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- Convenors:
-
Anna Niedźwiedź
(Jagiellonian University)
Thorsten Wettich (University of Bremen)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Religion
- Sessions:
- Thursday 24 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
The panel aims to discuss how human bodies are used and constructed in religious contexts and how these processes are connected with establishing, confirming but also transgressing, questioning, changing various taxonomies, hierarchies or rules. Ethnographic as well as theoretical papers are welcome
Long Abstract:
Anthropological theorizations of religion have long been shaped by Western dualistic approaches to spiritual and material, divine and sensual, mind and body. But numerous researchers have also been transgressing these divisions. Many ethnographic studies have been focusing on the body (or bodies) revealing its significance in the context of religious practices and imageries. Bodily classifications and elaborated rules related to corporal purity, taboos concerning certain bodies or their parts, the formation of bodily aesthetics and the variety of bodily techniques are now well established topics. Current approaches focus on the role of embodiment, the construction of religious realities in and through bodies, as well as questions about individual and collective agencies and identities. Bodies, used and constructed in religious contexts, refer to exact taxonomies, hierarchies and rules. They not only mirror social rules and social order but can also be used as tools challenging, transgressing and reformulating those rules.
This panel seeks to discuss these complex entanglements of human bodies via analysis of various corporeal rules created in religious contexts. These rules can refer to political and ethnic hierarchies, gender and generational divisions, class and economic orders. When discussing bodily rules, we propose to observe the dynamics between religious and non-religious entities, different religious groups or various formations within the same religious tradition, institutionalized and bottom-up approaches. We also encourage studies on the temporality of bodily rules applied in religious traditions, especially their changeability and creativity during the extraordinary time of the recent global pandemic or other crises.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 24 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses the intricate relations between bodies, clothes and religious rules in the context of the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana. It analyses how “Catholic fashion” is shaped, challenged and debated in the lives of contemporary Ghanaian Catholics.
Paper long abstract:
The 2018 MET exhibition titled “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” focussed on the intricate relations between bodies, clothes and religious rules in the context of the opulent material history of the Roman Catholic Church. The audience in New York could reflect on these relations while admiring vestments from the Vatican treasuries and contemporary haute couture designs inspired by “Catholic imagination”. The exhibition triggered a public and scholarly discussion about the theological background behind “Catholic fashion”. It also focussed on the bodily rules and customs created and implemented through promoting certain understanding of clothing by Catholicism globally and in various local settings. Discussion included topics like gender roles, patriarchal hierarchy, theological concept of incarnation and its impact on worshippers’ bodies, sexual rules and oppressions.
This paper takes inspiration from the above mentioned debate and develops further questions by relating them to the cultural context of a post-missionary, lived Catholicism in contemporary Ghana. What does “Catholic fashion” mean and what is its role in the lives of Ghanaian Catholics? How, for instance, has the concept of a “proper Christian dress,” which appeared in sub-Saharan Africa together with Christian missionary activities, developed and how does it influence today’s understanding of body and rules regulating sexuality, gender roles and hierarchies? How can dressing reflect the agency of lay men/women when confronted with criticism expressed by the clergy? How do the fashion rules relate to theological conceptualizations of the body and what does breaking and negotiating these rules mean in a religious environment?
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the ways Christianity was used in Northern Karelian charms to construct an image of the human body and of a well-ordered universe. When confronted to a crisis, the charmer used his words and his body to break the limits between worlds and to restore the order of the universe.
Paper long abstract:
The primary function of the practice of charms in northern Karelia was to establish a contact with the other world in order to have an influence on this world. Through the power of words, the charmer seeks in general to ensure the well-being of individual bodies and that of the community. Charm texts collected in the 19th century construct an image of the human body that is deeply affected by Christianity. Humans belong to the Christian sphere, while the causes of illnesses come from a non-Christian world. An illness appears, thus, as a transgression of the rules and order of the universe. During the charm performance, the charmer constructs a specific image of his own body, which is often a channel for the power of God, Jesus, or the Virgin Mary. The charmer breaks, thus, the barriers between worlds to communicate with the other world, with the aim of re-establishing the previous order.
