Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Anastasios Panagiotopoulos
(Department of Social Anthropology, University of Seville)
Eugenia Roussou (Centre for Research in Anthropology - CRIA, ISCTE-IUL, IN2PAST)
Send message to Convenors
- Chairs:
-
Anastasios Panagiotopoulos
(Department of Social Anthropology, University of Seville)
Eugenia Roussou (Centre for Research in Anthropology - CRIA, ISCTE-IUL, IN2PAST)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Thursday 25 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
We seek to explore diverse ethnographic accounts on how various contemporary religio-spiritual practices strive to develop techniques of emptying as their ultimate or ideal achievement. What one does so as not to be is the main “metaphysical” question for which we seek anthropological answers to.
Long Abstract:
As social scientists, we seem to place too much emphasis on identity formation and not so much on how identities are not always and necessarily something positively desired and actively sought after. This panel seeks to explore diverse ethnographic accounts on how various contemporary religio-spiritual practices strive to develop techniques of emptying as their ultimate or ideal achievement. When identity is perceived as being intrinsically attached to affliction, counter-efforts of non-identity are not only presented as the ideal “sacred” state, but also experientially sought after towards a sense of wellbeing. Sometimes, this is presented as a “mystical” or “esoteric” approach to truth within and beyond an established religious tradition or as a “spiritual” and therapeutic innovation of a return to a primordial essence, detached from this world’s identity fixations. We invite presentations which focus precisely on that, namely, detailed accounts on how some practices may have as a central objective to not just undo an identity to create another, but actively create “spaces”, “moments”, and experiences which desire to empty themselves from identity. Although this might sound counterintuitive, especially for Anthropology which seeks alterity precisely in “local” manifestations of identity, we claim that there are positive and potentially rewarding ways to ethnographically account for a variety of instances in which identity presents itself as a problem or a peril, and something to liberate oneself from – even if desperately, partially, momentarily, in a limited and not necessarily wholly successful way.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 25 July, 2024, -Anastasios Panagiotopoulos (Department of Social Anthropology, University of Seville)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation wishes to draw some broad lines of reflection upon two seemingly antithetical, but ultimately complementary, currents of contemporary religiosity. One instantiates an effort to fill in gaps in identity and another that actively strives for a gap of identity.
Paper long abstract:
Drawing from research on contemporary religiosity in Spain and Greece, which seeks to bypass religious institutions and others, such as biomedical, this presentation shall be engaging with two seemingly antithetical currents. A wealth of religio-spiritual practices seeks to reveal “hidden” knowledge about one’s biography, instantiating an effort to fill in gaps in one’s identity. At the same time and often, the same practices or the same religio-spiritual subjects also deal with techniques in which the Self is sought to be deconstructed, de-personalized, emptied from the contingency of biographical or social contextualization. The presentation shall be reflecting upon the complementarity of such seemingly antithetical currents and arguing that are both part of an existential quest of contemporary religio-spiritual subjects.
Nurit Zaidman
Paper long abstract:
The research focuses on self-spirituality premises that shape adherents’ identity construction, reconstruction, and deconstruction. The research is based on interviews with 50 people who are actively engaged in several of these New Age practices: channeling, shamanism, meditation, rebirthing, etc. We asked the participants “what is spirituality for you” and “how does spirituality relate to your identity?”. Data analysis revealed several interrelated themes. First: Inquiry and spiritual identity as an ongoing process. Example: “I don't think I have one identity. I think I have many, many, many layers, that every day I discover another stage and another stage, and it never ends…”. Second: Identity construction is challenged by spirituality. Example: “A lot of the way I did [on the spiritual path] was to understand what identity is and to allow it to be shed, to change it, not to cling to it so tightly”. Third: Spirituality challenges existing roles and identities. Example: “The spirituality comes to strengthen me as a free person, not as a wife of someone.” Fourth: Spirituality accepts multiple aspects of the self to coexist peacefully. Example: “I smiled at this figure [me] who moves between the 3 characters who are very, very different.” Discussion: The self is the object of self-awareness and continuous inquiry leading adherents to challenge their inclinations to various identities. As self-spirituality emphasizes the "whole person", one is able to accept a variety of manifestations of the self (Feminine and masculine, dark and light, spirit and body) and to emphasize balance over conflict.
Luis Muñoz Villalón (Universidad de Sevilla)
Paper short abstract:
Ignatius of Loyola defines the Third Method of Prayer (Spiritual Exercises). Physical, psychological and spiritual discipline are fundamental in this form of apophatic prayer-meditation: a movement of detachment, of emptying or knosis, leading to personal liberation and (dis)identification in God.
