From Primitive to Indigenous: The Academic Study of Indigenous Religions
... According to Cox, the paradigm of world religions refers to the study of religion under the classification that Western scholars commonly define as major world traditions (Cox, 2016). While Masuzawa views the term "world religions" as developing out of a nineteenth-century academic context, Tomoko Masuzawa argues that by creating a system for classifying the so-called major world religions, scholars intend "to differentiate the West from the rest. ...
... According to Platvoet as cited by James, the main additional features of ancestral religions are as follows (Cox, 2016;Platvoet, 1993): a. Rituals are the core of the religious practices of ancestral religions; b. Beliefs within ancestral religions are not articulated, and therefore unclear and often contradictory; c. ...
... Meanwhile, world religions can be contrasted with ancestral religions. World religions share certain characteristics as follows (Cox, 2016;Platvoet, 1993): a. ...
This study focuses on the intersubjective relationships contained in the Mujarobat text. This study comes from the still developing local beliefs and traditions of the coastal communities of North Java which are influenced by pre-Islamic beliefs and Islamic beliefs. Among the beliefs that still exist, it is the belief in predictions and calculations to get good luck and avoid bad luck. This study specifically aims to discuss how to grow plants on pages 40, 41, 42, 49, and 50 in the Mujarobat text. This study shows that the Mujarobat text contains local knowledge and intersubjective relationships between humans and humans as well as humans and non-humans—God and nature. Thus, using the paradigm of ancestral religions, this study argues that there is an intersubjective relationship between humans and non-humans that is responsible, ethical, and reciprocal when planting plants in the Mujarobat text which aim to get lucky.
... In short, Indigenous Religions are cosmologically bounded as their spirit world is organized around lineage. Indigenous peoples live culturally, territorially, or land-based (Cox, 2007;Maarif, 2021;Morrison, 2000). In contrast to Cox's more static essentialization, Harvey (2022) argues that while indigenous peoples may claim a territory, this differs from being physically confined to the territory. ...
... Baranni and Lembangia, which are only allowed to take rope or rattan. According to Cox (2007), the sacredness of a place is a crucial characteristic of indigenous religions that comes from the longstanding and unwritten traditions of their ancestors. In the forest, Muammar there are also old tombs that they believe to be the tombs of ancestors and are considered "sacred places." ...
The government's development narrative often victimizes Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia. Indigenous forests, sacred places for the community, are sought to be legalized for development purposes. This paper is a crisis study of government policies that use the World Religion Paradigm in developing policies toward the Indigenous Peoples of Barambang Katute. This research aims to reveal Indigenous-based resistance from the Barambang Katute Indigenous Community against government and company policies in Sinjai Regency. This article uses the Indigenous Religion Paradigm as its analysis. This research uses a literature study by analyzing written literature on the conflict between Indigenous Peoples and the government in Sinjai Regency. The results of this study mention that resistance in the Barambang Katute Indigenous Community is not only seen from the economic, political, and ecological aspects but also from the socio-religious aspects. The next result framework is written as follows: First, it discusses the history of the causes of agrarian conflicts between indigenous peoples and the government of Sinjai Regency. Second, it discusses the relationship between the Barambang Katute Indigenous Community and nature. Third, it discusses custom-based resistance as the solidarity of indigenous peoples in defending traditional territories. Through the Indigenous Religion Paradigm, we can see that in the Muammar PANANGKARAN, Jurnal Penelitian Agama dan Masyarakat 148 efforts to seize the customary forest of Barambang Katute, the government has experienced dynamics and a long journey of conflict. Thus, custom-based resistance is an alternative struggle in defending the existence of customary forests as part of the spirituality of the Barambang Katute Indigenous Community. Abstrak Masyarakat Adat di Indonesia seringkali menjadi korban atas narasi pembangunan yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah. Hutan Adat yang merupakan tempat 'sacred' bagi masyarakat, diupayakan dilegalkan pemanfaatannya dengan alasan demi kepentingan pembangunan. Tulisan ini merupakan studi krisis terhadap kebijakan pemerintah yang menggunakan paradigma agama dunia dalam melakukan kebijakan pembangunan terhadap Masyarakat Adat Barambang Katute. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan resistensi berbasis Adat yang dilakukan oleh Masyarakat Adat Barambang Katute terhadap kebijakan pemerintah dan perusahaan di Kabupaten Sinjai. Secara jelas, artikel ini menggunakan Indigenous Religion Paradigm sebagai analisisnya. Penelitian ini menggunakan studi literatur dengan menganalisis literatur tertulis yang berhubungan dengan konflik Masyarakat Adat dengan pemerintah di Kabupaten Sinjai. Hasil penelitian ini menyebutkan bahwa resistensi dalam Masyarakat Adat Barambang Katute tidak hanya dilihat dari aspek ekonomi, politik dan ekologi melainkan juga dari aspek sosial-keagamaan. Berikutnya kerangka hasil ditulis sebagai berikut: Pertama, membahas tentang sejarah penyebab konflik agraria masyarakat adat dengan pemerintah Kabupaten Sinjai. Kedua, membahas tentang relasi Masyarakat Adat Barambang Katute dengan alam. Ketiga, membahas resistensi berbasis adat sebagai solidaritas masyarakat adat dalam mempertahankan wilayah adat. Melalui Paradigma Agama Leluhur kita dapat melihat upaya perampasan hutan adat Barambang Katute oleh Pemerintah telah mengalami dinamika dan perjalanan konflik yang panjang. Dengan demikian, Resistensi berbasis Adat merupakan alternatif perjuangan dalam mempertahankan eksistensi hutan adat sebagai bagian dari spiritualitas Masyarakat Adat Barambang Katute.
... The term indigenous religion paradigm as I use it here was defined by Samsul Maarif (Maarif, 2019), although a similar paradigm can also be found in several scholarly works that focus on researching indigenous communities (Cox, 2007;Hart, 2010;Klemmer & McNamara, 2019;Wilson, 2006). In the context of understanding the religious practices of indigenous peoples, it will be easier to understand through the intersubjective cosmology framework that was proposed by Maarif. ...
... One of the characteristics of indigenous peoples, according to James L. Cox (2007) in his book From Primitive to Indigenous: The Academic Study of Indigenous Religion, is that there is a significant attachment or closeness between humans and nature and that humans developed a reciprocal relationship with nature in which one protects and cares for the other. As Cox stated: ...
