This course is an anthropological exploration of religions in diverse cultural and historical contexts. Our focus will be on relations of power, social order, social change, gender, and the role that religion plays in modernity, transnationalism, and globalization. We will investigate the performance of rites and rituals, and the cultural expressions of religious beliefs and practices. Through comparative and critical strategies, we will look at how religion interacts with, and is embedded in other aspects of society. In doing so, we will find religious elements in unexpected places. We will study anthropological theories of culture and religion from the classical canon, in addition to contemporary approaches, and apply them to a variety of topics. While respecting the efficacy of all systems of belief, we will think about how religions orient people to their social worlds in ways that are systematically related to historical and cultural change.
This is an open course in adverb clauses of English grammar. It starts with a lesson on the basics of adverbs and then moves to a lesson on the basics of clauses. Then we put those things together and learn about adverb clauses. Finally, we learn how to reduce an adverb clause to make an adverb phrase. If you already understand adverbs and clauses, you can skip those topics, but they also may be useful to review before starting the more difficult material. Each lesson has a short video lecture from a teacher and several practice exercises.
This is an open course in adjective clauses of English grammar. It starts with a lesson on the basics of adjectives and then moves to a lesson on the basics of clauses. Then we put those things together and learn about adjective clauses. Finally, we learn how to reduce an adjective clause to make an adjective phrase. If you already understand adjectives and clauses, you can skip those topics, but they also may be useful to review before starting the more difficult material.