This article focuses on subjectivity in the ethnography of religion by considering the multiplicity of subjectivity and their relationalities, drawing from the author’s ethnographic encounter with the orisha Oshun in Trinidad. This reflection on the implications of taking seriously the spectral or spirit, in their many forms and aspects, as active agents involves the expansion of subjectivity and the relational aspects of inter-subjectivity from the singular to the multiple. Written from a purposefully provocative compound subject position of “I/we”, this article asks that ethnographers of religion grapple with the offerings of ontologies outside the Western “normative” intellectual tradition. I/we offer that this shift will impact our engagements with the people and communities that we work with, expanding our capacity to share multiple worlds and our ability to engage numerous theorizations.
{"title":"Subjectivity","authors":"N. F. Castor","doi":"10.1558/firn.22605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.22605","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on subjectivity in the ethnography of religion by considering the multiplicity of subjectivity and their relationalities, drawing from the author’s ethnographic encounter with the orisha Oshun in Trinidad. This reflection on the implications of taking seriously the spectral or spirit, in their many forms and aspects, as active agents involves the expansion of subjectivity and the relational aspects of inter-subjectivity from the singular to the multiple. Written from a purposefully provocative compound subject position of “I/we”, this article asks that ethnographers of religion grapple with the offerings of ontologies outside the Western “normative” intellectual tradition. I/we offer that this shift will impact our engagements with the people and communities that we work with, expanding our capacity to share multiple worlds and our ability to engage numerous theorizations.","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48948309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thomas, Aled. 2021. Free Zone Scientology: Contesting the Boundaries of a New Religion. London: Bloomsbury. 190 pp. ISBN: 978-1-3501-8254-7. £85.00 (hbk).
{"title":"Thomas, Aled. 2021. Free Zone Scientology: Contesting the Boundaries of a New Religion.","authors":"Edward Graham-Hyde","doi":"10.1558/firn.23034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.23034","url":null,"abstract":"Thomas, Aled. 2021. Free Zone Scientology: Contesting the Boundaries of a New Religion. London: Bloomsbury. 190 pp. ISBN: 978-1-3501-8254-7. £85.00 (hbk).","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48497900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jewdokimow, Marcin. 2020. A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach, translated by Grzegorz Czwemiel. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW. 279 pp. ISBN: 978-83-8090-704-1. Free ebook at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339536661_A_Monastery_in_a_Sociological_Perspective_-_Seeking_for_a_New_Approach
{"title":"Jewdokimow, Marcin. 2020. A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach, translated by Grzegorz Czwemiel.","authors":"C. Cusack","doi":"10.1558/firn.23033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.23033","url":null,"abstract":"Jewdokimow, Marcin. 2020. A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach, translated by Grzegorz Czwemiel. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW. 279 pp. ISBN: 978-83-8090-704-1. Free ebook at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339536661_A_Monastery_in_a_Sociological_Perspective_-_Seeking_for_a_New_Approach","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46015438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barnett, John. 2021. Christian and Sikh: A Practical Theology of Multiple Religious Participation. Durham: Sacristy Press. viii + 196 pp. ISBN: 978-1-78959-145-3. £19.99 (pbk).
{"title":"Barnett, John. 2021. Christian and Sikh: A Practical Theology of Multiple Religious Participation","authors":"Angela Jagger","doi":"10.1558/firn.23031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.23031","url":null,"abstract":"Barnett, John. 2021. Christian and Sikh: A Practical Theology of Multiple Religious Participation. Durham: Sacristy Press. viii + 196 pp. ISBN: 978-1-78959-145-3. £19.99 (pbk).","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46827384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mirsky, Yehudah. 2021. Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865–1904. Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press. xix + 392 pp. ISBN: 978-1618119551. US$30.99 (pbk).
{"title":"Mirsky, Yehudah. 2021. Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865–1904.","authors":"N. Simms","doi":"10.1558/firn.23037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.23037","url":null,"abstract":"Mirsky, Yehudah. 2021. Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865–1904. Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press. xix + 392 pp. ISBN: 978-1618119551. US$30.99 (pbk).","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48768654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A significant challenge for ethnographers since the 1980s has been how to name their relationships to the people with whom and about whom they produce knowledge. Following critiques of how the term “informant” encodes and reproduces colonial power dynamics, ethnographers have sought alternative language to describe fieldwork-based relations. This article examines one of the most commonly used terms—“interlocutor”—and considers the implications of adopting a word that emphasizes voice and speech over embodied participation. “Interlocutor” is appealing to contemporary scholars because it signals respect for the people we work with using a vocabulary that reflects modern secular ideologies. Yet, research that advances decolonial goals may depend less on transforming styles of ethnographic representation than on opening the ethnographer and ethnographic inquiry to other ways of knowing and being, via embodied experience and relational practices. When ethnographers of religion engage the people we work with primarily as voices we set ourselves up for misunderstanding and miss opportunities to trouble imperial structures of knowledge.