The use of mantras can be found in almost every tradition and ritual of indigenous peoples in Indonesia. Mantras are interpreted and practiced in various ways to help communicate and connect multiple aspects of the cosmic order. Mantras are also used in healing and traditional medicine to cure various diseases; they are used in everyday life to prevent and protect humans from harm. Unfortunately, due to modern academic frameworks that aim to explain religious practices rationally, mantras, along with various religious practices and indigenous knowledge, have been eliminated. In the modern Western paradigm, especially the World Religion Paradigm, which separates science and religion, culture and nature, the mantras used in healing practices by indigenous peoples are considered magical and non-scientific (incompatible with science). At worst, they are even considered deviant by adherents of world religions that are more conservative. Such a paradigm is a colonial construction of modern knowledge. By reviewing the use of mantras among indigenous peoples - specifically Javanese, Sumbanese, and Buginese, this study interprets the mantras used for healing by indigenous peoples and decolonizes the modern western paradigm of religious practices of indigenous people. The data in this study were taken from the Forum Kamisan Daring, Episode 9 on the use of mantras in rituals in Javanese and Sumbanese, and through in-depth interviews and relevant articles. The data was then compiled and analyzed using the indigenous religion paradigm. Finally, the results of this study show that, for indigenous peoples, disease is a cosmic imbalance, and healing is an attempt to rebalance the cosmos. The mantra in this context is a technology or a language used to build a balanced intersubjective relationship from one that has been disturbed.
... Discourses about world religions developed in the context of colonial discourses and metanarratives of modernity, as well as the formation of scientific disciplines such as; orientalism, sociology, and religious studies and the development of Christianity, and the various processes that led to more specific conceptions (Cox, 2007). The paradigms of World ...
... In short, Indigenous Religions are cosmologically constrained because their spirit world is organized around lineages (Cox, 2007). The Ancestral Religion Paradigm is an alternative to the world religion paradigm, or at least it should be included in studying the religious practices of indigenous peoples (Maarif, 2019). ...
Paradigma agama-agama dunia sangat mempengaruhi wawasan tentang agama di Indonesia. Paradigma keagamaan dunia telah menempatkan masyarakat adat dalam diskriminasi, dan mereka kesulitan menjalankan praktik keagamaan yang telah mereka lakukan secara turun-temurun. Tulisan ini merupakan kajian kritis terhadap kajian-kajian sebelumnya terhadap masyarakat Adat Karampuang yang masih memandang tradisi, hubungan masyarakat dan alam, serta kearifan lokal melalui paradigma agama-agama dunia. Artikel ini ditelaah melalui pendekatan religi tradisional. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan hubungan antara Masyarakat Adat Karampuang dengan alam, kearifan ekologi Masyarakat Adat Karampuang dalam melestarikan alam, dan tradisi Masyarakat Adat dalam menjaga kearifan ekologi tersebut. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan teknik pengumpulan data melalui wawancara dengan informan kunci yang didukung dengan literatur. Pertama, ditemukan bahwa Masyarakat Adat Karampuang melihat alam sebagai subyek atau pribadi. Hubungan ini dimaknai sebagai Mapakalebbi Ale Hanua (penghormatan terhadap alam. Hubungan dibangun karena kesadaran bahwa manusia adalah bagian integral dari hutan itu sendiri. Kedua, kearifan ekologis masyarakat Karampuang diturunkan dari generasi ke generasi melalui Paseng (pesan-pesan) dari adat melalui Lontara dan tuturan lisan seperti Makkamase Ale (mencintai hutan), Mappakatuo Ale (memanusiakan hutan) dan Tuo Kamase-mase (hidup setara dan selaras dengan alam) dalam melestarikan alam.
... The emphasis is on the local and particular experience, in contrast to the universal and general that scientific thought abstracts from many particulars (MacDonald 2004). Cox mentions the significance of locality and the belonging or boundedness of spirits to a place as a minimum empirical characteristic of IRs (Cox 2007). ...
... This is another reason to refer to 'Indigenous Religions' in the plural and to make the statement that these religions, which are not world religions, should be included in all religious studies text books that also discuss the world religions. The consequence of leaving out 'Indigenous Religions' from these text books, as Cox (2007) remarks, is that 'the majority of the religions worldwide would not be included in the academic study of religion'. The undesirability of this scenario becomes all the more clear once one realises that the 'modern' purpose of 'academia', which became well-known by a contribution of the seventeenth century philosopher Bacon (1905Bacon ( [original 1609]) (1561-1626), is not only to 'transmit already gained knowledge to successive generations', but also 'to promote the continuous advancement of learning'. ...
Based on extensive research in primary and secondary sources and on field research in Ghana, including more than 40 interviews, and applying her formidable expertise in African history, philosophy, historical anthropology and religious studies, Dr. Louise Muller has produced a superb analysis of the history and transformation of the roles of chieftaincy in the religious institutions, rituals and ideas among the Asante. -- David E. Skinner, Professor of History, African and Islamic Studies, Santa Clara U. (Series: Anthropology of Religion / Religionsethnologie - Vol. 2)
... However, numerous critical discussions of the world religions paradigm exist within the academic study of religion. The idea of world religions developed during the 19th century in the context of colonial discourses and metanarratives of modernity, as well as the formation of scholarly disciplines -such as Oriental studies, sociology and religious studies -and developments in Christian theology, and various entangled processes led to its specific conception (Cox 2007;Daniel 2016;Masuzawa 2005). First, the world religions paradigm contains the notion that there are distinct 'natural' entities: Judaism (as such), Christianity (as such), Islam (as such), Hinduism (as such) and Buddhism (as such). ...
... Thus, knowledge from colonial ventures, which was utilised to exercise power and control, is still echoed in the world religions paradigm (Cotter and Robertson 2016). The discursive segregation of 'non-world religions' and the religious traditions of indigenous peoples also occurs through the supposed level of advancement: 'non-world religions' are religious traditions 'of the so-called traditional, backward and uneducated peoples' (Cox 2007;Harvey 2000). This demarcation illustrates another aspect of the world religions paradigm: people belong to religions, which means they can be categorised accordingly. ...
This article shows how discussion of the ‘world religions paradigm’ in integrated natural and social science teaching affects how religious plurality is handled. A concrete case study is used to illustrate how a teacher designs lessons on world religions.
Based on this single case study, the article argues that the use of specific teaching materials, which are shaped according to the world religions paradigm and contain a highly essentialised and ahistorical depiction of religions, contrasts with the more nuanced additions made by the teacher in the oral monologue parts of the lesson. It is shown that the world religions paradigm is subtly and implicitly questioned as well as reproduced by the teacher. The analysis is based on de Certeau’s theory of strategies and tactics, which allows for a discussion of teachers’ scope of action.
... Это связано, в том числе, с частым несовпадением социокультурных и социально-политических контекстов. Как следствие, например, более часто встречающийся в российском научном религиоведении термин «(родо)племенные» [8] религии в англоязычной академической среде на современном этапе имеет аналог "indigenous religions" [9] . О днако давать студентам данный термин в рамках ведения курса "History of Religions in Russia" представляется нецелесообразным, поскольку он в первую очередь охватывает «туземные», «коренные» культурно-религиозные и этноконфессиональные группы в регионах Северной и Ю жной Америк, Африки, Австралазии и не соответствует российским историческим и культурным реалиям, так как в большей степени сформировался под влиянием колониального исторического наследия стран Западной Европы. ...
