Course info

  • PRICE: 95€ (approx. $100)

  • 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

Watch a short intro to the course

The course includes:

  • 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

Course curriculum

    1. Mythology & Anthropology of Plants: Presentation of the Course

    1. Bibliographical References

    2. Suggested Readings

    1. L1S1 - Introduction to the course

    2. L1S2 - Life of Trees in History and Anthropology of Religions ‒ Old Animism

    3. L1S3 - Life of Trees in History and Anthropology of Religions – New Animism

    4. L1S4 - The Social and Religious Life of Plants: some bibliography

    5. “Animism” Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology (Bird-David)

    6. The New Animism and Its Challenges to the Study of Religion (Laack)

    7. We Call It Tradition (Hogan)

    8. Quiz - Lesson 1

    1. L2S1 - The Cosmic Tree and the Tree of Life

    2. L2S2 - Trees of Life and Trees of Knowledge: Scandinavian, Celtic and Greek worlds

    3. L2S3 - Trees of Life (and Death)

    4. L2S4 - Trees of Immortality

    5. Sacred Trees and Plant Persons (Perdibon)

    6. Scotland's Sacred Tree: The Fortingall (Yew Cusack)

    7. Quiz - Lesson 2

    1. L3S1 - Sacred Plants and Deities

    2. L3S2 - Sacred plants and deities (continuation)

    3. L3S3 - Trees and other-than-human beings: ghosts, ancestors, animals and other beings

    4. L3S4 - Places of mystical, spiritual transformations, divine epiphanies, revelations..and the birth of sanctuaries and pilgrimage sites

    5. Rituals, ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East (Dafni)

    6. Quiz Lesson 3

    1. L4S1 - The body of the deities

    2. L4S2 - Tree worship

    3. L4S3 - Ritual roles: magical sticks, smoldering and ritual bonfires

    4. Folklore Fragments Podcast: Sacred Trees in Folk Tradition (University College Dublin)

    5. On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East (Dafni)

    6. Quiz Lesson 4

About this course

  • €95,00
  • 77 lessons
  • 10.5 hours of video content
  • 10 lessons subdivided in 77 sections
  • More than 10 hours of full HD video content

Main learning outcomes

  • Anthropology

    Understand the mechanics behind the plant-human relationship, the ecology between man and flora

  • Religion

    Discover the symbolic values and ritual aspects of past and present religious traditions

  • History & Archaeology

    Learn about the botanical aspects of ancient and contemporary cultures

Meet your instructor

Senior Lecturer Anna Perdibon

She is a scholar in the fields of history and anthropology of religions. Her research journey started at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, where she graduated with a BA in Cultural Heritage, course in Near Eastern Archaeology (2009), and accomplished a MA in Ancient Civilizations (2012). She obtained her PhD in ancient Near Eastern religions and mythology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2019), with a dissertation turned into a book with the title Mountains and Trees, Rivers and Springs: Animistic Beliefs and Practices in Ancient Mesopotamian Religion (2019). She engages with the discussion about animism in the studies of religion and anthropology, ancient and contemporary conceptions, practices and representations of nature, eco-spiritualities, eco-cosmologies, and religion and gender. In particular, her research and teaching deal with mythology and anthropology of plants in ancient and contemporary religious cultures. She started collaborating with SoRS as assistant director in January 2021. Moreover, she is writer for online journals and blogs, where she talks about animism, art, ecology and storytelling.

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Begin your knowledge expansion on the relationship between humans and plants in order to better understand past and present cultural and religious traditions

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