Magic, science and religion

The unit enables you to gain understanding of what magic, ritual and spiritual beliefs means to people in the modern world. It also introduces first year students to some of the contributions that anthropologists and sociologists of magic and religion have made to knowledge of human societies.

Case studies provide a comparative understanding of rituals and associated cosmologies in a variety of sociocultural settings, from both the developing world and post-industrial settings and examine critically the cultural borders established between the fields of science and spiritual belief.

Topics include: magic's rationalities; teenage magic in the west; witchcraft in the non-west; materiality and faith; embodied experience and spirituality.