Данная статья посвящена осмыслению первого опыта преподавания на английском языке относительно новой для российской высшей школы учебной дисциплины «История религий России» (ИРР). Предметом исследования в предлагаемой работе выступает учебно-методологический комплекс по курсу ИРР (в первую очередь, его англоязычной версии – “History of Religions in Russia”), проходящий в настоящее время апробацию в Российском университете дружбы народов (РУДН) имени Патриса Лумумбы на первых курсах бакалавриата в учебных группах, обучающихся по англоязычным образовательным программам как гуманитарного, так и технического профилей. Цель исследования заключается в обобщении и систематизации методических, методологических, организационных, материально-технических и прочих особенностей внедрения указанного предмета в учебную программу вуза. В исследовании использованы общенаучные и специальные методы: обобщение и классификация, дедукция и индукция, анализ административно-нормативных и методических документов. Новизна работы заключается в реализации ранее не проводившегося анализа эмпирических результатов преподавания общеобразовательного курса, запущенного для иностранных студентов лишь осенью 2024 года. Практическая значимость статьи сводится к предоставлению другим российским вузам, планирующим в перспективе начать преподавание на английском языке дисциплины “History of Religions in Russia”, возможности использования соответствующих материалов и наработок РУДН, ставшего в этой области своего рода первопроходцем среди учреждений высшего образования в России. Кроме прочего, полученные выводы могут быть использованы в целях повышения качества образовательных услуг, обеспечения доступного и непрерывного образования в РФ, в первую очередь, в рамках ведущихся на иностранных языках программ, нацеленных на аудиторию иноязычных слушателей.
... What is quite intriguing about Vera and Bulawayo's literary archives is an apparent effort to refashion a discursive space for restorative actions and completeness that promote survival of the society. In Nehanda, Vera combines reality and myth to defy both the (pre) colonial and patriarchal traditions that collaborate to weigh down the subordinated African female subjects (Cox 2007). Likewise, in Glory (2022), Bulawayo satirises the postcolonial condition in Zimbabwe and how the nation space has reduced ordinary citizens to perpetual state of victimhood mainly emanating from a tainted sociopolitical order. ...
Recently, the government of Zimbabwe unveiled a newly constructed statue of the esteemed spirit medium and liberation icon who intrepidly fought against the British imperialism. The distinguished heroine is passionately known as Mbuya Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana. The lexical item, ‘Mbuya’ in Shona language literally means grandmother. This study examines the ways in which the spectres of religion, historiography, gender and national politics find expression in often contested state narratives of Mbuya Nehanda and in selected Zimbabwean fictional writings. Foucault’s theorisation of socio-political practices and subjectification as sites of power, together with the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework and bell hooks’ feminist thought of ‘talking back’, provide provocative insights about regimes of power that could be more edifying in the interlocking discursive terrain of the African cosmology, frequently disputed archeology of historical memory, socio-political relations, which are noticeable in discourses and gender politics. The study interrogates whether the Nehanda grand narrative is told by politicians as the revolutionary story of all citizens or not. If not, what alternative versions are proffered in selected Yvonne Vera and NoViolet Bulawayo’s literary texts? Arguably, the mythology of Nehanda in the chosen literary texts locates women as agents of revolution thereby generating semantic dissonance in the Zimbabwean context,
which is largely considered as land of the Fathers.
... Platvoet and his savants emphasize the importance of recognizing the diversity and complexity of indigenous societies while avoiding cultural appropriation and 323 assuming universal solutions. However, Cox (2017 argues that neoprimitivism should not be seen as opposing modernity, but rather as a positive reevaluation of the world, aiming to enhance a holistic human life. Kalu (2001, 228) envisions this revalidation of animism as a covenant between humans and spirit forces, maintaining a ritual balance in our "fragile, enfolding, and nurturing ecosystem". ...
The instantiation of cultural conceptualization of death and masculinity in selected Igbo burial songs and rites through the framework of cultural cognition is the focus of this study. The Igbo ethnic group of Southeastern Nigeria are religious people who believe in the mutual and peaceful coexistence of dichotomous categories such as the living and the dead, the natural and the supernatural, the visible and the invisible, and the material and the immaterial. Masculinity as used in this study refers to the construction and enactment of some socio-cultural attributes, roles, behaviours and expectations that are considered appropriate for the male gender in Igbo traditional society. At the heart of Cultural Linguistics (CL), which this study adopts as its theoretical anchor, is the notion of cultural cognition, which supports an integrated understanding of the notions of cognition, language, and culture in the communication of social meaning in contexts. Cultural cognition is composed of cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors that enable language users to express their bodily experiences and their knowledge of the environment. Previous studies on burials/funerals in most African societies have largely been explored from the perspective of ethnography without insights from thought and cognition hence, this study sets out to bridge the gap. The study adopts a qualitative approach to the analysis of primary data collected through participant observation and oral interviews. The study reveals that the Nnebukwu community and other communities 314 in Oru-Igbo of Imo State instantiate and reflect cultural conceptualization in cultural artefacts such as songs, oral narratives, rituals, and other social semiotic modes.
... Selamatan becomes a medium for how all forms of differences are negotiated and becomes shared wealth. 3 Nyadran is a ritual of visiting the graves of relatives or ancestors and praying for those who have died to find eternal peace. Someone usually cleans the tomb first then sprinkles flowers or pours (holy) water, and ends the ritual by praying for the spirits. ...
This paper examines the dynamics of local religions in the multi-religious society of Indonesia from the perspective of religious and cultural anthropology. The focus of the study is on the local religion of Sunda Wiwitan in Cigugur, Kuningan, West Java, Indonesia, which has managed to exist despite never being recognised as a religion. We collected data using qualitative research strategies through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and a literature review. The data was analysed based on the perspective of religious and cultural anthropology developed by Emilè Durkheim, Clifford Geertz, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Hans Küng. Local religions in Indonesia have never been officially recognized as religions. The disappearance of a large number of local religions is an inevitable fact. The followers of local religions that still exist experience discrimination in various dimensions of life. Categorizing religions as right-wrong, correct-incorrect, or legal-illegal will only absolutize one and exclude the others. The local knowledge of the Sunda ethnic community known as Sineger Tengah could be an alternative solution. Sineger Tengah is a cultural way of thinking, a collective awareness of the community to place all differences or even conflicts as complementary, coexisting, and completing pairs of existence.
... Suzanne Owen (2011) macht unter Bezugnahme auf Autor:innen wie James Cox (2007), Ronald Geaves (2005), Richard King (1999) und Tomoko Masuzawa (2005) deutlich, dass es sich bei der Kritik an den Kategorien nicht einfach um ein linguistisches Problem der Kategorienbildung handelt, sondern insbesondere auch um ein gesellschaftliches. So geht es z. ...
