WEEK #1: Introduce yourself! Who are you?
In future discussions, you will need to write a question and post it as a new discussion thread. The question will get feedback as well as your response to other people’s question-threads. BUT for now, I want you to get the experience of writing a high-quality answer using the Instant Feedback in your response to this thread.
Practice using Packback’s auto feedback to write a high quality response introducing yourself. In addition to the standard college introduction:
- Name that you prefer for this class
- Year at ASU (and if different your year in the program)
- Current school within ASU
- Current major (or top 2-3 possible majors)
- What prompted you to enroll in REL 100 (its okay to be honest)
Add a photo of an object or place that can give insight about you. Then, tell us:
- the story about that image and
- what you want us to know about you from this image and its story.
Practice using the “Cite your Source” feature to improve your “credibility” score. If the image is from the internet or a print source, double check citation format online. If the image is personal, simply state a title like “Family Photos” or “Vacation Project 2021” or “My New Hobby in 2020”. In future posts, this citation will be specific to course materials.
For now, I do not recommend posting photos of yourself.
WEEK #2: Potlatch, Manoomin, Boundaries culture & religion, Language & religion
OPTION 1
INDIGENOUS “CULTURAL” VS “RELIGIOUS” PRACTICES – How are the boundaries between what is “religion” and what is “culture” decided?
Read Dr. Lynne Kelly’s chapter “Encyclopaedic Memories of the Elders” that is posted in Modules/Unit1.
Read these two short Encyclopedia entries about gift exchange and the Kwakwaka’wakw Potlatch System.
View the video Potlatch Explanation, Smoke From His Fire Excerpt (8:28).
- Go to the Community Feed.
- Press the “Ask a New Question” link button.
- Post a question as a separate thread that uses the explanation of the history of the Potlatch to explore the boundaries between “religion” and other aspects of “culture”.
- When you respond to others’ posted questions, be sure to refer to both the video and Lynne Kelly’s chapter and/or the Caves to Cosmos video from class.
Paraphrase and cite more than quote due to these blog-like posts being short.
Citations:
Since the video is part of the prompt, list the Kelly chapter in “Sources”.
In your discussion, you can do embedded citations for as many of the three sources (video, encyclopedia, or chapter) whose details you refer to.
Source: Oqwilowgwa (Recalma-Clutesi, Kim). “Potlatch Explanation, Smoke from his Fire Exceprt.” Ninogaad Knowledge Keepers Foundation, Dec 30, 2019. YouTube video, 8:28. Found at: Potlatch Explanation, Smoke From His Fire Excerpt Lepofsky, Dana, Oqwilowgwa Kim Recalma-Clutesi, and Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares. “Indigenous Song Keepers Reveal Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Music.” The Conversation. Accessed August 12, 2021. http://theconversation.com/indigenous-song-keepers-reveal-traditional-ecological-knowledge-in-music-123573 .
OPTION 2
BRODD CH 3 INDIGENOUS IN AMERICAS – View the video, the director’s notes, post your question as a separate discussion thread. How can improved knowledge of American Indian religio-cultures improve relations between the U.S.A. and American Indian nations?
Imagine you are an employee of an environmental conservation group. You have just shown this video to a room full of potential donors. Write a question to stimulate conversation among your audience that will encourage them to invest in the causes your organization works toward. A solid question will:
direct your audience to explore at least two major concepts of indigenous religion in North America that the text and classes have introduced,
identify at least one cause that your organization is working toward.
Source: Johnson, Hans. “Manoomin – Protect Our Waters.” Fond du Lac Reservation, November 11, 2019. YouTube video, 3:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-CmIJ08h7Y .
OPTION 3:
BRODD CH 3 – INDIGENOUS RELIGION IN AMERICAS – Post in a separate thread: Write a question asking: Why does it matter where the boundaries between “religion” and “culture” are lived
Follow this link to view the music video “Prayers in a Song: Learning Language through Hip-Hop” and read the essay on the original webpage Prayers in a Song | The Ways. Write a question to generate a discussion of either:
- the impact of separating religion from culture OR
- the impact of unifying religion and culture.
Your question needs to:
- connect the video with materials from class (Brodd et al., lectures, etc…) and
- make reference to at least one detail that seems “religious” and
- one detail that seems “cultural”.
Source: Ryan, Finn. Prayers in a Song | The Ways. Minneapolis, MN: Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Accessed August 15, 2021. https://theways.org/story/prayers-in-a-song.html .
OPTION 4:
BASSO – Post in a separate thread: Write a question to explore: What is the relationship of language to religion and culture?
