Ecologies Animals Myth Ritual

Catalog description

Animals have played a crucial and influential role in shaping spiritual and religious traditions throughout human history. Focusing on animist, Indigenous, and place-based societies, this course examines how animals influence mythmaking and ritualized forms of spiritual and religious expression as ecological praxis. Drawing on theories from the anthropology of religion and religious studies on religious world-making, ritual studies, and historical and spiritual ecology, the course explores how and to what extent animals have contributed to the co-creation of spiritual, religious, and ecological worlds across different cultures and regions at various points in human history. Priority registration to ESR and PCC students.