Nov 14.docx

Nov 14 Sexuality, Embodiment, and Aesthetic Formation When writing SHOW them don’t TELL Argue, don’t summarize - Don’t simply summarize the case study or the theoretical ideas - Take a stand and argue, - Say something new Exam - Short multiple choice about key terns - Short answer on key terms - Two short essay questions commenting on themes or debates from class o Show that you know the basic parameters of the debate o Take a stand/positions on one of the debates o 4 options, only need to answer 2 questions What is a theory of religion? - A theory of the origins of religion or how it functions in society Sexuality and the study of religion - Ethics (what is right or wrong)and community identity (how groups are formed either for or against) often come up when religious people talk about sexuality - Sacred and profane ideas are constructed is a foundational way that the boundaries/parameters of that community are identified - No such thing as a constant/timeless sense of sexuality, despite the mobilization of thoughts o Historically these boundaries are re-invented - Sexuality, like gender is performative and tied to historical, cultural context - has a genealogy - Mongolia example o Having sex with your cellmate (same sex) is not seen as gay, more as something you do. It is view differently than two males in north America - The study of sexuality helps understand how different religious communities understand sameness o Talking about insiders and outsiders The reading - Many voices in the mass media world, there goal is to make it aesthetically stimulating - Hard to read due to references - Talking about boundaries and moving beyond boundaries Aesthetic Formations and Sensual Forms - A problem if we just assume religion and technology are antagonist - Religion will eventually disappearFreud, Marx, and others thought it would o Religion is not going away o People are more religious!????? Then they were 100 yrs ago o At least more people are going to church - The author is an anthropologist and noticed that the media is active in keeping religious active in modern societies o Have childrens books, talk in languages of the native people, shows; radio and tv o The author is saying more than religion uses media, o She’s saying something about the imagined community What is the imagined community? - What is nationalism? What is this distinct community that identifies themselves together? - It is imagined, it exist in the mind - We all live and are engaged with people we will never meet again in our lives. The nation is a great example of that. We will have no contact with 99.999% in Canada. There is little that ties us together. o This exist in the mind, it is a fabrication. IT is SOOO powerful! o People will go to war for this community and fight for it - Where did this come from? How did people start identifying themselves as a nation? o Comes to capitalisms and the growth of newspaper, the relations that are embedded in the form of production and shared human diversity - Benedict Anderson said that the imagined state grew out of religions which were previously the largest group gatherings o People were organized around different faiths  Christianity, budda, islam o People were bound together by sacred languages o This transitions through modern forms of language  using English rather than Hebrew  drastically changes the public  New communities formed from the