AFRAMER 104 - Witchcraft, Rituals and Colonialism

Institution:

Harvard University

Subject:

Description:

This course will explore the coming together of ideas on witchcraft and rituality as discourses and practices of power, gender, race, and sexuality in colonial and imperial moments. We will examine history, literature, films, and social theory dealing with different forms of self-identified and interpellated forms of "witchcraft" such as questions of sorcery, brujeria, shamanism, voodoo/hoodoo, and santeria/palo - all as complex and multivalent sites of productive power. We will look at how discourses and experiences marked and claimed "witchcraft" intersect with ideas and practices of rituals in the everyday lives and perceptions of colonial, postcolonial, national, and transnational subjects in different locations. Students will take into consideration these questions in relation to broader topics such as colonialism/postcolonialism, imperialisms, and transnationalisms, as well as within critiques of modernisms versus traditionalisms. This course will specifically focus on Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and African diasporic contexts.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.harvard.edu

Phone Number:

(617) 495-1000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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