ritual-process model.
• Gardner, D. S. 1983. “Performativity in Ritual: The Mianmin Case.” Man 18 (2): 346-60. An essay applying Austin’s notion of linguistic performance to the rituals of a Papuan New Guinean society.
• Gabriel, Theodore. 2010. Playing God: Belief and Ritual in the Muttappan Cult of North Malabar. London and Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing. A short study of a possession cult in India, in which people become and interact with other devotees as gods.
• Gmelch, George.  1992. “Baseball Magic.” Elysian Fields Quarterly 11 (3): 25-36. A classic essay, often included in anthologies on the anthropology of religion, illustrating how magical thinking operates among baseball players.
• Gouin, Margaret. 2010. Tibetan Rituals of Death: Buddhist Funerary Practices. New York: Routledge. An interesting study of Tibetan Buddhist death rituals depicts the tremendous diversity, even confusion, that in these practices and the difficulty of establishing what is “general” or “standard” is such rituals.
• Gutschow, Niels, Axel Michaels, and Christian Bau. 2005. Handling Death: The Dynamics of Death and Ancestor Rituals among the Newars of Bhaktapur, Nepal. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag. A detailed study of the actors and actions of death rituals in Nepal, emphasizing the spatial aspects of ritual and containing a DVD with video clips of ritual moments.
• Liénard, Pierre and Pascal Boyer.  2006. “Whence Collective Rituals? A Cultural Selection Model of Ritualized Behavior.” American Anthropologist 108 (4): 814-27. One of the leading proponents of the cognitive-evolutionary approach to religion analyzes the origins of ritual behavior.
• Rountree, Kathryn. 2002. “How Magic Works: New Zealand Feminist Witches’ Theories of Ritual Action.” Anthropology of Consciousness 13 (1): 42-59. An article discussing contemporary witches in New Zealand and their ideas and practices in the light of anthropological theories of ritual, magic, power, and healing.
• Samuel, Geoffrey. 2001. “The Effectiveness of Goddesses, or, How Ritual Works.” Anthropological Forum 11 (1): 73-91. An exploration of how words and ritual acts operate on the mind of believers and practitioners, changing their internal states.
• Stewart, Pamela J. and Andrew Strathern. 2014. Ritual: Key Concepts in Religion. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic. A short textbook by two eminent anthropologists provides a succinct survey of the history and contributions of the anthropology of ritual.

Ch 6 Further Reading

• Barker, John, ed. 2009. The Anthropology of Morality in Melanesia and Beyond. Surrey, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate. A collection of essays featuring some leading anthropologists, focusing on the region of Melanesia but raising questions of morality with cross-cultural significance.
• Boddy, Janice. 1988. “Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: The Cultural Therapeutics of Possession and Trance.” American Anthropologist 15 (1): 4-27. A classic essay on spirit possession, gender, and morality.
• Fassin, Didier, ed. 2012. A Companion to Moral Anthropology. Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. A reader containing excerpts from classic and contemporary anthropology and other disciplines on issues and varieties of morality.
• Fassin, Didier and Samuel Lézé, eds. 2014. Moral Anthropology: A Critical Reader. London: Routledge. A sophisticated set of essays on moral theory and ethnographic studies of morality in relation to anthropology.
• Heintz, Monica, ed. 2009. The Anthropology of Moralities. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. A set of essays by anthropologists on moral systems and concepts across cultures.
• Khare, R. S. 2010. “Pollution and Purity.” In Alan J. Barnard and Jonathan Spencer, eds. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, 2nd ed.  Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge, 556-8. An encyclopedia entry on anthropological concepts and examples of pollution and purity.
• Ortner, Sherry B. 1973. “Sherpa Purity.” American Anthropologist 75 (1): 49-63. An article in which Ortner applies her theory of symbols to notions of purity and pollution among the Sherpas of Nepal.
• Roes, Frans L. and Michel Raymond. 2003. “Belief in Moralizing Gods.” Evolution and Human Behavior 24: 126-35. An article investigating the cognitive-evolutionary origins of ideas about gods and morality.
• Stein, Howard F. 1974. “Envy and the Evil Eye among Slovak-Americans: An Essay in the Psychological Ontogeny of Belief and Ritual.” Ethos 2 (1): 15-46. An article on the famous concept of “evil eye,” taking a psychological-anthropological perspective.
• Zigon, Jarrett, ed. 2011. Multiple Moralities and Religions in Post-Soviet Russia. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. A set of essays focusing on religion and morality in contemporary Russia.

Ch 7 Further Reading

• Burridge, Kenelm 0. 1960. Mambu, a Melanesian Millennium. London: Methuen. A famous ethnography of a new religious movement in the Melanesian islands.
• Chryssides, George D. and Benjamin E. Zeller, eds. 2014. The Bloomsbury Companion to New Religious Movements. London: Bloomsbury. An ambitious collection of essays by some of the top scholars of new religious movements.
• Dawson, Andrew. 2008. “Religious Identity and Millenarian Belief in Santo Daime.” In Abby Day, ed.Religion and the Individual: Belief, Practice, Identity. Surrey, UK and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 183-95. A chapter from an edited volume, exploring millenarianism is a new Brazilian religion.
• de Heusch, Luc. 1989. “Kongo in Haiti: A New Approach to Religious Syncretism.” Man 24 (2): 290-303. A study of new Haitian religions that takes a structural and historical perspective on the question of syncretism.
• Glaskin, Katie. 2005. “Innovation and Ancestral Revelation: The Case of Dreams.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (2): 297-314. A recent essay on the relationship between tradition and innovation in Australian Aboriginal society, viewing dreams as a traditional medium of cultural change.
• Inbari, Motti. 2010. “Messianic Movements and Failed Prophecies in Israel: Five Case Studies.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 13 (4): 43-60. An article about contemporary messianic movements in Judaism, many or most of which have failed.
• La Barre, Weston. 1970. The Ghost Dance: Origins of Religion. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. A well-known analysis of the nineteenth-century Ghost Dance, transcending the specific movement to discuss the origins of religion in terms of human biology and psychology.
• Lanternari, Vittorio. 1963. The Religions of the Oppressed: A Study of Modern Messianic Cults. Lisa Sergio, trans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. A classic book on new religions, relating the occurrence of religious movements to political and social circumstances.
• Lattas, Andrew. 2000. “Telephones, Cameras, and Technology in West New Britain Cargo Cults.” Oceania70 (4): 325-44. A study of the creative practices of cargo cult followers of an island society, who use modern technologies in novel ways.
• Palmer, David A. 2003. “Modernity and Millenialism in China: Qigong and the Birth of Falun Gong.” Asian Anthropology 2 (1): 79-109. An anthropological analysis of an important and controversial religious movement in contemporary China.
• Wallace, Anthony F. C. 1970. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. A classic study in which Wallace applies his model of revitalization movements to the Handsome Lake movement among the Seneca people of the northeastern United States.

