Anthropolgy of Religion

Presented by
Dmitry Ermakov, Foundation for the Preservation of Yungdrung Bön, UK, at the 5th International Conference on the Phenomenon of the Holy Mt. Kailash, Universitӓt Hamburg, 26th March 2022.

Abstract:
Probably everyone who has even a little interest in Tibet knows or has at least heard of the magical contest between Buddhist yogi Milarepa and Bönpo sorcerer Naro Bönchung. The tale has been told and retold for centuries. But does this story have any grounding in real events? Did this magical duel really happen on Mount Kailash? And who was the real winner? I will attempt to answer these questions by looking into Bönpo and Buddhist sources on Milarepa, recent comparative studies on Milarepa’s hagiographies as well as by referring to oral traditions of Gurungs and Tamangs of Nepal.

The essay reports a two-prong inquiry of the mosque-Muslim relation in anthropology, covering the relation’s social, psychological and ideational ambits. The first string of inquiry reviews the relation from a wider spectrum of the paradigm in which the role of the Islamic mosque is reassessed, and its ways of interactions with the participants identified. In doing so the paper does not ascribe to the Islamic mosque any newer definition, but the problematisation gives way to highlighting several issues that anthropologists working with Islamic sites, rituals or symbols may grapple with (epistemological domain; methodological tools; agency relation; time-binding). As the inspection veers from sociological to psychological and from empirical to symbolic, an array of connections become evident: they originate not only from the human element of the nexus, that is, the Muslim, but also from the ‘humanized’, that is, the mosque. The second string situates the relation within wider social sciences, postulating how any knowledge of the mosque-Muslim connections might contribute to the shaping of an anthropology of Islam, assuming that there is a discipline evolving to that end.  It is the second query that drives this essay throughout, along the way addressing the first.

Cet article aborde l’identitaire et l’universel dans l’Islam contemporain par le biais de «la présentation de soi comme musulman». Le musulman apprend à construire son identité religieuse en fonction de ce qu’il reçoit de ses parents et de Dieu par la fitra, (être) mais aussi à travers l’altérité (devenir). La manière dont est apprise puis intériorisée l’image idéalisée du musulman d’une part et la verbalisation de l’appartenance religieuse d’autre part, permettent d’appréhender le processus de construction identitaire (se sentir). En effet, appartenant à une communauté diverse et locale, correspondant à ce qu’il vit au quotidien, le fidèle musulman « se construit » aussi dans l’universel, en fonction de son appartenance à la oumma.

Zur Grundlegung alttestamentlicher Anthropologie - Orientierung und Zwischenruf, in: J. van Oorschot, M. Iff (Hg.), Der Mensch als Thema theologischer Anthropologie. Beiträge in interdisziplinärer Perspektive, BThSt 111, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2010, 1-41.

VITAL DA CUNHA, Christina. Evangelikale in der brasilianischen Politik: Disput zwischen Konservativen und Progressiven. KoBRA - BRASILICUM. Kommunikation und Aktion in der Krise. Wertewandel in Brasilien. Ausgabe 258/259, Oktober, 2020, p. 6-8.

RESUMO Pretendo analisar neste artigo alguns momentos de apropriação das tradições hindus pelo Ocidente, ressaltando o caráter contracultural por eles assumidos desde finais do século XVIII, quando se constituiu o movimento Romântico. No caso específico das iogas, compreendê-las como parte daquilo que se convencionou chamar de "cultura alternativa" implica em percebê-las como mais do que uma mera ginástica, conhecida sobretudo pelos bons resultados que proporciona em termos de postura física e diminuição do stress, e situá-la no quadro mais amplo das práticas religiosas que acionam o corpo como via de acesso privilegiada para a experiência do sagrado. É exatamente esta dimensão da corporalidade, da qual não se excluem aspectos psicológicos, que explica, por sua vez, a afinidade das iogas com as propostas presentes em grande parte dos assim chamados "novos movimentos religiosos", para os quais a associação entre as dimensões do físico, do psicológico e do espiritual parecem ser uma marca, em grande parte herdada das religiosidades orientais.

What motivates Protestant Believers, in a postmodern Germany, to become Missionaries? Keywords of Research: Vocation: a callling into a purpose-driven profession; Missionary: a guy who goes overseas to spread the gospel; Pietism: spiritual movement in Western Europe since 1700 to renew Christian Faith by deeds of Love including educating, teaching, inventing, daily reading the bible, behaving properly, etc.