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Anthro Log

Category: Theology

  • The Role of Science in Gender & Sexuality Programs in Faith Institutions

    I recently read about the University of St. Thomas in Houston launching graduate certificate and master’s degree programs in Catholic Women’s and Gender Studies that explicitly aim to integrate scientific disciplines, philosophy, and theology.

    These programs respond to what many see as a lack in religious education: students often feel ill‑equipped to engage cultural debates about gender and sexuality because they notice contradictions or gaps between scientific understandings (biology, psychology), philosophical anthropology, and Church teaching. The UST program seeks to ground discussions of gender and sexuality in robust theological and anthropological tradition while engaging contemporary science.

    What do I think is key here? Balance. It’s dangerous when any one dimension dominates -if theology ignores science, or science ignores ethics/spiritual formation. These programs are experiments in harmony: cultivating leaders who can speak with intellectual depth and compassionate clarity.

  • Myth, Ritual, and Identity: The Anthropology of Religious Festivals

    One of my favorite areas in anthropology is exploring how religious festivals shape identity, memory, and community cohesion. Rituals are not just symbolic; they’re social glue. I mean why else would cultural traditions remain such an important part of human societies given the technological and social advancement we’ve made since the inception of these rituals?

    Take, for instance, festivals tied to harvests, lunar calendars, or historical remembrance. Anthropologists study how these rituals reproduce collective narratives: who we are, our origins, our values. They also mark liminality -times when ordinary social structures loosen, allowing inversion (e.g. carnival traditions), renewal, or transformation.

    I’ve observed in case studies (across Latin America, Africa, Asia) that festivals often serve double roles: maintaining continuity (tradition, ritual forms) and offering space for innovation (performance, new participants, hybrid practices). When diasporic communities celebrate traditional festivals in new countries, those rituals become sites of negotiation: between heritage, adaptation, assimilation.

    From theology, ritual is also sacramental: material, sensory, textual. They overlap how people feel, sing, eat, pray, and that matters deeply. Festival anthropology helps us see religion not only as belief but embodied practice.

  • Cultural Relativism vs Universalism: Navigating Moral Anthropology

    One tension that always intrigues me is between cultural relativism (the idea that moral values and practices are meaningful only within cultural contexts) and universalism (some moral truths are common to all humans). In anthropology, this is central: when do we respect cultural difference, and when do we say a practice violates universal human rights?

    For example, anthropologists study rituals or practices that from outside seem oppressive (e.g. female genital cutting, child marriage). Cultural relativists argue that condemning such practices without understanding their role in local social structure can be paternalistic and destructive. Universalists counter that some harms are too great to be tolerated, regardless of cultural meaning.

    I’ve found that useful frameworks often try to balance: engaging deeply with local meanings, listening to those inside the culture, and only speaking for change when harm is acknowledged and alternatives are locally viable. Tools like participatory research or collaborative anthropology help.

    Thinking about theology here adds another dimension: many religious traditions claim universal moral norms. When anthropology interacts with theology or ethics, the challenge becomes honoring both particular cultural expressions and shared human dignity.