Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2023.070303
Johannes Quack, Mascha Schulz
People in South Asia who neither believe in god(s) nor engage in religious practices nevertheless often self-identify as Muslims or Hindus rather than—or in addition to—identifying as atheists. The situational and contextual dynamics generating such positionings have implications for the conceptualization of nonreligion and secular lives. Based on ethnographic research in India and Bangladesh and focusing on two individuals, we attend to embodied and more ambivalent modes of nonreligiosity. This enables us to understand nonreligion as situated social practices and beyond what is typically captured with the term ‘religion’. Studying nonreligion also where it is not visible as articulated conviction or identity not only contributes to accounting for the diversity of nonreligious configurations but also offers significant complementary insights.
{"title":"Who Counts as ‘None’?","authors":"Johannes Quack, Mascha Schulz","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2023.070303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.070303","url":null,"abstract":"People in South Asia who neither believe in god(s) nor engage in religious practices nevertheless often self-identify as Muslims or Hindus rather than—or in addition to—identifying as atheists. The situational and contextual dynamics generating such positionings have implications for the conceptualization of nonreligion and secular lives. Based on ethnographic research in India and Bangladesh and focusing on two individuals, we attend to embodied and more ambivalent modes of nonreligiosity. This enables us to understand nonreligion as situated social practices and beyond what is typically captured with the term ‘religion’. Studying nonreligion also where it is not visible as articulated conviction or identity not only contributes to accounting for the diversity of nonreligious configurations but also offers significant complementary insights.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"658 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76276922","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}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2023.070307
John Hagström, Jacob Copeman
This article outlines a conceptual dyad that maps onto a widespread preoccupation with the untangling and elimination of religious traces among avowedly nonreligious people: clarification and disposal. Clarification denotes the reworking of morality, ceremonial conduct, and artistic expression as endeavors that are essentially human or cultural and therefore only incidental to religious traditions. Disposal refers to practices that aim to remove that which is deemed religious and irrational. We suggest that dilemmas of clarification and disposal are felt by all self-consciously nonreligious people. Combining ethnographic research in India and a comparative engagement with findings from elsewhere, the article also demonstrates how clarification and disposal offer a corrective contribution to analytical languages in the study of nonreligion.
{"title":"Clarification and Disposal as Key Concepts in the Anthropology of Nonreligion","authors":"John Hagström, Jacob Copeman","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2023.070307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.070307","url":null,"abstract":"This article outlines a conceptual dyad that maps onto a widespread preoccupation with the untangling and elimination of religious traces among avowedly nonreligious people: clarification and disposal. Clarification denotes the reworking of morality, ceremonial conduct, and artistic expression as endeavors that are essentially human or cultural and therefore only incidental to religious traditions. Disposal refers to practices that aim to remove that which is deemed religious and irrational. We suggest that dilemmas of clarification and disposal are felt by all self-consciously nonreligious people. Combining ethnographic research in India and a comparative engagement with findings from elsewhere, the article also demonstrates how clarification and disposal offer a corrective contribution to analytical languages in the study of nonreligion.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"89 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88539841","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}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2023.070305
S. Binder
Drawing on theories of moral exemplarism and ethnographic research with an atheist movement in South India, this article explores how narratives of idealism and the Telugu concept of ‘ādarśam’ signal a distinct register of moral experience. By foregrounding the role of concrete interpersonal and affective relationships, the article complicates methodological approaches to the ethics of nonreligion that concentrate on forms of moral reasoning based on semiotic or ontological distinctions between religion and nonreligion. Rather than positing idealism as an intrinsic attribute of nonreligion, the article investigates ethnographically how atheist activists draw on different moral registers and ambivalent investments in the making and policing of boundaries between religion and nonreligion for making moral judgments and working out what it means to lead an idealist life.
{"title":"The ‘Ideal’ Atheist","authors":"S. Binder","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2023.070305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.070305","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on theories of moral exemplarism and ethnographic research with an atheist movement in South India, this article explores how narratives of idealism and the Telugu concept of ‘ādarśam’ signal a distinct register of moral experience. By foregrounding the role of concrete interpersonal and affective relationships, the article complicates methodological approaches to the ethics of nonreligion that concentrate on forms of moral reasoning based on semiotic or ontological distinctions between religion and nonreligion. Rather than positing idealism as an intrinsic attribute of nonreligion, the article investigates ethnographically how atheist activists draw on different moral registers and ambivalent investments in the making and policing of boundaries between religion and nonreligion for making moral judgments and working out what it means to lead an idealist life.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"85 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80010693","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}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2023.070302
Lena Richter
Looking at the diverse experiences of former Muslims shows that becoming and being nonreligious encompasses more than a rational one-time decision that can be studied from a mere ontological-cognitive perspective. It is deeply linked to personal experiences, relations, and emotions. While previous research has often focused on organized, coherent, and cognitive forms of nonreligion, more and more scholars have started to embrace material, embodied, and emotional aspects in their studies on nonreligion. This ongoing development can be described as turning toward a lived nonreligion framework that pays more attention to the everyday experiences of ‘ordinary’ nonbelievers. Applying this approach to the experiences of young Moroccan nonbelievers, I explore the extent to which the lived nonreligion framework manages to capture the ethnographic complexity that their narratives offer.