Ch 8 Further Reading

• Akcapar, Sebnem Koser. 2006. “Conversion as a Migration Strategy in a Transit Country: Iranian Shiites Becoming Christians in Turkey.” International Migration Review 40 (4): 817-53. A study of how and why Iranian Muslims “convert” to Christianity in Turkey as part of the experience of migration from Iran to the West.
• Chua, Liana. 2012. “Conversion, Continuity, and Moral Dilemmas among Christian Bidayuhs in Malaysian Borneo.” American Ethnologist 39 (3): 511-26. An essay that illustrates how conversion need not rupture traditional cultures and identities but can foster modes of thinking and speaking about continuity between Christianity and tradition.
• Cox, James L. 2014. The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies. Durham, UK and Bristol, Ct: Acumen. Four case studies of identification of a “supreme being” in pre-Christian indigenous religions, raising the important point of the intellectual and theological motivations for finding, or even searching for, god/God in societies that probably never had any such concept.
• Hefner, Robert W. 1998. “Multiple Modernities: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in a Globalizing Age.” Annual Review of Anthropology 27: 83-104. An important essay on the diverse ways in which three translocal religions are responding to modernity and globalization.
• Kreinath, Jens, ed. 2012. The Anthropology of Islam Reader. Abindon, UK and New York: Routledge. An anthology of classic and contemporary articles and excerpts of anthropological writings on Islam.
• Macdonald, Fraser. 2014. “‘Always Been Christian’: Mythic Conflation among the Oksapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Anthropological Forum 24 (2): 175-96. An article on how a Papua New Guinean society has conflated aspects of Bible stories with two of their indigenous narratives in order to overcome religious contradictions.
• Marranci, Gabriele. 2008. The Anthropology of Islam. Oxford and New York: Berg. A brief book, summarizing the anthropological perspective on Islam.
• Robbins, Joel. 2004. “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” Annual Review of Anthropology  33: 117-43. An anthropological survey of global Pentecostal Christianity, showing how Pentecostalism preserves its distinctness from local cultures even as it engages those cultures on their own terms.
• Schwartz, Carolyn. 2010. “Carrying the Cross, Caring for Kin: The Everyday Life of Charismatic Christianity in Remote Aboriginal Australia.” Oceania 80 (1): 58-77. An interesting study of the ways that Christianity is locally articulated with indigenous Galiwin’ku concepts of personhood, the market, and the state to produce Christian individuality and Christian relatedness.

Ch 9 Further Reading

• Mohammad, Asfar. 2013. The Festival of Pirs: Popular Islam and Shared Devotion in South India. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. A study of locally produced pluralized devotional behavior in India, examining various aspects of popular Islam and its transformation of official or normative Islam, including rituals that blend Muslim and Hindu practices.
• Aupers, Stef. 2013. “‘A World Awaits: The Meaning of Mediatized Paganism in Online Computer Games.” In Wim Hofstee and Arie van der Kooij, eds. Religion Beyond its Private Role in Modern Society. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 225-43. A chapter in an edited volume on contemporary religion, discussing modern paganism and its relation to the internet and computer games.
• DeNapoli, Antoinette Elizabeth. 2014. Real Sadhus Sing to God: Gender, Asceticism, and the Vernacular Religion of Rajasthan. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. A study of the lives of female ascetics in northern India, examining the everyday religious worlds and practices of “vernacular asceticism” through their singing, storytelling, and sacred text practices.
• Eisenlohr, Patrick. 2009. “Technologies of the Spirit: Devotional Islam, Sound Reproduction and the Dialectics of Mediation and Immediacy in Mauritius.” Anthropological Theory 9 (3): 273-96. An essay on contemporary media technology in religious settings which illustrates how theological assumptions about mediation shape the domestication of media technology in religious settings in different ways.
• Fuller, C. J. 2004. The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. An ethnographic study of popular Hinduism, which stresses the fluid relationship between supernatural beings and humans.
• Gaffney, Patrick D. 1992. “Popular Islam.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 524: 38-51. A discussion of the long tradition of a parallel popular or folk piety alongside official elite Islam.
• James, Jonathan D. 2010. McDonaldisation, Masala McGospel, and Om Economics: Televangelism in Contemporary India. New Delhi and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. A study of Hindu televangelism in India, which blends American media techniques with ancient scriptures, making those texts subservient to the modern-day aspirations of globalization and consumerism.
• Kirby, Daniele. 2013. Fantasy and Belief: Alternative Religions, Popular Narratives, and Digital Cultures. Sheffield, UK and Bristol, CT: Equinox. An interesting study of the relationship between elements of “fantasy culture” and “belief” or even religion, loosely focusing on the online community of Otherkin, which raises some important issues about the “occulture,” consumption, and the modern construction of the self.
• Lamont, Mark. 2010. “Lip-Synch Gospel: Christian Music and the Ethnopoetics of Identity in Kenya.” Africa 80 (3): 473-96. An ethnographic study of a new style of preaching in Kenya—lip-synch gospel—in which street performers weave localized ethnopoetics into their Christian music and address moral issues not usually mentioned in mainstream and Pentecostal churches.
• Magliocco, Sabina. 2004. Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America.  Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. A book is about how North American Neo-Pagans use folklore, or traditional expressive culture, to establish identity and create a new religious culture.
• Montieth, W. Graham. 2006. “The Constructive Use of ‘Vernacular Religion.’” Scottish Journal of Theology 59 (4): 413-26. An essay from a theology journal applying the concept of vernacular religion to new religious movements, folklore, civil religion, and Christian theology.
• Schilder, K. 1990. Popular Islam in Tunisia: A Regional Cults Analysis. Leiden: African Studies Centre. A study of popular and mystical movements in Tunisian Islam.

Ch 10 Further Reading

• Babb, Lawrence A. 1996. Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. A study of Jainism, a religion renowned for its extreme emphasis on nonviolence but simultaneously on human asceticism and self-denial.
• Blake, C. Fred. 2011. Burning Money: The Material Spirit of the Chinese Lifeworld. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. A sophisticated study of the “sacrifice” of paper money and other paper effigies in Chinese mortuary practices.
• Csordas, Thomas J. 1993. “Somatic Modes of Attention.” Cultural Anthropology 8 (2): 135-56. A seminal article for understanding anthropological approaches to the human body and to the painful experiences to which bodies are often subjected.
• Dumont, Louis. 1960. “World Renunciation in Indian Religions.” Contributions to Indian Sociology 4: 33-62. A classic essay on self-mortification in the Indian tradition.
• Eller, Jack David. 1999. From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. A set of case studies of ethnic conflict, including Bosnia, Kurdistan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, and Quebec, indicating where religion is or is not involved.
• Eller, Jack David. 2010. Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence across Culture and History. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. A book providing an anthropological perspective on religious violence, with extended case material on various forms of violence such as sacrifice, self-mortification, persecution, war, ethno-religious conflict, and murder, plus a chapter on religious nonviolence.
• Esmail, Aziz. 2007. “Towards a Psycho-Anthropological View of Religious Violence.” International Review of Psychiatry 19 (3): 243-51. An essay that brings together the old allies of psychology and anthropology on the subject of religious violence, exploring Girard’s theory and applying the disciplines to Islamist violence.
• Flaskerud, Ingvild. 2012. “Redemptive Memories: Portraiture in the Cult of Commemoration.” Visual Anthropology 25 (1-2): 22-46. An essay on how contemporary martyrs and war victims are represented and celebrated in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
• Linos, Natalia. 2010. “Reclaiming the Social Body Through Self-Directed Violence: Seeking Anthropological Understanding of Suicide Attacks.” Anthropology Today 26 (5): 8-12. A short article that explores the “meaning” of suicide attacks by re-introducing the body of the attacker into the analysis.
• Linton, Ralph. 1926. “The Origin of the Skidi Pawnee Sacrifice to the Morning Star.” American Anthropologist 28 (3): 457-66. An early article by a classic anthropologist, examining a Native American human sacrifice practice.
• Rasmussen, Susan J. 2002. “Animal Sacrifice and the Problem of Translation: The Construction of Meaning in Tuareg Sacrifice.” Journal of Ritual Studies 16 (2): 141-64. An article discussing four sacrificial rituals of the Tuareg people of Niger, which transcend the binary opposition between sacrificer and sacrificed.
• Seneviratne, H. L. 2001. “Buddhist Monks and Ethnic Politics: A War Zone in an Island Paradise.” Anthropology Today 17 (2): 15-21. A short essay about religion and politics in the conflict in Sri Lanka.
• Sutton, Donald S. 1990. “Rituals of Self-Mortification: Taiwanese Spirit-Mediums in Comparative Perspective.” Journal of Ritual Studies 4 (1): 100-25. A study of self-directed violence by spirit-mediums in Taiwan, which demonstrates that the medium is chosen by a local protecting god and is able to shift to a special status as representative of the community; further, the self-mortification has nothing to do with Western concepts of atonement.

