[
Wesleyan Home Page
] [
WesMaps Home Page
]
[
Course Search
] [
Course Search by CID
]
Anthropology of Black Religions in the Americas
RELI387 SP
Crosslistings: AFAM387
This advanced research seminar will examine Afro-Creole religions and cultural expressions in selected communities throughout the Atlantic world. How were religious communities created under colonial domination? Under
what conditions were religions
shaped, and what shapes did they take? How are African-based religions produced through aesthetics and the ritual arts of spiritual talk and sermons, song, dance, drumming and medicine-making? How do these religions
continue to survive, thrive and in some
cases grow in the current historical period? This course will pay special attention to the yearly ritual cycle and its attendant festivals: Christmas, Carnivals, Lent, Easter, Saint's Days, feasts and pilgrimages a well
as the emergent spiritual and
aesthetic traditions such as Capoera and Rara. The course will study the Black religious experience in the United States and also familiarize students with Orisha Religions like La Regla de Ocha, or Lukumi, in Cuba and
the Latino United States, Candombl
e in Brazil, Vodou in Haiti, and Rastafari in Jamaica.
MAJOR READINGS
Barry Chavannes, RASTAFARI: ROOTS AND IDEOLOGY Joseph Murphy, SANTERIA Karen McCarthy Brown, MAMA LOLA; U of California Press Bettelheim and Nunley, CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL ARTS Robert Farris Thompson, FLASH OF THE
SPIRIT Joseph Murphy, WORKING THE
SPIRIT, Boston, Beacon Press, 1994
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
This research seminar prepares the student to write a major 16-20 pp. paper on one of the religious traditions in the Black Atlantic world. You will be required to use at least two primary sources to investigate a topic
that must be approved. For anyone
interested in documenting some aspect of an Afro-Atlantic religion, the paper may be an ethnographic project. However you must demonstrate that you have the language skills and entree (proper introductions and access) to
do fieldwork.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
This course fulfills a "Religion in Society" requirement for the department major. Attendance and class participation are important to your grade and your progress in the class. You will write a 25-35 page paper on a
topic we develop together in
class. For anyone already involved in documenting some aspect of an African-American religion, the paper may be an ethnographic project. However you will have to demonstrate to me that you have entree into a community
and the language skills you will need
to do fieldwork. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still
submit a completed Drop/Add form t
o the Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT:
Lecture
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS RELI
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459