Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
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Unit 3
Religion
Anthropological studies of religion consistently demonstrate the dynamic and ever-changing nature of organized belief systems. These systems are constantly in flux, as are ways of understanding and categorizing them. In this unit, students will consider religion in specific sociocultural contexts. They are encouraged to consider the influence of politics, economics, cultural change, and history in shaping religion and the religious practices they will read about.
Sapiens articles
What Religious Beliefs Reveal About Post-Truth Politics
It’s not always what people believe, or why, that matters. Sometimes, the social relations surrounding those beliefs are what shape reality.
How Hearts Align in a Muslim Ritual
An important Sufi ritual brings participants together in a shared experience of trance and movement that actually synchronizes their heartbeats.
Keywords
View All in Religion
![Amid a political rally where red, black, and green colors are prominent, a smiling woman wearing glasses, a khaki shirt, and a black headscarf holds aloft a sketch of a person’s face that says, “Khan Is Hope.”]()
![Clear water streams down moss-covered rocks amid thick, luxurious vegetation with broad tropical leaves and bright red and yellow flowers.]()
![With several people around them, a person wearing an olive green headwrap and white long-sleeved shirt cradles a beige cat who is facing the viewer. They are in a building topped with an ornately decorated gold dome.]()
![A crowd of people, with several taking pictures on cellphones, surround a damaged structure in a public square. The small building, with its tiling cracked and wooden seating splintered, has a large arrangement of white flowers in front of it.]()
![A person wearing a long-sleeved black maxi dress and a red headscarf holding a green umbrella walks on a public street with a silver truck and several people in black hats, helmets, and khaki uniforms in the background.]()
![A crowd watches a parade float shaped like a building with rainbow-colored windows and a heart made of rainbow handprints. Text reads, “justice community equality” and words on a blue roof read, “United Church of Christ, UCC.org/lgbt.” A small sign propped up against the float reads, “Amen. Advocate for Marriage Equality.”]()
The Rise of Aunties in Pakistani Politics
Middle-class, conservative women in Pakistan have found a political voice as supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party—putting them at odds with the secular women’s movement their own daughters support.
Coastal Eden
A poet interrogates the garden of Eden origin story by reimagining it against the backdrop of East Africa’s coastal environment.
For the Love of Cats in Turkey
On a visit to feline-friendly Turkey, an anthropologist considers what long-standing practices of caring for cats reveal about human societies.
At the Intersection of Sarinah Plaza, Thamrin Street
A poet-anthropologist in Indonesia criticizes extremist militants who use religion to commit violence.
08.03.2019
A poet-anthropologist from India recalls a checkpoint encounter in Sri Lanka, just months after the Easter Sunday bombings.
Being LGBTQ+ in U.S. Protestant Churches
As homophobic and transphobic rhetoric sweeps the U.S., some churches are increasingly welcoming LGBTQ+ parishioners who participate in religious life and help reconcile Christianity with a spectrum of sexual and gender identities.
View All in Ritual
![A black painted hand covered in red paint holds a skull figure decorated with floral patterns in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Painted white with black accents to resemble a skull, the face—and also gray hair and flower headband—of the person holding the skull are blurry in the background.Cindy Ord/Getty Images]()
![Massive vertical and horizontal stones stand in a field at night, with the sliver of a silver moon above.]()
![A person wearing a gray T-shirt and tan baseball cap pushes buttons on a camera that is attached to a tree in the forest.]()
![A child in a puffer coat squats in front of a memorial of flowers and various pictures of an owl, placing a piece of paper among the other objects.]()
![Taken from under the frond of a leafy overhang, waters near the shore of a beach gently ripple under the bright orange glow of the setting sun.]()
![Two people—one in a white T-shirt and the other in burgundy robes—work together to hang a string of white pieces of cloth with black writing on them.]()
Harvest Song
A poet-anthropologist celebrates relatedness across difference in a poem that honors the festivals of Navratri, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Day of the Dead, and Halloween—all of which draw on otherworldly connections and mysteries.
The Distant Origins of a Stonehenge Stone
After two decades of research, scholars find that Stonehenge’s giant Altar Stone came from northeast Scotland.
Payangko, or Echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi)
After a 60-year haitus, an Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna was seen in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains. A poet-anthropologist reflects on the echidna’s message through the storied lens of the people of Yongsu Sapari.
What a Community’s Mourning of an Owl Can Tell Us
The outpouring of grief over New York’s Flaco the owl, who died recently, reveals how much attitudes toward these creatures have changed.
Bila Mwili
A poet-historian in Tanzania remembers those who have passed but who are still nearby.
Replacing Plastic Prayers With Biodegradable Blessings in the Himalayas
As synthetic prayer flags and scarves pollute the Himalayan region, a team of scholars and activists work to spread sustainable materials drawn from Indigenous knowledge.
Professor Talking Points
- Religion often brings to mind contentious issues and strong opinions about the effects of influential texts, practices, and systems on politics and social life.
- It is powerful because it gives meaning to and shapes key elements of our humanity: birth, death, the afterlife, the divine, sex, marriage, food, celebration, art, conflict and resolution, community, and politics.
- Anthropologists have demonstrated that determining what religion is and what it looks like requires cross-cultural comparisons, and that definitions of religion are continuously being contested and revised.
- Anthropology has shown that how people define religion will inevitably have important cultural and political repercussions.
- Current debates about religion include issues of: identity, human rights, tolerance and acceptance, agency, and secularism.
Academic Articles
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Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2002. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist 104 (3): 783–790.
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Hartikainen, Elina Inkeri. 2019. “Candomblé and the Academic’s Tools: Religious Expertise and the Binds of Recognition in Brazil.” American Anthropologist 121 (4): 815–829.
Student Discussion Questions
- What are some of the contemporary issues that were mentioned in this unit’s articles with regard to problems facing religious communities?
- What does Abu-Lughod’s (2002) article tell us about views of Muslim women from Western, Judeo-Christian perspectives? What argument is the author making about identity, autonomy, and human rights as they pertain to religion?
- How do these anthropologists speak about creating and sustaining community through religion and religious practices?
- What can we learn from Hartikainen (2019) about religion and the state? What do similar dilemmas look like in the U.S. or in other countries?
Activities
- Have students read SAPIENS’ “How Did Belief Evolve?” Then ask them to write a response reflecting on whether they find this theory compelling or not.
- Have students write a short essay on the power of ritual, then invite the students to have a discussion on the same topic based on their own experiences.
- Select a popular movie that has a scene depicting a ritual and ask the student (in writing or through discussion) to interpret the ritual’s processes, functions, and meanings.
Additional Resources
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TED Talk: Noah Feldman’s “Politics and Religion Are Technologies”
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TED Talk: Wade Davis’ “The Worldwide Web of Belief and Ritual”
Unit By
Eshe Lewis (2020)
Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
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Unit 4
Food