Ch 11 Further Reading

• Adcock, C. S. 2013. The Limits of Tolerance: Indian Secularism and the Politics of Religious Freedom. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. A book that provides a critical history of the distinctive tradition of Indian secularism known as Tolerance. Since it was first advanced by Mohandas Gandhi, the Tolerance ideal has measured secularism and civil religiosity by contrast with proselytizing religion. In India today, it informs debates over how the right to religious freedom should be interpreted on the subcontinent.
• Aupers, Stef. 2009. “‘The Force is Great’: Enchantment and Magic in Silicon Valley.” Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology 3 (1): 153-73. An enlightening article showing how modern technology, specifically the internet and computer programming, does not necessarily erode religion but rather had led to the appearance of “technopaganism.”
• Baldacchino, Jean-Paul and Joel S. Kahn. 2011. “Believing in a Secular Age: Anthropology, Sociology and Religious Experience.” The Australian Journal of Anthropology 22 (1): 1-13. The first essay in a special issue on anthropology and secularism, introducing Charles Taylor’s influential book A Secular Age and summarizing how the contributions to the issue develop better understandings of the conditions under which belief and unbelief may be experienced as open, rather than closed, to other possibilities of thinking.
• Bangstad, Sindre. 2009. “Contesting Secularism/s: Secularism and Islam in the Work of Talal Asad.” Anthropological Theory 9 (2): 188-208. A summary and assessment of Talal Asad’s crucial work on the West, Islam, and secularism(s).
• Bowen, John R. 2010. “Secularism: Conceptual Genealogy or Political Dilemma?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 52 (3): 680-94. As essay from the author of an important study of Islam in France, reviewing the history of French secularism and discussing the role of the modern state in secularism.
• Cinar, Alev, Srirupa Roy, and Maha Yahya, eds. 2012. Visualizing Secularism and Religion: Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, India. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. A valuable set of essays on secularism in a number of non-Western contexts.
• Ewing, Katherine R. 1994. “Dreams from a Saint: Anthropological Atheism and the Temptation to Believe.” American Anthropologist 96 (3): 571-83. A thoughtful essay about the problem of “belief” for anthropologists, who usually adopt a neutral or secular (if not skeptical) attitude, in the study of religion.
• Fountain, Philip. 2013. “Toward a Post-Secular Anthropology.” The Australian Journal of Anthropology24 (3): 310-28. An essay that asks how, after the fall of classical secularization theory, anthropology can move beyond “the secular” to reflect on the concept and experiment with new ways to do anthropology “with/in” theology.
• Hirschkind, Charles. 2012. “Beyond Secular and Religious: An Intellectual Genealogy of Tahrir Square.” American Ethnologist 39 (1): 49-53. An important short essay on how the events of the “Arab spring” in Egypt transcended the conventional categories of secular and religious.
• Kapferer, Bruce. 2001. “Anthropology. Paradox of the Secular.” Social Anthropology 9 (3): 341-4. A short essay on the irony that anthropology is an essentially secular discipline that must sometimes practice anti-secularism in order to understand religious thought and behavior.
• Zitzewitz, Karin. 2008. “The Secular Icon: Secularist Practice and Indian Visual Culture.” Visual Anthropology Review 24 (1): 12-28. A study of Indian artist and writer K. G. Subramanyan, whose modernist work embeds versions of Hindu icons in a way that challenges the standard binary of religious versus secular.

Ch 12 Further Reading

• Ahmad, Irfan. 2009. “Genealogy of the Islamic State: Reflections on Maududi’s Political Thought and Islamism.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15 (S1): S145-62. In response to the common assumption that Islam has always fused religion and state, the author argues that the state only recently became central to Islamism, using the work of Islamist theorist Abul Ala Maududi to illustrate his point.
• Beeman, William O. 2002. “Fighting the Good Fight: Fundamentalism and Religious Revival.” In J. MacClancy, ed. Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 129-44. A chapter from a significant recent book, exploring the concept of fundamentalism in relation to the wider concept of revivalist movements.
• Feige, Michael. 2009. Settling in the Hearts: Jewish Fundamentalism in the Occupied Territories. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. An anthropological study of the nationalist-religious movement Gush Emunim and its settlement project to reclaim ancient “Greater Israel.”
• Howell, Brian W. 2007. “The Repugnant Cultural Other Speaks Back.” Anthropological Theory 7 (4): 371-91. In a rejoinder to Harding’s famous characterization of fundamentalism as the “repugnant other,” the article argues that anthropology can and should treat Christianity as “a subject position” analogous to other committed subject positions and welcome the Christian voice in ethnography.
• Manuel, Peter. 2008. “North Indian Sufi Popular Music in the Age of Hindu and Muslim Fundamentalism.” Ethnomusicology 52 (3): 378-400. An essay examining popular music in a fundamentalist tradition that is often presumed to oppose both “the popular” and music.
• Marranci, Gabriele. 2009. Understanding Muslim Identity: Rethinking Fundamentalism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. A study of Islamic fundamentalism written by a leading anthropologist of Islam.
• Robbins, Joel. 2001. “Secrecy and the Sense of an Ending: Narrative, Time, and Everyday Millenarianism in Papua New Guinea and in Christian Fundamentalism.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43 (3): 525-51. A leading anthropology of Christianity explores “everyday millenarianism” or the belief in the imminent end of the world while maintaining a steady commitment to carrying out everyday tasks, particularly comparing Christian eschatology with the millenarian ideas of the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.
• Sharpe, Tanya Telfair. 2000. “The Identity Christian Movement: Ideology of Domestic Terrorism.” Journal of Black Studies 30 (4): 604-23. A study of the Christian Identity or Identity Christian movement’s relation to racism and terrorist violence.
• Silberstein, Laurence J., ed. 1993. Jewish Fundamentalism in Comparative Perspective. New York: New York University Press. A collection of essays investigating a number of forms of Jewish fundamentalism from a variety of conceptual and disciplinary angles.
• Smith, Andrea. 2008. Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. An interesting book examining a number of points of contact—and also of disconnect—between Native American activism and the Christian Right. Both groups are portrayed as more internally diverse than is normally appreciated, but the limitations and costs of coalition are clearly illustrated.
• Stadler, Nurit. 2009. Yeshiva Fundamentalism: Piety, Gender, and Resistance in the Ultra-Orthodox World. New York: New York University Press. A study of the generational struggle over masculinity and piety among ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, specifically members of the haredim.

Chapter 2

“How Useful is ‘Religious Belief’ in the Anthropology of Religion?”

http://omicsonline.org/how-useful-is-religious-belief-in-the-anthropology-of-religion-2332-0915.1000e116.pdf

A short article by Simon Dein assessing the relevance of the concept of “belief” for anthropology.

“The Big Religion Chart”

http://www.religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm

A summary of dozens of religions and their positions on gods, human nature, the afterlife, religious practices, and sacred texts.

“Comparisons of Christian Denominations’ Beliefs

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/denominations_beliefs.htm

A detailed chart detailing the difference of belief between seven versions of Christianity on such issues as creed, the trinity, the nature of Christ, angels, Satan, sin, predestination, and many more.

“Creation Stories from Around the World”

http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSIndex.html

A site with links to twenty different creation stories from a wide variety of ancient and indigenous societies.

“An Outline of Different Cultural Beliefs at the Time of Death”

http://lmrpcc.org.au/admin/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Customs-Beliefs-Death-Dying.pdf

A document briefly summarizing the death concepts of several major religions, prepared specifically with medical caregivers in mind.