{"title":"What You Wear, What You Eat, and Whom You Love","authors":"Lena Richter","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2023.070302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.070302","url":null,"abstract":"Looking at the diverse experiences of former Muslims shows that becoming and being nonreligious encompasses more than a rational one-time decision that can be studied from a mere ontological-cognitive perspective. It is deeply linked to personal experiences, relations, and emotions. While previous research has often focused on organized, coherent, and cognitive forms of nonreligion, more and more scholars have started to embrace material, embodied, and emotional aspects in their studies on nonreligion. This ongoing development can be described as turning toward a lived nonreligion framework that pays more attention to the everyday experiences of ‘ordinary’ nonbelievers. Applying this approach to the experiences of young Moroccan nonbelievers, I explore the extent to which the lived nonreligion framework manages to capture the ethnographic complexity that their narratives offer.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"21 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72373015","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}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2023.070306
Laurel Zwissler
This project is based on fieldwork with members of The Satanic Temple (TST) in a mid-western, ‘Bible-belt’ state in the USA. Formed in 2013, TST identifies as a religion centered on eradicating Christian dominance of public space and is notorious for inserting a large Baphomet statue into debates around displays of Ten Commandments monuments. Members insist that TST is not a parody, but is a legitimate religion, with specific beliefs, ethical values, and practices, albeit a religion aimed at defending the nonreligious. Core beliefs include “non-theism,” hailing Satan not as an actual deity but as a symbol of rebellion against oppression. This article explores how TST’s constructions of the religious and the secular lead their protests against one to produce the other in specific ways, at times implicitly supporting Protestant normativity.
{"title":"Religiously Nonreligious","authors":"Laurel Zwissler","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2023.070306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.070306","url":null,"abstract":"This project is based on fieldwork with members of The Satanic Temple (TST) in a mid-western, ‘Bible-belt’ state in the USA. Formed in 2013, TST identifies as a religion centered on eradicating Christian dominance of public space and is notorious for inserting a large Baphomet statue into debates around displays of Ten Commandments monuments. Members insist that TST is not a parody, but is a legitimate religion, with specific beliefs, ethical values, and practices, albeit a religion aimed at defending the nonreligious. Core beliefs include “non-theism,” hailing Satan not as an actual deity but as a symbol of rebellion against oppression. This article explores how TST’s constructions of the religious and the secular lead their protests against one to produce the other in specific ways, at times implicitly supporting Protestant normativity.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79117166","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}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2023.070304
Pierre Hecker
This article explores the concept of resistance and hegemony in relation to atheism and nonreligion in Turkey. It highlights how the dominant discourse in Turkey commonly denies the existence of atheism and nonreligion while promoting the country’s Sunni Muslim identity as synonymous with being Turkish. Still, the article argues that a significant number of people in Turkey have left Islam in recent years. Leaving Islam can be risky and met with discrimination, hate speech, and even physical violence. The study highlights the difficult situation faced by nonbelievers who must navigate between personal convictions and societal expectations. It contends that being atheist and choosing not to conform to dominant religious norms represents a form of discursive resistance against the Sunni Islamic hegemony in Turkey. The article concludes by asserting that the nonperformance of religious rituals can be seen as a form of resistance and a challenge to the ruling elite’s claim to power.
{"title":"Resistance Through Nonperformance","authors":"Pierre Hecker","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2023.070304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2023.070304","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the concept of resistance and hegemony in relation to atheism and nonreligion in Turkey. It highlights how the dominant discourse in Turkey commonly denies the existence of atheism and nonreligion while promoting the country’s Sunni Muslim identity as synonymous with being Turkish. Still, the article argues that a significant number of people in Turkey have left Islam in recent years. Leaving Islam can be risky and met with discrimination, hate speech, and even physical violence. The study highlights the difficult situation faced by nonbelievers who must navigate between personal convictions and societal expectations. It contends that being atheist and choosing not to conform to dominant religious norms represents a form of discursive resistance against the Sunni Islamic hegemony in Turkey. The article concludes by asserting that the nonperformance of religious rituals can be seen as a form of resistance and a challenge to the ruling elite’s claim to power.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88049063","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2022.130109
D. G. Robertson
This article examines two categories in which claims of special knowledge are central: Gnosticism and conspiracy theories. In both cases, notions of what counts as ‘religion’ come into play in setting their boundaries, with only certain kinds of religious belief deemed as legitimate. Moreover, the category is privileged over the data. While these cases may be extreme, I contend that they point to a major failure of contemporary social sciences—a commitment to categories about data that leave us upholding the episteme that we should be critiquing.