Paper long abstract:
During my autoethnographic research in search of contemporary spiritualities I ended up doing a course called Journeys of Experiencing God. It is the adaptation of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola to everyday life, without the need for a physical retreat. In those five years of radical participation I was able to see the importance of the Third Method of Prayer, which is important in Ignatian spirituality.
In this way, there are two apparently opposing movements: one marked by apophatic prayer, and the other, of the opposite quality, cataphatic prayer.
Therefore, in relation to the proposed theme of the metaphysics of non-identity, I will focus on the first prayer, that of negation. In it there is an attempt to empty, to search for an inner silence which is configured through the metaphor of the desert. Beyond becoming an intellectual exercise, the form of learning entails a process of physical-psychic-spiritual disciplining in which an act of detachment, of knosis, is promoted. In a change of forces, it is a matter of "letting oneself do" and not of doing, enabling access to the inner/inner knowledge of God.
The prayer by anhélito, described by Ignatius of Loyola, is a way of achieving this prayer, of approaching God through the conscious elimination of images, words, concepts and symbols, a concrete example of detachment that promotes a personal liberation channelled into "living in God's world".
Anna Krämer (University of Cologne)
Paper short abstract:
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in India in 2017/18 and 2023/24, the paper explores ways out of the dilemma of how to maneuver fieldwork and simultaneously follow the Guru to nothingness through the Path of Yoga as a spiritual body technique.
Paper long abstract:
The ‘Path of Yoga’ leads to attaining Moksha, a state of self-realization and full liberation from all sufferings. Although Yoga is conceived as ancient, unchanging Indian tradition that requires full dedication to its study as a lifelong endeavor, nowadays Yoga is open to everyone: Decontextualized as Global Yoga, it is made easy to consume by transnational cosmopolitans.
As its alleged place of origin, India's claim on spiritual authority and yogic authenticity led to a huge commercialization and certification boom in India that puts Yoga at the center of a global multi-billion-dollar wellness industry. At the same time, practicing Yoga promises to enable practitioners to reach a blissful state of mind and body.
Doing research on Yoga is full of contradictions: Surrendering to the native’s point of view, I would have to stop with my research on the conflict zones of Global Yoga. If I follow the instructions given by the Guru, I would have to drop all knowledge, all thoughts, and all cravings. And doing so, there is nothing left to write about because worldly matters and academic aspirations lose their meaning. If I as a researcher take my interlocutors and my field seriously, I have to ‘leave’ my role as a researcher with an academic mission to be accomplished behind.
Based on fieldwork conducted in India between 2017 - 2024, the paper explores ways out of this dilemma and discusses how doing fieldwork and simultaneously undoing the self with Yoga as spiritual body technique remains a worthwhile anthropological endeavor.
Debasmita Ghosh (Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar)
Paper short abstract:
This paper tries to understand how the shamans of the Lepcha community through their ritualistic practices are continuously engaged in creating and emptying social spaces and identities. This process is fluid and often shaped through social interactions within the indigenous community and beyond.
Paper long abstract:
The Kalimpong district of West Bengal, India is home to multiple ethnic and indigenous communities like the Lepchas, Sherpas and the Nepalis. The Lepchas or the “Mutanchi Rumkup Rongkup” claim indigeneity to the region which is imagined as “Mayal-Lyang”. The indigenous Lepcha religion which is monotheistic revolves around offerings to Idbu-Dibu-Rum or the Creator while it has aspects that are rooted in the local physical and the cultural space. This paper discusses the idea of religiosity and ritualistic practices by the Mun-Boongthing or Lepcha shamans which shapes spaces going beyond community identities. The Mun-Boongthing are shamanistic healers as well as the spiritual guides not only for the Lepchas but also for the different ethnicities that inhabit the same space and place. While doing so they create social spaces where the Shaman empties their identity as just an indigenous person and creates a syncretic religious sphere where social interactions are continuously shaped. This paper examines the oral history of Shamanism and how the identity as a shaman evolves alongside with their indigenous identity. It focus on how ritualistic practices followed by Mun-Boongthings create a social space where various ethnic identities interact hence making indigenous spaces fluid and not rigid religious and social structures. Using ethnographic methods of interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, this study tries to decipher the relationship between the indigenous identity, religious practices and the social space that is created and shaped through ritualistic practices where the shamans often transcend beyond their community identity.
Eugenia Roussou (Centre for Research in Anthropology - CRIA, ISCTE-IUL, IN2PAST)
Paper short abstract:
Based on the project ReSpell, the paper places emphasis on the elastic nature of contemporary religio-spiritual identities, and the processes of emptying, filling and/or transforming them via vernacular practices that are directly connected to contemporary religiosity, healing and wellbeing.
