Courses

Anthropology 339

AMERICAN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
Professor: Gillian Feeley-Harnik (Anthropology)

Tues-Thurs, 1-2:30, LS&A Bldg 4560, Winter 2002

Professor: Gillian Feeley-Harnik (Anthropology)
Office: 2008 LS&A Building
Office Hours: Tues, 4-6pm, & by appt.
Phone: 763-4735; Email: gfharnik@umich.edu

Course Description: This course will focus on religious life histories and community studies from a comparative social-cultural and historical perspective. The case studies have been chosen to give some indication of the wide range of religious experiences characteristic of American life currently and in the recent past. We will examine how participants and observers (including roving anthropologists) perceive or learn about the culture and social relations of American religious practices; what they make of their knowledge and experience for themselves and others; and why. Topics will include: religious pluralism, tolerance, and conflict; the social organization of new religious movements and how they are established as communities; ritual; ideas and practices concerning divinity, ritual, morality, social justice; the material culture of religious practices; relations between church and state; debates about religion and science; and the role of popular media in forming ideas and practices in and about religious organizations.

Prerequisites: Anthropology 101, or equivalent in American Culture

Course Requirements: This is a lecture-discussion course in which students can expect lots of reading for discussion in class (1 book or 3/4 articles/week). We will see some films in class, which will be included in the writing assignments.

* Regular attendance (more than 2 absences will be considered too much) and active participation in class, based on having done the reading for the week.

* Weekly discussion papers (~1 page, by email on Monday of the week in which the reading is due): a brief commentary on the week's reading, ending with one or two key questions for discussion in class. Students (probably in groups of 3-4) will also be responsible for leading one or two discussions of the reading during the semester (signups in 2cd week of class).

* Two short research papers (5-6 pp), due on February 1 and March 8 (Fridays of the 4th and 9th weeks), and a longer research paper (10-12pp), due on April 19 (Friday of last week), following brief presentations of the results of the papers to fellow students during the last week of class. Late papers will not be accepted. The purpose of these papers is to enable students to do their own research on an American religious movement: further reading based on library sources, which could be combined with archival research in Umich archives or with ethnographic research in southeast Michigan. Ethnographic research will require approval from the University of Michigan's Institutional Review Board for the Behavioral Sciences.

Students may focus on a more in-depth study of one of the groups already represented on the syllabus or on some other group. The paper topics will follow the order of the syllabus, so that (a) students can draw on the theoretical issues and ethnographic material presented in the reading, lectures, and discussions in pursuing their own research and (b) use their own research in contributing to class-discussions.

* The purpose of the lst paper will be to place the group in the social-cultural context of the community/s in which it is located, with special attention to the organization of religious pluralism.

* The purpose of the 2cd paper will be to analyze the historical development of the movement. This paper should include a brief outline of what you propose to do for your final paper and why you have chosen these subjects.

* The purpose of the 3rd paper will be to focus on one or two particular aspects of the everyday life of the organization, for example, specific rituals, music, the social relations involved in the running of the organization, the social networks among the participants (for example, familial, ethnic, neighborhood, national or international connections, etc.), the material culture of worship, and so on.

Grades: will be evaluated in the following way.
* Class attendance, preparation (the discussion papers), and participation (including oral presentation/s of the reading): one third.
* 2 short papers: one third.
* 1 long paper (including presentation of paper in class): one third.

Readings: The books will be available at the Shaman Drum Bookstore (313 State St, tel: 662-7407). One coursepack of articles will be available from AccuCopy (518 East William St, tel: 769-8338). The required books and coursepack will also be on reserve at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library.

