Anthropology of Religions in St. Louis

3 units

This course is an introduction to religions in America with a focus on urban U.S. and Saint Louis ethnic experiences during the twentieth century and into the present. This course will combine methods of history of religions to understand background and context with anthropology of religion to discern contemporary social dynamics. The everyday life, rituals, and imagination of religious peoples, communities, and movements will be examined with attention to political aesthetics. Students will be introduced to observant participation in order to comprehend religious events and to describe a particular religious community of cross-cultural interest. The course will involve students doing observation/participation in a religious tradition or ethnicity outside of their own.