Magic, Science, and Religion

Readings

SESS #	TOPICS	READINGS
Week 1
1	Introduction	No readings assigned
Week 2
2	What does it mean to believe something? (1)	Fernando, Mayanthi L. “Reconfiguring Freedom: Muslim Piety and the Limits of Secular Law and Public Discourse in France.”  American Ethnologist 37, no. 1 (2010): 19–35. Harding, Susan. “Convicted by the Holy Spirit: The Rhetoric of Fundamental Baptist Conversion.” American Ethnologist 14, no. 1 (1987): 167–81.
3	What does it mean to believe something? (2)	No readings assigned
Week 3
4	Enchantment and Disenchantment: Does reason progress? (1)	Hanks, Michele. “Between Electricity and Spirit: Paranormal Investigation and the Creation of Doubt in England.” American Anthropologist 118, no. 4 (2016): 811–23. Josephson-Storm, Jason A. “Enchanted (Post) Modernity.” Chapter 1 in The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences. University of Chicago Press, 2017. ISBN: ‎9780226403366. [Preview with Google Books]
5	Enchantment and Disenchantment: Does reason progress? (2)	View: Merchants of Doubt. Directed by Robert Kenner. Color, 96 minutes. 2014.
Week 4
6	Is magic a form of technology? (1)	Bebergal, Peter. “Fear and Soldering.” Chapter 7 in Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural. TarcherPerigee, 2018. ISBN: ‎9780143111825. [Preview with Google Books] Miller, Laura. “Tantalizing Tarot and Cute Cartomancy in Japan.” Japanese Studies 31, no. 1 (2011): 73–91.
7	Is magic a form of technology? (2)	No readings assigned
Week 5
8	Is technology a form of magic? (1)	Farman, Abou.  “Re-Enchantment Cosmologies: Mastery and Obsolescence in an Intelligent Universe.” Anthropological Quarterly 85, no. 4 (2012): 1069–88. Natale, Simone. “Amazon Can Read Your Mind: A Media Archaeology of the Algorithmic Imaginary.” Chapter 1 in Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural. Edited by Natale Simone and Diana Pasulka. Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN: ‎9780190949990. [Preview with Google Books]
9	Is technology a form of magic? (2)	No readings assigned
Week 6
10	Mediation: How is faith made real? (1)	Beliso-De Jesús, Aisha. “Santería Copresence and the Making of African Diaspora Bodies.” Cultural Anthropology 29, no. 3 (2014): 503–26. Srinivas, Tulasi. “Technologies of Wonder.” Chapter 4 in The Cow in the Elevator: An Anthropology of Wonder. Duke University Press Books, 2018. ISBN: ‎9780822370796.
11	Mediation: How is faith made real? (2)	View: Ganesh Yourself. Directed by Emmanuel Grimaud. Color, 67 minutes. 2016.
Week 7
12	Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Who controls belief? (1)	Chireau, Yvonne. “Conjure and Christianity in the Nineteenth Century: Religious Elements in African American Magic.” Religion and American Culture 7, no. 2 (1997): 225–46. Fader, Ayala. “The Counterpublic of the J(ewish) Blogosphere: Gendered Language and the Mediation of Religious Doubt among Ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23, no. 4 (2017): 727–47.
13	Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Who controls belief? (2)	No readings assigned
Week 8
14	Can magic disenchant? (1)	Binder, Stefan. “Magic is Science: Atheist Conjuring and the Exposure of Superstition in South India.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 9, no. 2 (2019): 284–98. Jones, Graham M. “Modern Magic and the War on Miracles in French            Colonial Culture.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 52, no. 1 (2010): 66–99.
15	Can magic disenchant? (2)	View: An Honest Liar. Directed by Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein  93 minutes. 2014.
Week 9
16	How do magicians learn to deceive? (1)	Jones, Graham M. “An Apprenticeship in Cunning.” Chapter 1 in Trade of the Tricks: Inside the Magician’s Craft. University of California Press, 2011. ISBN: ‎9780520270473. [Preview with Google Books] Rappert, Brian. “‘Pick a Card, Any Card’: Learning to Deceive and Conceal–with Care.” Secrecy and Society 2, no. 2 (2021): 1–41.
17	How do magicians learn to deceive? (2)	No readings assigned
Week 10
18	Can you believe your eyes!?	No readings assigned
Week 11
19	How do new religious movements form? (1)	Eghigian, Greg. “Making UFOs Make Sense: Ufology, Science, and the History of Their Mutual Mistrust.” Public Understanding of Science 26, no. 5(2017): 612–26. Pasulka, D. W. “Introduction.” In American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN: ‎9780190692889. [Preview with Google Books]
20	How do new religious movements form? (2)	No readings assigned
Week 12
21	Conspiricism and Denialism: Why do people reject science?	Norgaard, Kari Marie. “‘People Want to Protect Themselves a Little Bit’: Emotions, Denial, and Social Movement Nonparticipation.” Sociological Inquiry 76, no. 3 (2006): 372–96. Reich, Jennifer A. “‘We are Fierce, Independent Thinkers and Intelligent’: Social Capital and Stigma Management among Mothers who Refuse Vaccines.” Social Science & Medicine 257 (2020): 112015.
Week 13
22	Can Spirituality and Science be reconciled? (1)	Callison, Candis. “Blessing the Facts.” Chapter 3 in How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts. Duke University Press, 2014. ISBN: ‎9780822357872. [Preview with Google Books] Cho, Francisca. “Buddhism and Science: Translating and Re-translating Culture.” Chapter 14 in Buddhism in the Modern World. Edited by David L. McMahan. Routledge, 2011. ISBN: ‎9780415780155.
23	Can Spirituality and Science be reconciled? (2)	No readings assigned