{"title":"Analytic Categories and Claims of Special Knowledge","authors":"D. G. Robertson","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2022.130109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2022.130109","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines two categories in which claims of special knowledge are central: Gnosticism and conspiracy theories. In both cases, notions of what counts as ‘religion’ come into play in setting their boundaries, with only certain kinds of religious belief deemed as legitimate. Moreover, the category is privileged over the data. While these cases may be extreme, I contend that they point to a major failure of contemporary social sciences—a commitment to categories about data that leave us upholding the episteme that we should be critiquing.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73119981","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2022.130106
A. Bandak, S. Stjernholm
This article, which introduces a special collection of articles, is intended to invite scholarly reflection on the study of religion in the present day. We believe that a meaningful conversation about what happens when we engage religion for scholarly purposes forces us to consider the ways in which the very category ‘religion’ shapes our research interests and scholarly communities. A focus on ‘engagements’ is furthermore useful as we seek an open conversation about what is lost and what can be found in the translations and transitions between analytical categories and empirical findings. We contend that much can be learned by exploring what, exactly, is engaging us—and how we engage—in the study of religion. It is therefore the aim of this article and those that follow to participate in joint interdisciplinary thinking about the means, ends, methods, and results of academic analyses that deal with religions and religiosity.
{"title":"Limits, Genealogies, and Openings","authors":"A. Bandak, S. Stjernholm","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2022.130106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2022.130106","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article, which introduces a special collection of articles, is intended to invite scholarly reflection on the study of religion in the present day. We believe that a meaningful conversation about what happens when we engage religion for scholarly purposes forces us to consider the ways in which the very category ‘religion’ shapes our research interests and scholarly communities. A focus on ‘engagements’ is furthermore useful as we seek an open conversation about what is lost and what can be found in the translations and transitions between analytical categories and empirical findings. We contend that much can be learned by exploring what, exactly, is engaging us—and how we engage—in the study of religion. It is therefore the aim of this article and those that follow to participate in joint interdisciplinary thinking about the means, ends, methods, and results of academic analyses that deal with religions and religiosity.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90551762","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2022.130107
M. Scheer
Religion is often viewed as a subset of ‘culture’, that is, the two terms are often used interchangeably. At the same time, it is possible to view religion and culture as clearly distinct, perhaps even opposed to each other. This article ponders the ways in which what counts as religion in the present day is intertwined with a concept of culture. Each has an essentialist and postmodern variant, and how they are related, whether conflated or separated, carries normative claims about each. Bringing together theoretical insights on these two highly debated concepts, this piece offers an analysis of the nested indeterminacies between both and urges analytical attention toward them in the interplay of essentializing and de-essentializing practices.
{"title":"Culture and Religion","authors":"M. Scheer","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2022.130107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2022.130107","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Religion is often viewed as a subset of ‘culture’, that is, the two terms are often used interchangeably. At the same time, it is possible to view religion and culture as clearly distinct, perhaps even opposed to each other. This article ponders the ways in which what counts as religion in the present day is intertwined with a concept of culture. Each has an essentialist and postmodern variant, and how they are related, whether conflated or separated, carries normative claims about each. Bringing together theoretical insights on these two highly debated concepts, this piece offers an analysis of the nested indeterminacies between both and urges analytical attention toward them in the interplay of essentializing and de-essentializing practices.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91383620","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}
Pub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2022.130116
Andrea Priori
Despite the existence of a variegated literary tradition and the almost complete absence of field research on the subject, the notion of utopia in the Muslim world is generally associated with an ‘Islamic utopia’ that aims to reinstate the societal model of early Muslims. Based on ethnographic research among young Italian-Bangladeshis, this article suggests that ‘retro-utopia’ and religious repertoires more generally do not represent the only resources used by young people to imagine social change. The interlocutors put forth a variety of images of an ideal society that is ultimately structured according to a realism-messianism polarity. The youth use these images in an endeavor to make sense of their different positionalities and biographical trajectories, and the power relations experienced by themselves and the religious groups with which they are affiliated.
{"title":"A Not-so-Islamic Utopia","authors":"Andrea Priori","doi":"10.3167/arrs.2022.130116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2022.130116","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Despite the existence of a variegated literary tradition and the almost complete absence of field research on the subject, the notion of utopia in the Muslim world is generally associated with an ‘Islamic utopia’ that aims to reinstate the societal model of early Muslims. Based on ethnographic research among young Italian-Bangladeshis, this article suggests that ‘retro-utopia’ and religious repertoires more generally do not represent the only resources used by young people to imagine social change. The interlocutors put forth a variety of images of an ideal society that is ultimately structured according to a realism-messianism polarity. The youth use these images in an endeavor to make sense of their different positionalities and biographical trajectories, and the power relations experienced by themselves and the religious groups with which they are affiliated.","PeriodicalId":42823,"journal":{"name":"Religion and Society-Advances in Research","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87359491","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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