Thorsten Wettich
(University of Bremen)
Alessandro Testa
(Charles University)
Victoria Hegner
(Göttingen University)
Send message to Convenors
Discussants:
Peter Jan Margry
(University of Amsterdam Meertens Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Clara Saraiva
(ICS, University of Lisbon)
Format:
Panel
Stream:
Religion
Location:
G01
Sessions:
Friday 9 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Religious (un)certainties in times of upheaval (Working Group Ethnology of Religion).
Panel Reli01 at conference SIEF2023: Living Uncertainty.
The pandemic, the war, and the climate crisis bring along fear as the most fundamental experience. How do religions institutions and individuals react in the face of various uncertainties? Do they offer relief and a way of coping with worldly obstacles? What are their promises of utopian futures?
Long Abstract:
"Navigating our lives in a sea of uncertainties" is a puzzle for religious organizations and individual religious expression. Some aspects of religious interference with "worldly matters" are well studied. One example is the religious rooting of American environmentalism studied by Evan Berry, where religious narratives serve as imperatives to protect species and habitats.
Other, more current topics of religious dealing with uncertainty, have to be studied more thoroughly. Recently, Sabina Magliocco reminded us of James Scott´s notion of "hidden transcripts" - folk expressions coded as a means of resistance - exemplified in magical acts to resist the feeling of powerlessness.
In this line of this thought, the aim of this panel is to unravel how religious practice recasts the meaning of uncertainty and vice versa and how experiences of crisis reshape ideas of the religious. We invite paper proposals from a variety of different disciplinary and methodological angles that examine the following and related topics:
- Religious performance as an art to fill the lack of political agency and as a response to feelings of anxiety and helplessness.
- Religious acts of coping with the crisis of political sovereignty, the upsurge of war as an end to political means, and the so called "cultural war".
- Growing uncertainty of religious convictions and the reshaping of religion in times of crisis.
- Uncertainty as a matter of ethnology and ethnography of religion.
- New kinds of knowledge production in online religious spaces and their relationship to discourses of uncertainty.
Drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey on an alternative health network that observes Islamic and prophetic medicine, I inquire into the interaction of religion, therapeutic uncertainty, and future anticipation with a focus on the temporalization of the lived present as the "end times".
Paper long abstract:
Being ingrained in Islamic eschatology, the notion of the end times informs my interlocutors' moral striving with an orientation towards worldly and otherworldly futures. Treating the end times as "affective time" which is experienced collectively and resembles the working of the "times of war" (Bryant and Knight 2019), I will demonstrate how this temporalization denotes anticipating apocalypse and shapes my research participants' truth and knowledge claims in overcoming therapeutic uncertainty in their quest to lead healthy and moral lives. I will proceed to detail that the deterioration of the seeds, genetically modified foods, ecologically harmful materials as well as biotechnological practices involved in in-vitro fertilization, milk banks, sperm banks are all seen by my research participants as signs of an approaching apocalypse. While anticipating apocalypse induces fear, it also generates hope with a motivation of keeping the faith strong in the end times and taking responsibility for changing lifestyles. This requires my interlocutors to take care of the body, regulate the consumption habits, and embrace Islamic healing methods as part of the "embodied apocalypse" (Webster 2021). I will conclude with a discussion that taking care of the body in my research community intersects with the Islamic notion of individual fight (jihad) which translates into taming the self (nafs) and resisting the practices of international pharmaceutical companies in close relation to my interlocutors' conviction that the truth and purity would manifest themselves in the end times, be it in the form of food, cleaning materials, and therapeutic modalities.
Muslims refugees living in non-Muslim countries face uncertainties as they age and contemplate death. This paper examines how cemetery establishment as place-making is an essential way in which Muslim refugees in the US create a more certain future for themselves both in this world and in the next.
Paper long abstract:
Muslims who have experienced forced migration often face uncertainties as they age and contemplate death. Many Muslim migrants wish to be returned to their homelands for burial, in part because they view burial in Muslim contexts as important to accruing the blessings that will help them on Judgment Day. But what happens when repatriation is impossible? Based on extensive ethnographic research, this paper examines how Muslim refugees living in Pennsylvania have reconsidered the final dispositions of their bodies, seeking new spaces and models to guide them in their decision-making about life and death in “ghurba” (a foreign place). Some see themselves as having a renewed relationship with major figures of the Muslim past since they, like the Prophet Muhammad, will be buried not in their homeland but in the land of hijrah (migration). To more closely follow the example of the Prophet in this respect, Muslims in Pennsylvania have established new Muslim cemeteries to accommodate the prospect of permanent residence in hijrah. This allows for Muslim migrants to worry less about missing the blessings that come from being buried in a Muslim-majority contexts, since they reconceptualize burial in ghurba as generating the blessings associated with following the life and deeds of the Prophet, a requirement of all Muslims. The ultimate goal of this paper is to examine how cemetery establishment as place-making is an essential way in which Muslim migrants, including forced migrants, create a more certain future for themselves in this world and in the afterlife.