Chapter 3

“Places of Peace and Power”

http://sacredsites.com/

A visual atlas of sacred sites around the world.

“The Sacred Landscape”

http://www.luckymojo.com/bibliocontents.html

An extensive bibliography on sacred sites around the world.

“Shamanism”

http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/shaman.html

A site with discussion of the concept of the shamanism and some examples from various cultures.

“We Do Not Have Shamans: The Case Against ‘Shamans’ in North American Indigenous Cultures”

http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/not_shamans.html

An interesting set of resources arguing that “shamanism” is an inappropriate understanding of Native American spirituality and religion.

“Witchcraft and Sorcery (Anthropology)

http://what-when-how.com/social-and-cultural-anthropology/witchcraft-and-sorcery-anthropology/

A short summary of witchcraft theories and studies in anthropology.

Chapter 4

“MIT Open Courseware: Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism”

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-212-myth-ritual-and-symbolism-spring-2004/

An open course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focusing on religious language, metaphor, narrative, and mythology.

“Anthropological Theories: A Guide Prepared by Students for Students—Structuralism”

http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Structuralism

A useful summary and critique of structuralism, from the anthropology department of the University of Alabama.

“Indigenous Peoples Literature”

http://indigenouspeople.net/sidemenu.html

A rich website with links to the literature, including religious literature, of various societies around the world.

“Internet Sacred Texts Archive”

http://www.sacred-texts.com/

A remarkable resource containing sacred texts and social-scientific studies on religious texts from ancient, indigenous, and modern religions.

“Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer”

http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/category/materiality/

A form of the Social Science Research Council, featuring many links and essays on social-scientific study of prayer.

“Native American Project: Native American Prayers”

http://nativeamerican.lostsoulsgenealogy.com/prayers.htm

An online project to collect and preserve prayers from Native American religions.

“Stanford Professor asks, How does God Become Real to People?”

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/april/conversations-with-god-041212.html

An interview with Tanya Luhrmann on her research into American evangelical Christians and their verbal encounters with God.

Chapter 5

“Cultural Anthropology: Ritual”

http://www.culanth.org/curated_collections/4-ritual

A site associated with the journal Cultural Anthropology, with information, links to articles, and a bibliography on ritual.

“Rituals and Conflict Transformation: An Anthropological Analysis of the Ceremonial Dimensions of Dispute Processing”

http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/rituals-and-ceremonials

A useful discussion of the practical application of anthropological concepts of ritual to contemporary conflict resolution efforts.

“Rites of Passage”

http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1604/carites.html

An outline of anthropological knowledge about rites of passage from the University of Minnesota Duluth, with links to many other anthropological subjects.

“The Five Major African Initiation Rites”

http://www.manuampim.com/AfricanInitiationRites.htm

A discussion of birth, adulthood, marriage, eldership, and ancestorship rituals across Africa.

“What is a Vision Quest and Why Do One?”

http://www.schooloflostborders.org/content/huffington-post-what-vision-quest-and-why-do-one

An article from The School of Lost Borders, which offers vision fasts and rites of passage training.

“Anthropology of the Memorial: Observations and Reflections on American Cultural Rituals Associated with Death.”

http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1240/2814

An essay by Michael Hemmingson on American death rituals, including an “autoethnographic” component on the author’s own ritual experiences and memories.

“Pilgrims and Pilgrimage”

http://www.york.ac.uk/projects/pilgrimage/content/soc_anth.html

A brief discussion of the anthropology of pilgrimage, with a bibliography and links to specific sites and traditions of pilgrimage.

“Is Pilgrimage Always Religious?”

http://www.tutorhunt.com/resource/8040/

An essay relating pilgrimage to tourism.

Chapter 6

“Morality without Religion”

http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/intro_text/Chapter%208%20Ethics/Reading-Morality-without-Religion.htm

A famous biologist and philosopher discuss the natural basis of morality, independent of religion.

“Morality as a Cultural System?”

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/672210

Playing on the title of Geertz’s celebrated essay on religion, Thomas Csordas outlines the emerging anthropology of morality, calling attention to the problem of evil and examining the literature on witchcraft.

“Towards a Critical Moral Anthropology”

http://lettre.ehess.fr/3323

A discussion of the anthropology of morality by Didier Fassin, a prolific author and editor on the subject.

“Pollution and Purity (Anthropology)”

http://what-when-how.com/social-and-cultural-anthropology/pollution-and-purity-anthropology/

A synopsis of anthropological concepts related to purity, ritual, sacredness, and magic.

“‘Pollution,’ ‘Purity,’ and ‘Sacred’: The Ideological Configuration of Hindu Society”

http://ir.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/2891/1/KH_010_2_007.pdf

A relatively long essay by Yasumasa Sekine describing Hindu concepts of pollution and purity.

“Taboo (Anthropology)”

http://what-when-how.com/social-and-cultural-anthropology/taboo-anthropology/

A brief discussion of the origins and variations of the concept of taboo.

“Explaining Marxist Perspectives on Religion”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jxHJVCQ8HA

A short illustrated video presentation on Marx’s theory of religion.

“Mikhail Bakhtin: ‘Carnival and Carnivalesque’—Summary and Review”

http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2011/07/mikhail-bakhtin-carnival-and.html

A short summary of Bakhtin’s influential ideas about carnival and social order.

“The Theft of Carnaval: National Spectacle and Racial Politics in Rio de Janeiro”

http://www.culanth.org/articles/144-the-theft-of-carnaval-national-spectacle-and

Presented by the journal Cultural Anthropology, a discussion of the racial, gender, and class issues in Brazil’s samba carnival.

“Carnival Post-Phenomenology: Mind the Hump”

http://www.anthropologymatters.com/index.php/anth_matters/article/view/34/60

An authoethnography of a carnival event in Spain, applying and challenging anthropological models of inversion and catharsis.

“The Carnival Model”

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/wash/www/102_18.htm

An article arguing that the “carnival model” of society, which stresses that social experiences are “rarely neat, seldom consistent, and infrequently identical from person to person.”

Chapter 7

“What is Tradition?”

https://web.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/gender-sexuality/What%20is%20tradition.pdf

A link to a short article by Nelson Graburn on the anthropology of tradition.

“Applying the Traditioning Process”

http://americamagazine.org/issue/culture/applying-traditioning-process

A link to a short article by Lawrence Boadt on Walter Brueggemann’s notion of “traditioning” in relation to Judeo-Christian scriptures.

“Traditionalizing in Cyberspace”

http://www.venganza.org/2008/05/traditionalizing-in-cyberspace/

An analysis of invention of tradition using the case of the (anti)religious movement, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

“New Religious Movements”

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/denom/new_religious_movements.html

A very informative website provided by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, featuring interdisciplinary research on new religions.

“Syncretism (Anthropology)”

http://what-when-how.com/social-and-cultural-anthropology/syncretism-anthropology/

A summary and discussion of the concept of syncretism.

“The Anthropology of Survival, Revival, Revitalization, and Invention”

http://indigeneity.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/session-8-presentation.pdf

A Powerpoint-style document surveying the work of Linton and Wallace and discussing the processes of tradition.

“Nativism and Revivalism”

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045000861.html

An informative article from Encyclopedia.com, summarizing models, theories, and examples of nativistic movements.

“Culture Contact and Revitalization Movements: Some Lecture Notes”

http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/166revitalization.htm

A basic summary of Wallace’s model of revitalization movements, from the University of Idaho.

“Ghost Dance”

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/G/GH001.html

A site from the Oklahoma Historical Society, discussing the Native American Ghost Dance.

“Sai Baba Summed Up by Italian Cultural Anthropologist”

http://robertpriddy.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/sai-baba-summed-up-by-italian-cultural-anthropologist/

Anthropologist Cecilia Gatto Trocchi gives her analysis of the Satya Sai Baba movement.

