ASS233 - Myth and Ritual

Unit details

Note: You are seeing the 2014 view of this unit information. These details may no longer be current. [Go to the current version]

Year	2014 unit information
Enrolment modes:	Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Online
Credit point(s):	1
EFTSL value:	0.125
Unit chair:	T King
Prerequisite:	Nil
Corequisite:	Nil
Incompatible with:	Nil
Note: Online teaching methods require internet access. You will need to access substantial learning resources and experiences in CloudDeakin (Deakin’s online learning environment). Compliance with the Standards in computing, connectivity and student capability are a condition on your enrolment.

Content

This course is an introduction to the anthropological study of religion. It surveys the anthropology of religion with an emphasis on the comparative study of cosmology, myth and ritual/ceremonial systems, while also relating these to their socio-cultural milieux.

The course will focus predominantly (though not exclusively) on various forms of ritual and modes of symbolic communication (language, myth, symbolic action), religious specialists (e.g. the shaman, the singer of tales), embodiment, cosmology and mythopoeic imagination, and the theme of religion and socio-cultural transformation in the context of globalization. These topics will be explored through a range of theoretical orientations including hermeneutics, phenomenology, symbolic anthropology, structuralism and post-structuralism, but always with an emphasis on examples drawn from concrete socio-cultural life-worlds in order to attune students to the plethoric diversity of human experiences of world-making. Students will also be encouraged to reflect on the issue of the place(s) of religion in the transformative socio-cultural formations of the contemporary world.

This unit should be of interest to all students with an interest in the comparative study of myth and religion, as well as students interested in contemporary debates about religion and civil society in the global context.

Assessment

Seminar participation and presentation (campus) or CloudDeakin discussion participation (20%) Short essay (20%) Cloud (online) quizzes (20%) Essay (40%)

Unit Fee Information

Student Contribution Rate*	Student Contribution Rate**	Fee rate - Domestic Students	Fee rate - International students
$755	$755	$2269	$2442

* Rate for all CSP students, except for those who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010
** Rate for CSP students who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010
Please note: Unit fees listed do not apply to Deakin Prime students.