Bron Taylor - Exploring and Studying Environmental Ethics & History, Nature Religion, Radical Environmentalism, Surfing Spirituality, Deep Ecology and more...

RELIGION AND NATURE
(Graduate Seminar), FALL 2016

SECTIONS

REL 6107: Tuesday, (5:10-8:10 p.m.), Anderson 34

INSTRUCTOR

Professor Bron Taylor (Ph.D.)
Email: bron@religion.ufl.edu
Office: Anderson 121
Office hours: Thursday 1:00 - 3:00 and by appointment

DESCRIPTION

Brief Course Description (in UF Catalogue)

Religious dimensions of relationships between what humans call “nature” and “culture.”

Purpose and Objectives

This course explores theoretical approaches and understandings regarding the complex relationships between ecosystems, religions and cultures. It will prepare religion graduate students from diverse disciplines to make informed decisions regarding the unique contributions they might make to the nascent and emerging “religion and nature” field. It will enable other graduate students to appreciate the extent to which the “religion” variable is involved in shaping nature-related behaviors, and to integrate the study of religion into their own chosen fields, whether these are more theoretically or practically inclined.

While the course will examine religious environmental ethics through a variety of critical lenses and such subjects will certainly be discussed regularly, the coursework and focus of classroom discussions will primarily be historical and scientific rather than normative: the effort will be to understand what has been and is going on in the realm of religions and nature, and how perceptions of nature and religion interactions are understood and contested by scholars, rather than upon what we think ought to occur. Ethics is the focus of another of the core, Religion and Nature seminars, as well as of a variety of electives offered.

The course will draw on a number of sources. Introductions to a variety of theoretical approaches, and background articles on a wide range of nature-related religious phenomena, will be provided in readings from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005). Books and articles works by key figures will provide an opportunity for in-depth exposure to some of the approaches discussed in the materials introduced in the encyclopedia. Guest scholars will serve as resource people during the course.

The course shall be conducted in collaboration with its participants and will be in a seminar format. This syllabus is, therefore, tentative. It may be revised during the course and updated at the course website. The online version will be the one governing the course, including its schedule, readings, and requirements, and it should be consulted weekly. To further facilitate communication, students must provide a valid email address and download messages every 48 hours or so during the semester, so as to not miss important announcements or requests for help from other course participants.

This syllabus provides the usual course outline, assignments, and grading information, as well as extended introductions and resources to explore further, beyond what is possible in this course, its major conundrums and themes. By do doing, it also provides a starting point for a variety of research projects pertinent to this course and the study of religion, nature, and culture more generally. This syllabus is subject to modification as we discover additional or superior resources to consider. Course assignments will include intensive reading and the preparation of critical analyses of them prior to class, written responses to periodically-given, take-home essay questions, and a major research paper (or in some, negotiated cases, through a take-home final exam). Details will appear in subsequent versions of this syllabus.

Course Outline in Five Modules

Nature as the Habitat of Religion and Culture

Biology and the Roots of Religion & Ecological Approaches to the Study of Religion
Primate Spirituality, Paleolithic Religions, and the “Worship of Nature”

World Environmental History & Religion

Agriculture and The Birth of the Gods
Occidental History, Religions, and Nature
Asian Civilizations, Religions, and Nature

Scientific Paradigms and the Transformation of “Religion and Nature” Discourses
“Religion and Nature” in twentieth century scholarship (from the Sacred and the Profane to “Ecological Anthropology” and “Religion and Ecology”)

Mircea Eliade, cultural geography, and theories of 'sacred space'
Religions as adaptive and maladaptive ecological strategies
Environmental Concern, Religious Studies, the “Religion and Ecology” field, and debates about the environmental tendencies of religious types.
Religion’s role in the environmental & social collapse; environmental reform?

Religion, Nature, and the Future of Religion and Nature

Social Scientific Perspectives on Environmentalism, Nature, and Religion, from Quantitative Data to Colin Campbell’s “Cultic Milieu” Theory.
Green Nazis and the Shadow Side of Nature Religions
Contemporary Construction of Nature Religions and Pagan Spiritualities
Secularization Theories and 'Spiritualities of Connection' to Nature

READINGS

Note: most of the required books can be found inexpensively from online and other used booksellers. Wherever available, required book readings will also be available on reserve at the library. Additional articles will be available online via links found in the course schedule.

