HUMA 527 (01) - Humanities and Religion

Humanities and Religion

Durham Liberal Arts::Humanities
Credits: 4.0
Class Size: 25 
Term:  Spring 2025 - Full Term (01/21/2025 - 05/05/2025)
CRN:  56673
Grade Mode:  Letter Grading
This course examines the role of religion, religious ideas and religious practice in world cultures using a combination of methodologies drawn from different humanities disciplines, with a particular emphasis on comparative approaches and investigating how religion is used to create and express cultural identity around the globe.
Registration Approval Required. Contact Instructor or Academic Department for permission then register through Webcat.
Equivalent(s):  ANTH 527
Attributes:  Writing Intensive Course, World Cultures(Discovery)
Instructors:  Michael Sugerman

Times & Locations

Start Date End Date Days Time Location
1/21/2025 5/5/2025 MW 2:10pm - 3:30pm HS 105
Final Exam5/8/2025 5/8/2025 R 1:00pm - 3:00pm HS 105

Additional Course Details:

This semester we will explore religion and ritual using archaeological methods and theories. Archaeologists use a number of different methods and theoretical approaches to investigate religion and ritual. As we will see this semester, the beliefs that we usually describe as “religion” or “cult” have played powerful roles in the development cultures throughout history, and in the daily lives of people who participated in those cultures. Over the course of the semester, we will tackle a number of topics including perspectives on religion from different disciplines; religion and political economy; burial practices; and the materiality of ritual practice. We will use a range of archaeological case studies, including paintings in Paleolithic (Stone Age) caves in Europe, the earliest evidence of people worship in the Near East, religion and performance in the Maya kingdoms of Mesoamerica, and the archaeology of of Biblical times in the Middle East.