Full Description
A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion presents a collection of original, ethnographically-informed essays that explore the variety of beliefs, practices, and religious experiences in the contemporary world and asks how to think about religion as a subject of anthropological inquiry. * Presents a collection of original, ethnographically-informed essays exploring the wide variety of beliefs, practices, and religious experiences in the contemporary world * Explores a broad range of topics including the perspectivism debate, the rise of religious nationalism, reflections on religion and new media, religion and politics, and ideas of self and gender in relation to religious belief * Includes examples drawn from different religious traditions and from several regions of the world * Features newly-commissioned articles reflecting the most up-to-date research and critical thinking in the field, written by an international team of leading scholars * Adds immeasurably to our understanding of the complex relationships between religion, culture, society, and the individual in today s world
Contents
List of Figures viii Notes on Contributors ix Preface and Acknowledgments xiv What Is Religion for Anthropology? And What Has Anthropology Brought to Religion ? 1 Michael Lambek Part I Worlds and Intersections 33 1 Presence, Attachment, Origin: Ontologies of Incarnates 35 Philippe Descola 2 The Dynamic Reproduction of Hunter-Gatherers Ontologies and Values 50 Sylvie Poirier 3 Cohabiting an Interreligious Milieu: Reflections on Religious Diversity 69 Veena Das 4 Religious and Legal Particularism and Universality 85 Winnifred Fallers Sullivan Part II Epistemologies 101 5 Are Ancestors Dead? 103 Rita Astuti and Maurice Bloch 6 Coping with Religious Diversity: Incommensurability and Other Perspectives 118 Eva Spies 7 Varieties of Semiotic Ideology in the Interpretation of Religion 137 Michael Lambek 8 Religion and the Truth of Being 154 Paul Stoller Part III Time and Ethics 169 9 Ethics 171 James Laidlaw 10 The Social and Political Theory of the Soul 189 Heonik Kwon 11 Ghosts and Ancestors in the Modern West 202 Fenella Cannell 12 The Work of Memory: Ritual Laments of the Dead and Korea s Cheju Massacre 223 Seong-nae Kim 13 The Globalization of Pentecostalism and the Limits of Globalization 239 Girish Daswani Part IV Practices and Mediations 255 14 Food, Life, and Material Religion in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity 257 Tom Boylston 15 Trading with God: Islam, Calculation, Excess 274 Amira Mittermaier 16 Ritual Remains: Studying Contemporary Pilgrimage 294 Simon Coleman 17 Mediation and Immediacy: Sensational Forms, Semiotic Ideologies, and the Question of the Medium 309 Birgit Meyer Part V Languages and Conversions 327 18 Translating God s Words 329 Wendy James 19 Christianity as a Polemical Concept 344 Pamela E. Klassen 20 Reconfi guring Humanity in Amazonia: Christianity and Change 363 Aparecida Vilaca 21 Language in Christian Conversion 387 William F. Hanks Part VI Persons and Histories 407 22 Canonizing Soviet Pasts in Contemporary Russia: The Case of Saint Matrona of Moscow 409 Jeanne Kormina 23 Reflections on Death, Religion, Identity, and the Anthropology of Religion 425 Ellen Badone 24 Spirits and Selves Revisited: Zar and Islam in Northern Sudan 444 Janice Boddy Part VII Powers 469 25 The Political Landscape of Early State Religions 471 Edward Swenson 26 A Syariah Judiciary as a Global Assemblage: Islamization and Beyond in a Southeast Asian Context 489 Michael G. Peletz 27 The Catholicization of Neoliberalism 507 Andrea Muehlebach 28 The Sacred and the City: Modernity, Religion, and the Urban Form in Central Africa 528 Filip De Boeck Index 549