Paper long abstract:
Placing analytical emphasis on the elastic nature of contemporary religio-spiritual identities, this paper aims to explore the processes of emptying, filling and/or transforming them via vernacular practices that are directly connected to contemporary religiosity, healing and wellbeing during and post-COVID-19 in southern Europe. The ethnographic research and data collection are based on the project ‘ReSpell: Religion, Spirituality and Wellbeing. A Comparative Approach of Transreligiosity and Crisis in Southern Europe ((FCT grant reference: 2022.01229.PTDC). The ethnographic locus is, more particularly, the southern European countries of Portugal and Greece, where comparative research has been conducted in the context of the project in order to study the transreligious aspect of contemporary religiosity, healing and wellbeing. More particularly, attention will be paid to religio-spiritual practices that are directly connected to healing during the pandemic of COVID-19 but also beyond it, which range from traditional religious healing to New Age and holistic therapies. What kind of emptying does it occur and what kind of elasticities are involved in the process? How do these wellness practices transgress boundaries between rural and urban areas, between religion and spirituality, between biomedical and alternative therapeutic discourses and ideologies? How are religio-spiritual identities done and undone in this context?
Alice Gaya (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the complex nature of identity dynamics within mixed Arab and Jewish families in the context of conflictual Israeli societies. Based on my thesis on "Identity Construction Processes among Mixed Families in Conflictual Societies: The Case of Arab and Jewish Families in Israel," this paper highlights a unique aspect related to individuals in these families who deliberately reject associations with religious identities.
Amidst the complexities of identity-based conflicts, these family members navigate paths that diverge from the customary pursuit of affiliation. Their deliberate disengagement from religious identities serves as a means of liberation from the perceived afflictions associated with identity. This pursuit of emptiness signifies a creation of spaces and experiences liberated from the confines of identity fixations.
This paper wishes to contribute to a broader discourse on identity by spotlighting how mixed Arab and Jewish families in conflictual societies challenge and, at times, reject established identity norms. The investigation into non-identity pursuits enriches our understanding of identity dynamics, offering alternative avenues for well-being and self-liberation within deeply entrenched social conflicts. Through nuanced ethnographic accounts, this presentation aims to show the complexities of identity among these families, offering insightful perspectives on identity construction processes in conflict-ridden contexts.
Marta Songin-Mokrzan (University of Lodz) Michal Mokrzan (University of Wrocław)
Paper long abstract:
This presentation explores the practices advocated by various contemporary spiritual teachers who highlight the importance of attending to the "spaces" in between thoughts, emotions, and sensations as a pathway to transcend conceptual identity. I will specifically focus on the diverse self-inquiry and bodily techniques put forth by these spiritual leaders and examine how these techniques manifest in the practices of their followers. Applying a phenomenological approach, I aim to reflect on how, by navigating the spaces "in-between," these techniques provide insights into experiencing the self beyond conventional definitions and into the nature of reality itself. Additionally, I intend to delve into the transformative aspects of these explorations.
Ankita Chandranath (Rutgers University)
Paper long abstract:
This paper ethnographically investigates Rohingya 'statelessness' by examining the Tablighi Jamaat’s revivalist spiritualism among Rohingya refugees in the National Capital Region of India. Using the conceptual lens of “emptying” to understand the transient de-subjectification of the stateless Rohingya Muslims, I attempt to show how one of the most persecuted people in the world today seeks dignity in exile. Rohingya refugeehood, which is rooted in the Tablighi revivalist paradigm, focuses on interiorizing their struggles to be able to shed worldly attachments while reconstituting pious selfhood that is modeled on the Prophet. Such willful 'self-emptying' through ritual enactments of proselytized worship powerfully inverts an engulfing alienation amidst the brutal loss of all familiar identity coordinates in their country of asylum. While Tablighi devotion channels their stateless uncertainties towards a renewed and sacred purpose, it provides relief from an agonized identity through a vivid rupture in their present suffering.
Yet tensions remain as Rohingya belonging also signifies avoidance of assimilation with host cultures. This paper examines such complex entanglements between religious de-subjectification and persisting liminal and geopolitical dislocation. While Rohingya Muslims achieve temporary dignity in belonging to the 80 million-strong international revivalist movement, defined by enduring faith linkages beyond lands or ethnicities, the scope of refuge may ultimately be ephemeral without ceding refugee isolation. By investigating conceptual interplays between ritualized self-emptying, identity negotiation, and quests for rootedness amongst deterritorialized peoples, this paper aims to expand anthropological understandings of what shared piety provides persecuted people living in between lands, identities and hegemonic socio-political formations.