Class 1-2

16.02., 15.30-18.20, online

Religion as an object of anthropological inquiry

We begin by an introduction to the course and its thematic. Afterwards, we will take a closer look at the problems of definition of religion, focusing on historicist and universalist approaches. How was religion constructed as an object of anthropological inquiry? Is a single definition possible at all? How useful is the concept when presented with the elusive nature of religious dimension beyond evident settings like church or monastery?
Geertz, Clifford. 1966. Religion as a cultural system. In The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books (reprinted in: Lambek M. (ed.) 2002. A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion. Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 61-82).
Asad, Talal. 1997. The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category. In Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Pp. 27-54.

Class 3-4.

23.02., 15.30-18.20, room 405

Science and religion

In this class, we will explore a set of debates around imagining the human – and more broadly the future. These debates lie at the intersection of larger processes involving emerging technologies that are reconfiguring the boundaries between life and death. We will discuss the cases of transhumanism, its various social representations and histories. Does the conflict between our long-standing carbon-based history and rapid advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence change the status of being human? These debates reflect deep interest in rethinking the changing status of the human, the relationship between body and mind, biology and technology, and the notion of life itself.

Rothstein M. 2004. Science and Religion in the New Religions In The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, Ed. by James R. Lewis. Oxford. pp. 99—118.
Bialecki, Jon. 2017. "After, and Before, Anthropos." Platypus: The Castac (Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing) blog. https://blog.castac.org/2017/04/after-and-before-anthropos/
Farman, Abou. 2012. "Re- Enchantment Cosmologies: Mastery and Obsolescence in an Intelligent Universe." Anthropological Quarterly 85(4): 1069– 88.
Bernstein, Anya. 2019. Introduction In The Future of Immortality. Remaking Life and Death in Contemporary Russia, Princeton University Press, pp. 1-34.
Anya Bernstein. 2020. Immortalism and Transhumanism in Russia, podcast, available at: https://srbpodcast.org/2020/03/27/immortalism-and-transhumanism-in-russia/

Class 5.

23.03., 15.30-16.50, room 405

Esotericism or invisible religions of the neoliberal era

The religious dimension of consumerist culture tends to escape the analytical gaze. Religion as a clearly identified object of study becomes problematic in conditions of late modernity. During this class we will look at less obvious phenomena of the neoliberal age, like techno music parties called raves, which, however, retain religious references and characteristics. We shall also inquire about how New Age, Neopaganism, Neo-Indianism, and other religious phenomena of the 'Neo' type can be related to the social conditions created by the neoliberal and consumerist revolution, by looking at how religion participates in the production of a cosmopolitan self that can navigate the flows of contemporary global capitalism.
Gauthier, François. 2004. Rave and religion? A contemporary youth phenomenon as seen through the lens of religious studies. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 2004 33: 397.
Gauthier, François. 2020. Why All These 'Neos'? Why Now? The Structural Conditions of 'Transnational Spiritualities' in the Global-Market Era.

Class 6.

23.03., 17.00-18.20, room 405

Conspiritualities – conspiracy theories and religion

Conspirituality, a confluence of spirituality and conspiracy theory, is a rapidly growing movement expressing an ideology fuelled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative worldviews. We will seek to qualify it through some recent literature and case studies discussed during the seminar.
Sampson, Steve. 2021. Cabal anthropology: can the anthropology of belief help us understand conspiracism? long version with bibliography (https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/cabal-anthropology-can-the-anthropology-of-belief-help-us-underst-2)
Harambam, Jaron. 2020. Contemporary Conspiracy Culture. Truth and Knowledge in an Era of Epistemic Instability. London & New York: Routledge (selected chapters, tba.).

Class 7.

30.03., 15.30-16.50, room 405

Religious fundamentalisms

A public image of religious "fundamentalism" is distorted by political interests. How should we understand fundamentalism and why it is stigmatised in public discourse? During this class we will discuss examples from North America, Russia, and the Islamic world, asking ourselves what particular conditions in each of those cases nourish both fundamentalist attitudes and the responses they spark. Is there a transnational dimension to this phenomenon?
Harding, Susan. 1991. Representing fundamentalism: The problem of the repugnant cultural other, Social Research, 58:2, s. 373-393.
Asad, Talal.2007. Suicide Terrorism In On Suicide Bombing. New York: Columbia University Press., pp. 39-64.
Stoeckl, Kristina.2020. The rise of the Russian Christian Right: the case of the World Congress of Families, Religion, State & Society, 48:4, 223-238, DOI:10.1080/09637494.2020.1796172

Class 8.

30.03, 17.00-18.20, room 405

Fieldwork consultations

Class 9-10.

27.04., 15.50-18.20, room 405

Capitalism, colonialism and Christianity

What is the role of religion in the waves of colonial and capitalist expansion? How to account for the role missionaries played in the transformation of the religious systems of rapidly changing societies and for the responses they inspired? Post-colonial critique raised awareness of the inadequacy of modernization theory as advocated by economists and other social scientists and turned the focus of attention to economic inequality and political oppression. Historical roots of particular structures of inequality began to be examined, and religion was perceived as one of them. By looking at the examples from Colombia, we shall explore the meaning of religious practices found among plantation workers, which emerged in response to capitalist exploitation. While reading the Comaroffs, we will consider the impact of Christian missionary activity on indigenous forms of sociality and personhood, remaking Africans to become docile labourers of the emerging capitalist economy.
Taussig, Michael. 1977. The Genesis of Capitalism amongst a South American Peasantry: Devil's Labor and the Baptism of Money, Comparative Studies in Society and History 19(2): 130-55 (reprinted in: Lambek 2002, pp. 472-92.)
John L. and Jean Comaroff, 1992. The Colonization of Consciousness. In Ethnography and the Historical Imagination. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 235-63 (reprinted in Lambek 2002, pp. 493-510.)

Class 11.

04.05, 15.30-16.50, online

The postsocialist religious question

The postsocialist religious question has been guiding social scientific research in the region in the aftermath of 1989. Communist "state atheism" sought to make religion disappear from society, at least in its public expressions, through a variety of legislations, repressive policies, and other forms of social engineering. The re-emergence of religion in the public sphere provoked questions with regard to both its earlier condition, and is new configuration within the field of power. We will discuss the defence mechanism employed by the secular establishment of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstani society in reaction to the perceived danger represented by Christian and Muslim religious movements, that have made significant appearance after the abolition of "state atheism". All texts assigned will guide students through the legacy of specific secular understandings of the notion of religion promoted by the Soviet rule, that inadvertently contributed to the emergence of religious controversies in the region.

McBrien, Julie, and Mathijs Pelkmans. 2008. Turning Marx on his Head: Missionaries, 'Extremists' and Archaic Secularists in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Critique of Anthropology 28(1): 87–103.
(Or
Pelkmans, Mathijs. 2007. 'Culture' as a Tool and an Obstacle: Missionary Encounters in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13(4): 881-899.)
Luehrmann, Sonja. 2005. Recycling Cultural Construction: Desecularization in Postsoviet Mari El. Religion, State & Society 33(1): 35-56.

Class 12.

04.05., 17.00-18.20, online

Conclusions