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Accepted Paper:
Paper Short Abstract:
This paper proposes to explore Leonard Primiano's influential concept of “vernacular religion” as a lens to re-examine the ethnological writing of religion. By foregrounding lived religious expressions and practices whether or not they diverge from or complement institutionalized forms, Primiano’s framework challenges binaries of "official" versus "folk" religion and invites nuanced, person-centered ethnography.
Paper Abstract:
The concept of vernacular religion not only disrupts traditional taxonomies of religious practice and challenges the World Religions Paradigm (WRP) but also demands methodological reflexivity from ethnologists. In reading and writing religion, how do scholars balance their interpretive authority with the agency and voices of their interlocutors? Drawing on Clifford Geertz’s insight that anthropologists are inherently authors who weave interpretations into textual representations, this paper argues that vernacular religion necessitates attentiveness to the entanglements of power, narrative, and representation in ethnological writing.
The paper will first situate the notion of vernacular religion within the broader history of ethnology and folkloristics, examining how it builds upon and critiques earlier paradigms in the field. Second, it will discuss how the notion developed since Primiano’s’ original 1995 publication and has since worked to decenter grand narratives and amplifying marginalized voices. Finally, it will reflect on the implications for the future of the discipline: how might ethnologists (re)write religion in ways that honor the fluidity, complexity, and situatedness of lived religious practices?
This proposal aligns with the panel’s themes by critically engaging the disciplinary legacy, foregrounding the interplay of reading and writing in ethnological practice, and offering fresh insights into the evolving methodologies of documenting religion. It calls for an ethnology of religion that is as dynamic and multifaceted as the vernacular religiosity it seeks to understand.
On the shoulders of giants: the tradition of reading and writing religion ethnologically [WG: Ethnology of Religion]
Session 2