Required Texts

Bellah, Robert N. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Cambridge. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2011
Schaefer, Donovan. Religoius Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2011
Glacken, Clarence. Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967
Wilson, David Sloan. Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society. University of Chicago Press, 2003
Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Shepard, Paul. Coming Home to the Pleistocene. San Francisco: Island Press, 1998.
Taylor, Bron. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010. (Assigned chapters available for free from the instructor.)
Worster, Donald. Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1993 (second edition).

REQUIREMENTS

Course Assignments

Consistent, quality preparation for class by reading, taking notes, and completing weekly assignments (20% of course grade).
Preparation and presentation of the designated “Special Assignment” reading (5%).
Two take-home essay exams (25% each).
Final research paper or review essay (as negotiated with instructor) (25%).

Weekly Reading Assignments

One of the most important skills for a scholar to master is being able to understand the most important aspects various writings and being able to communicate the key points to readers and students. This course is structured to enhance these skills. Nearly every week you will be asked to write a 500-750 word review of that week’s main reading or readings. These must be written in single spaced word or rich text documents, and emailed to my gmail address (provided in class), by no later than Sunday night before the next class. You should also bring a copy to class.

As you read, these are the questions you should be sure you can answer before moving from section to section and author to author:

What are the main questions the author is trying to answer?
What are author’s main arguments in this regard?
What sorts of evidence does the author muster in advancing this perspective?
Who (individuals, groups, schools of thought) are the main proponents of views the author is defending or contesting? In other words, who are his or her intellectual allies and adversaries? (In this course, more specifically: What are the main approaches to understanding the relationships between religion and nature that the author is explicitly or implicitly promoting or criticizing?)
What are the chief objections that these others would raise about the author’s argument and evidence?
What do the people on the various sides of these arguments think is at stake? Put simply, why does it matter, if it does, and if it does not, why do they think it does?

There is little doubt that students will have their own opinions about the course readings. I am not interested in reading about your opinions in your written work responding to the weekly reading assignments, especially if this distracts you from lucid and fair-minded exposition in response to the preceding questions. The premium in this class will be to understand the arguments in the readings, the fault-lines between them, and what the authors think is at stake in the debates. There will be ample time for us to express our own views in class, and possibly as well, in your final research paper.

Discussion in class will be, first and foremost, a process of wrestling with the six questions stated above. Come well prepared to do so.

Writing Quality

It is not possible to separate the quality of one's thinking from its written expression. Evaluation of written work will reflect this so it is strongly recommended that all students review and consult regularly the course’s writing well primer.

"Special Assignment" Readings & Exams

Every student will read and an extra book that is important theoretically to the questions engaged in this class, and carefully present to the class what they learned in this book, both orally and in writing. Students will negotiate with the instructor and jointly select the books and time for their presentations, which will be added to the course schedule.

Research Paper

You will write a research paper (or in some, negotiated cases a review essay) in which you identify and analyze one or more scholarly approaches to understand the relationships among what people various call “religion,” “culture”, and “nature.” Given the extensive reading list of the course itself, the expectation is not that you will write a long paper, but rather, that you will select an area you’re most interested in and read as deeply into it as time allows, writing a 5,000-10,000 word paper in which you explain the approach(es) explored and whether and why you find it/them compelling. This can provide you with a platform for further deepening your engagement with a subfield so that you could extend this interest into future work. You will make a 15-20 minute presentation of what you’ve learned in class, and must be prepared to answer questions afterward.

EVALUATION

Points Possible for Required Assignments

This chart shows the points it is possible to earn for each assignment:

Assignment	Points per Assignment	Total Possible Points
Weekly Assignments and participation	(10 points by 8 times collected)	80
Special Assignment Reading	20 points	20
Two Take-home Essay Exams	100 points each	200
Final Research Paper or Review Essay	100 points	100
	Total Points / Course =	400

Course instructor reserves the right to lower or raise course grades based on classroom contributions or upon absences. Instructor also reserves the right to change course requirements.

Late or Missing Assignments

Students who do not turn in study guides or reading analyses on the days they are collected will not receive points. The total number of points possible for the review essay will be reduced by 20% for each day it is late.

Returned Assignments

Assignments will usually be returned to students no later than one week after they were due. At the end of the semester, unreturned course work will be available for pickup in the Religion Department office in Anderson 107 for 30 days after the official date that grades are posted by the registrar. After this time, they will be recycled.

