RELI 291: Religion and Culture
(Fall 1997)

Description

New religions are in the news. How are we to interpret the events connected with Heaven's Gate, the Branch Davidians and Jonestown? In inquiring into these phenomena we shall ask such questions as:

What enables us to designate different system of belief and practice as "religious?"
Is belief in God or gods a necessary condition for all religions?
What role does culture play in the stories religions tell about life, death or gender?
How does the narrative of one's own life intersect with religion or its absence?
How do the changes or postmodernity affect religion?

Such thinkers as Max Weber, Emil Durkheim, William James, Sigmund Freud, Claude Levi-Strauss, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Fredric Jameson, Judith Butler, and Nancy Chodorow will be discussed. Students will assess a theory's explanatory power and ability to illuminate concrete manifestations of religion Information will also be derived from Internet resources, films and audiotapes.

Students may select an internet project in place of a midterm exam.The project will be designed around a theme discussed during the semester. Internet materials will be co-taught by an assistant who will work with the class on such projects. Students who prefer to do so may take a written exam. All student will take a standard written final examination.

Schedule

Because fixed dates for access to media material cannot be obtained,the following lists the order (not date) of assignments. Reading are from Lemert unless otherwise indicated.

1. A: Introduction: Some definitions of religion and culture.

1. B: Cosmic being, sacred and profane: Mircea Eliade

Read: Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane

2. A and B. Religion and the Unconscious: Freud

Read: pp. 136-160

3. A: The social origins of religion: Durkheim

Read: pp 77-109

3. B: Religion and the material conditions of life: Mark and Engels

Read: pp. 36-49; 58-78

4. A: Religion and structure: de Saussure, Levi-Strauss and Structuralism

Read: pp 160-170, 334-338

5. A: Split Selves: James, G.H. Mead, Niebuhr, Goffman

Read: pp. 171-177; 199-204; 243-248; 263-265; 358-364

5. B. Race: Dubois, West, Gates

Read: pp. 177-186; 577-596

6. A and B: Religion and postmodernism: Derrida, Foucault, Bourdieu, Lyotard, Baudrillard

Read: pp. 447-451; 451-455; 479-484; 509-513;517-531;597-603

7. A and B: Religion and Postmodernism (cont'd): Lyotard, Habermas, Jameson

Read: Docherty pp. 38-51; 51-62; 62-93

7. A and B: Feminism: Fraser and Nicholson

Read Butler pp. 637-648 and Docherty pp 451-433

Staff

Instructor:

Edith Wyschogrod: Office: 302 Lovett Hall; Office hours:
Email: stedith@rice.edu
Telephone: ext 2710

Assistant:

Mary Ann Clark: Email: maryc@owlnet.rice.edu
Telephone: (713) 661-6010

Texts

Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane
Charles Lemert, Social theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings
Thomas Docherty , Postmodernism: A Reader
James R. Lewis, From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco

Homework and Exams

Computer Project: Students may select an internet project instead of a midterm examination. The project will focus on one of three religious cults:

Each project will result in a web site that uses the themes of this course to analyze the selected group and a class presentation.

All information used on web pages must use appropriate citations of both net and paper materials. See Citation Guide for information about citing material from the net.

Award Update:

Peoples Temple awarded StudyWebTM Academic Excellence Award, June 1999