Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at how Buryat Buddhism historically and in its new urban form has been an important axis of assembly in the immediate sense of gathering people and in providing a shared identity. It explores social and political potentialities of such gathering, particularly in contemporary Russia.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores the ways in which Buddhism provides a means of gathering in post-Soviet Buryatia. Across Asia, Buddhist monasteries have often been located out of the way, outside of cities. In its popular image, this religion is strongly associated with solitude, meditative practices, and monastic restraint. Indeed, much of Buddhist teaching involves solitary mindfulness and other practice. However, this widespread image of withdrawal obscures Buddhism as it is lived and practiced across Asia and the world. It is a prominent religion not just in remote retreats but also in the hustle and bustle of urban centers. Similarly, in Buryatia, the post-Soviet revival of Buddhism has involved not just its historical settings out in the steppe but also a strong presence in the city, which provides it with new forms of concentration, representation and visibility. This paper looks at the ways in which Buddhism both historically and in its new urban form has been an important axis of assembly both in the immediate sense of gathering people and in terms of providing a shared identity. It will explore social and political potentialities of such gathering, particularly in the context of contemporary Russia. The paper is based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Buryatia, conducted between 2015-2019.

Paper short abstract:

There is a rise of civic religious activities in post-socialist Eastern Europe. This paper draws attention to the growing faith-based grass roots activism among Georgian Muslims in Batumi (Georgia) and discusses an emerging urban citizenship among marginalized religious minorities.

Paper long abstract:

There is a rise of civic religious activities in post-socialist Eastern Europe and those faith-based grass roots movements, engagement, public initiatives and urban interventions that lead to controversial debates on citizen’s belonging and solidarities. They may mobilize religious and non-religious individuals for a variety of claims, innovations and for a change of existing orders.

This paper draws attention to the growing faith-based activism among Georgian Muslims in Batumi, a city on the Black Sea shore. A controversial case of the construction of a mosque in the city marked by Europeanization processes is not an isolated episode confined to Batumi, but goes back to a much longer dispute over the Georgianness of Georgian Muslims and should be located in a wider, global perspective. An emerging regional metropolises in the South Caucasus offer fruitful arenas for the study of the dynamics of religious freedom in those domains where religion is seen as a new source of national heritage, and where legal frameworks (i.e. laws on religious freedom) for minorities and their participation are not yet elaborated, or are constantly being negotiated and contested.

Religious activism is a new dynamic field that may be understood in post-Soviet societies in different ways; both in opposition to what conventionally is called civic activism and as part of these movements. Based on ethnographic study of religious pluralization in post-Soviet Georgia and elsewhere in the post-socialist societies, the paper discusses affective strategies and an emerging urban citizenship among marginalized religious minorities.

Paper short abstract:

The presentation seeks to elucidate the articulations between ecology and ethnicity that guide the Catholic Church socio-environmental policies in the Amazon and, thus, reposition it in the dispute for Brazilian civic-political space through the monumentality of the so-called “Indigenous Cathedral”

Paper long abstract:

My postdoctoral research project has as a privileged case of anthropological inquiry the processes of conception, formulation, construction and finishing of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes - known as the “Indigenous Cathedral” - and carried out by the Salesian Mission in the community of Maturacá (São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas, Brazil). With the hypothesis that from this temple an “ethnoecological religion” is made, my presentation will seek to elucidate the articulations between ecology and ethnicity that guide the socio-environmental policies carried out by the Catholic Church in the Amazon region. In doing so, my presentation aims to contribute to the elucidation of how the Catholic Church repositions itself in the competition for the Brazilian civic-political space, as an "ecological subject" who starts to defend new socio-environmental policies through a religious repertoire of "social justice" which articulates a certain “ecological imagination” to its consolidated theology of “inculturation”. Therefore, by electing the Indigenous Cathedral as the mediator of this articulation, it will be through the processes of construction and “public presence” of the new temple that I will demonstrate how Catholic convergences and divergences between notions of ethnicity and ecology materialize religiously on two levels – local and national - in this pluralistic society.

Paper short abstract:

My contribution is discussing an interview with a young German catholic theologist and anti-capitalist, focussing her community experiences, her faith and everyday practices. I will discuss what role the political and the religious dimensions are playing considering her critical and utopian ideas.

Paper long abstract:

My current ethnographic research investigates Muslim and Christian anti-capitalists and their practices and discourses in Germany. Within the scope of this speech, I will focus on just one interview with a catholic theologist and activist. Therewith I would like to contrast and discuss different approaches to the phenomena of religious anti-capitalism. One approach is taken out of the living religion debate and the other from social movement theory. With these concepts, I will discuss Sabrina’s highly reflexive and hybrid construction as a catholic theologist and anti-capitalist. I will observe her anti-capitalist practice, her argumentation and ideas, as well as her community activities. I will show that community, faith, and practice are the core elements of the self-construction, 1. as areligious person, 2. as an anti-capitalist and 3. as a religious anti-capitalist.

Sabrina is working for a charity based and independent Christian institute, which is oriented on liberal theology. This institute supports development policies and exchanges (especially with Latin America), Christian-Muslim exchange processes and furthermore accompanies sanctuaries (“Kirchenasyl”) in Germany. What forms of (collective) action are they preferring, how does she argue for their campaigns? Could we talk of a person, who is politically oriented and religious at the same time, by the same practices? I would like to examine her specific "nexus of doing and sayings" (Schatzki) to understand her idea and identity of Catholicism. I would furthermore like to highlight her concrete critics (against the capitalist system) and her utopian vision (how should the people organise the economy).