Academic Dishonesty

Students engaged in any form of academic dishonesty, as defined under the “Academic Misconduct” section of the Student Honor Code, will be subject to other disciplinary measures. Students are expected to know what constitutes plagiarism and to understand and avoid inadvertent forms of it that can occur by cutting and pasting quotations from various texts on the world wide web and elsewhere.

SCHEDULE

Note: All readings are to be completed before the class date/week under which they are listed. This schedule is subject to change so rather than printing it, I recommend bookmarking this online syllabus and consulting it regularly.

Module I: Nature as the Habitat of Religion and Culture

“Religion and Nature” as a field
Biology and the Roots of Religion; and Ecological Approaches to the Study of Religion
Primate Spirituality, Paleolithic Religions, and the "Worship of Nature

Introduction: We begin this course by introducing the “Religion and Nature” field and illuminating how the graduate program in Religion and Nature seeks to explore it.

This module continues by introducing evolutionary/ecological approaches to the complex relationships between Homo sapiens and their habitats. This module, although brief, is critically important and will undergird much of the subsequent readings and discussion.

(Week 1) 23 August
Religion & Nature in an Evolutionary Context

Assignment

1) Come at class ready to discuss all this week's readings in depth. Really!!

Readings

Bron Taylor, “Introduction,” Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (ERN). This provides a broad overview of the religion and nature field. Recommended also: the Project History, and Readers Guide
Bron Taylor, Exploring Religion, Nature and Culture: Introducing the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, JSRNC 1.1 (2007): 5-14.
Joseph Bulbulia, “The cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion” Biology and Philosophy 19: 655-86, 2004.
Raymond Williams, "Ideas of Nature" in Problems in Materialism and Culture (London: Verso, 1980).

Required Core Readings

Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution, Preface, and 1-264. IMPORTANT: SEE ALSO Reading Guide to Bellah Book
Schaefer, Religious Affects, Introduction, ch 1, ch 2

Continue with Background and Comparative Reading (bold are the most important)

From the ERN: Animism; Animism: A Contemporary Perspective; Anthropologists; Goodall, Jane; Primate Spirituality.

(Week 2) 30 August
Religion & Evolution (part II)

Assignment

1) Email first assignment by one hour before class. Come to class ready to discuss all this week's readings in depth.
2) Be prepared to present ideas for special readings assignments; and all assigned readings, below.

Readings

Larry Sullivan, “Worship of Nature” from in the Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed., 2005)
Steven Kellert, Connecting with Creation: the Convergence of Nature, Religion, Science and Culture, JSRNC 1.1 (2007): 23-37.

Background and Comparative Readings

From the ERN: Hunting and the Origins of Religion; Magic; Paleolithic Religions and Paleolithic Art; “Rock Art”; Wonder toward Nature.

Required Core Readings

Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution, 265-606.
Schaefer, ReligiousAffects, ch 4, 6, 7 & Conclusion

Special Assignment Reading

Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A History of Myth and Religion. London: Chancellor Press, 1994.

Web Resources

Pascal Boyer’s website (great to peruse)

(Week 3) 6 September
(Religion as evolutionary adaptation?)

Assignment

1) Be prepared to discuss all readings to date. By midnight 4 September send by mail attachment a 500-750 word analysis of Darwin's Cathedral.

Background and Comparative Readings

Burhenn, Herbert. “Ecological Approaches to the Study of Religion.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 9, no. 2 (1997): 111-26 (optional reading, handout or emailed document).
From the ERN: Creation Myths of the Ancient World; Creation Stories in the Hebrew Bible; Delphic Oracle; Domestication; Egypt–ancient; Egypt–pre-Islamic; Greco-Roman World; Greece–Classical; Greek Paganism; Mesopotamia–Ancient; Ovid's Metamorphoses; Roman Britain; Roman Natural Religion; Roman Religion and Empire

Required Core Reading

Bron Taylor, “Ecology and Nature Religions" from the Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed., 2005
David Sloan Wilson's Darwin's Cathedral

Module I: Further and Future Reading

Evolution and Religion (focus on origins and the emergence of the scholarly discussion)