Through a close reading of charm texts published in the volumes of the Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot, I explore how Christian motives were used to define the world in which the charmer is located, as well as the very bodies of the charmer and the patient. The practice of charms is to be considered in the context of vernacular Christianity, in dialogue with the rules and order established by the Church but also with the hierarchies imagined by collectors. The study of charms is, thus, a constant play with various hierarchies.
Paper short abstract:
Using the example of religious healing practices related to the cult of Saint Charbel and Saint Rita in Krakow, I am going to to analyze the process of being ill as a religious experience.
Paper long abstract:
The cult of Saint Rita and Saint Charbel in Krakow are examples of how the local dimension of the cross-border cults looks like. The faithful experience their diseases religiously and take part in religious healing practices aimed at healing the sick body by participating in monthly services to Saint Rita and Saint Charbel. Material religious objects remain the main healing medium, through which, according to the faithful, the body is healed, namely: roses dedicated to Saint Rita and the oil of Saint Charbel.
In my presentation, based on the collected empirical material, I would like to analyze the process of experiencing an illness in a religious context. Rational measures, such as medical assistance, often turn out to be insufficient in reliving the burden that comes with a disease. Religious healing practices open the faithful to the holistic experience of their illness. Through religion, they seek agency in their powerlessness against disease.
Paper short abstract:
Various religions have different views of what body modification and body enhancement practices entail. Using ethnographic data, we will analyze how the conceptualization of the body mirrors religious rules and norms, but can also be used for challenging, transgressing and reformulating them.
Paper long abstract:
According to Charismatic movements, excellence reveals the human desire to aspire to divinity. Perfect looks, athletic ability, intelligence, greater productivity, increased longevity and even moral perfectionism seem to be within reach in contemporary neoliberal societies. The idealized enhanced body, with the support of biomedical advance and technologies, defies age, sickness and death, epitomizing eternal youth and vitality. Pentecostal religions affirm that, although we were made in the perfect image of God, that image was lost in part due to Adam’s sin. People can survive in the harsh conditions of the natural world with technology, which is nothing more than the extension of humans in the divinity direction. Technological enhancement will lead adepts to a rebirth or born again experience, in order to recover that lost divine image. This paper investigates the integration of various religious interpretations - Pentecostal, Neo-Pentecostal, Charismatic Churches, Afro-Brazilian and African religions in the diaspora - with regards to body modification and enhancement practices. It will address how individuals and social groups articulate the pursue of economic and social improvement with religious discourses and practices, such as miraculous transformation, divine healing, born again experience, physical and spiritual enhancement practices. Using ethnographic data from research in the project EXCEL The Pursuit of Excellence, we will analyze how the conceptualization of the body mirrors social rules and social order – in this case, religious ones- but can also be used as tools for challenging, transgressing and reformulating those rules.
Paper short abstract:
Against the background of the debate about the importance of ethnicity in describing the religious field in the USA, the paper studies the pluralist self-understanding of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its realization on the ground in German-speaking Lutheran congregations.
Paper long abstract:
In 1972, Lutheran church historian Martin Marty defined ethnicity as the “skeleton of religion in America” (Marty 1972). He underlined the historical importance of ethnicity against contemporary interpretations that in his eyes tended to neglect or “obscure the durable sense of peoplehood in the larger American community” (Marty 1972:8). According to Marty, the religious pluralist interpretation “born in the face of the problem of identity and power” (Marty 1972:15) was part of the problem as it led to the blurring of boundaries that he felt instrumental to the religious field in America.
Taking a look at the official self-understanding of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) today, one can get the idea, that the pluralist school of thought has become hegemonic. The United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, for example, explicitly formulates an all-inclusive agenda that invites the diversity of traditions ranging through “races, ethnicities, national origins, (…) mental illnesses, physical attributes or abilities, ages, family structures, gender identities” (United Lutheran Seminary 2020) to study theology at the seminary and serve in the ELCA.
On the ground, in German-speaking Lutheran congregations in the USA, the author studied a certain resistance towards official ELCA policies when it comes to gender orientations and pluralism. The ELCA remains the second monolithic church in the USA when it comes to race. Racist resentments can be observed. The paper investigates in how far the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America manages to live the role-model it aspires to be – a pluralist, postmodern church.