“Cao Dai”

http://www.religionfacts.com/a-z-religion-index/cao_dai.htm

A brief description of the Vietnamese religion Cao Dai, with links to other relevant sites.

“The Emergent Church: A New Wave of Evangelical Identity”

http://www.letusreason.org/current77.htm

A review and critique of the emergent church movement, from a Christian perspective.

Chapter 8

“Religions of the World: Information about 40 Organized Religions and Faith Groups”

http://www.religioustolerance.org/var_rel.htm

A very informative site with facts about most major translocal religions in the contemporary world.

“Religions”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/

A project of the BBC, with rich data on many translocal/world religions as well as some new religions and atheism.

“The Global Religious Landscape”

http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec

A series of pages by one of the leading polling organizations, on the distribution of translocal religions around the world.

“One World, Under God”

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/04/one-world-under-god/307335

An article from The Atlantic, in which Robert Wright discusses early Christianity as the first version of “globalization.”

“The Anthropology of Islam”

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft4q2nb3gp&chunk.id=d0e634&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ch01&brand=ucpress

A section from Gregory Starrett’s 1998 book, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt.

“Anthropology Beyond Good and Evil”

http://marranci.com

A blog by one of the leading anthropologists of Islam.

“How to Convert to Islam and Become a Muslim”

http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/204/

A page on an Islamic website, discussing the concepts, practices, and misunderstandings about conversion to Islam, with many links to other aspects of the religion.

“The ‘First’ Decade of Islamophobia: 10 Years of the Runnymede Trust Report ‘Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All”

http://www.islamiccouncilwa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Decade_of_Islamophobia.pdf

A document assessing the famous Runnymede Trust (http://www.runnymedetrust.org) report of Islamophobia in the UK.

“For More Anthropology of Christianity”

http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2009/for-more-anthropology-of-christianity

A blog with information and links on the anthropology of Christianity.

“Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective”

http://www.eth.mpg.de/cms/en/people/d/hann/pdf/Eastern_Christians_in_Anthropological_Perspective_Intro.pdf

The introductory chapter to Hann and Goltz’s edited volume on Eastern Christianities.

“Who is a Jew?”

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21593507-competing-answers-increasingly-pressing-question-who-jew

An article from The Economist, discussing the diversity within the Jewish community, the relation of “faith” to Jewish identity, and the possibilities of conversion to Judaism.

Chapter 9

“Vernacular Religion: Because You’ll Find More than the Devil in the Details”

http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/2012/06/27/vernacular-religion-because-youll-find-more-than-the-devil-in-the-details-by-per-smith

A short summary of the idea of vernacular religion.

“Religion in the Vernacular”

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/12/religion-in-the-vernacular

An article about the rise of the prominence of the laity or ordinary members of the Catholic Church.

“Muslim TV”

http://www.muslimtvuk.com/

A link to various Muslim television content: “Learn and worship with Muslim TV.”

“Mystical and Popular Islam”

http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/resources/detail/13613#.U_zk4WN0a3M

A link to a lecture by Caleb Kim and David Singh on “popular Muslim piety.”

“Turkish Beach Resorts Cater to Pious Muslims”

http://www.voanews.com/content/turkish-bach-resorts-cater-to-muslm-pious/1532555.html

An article from Voice of America on the rise of hotels that provide a Muslim vacation experience.

“Lifestyle and Expressions of Faith”

http://hinduism.iskcon.org/lifestyle/index.htm

A site associated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, better known as “Hare Krishnas”) on aspects of popular Hinduism.

“Russian Neo-Pagan Myths and Antisemitism”

http://sicsa.huji.ac.il/13shnir.html

A link to an article by Victor Shrinelman, on the relation between Russian Neopaganism and nationalist politics, including hostility toward Jews.

“Daystar”

http://www.daystar.com/

The website of one of the leading American Christian television networks.

“Cherry Hills Seminary”

http://cherryhillseminary.org/

The home site of the leading provider of education and practical training in leadership, ministry, and personal growth in Pagan and Nature-Based spiritualities, offering graduate degrees, certificates, and short courses.

“Wicca and Neo-Paganism”

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag

A link to the Sacred Texts website, with documents and information about various traditions of Wicca and paganism.

Chapter 10

“Violence”

http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0027.xml

An article on the anthropology of violence, with a short bibliography.

“The Anthropology of Violence”

http://vectors.usc.edu/thoughtmesh/publish/17.php

The manuscript of a talk given by James Leach in 2008 on the anthropological approach to violence.

“Violence in Anthropology”

http://www.shikanda.net/ethnicity/violence.htm

An essay on the anthropology of violence by Wim van Binsbergen, including an extensive bibliography.

“Sacrifice and the Anthropology of Religion”

http://ahotcupofjoe.net/2009/08/sacrifice-and-the-anthropology-of-religion

A page from a prominent anthropological blog on anthropology and sacrifice.

“Category Archives: Blood Sacrifice”

http://anthropologylover.wordpress.com/category/anthropology-of-religion/religion/blood-sacrifice/

An illustrated page from the blog “Various Thoughts on Anthropology” concerning sacrificial practices.

“The 13 Ascetic Practices”

http://en.dhammadana.org/sangha/dhutanga.htm

A site discussing asceticism in Buddhism.

“The True Meaning of Shaheed”

http://www.2600.com/news/mirrors/harkatmujahideen/www.harkatulmujahideen.org/jihad/t-shahed.htm

An article presenting an Islamic perspective on the concept of shaheed or shahid.

“Children Murdered by their Christian Parents Memorial Page”

http://myth-one.com/memorial.htm

A website listing child-victims of their parents’ religion-based homicide.

“Worldwide Trends in Honor Killing”

http://www.meforum.org/2646/worldwide-trends-in-honor-killings

A study from The Middle East Quarterly on the incidence of honor killings around the world.

“Database of Publicly Accused Priests in the United States”

http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-A.html

An extensive listing of priest abuse accusation, presented by BishopAccountability.org.

“Black Collar Crimes”

http://blackcollarcrimes.com/

A detailed database of crimes committed by religious officials.

Chapter 11

“The Secularization Thesis”

http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var2=1471

A useful site discussing and critiquing the classical theory of secularization.

“Secularisation Theory”

http://www.humanreligions.info/secularisation.html

A detailed presentation on the theory of secularization, including contemporary scholars and global statistics.

“What Might an Anthropology of Secularism Look Like?”

https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1164/asad%2520what%2520might%2520an%2520anthro%2520of%2520secularism%2520look%2520like.pdf

A page containing the first chapter of Talal Asad’s essential book, Formations of the Secular.

“Three Points on Secularism and Anthropology”

http://www.ics.ul.pt/rdonweb-docs/jo%C3%A3o%20pina%20cabral%20-%20publica%C3%A7%C3%B5es%202001,%20n%C2%BA1.pdf

A very short essay by João de Pina-Cabral, questioning the usefulness of the concept of “the secular” for anthropology.

NRSN Online: Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network”

http://nsrn.net

The website of an academic organization dedicated to the study of secularism and nonreligion.

“Secular Japan”

http://www.rothteien.com/archives/myths/secular.htm

A brief discussion of religion and secularism in Japan, based on research that graphs countries in terms of religion-versus-secularism and security-versus-self-expression.

“‘Religion’ and ‘the Secular’ in Japan”

http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/Fitzgerald.html

A substantial article by T. Fitzgerald, from the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, examining the impact of Japanese attitudes toward religion on anthropology and the academic study of religion.

“Secularism and Religious Freedom”

http://www.france.fr/en/institutions-and-values/secularism-and-religious-freedom.html

A page from the official website of France, introducing its policy of secularism.