Follow this link (above) to view the music video and read the essay on the original webpage Waadookadaaing: Ojibwe Language Immersion School | The Ways. Write a question to generate a discussion of the relationship between religion, and culture.
Your question needs to:
- connect the video with materials from class (Brodd et al., lectures, etc…) and
- make reference to at least one detail that seems “religious” and
- one detail that seems “cultural”.
Source: Ryan, Finn. Waadookodading: Ojibwe Language Immersion School. Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation: St. Croiz Chippewa & Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Accessed August 15, 2021. https://theways.org/story/waadookodaading.html .
WEEK #3: INDIGENOUS RELIGION IN WEST AFRICA: Yoruba, Akan,
– Post in a separate thread: Write a question to explore how religious rituals help relationships and communication beyond the human?
This week, your video options are listed in a single post.
- CHOOSE ONE video that your question post will ask about.
- INCLUDE a short name for the video to the title line; AND
- REFER to the video in your description.
ALSO include keywords in your question and description to signal what concepts your thread’s participants should speak to.
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OPTION 1: Yoruba Religion of Southwestern Nigeria (5:27)
View this video, about the initiation of Yoruba priestesses. (note: the speaker incorrectly explains what makes “kosher meat” kosher).
Write a question to generate a discussion about the multiple social relationships (human and non-human) cultivated through these ceremonies. Your question needs to:
- connect the video with materials from class (Brodd et al., lectures, etc…); and
- make reference to at least two social entities; and
- draw attention at least one ritual moment where human to non-human relationship is enacted.
OPTION 2: Asante Traditional Buildings (2:58)
Akan religio-culture is a meta-ethnic culture including the Ashanti peoples of Ghana & Ivory Coast. This video explains the history and importance of traditionally sacred Akan buildings. Additionally, the following chart (Source: https://research.auctr.edu/c.php?g=404402&p=2752856) explains some of the symbols carved into the courtyard of the sacred building in the video.
- View the video hyperlinked above.
- Review the Akan symbol system through on or both of these two hyperlinked charts. You will not be able to translate the symbols on the buildings, but it may give insight into the types of knowledge that might be encoded on this and similar buildings.
- Write a question to generate a discussion about the connections between Lynne Kelly’s explanation of non-literate knowledge systems and this video-chart set. Your question needs to:
- connect the video, chart, and Dr. Kelly’s chapter; AND
- explore how non-literate knowledge systems either challenge or confirm our definitions of “religion”.
OPTION 3: Akan Customs and Traditions Explained 1 (4:57)
The term “matrilineal” refers to inheritance systems in which kinship and group identity are passed from the mother’s family rather than the father’s.
- View the video hyperlinked above.
- Write a question to generate a discussion to explore possible connections between the cultural preference for fractal design and matrilineal social organization. Your question needs to:
- connect the video and Ron Eglash’s TedTalk OR Aimé Dafon Segla’s 2016 article ; AND
- explore possible connections between the cultural preference for fractal design and matrilineal social organization; AND/OR
- discuss how cosmology works in culture.
Source: olu omishore. Yoruba Religion of Southwestern Nigeria. Accessed August 15, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqQFHmvMOUg .
WEEK #4: ANCIENT ISRAELITE & HINDU RELIGIONS
How can lessons about indigenous religion contribute to discussing world religions today?
If you have time, view all the videos before choosing one to write on. If you are short on time, consider which topic you are most interested in hearing about from others.
Remember to make it clear in your question which video and topic (keywords) your question explores. Then, respond to two others’ questions, also referencing the anchoring topic and video.
OPTION 1: Israeli-Ethiopian Village Keeps Ethiopian Jewish Heritage Alive (2:55)
View the video and post a question to explore what “indigeneity” or “being indigenous” means for Beta Israel in Israel.
OPTION 2: My Everyday Puja Routine (10:28)
This video is not in English, without subtitles. To engage this video, you will need to observe the puja process. Your question should generate discussion of the ways that pujas can cultivate relationships.
OPTION 3 — Reflexive Practice: “Hindu and “Religious” don’t quite make sense | Why we need to change the narrative” (5:02)
Reflexive practice is the habit of regularly considering and questioning “our own attitudes, thought, processes, values, assumptions, prejudices and habitual actions, to strive to understand our complex roles in relation to others.” How do our experiences and the actions we are taking now show up in ways that impact others? This video invites us to think critically about several issues with learning about Hinduism in a college classroom. After viewing, write a question to explore what an REL 100 class can can’t teach about religions. Does the idea of “indigeneity” contribute to these considerations?
Source: https://learningforsustainability.net/reflective-practice/
WEEK #5: How do Jains and Zoroastrians navigate their indigenous and diaspora identities with their religions “minority” status?
