Religion, World View and Cultural Classification

The course provides an introduction to how people conceptualize, in a comprehensive sense, humans and their social and natural environment. The course provides an overview of anthropological studies of forms of knowledge, religious beliefs, cosmologies, system of thoughts and forms of classification. The different anthropological approaches will be exemplified by cases from both modern and traditional societies. Among the topics discussed are myths, taboo, witchcraft, millenarian movements, rituals of modernity, and science as cultural knowledge system. During the semester, the students should submit an essay approved by the Department. The course is compulsory for students working toward a bachelor's degree or the one year study program in social anthropology.

The students should develop a principal understanding of religious life, cosmologies, system of thoughts, and forms of classification. Moreover, they should be capable of a) discuss the relationships between social structures and cultural imagination, and b) how cosmologies are construed and naturalized through communication, interaction and the production of meaning. Through assignments, the students should develop skills in academic writing.

Lectures/seminars, written assignments (approx. 48 hours). Approved written assignment Deadline: March 20th. Some of the lectures may be given in English.