Anthropology Commons^™

New Age Spirituality In Post-Secular Turkey: Navigating Secular Sensibilities And Class Privilege, Zeynep Ozbarlas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The conflict between religion and secularism has been one of the major forces shaping Turkey’s socio-political landscape since the late nineteenth century. With the radical secular turn during the founding of the Turkish Republic, secularism remained the dominant force until the rise of political Islam in the 1980s. This dissertation, grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, argues that New Age spirituality, adopted by the secular upper-middle class, has become an alternative venue for the reproduction of secular sensibilities and socio-economic privilege in contemporary Turkey, at a time when the two-decade tenure of the Erdoğan regime has undermined secular hegemony.

Although New Age …

Trinities In World Mythology: Why Separate Cultures Construct The Same Cosmology, Autumn Scott

Undergraduate Fellows' Research

Numerous cultures throughout the world construct mythologies and cosmologies which include a triad, triple deity, or three world cosmology. Specifically, this refers either to belief in a singular deity with three forms, belief in a distinct group of three divine beings with a common characteristic, or belief in three cosmic realms, such as the human world, underworld, and divine world. This phenomenon occurs within Europe, South Asia and East Asia, as well as North America. While many may be familiar with the Greek Moirai and the Christian trinity, this pattern appears well beyond the ancient and medieval cultures who inhabited …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

East To West: Cultural Attitudes And The Perceptions Of Death, Hannah F. Ahmed

Undergraduate Research Posters

Death is a universal human experience, but cultures teach people to interpret it in different ways. These interpretations influence how individuals understand dying, how they cope with loss, what support looks like, and what meaning death makes in their lives. Eastern, spiritual, and religious traditions emphasize death as a natural transition or return to divinity rather than an endpoint, and as something one must prepare for. In these contexts, people often grow up hearing stories, prayers, and teachings that situate death within a broader journey. Because of this, death becomes something familiar and speakable rather than distant or frightening (Naderi-Afif …

Interpreting “Vampire” Burials In Medieval Eastern Europe, Arleen Chau

Undergraduate Research Posters

Since the early twentieth century, various atypical or deviant graves have been excavated across Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. These discoveries have prompted much speculation, as the individuals were interred with items such as sickles placed over their necks or abdomens, along with other mortuary artifacts not considered normative compared to those found in typical community burials. Such practices suggest that these individuals were regarded as deviant or pariahs within their social contexts. Consequently, many have been quick to label these as “vampire burials,” interpreting them as measures intended to keep the dead from rising. However, this definition is problematic, …

From The Heaviest, Dirtiest Depths To The Washy Ambient Clouds: Guitar Timbre In/As Schismogenesis In North American Christianity, Joshua K. Busman, Nathan Myrick

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This essay argues that within the socio-cultural context of North American Christianity, the timbral qualities of electric guitar, with its long lineage as a site of cultural values conflict and identity negotiation, serves a theological function in the emerging and cohering sonority of digital worship. Using as comparative case studies the timbral qualities of delay and ambience as promoted and sold by Worship Tutorials as representing normative sonic values for these Christians, on the one hand, and the dialectic and schismatic deployment of distortion by the band My Epic on the other, we suggest that these timbral qualities become important …

Faith In Conflict: The Role Of Religion In Conflict And Peacebuilding Among Minority Christian Communities In Ukraine And Palestine, Julia Lats

Honors Projects

Religion has long influenced both the escalation of conflicts and efforts toward peace. The wars in Ukraine and Palestine are deeply rooted in historical narratives, national identities, and religious influences. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often framed in terms of Jewish-Muslim tensions and the issue of politicization of religion and tensions within the Orthodox Church frame the Ukrainian-Russian War, these dominant narratives often overlook the role of minority religious groups. This paper examines the contributions of Protestant Christian groups in these regions, exploring how their beliefs and practices influence their actions, identity formation, interactions with others, and approaches to conflict …

Ib-Adat, Anum Naseer

Masters Theses

.