The number of prophets/prophetesses (divine messengers) always increased when living in social crises. I analyze twenty-four religious specialists’ reactions to uncertainty in East-Central Europe from the 17th century to the present. I combine anthropological interpretation with historical analysis.
Paper long abstract:
I performed anthropological fieldwork among new religious movements founded by charismatic religious leaders in Romania, Serbia, and Hungary since 2007. During the last few years, I extended my research on their historical backgrounds, roots, and parallels. I found that vernacular prophethood forms a discernable kind of religious specialist in this region, whose numbers rapidly increase during the social crises (attacks against political sovereignty, social tensions, totalitarianism). I read the available scholarly and primer sources of these folk/vernacular prophets/prophetesses from the 17th century till the present. I found nine women and fifteen men who were called and considered 'proféta' (both male and female in Hungarian) by their social environment (and in most cases by themselves, too). I found only men in the 17th century while women outnumbered men by far during the 20th century. First, I briefly introduce these emblematic folk/vernacular prophets/prophetesses from the last 400 years. Then, as a theoretical contextualization, I briefly analyze the social functions of “prophethood” as a phenomenon (mediators chosen by God for expressing its divine messages) and compare it to other religious specialists like seers, religious healers, visionaries, fortunetellers, founders of religions, etc. The objective of my paper is to outline the similarities and differences between these twenty-four prophets and prophetesses, from the perspective of their reaction to the social crises and their role during these uncertain times. I analyze how they reacted to the radical changes in society, the upsurge of secularism, the collapse of religious institutions, wars, survival strategies during totalitarian regimes, etc.
This presentation aims to elucidate how the Catholic Church repositions itself in the Brazilian civic-political space, as an ecological subject who starts to defend new socio-environmental policies through a religious repertoire of social justice.
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 par excellence 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 – community and national - in this pluralistic society.
The paper focuses on New Age Judaism as it presses for changes of religious ways of living in the world and advocates a new form of “spiritual ecology”. It will ethnographically be shown, how times of socio-ecological uncertainity are thus turned into moments of radical renewal and empowerment.
Paper long abstract:
For religious worldviews and practices nature is a revealing context for orienting humans to the enduring questions regarding the cosmological origins of the universe, the meaning of the emergence of life, and the responsible role of humans in relation to life processes. In the context of current debates on climate change, on biodiversity loss and threatening mass extinction, however, theological answers become increasingly uncertain and thus religious groups and protagonists press more than before for fundamentally redefining religious ways of thinking about and living in the world. Some religious protagonists advocate an intensified practice of a “spiritual ecology”. The paper will ethnographically follow the current process of negotiation of such an ecology. It draws close to the Jewish Renewal Movement (known as New Age Judaism) in Germany, one of the most active and radical religious branches within Western monotheism concerning ecological issues. The paper will less focus on religious environmental activism (Berry). Instead, it zooms into the day-to-day religious practice of the Berlin Jewish New Age group and tries to lay open the ways religious laws and convictions are intensely called into question. By a form of a (joyful) “practice peaching” (de Certeau) in religious and scientific worldviews likewise, those laws and convictions are remodeled into a “spiritual ecology” that goes well beyond environmental involvement. It permeates the whole way of Jewish life and its underlying theology, such as the all-encompassing law of Kashrut. Times of uncertainty are turned into “seeds of radical renewal” and thus into moments of empowerment.
More-than-human agency, within maritime pilgrimage in Perast (Montenegro), enabled this practice to absorb other meanings and draw participants that are religiously and identitarian different than members of the local community. This way the pilgrimage transcends countries political crisis.
Paper long abstract:
Contemporary Montenegro has become a country of political crisis in which state and church institutions have an active role. This crisis on all levels overflows into everyday life. National, religious and family identity are being questioned on a daily basis. By looking at maritime pilgrimage to the Madonna of the Rock in Perast (Boka Bay) I want to address so far neglected relational aspect between the locals (in some case pilgrims) and their environment. I consider the relational perspective as one of the main reasons that custom of Fašinada, as a part of the pilgrimage, transcend it religious and political context and became a space for interreligious encounters. I argue that Fašinada’s more-than-human agencies enabled this practice to absorb other meanings and draw participants that are religiously and identitarian different than members of the local community. However, I do not neglect the social aspect and human agency that I considered important in order to understand the true role more than human agents play in this pilgrimage site and practices.
The war of the Russian Federation in Ukraine is a culmination point of upheavals in the post-Soviet sphere. In my paper, I analyze the role of Orthodox Christianity in these processes and for the preparation, interpretation and implementation of this war in the Russian Federation.
Paper long abstract:
Although there existed indicators for an imperialist tendency of the Russian Federation already for several decades, the escalation into a full-scale war against Ukraine came as a surprise even to most people in academia. Among other reasons, President Vladimir Putin referred to the religious dimension of the war in his programmatic speech on February 21, 2022. Putin’s reference to religion in this speech and in his historical interpretation deserve particular attention because they gained relevance both in domestic and global perspective. Moreover, Putin’s interpretation has been confirmed by Patriarch Kirill who gave further reasons for the aggression in Ukraine by mentioning the persecution of Russian Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and a widespread immorality. In this presentation, I am going to analyze the role of Orthodox Christianity for such developments based on fieldwork in Russia since the early 2000s.
