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SOCI 313/343 Sociology of Religion

Credits: 
3

Nature and field of the sociology of religion; Sociological, anthropological and psychologicalperspectives in religious phenomena; Mutual interaction of religion and other social institutions; Theoretical and substantive content of the sociology of religion. Theories of religious behaviour: Comte, Tylor, Frazer, Durkhein, Malinowski, Marx and Max Weber; Types of religious activity and modes of expression and organization in historical and comparative situations; religion in simple societies: totemism; ancestral veneration, magic, sorcery and witchcraft, myths and rituals; Religion in complex societies; Religious pluralism; Sectarianism, religious conflicts and accommodation; Traditional religion; Islam; Christianity and Asiatic religions; Scientific and technological development and secularization; ‘Post-modern’ religious expressions.