Postgraduate Module Descriptor

ANTM106: Representation of Animals Through Religion

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

The module aims are:

  1. To enable the student to engage with the range of human, animal, and environmental encounters according to the religious, mystical, and supernatural contexts that continue to have significance in the contemporary world.
  2. To critically evaluate the position of religiously-constructed human-animal encounters in diverse sociocultural schemes globally and how this frames cultural constructions and the ethical treatment of either specific animal species, or non-human animals generally.
  3. To consider how contemporary representations of animals through religious doctrine and ceremony can inform wider theoretical/philosophical debates such as locally-contextualised constructions of ecology and conservation, approaches to ethics and animal welfare, and of non-human animal entities as participants in the wider religious and political landscapes.

 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the diversity of human interactions with animals in the context of religious practices (ceremony, worship, deification) and of religious moral discourse (gift or sacrifice, animal welfare);
2. identify and evaluate representations of animals in religion through art or religious technology, oral narratives, doctrinal and textual sources, and ceremonial activities;
3. demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of how the social construction of animals through religion enhances anthropological approaches and methodologies that examine the participation of other-than-human beings in the human social, religious, and political landscape;
Discipline-Specific Skills4. demonstrate a clear understanding of the historical development of theoretical approaches to the representations of animals within the social sciences;
5. demonstrate the ability to critically assess key theoretical debates from anthropology and cognate disciplines surrounding human interactions with animals in the contexts of religious moral discourses;
6. demonstrate a critical awareness of significance of historical and contemporary socio-cultural influences of particular representatives of other-than-human beings for social scientific theory;
Personal and Key Skills7. identify a research problem and conduct independent research to test the research problem;
8. clearly and concisely convey complicated ideas to academic and non-academic audiences; and
9. prepare for writing papers suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

The module forms broadly three parts and will focus upon: animist or shamanist approaches, and the historical and continued use of animals as ancestral or spiritual guides; the construction of and conduct towards non-human animals in contemporary religious discourse and practice; cosmology and animal participation. It will investigate the anthropomorphism of animals in religious thought and ceremonial activity, and the animals in the construction of religious ethical discourse, around either gift or sacrifice, or compassionate ideologies associated with animal welfare.

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

  1. Introduction
  2. Deification and Worship of Non-Human Animals (Ancestral Animals and Animals as Spiritual Guides)
  3. Animals in Hindu and Buddhist Religious
  4. Hindu Temple Animals
  5. Animals in Religious Art
  6. Gifts to the Gods and Animal Sacrifice
  7. Abrahamic religions, ethics, and animal welfare
  8. Buddhism, Compassion, and Non-Violence Towards Animals
  9. Bereavement and Pet Funerals
  10. Anthrocosmology, Deep Ecology, and New Age Spirituality

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
20130

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities1010 x 1 hour podcast audio lectures with accompanying PowerPoint presentations
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities1010 x 1 hour discussion/seminar participations on the VLE discussion forums (Including formative assessments)
Guided Independent Study30Preparation for formative assessments
Guided Independent Study100Research and writing of summative assessments

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/