SNRSCH1221 - ANTH 3326 - Religion in Non-Western Cultures

Course Description

This course examines Creole religions in the Americas and the Caribbean, focusing on the often-misunderstood practices of Cuban Santería, Haitian Voodoo, Brazilian Candomblé, and U.S Orisha-Voodoo. By exploring their colonial, national, and transnational trajectories, differences in Portuguese, Spanish, and French colonial rule will become evident as we look at the historical, political, and religious conditions shaping processes of syncretism and mimesis. The unique multi-channeled, performative aspects of these creole religions will be explored in great detail and illustrated through video and music recordings of spiritual events in which divination, drumming, myth, dance, trance and healing come to life. Confronting practitioners' insider experiences with outsiders' exoticizing perceptions - stemming from either frightening Hollywoodian representations or romanticizing state and tourist productions - we will critically address the problematic, highly contested place that these heterodox religions and their practitioners occupy in contemporary societies. 

Instructor: Jayasinhji Jhala