Executive Summary

This open-access workbook contains eight summative “challenge” assessments to address the MCCCD competencies for ASB 214: Magic, Witchcraft, and Healing: An Introduction to Comparative Religion. These assessments are designed to encourage collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving through case studies, interactive online exhibits, and participant observation. For this project, I created challenge questions that problematize existing theory and research in my field of cultural anthropology, inviting students to weigh in on theoretical challenges like the definition of religion and categorization of religious practitioners. I also wrote new case studies to help students think through situations like medical treatment, witch trials, and ethical dilemmas cross-culturally. Each challenge is equipped with at least one H5P activity so that students can interact with the workbook as part of their online courses. I am currently in the process of adding formative assessments to each chapter of the workbook in addition to these challenge assessments. I look forward to continuing to revise and add to this body of work.

Challenges include:

• Challenge 1: Origins of Religion:
  • to synthesize and make an argument about archaeological evidence for the origins of religion
• Challenge 2: Defining Religion:
  • to problematize existing anthropological definitions of religion and to create a new one
• Challenge 3: Categorizing Practitioners:
  • to utilize an existing typology system for religious practitioners, then problematize it and create a new one
• Challenge 4: Observing Rituals:
  • to observe a religious ritual and analyze it using anthropological theory
• Challenge 5: Medical Anthropology Grand Rounds:
  • to collect ethnographic data in a simulated medical case study
• Challenge 6: Witch Trials:
  • to make hypotheses about the causes and results of four witch trials
• Challenge 7: Funerals and Functionalism:
  • to match funerary practices with afterlife beliefs in five societies
• Challenge 8: New Religious Movements:
  • to suggest outcomes in a variety of ethical dilemma scenarios regarding new religious movements in the US

Thank you for this opportunity!

Final Product

Magic, Witchcraft, and Healing: An Introduction to Comparative Religion

Contact Information

Amaranth Weiss: amaranth.weiss@mesacc.edu