Mythology & Anthropology of Plants
A comprehensive introduction on the different roles of plants in past and present religious cultures worldwide through up-to-date anthropological, ethnographic and religious literature.
PRICE: 95€ (approx. $95)
LANGUAGE: The course is held in English language
SUBTITLES: All videos include English subtitles (closed captions)
LEVEL: The course is designed at an introductory level
PREREQUISITES: The course does not require any precedent knowledge or requisites
SCHEDULE: Lessons will be released weekly after start. Enroll & start following the course any time
STRUCTURE: The course is stuctured in 10 Lessons, subdivided in a variable number of Sections plus other studying material (articles, bibliography, audio etc.). Each Section includes one video. In order to proceed within the course you must complete all Sections of each Lesson including a small assessment quiz. Lessons are released one every week after start
LENGTH: To complete the entire course are required approx. 15 hours (videos + readings). Bear in mind that each lesson will be available one week from another
Approx. 10 hours of HD video lessons
Downloadable readings & other study material
Unlimited access to the course for 1 year (365 days)
Full access from any device
Step-by-step quizzes to assess your comprehension and progress
Community forum to discuss topics & issues with the other students
CAMNES Certificate of Attendance upon successful completion
Mythology & Anthropology of Plants: Presentation of the Course
Bibliographical References
Suggested Readings
L1S1 - Introduction to the course
L1S2 - Life of Trees in History and Anthropology of Religions ‒ Old Animism
L1S3 - Life of Trees in History and Anthropology of Religions – New Animism
L1S4 - The Social and Religious Life of Plants: some bibliography
“Animism” Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology (Bird-David)
The New Animism and Its Challenges to the Study of Religion (Laack)
We Call It Tradition (Hogan)
Quiz - Lesson 1
L2S1 - The Cosmic Tree and the Tree of Life
L2S2 - Trees of Life and Trees of Knowledge: Scandinavian, Celtic and Greek worlds
L2S3 - Trees of Life (and Death)
L2S4 - Trees of Immortality
Sacred Trees and Plant Persons (Perdibon)
Scotland's Sacred Tree: The Fortingall (Yew Cusack)
Quiz - Lesson 2
L3S1 - Sacred Plants and Deities
L3S2 - Sacred plants and deities (continuation)
L3S3 - Trees and other-than-human beings: ghosts, ancestors, animals and other beings
L3S4 - Places of mystical, spiritual transformations, divine epiphanies, revelations..and the birth of sanctuaries and pilgrimage sites
Rituals, ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East (Dafni)
Quiz Lesson 3
L4S1 - The body of the deities
L4S2 - Tree worship
L4S3 - Ritual roles: magical sticks, smoldering and ritual bonfires
Folklore Fragments Podcast: Sacred Trees in Folk Tradition (University College Dublin)
On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East (Dafni)
Quiz Lesson 4
L5S1 - Brief history of the vegetal soul
L5S2 - Botanical Sentience and Personhood in Religions
L5S3 - Kinship
L5S4 - Mother Trees
Drawing out the iconic in the aniconic: worship of neem trees and Govardhan stones in Northern India (Haberman)
Indigenous Animism, Plant Persons and Respectful Action (Hall, Plants As Persons)
Quiz - Lesson 5
L6S1 - Inter-species communication(s)
L6S2 - Voices & teachings of plants
L6S3 - Human like legendary trees and plants
L6S4 - Floral Metamorphosis
L6S5 - Arboreal Metamorphosis
We have to rescue animism (Spiriterritory, Luna)
The Concept of Plants as Teachers among four Mestizo Shamans of Iquitos, Northeastern Perú (Luna)
Quiz - Lesson 6
L7S1 - Sentience, violence and sacredness
L7S2 - From sacred forests to destruc%on of the forests: Gilgamesh and the Cedar Forest
L7S3 - Sacred Groves in pre-Christian/Pagan and Early Christian Europe
L7S4 - Forests in Indian literature and tradition
L7S5 - Indigenous forest knowledge, preservation and care
Tears in the Forest (Haberman)
Quiz - Lesson 7
L8S1 - On the footsteps of herbal/botanical knowledges. Brief history of herbal medicine
L8S2 - Magical and medical plants II. Plant spells
L8S3 - Psychoactive Plants
L8S4 - The herbs of the witch
Hypnotica Iranica: Zoroaatrian Ecstasy in the West (Haberman)
Chapters of Pscychoactive Botanicals (Shepard)
Psychoactives Botanicals in Ritual, Religion and Shamanism (Shepard)
Quiz - Lesson 8
L9S1 - Brief history of an ancient motif/alliance
L9S2 - Braiding plants and women stories: Europe. Christianity and folk-religion/medicine
L9S3 - Braiding plants and women stories: Europe II. Traditional botanical knowledge and eco-spiritualities
L9S4 - Braiding plants and women stories: Indigenous North America
Do Berries Listen? Berries as Indicators, Ancestors, and Agents in Canada's Oil Sands Region (Baker)
Indigenous place-thought & agency amongst humans and non-humans (Watts)
Recapping ‘First Nations: Ethical Landscapes, Sacred Plants’ (Humanities Institute)
Quiz - Lesson 9
L10S1 - Eco-philosophy I
L10S2 - Eco-philosophy II: Botanical Philosophy
L10S3 - Eco-criticism of the Plant Turn
L10S4 - From neurobiology of plants to ethno-botany
Persons as Plants: Ecopsychology and the return to the Dream of Nature (Gagliano)
Plants As Persons
Recreating a Place for Flourishing (Hall, Plants As Persons)
Quiz - Lesson 10
Course Assessment Quiz
Anna Perdibon