Anthropological Perspectives on Religion

Religion has always been one of the most important topics in anthropology. Since the earliest expeditions, anthropologists have sought to understand the often unusual religious practices they encountered. People’s views of their origins, the supernatural, and a moral life are based on a set of shared ideas they learn as they grow up in a given society. Anthropologists call these shared idea cultures and see religion as a central part of a people’s culture. This course uses several case studies to look at themes that have guided the anthropology of religion throughout this century.