REL 302(S) Religion and Society
A sustained inquiry into the place of religion in society and the place of the social/communal within selected religious traditions. The course will focus on two organizing themes-sacrifice and praxis. In the first the multifaceted interest in the early part of the twentieth century in the "primitive" and the violence of "totemic" cults will be explored through the works of Durkheim, Levi-Strauss, Jay and Bloch. In the second part the character and comparison of the ethoi that religions construct will be explored with attention to the Christian West, Islam, China, and India through the works of Weber, Bourdieu, and Csordas. Lecture and discussion. Requirements: a midterm exam and a final paper. Prerequisite: Religion 101 or Anthropology 101 or permission of instructor.