In diesem Beitrag wird das religionskundliche Sprechen bzw. Schreiben über Religion(en) als Metakonzept innerhalb des religionskundlichen Unterrichts vorgeschlagen. In Anlehnung an die Didaktische Rekonstruktion (Kattmann et al., 1997) wird das Metakonzept des religionskundlichen Schreibens unter Berücksichtigung der religionswissenschaftlichen Perspektive und jener der Schüler:innen beschrieben und bezogen auf Klafki (1969) nach seiner Bildungsrelevanz befragt. Dazu wird zunächst dargelegt, was religionswissenschaftliches Schreiben über Religion und insbesondere Religionen kennzeichnet und anschliessend, inwiefern schriftliche Darstellungen von Religionen bei Schüler:innen den Merkmalen religionswissenschaftlichen Schreibens entsprechen. Hierfür wurden schriftliche Antworten von Schüler:innen der 7. bis 9. Jahrgangsstufe auf Fragen nach ausgewählten Religionen in der Schweiz qualitativ ausgewertet und bezogen auf die religionswissenschaftliche Sprache, wesentliche Aspekte eines religionskundlich angemessenen Schreibens oder eines essentialisierenden und verallgemeinernden identifiziert. Im Artikel wird dargelegt, dass empirisch, kulturwissenschaftlich ausgerichtete Religionswissenschaft eine Sprache pflegt, welche Binnendifferenzierungen und kontextuelle Bedingtheit deutlich macht, während Schüler:innen immer wieder zu essentialisierender und verallgemeinernder Sprache tendieren. Der Artikel schlägt schliesslich aufgrund der fachlichen Angemessenheit aber insbesondere wegen der gesellschaftlichen Relevanz vor, religionskundlich angemessene Darstellungen von Religionen explizit im Religionskundeunterricht zu behandeln und zu fördern.
... Kombiniert mit der aufkeimenden Evolutionstheorie Darwins konnte argumentiert werden, dass manche Völker der entwickelten Religion näher waren als andere. Als die am höchst entwickelte Religion galt in diesem evolutionistischen Paradigma die Religion der kolonialen Besatzungsmacht, das Christentum (Chidester, 1996;Cox, 2007). Das Studium von "Religionen" ermöglichte damit einerseits ein Verständnis der indigenen Bevölkerung, das vor allem auch von wirtschaftlicher Bedeutung war, und gab den Kolonialmächten die Deutungshoheit in die Hand (Thomas, 2000). ...
Das Konzept von Religion als einem universellen Phänomen wurde in den letzten Jahren stark für den ihm zugrunde liegenden Eurozentrismus kritisiert, der gleichermassen Teil der akademischen Kategorie „Religion“ sei. Ebenso sei die Kategorienbildung nach Weltreligionen (und das daraus resultierende Paradigma) ein Produkt des Kolonialismus und diene einzig dazu, die westliche, weisse Hegemonie aufrecht zu erhalten. Diese postmoderne Kritik mag zuweilen etwas exzessiv und „trendy“ erscheinen, trotzdem hat sie weder ganz unrecht noch darf sie ignoriert werden. Trotzdem sollte nicht damit aufgehört werden, an der Schule über Religionen zu sprechen. Eher soll, wie bereits andere argumentiert haben, vermehrt darauf geachtet werden, wie über Religion gesprochen wird (Bleisch, 2019; Frank, 2016; Gasser, 2019). Da neutrales Sprechen aber kaum möglich ist, soll dieser Anspruch nicht allein vom Urteilsvermögen einer Lehrperson oder von einem Lehrbuch abhängig gemacht werden. Vielmehr wird hier vorgeschlagen, zumindest zeitweilig eine andere, queere Pädagogik für das Fach einzuführen. Diese macht das Fach zu einem queeren Zeit-Raum in dem nicht in erster Linie gelernt wird, dass andere anders denken, sondern in dem sich die Schüler_innen der eigenen Denkmechanismen im Gegenüber des öffentlichen und politischen Diskurses bewusst werden.
... According to Durkheim (1912), "A religion is unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community…., all who adhere to them". According to Cox (2007), "Religion consists of the beliefs, experiences, and practices of specific communities with respect to non-specifiable entities". Community people with a particular religion characterized by ritual, mythical, doctrinal, ethical, social and experiential (Smart, 1969) experience (e.g., revelation, response (Faith), knowledge, ethics, community and expression (Witness) felt by religious communities (Rennie, 1996). ...
... According to Durkheim (1912), "A religion is unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community…., all who adhere to them". According to Cox (2007), "Religion consists of the beliefs, experiences, and practices of specific communities with respect to non-specifiable entities". Community people with a particular religion characterized by ritual, mythical, doctrinal, ethical, social and experiential (Smart, 1969) experience (e.g., revelation, response (Faith), knowledge, ethics, community and expression (Witness) felt by religious communities (Rennie, 1996). ...
... The most disturbing trait of the COVID-19 pandemic is that its major route of transmission, that is contact, is the mainstay of religious practices. Indigenous religions of Africa, for example, have been aptly described as religions that are based on relationships (Taringa 2014, Dube 2009, Cox 2007. It is this social dimension; these relationships that COVID-19 pandemic has subjected to a big test of the times. ...
... The most disturbing trait of the COVID-19 pandemic is that its major route of transmission, that is contact, is the mainstay of religious practices. Indigenous religions of Africa, for example, have been aptly described as religions that are based on relationships (Taringa 2014, Dube 2009, Cox 2007. It is this social dimension; these relationships that COVID-19 pandemic has subjected to a big test of the times. ...
... The most disturbing trait of the COVID-19 pandemic is that its major route of transmission, that is contact, is the mainstay of religious practices. Indigenous religions of Africa, for example, have been aptly described as religions that are based on relationships (Taringa 2014, Dube 2009, 2006, Cox 2007, Mbiti 1969. It is this social dimension; these relationships that COVID-19 pandemic has subjected to a big test of the times. ...
... ' Smith (2011) also noticed how indigeneity is often seen as 'static, unchanging and inflexible' in contrast to the borderlands which is 'the place of change, indeterminacy, and flux.' This view that indigeneity is being tied to a place, that is, of being 'local…or rooted' is similarly found in Cox (2007) and is placed in contrast to diaspora. But it is from the appeal of Harvey and Thompson (2005) that a differing view of indigeneity moves away from this stasis and instead thinks of it as 'always having been about movement.' ...