Shepherds Of Loss: Religion And Grief In The Shenandoah Valley, Ewan Benjamin

Honors Projects

This study explores the relationship between faith leaders and religious communities with the human experience of grief, death, and loss. Inspired by the researcher's own experience, this paper argues that the United States has a generally uncomfortable relationship with death and hypothesizes that religious traditions can serve to assist with grief in a positive way. After interviewing six religious leaders in the Shenandoah Valley, two themes arose: the mystery of death and the concept of "making space" for the grieving, dying, and dead. In the paper's conclusion, the faith leaders make known their own concerns with death in the United …

Between Borders And Belief: Perspectives Of Aid Workers On Religion In A Migrant Shelter In Mexico, Kendall O. Roy

Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the significance of religion in the Central American migration context through the eyes of humanitarian aid workers. It is based on interviews that I conducted in May of 2024 with staff members at a migrant shelter in Mexico, analysis of prior scholarship, and building upon an understanding of relevant religious history in Latin America. I will delve into trends that the aid workers observed in areas such as religious practices and beliefs of migrants, shelter functions that addressed and nurtured spiritual well-being, and the influence of the Church as an institution on humanitarian aid work. …

Religious Affiliation And Alcohol Use Amongst The College Population At The University Of Northern Colorado, Cassandra H. A. Higgins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A rampant problem growing globally is the issue of substance use disorders, especially that of alcohol abuse. As the problem of alcohol abuse spreads, finding tactics to mitigate this issue or discover what aspects are causing this issue is important to decrease the threat of a further problem developing. Prior research on different religious groups has shown that people who identify as highly devout in their religion are often less likely to exhibit signs of alcohol abuse. This study examined students at the University of Northern Colorado with the goal of comparing their levels of religious affiliation with their levels …

Reshaping Identity Politics: Capitalising On Shari‘A Debate In The Sudan, Musa Adam Abdul-Jalil

The Journal of Social Encounters

The relationship between religious identity, ethnic identity, and politics has always been a problematic one, especially in plural societies like Sudan. This article is an attempt to understand the reasons behind the insistence of the popular parties of the Muslim majority in Northern Sudan on establishing shar’ia law as the law of the land. By using secondary data on party programmes, public opinion, and an analysis of political events, I reconstruct the evolution of the debate in order to identify its prime movers. My conclusion is that this debate emerged as a result of the quest for a national identity …

Vaccines At The Intersection Of Religion And Politics, Charles Downey

Master's Theses

Vaccine hesitancy – a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability – is a rising threat to global health and has increased in recent years in higher income countries. This is a complex phenomenon with the potential to undo decades of progress toward eradicating communicable diseases. The recent COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new wave of vaccine hesitancy, with evangelical Christians as leading actors in the movement away from vaccines in the United States. The present study investigated factors related to vaccine hesitancy and sources of health-related information among members of evangelical Christian churches in and around Hattiesburg, …

Does Endogamous Marriage Impact Women's Fertility Gaps In India?, Natalya Francis Schafer

Master's Theses

This study aimed to measure the possible impact endogamous (within-family) marriage practices could have on women's fertility gaps in India. Fertility gap in this study is defined as the difference between the ideal number of children a woman desires and the total number of children born to a woman at time of interview. In many developing countries ,such as India, it is common for women to be overachieving their fertility - having more children than desired. Data from the CIA.gov (2024) shows total fertility rates to be highest in developing areas across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and India. The …

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

Ciis Dissertation Abstracts, 2022-2023, California Institute Of Integral Studies

CIIS Dissertation Abstracts

This compilation of dissertation abstracts reflects the exciting research completed by the 2022-2023 graduates from PhD programs in the School of Consciousness and Transformation and the Clinical Psychology Doctorate (PsyD) in the School of Professional Psychology and Health at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

The original and impactful doctoral research presented here spans diverse areas of scholarship from anthropology and social change to human sexuality, philosophy and religion, and whole person approaches to psychology, demonstrating the breadth and depth of transformative and integral inquiry happening at CIIS. The transdisciplinary nature of these dissertations reflects the richness and complexity …

How Science Education Impacts The Religious Beliefs Of Students, Sahithi Kunisetty, Alexa Neal, Benjamin Ravas

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

This is a literature review exploring the conflict between science and religion. It seeks to understand how a science education influences a student's level of religious beliefs. Furthermore, it provides reasons as to why one would have less access to a science education, and how religion can restrict one from learning about science.

