Course Title：Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion, Culture and Society

This course is for students who are interested in the anthropological approaches and methods of studying religious and cultural practices in both western and non-western societies. The course will enable students to gain access to the history of anthropology and learn from various theoretical ideas that examine religion, culture and society. They will also be informed of key debates in anthropology and be encouraged to critically examine issues found in the following key topics; ritual, symbolism, purity and pollution, gender, body, spirit possession, healing, death, and religious practices in the Diaspora, by way of attending lectures, reading monographs, discussing ethnographic films, and examining empirical case studies. The students are expected to conduct short fieldwork on one of the topics discussed in the lectures.