The Mamanuas of Basey, Samar have been in an itinerant state since the 1950s. Their indigenous experience can be capped in the term 'diaspora,' which pictures their plight as dispersive habituation, moving from town to town away from their homeland. In a recent study which this paper hinges upon, the concept of diaspora can no longer work and is argued to imperatively function as a vanishing mediator so that indigeneity must come to mean as a constant identity of becoming. Following from such a theoretical lens, this paper delves again into the concept of 'diaspora' in the Mamanuan indigenous experience to argue further that its act of mediating functions as performative indigeneity. To do this, the paper runs in three parts: first, it plots the Mamanuan diaspora experience; second, it briefly reiterates the core argument of diaspora as vanishing mediator; and finally, it theorizes on a concept of what Judith Butler calls 'performative indigeneity' that takes its form from the mediation of an indigenous diaspora experience.
This article represents an attempt to make an unprecedented comprehensive analysis of the first experience of teaching the academic English-language course “History of Religions in Russia” to foreign students of Russian higher education institutions. The object of the proposed research is the educational and methodological complex for the above mentioned discipline, which is currently being tested at the RUDN University named after Patrice Lumumba, with the participation of the first year bachelor’s degree students of English-language educational programs - both of humanitarian and technical profiles. The major purpose of the study is to generalize and systematize the methodical, methodological, organizational, technical and other relevant features of the process of introduction of this subject into the curriculum. The study uses general and special scientific methods: generalization and classification, deduction and induction, analysis of administrative, regulatory and other documents. The main novelty of the research lies in the implementation of a previously unconducted analysis of the empirical results of teaching a new general education course launched for foreign students only in the fall of 2024. The practical significance of the article is comprised of providing other Russian universities and institutes planning to begin teaching the researched discipline with the opportunity to use the materials developed by RUDN University, which among higher education institutions in Russia has actually become a pioneer in teaching English-language course of “History of Religions in Russia” to foreigners. It will also be instrumental in giving new impetus to the measures taken by Russian high-schools in order to expand the export of national education abroad.
This contribution explores the ‘infrastructuring’ of religious sites and practices in Ghana’s Ashanti region, particularly in Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches and Indigenous Religious Traditions (IRT). By ‘infrastructuring’, I mean the purposeful complexification and augmentation of infrastructural arrangements encompassing both material (physical) and immaterial (organisational, communicative) dimensions. The first part explores a PCC case study, Prophet Boateng’s Power Chapel Worldwide (PCWW), investigating the aesthetic, economic, and political implications of infrastructuring Pentecostalism. The second part, which is a novel addition to the discourse, focuses on the emergence and expansion of heavily infrastructured IRT shrines and practices through the case of Kↄmfoↄ Oforiwaa’s shrine. I argue that the aesthetic operations performed by religiously configured buildings can help generate assemblages of people, aspirations, and meanings constituting more comprehensive economic and political processes.
Gender and sexuality are among the most intensely conflictual aspects of religion around the world. Religion is a key contributor to the continuation of inequalities linked to gender and sexual orientation, and therefore also to unequal citizenship between women and men, and between heterosexual and LGBTQ+ people. Moreover, religion is deeply implicated in the history of nations in the Global North and their colonial rule and imperialist expansion, with long-lasting stereotyping and othering of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and people of colour, including of their religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. While religion can provide limitations and barriers to equal citizenship, it can also provide resources and opportunities for everyday citizenship practices such as in the mobilisation for political demands. This chapter revisits existing scholarship on gender, religion, and citizenship and outlines a new multidimensional, multilevel conceptualisation of religious citizenship that foregrounds how religion and citizenship intersect with gender and other identities and structures of inequality. It proposes a new definition of religious citizenship that forefronts its legal-political, participatory, embodied, material, affective, and care dimensions, while also discussing select empirical cases from around the world that demonstrate the entanglement of these six dimensions of religious citizenship.
This article explores how sociologists of religion can respond to ‘the animal turn’ in studies of lived religion and nonreligion. We begin by considering how sociology has neglected the place of non-human animals and the ‘more than human’ in social life. We then turn to the sociology of religion, where animals have often been devalued or ignored as irrelevant to understanding religion in society. We argue that it is necessary to consider the ways in which human activities are shaped by non-human animals. This does not mean that animals should be thought of as nonreligious or religious. We contend that the failure to incorporate non-human animals in sociological considerations of religion and nonreligion replicates a hierarchical model, which sees human life as above or higher than non-human life and calls our attention to the place of sociological research amid the climate crisis.
This article discusses how the concept of "religion" is conceptualized in Indonesia and its implications. Through literature review, data was collected and analyzed descriptively, and it was found that: First, the term "religion" is conceptually constructed academically based on the World Religion Paradigm (WRP) with Islam as the model and monotheism as the main feature. Politically, the WRP is increasingly hegemonic through Pancasila, and is constructed in accordance with the policy of religious life from the colonial era to the orde New Order (Orde Baru). Thus, the definition and categorization of religion are stricter and more political. Second, this construction has implications for: (1) Monotheism becoming the standard feature of "recognized religion", making it exclusive and discriminatory. (2) In order to be recognized by the state, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are forced to monotheize their theological concepts and submit to Pancasila. (3) The government hastily reduces various local practices to "belief systems". (4) Religion becomes the main identity in citizenship, leading to discrimination and stigmatization of believers of faiths. (5) Academically, the WRP also influences the paradigm in the study of religion. This article recommends the need for a re-identification of religious categories academically, outside of political interests. In addition, it is necessary to distinguish native religions from belief systems because even though they are not identical to world religions, they are not as simple as spiritual practices.
Abstrak: Artikel ini mendiskusikan bagaimana kata "agama" dikonseptualisasi di Indonesia dan implikasinya. Melalui studi kepustakaan, data dikumpulkan dan dianalisis secara deskriptif, dan ditemukan bahwa: Pertama, kata “agama” secara konseptual dikonstruksi secara akademis berdasarkan paradigma agama dunia (WRP) dengan Islam sebagai model dan monoteistik sebagai fitur utama. Secara politis, WRP semakin hegemonik melalui Pancasila, lalu dikonstruksi seturut kebijakan kehidupan beragama dari masa kolonial hingga Orde Baru. Jadi definisi dan kategori agama lebih ketat dan politis. Kedua, konstruksi ini berimplikasi pada: (1) Monoteistik menjadi ciri standar pengakuan “agama”, sehingga eksklusif dan diskriminatif. (2) Agar diakui negara, Hindu, Budha, dan Konghucu dipaksa untuk memonoteistifikasi konsep teologinya, tunduk kepada Pancasila. (3) Pemerintah secara gegabah mereduksi berbagai praktik lokal ke dalam "aliran kepercayaan". (4) Agama menjadi identitas utama dalam kewarganegaraan, yang mengarah pada diskriminasi dan stigmatisasi penghayat kepercayaan. (5) Secara akademis, WRP juga mempengaruhi paradigma dalam studi agama. Artikel ini merekomendasikan perlunya identifikasi ulang kategori agama secara akademis, di luar kepentingan politik. Selain itu, perlu membedakan agama pribumi dari aliran kepercayaan karena meskipun tidak identik dengan agama dunia, namun ia tidak sesederhana sebagai praktik kebatinan.