{"title":"Interlocutors","authors":"L. Leve","doi":"10.1558/firn.22603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.22603","url":null,"abstract":"A significant challenge for ethnographers since the 1980s has been how to name their relationships to the people with whom and about whom they produce knowledge. Following critiques of how the term “informant” encodes and reproduces colonial power dynamics, ethnographers have sought alternative language to describe fieldwork-based relations. This article examines one of the most commonly used terms—“interlocutor”—and considers the implications of adopting a word that emphasizes voice and speech over embodied participation. “Interlocutor” is appealing to contemporary scholars because it signals respect for the people we work with using a vocabulary that reflects modern secular ideologies. Yet, research that advances decolonial goals may depend less on transforming styles of ethnographic representation than on opening the ethnographer and ethnographic inquiry to other ways of knowing and being, via embodied experience and relational practices. When ethnographers of religion engage the people we work with primarily as voices we set ourselves up for misunderstanding and miss opportunities to trouble imperial structures of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49094503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pilgrimage tourism is a growing phenomenon in Britain. Across the last few decades it has inspired the construction of pilgrimage trails—frequently named after saints—in the region identified as “Celtic Britain”. Many of these trails link together well-documented artefacts, such as landscape monuments and church buildings, which act as waypoints or stations, along routes inspired by narrative models of pilgrimage. There is considerable interest in studying the reception of such data through their use in trails. Questions of historicity arise from claims made for the nature of early medieval Christianity. Although deconstructing these claims could seem to be mainly an academic priority, it may also contribute to diversifying the visitor experience over the longer term. The use of scholarly data in pilgrimage trails can also serve as a measure of the impact of religious history research upon economic and parochial life.
{"title":"Going Around and Connecting Dots","authors":"J. Wooding","doi":"10.1558/firn.21202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.21202","url":null,"abstract":"Pilgrimage tourism is a growing phenomenon in Britain. Across the last few decades it has inspired the construction of pilgrimage trails—frequently named after saints—in the region identified as “Celtic Britain”. Many of these trails link together well-documented artefacts, such as landscape monuments and church buildings, which act as waypoints or stations, along routes inspired by narrative models of pilgrimage. There is considerable interest in studying the reception of such data through their use in trails. Questions of historicity arise from claims made for the nature of early medieval Christianity. Although deconstructing these claims could seem to be mainly an academic priority, it may also contribute to diversifying the visitor experience over the longer term. The use of scholarly data in pilgrimage trails can also serve as a measure of the impact of religious history research upon economic and parochial life.","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42348272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the role of traditional festivals in citizens’ consciousness of identity, solidarity and integration, with particular attention to the Ode festival, which is dedicated to the worship of the Obalatan deity in Oye-Ekiti. It supplements the scant literature on traditional festivals that have fostered social solidarity and intergroup relations through cultural identity among the Yorùbá people of southwest Nigeria. The study harnesses sociology, cultural anthropology and historical research methodology resources, including oral interviews, participant observation, photography, and video and tape recordings to document and interpret its data. The article investigates how the Ode festival fosters identity and solidarity among the people. It identifies the roles of religious festival performance, liturgy and rituals in terms of socio-cultural values, integration, and engaging identity. It is noted that the festival is the core of Oye people’s life, as it promotes solidarity, values, cooperation, relationships, and has functioned as a primary marker of the social and cultural identity of the people over time. It is a traditional and long-established festival that renews and expresses Oye kinship values and identity, and could be employed in significant new initiatives to promote national value, integration and unity.