Atran, Scott. In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002
Bloch, Maurice. Prey Into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Boyer, Pascal. The Naturalness of Religious Ideas: A Cognitive Theory of Religion. Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1994.
Boyer, Pascal. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic, 2002.
Burhenn, Herbert. "Ecological Approaches to the Study of Religion." Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 9, no. 2 (1997): 111-26.
Burkert, Walter. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Cauvin, Jacques. The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture. Translated by Trevor Watkins. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Dennett, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York City: Viking, 2006.
Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A History of Myth and Religion. London: Chancellor Press, 1994.
________. The Worship of Nature. London: MacMillian, 1926.
Guthrie, Stewart. Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Hultkrantz, Ake. "Ecology of Religion: Its Scope and Methodology." In Science of Religion Studies in Methodology, ed. Lauri Honko, 221-36. Berlin: Mouton, 1979.
Kellert, Stephen R. and Edward O. Wilson, eds. The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1993.
Lewis-Williams, David. Conceiving God: the cognitive origin and evolution of religion.London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.
Olson, Carl. "Chapter 3: The Quest for the Origins of Religion." In Theory and Method in the Study of Religion, ed. Carl Olson, 49-99. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003.
________. Chapter 9: "Ecological/Biological Approaches." In Theory and Method in the Study of Religion, ed. Carl Olson, 439-75. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003.
Taves, Ann. Religious experience reconsidered: a building-block approach to the study of religion and other special things. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Wilson, David Sloan. Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society. Chicago & London: Chicago University Press, 2002.
Wilson, Edward Osborne. Biophilia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984.
________. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Module II: Occidental History, Religion, & Nature

Introduction: We have thus far seen some ways in which an evolutionary approach can be deployed to wonder about the origins of religion and to consider the importance of nature as the habitat in which humans wonder about, make sense of, and cope with, their wide, wild world. An examination with ecological lenses of the emergence and evolution of “occidental” and “oriental” civilizations, suggests that, as religions emerged, split, fought, lived, died, splintered, and fused, nature was more than a physical resource for the combatants; nature was a wellspring for reflection, a ubiquitous symbolic resource, the very humus out of which religious life emerged and grew. This did not lead, however, to an ethical valuing of nature. Indeed, a case can be made that while religions were inevitably and inexorably rooted in nature, the more “civilized” they became, the less intrinsically valuable nature became. Instead, the world became a place of religious trial in a broad narrative in which the climax of the story was, in one way or another, divine rescue from this world.

(Week 4) 13 September
Ancient Occidental Religions

Assignment

1) By midnight 11 September send by mail attachment a 500-750 word analysis of the Glacken’s treatment of the The Ancient World (noting continuties and discontinuities with Bellah and other readings about the period).

Background and Comparative Readings

From the ERN, essential readings in bold: Eden and other Gardens; Eden’s Ecology; Hebrew Bible; Jewish Intertestamental Literature; *Judaism; Christianity-main entries; *Book of Nature; *Natural Law and Natural Rights; Islam; Muhammad; The Qur’an; Gardens in Islam.

Required Core Reading

Glacken, Clarence. Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Part I, “The Ancient World” (1-168).

Special Assignment Reading

Boyer’s Explaining Religion

Further and Future Reading

Foltz, Richard C., Frederick M. Denny and Azizan Baharuddin, eds. Islam and ecology: a bestowed trust. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Hessel, Dieter T. and Rosemary Reuther. Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava, ed. Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed World. Religions of the World and Ecology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002.

(Week 5) 20 September
Occidental Religions through the Middle Ages

Assignment

1) By midnight 18 September send by mail attachment a 500-750 word analysis of the Glacken’s treatment of the The Christian Middle Ages (noting continuties and discontinuities with other pertinent readings about the period).

Required Core Reading

Glacken, Clarence. Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. Part II, “The Christian Middle Ages” 171-351.

Special Assignment Reading

Guthrie’s Faces in the Clouds

Further and Future Reading

Bernard, Rosemarie. Shinto. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Chapple, Christopher Key, ed. Jainism and Ecology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Chapple, Christopher Key and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Girardot, N. J., James Miller and Xiaogan Liu. Daoism and Ecology: Ways within a Cosmic Landscape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Duncan Ryuken Williams, eds. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1997.

(Week 6) 27 September
Emerging Civilizations

Assignment

1) Be prepared to discuss and schedule your special reading assignment and your research paper topic.
2) Read ahead into Module III if possible. Note: No additional readings assigned during take home week.
3) Take Home Exam’s distributed in class 27 September; due 4 October before class. Those late lose ½ each day (cumulative) it is late.