Birthing, Nursing, And Grieving: An Anthropological Archaeology Of Healing Shrines In North Lebanon, Sarah Mady

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This archaeological study of healing shrines in North Lebanon begins with the story of why scholars have neglected these shrines. It is not essential to identify a gap in the scholarship without understanding why this gap existed in the first place. Healing shrines were often associated with popular religion and women’s superstitions, and to understand their position in the historical landscape of North Lebanon, I begin by laying out the history of archeology in Lebanon. It is imperative for the reader of this study to understand how the discipline of archaeology was founded and practiced and its implications on the …

The Spiritual Migrants Of Sogenji: Notes Of Participant Observation In A Rinzai Zen Temple, Andrei-Razvan Coltea

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Anomie is a cultural pathology that is becoming chronic in the West, characterized by the erosion of values, disintegration and deregulation. Amongst its symptoms we find anxiety, isolation, depression, tribalism, incoherence and loss of meaning. Individuo-globalism is a new ideology that permeates the religious market created by globalisation, encouraging individuals to discover, nurture and express their ‘true self’. This new spirituality forms the background for a journey that our ‘heroes’, a handful of non-Japanese inhabitants of a Japanese Rinzai Zen monastery, have been undertaking for years in search of the philosopher’s stone that could cure anomie and its symptoms. At …

An Ethnography Of Voodoo Tourism And Heritage Sites In New Orleans, Lousiana, Bryant Long

Master of Arts in Art and Design Theses

This thesis considers how Voodoo is presented and experienced in various tourism and heritage sites within New Orleans in the present moment. A variety of visual representations, verbal narratives and multimedia performances were documented and analyzed through participant observation. Current tourism relies on the city’s ghost stories, mythology, as well as Voodoo practices and lore, raising questions about the melding of fact and fiction in the potential perpetuation of sensational ideas about the city and its African heritage. Cultural sites discussed in this thesis include Congo Square, the New Orleans Voodoo Museum, Voodoo Authentica, the New Orleans Museum of Art, …

Brazil's Orthodox Church Rising: Living Authentic Tradition In Brazil's Middle Class, Anastasia M. Theodoropoulos

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation examines middle-class religiosity in Brazil through an analysis of the birth of a new religious organization, the Brazilian Orthodox Church. I investigate how the performance of “authentic tradition” (tradição verdadeira) orients and authenticates new middle-class subjectivities. In considering the unprecedented recent boom of middle classes worldwide, I explore how and why members of the growing Brazilian middle class, whose livelihoods are increasingly oriented around international finance capital and foreign corporate marketing, locate sources of the authentic beyond given, national boundaries. Through participant observation and interviews with middle-class congregants, I analyze how aligning with the “authentic tradition” …

Different Versions Of Myself, Anya Smith

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This is a research-informed screenplay exploring the relationship between religion and recreational pole dancing. While the popularity of recreational pole dancing has grown over the last two decades, it remains a controversial topic in some circles. This study employed interviews, autoethnography, and a literature review to examine the tensions between pole dancing and religion. Creative Analytic Practice was employed as a method of evaluating and presenting the research, which culminated in a fictional screenplay.

