Paper short abstract:

By exploring the phenomena of liminality, embodiment, and communitas, I propose a Neo-Marxist interpretation of religion, one which enables both human geographers and social anthropologists to investigate the cathartic and affective function of religious ritual for marginalised demographics.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects my current PhD project in human geography and social anthropology. Specifically, I present an interdisciplinary investigation into how queer Jews negotiate spaces of liminality, oppression, and reconciliation through the articulation of both queer and Jewish identities. I develop Myerhoff (1974; 1978) and Turner (1996) to argue that the performance of religion, punctuated by prescribed rites de passage and rites d'intensification (van Gennep 1960; Davies 2011), enables queer Jews to navigate the liminal spaces of postsecular Britain via the construction of communitas. In other words, I argue that the embodiment of ethnoreligious-specific rituals results in the manifestation of domestic religion, thus connecting ritual subjects with the highest ideals of the collectivity and promoting intense feelings of camaraderie amongst them.

This results in a particularly intense and emotional manifestation of sacred identity politics, one which takes seriously the kinaesthetic, cathartic, and embodied functions of religion for marginalised peoples in liminal contexts (Myerhoff 1975; Hall 2016; Turner 2019). Thus, the performance of rites de passage and rites d'intensification in this context exemplifies a neo-Marxist interpretation of religion which endures and subverts increasing Antisemiticm and Queerphobia (Home Office 2018). This paper draws upon pilot ethnographic methods conducted alongside queer Jewish communities in postsecular British spaces. It is through ethnography, I argue, that both geographers and anthropologists can explore the spatial and affective dimensions of religion, a prospect which offers ripe opportunity for further qualitative and collaborative enquiry.