Special Assignment Reading

Eisenberg or Lansing (below)
Robert Pogue Harrison, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Module II: Further and Future Reading

Evolution and Religion (focus on origins and the emergence of the scholarly discussion)

Carrasco, Davíd, ed. The Imagination of Matter: Religion and Ecology in Mesoamerican Traditions. Oxford: BAR International Series, 1989.
Eisenberg, Evan. The Ecology of Eden. New York: Random House, 1998.
Harris, Marvin. "The Myth of the Sacred Cow." In Man, Culture, and Animals, eds. Anthony Leeds and Andrew P. Vaya, 217-28. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1965.
________. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture. New York: Random House, 1974.
________. Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures. New York: Random House, 1977.
________. "The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle." Current Anthropology 7 (1966): 51-66.
Lansing, J. Stephen. Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Lansing, J. Stephen and James N. Kremer. "A Socioecological Analysis of Balinese Water Temples." In The Cultural Dimension of Development: Indigenous Knowledge Systems, eds. D. M. Warren, L. Jan Slikkerveer and David Brokensha, 258-68. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1995.
Lodrick, Deryck O. Sacred Cows, Sacred Places: Origins and Survivals of Animal Homes in India. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1981.
Oelschlaeger, Max. The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
Simoons, Frederick J. "Questions in the Sacred Cow Controversy." Current Anthropology 20 (1979): 467-93.

Module III: Scientific Paradigms and the Transformation of "Religion and Nature" Discourses

Introduction: The advent of natural science through a monkeywrench into the mainstreams of religious perception and identity by, as much as anything else, challenging human understanding of nature itself. The scientific worldview, where it took root, eroded earlier religious understandings and certainties, transforming both religions themselves, and kindling an entire, new, discussion of the relationships between nature and religion. Broadly understood, the encounter between “Religion and Science” has had far reaching impacts that have only just begun, and whose impacts are only in their infancy. Among the most dramatic results is the grafting of scientific understandings onto already existing religious forms, and the invention of entirely new religious forms based on these new understandings.

This and the subsequent two modules explore the cultural earthquake brought on by the transformation of scientific paradigms, and wrestles with questions regarding the possible long-term impacts, including environmental impacts, of these developments

(Week 7) 4 October
Science, Religion, and "Paradigm Shifts"

Assignment

1) Take Home Exam's due before class 4 October; see above
2) Be prepared to discuss all readings to date. By midnight 9 October send by email attachment a 500-750 word analysis of the periods covered in the assigned week's readings.
3) Be prepared to explain to the class the significance of the required readings below in “background and comparative readings”

Background and Comparative Readings

From the ERN: Philosophy of Nature; Western Esotericism; (physics): Bateson, Gregory; Berman, Morris; Bohm, David; Burroughs, John; Capra, Fritjof; Chaos; Complexity Theory;Einstein, Albert; Linnaeus, Carl; Pauli, Wolfgang; Peat, F. David; Prigogine, Ilya; Sheldrake, Rupert (biosphere and ecosystem science):Darwin, Charles; Haeckel, Ernst; Holism; Leopold, Aldo; Carson, Rachael; Gaia; Gaian Pilgrimage; Ouspensky, Pyotr Demianovich; Pantheism; Panentheism; Smuts, Jan Christiaan; Thoreau, Henry David;Wilson, Edward O. (reactionary responses): Creationism and Creation Science; Wise Use Movements.

Required Core Reading

Glacken, Clarence. Traces on the Rhodian Shore, part III “Early Modern Times” (read carefully: 355-497, then read quickly and/or peruse the rest of the volume to discern its main argument).
Worster, Donald. Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Read the entire book, but especially carefully Parts I, and III - VI. (If you have the first edition, borrow the second edition and read part VI (pp. 340-433), which is an expansion of the Epilogue in the first edition.

Special Assignment Reading

Midgley, Mary. Evolution as a Religion
Gunderson, Lance H. and C. S. Holling. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature
James Gleich, Chaos: Making a New Science (NY: Penguine, 1987)
Bramwell, Anna. Ecology in the 20th Century: A History