The story is about Louise, a young woman caught between two worlds. She feels pressured to conceal her recreational pole dancing activities in order to retain …

Religion In The News On An Ordinary Day: Diversity And Change In English Canada, David H. Michels, Christopher Helland

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada has a deeply rooted connection with Christianity in its Protestant and Catholic forms. However, over the latter half of the 20th century there has been a strong shift toward secularization and the promotion of religious diversity. Through our study, we identified 186 news articles that made one or more references to conventional religion, common religion, or secular sacred themes. We then considered news stories with references to religion where religion was the main issue of the story and found 56 articles with majority of their focus on Islam. In the analysis it became clear there was a conflict in …

Orphaned Landscapes: Violence, Visuality, And Appearance In Indonesia, Patricia Spyer

Art & Visual Culture

Less than a year after the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, huge images of Jesus Christ and other Christian scenes proliferated on walls and billboards around a provincial town in eastern Indonesia where conflict had arisen between Muslims and Christians. A manifestation of the extreme perception that emerged amid uncertainty and the challenge to seeing brought on by urban warfare, the street paintings erected by Protestant motorbike-taxi drivers signaled a radical departure from the aniconic tradition of the old colonial church, a desire to be seen and recognized by political authorities from Jakarta to the UN and European Union, …

Climate Change And The Ancestors: Rain, Gender And Politics In An African Water Catchment, Jessie Fredlund

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Uluguru, a small mountain range in eastern Tanzania and one of the rainiest places in East Africa, serves as the principal water catchment for Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, and for commercial farms along the country’s central coast. Home to smallholder farmers who cultivate a variety of crops on mostly rain-fed farms, the catchment has been a site of struggle over water and nature since the nineteenth century. Today, climate change has rendered rainfall increasingly unpredictable, and a wave of “sustainable development” interventions has pressured farmers to change their practices and to engage in unpaid forms of ecological labor …

Review Of Comparing Cultures And Religions In A Postmodern World, Januarius J. Asongu

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Witchcraft, Magic, Religion: Anth 1102 Oer Syllabus, Lisa Pope Fischer

Open Educational Resources

People rely on religion and various belief systems to bring meaning and understanding to everyday life. This course will show how anthropologists unravel and interpret cultural belief systems to gain insight into the cultural environment. Cross-cultural ethnographic examples will illustrate the various ways in which Anthropologists analyze belief systems as a way to understand a culture. Topics include religion, worldview, symbolism, taboo, myth, ritual, witchcraft, shamanism, religious practitioners, magic, healing, and spirits. Students must be prepared to look at both literate and pre-literate ritual systems. Non-Western belief systems are contrasted with religions of the Western world.

Embracing Entrepreneurship, Naomy Sengebwila, Naomy Nyendwa Sengebwila

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Embracing Entrepreneurship

How Christian Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship can Lead to Sustainable Communities in Zambia and Globally

Embracing Entrepreneurship

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry by

Name of Student

Naomy Nyendwa Sengebwila

Name of Student: Naomy Nyendwa Sengebwila

Date: 03/31/2021

How Christian Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Can Lead to Sustainable Communities in Zambia and globally

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …

Pivot: Sebuah Tinjauan Weberian Atas Rasionalitas Tindakan, Albertus Bambang Suprijanto, Tony Rudyansjah

Antropologi Indonesia

Second conversion along with the increasing of welfare and age is a common phenomenon that occurs among the urban middle class. In this case, the achievement of the ultimate goal of life must be prepared through daily habits. Religion is then considered as a vehicle that can bring them through life to realize what they aspire to in the future. Religious morality is used as a guide in living daily life. In fact, not all changes in life views can be categorized as second conversions. In this paper, Max Weber's conception of the “calling” is used as an analytical tool …

Religion War: Judaism's Impact On The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Marissa Mark, Richard Morisette, Jennifer Rosio, Jack Willerton

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has been a major issue since 1948 when the Israelis and Palestinians engaged in a Civil War. One of the driving factors in the conflict is the religious affiliation from each side, with Jewish Israelis clashing with Muslim Palestinians. While religion has been a driving force for hostility, religion can also be seen as a beacon of hope and peace. In our research, we have found that religious affiliation from the Israeli side tends to result in more positive attitudes towards their Palestinian counterparts. In our research, we investigated three major fields: Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. By …