What does ‘anthropology of religion’ teach us about the construction of identity or ethics and politics of difference? What are the definitions of religion and belief from an anthropological perspective? This course introduces students to the anthropology of religion and its key field of material religion: “the thing” in its manifold appearances as a sacred object, as a fetish, as a votive object, or as a religious commodity. The antagonistic relationship between religion/spirit and matter/thing has informed a large part of history of the study of religion and particularly its colonial roots. Thinking through religious things bring us to various types of appreciation, apprehension and appropriation that undergird this history.
Religious, cultural and sexual differences are normatively understood as given facts. Some celebrate the recognition of these “facts” as a sign of tolerance, diversity and secularity. Others demise it for the sake of a broader cultural coherence or rather a sense of connectivity. Anthropology of religion deepens our understanding of the ‘fact’ of difference. While the concept of fetish might help understanding the construction of difference in modern society, the notion of kitsch guides us toward cultural and political specificities of such encounters. Also, as Michael Taussig (1977) reminds us, in a world that money is needed for a ‘fertile life’, supernatural power should be invoked to obtain multiplication of money as capital.
Along with becoming acquainted with themes and problems in anthropology of religion, this course takes a critical anthropological perspective to introduce students to theories of the material religion as they emerge in colonial encounters and in early European ethnographic accounts. We delve into classical theories of the fetish taken up by thinkers such as De Brosses, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Frantz Fanon, while examining recent interventions from scholars as Michael Taussig, Birgit Meyer and Charles Hirschkind. We will track the contemporary significance of religious “things” for the critical study of non-European politics and cosmologies as well as the intersection of racial, religious, and sexual difference.
- Course owner: Sana Chavoshian