Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Special Subject B: Ritual and Religion: performance, materiality and belief
School	History and Cultures
Department	Classics, AH and Archaeology
Module Code	09 37463
Module Lead	Paul Garwood
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites	LH Special Subject A: Ritual and Religion: performance, materiality and belief - (09 37462)
Restrictions	None
Exclusions
Description	This module and its co-requisite (Special Subject A: Ritual and Religion: performance, materiality and belief) will allow students engage in in-depth research and study on a topic in Classics, Byzantine Studies, Egyptology, Ancient History, or Archaeology. Like Part A, Part B will involve students learning through research, critique and discussion. Part B aims to develop students’ independence in the application of the research processes and methodologies associated with the module topic and to enable students to deploy this independence in the analysis of key ideas, ideologies, interpretative approaches, or events. This module explores religion and ritual from an inter-disciplinary perspective, focusing on current approaches to ritual agency, performance, materiality and belief in Archaeology, Anthropology and History. Introductory sessions on key theoretical and interpretative frameworks are combined with thematic seminars, relevant to all past cultural worlds, focusing on particular kinds of beliefs and symbolic representations relating to supernatural beings, forces and sacred domains. The approach is comparative and cross-cultural, drawing on a wide range of case studies ranging from prehistoric Europe (e.g. Palaeolithic cave art), ancient Greece, the Roman world, medieval and modern Europe to Aztec Mesoamerica. These are combined with ethnographic case studies from Africa, India, Polynesia, Australia, Siberia and the Americas. Specific topics include: shamanism; animism and totemism; ancestor-worship; theism; cosmography; ceremonial architecture; power and ideology.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: analyse and appraise key findings, interpretative approaches, and methodologies relevant to the material under discussion analyse and evaluate a wide range of relevant primary source material offering where appropriate, an explicitly comparative perspective critically evaluate the scholarly context and trends of the subject under exploration summarise and evaluate the subject material with clarity and confidence, in writing
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 x 3,000-word take home examination (100%) Reassessment: Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List