If we take on board the classic Durkheimian (1995 [1915]: 208) notion that religions and societies reflect and maintain one another—that societies create “God” in their own image—it is unsurprising that animism’s popularity as a religious path, often referred to as the “new animism” (Harvey, 2005, 2013), is growing amid current global anxieties about the destruction of natural environments, species depletion and extinction, pollution and climate change. This is happening even as many indigenous heirs of the world’s traditional animisms find themselves increasingly absorbed into cosmopolitan societies and urban contexts where their worldviews are a minority and access to traditional territories, food sources, trans-generational knowledge and lifeways is now more difficult, diminished or threatened. Many indigenous heirs of animism and non-indigenous “new animists” find themselves configuring heterodox paths within the cosmopolitan societies they now inhabit—embracing worldviews which are arguably broadly similar to one another, but needing to negotiate the fallout from the ongoing, often fraught socio-politics of indigenous/non-indigenous relations over the last half century and more.
This chapter analyses the phenomenon of new animism in the light of the notion of cultural critique borrowed from work by anthropologists such as George Marcus and Michael Fischer. In developing the analysis, a distinction is drawn between affirmatory new animism and a critical approach to new animism. While each of these approaches acknowledges divergences between animist viewpoints and modern Western viewpoints, the affirmatory approach affirms the superiority of the animist side of the contrast; the critical approach remains more circumspect, emphasizing the hermeneutical difficulties that accompany efforts to understand the cultural phenomena at issue. The purpose of the chapter is not to vindicate either the affirmatory or the critical approach but to clarify what kind of phenomenon (or movement or orientation) new animism is, what its possibilities are and what might be the strengths and weaknesses both of new animism itself and of the criticisms that have been lodged against it.
This study explores the relationship between religion and the state which has an impact on the marginalization of local beliefs as a natural thing. The term "reasonable" refers to an ongoing social phenomenon and not a justification claim for the process of marginalization for local beliefs. The focus of this study is on the role of the state and Christianity in constructing religion as a phenomenon of marginalization of local Minahasa beliefs. The followers of local Minahasa beliefs are stigmatized as infidels because they practice rituals that are different from the world religion paradigm; One of them is the paradigm of Christianity. Stigma against adherents of faith is further strengthened through the history of the Indonesian state's policy of limiting the term religion in Indonesia.The state has legitimized the existence of “world religions” or “imported religions” as an intrinsic part of the life of the state; including Christianity. As a result, marginalization of local beliefs has become a natural practice. This research is based on Peter Berger's (1991) "social construction" approach and Sunder John Boopelan's "ritual of humiliation" (2017) to analyze the phenomenon of marginalization as a natural thing. This article uses qualitative research methods with descriptive analytical research to describe the relationship between religion and the state based on the findings. The argument in this study is that the marginalization of local believers is constructed by the relationship between the state as a public policy maker and Christianity as the majority in Minahasa. [Penelitian ini mengeksplorasi relasi agama dan negara yang berdampak pada marginalisasi kepercayaan lokal sebagai hal yang wajar. Istilah “wajar” mengacu pada fenomena sosial yang sedang terjadi dan bukan klaim pembenaran atas proses marginalisasi bagi kepercayaan lokal. Fokus kajian ini pada peran negara dan kekristenan dalam mengkonstruksi agama sebagai fenomena marginalisasi terhadap kepercayaan lokal Minahasa. Para pemeluk kepercayaan lokal Minahasa mendapat stigma kafir karena melakukan praktek ritual yang berbeda dari paradigma world religion (agama dunia); salah satunya paradigma agama Kristen. Stigma terhadap pemeluk kepercayaan semakin diperkuat melalui sejarah kebijakan Negara Indonesia yang membatasi istilah agama di Indonesia. Negara telah melegitimasi eksistensi “agama-agama dunia” atau “agama impor” sebagai bagian intrinsik dalam kehidupan bernegara; termasuk di dalamnya agama Kristen. Akibatnya, marginalisasi terhadap kepercayaan lokal menjadi praktek yang wajar. Penelitian ini berbasis pada pendekatan “konstruksi sosial” Peter Berger (1991) dan “ritual of humiliation” Sunder John Boopelan (2017) untuk menganalisa fenomena marginalisasi sebagai hal yang wajar. Artikel ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan jenis penelitian deskriptif analitis untuk mendeskripsikan relasi agama dan negara berdasarkan temuan. Argumentasi dalam penelitian ini, bahwa marginalisasi terhadap pemeluk kepercayaan lokal dikonstruksi oleh relasi antara negara sebagai pembuat kebijakan publik dan agama Kristen sebagai mayoritas di Minahasa.]
This article explores the modern-day festival as a timely site for analyzing the politics of indigenous cultural and religious presence in postcolonial and neoliberal Africa. Focusing on the ancient Osun Osogbo Festival and the newer Calabar Carnival and Festival in Nigeria, it raises broader questions of how indigenous religion gets reframed as culture, heritage, and tourist commodity for local, national, and international audiences. Attention is paid to the multiple debates over festival content and representation in the context of local political, economic, and religious interests. The article ultimately makes the case for more comparative research on what may be termed the “festivalization of religion” and how this development relates to questions of “public religion” and “civil religion” in the contemporary African context.
The Bugis-Makassar indigenous people who live around Mount Bawakaraeng perform a ritual pilgrimage (hajj) to the top of Mount Bawakaraeng (as a sacred space). This ritual is often considered heretical and deviant. These negative assumptions are the result of the monopoly definition of "sacred place" by the world religion paradigm which is only limited to the doctrine of the holy book and is hierarchical-exclusive. Meanwhile, in the indigenous religion paradigm, "sacred place" is closely related to the surrounding environment (nature) which also gives life to indigenous peoples. The Bugis-Makassar indigenous people who live around Mount Bawakaraeng construct the sacredness of the mountain, not only as a place for religious rituals but also as a guarantor of their life. There were lacking previous researches discussing "sacred place" through the indigenous religion paradigm approach. This research contributes to that lack. This study examines how the indigenous religion paradigm interprets "sacred place". The research method used in this research is qualitative. This study argues that there is no better way to understand why indigenous people perform rituals on Mount Bawakaraeng than using the indigenous religion paradigm. This study also shows that the "sacred place" associated with Mount Bawakaraeng is a way for the indigenous people who live around the mountain to preserve the nature around them which has enabled them to live and make a living such as accessing water, gathering medicines from nature, and so on. Eventually, with research that provides a better explanation of what a "sacred place" is in the indigenous religion paradigm, negative assumptions about indigenous people who regard a mountain as a sacred place can be better understood.
