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1 SYLLABUS, ANT , RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD, Summer May 14-June 22, Instructor: Henry Munson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology. This online course is an introduction to the major world religions, with some attention to the generalizations that can be made about all religions. ANT 249, Religion and Violence, focuses on the relationship between religion and violence. We do not focus on this issue in this course. You will need a Blackboard account to take this course. Access Blackboard by clicking on the icon on the University of Maine Launch Pad site. I will send you s using Blackboard. Make sure that the university has your correct address, or you will not receive important messages. You will need a high-speed (broad-band) internet connection. If you do not have a broad-band connection at home, you may need to view the lectures at a university, school, or library. For technical problems, contact dlltechhelp@maine.edu, or , or techsupport@maine.edu, or More information on technical support is available on the course website under READ ME FIRST and Help & Support. Required lectures and films are on the Course Content page of the course website on Blackboard except for films on the Films on Demand database on the Fogler Library website (see next paragraph). All films with hyperlinked titles in this syllabus, such as Roots and Wings: A Jewish Congregation, are in Fogler Library s Films on Demand database. Films on Demand gives the exact length of films and segments. Thus (28:32) indicates that the film is 28 minutes and 32 seconds in length. The films in this database are divided into segments and have transcripts that are useful when you are studying for a test. There are several ways to access these films. One is to simply click on the hyperlinked film title on the syllabus if you are logged on to the Fogler Library website. Another is to click on the hyperlinked Films on Demand name in this syllabus and then write the title of the film you are looking for if you are logged on to the Fogler Library website. Another is to click on Fogler Library on the menu on the course website and then click on the hyperlinked title. Or after clicking on Fogler Library, click on Databases, then Films on Demand, and then write in the film title you are looking for. You can also access Films on Demand at Demand%3A+Master+Academic+Collection, but you will be asked for the username and password you use to log on to the University of Maine System website if you are not already logged on to this website.

2 Grade: Three online Blackboard multiple-choice exams. No extra credit is offered. Grades are on the +/- system, that is 93+ is an A, is an A-, is a B+, and so on. Exams: The three online exams are located under Assessments on the course website on Blackboard. Each exam MUST be completed within the date windows (three days and four days for the last test) specified on the syllabus. STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING THE DATES WHEN EXAMS CAN BE TAKEN. (But I will send you reminders.) If, for some reason, you cannot take the exam during the specified dates, you must make arrangements with the instructor in advance. Only documented excuses, i.e., doctor's note, obituary, etc., will be accepted as reasons for extensions. The exams are not open-book and should be done individually, not in pairs or as a group. You will have 90 minutes in which to take each exam in one sitting. Only students with documented disabilities will be allowed to take more than 90 minutes on exams. Exams must be submitted by the specified deadline on the syllabus. Tests will be available from 8 am on the first day until 8 pm on the last day. To take exams, click on Assessments on the course website. Students with disabilities: If you have a disability for which you may be requesting an accommodation, please contact Student Accessibility Services, 121 East Annex, (207) , as early as possible in the term. Remember: Lectures and required or recommended videos and websites are on the Course Content page of the course website on Blackboard except for films on Films on Demand (FOD). Text: The following textbook will be available through the UMaine (Orono) ( , bookstore and also the UMA bookstore ( , Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon and Alan F. Segal, eds. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. 3d ed. Don Mills, Ont.; New York: Oxford University Press, (Do not buy the 2d. ed.) Companion website: es.html. This site has student study guides and practice quizzes for each chapter in the

3 textbook. (We will not be reading all the chapters in this course, but some of you may want to do so on your own.) Schedule: Keep up with the required lectures, films, and readings on the Course Content page. Readings and films are required unless listed as recommended. (You will only be tested on required material.) Useful websites are listed at the end of each chapter in the textbook. Harvard University s Pluralism Project ( and the BBC Religions site ( have useful overviews of all of the religions we shall be studying. (With respect to the BBC site, bear in mind that British terms sometimes different from American ones and it tends to focus on world religions as practiced in the United Kingdom.) I am always looking for websites (especially sites with excellent photographs) and films that provide insight into religion as it is actually lived by flesh-and-blood people. Please feel free to suggest any such sites that you think students might find of interest. Readings should be finished by the dates indicated. Readings refer to chapters in the text A Concise Introduction to World Religions except where other online readings are indicated. Study the glossaries at the end of each chapter carefully. Study guides and practice quizzes for each chapter of the text can be accessed at: es.html 5/ Lectures: Introduction and Judaism I. Readings: About Religion, 3-9; Jewish Traditions, Film: Roots and Wings: A Jewish Congregation. This documentary is a good overview of basic Jewish rituals and holidays as celebrated by Conservative Jews. Many of the basics are the same in all forms of Judaism. But there are also important differences discussed in lectures and assigned readings. You would not, for example, find men and women sitting together in an Orthodox synagogue as they do in the synagogue shown in this film. Recommended readings: The book s chapter on Indigenous Religions (religions lacking written sacred texts) is not very good and not required. But I have posted a good overview of the West African Yoruba religion by Stephen Prothero and an overview of the Native American Zuni religion by Ake Hultkrantz on the Course Content page. The Definitions of Religion on the Course Content page give you a sense of the difficulties involved in coming up with a general definition of religion. Recommended films: Oh My God. This overview of religion has many striking images and interviews with a variety of people about religion. This is not a scholarly film, but many students enjoy it. It does, however, contain an image of babies in a bottle that some students may find disturbing. The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama (five parts, each 55 minutes and 13 seconds long). Osun-Osogobo (54:42). The Yoruba festival of Osun-Osgobo, which takes place

