2012 - 2013 ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

Religion Interest Meeting

DATE: Monday, February 25, 2013
TIME:  8:00 – 9:00 PM
LOCATION: Dept. of Phil. & Religion Lounge Area, 2nd floor, Ladd Hall

The study of religion is essential to have a clear understanding of today’s globalized world around us.  Religion is often the basis of many people’s cultural identities, values, and behaviors.  With an improved knowledge and awareness of those around us, our stride to reach our goals will be less problematic. 

Come join us and speak with faculty and other students for more information.

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Inventing the Fetish: Voodoo, Religion, and the European Thing for African Objects

DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 2013
TIME: 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
SPEAKER: Dr. Elizabeth Perez
LOCATION: Palamountain Hall: Emerson Auditorium

Dr. Perez (Dartmouth College) is a scholar of Afro-Diasporic Religions who has conducted fieldwork among Lucumi communities. Her presentation will show how the European "thing" (as in "inexplicably strong feeling") for African objects winds up creating the fetish as a conceptual category (and constructs "fetishism" as a characteristic practice of Africans). This act of classification then informs the construction of Caribbean "voodoo" as the opposite of (modern, Western) "religion," a tendency that continues today in current representations of African-based traditions.