Books at Shaman Drum:
- Corbett, Julia Mitchell. 2000. Religion in America. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, JN: Prentice Hall.
- Silk, Mark. 1995. Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press.
- Kraybill, Donald B. 2001. The Riddle of Amish Culture. Revised edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
- Brown, Michael. 1997. The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

PART 1. RELIGIOUS PLURALISM: KEY ISSUES AND APPROACHES

January 8: Introduction to Course

January 10: Introduction to Issues
- Corbett, J.M. 2000. Chapters in Religion in America:
* Introduction: "Responding to Religious Diversity"
* Chap. 1: "Studying and Describing Religion"
* Chap. 2: "Religion in the Life of the United States"

January 15-17: Debating Religion and Religious Pluralism in Everyday Life
- Silk, Mark. 1995. Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press.

Presentation (1/15): David Crumm, Religion Writer, Detroit Free Press

PART 2: CIVIL RELIGION AND BEYOND

January 22-24: Exploring "Consensus Religion" in American Protestantim through Music
- Corbett, J.M. 2000. Chapters in Religion in America:
* Chap. 3: "Consensus Protestants"
* Chap. 4: "Catholics in the United States"
* Chap. 8: "Alternative Themes in American Christianity"

Video in class (1/22): "Amazing Grace" (87 min, color), PBS, 1990.

JANUARY 29-31: Diversities of Judaism in America
- Corbett, J.M. 2000. Chapter in Religion in America
* Chap. 5: "Living a Jewish Life in the United States."

- Goldberg, H. E., ed. 2001. Chapters in The Life of Judaism, pp. 51-103, 121-35.
(IN COURSEPACK)
* Chap. 4: "Synagogue Life among American Reform Jews" (Frida Kerner Furman)
* Chap. 5: "Orthodoxy in an American Synagogue" (Samuel C. Heilman)
* Chap. 6: "Worship in the Havura Movement" (Chava Weissler)
* Chap. 7: "Turning to Orthodox Judaism" (Lynn Davidman)
* Chap. 9: "A Bat Mitzvah among Russian Jews in America" (Fran Markowitz)

FEBRUARY 1 (Friday): PAPER # 1 IS DUE in my mailbox (1020 LSA Bldg) by 4:30pm.

PART 3. UTOPIAN MOVEMENTS, HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY

February 5-7: Humanist, Reformist, and Socialist or Communistic Utopian Movements

- Nordhoff, Charles. 1875. "The Oneida and Wallingford Perfectionists." In The Communistic Societies of the Unites States; from Personal Visit and Observation, NY: Harper and Bros (repub, Hillary House, 1961), pp. 259-301. (IN COURSEPACK)

- Corbett, J. M. 2000. Chapters in Religion in America
* Chap. 6: "Humanism and the Unitarian Universalists"
* Chap. 7: "Christianities That Began in the United States"

- Pinn, Anthony B. 2000. "African Americans and Humanism." In Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion, ed. Larry G. Murphy, New York University Press, pp. 273-86. (IN COURSEPACK)

February 12-14: Revitalization Movements

- Mooney, James. (1896) 1991. Chapters in The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 by James Mooney, U. Nebraska Press. (IN COURSEPACK)
* Raymond J. DeMallie's "Introduction [and MAP]" to the 1991 edition of Mooney's work, pp. xv-xxvi.
* Mooney's "Introduction" to the first edition of 1896, pp. 653-55.
* Mooney's Chapter 10: "The Doctrine of the Ghost Dance," pp. 777-801.

Videos in class (2/12): "Ghost Dance" (9 min, color, New Day Films, 1990) and "Ghost Dance" (59 min, color and b/w, The West Film Project/Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, 1996).

February 19-21: Sacred Geographies

- Michaelsen, Robert S. 1995. "Dirt in the Court Room: Indian Land Claims and American Property Rights." In American Sacred Space, eds, David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal, Indiana University Press. Pp. 43-96. (IN COURSEPACK)

- Basso, Keith H. 1996. "Speaking with Names." In Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apache, Albuquerque, NM, University of New Mexico Press. Pp. 71-104. (IN COURSEPACK)

- Mitchell, Hildi. 2001. "'Being There': British Mormons and the History Trail." Anthropology Today 17: 9-14. (IN COURSEPACK)

****** WINTER BREAK (FEB. 23 - MARCH 3) C NO CLASSES ******

MARCH 8 (Friday): PAPER # 2 IS DUE in my mailbox (1020 LSA Bldg) by 4:30pm.

