GODS, GHOSTS, AND ANCESTORS: RELIGION IN

Examines the social and cultural place of Chinese religions through time, focusing on Chinese ideas of the relation between humans and spirits, and the expression of those ideas in practice. Problems will include the long-term displacement of ancestors by gods in Chinese history; the varying and changing social functions of rituals, and the different views of the same ritual taken by different participants; the growth of religious
commerce from early modern times on. Topics will be organized roughly chronologically but the emphasis is on broad change rather than historical coverage.