1) View all the videos and review the one website.
- Study the Homepage and “About” page for Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary
- View Why thousands of Jains are fighting for the right to fast until death (1:36)
- View Zoroastrians in India: ‘Dating my way out of extinction’ (16:42) This video about the Parsi community is long but rich. It may also be “skimmable” by jumping around. If you choose to focus on this video for your question or response, watch all of it.
2) Choose one of the above sources to work with.
3) Post one question to start conversation about either of these two key issues:
- the impacts governments can have on minority religious communities?
- distinguishing diaspora from indigenous religious communities?
4) Then, respond to two of your peer’s posted questions. In your responses, you can bring other course sources into the conversation. Unless your response becomes very long, it may be best -at leas for now- to limit yourself to one other source to ensure you can still address your peer’s question with depth and detail.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jain+zoroastrian+news
WEEK #6: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism – How can religion impact socio-political movements?
1) Choose one of the following topics and view the two sources with that topic.
- Indian Dalits converting to Buddhism
- India: Thousands of Dalits convert to Buddhism in search of a social mobility (2:28)
- “Touching the Untouchable” — and learn more about Dalit Buddhists (8:01).
- Taoist environmentalism
- web article and watch the embedded video (2:10) “Taoist monks find new role as environmentalists“
- Confucius and the Chinese Communist Party
- China’s Communist Party Turns to Confucius (3:39)
- web article and watch the embedded video (4:25) Confucian programs in elementary schools.
2) Post one question to start conversation asking:
- How can religions or religious communities shape socio-political change?
3) Then, respond to two of your peer’s posted questions. In your responses, you can bring other course sources into the conversation. Unless your response becomes very long, it may be best -at least for now- to limit yourself to one other source to ensure you can still address your peer’s question with depth and detail.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cjnCux2yOM
WEEK #7: China Atheist & Statues – How can religious identities interact with political identities?
1) Read these two articles and view this view:
- China, once officially atheist, now booming with religion
- Lao Buddhists oppose Chinese-style Buddha statue (read past “related news” to UCA News ad)
- Trump Buddha statue that ‘makes your company great again’ (This video is respectful, not mean, but rather playful…and rich with Buddhist perspective that inspired the artwork (Thursday’s lecture!). If anyone is offended, please write to me after you view the whole video. Remember the key to effective political discussions is maintaining civil atmosphere regardless of the various views represented in the conversation partners…which this video models. Keeping the focus of discussion on the assignment about identities will also help a LOT.)
2) Choose one of the above sources to work with.
3) Post one question to start conversation asking:
How can religions identities interact with political identities?
4) Then, respond to two of your peer’s posted questions. In your responses, you may bring other course sources into the conversation. It may be best -at least for now- to limit yourself to one other source to ensure you can still address your peer’s question with depth and detail, unless your response becomes very long (which is great!).
WEEK #8 Am Judaism & Where do cultural and religious identity merge or diverge?
This video is almost 8 years old. The concerns surveyed in this video are still current. More recently, Dr. Ari Kelman, has observed, “In an analysis of 58 in-depth interviews with post-boomer American Jews, we found a preference for people who described themselves as not religious, and we found a near-total absence of the language of ethnicity. Instead, interviewees volunteered tradition as a replacement for both and as part of a rationale for the elements of Jewish life that compelled them to participate.” (Kelman et al. 2017)
- VIEW the video American Jews Worry About Declining Religiosity Among Young (2:48)
- Post a question to encourage exploration the idea of “identity”, particularly the gray spaces between cultural and religious identities.
- Respond to at least two of you peer’s questions. You can respond to another person’s response as a “supporting point” or “counter point”. These count as part of the required response posts… and can generate more genuine conversation in these threads.
WEEK #9 Greek Orthodox Converts & French Hijab – Intercultural interaction
For both these options, write a question to stimulate discussion about the impact/effects of intercultural contact on religion.
OPTION 1: Read this article and view the 1-minute embedded video:
Conversions gradually transforming Orthodox Christianity
OPTION 2: View this video France: French Muslim women rise up against proposed ban
KEYWORDS: Freedom of religious choice, secularism & freedom of religious expression,
Week #10 Oct 24–29: McKennitt, Pallavi, & Skihs – How does hybridization play out today?
Hybridization
These videos focus primarily on the phenomenon of “World Music” as a way to explore the process and politics of hybridization. That said, the second video “Identity – Figiana” does refer to religion through at least three brief images, so there is a subtle religious presence. WARNING: “Identity – Figiana” includes language and sensual images that may offend some. Viewer discretion is advised.
