REL 485: Transnational Religion

How do living religions move across space and take on new characteristics in new places?

How has the concept of indigenous religion been changed by refugee migrations and displacements?

How do new forms of spirituality merge with tourism or terrorism?

These are all questions for an anthropological perspective on transnational religion

Case studies will include:

• Vodou tourism and initiations in Benin, West Africa
• Spirit possession practices in the Vietnamese diaspora
• New Guinea indigenous religion displaced by palm oil plantations
• A new syncretistic religion in Saigon combining Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and

French spiritism

• Facebook activism to “save our indigenous religion” in Indonesia
• Vodou practiced by diasporic Haitians in Miami

Topics to be explored

• the relation of indigenous religions to diaspora (overseas communities)
• Indonesian’s archipelagic approach to Islam  (designed to resist Islamophobia and terrorism)
• human and “more than human” encounters in rainforests and cities

The course may also include fieldtrips to local temples, worship spaces and religious ceremonies, including a Vietnamese Caodai temple in Garden Grove