{"title":"Ode Festival","authors":"K. J. Onipede, O. F. Phillips","doi":"10.1558/firn.21293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.21293","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the role of traditional festivals in citizens’ consciousness of identity, solidarity and integration, with particular attention to the Ode festival, which is dedicated to the worship of the Obalatan deity in Oye-Ekiti. It supplements the scant literature on traditional festivals that have fostered social solidarity and intergroup relations through cultural identity among the Yorùbá people of southwest Nigeria. The study harnesses sociology, cultural anthropology and historical research methodology resources, including oral interviews, participant observation, photography, and video and tape recordings to document and interpret its data. The article investigates how the Ode festival fosters identity and solidarity among the people. It identifies the roles of religious festival performance, liturgy and rituals in terms of socio-cultural values, integration, and engaging identity. It is noted that the festival is the core of Oye people’s life, as it promotes solidarity, values, cooperation, relationships, and has functioned as a primary marker of the social and cultural identity of the people over time. It is a traditional and long-established festival that renews and expresses Oye kinship values and identity, and could be employed in significant new initiatives to promote national value, integration and unity.","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48664767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ros Aiza Mohd Mokhtar, Abd Hakim Mohad, Mohd Azhar Ibrahim Residi, K. Muda, Siti Nor Azhani Mohd Tohar
The Semelai are a proto-Malay Orang Asli tribe settled around Negeri Sembilan and Pahang, Malaysia. Their settlements in Negeri Sembilan are in Sungai Lui village and Sungai Sampo village in Jempol. A few of their number also settled in some areas in Bera, Pahang. A majority of this community still adhere to ancestral faiths, although some have converted to Islam since the 1990s. At the same time, practices introduced by a Buddhist shaman took root among the community over the last thirteen years. This article discusses the religious beliefs and practices of this community, especially among Muslim adherents. The study uses a qualitative approach through data collection via interviews with key informants in Sungai Lui village, Jempol. The data were later analysed through a descriptive interpretive method, and the research found that syncretism spread among the belief practices of the Semelai Muslims in Sungai Lui village following the exploits of a Buddhist shaman that succeeded in curing the chronic disease of a villager. At the same time, they still practise inherited customs and wisdoms from animist times, even after their conversion to Islam.
{"title":"Religious Syncretism among the Semelai Orang Asli Muslims in Sungai Lui Village, Malaysia","authors":"Ros Aiza Mohd Mokhtar, Abd Hakim Mohad, Mohd Azhar Ibrahim Residi, K. Muda, Siti Nor Azhani Mohd Tohar","doi":"10.1558/firn.21248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.21248","url":null,"abstract":"The Semelai are a proto-Malay Orang Asli tribe settled around Negeri Sembilan and Pahang, Malaysia. Their settlements in Negeri Sembilan are in Sungai Lui village and Sungai Sampo village in Jempol. A few of their number also settled in some areas in Bera, Pahang. A majority of this community still adhere to ancestral faiths, although some have converted to Islam since the 1990s. At the same time, practices introduced by a Buddhist shaman took root among the community over the last thirteen years. This article discusses the religious beliefs and practices of this community, especially among Muslim adherents. The study uses a qualitative approach through data collection via interviews with key informants in Sungai Lui village, Jempol. The data were later analysed through a descriptive interpretive method, and the research found that syncretism spread among the belief practices of the Semelai Muslims in Sungai Lui village following the exploits of a Buddhist shaman that succeeded in curing the chronic disease of a villager. At the same time, they still practise inherited customs and wisdoms from animist times, even after their conversion to Islam.","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46218230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Prayer is a performative act to construct religious identity, express faith in God and sense of belonging to the community. In Judaism, reciting the Sh’ma Yisrael prayer is one of the most important commandments which identifies commitment and belief. It is practiced by the worshiper twice a day. According to the Jewish law, women are not obligated to recite the Sh’ma, but non-Orthodox communities, which support gender equality, view this issue differently and promote their participation. In this ethnographic study, I demonstrate how Sh’ma Yisrael prayer, conducted by women and LGBTQ members in Reform Jewish congregations, is constructed as a performance of gender-sexual recognition and empowerment. By changing the text of the prayer, experiencing the setting, and performing various bodily gestures, this religious declaration is charged with a political call for gender equality. Reciting the traditional prayer is not only dedicated to express religiosity or faith, but also an egalitarian ideology of excluded sexual-gender identities and life experiences. It transforms the focus from God to the self.
{"title":"Ethnography of the Sh’ma Yisrael Prayer","authors":"Elazar Ben-Lulu","doi":"10.1558/firn.20949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.20949","url":null,"abstract":"Prayer is a performative act to construct religious identity, express faith in God and sense of belonging to the community. In Judaism, reciting the Sh’ma Yisrael prayer is one of the most important commandments which identifies commitment and belief. It is practiced by the worshiper twice a day. According to the Jewish law, women are not obligated to recite the Sh’ma, but non-Orthodox communities, which support gender equality, view this issue differently and promote their participation. In this ethnographic study, I demonstrate how Sh’ma Yisrael prayer, conducted by women and LGBTQ members in Reform Jewish congregations, is constructed as a performance of gender-sexual recognition and empowerment. By changing the text of the prayer, experiencing the setting, and performing various bodily gestures, this religious declaration is charged with a political call for gender equality. Reciting the traditional prayer is not only dedicated to express religiosity or faith, but also an egalitarian ideology of excluded sexual-gender identities and life experiences. It transforms the focus from God to the self.","PeriodicalId":41468,"journal":{"name":"Fieldwork in Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42327683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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