Religion in Cross Cultural Perspective

Answer each of the following essay questions as fully as possible within several pages per question. Support your answer with ethnographic and/or historical examples from class materials. Each answer is worth the points listed after the questions. Number and separate each of your essays.

1) Draw on ideas from Bowen and Wallace to answer the question: Why do people join violent movements? Describe the key dimensions of analysis for answering this question using examples and pinpoint the role of religion, if any, in these cases. (20 points)

2) Drawing upon Manning and Daniels, write an essay discussing gender and religion. How do conservative Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women in the US, and Malaysian Muslim women, conceive of gender roles in religious institutions and at work and home? How has secular feminism influenced these women in the US and in Malaysia? How did Manning and Daniels explain their apparent shift in values across these contexts? (40 points)

3) Drawing upon Jones and Jackson, write an essay discussing race and religion in the US. According to Jones, what is the relationship between white Christian identity and white supremacist attitudes? Describe the religious orientation Jackson calls “Black Religion” (or “Blackamerican Religion”) and its relationship to Blackamerican embrace of Christianity and Islam. These authors discuss prospects of change in terms of white Christian “Reckoning” and Blackamerican Muslims’ “Third Resurrection.” How might these changes transform racialized social relations in the US? (40 points)