4 every year in Osogbo, Nigeria, celebrates the goddess of fertility, Osun (Oshun). The festival renews the contract between humans and the divine: Osun offers grace to the community; in return, it vows to honor her Sacred Grove. This ceremony is part of a Yoruba religious tradition that began in West Africa with offshoots in Brazil and Cuba. Some African-Americans have embraced the Yoruba religion as a way of reconnecting with their African roots. 5/ Lecture: Judaism II. Reading: Jewish Traditions, Film: The New Beginning. This is a beautiful film about Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur focusing primarily on Reform Jewish practice. 5/20-22 Test 1 on Introduction and Judaism to be taken online. 5/ Lecture: Christianity I. Reading: Christian Traditions, Recommended Films: Essentials of Faith: Christianity (23:53); Two Thousand Years: The History of Christianity (10-part series, 48 minutes each). 5/ Lecture: Christianity II. Reading: Christian Traditions, ; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Recommended films: A History of Christianity (6-part series, 60 minutes each); Lourdes. In 1858, in an unassuming town in the southwest of France, a 14-yearold peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous claimed she had 18 encounters with the Virgin Mary. Since then, Lourdes has become one of the holiest Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world, visited annually by more than five million people who come in search of healing from its sacred waters. Since the end of World War II, soldiers from around the world have journeyed to Lourdes seeking healing and unity with one another at a week-long gathering known as the International Military Pilgrimage; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 5/ Lecture: Islam I. Reading: Muslim Traditions, Film: Hajj One of the five pillars of Islam is that each believer is called, at least once in their lives, to make the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that starts and ends in the holy city of Mecca located in today's Saudi Arabia. The journey recreates Muhammad's own path as the native son returned to his tribal home as the leader of a vibrant new religion. Unlike other sacred sites, Mecca is closed off to believers of other faiths: only Muslims are permitted on the Hajj. (This film follows a group of American Muslims from the Boston area making the pilgrimage to Mecca). Recommended films: Mosque in Morgantown (on Course Content page). Westerners tend to associate Islam with terrorism but the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not terrorists. There is, however, a major struggle between those Muslims who favor a moderate and open-minded Islam and those Muslims who favor a more fundamentalist perspective. Mosque in Morgantown depicts this

5 struggle as it plays out in a mosque in Morgantown, West Virginia. It is a controversial documentary about Asra Nomani, a Pakistani-American journalist and unmarried mother, who demands that women have the same rights as men in her local mosque. The website provides more information about the film and the very different ways Muslims have responded to it. Some of you might be interested in reading Nomani s book Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam. Essentials of Faith: Islam and The Message. The latter is about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Recommended websites: and 6/1-3. Lecture: Islam II. Reading: Muslim Traditions, Recommended films: Inside Mecca and Islam: The Five Pillars of Faith. The latter is an older film is about the Muslims of Kashmir. Not all of the segments are about Islam, but these are: Prayer to Allah (04:53), Five Pillars of Islam and Its Values (04:14), Akbar and Shah Jehan (09:33). The first two are especially good in conveying a sense of how the basic rituals of Islam are performed. They also contain beautiful images of a beautiful place. 6/4-6. Test 2 on Christianity and Islam 6/7-9. Lecture: Hinduism I. Reading: Hindu Traditions, Film: Puja. This is a good film focused on the worship of well-educated Indians and Indian-Americans in the US. Bear in mind that well-educated Hindus tend to stress the idea that all the gods are mere manifestations of the underlying essence of the universe, or Brahman. Less educated Hindus tend to focus primarily on their personal devotion to individual gods with less emphasis on the idea of the underlying Brahman. Recommended films: Religion in Hindu India; Life and Death on the River Ganges. Recommended websites: and 6/ Lecture: Hinduism II. Reading: Hindu Traditions, ; Film Guide: The Wages of Action (Course Content page). Films: Death and Dying in Varanasi and Wages of Action (on Course Content page). The latter film presents a good overview of caste as it functions in villages. Recommended films: The Ganges River: Sacred and Sullied; Kumbh Mela Recommended pictures: Great pictures of the Holi festival are at (Holi 2010) and