Since the 1980s, the former socialist sphere is witnessing upheavals with major repercussions in the economic, political and religious sectors of society. In particular, it is the religious sphere – once persecuted and confined to the private domain – that is reemerging in public life and contributes to ongoing efforts of nation building, a re-ideologization of society at large and new interpretations of the past. For this, I will give ethnographic examples that show how Orthodox Christianity is deeply entangled with the political sphere. In this way, I challenge widespread descriptions that emphasize cooperation and legitimization but neglect the difficulties in the relation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state.
The recent economic crisis in West Africa has received various interpretations generated by religious leaders and institutions. This paper aims to present Ghanaian Catholics’ responses to the current crisis with a special focus on activities performed by women in the Roman Catholic parishes in Ghana
Paper long abstract:
The recently escalating economic crisis in West Africa – related to the global pandemic, military conflicts and destabilization of international food trade – has received various interpretations generated by religious leaders and institutions. The crisis is also reflected in bottom-up religious discourses and practices. In this paper I aim to present Ghanaian Catholics’ responses to the current crisis with a special focus on activities performed by women in the Roman Catholic parishes in Ghana.
Drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork conducted in central Ghana I refer to three aspects of contemporary Ghanaian Christianity that significantly influence responses to the current crisis. These aspects are: (1) the Pentecostalisation of Christianity; (2) the popularity of the so-called Prosperity Gospel; (3) and the prevalence of communality in everyday relations and religious practices. I will show how Ghanaian Catholic women integrate these three aspects in their lives and build on them to form bottom-up empowering strategies in a time of economic crisis and upheaval. Special focus will be put on the concept of prosperity understood not only as earthly wealth, bodily wellbeing and richness in valuable social relations but also as a religious-spiritual gift and God’s grace. Ghanaian Catholic women – whose officially recognized roles are influenced by patriarchal ethnic systems and masculinized Church hierarchy – create religious-spiritual ways to empower their lives during economic crisis.
The presentation will focus on the cases of the shrines illustrating how the second war in Karabakh influenced the nature of pilgrimages and rites shaping their meaning and form.
It is based on ethnography collected during research in 2022 in Georgia among Armenian and Azerbaijani communities.
Paper long abstract:
The presentation will consider how symbolic and moral manifestations of sacred places are formed by political and social circumstances. And in which way sacred places contribute to transforming and transferring ideas, knowledge, and social and political moods, reflecting a specific time and place to which they belong.
The presentation will focus on the cases of the shrines illustrating how the second war in Karabakh influenced the nature of pilgrimages and rites shaping their meaning and form. It is based on ethnography collected during research in 2022 in Georgia among Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
I use two different case study examples to present the topic in question. The first case describes a Shiite sacred place, the tomb of a man from a Sayeed family considered to be a descendant of Imam Husain. In 2022 during Ashura, the martyrdom of the Imam was compared to the end of soldiers killed in Karabakh. Comparing the Karabakh martyrs with imam Husain and his people is present in a discourse about the Karabakh war in Azerbaijani circles. It emphasizes the soldiers’ unique role in liberating “occupied land.” The second case study presents a house shrine established by an Armenian social activist from Georgia. During the 2020 conflict, he established an NGO to organize humanitarian aid; after the end of the 2020 conflict, he went to Armenia to help the war victims. His social activity and involvement earned him the respect of the people. It also changed his sacred place, which became popular among locals.
Herchurch is a San Francisco based congregation that operates at the intersection of feminism, Lutheranism and paganism. It is the aim of the paper to unravel the intellectual traditions that inform the utopian endeavor of worshipping the divine principle of wisdom in postmodernity.
Paper long abstract:
Herchurch is a San Francisco based congregation belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that decided to rename itself to “Herchurch” underlining the local meaning given to the worship of the “Divine Feminine”. Not only does the congregation experiment with feminist theology, also does it employ a “resident witch” that distributes “magical gifts” and helps discover the divine in nature. The feminist inspired approach can be described as christopagan (Wettich 2022).
The intersection of feminism, Lutheranism and paganism found in Herchurch is also utopian in nature, as it is part of the mission to overcome the worship of the “cultural whitemalegod” that is dominant in most parts of Christianity, in favor of the divine principle of wisdom (Sophia) as a more encompassing advocate of all people. In situations informed by insecurity such as the passage from one life phase to another, Herchurch provides shelter through rites of passage.
The paper discusses influences of the utopian promise given by the feminist inspired christopagan program such as “Thealogy” (Raphael 1999), “Christian Goddess Spirituality” (Beavis 2020), post-Christian spiritualities (Woodhead 1993), and neopaganism in the city (Hegner 2019). It further follows the traces of the utopian dimension of “Female Spirituality” to institutions such as Sophia University San Francisco, Progressive Christianity (Flunder 2005), and “Reconciling in Christ” in order to finally relate it to earlier streams of Lutheran utopian thinking (Andreas 1619).
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