MARCH 15 (Friday): Outline detailing your plans for the final paper due in my mailbox by 4:30pm.

PART 4. RELIGION, CULTURE, AND ETHNICITY: Local and Global Identities

March 5-7: The Amish

- Kraybill, Donald B. 2001. The Riddle of Amish Culture. Revised edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

March 12-14: Christianity and Islam in African American Culture

- Raboteau, Albert J. 1995 "African Americans, Exodus, and the American Israel." In Religion and American Culture: A Reader, ed. David G. Hackett, NY, Routledge, pp. 74-86.
(IN COURSEPACK)

- Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903) 1989. Chapters from The Souls of Black Folk, NY, Penguin.
(IN COURSEPACK)
* "The Forethought" (pp. 1-2)
* "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" (pp. 3-12)
* "The Sorrow Songs" (pp. 204-16) (and notes for these chapters, pp. 219-20, 245-47)

- Murphy, Larry G., ed. 2000. Chapters from Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion, NY, New York University Press. (IN COURSEPACK)
* "The Development of Gospel Song" (Lawrence Levine, pp. 174-87)
* "The Second Emergence of Islam" (Gordon Melton, pp. 202-7)
* "Orisha Worship in the United States" (Anthony B. Pinn, pp. 242-55)
* "Black Religious Nationalism and the Politics of Transcendence" (R. Drew Smith, pp. 316-28)

- McCloud, Aminah Beverly. 1996. "'This is a Muslim Home': Signs of Difference in the African-American Row House. In Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe, ed. Barbara Daly Metcalf. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, pp.65-73. (IN COURSEPACK)

Video in class (3/12): "Too Close to Heaven: The Story of Gospel Music," (100 min, color and b/w). Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1997.

March 19-21: "Arab Detroit": Chaldean Catholics, Coptic Christians, and Shia Muslims

- Corbett, J. M. 2000. Chapters in Religion in America
* Chap. 10: "Muslims in the United States."

- Abraham, Nabeel and Andrew Shryock, eds. 2000. Part 3 on "Religion" in Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream, Detroit, MI, Wayne State University Press, pp. 199-240, 279-309.
(IN COURSEPACK)
* "Introduction"
* "What They Did" (Hayan Charara)
* "The American Journey of a Chaldean from Iraq" (Sharkey Haddad)
* "Egyptian Copts in Detroit: Ethnic Community and Long-Distance Nationalism" (Richard R. Jones)
* "Arab Detroit's 'American' Mosque" (Nabeel Abraham)

Video in class (3/19): "Tales from Arab Detroit" (45 min, color). Film by Joan Mandell, co-produced by Sally Howell and the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. Los Angeles, CA: Olive Branch Productions, 1995.

March 26-28: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Bahá'í in the United States

- Corbett, J.M. 2000. Chapters in Religion in America
* Chap. 11: "Hindus and Buddhists in the United States"

- Eck, Diana L. 1995. "Frontiers of Encounter: The Meeting of East and West in America since the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions." In Religion and American Culture, ed. David G. Hackett, New York, Routledge. Pp. 497-513. (IN COURSEPACK)

- McMullen, Michael. 1997. "The Religious Construction of a Global Identity: An Ethnographic Look at the Atlanta Bahá'í Community." In Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader, eds Penny Edgell Becker and Nancy L. Eiesland, pp. 221-43. (IN COURSEPACK)

April 2-4: "New Age" Religious Movements

- Corbett, J.M. 2000.. Chapters in Religion in America:
* Chap. 12: "Other Religious and Spiritual Movements"
* Chap. 13: "Religion as an Individual and Cultural Problem"

- Brown, Michael. 1997. The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

April 19 - 11 - 16: Presentations of students' research projects

APRIL 19 (Friday): Final paper is due in my mailbox (1020 LSA Bldg) by 4:30pm.