“The Deep Roots of French Secularism”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3325285.stm

An informative site from the BBC offering a historical overview of France’s secularism policy.

“How Atatürk Made Turkey Secular”

http://lostislamichistory.com/how-ataturk-made-turkey-secular

A detailed synopsis of the secularization of Turkey after World War I.

“National Secular Society”

http://www.secularism.org.uk

A UK-based organization that campaigns for the separation of religion and state and promotes secularism as the best means to create a society in which people of all religions or none can live together fairly and cohesively.

“American Atheists”

http://www.atheists.org

The home site of the premier atheist organization in the United States.

Chapter 12

“The Origins and Nature of Fundamentalism in Society”

http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/history.html

An article written by Niccolo Caldararo using ethnohistorical material to define the origin of the concept of fundamentalism and to describe the function and structure of fundamentalist movements in past societies.

“What Can Anthropology Contribute to an Understanding of the Contemporary Resurgence of Religious Fundamentalism in Central Asia?”

http://kularing.info/2011/10/19/what-can-anthropology-contribute-to-an-understanding-of-the-contemporary-resurgence-of-religious-fundamentalism-in-central-asia

A page from an anthropological blog, exploring the anthropological perspective on fundamentalism in relation to a neglected area of Islamic culture.

“From Anthropology to Politics: The Myth of the Fundamentalist Arab Muslim Mind”

http://marranci.com/2011/02/28/from_anthropology_to_politics

A page from Gabriele Marranci’s blog “Anthropology Beyond Good and Evil,” critiquing preconceptions about the psychology of Arab fundamentalists.

“Understanding Christian Fundamentalism”

http://www.fpcbozeman.org/Adult%20Class/Jan%2016%20Fundamentalism%20Session%201.pdf

A short summary of Christian fundamentalist beliefs, written by and for Christians.

“Moral Majority”

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/Moral_Majority

An older overview of the history and activities of the Moral Majority, sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies as part of a project for “tracking militarists’ efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy.”

“People & Ideas: Jerry Falwell”

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/jerry-falwell.html

A companion site to the PBS series God in America, with information on Falwell and links to other American religious topics.

“The 700 Club”

http://www.cbn.com/700club/

The home site of Pat Robertson’s evangelical/fundamentalist television ministry.

“Understanding Radical/Fundamentalist Islam”

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=752

A short excerpt from Martin Kramer’s Fundamentalist Islam: The Drive for Power, with links to other interesting works, such as Bernard Lewis’s influential “The Roots of Muslim Rage.”

“Islamic Fundamentalism”

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H007.htm

A summary by Youssef Choueiri of the fundamentals of Islam and Islamic fundamentalism.

“Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”

http://shahamat-english.com

A revealing home site of the Islamic jihadist movement in Afghanistan.

“Syrian Iraq: The Islamic State Militant Group”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24179084

An informative page from the BBC about the history and ideas of ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Greater Syria).

“The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham”

http://www.aymennjawad.org/14151/the-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-sham

An article from Middle East Review of International Affairs presenting Aymenn Jawad al-Tamini’s rich research on the militant group known as ISIS.

“Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel”

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/rel-jfund.html

An informative review of an informative book by Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky on Jewish fundamentalism.

“For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel”

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/penncip/lustick

The text of Ian Lustick’s book on Jewish fundamentalism, made available online by the Council on Foreign Relations.

Chapter 2

“The Anthropology of Religion: The Nonhuman World”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bu3_e1rH8

A narrated chapter from an audiobook on the anthropology of religion, discussing nonhuman/superhuman beings and forces like soul, spirit, ancestor, etc.

“Children of the Sun: Kurdish Yezidis, part 1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F15q8W8JZ88

The first part of a video about the religious beliefs and practices of the Yezidi, a religious minority in Iraq.

“Religions of the World: Africa, part 1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrnu1ZkQQx0

Part of the “World Religions” series, narrated by Ben Kingsley, introducing the beliefs and practices of “traditional African religions.”

“Religions of the World: Native American, part 1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhGBsprT6y0

Part of the “World Religions” series, narrated by Ben Kingsley, introducing the beliefs and practices of Native American religions, discussing the migration of humans to North America.

“The Power of Animism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmhFRarkw8E

A short lecture by John Reid, part of the TEDx series, discussing indigenous and modern concepts of animism in terms of relationships between humans and the nonhuman world.

“The Living World: Animism in the 21st Century”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLbFBdSMVgo

A discussion between Erik Davis and Robert Wallis about animism across cultures, in art, and in the modern world.

Nikles, Brigitte Nikles and Tommi Mendel. 2011. Bunong's Birth Practices Between Tradition and Change.

Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.

A film about the beliefs and practices surrounding birth among the Bunong of Cambodia, who also face cultural change from government and modern medicine.

“Ghosts of Sulawesi”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfOgqFlOyZw

A film about the death beliefs and practices of the Toraja people of the island of Sulawesi.”

“Voodoo”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtKpkm7xYi8

A film about the beliefs and practices of Afro-Caribbean religions such as Voudun (“voodoo”), Santeria, and Candomblé.

Chapter 3

“Anthropology & Symbols: Geertz Models of and Models for”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hn6fP4Debg

An illustrated lecture on Clifford Geertz’s seminal thinking about symbols and religion.

“Anthropology & Symbols: (1 of 2) Ortner & Key Symbols”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqNpPMEan3Q

An episode in a series of classroom lectures on the anthropology of symbols; further episodes discuss Lévi-Strauss’s theory of symbolism.

“Witchcraft Among the Azande”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmug_qvO15s

An episode of the British television series Disappearing World featuringanthropologist John Ryle and filmmaker André Singer, a former student of Evans-Pritchard, on witches and witchcraft in Africa.

“Witch Child”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRqrGHA-Azs

A film about contemporary witch beliefs in Africa, exacerbated by the influence of Christianity.

“The Spiritual Healing of Hmong Shamanism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymJnUHxqRpE

A short video featuring shamanic cures among the Hmong of Southeast Asia.

“Shamans of the Amazon”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca1TGqODjzM

A film about shamanism and ayahuasca religions in South America.

“Voodoo Mounted by the Gods”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bLJqMANCI0

A long ethnographic film about beliefs and rituals of priesthood, trance, and mediumship in the religion of “Voodoo” or Vodun.

Chapter 4

“Origin Myths and Creation Stories in eHRAF World Cultures”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p2dTQbKwwg

An instructional video describing how to research origin and creation myths in the important anthropological resource, the Human Relations Area Files.

“Anthropology and Symbols: Lévi-Strauss Structural Anthropology”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElEWmvzvnfg

The first of four parts by Nick Herriman on Lévi-Strauss’ structural theory of myth.

“Dell Hymes’ SPEAKING Grid/Acronym, Ethnography of Communication”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cniJ6TIjygY

A short presentation on Hymes’ acronym for the key issues in the performance of speech acts.

Funeral Chants from the Georgian Caucasus. (2007. Documentary Educational Resources)

A film by renowned ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp, portraying the unique oral—but non-verbal—singing style that accompanies funerals in the Caucasus mountains.

“Daily Prayers in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y69RmyHO8Pg

A video portraying prayer practices in the three Abrahamic religions.

“How Jews Pray”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5amPgrazeo

A short video featuring several ordinary Jewish people and their beliefs and practices regarding prayer.

“American Indian Chant”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk4WBnss7l0

A short video of a Native American man chanting to the beat of a drum.

“Tantra of Gyuto: Sacred Rituals of Tibet”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HakplugtPQI

A film featuring the unique chanting style of the Tibetan Buddhist monks, also explaining their history and showing their artistic traditions.

Chapter 5

“Seven Classic Theories of Religion—Victor Turner on Rites of Passage”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLK5-Pxynk

A short clip presenting Turner’s famous “ritual process” including liminality and communitas.

