TMS - Religion, Myth And Magic - The Anthropology of Religion

Category: Lecture
Language: English
Keywords: Anthropology Magic Myth Religion Susan A. Johnston TMS
Written by Susan A. Johnston
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 32 Kbps

Anthropologist Susan Johnston turns a scholarly eye on one of humankind’s primary interests throughout history: the spiritual belief system. Beginning her lectures with an attempt to define religion, Professor Johnston continues this intriguing study with an examination of mythology and symbols, rituals and witchcraft, gender, politics, and religion’s place in the many customs surrounding death. A continuing and often contentious presence in the world today, religion, from its origins to the present, is a key component for understanding communities and cultures all over the globe.

Susan A. Johnston is a part-time faculty member in anthropology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She teaches a variety of courses in anthropology and archaeology, including the archaeology of the Celtic peoples, archaeological myths and mysteries, and the anthropology of religion. Professor Johnston has carried out archaeological research in Ireland since the 1980s, when she did her Ph.D. dissertation on Irish rock art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. She has also done archaeological work in such varied places as India, England, and Rhode Island.

14 Lectures
35 minutes/lecture

1 What Is Religion?
2 Religious Specialists
3 Mythology
4 Symbols
5 What Is Ritual?
6 What Does Ritual Do?
7 The Nonhuman World
8 The Origins of Religion
9 Analyzing Ancient Religions
10 Dealing with Death
11 Magic and Witchcraft
12 Religion and Gender
13 New Religious Forms
14 Religion and Politics