Module III: Further and Future Reading

Scientific Paradigms, Religion, and Nature

Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Ballantine, 1972.
Berman, Morris. The Reenchantment of the World. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1981.
Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988.
Bramwell, Anna. Ecology in the 20th Century: A History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989.
Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics. third ed. Boston: 1975; reprint, Boston: Shambhala, 1991.
Capra, Fritojf. The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Fortey, Richard. Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth. New York: Knopf, 1998.
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin, 1987.
Golley, Frank Benjamin. A History of the Ecosystem Concept in Ecology. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993
Gunderson, Lance H. and C. S. Holling. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 2002.
Heisenberg, Werner. Physics and Philosophy. New York: Harper and Row, 1962.
Lovelock, James. Gaia: A New Look At Life on Earth. revised ed. Oxford: 1979; reprint, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Macy, Joanna. World As Lover, World As Self. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991.
Midgley, Mary. Evolution as a Religion. London: Routledge (1985, revised with new introduction, 2002).
McGrath, Alister E. Science and Religion: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999.
Odum, Howard T. Environment, Power, and Society. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1971.
Primavesi, Anne. Gaia's Gift. London & New York: Routledge, 2003.
Real, L. A. and J. H. Brown, eds. Foundations of Ecology. Chicago, Illinois: University of ChicagoPress.
Sagan, Carl. Carl Sagan's the Cosmic Connection. second ed. 1974; reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Swimme, Brian and Thomas Berry. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era: A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992.

Module IV: "Religion and Nature" in twentieth-century scholarship (from the Sacred and the Profane and "Ecological Anthropology" to "Religion and Ecology")

Religions as adaptive and maladaptive ecological strategies (with special reference to the indigenous societies and "traditional ecological knowledge.")
Mircea Eliade, cultural geography, and theories of 'sacred space'
Environmental Concern, Religious Studies, the "Religion and Ecology" field, and debates about the environmental tendencies of the "world religions" of the east and west.
Religion's role in the environmental & social collapse; and environmental reform?

Introduction: not only were there upheavals in science during the 20th century, anthropology and religious studies went through their own dramatic transformations. Among the most significant that were directly nature-relevant were analyses of the importance of human perceptions of sacred space, and the role of such perceptions in religious and environmental practices. In the latter part of the 20th century, some anthropologists and religious studies scholars began not only to analyze the relationships between religions, cultures, and environments, but they began to, in some cases explicitly, in others implicitly, promote what they had come to believe were environmentally beneficent forms of religion. This module explores these developments, correlating them with the changing scientific paradigms encountered in the previous one, which sets the stage for asking in the next module about the future of nature-related religion and its likely impacts on nonhuman nature.

(Week 8) 11 October
Religion, Ritual and Ecological Adaptation

Assignment

1) Be prepared to discuss all readings to date. By midnight 9 October send by email attachment a 500-750 word analysis of the periods covered in the assigned week's readings.
2) Be prepared to summarize up front in class the readings from the ERN and Rappaport’s reading, thus far.

Background and Comparative Readings

From the ERN: *Ecological Anthropology; *Ecology and Religion; Ethnobotany; Evolutionary Biology, Religion, and Stewardship; Harris, Marvin; Rappaport, Roy; A Religio-Ecological Perspective on Religion and Nature; Sky.

Required Core Reading

Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (chs. 1-5, pp. 1-168)

Special Assignment Reading

Jared Diamond’s Collapse, esp, prologue, ch 6-9, and part IV

(Week 9) 25 October
Indigenous Peoples and "Traditional Ecological Knowledge"

Assignment

1) Be prepared to discuss all readings to date. By midnight 19 October send by email attachment a 500-750 word analysis of the periods covered in the assigned week's readings.
2) Be prepared to discuss Rappaport’s book and the following readings.

Background and Comparative Readings

From the ERN: Mother Earth; Native American Languages; Noble Savage (various); *Traditional Ecological Knowledge; Traditional Environmental Knowledge among Aboriginal Peoples in Canada

Required Core Reading

Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (chs 6-9, pp. 169-312).

Special Assignment Reading

Berkes, Fikret. Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Management. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis, 1999 [or 2nd or 3rd edition]. Pages 1-55 are especially important.
David Abram. The Spell of the Sensuous

(Week 10) 1 November
"Sacred Ecology" and Sacred Geography

Assignment

1) By midnight 30 October send by email attachment 750 word summary/analysis this week’s readings, with special attention to the fault lines between the idea of American Indians as “First Ecologists” and other, relevant, ERN entries you have read.

Background and Comparative Readings

From the ERN: American Indians as "First Ecologists"; Nobel Savage; Sacred Geography in Native North America; Sacred Mountains; Sacred Groves in Africa; Sacred Sites in England; Sacred Space/Place; Savages.

Required Core Reading

Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (chs 10-14, pp. 313-461).