“Ethiopians Seek the Divine: Ritual for Cure of AIDS by Ritual Ceremonies”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-hBZrBiZfY

A short video clip about Ethiopian Christians seeking ritual cure for HIV/AIDS.

“Maasai Rites of Passage, part 1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8WTJ-r2cnQ

The first part of a film about the famous initiation rituals of the pastoral Maasai people of east Africa.

The Feast in Dream Village (Janet Hoskins and Laura Scheerer Whitney, Documentary Educational Resources)

A particularly enlightening video about a ritual on the Indonesian island of Sumba, which shows how supposedly rote ritual can actually be creative performed and can go wrong.

Ngaben: Emotion and Restraint in a Balinese Heart (Robert Lemelson, Documentary Educational Resources)

A film about funeral rites and ceremonies on the dramatic island of Bali.

Sacred and Secret: Rites of Passage in Bali (Basil Gelpke, Films for the Humanities)

A colorful film about several passage rituals on Bali, including birth, puberty, wedding, and funeral rites.

Jathilan: Trance and Possession in Java (Robert Lemelson, Documentary Educational Resources)

A film about a folk dance on the island of Java in which dancers ride woven horses until they are possessed by spirits, at which time they engage in a range of self-mortification behaviors.

Ngat is Dead: Studying Mortuary Traditions (Christian Suhr and Ton Otto, Documentary Educational Resources)

An informative film about funeral and mourning customs in Papua New Guinea.

Shugendo Now (Jean-Marc Abela and Mark Patrick McGuire, Documentary Educational Resources)

A film about a group of contemporary Japanese people who embark on the pilgrimage to the Kumano mountains for various religious and personal reasons.

“Camino de Santiago Documentary: A Journey of the Mind”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4R30r6Tync

A modern pilgrim’s film memoire of his time on the Camino de Santiago.

Chapter 6

“Frans de Waal: Moral Behavior in Animals”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJxRqTs5nk

Eminent primatologist Frans de Waal gives a TED Talk about morality in nonhuman animals.

“Anthropology and Symbols: Douglas and Boundaries”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYPeYb8uwaE

A short online lecture elaborating on Mary Douglas’s theory of purity and pollution in relation to categories and boundaries.

“Signs of Being Affected by Evil Eye, Magic or Jinn”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-aN7iChuV8

An excerpt from the documentary “Islamic Exorcism in the UK,” featuring an Islamic scholar describing the symptoms of attack by the evil eye.

“Satan Crucified: Uganda Catholics”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsPglpgchoI

An ethnographic film about the Uganda Martyrs Guild and their prayers for divine intervention in minor (popular, not priestly) exorcisms.

“Are Taboos Adaptive: Evidence from the island of Fiji”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QeQIOKWbxM

A discussion about food taboos in Fiji, offering an adaptive-evolutionary view on such religious restrictions.

“Alejandro Mamani of the Aymara Indians, Bolivia”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hGy8muVDKs

A classic episode from the educational series Faces of Culture, offering a psychological-anthropological perspective on an Aymara elder who is diagnosed with spirit possession.

“Killing the Witches: Papua New Guinea”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlT5dsG2WMc

A clip from a video about witchcraft and sorcery beliefs in contemporary Papua New Guinea, where suspected witches (usually old women) are beaten to death by their neighbors.

“Exorcisms: A Hot Service in the Valley”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p597N-tmWB0

A short news clip about contemporary demonic possession and exorcism in Texas.

Chapter 7

“Syncretism: 25 Concepts in Anthropology”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0n36dO5YwU

A discussion of the anthropological concept of syncretism.

“New Religious Movements 1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS-rAz2RfVs

The first part of an ABC News item about new religions, featuring a movement in India and the United States.

“Heaven’s Gate Cult Initiation Tape, part 1”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSZhwu1Rwo

A video presentation by the founder of TELAH, Marshall Applewhite, laying out the beliefs of the movement.

“The Secret Swami Satya Sai Baba”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlL_CDqFCLg

A BBC documentary about the Sai Baba movement and the criminal allegations against the group.

“Origin of Faith: John Frum vs. Jesus”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1skNgYdJXK8

The first of two parts of a video about the John Frum movement, discussing general processes of how religions start and grow.

“The Fantastic Invasion: John Frum and USA”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFKfqrdP6xs

A BBC documentary about the John Frum cargo cult.

“Religion in America #36: America’s Religions, ch. 39 Native American New Religions”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHfLwmKeO_E

A videotaped classroom lecture by Gregory Sadler, on revitalization and new Native American religions.

Native American Spirits: Ghost Dance Movement”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L1Fslf3g2M

An episode from Paranormal TV, discussing the Ghost Dance movement in relation to Native American ideas about spirits.

“The Tragedy of Wounded Knee (The Ghost Dance)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EdRT56WK7Q

A video clip on the Ghost Dance, setting it in the wider context of the conquest of America and the massacre at Wounded Knee.

The Left Eye of God: Caodaism Travels from Vietnam to California (Janet Hoskins and Susan Hoskins, Documentary Educational Resources)

A film about the origin and spread of Cao Dai as a new “world religion,” from its roots in colonial Vietnam to the United States, raising issues about syncretism, globalization, and diaspora cultures.

Chapter 8

“The Truth about Religious Conversions”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV3JQ9hDCE4

A short clip illustrating the controversial nature of conversion to Christianity in India.

“Tribal and Religious Identity in Afghanistan”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF3Rkt42wPY

A recorded lecture by Thomas Barfield on the anthropology of Afghanistan.

“Inside Islam: Interview with Prof. Ken George”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g887ySJ25_U

The first of a three-part interview with an anthropologist specializing in Islamic art.

“Islam Dreaming—Australia”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbwvwRkVtPI

A segment from a documentary from Journeyman Pictures about Islam among Australian Aboriginals.

“Mexican Muslims”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhQpt8Mk_A4

A short clip on the Muslim minority in Mexico.

“Christianity in China”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5rqOICgRwA

A short documentary on Chinese Christianity, originally broadcast on PBS.

“The Gospel according to the Papuans”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFhx46JzkY

A very short clip of traditional Papua New Guinea men discussing Christianity and conversion.

“Indigenous Theologians Discuss Christianity from a Native Perspective”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtAd1OTQrME

Native American scholars and Christians discuss what it means to be indigenous and Christian.

“The Icon: A Seven Part Documentary”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jvap4ItDlk

A three-plus hour documentary on Orthodox Christianity and the importance of icons.

“Spiritual Journey: Valaam Monastery in Russia’s Far North”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mndw3JmYb9c

A documentary from RT (Russian Television), about a sacred and pilgrimage site in Russian Orthodox Christianity.

“CBS 60 Minutes—The Coptic Christians of Egypt”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoGLK1ckRXo

A segment from 60 Minutes on the beliefs, history, and current circumstances of Copts in Egypt.

“Egypt: The Uncertain Future for Coptic Christians”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIZO63AWvSU

A video from FRANCE 24, discussing the tensions and violence between Muslims and Copts in Egypt in 2011.

Chapter 9

“Mahabharat—19th September 2013: Ep 4—Amba Seeks Revenge on Bhishma”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaiuR-OuYrI

A scene from a televised series based on the Hindu Mahabharata (not in English).

“Islamic Television Preacher”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWkOuHZDG8

A news item from Al-Jazeera about new modern Islamic television preachers.

“Islamic Reality Television”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXO-y309H3w

A news item from CNN, depicting a “reality show” in Egypt that features teams that are encouraged to do good.

“Mulid il Nabi’—The Prophet’s Birthday”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCKkIPESfwA

A video clip of mulid activities on the streets of Cairo, Egypt.

