Religions of Asia

Anthropological frame and understanding of religions and its comparison to approaches of other sciences. Basic concepts, typology, directions, schools and methods. Empirical manifestations of religion in different contexts (social, political, spatial, psychological, ritual etc.). Theoretical separation between human religiosity, contents of religious worlds and social functions of religion. Studying religion as an anthropological category on the basis of ethnographic cases. Processes of construction of religious doctrines and their integration into contexts of the changing world. Social realization and confirmation of religious ideas. Ethnography of secular and religious social movements.
Binary oppositions (sacred/profane, collective/individual, substantial/functional, idealism/materialism, pure/impure) in anthropological study of religion and their dialectics. Classical anthropological discussions of religion. Myth and ritual. Belief. Worldview. Manna. Taboo. Karma. Civil religion. Social change and religion. Ascetics. Initiation. Pilgrimage and liminality. Religious institutions. Charisma. Symbolic system. Religious syncretism.
The course can be intensively dedicated only to some segments of the anthropological discussion of religion: religious (and secularizing) social movements, cases of incorporation of religion into symbolic systems of the sacred and implications of individual religious changes.
The objective of the seminar is to discuss selected texts from the field of anthropology of religion. It seeks to critically evaluate contemporary production, as well as to rethink the value of classical anthropological texts in contemporary social, cultural and political contexts.

Breen John in Mark Teeuwen, 2010, A New History of Shinto. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Gellner, David N., 2001, The Anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian Themes. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Gombrich, Richard in Gananath Obeyesekere, 1990 (1988), Buddhism Transformed. Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers.
Lopez, Jr., Donald S. (ur.), 1999, Asian Religions in Practice: An Introduction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Muray, Leaf J., 2014, The Antrhopology of Eastern Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies. Lanham, Boulder, New York in London: Lexington Books. http://nukweb.nuk.uni-lj.si/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/logi…
Nadeau, Randall L., 2014, Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective. Malden, Oxford in Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. [COBISS.SI-ID-19164725]
Obeyesekere, Gananth, 2023, Meduzini lasje: Esej o osebnih simbolih in verskih doživetjih. Ljubljana: Založba *cf. [COBISS.SI-ID 138054915]
Schipper, Kristofer, 1993, The Taoist Body. Berkeley, Los Angeles in London: University of California Press. [COBISS.SI-ID 71576162]
Straton Hawley, John in Vasudha Narayan (ur.), 2006, The Life of Hinduism. Berkeley, Los Angeles in London: University of California Press. http://nukweb.nuk.uni-lj.si/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/logi…
Šmitek, Zmago, 2016, Mandale: Tajni vrtovi razsvetljenja, Ljubljana: Beletrina. [COBISS.SI-ID 285741568]