Author: Sam Wight

In the documentary The Anthropologist, environmental anthropologist Susie Crate talks to a group of Americans living in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia about their views of climate change. To Crate, climate change presents itself as a unique and nagging problem that different groups of people must handle in different ways. She’s interested in studying the culture and customs of different groups in...

Prior to this class, I had a less strict definition of the word ‘cult’. To me, cults were a high-control group that kept members inside the group through psychological force (instead of physical force). To me, cults used a variety of tactics to keep their members in line. They preyed on parts of the brain that were susceptible to certain...

This week we talked about pseudoscience, specifically two ‘branches’ of it: mesmerism and ufology. The two readings this week covered the history of both movements, what they claimed, and how they attempted to attach themselves to ‘science’ to claim legitimacy. We discussed the implications of labelling a specific movement as ‘pseudoscience’, and why movements might be labelled that way. It...

Discussion Post for this week This week we discussed the warfare thesis and how it came to permeate our understanding of science and religion. Two readings gave examples of the history of this: one on the history of the warfare thesis, and another on the Scopes trial. At the end of the week, we were asked two questions: what’s gained...

This week’s readings were focused on an introduction to the study of religion and how scholars view and attempt to define the word ‘religion’. In the readings, the authors / speakers introduced us to the beautifully complicated world of religious studies, why religious studies exists, and several of the questions that religious studies scholars ask about the world. In his...