Although there are some synergies between the movements to support the Rights of Nature (RoN) and Indigenous peoples, there are also some potential pitfalls and dichotomies when it comes to the integration of Indigenous peoples' human rights. In exploring some of these challenges, this article contends that the RoN paradigm should be premised on an Indigenous peoples' rights-based approach to RoN. It explores how the integration and respect of Indigenous peoples' human rights could offer a solid platform to support the development of the RoN in a much more respectful and participatory manner. By focusing specifically on self-determination, land rights, cultural rights and participatory rights, it analyses how international human rights law could serve as a benchmark to guide the development of the RoN to ensure the integration, respect and promotion of Indigenous peoples' rights. In doing so, this article argues that if such human rights based framework is adopted the RoN and the rights of Indigenous peoples could become much more self-supportive and complementary.
Using Social Psychological perspectives we analyze how religiocentric expression influences conflict via intolerant behavior between majority and minority ethnic groups in Bangladesh. In so doing, a total of 555 men (majority group n = 140, minority group n= 415) were randomly selected from northwestern villages of Bangladesh. The descriptive results revealed that Muslim and Hindu men had relatively higher scores on religiocentric expression and intolerance than Santal and Oraon men were significantly related to conflict. The results from SPSS Process Macro 4 suggested that higher level of intolerance of the Muslim and Hindu men than the Santal and Oraon men partially mediated the associations between religiocentric expression and conflict, after accounting for sociodemographic characteristics. Interreligious intolerance is an important mediator by which religiocentric expression induces conflict between majority and minority groups in Bangladesh. Future directions for public policy and research are discussed.
This article examines the materiality of the Ghost Dance shirt – ógle wakȟáŋ kiŋ – among the Lakota, and its associated symbols and functions. By cross-referencing sources on the Ghost Dance to sources on traditional Lakota belief and ritual, it is shown that the practice of interrituality – the use of established ritual elements and acts in novel contexts – enabled traditional ritual dynamics and ontological understandings to be actualized and materialized in the Ghost Dance. This gave it performative powers and a sense of cultural familiarity with which participants could navigate a turbulent period with recognizable ritual elements. Considering the primacy of visions, concepts such as wakȟáŋ, wašíčuŋ, tȟúŋ, and wótȟawe, protective designs, and ritual processes, the article problematizes a tradition-innovation dichotomy, suggesting instead that ritual materiality mediated between the two. Likewise, it is argued that the protective nature of the shirts was primarily existential and spiritual rather than exhibitions of militarism.
The definition of sacred in the World Religions paradigm is limited to the things that have to do with the symbolization of spirituality. Oftentimes, the sacred value which is not in accordance with the characteristics required by the World Religions paradigm is considered as something non-religious. In terms of preserving nature, based on the findings, many scholars have proven that indigenous people have their own value in interpreting the sacred. By attaching the sacred word to the realm where they live, it is not merely a matter of ownership or a place where they practice religious rituals. The Sunda Wiwitan community in Kuningan is one model that still carries out the tradition of ancestral heritage which they apply to the ecological aspect by the forest zoning and having a special place, namely Leuweung Leutik, a sacred little forest which for them is not only a place to perform rituals, but also as a means of preserving nature. Through the paradigm of Indigenous Religions, in which indigenous people have a strong connection with nature and recognize the subjectivity of nature as coequal living things, they are able to treat nature as they benefit from nature. This paper examines how the paradigm of Indigenous Religion is able to give new meaning to what is the sacred, which in this regard they apply to customary forest management. With a qualitative research approach using mixed data collections: secondary data and in-depth interviews, this paper explains new ideas obtained from the local knowledge of the Sunda Wiwitan community in Kuningan in order to protect their sacred place.
This study aims to evaluate whether the idea of ultimate reality in world religions contributes to the characteristics of the world religion paradigm, which is hierarchical cosmology or “subject-object cosmology.” Several research on this topic claims that one of the characteristics of the world religion paradigm is its hierarchical perspective. Discussing this issue is important to distinguish the world religions as the paradigm and the world religions as the most widely embraced religion. This study argues that the hierarchical perspective of the world religion paradigm can be rooted in the idea of ultimate reality, that there is a supreme, foremost, and most principal reality in the continuity of this universe, namely the supernatural or God. The hierarchical cosmology consists of three main domains: supernatural/God, culture/human, and nature. This study uses a literature study methodology, relying on books, journals, and texts related to research questions. This study finds that the world religion paradigm or hierarchical cosmology or “subject-object cosmology” is prominent, especially in Abrahamic religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, even though the concept of ultimate reality in these three religions is different.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi apakah gagasan tentang realitas tertinggi dalam agama-agama dunia turut berkontribusi membentuk karakteristik paradigma agama dunia, yaitu kosmologi hierarkis atau “kosmologi subjek-objek”. Beberapa penelitian tentang topik ini mengklaim bahwa salah satu karakteristik paradigma agama dunia adalah perspektifnya yang hierarkis. Membahas masalah ini penting untuk membedakan agama-agama dunia sebagai paradigma dan agama-agama dunia sebagai agama yang paling banyak dianut. Kajian ini berpendapat bahwa perspektif hierarkis paradigma agama dunia dapat berakar pada gagasan tentang realitas tertinggi, bahwa ada realitas tertinggi, utama, dan paling utama dalam kelangsungan alam semesta ini, yaitu supernatural atau Tuhan. Kosmologi hierarkis terdiri dari tiga domain utama: supernatural/Tuhan, budaya/manusia, dan alam. Penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi studi kepustakaan, dengan mengandalkan buku, jurnal, dan teks-teks yang berkaitan dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan penelitian. Kajian ini menemukan bahwa paradigma agama dunia atau kosmologi hierarkis atau “kosmologi subjek-objek” menonjol, terutama dalam agama-agama Abrahamik seperti Islam, Kristen, dan Yudaisme, meskipun konsep realitas tertinggi dalam ketiga agama tersebut berbeda. </p
The twenty-first century has seen a marked rise in individuals across the (Western) world choosing not to identify with a ‘religion’ when prompted in various contexts, and a related rise in academic studies of what it might mean to be other than religious, which map and theorize the beliefs, identifications, values, practices, and social contexts of seemingly non-religious populations. Much of this work has a great deal to offer yet falls foul of the charge that it essentializes the differences between two constructed categories – religion and non-religion – and simultaneously reproduces and perpetuates problems associated with the category ‘religion’, and substantiates a category – ‘none’ – created for multiple choice surveys. This chapter begins by introducing the ‘critical religion’ perspective before turning this on contemporary non-religion research. In doing so, it champions a discursive approach as a way forward for the field, particularly because this enables scholars to tackle the problem of essentialized identities – viewing them, rather, as contextual acts of identification. An extended empirical example then demonstrates the utility of such an approach, and the chapter concludes with reflections on the nature of specific discursive entanglements, on how identifying and being identified as non−/religious means more in certain circumstances than in others, and on how scholars ought to be relentlessly self-conscious in their approach to these matters.KeywordsCritical ReligionDiscourse AnalysisEdinburghIdentificationNon-Religion
The establishment of a sugar cane plantation in East Sumba has evoked conflicts and resistance from the local people. The damage to the katoda (sites to perform rituals) portrays one of the other violations causing environmental, cultural, and social damages related to the manipulation of customary land and criminalization of local people. This paper aims to discuss this conflict by accentuating, and also promoting, the paradigm of indigenous religion as a tool to understand the resistance of the Marapu community to protect their land. Indigenous Religion Paradigm implies the inter-subjective relationship between human person and non-human person (nature) in the non-hierarchical cosmology, which carries the commitments of responsibility, ethics, and reciprocity. By using this perspective, this work shows the opposite perspectives of the partnership between the corporation and the local government concerning the economic considerations and Marapu community who maintains their inter-subjective cosmology as opposed to the modern economic view. The land is understood differently by each of them. While the former only grasps the monetary side of the land, the latter religiously perceives the land as sources of life for both human and non-human person and, therefore, protects their land as the commitment to be responsible, ethical, and reciprocal.