“Islamic RNP/RAP My Faith My Voice”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6q5GxgS8nI

A group of young black men rapping in English about Islam.

“Ask the Rabbi—Chutzpah”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQNRSDl5Sc4

A Jewish rap song by “the world’s first ever Jewish hip hop supergroup.”

“Practical Application of the Eightfold Noble Path”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbcQFIUs-jE

One of many episodes from The Buddhist TV, discussing basic Buddhist concepts in vernacular English.

“Tanzania Pentecostal  Church Worship”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDN-ntQ89K0

An un-narrated scene of worship inside an African Pentecostal church.

“Santo Christo Procession—The Patron Saint”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LeiO3Lp2X8

A street procession in Falls River, Massachusetts, celebrating the patron saint of the local Catholic Portuguese community.

Festa (Joe Sousa, Documentary Educational Resources)

A professional video exploring the Portuguese-Catholic street festival in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“What is Neopaganism: Contemporary Paganism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdIr1tRR_Xo

A short video presentation on paganism, relating it to the Romantic movement in Europe.

“ARKONA—Liki Bessmertnykh Bogov (Faces of Immortal Gods)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgXlUxDGFvU

An example of Russian pagan heavy metal music.

“The Occult Experience (1985)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aevtHVs6LY

An old-fashioned video about pagan beliefs and practices, sometimes a bit biased but visually interesting and full of worthwhile information.

Chapter 10

“Religious Violence Flares around Globe”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzgQOY_usdw

A short CNN video documenting the incidence of religious violence around the world.

“Firewalking”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKhbjGKOSIA

A short National Geographic video about the Anastenaria and their fire-walking ritual.

“Maasai Rites of Passage”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8WTJ-r2cnQ

The first of a two-part video on the animal sacrifice involved in the Maasai male initiation ritual.

“Self-Flagellation and Bloodshed on Muharram in India”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JdEdAVVQWU

A short clip of Indian Muslims flagellating themselves on the occasion of Muharram.

“Self-Flagellation during Holy Week in Philippines”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcCA6lGxK_g

A short clip of Filipino Christians whipping and crucifying themselves for Easter.

“Why Study Asceticism?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAH7mFVlCfo

A conversation about the academic study of asceticism, with Mary Cunningham and Tom O’Loughlin.

“Guys Hanging On Hooks: Thaipusam in Kerala, India, February 2012”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq5I55ma464

A video clip of the some of the extreme self-mortifications undertaken by Hindu ascetics.

“11-Year-Old Palestinians: Martyrdom Better Than This World”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dPb1bF-s4M

A short interview with Palestinian children, showing that they embrace the worldview of religious martyrdom.

The Witches of Gambaga (Yaba Badeo and Amina Mama, Journeyman Pictures)

A documentary about the persecution and isolation of female witches in modern-day Ghana.

“Child Witch Victims of Nigeria Africa”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVVbGEOoCM

A video about the persecution of African children who are accused of witchcraft by evangelical Christian churches.

“The Empty Mind: Shaolin Temple Warrior Monks”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llqup1Uir6k

A short clip about the tradition of fighting monks at the famous Shaolin Buddhist Temple.

“Mickey Mouse Used for Incitement by Hamas”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8fRMqWOBuM

A video clip of a Mickey-Mouse looking character called Farfour, who teaches Palestinian children to hate Israel and value war and martyrdom.

“Small Town Terrorism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z1HGUvAT-c

A National Geographic  video clip about a poisoning episode perpetrated by a Hindu group against a town in Oregon, USA.

“Aum Shinrikyo Cult: Sarin Gas Attacks”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ3prE4sG3E

The first of a two-part video on the Tokyo gas attacks perpetrated by Aum Shinrikyo.

“Fred Phelps Thanks God for the Shooting of Congresswoman”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpkxoql4xz0

Fred Phelps, head of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, thanks God for the shooting of congresswomen Gabrielle Gifford.

Chapter 11

“Asad: Modernity, Secularity, and Islam”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_o68-CpAWs

The first of a three-part interview with Talal Asad, on secularism and Islam.

José Casanova: Resurgence of Religion.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1dlf1qJHTk

A short clip from Yale University discussion, featuring Casanova summarizing his views on secularization and the re-emergence of religion.

“Prof Peter Berger on Resurgence of Religion and Decline of Secularization Theory”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHlDyR102G8

A brief clip of sociologist Peter Berger, discussing the famous reversal of his position on secularization and modern society.

“PBS: La Laïcité Française”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl-YYcH-52U

A short PBS segment on the history and meaning of French secularism.

“Metin Heper, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey: ‘Some Notes on Secularism in Turkey”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pNXF76Z1gA

A long video of an academic lecture on secularism and contemporary politics in Turkey.

“Seminar on Secularism and Religious Pluralism in the US, France, Turkey, and India”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaQlWtiZufA

The first of two parts of a long recording of an academic seminar at Georgetown University in 2008, discussing secularism in several international settings.

“Where the Atheists Are”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIM7etTfApk

A short clip discussing a global survey on atheism and its prohibition in certain countries around the world.

“Secular Believers”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI2TU81e7xM

An episode from BBC Learning Zone, profiling contemporary Western secularists and atheists like the well-known scientist Richard Dawkins.

“The God Delusion”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FiHRVb_uE0

A 90-minute project by Richard Dawkins, one of the leading critics of religion and proponents of atheism.

“Atheist Experience #875”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUWAT82JKRY

An episode from the polemical online television program and call-in show, “The Atheist Experience.”

“NYC Atheists ‘Live on Tape’ Vijayam – Atheists Center India”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH-Q4n1zIBs

An episode from an internet television series presented by New York City Atheists, featuring the Atheist Center in India.

Chapter 12

“Is Fundamentalism Undermining Faith”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJhc-ocqwq8

An episode of BBC’s series The Big Questions, featuring a debate between conservative and liberal Christian, Muslim, and Jewish members.

“‘Made in America’: Christian Fundamentalism—Dr. John A. Dick”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTNkXd5Mu2w

A half-hour lecture covering the evolution of fundamentalism in the U.S., as well as common features of fundamentalisms.

“Theocracy Watch: Dominion Theology”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc8XS-PxFFA

The first of a five-part video on Rushdoony’s Dominion Theology or Christian Reconstructionism, showing its link to contemporary American politics.

“Michelle Goldberg: The Rise of Christian Nationalism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v1W2i2YgsQ

The first of a seven-part talk by the author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism.

“God’s Jewish Warriors”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6leTGGb4c8w

The first of an eleven-part documentary with CNN’s Christiana Amanpour on Jewish fundamentalism in Israel and the United States.

“The Jewish Orthodox Community  of New York”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-wAd02XVjw

An older feature-length documentary on the Hasidic community in New York City.

“Paul Barrett: What are the Roots of Islamic Fundamentalism?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJI0HrhUl9w

A short presentation from Bigthink.com, discussing Islamic purity, especially Wahhabism.

“Inside Story—Who are Nigeria’s Boko Haram”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VN_7A3mNKg

An Al-Jazeera report on Boko Haram, a violent Islamist group in Nigeria, infamous recently for its kidnapping of schoolgirls.

“ISIS Uses Social Media to Increase Western Recruitment”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wObRO6jwrA4

A segment from CBS This Morning portraying how the violent ISIS movement uses the internet and social media to recruit Western fighters.

“Hindutva War Against Islam”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Ne8pDzN18

An hour-long documentary about the Hindutva movement in India and its vilification of Islam.

“Saffron Warriors—India”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY7yXzqld7g

A section of a Journeyman Pictures video about Hindu nationalism and sectarian violence in India.

“Nuclear Nationalism—India”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIJ8tXH0I4

A section of a Journeyman Pictures video about the recruitment of young Indians into the militant organizations of Hindu nationalism.