6 (Holi 2011). I have also posted some sites with great pictures of the Kumbh Mela festival on the Course Content page. 6/ Lecture: Buddhism I. Reading: Buddhist Traditions, Films: Walking with Buddha and Kataragama A God for All Seasons: Disappearing World. The former film is about Thai Buddhism. The latter about Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Both describe the contrast between Buddhism as portrayed in texts and Buddhism as actually lived by ordinary people. Recommended film: The Buddha. This film is narrated by Richard Gere (a Buddhist) and is partially animated. It tends to focus on textual Buddhism as understood by highly educated Buddhists rather than on Buddhism as actually practiced by most ordinary Buddhists without much education. Recommended Website: 6/ Lecture: Buddhism II. Reading: Chinese and Korean Traditions ; ; ; (glossary); Japanese Traditions, Film: The Gods Come Home: China's Traditional Faiths Persevere. This is an interesting film about how religion has survived and thrived in the People s Republic of China despite the communist government s efforts to suppress it. Recommended Films: The Lost World of Tibet: A Different View and Unmistaken Child. The latter is a beautiful film about how a small boy is understood to be the reincarnation of a dead Tibetan Buddhist monk. It gives a good sense of Tibetan Buddhism as understood at the popular level. Shikoku: The Japanese island of Shikoku is the birthplace of the most revered figure in Japanese Buddhism, the monk and teacher Kobo-Daishi, who brought a populist form of Buddhism to Japan from China in the 9th century. For hundreds of years, a 750-mile pilgrimage route has circled this mountainous island, connecting 88 separate temples and shrines that claim connection to Daishi, also known as the Great Master. Each leg of the journey represents a stage of the path to nirvana: awakening, austerity and discipline, enlightenment, and nirvana. Shinto (beautiful, but slow-paced, focused on temple architecture); and Spirits of the State: Japan's Yasukuni Shrine. This is an interesting film about the fusion of religious and national identity in Japan as represented by the controversial Yasukuni shrine for soldiers who died fighting for Japan especially in World War II Recommended website: 6/ Test 3 on Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto. University of Maine administrative policy statements Learning Outcomes Assessment This course satisfies Department of Anthropology Learning Outcomes Criterion 1: Understand the intricacies and implications of cultural diversity in the past and present.

7 Academic honesty: It is dishonest to cheat on exams, to copy term papers, to submit papers written by another person, to fake experimental results, or to copy or reword parts of books or articles into your own papers without appropriately citing the source. Students committing or aiding in any of these violations may be given failing grades for an assignment or for an entire course, at the discretion of the instructor. (Documented cases of cheating in this class will result in an F grade for the course.) In addition to any academic action taken by an instructor, these violations are also subject to action under the University of Maine Student Conduct Code. The maximum possible sanction under the student conduct code is dismissal from the University. Course schedule disclaimer (disruption clause): In the event of an extended disruption of normal classroom activities, the format for this course may be modified to enable its completion within its programmed time frame. In that event, you will be provided an addendum to the syllabus that will supersede this version. Religious holidays: The University of Maine recognizes that when students are observing significant religious holidays, some may be unable to attend classes or labs, study, take tests, or work on other assignments. If they provide adequate notice (at least one week and longer if at all possible), these students are allowed to make up course requirements as long as this effort does not create an unreasonable burden upon the instructor, department or University. At the discretion of the instructor, such coursework could be due before or after the examination or assignment. No adverse or prejudicial effects shall result to a student s grade for the examination, study, or course requirement on the day of religious observance. The student shall not be marked absent from the class due to observing a significant religious holiday. In the case of an internship or clinical, students should refer to the applicable policy in place by the employer or site. Sexual violence policy: Sexual Discrimination Reporting: The University of Maine is committed to making campus a safe place for students. Because of this commitment, if you tell a teacher about an experience of sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, relationship abuse (dating violence and domestic violence), sexual misconduct or any form of gender discrimination involving members of the campus, your teacher is required to report this information to the campus Office of Sexual Assault & Violence Prevention or the Office of Equal Opportunity. If you want to talk in confidence to someone about an experience of sexual discrimination, please contact these resources:

8 For confidential resources on campus: Counseling Center: or Cutler Health Center: at For confidential resources off campus: Rape Response Services: or Spruce Run: Other resources: The resources listed below can offer support but may have to report the incident to others who can help: For support services on campus: Office of Sexual Assault & Violence Prevention: , Office of Community Standards: , University of Maine Police: or 911. Or see the OSAVP website for a complete list of services at These materials are made available at this site for the educational purposes of students enrolled in ANT120 class at The University of Maine. They are not for further reproduction or transmission.