REL 297
Theorizing Magic
Last Offered Fall 2017
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed COMP 289 / ANTH 297
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

This is a course about magic. It is not about stage magic, sleight of hand, or the art of pulling rabbits out of hats. You will learn no card tricks. But instead we will learn about those people who believed in the reality of certain powers; from the ability to summon good or evil spirits, transform base metals into gold, predict the future, or manipulate matter by thought alone. The problem of how to theorize magic has long been a cause of concern for the natural and social sciences. Many a sociologist and anthropologist has imagined that belief in magic should have vanished with modernity (despite much evidence to the contrary). Meanwhile, philosophers of science have been long fascinated with the demarcation problem-figuring out grounds by which to distinguish legitimate sciences (like astronomy) from their magical or pseudoscientific cousins (like astrology). We will trace these discussions and problematize them by looking at the beliefs of self-defined witches and magicians. This should put is in a position to interrogate the construction of concepts of magic, science, and religion and show how the boundaries between these categories emerged historically. Topics to be discussed will include: the rationality of magic, the fine lines separating magic, science and religion, the persecution of witches, and the role notions of magic and superstition played in European modernization and colonization projects. The tutorial sessions will be customized to student interests, but texts will likely include selections from primary works in translation, such as Cornelius Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy, Giordano Bruno’s On Magic, Aleister Crowley’s Magick Liber Aba, as well as selections from secondary literature, perhaps including Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic, Max Weber, “Science as Vocation,” Tanya Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witches’ Craft, Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Larry Laudan, “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem,” E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft and Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, and/or Kelly Hayes, Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality and Black Magic in Brazil.
The Class: Format: tutorial
Limit: 10
Expected: 10
Class#: 1349
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: weekly writing assignments and tutorial attendance every week
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: potential Religion or Comparative Literature majors
Distributions: Division II Writing Skills
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
COMP 289 Division I ANTH 297 Division II REL 297 Division II

Class Grid

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