Choose of these two musical pieces to write one generate discussion about cultural hybridization. I have included links basic historical background for both musical pieces that will require some short reading.
Remember to respond to two of your peers’ questions later in the week, by Friday 8pm.
- Loreena McKennitt “Marco Polo” (5:15)
- Biography Loreena McKennitt (remember Irish, Scottish, and Welsh peoples were the first cultures colonized by the English)
- Pallavi aka Figiana “Identity – Figiana” (3:01)
Sikhism
View the news video and read the short news story below. Then, write a question to generate discussion about how cultural interaction and/or hybridization are involved the events surrounding this news story.
Bakersfield Sikh Community expresses concerns about hate crime ahead of 9/11 anniversary
Week #11 Oct 30 – Nov 5: CAO DAI & SHINTO
How many layers of hybridization can you identify?
- Review options below.
- Choose one.
- Write a question to stimulate discussion about the multiple paths that religious hybridities move today. Try to post your question by Wednesday evening.
- Respond to two of your peers’ questions later in the week, by Friday 8pm.
OPTION 1
- CONSIDER Finding videos about current events in Cao Dai religious communities in the USA or elsewhere is extremely difficult. English videos all focus on introductions to Cao Dai (what is it?). Videos about current Cao Dai events or community issues are all in Vietnamese without any subtitles. What do these observations suggest about Cao Dai’s status as a “hybrid religion” or its claim to be a “world religion” ?
- READ Refugees aim to preserve unique Vietnamese faith
- OPTIONAL READ The Dallas Observer has a great article about Cao Dai in the Dallas-Fort Worth area BUT its website has an aggressive advertising and a no-opt-out policy for targeting cookies. If you are comfortable with this (or know how to aver their targeting cookies), then you can also READ: The Spirits Move Them.
OPTION 2
- VIEW: Spring Cleaning Queen Says Being Tidy Is About ‘Joy’ | ABC News (5:52)
- VIEW: Stories | How to Greet Your Home | KonMari (1:06)
- READ “What White, Western Audiences Don’t Understand About Marie Kondo’s ‘Tidying Up’
WEEK 12 Nov 6-12: How can we understand cosmologies of miracles?
You have a choice of two relic-based miracle stories. You may also choose to discuss both because they are so closely related.
Explore these three resources about the modern miraculous relic of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (3) and St. Sharbel (2). Then, post a question that explore connections between one or both saints, their relics, and/or their miracles and the cosmologies within European Christianity from the reading and the lecture. Remember, these discussions should not focus on whether or not these miracles “really happened” but on how some Christian communities understand these to happen.
OPTION 1
1) Website for the National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini — Report a Miracle
2) The Canonization of St. Frances Cabrini Running time: 4:33
3) Who Is St. Frances Cabrini and Why Is She Replacing Columbus? Running time: 3:49
Option 2:
Bring conversations of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini into conversation with this more recent story of relic’s miracle while on tour at St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church in Phoenix, Arizona. The Maronite Church is part of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity.
The Catholic Sun’s reprint of the article in The Maronite Voice:
She Came and Prayer Asking St. Sharbel to Cure Her
St. Joseph Maronite Catholic Church — Phoenix
WEEK 13: How do individuals in hybrid indigenous religio-cultures experience authenticity?
OPTION A: Modern African Christianity
Both of these sources discuss the experiences of Africans in Europe today and their relationship to their identities in their countries of origins / ancestral cultures.
- VIEW Kwame Bediako – pieces of his life story (4:54)
- READ Fire from Africa: The influence of ‘reverse missions’ today (1643 words)
- POST A QUESTION to generate discussion of whether hybrid religio-cultural identities are indigenous, imported, or something else.
OPTION B: Curanderismo
Review these two media items discussing the traditional religio-healing practices of Curanderismo. Additionally, you may want to read this curandera’s self-description Curanderismo, the Healing Art of Mexico.
- VIEW Curanderos, Magic, and Catholicism (6:59 or min. 4 minutes)
This is a recorded speech by a certified Catholic catechist about the official Catholic Church’s position on Curanderismo (first four minutes minimum). - READ Religious features of curanderismo training and practice (150 words)
This is an abstract to an article on file with National Center for Biotechnology Information and the U.S. National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health - POST A QUESTION: to generate discussion of the issues of power and boundaries surrounding the legitimacy of Curanderismo as a hybrid religio-cultural practice.
WEEK 14 Nov 27-Dec 3: Secularism and Non-Religious Religiosities
POST A QUESTION to generate discussion about the blurriness of the boundaries between the secular and religious.