Anthropology of Religion

Year
0
Academic year
2022-2023
Code
01015733
Subject Area
Área Científica do Menor
Language of Instruction
Portuguese
Mode of Delivery
Face-to-face
Duration
SEMESTRIAL
ECTS Credits
6.0
Type
Elective
Level
1st Cycle Studies

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

 The course is organized in theoretical classes, in which the teacher exposed the main topics based on bibliography previously selected (prior reading by students it’s required), and seminar sessions devoted to the presentation and discussion of papers presented by students.
The evaluation consists of an individual work and a frequency. 

Learning Outcomes

 The course aims to introduce students to a broad discussion on the paradigmatic foundations of anthropology of religion, from classical and contemporary authors, themes that underlie the religious universe, such as myth, ritual, magic. The study of religion have been one of the central themes of social and cultural anthropology, since the founding works of Frazer and Tylor, passed by Weber, Durkheim and Mauss, Evans-Pritchard and Turner, Levi-Strauss and Geertz. Finally it will be strongly emphasized the plurality of current approaches to religion, with particular regard to religious pluralism.   

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The course is structured around the following programatic topics:

1 - Evolutionism and its approaches to religion: (James Frazer and Edward Tylor)

2 - The social function of religion: (Émile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss)

3 - Rites and Magic: (Bronislav Malinowski, Marcel Mauss, Arnold van Gennep)

4 - The political function of rituals: (Max Gluckman and Victor Turner)

5 - The social structure of myth: (Lévi-Strauss)

6 - Violence and Purity: (Mary Douglas, Réné Girard)

7 Religion and sorcery: (E. Evans-Pritchard, Peter Geshiere, Harry West)

8- plurality and religious pluralism.    

Head Lecturer(s)

Fernando José Pereira Florêncio

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Frequency: 50.0%
Synthesis work: 50.0%

Bibliography

Durkheim, Émile, 2002, As formas elementares da vida religiosa : o sistema totémico na Austrália, Oeiras : Celta Editora.

 

Evans-Pritchard, E.E., 1976, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, Oxford: Clarendon Press


Frazer, James,
1915, The golden bough : a study in magic and religion, London : Macmillan.

 

Geshiere, Peter, 1997, The Modernity of withcraft. Politics and the occult in postcolonial Africa, Virginia: University of Virginia Press.

 

Girard, René, 1972, La violence et le sacre, Paris : Bernard Grasset.

 

Gluckman, Max, 1962, Les Rites de Passage, in Gluckman, Max, (ed.), The Ritual of Social Relations, Manchester University Press, Manchester.

 

Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 1989, Mito e significado, Lisboa : Edições 70.

 

Malinowski, Bronislav, 1984, Magia, ciência e religião, Lisboa: Edições 70.

 

 

Mauss, Marcel, 2000, Esboço de uma teoria geral da magia, Lisboa : Ed. 70.

 

Turner, Victor,1974, O processo ritual : estrutura e antiestrutura, Petrópolis : Editora Vozes, 1974.