This response to the special issue synthesizes its contributions into an argument for disaggregating mobility and modernity. Indigenous modes of physical and religious mobility put the lie to conventional constructions of indigenous peoples, including academic constructions of indigenous religions, as stuck in place and stuck in time. This special issue offers a profound critique of religious studies and of all hegemonic paradigms that associate civilization with sedentarization, movement with domination, reality with rationality, and truth with transcendence.
Drawing on research at two Indigenous festivals – Riddu Riđđu and the ORIGINS Festival of First Nations – this article considers ways in which Indigenous performers present their belonging to (not in) places. They are globally mobile but affirm reciprocal responsibilities with homelands. These two festivals bring together participants from across the world and provide an opportunity to consider further the dynamics of trans-Indigenous creativity. Enthused by performers at these festivals, and inspired by the critical reflections of Chadwick Allen (2012) and Robert Jahnke (2006), I reflect on some of the ways in which Indigenous performers – musicians, artists, artisans, authors, film-producers, poets and others – entertain, educate, and inspire their audiences. The following sections introduce the two festivals and they expand on Allen and Jahnke’s key terms. A selected performance at each of the festivals will then be used to exemplify and highlight the mobility of Indigenous people, traditions, and activities.
This special issue brings together leading scholars in the field of Indigenous religions working with Indigenous Peoples from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe on the topics of movement, mobility, pilgrimage, and walking as they intersect with issues of religion and spirituality. Anthropologists and scholars of religion working with various Indigenous Peoples have tended to theorize Indigeneity as denoting a cultural and historic connection to a particular land-base, yet they have not always attended to the full complexity of Indigenous Peoples’ mobile lived realities. We contend that a critical re-examination and revaluing of Indigenous mobile ways of knowing and being serves as one of several steps needed to decolonize the study of religion. Throughout this issue contributors examine various Indigenous discourses, practices, and politics of movement in order to highlight the historic and ongoing importance of mobility for cultivating personhood, maintaining networks of affinity and belonging, fostering political alliances and solidarities, and generating religious meaning.
Indigenous peoples of the world, including those of Indonesia, were more potentially at risk for Covid-19, due to their being marginalized and thus their lack of access to necessary information resources. Despite being marginalized and vulnerably impacted by the pandemic, indigenous people of Indonesia had re-contextualized their indigenous strategies that enabled them to survive and even offer lessons worth considering: indigenous ecocentrism. Data on their ideas and responses to the pandemic were collected through weekly webinars, featuring representatives of indigenous people as the main speakers, personal calls, and supported by a series of fieldwork, including data on the situation before the pandemic. Their responses to the pandemic were commonly based on ecocentrism; that Covid-19 was an ecological disaster caused by human’s misconducts against humanity and human-nature relations. In response, they took responsibilities to perform eco-centric rituals, and called for a re-establishment of ecological human-nature relations to deal with Covid-19.
During Early Modern history, the representations of New World’s indigenous beliefs and practices were a process of assimilation within the Western concept of religion. This article assesses three indigenous emic concepts observed by missionaries: zemi, teotl and huaca. First, it analyses the Account of the Antiquities of the Indians by Ramón Pané, sent by Christopher Columbus to carry out ‘fieldwork’ among the Taíno Indians. Then, it focuses on how in New Spain Bernardino de Sahagún confronted another emic concept—teotl—and incorporated it into his Florentine Codex. Finally, it focuses on how José de Acosta, in his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, adapted a theory of idolatry assimilating Andean huacas as ‘particular things’. From the comparison of these emic categories will emerge a sort of indigenous theory of materiality that could be valuable to religious studies when considering ‘other’ relational forms with extra-human beings.
This article aims to know why “adat bersendi Syara, Syara bersendi kitabullah” is so important today for Minangkabau community? In this sense, why is Islam so important to the Minangkabau community? Is it true that the need to reemerging Islam in Minangkabau as it was in the early days, was running similarly or was deviating from its direction and purpose? I will put this on the grassroots view as reflected from the various academic resources of the Minangkabau history of the pre-Colonial and Colonial Islam which became the basis
Indigeneity is a relational category that is predominantly, albeit not exclusively, applicable to Indigenous peoples. As a central theoretical site of discourse in Native Studies, indigeneity tends to be characterized by politicized relationships and provides powerful rhetorical strategies and counter-narratives. Facilitating decolonization as well as illuminating the structural and systemic relationships between the indigenous and the colonial, Indigenous theory recognizes the often complex inter-relationships attending the delineation of ethnic, social, and religious identity. The historical Black Elk, for example, illustrates how Lakota and Catholic religious identities co-exist in an ongoing site of discursive tension. This article argues that the historical figure of Jesus can be re-cognized as an indigenous Judean, complicating contemporary efforts in which the quest for the historical Jesus occurs in a predominantly Christian discursive context.
Религия как наиболее консервативная форма общественного сознания часто выступает в качестве этносохраняющего стержня: господство религиозного сознания в обществе сохраняет его традиционность, поэтому в условиях усиливающегося воздействия глобализационных процессов на массовое сознание, ослабляющего позиции традиционных культур, популярность религии в обществе, стремящемся сохранить свою традиционность, начинает объективно расти. Религиозное мировоззрение современных осетин является конфликтным: среди представителей этноса нет общего мнения относительно религиозной принадлежности народа, его «титульной» религии. Одна часть выступает за концепцию «народного христианства», апеллируя к принятому Аланией в Х в. православию. Другая часть убеждена в том, что осетины - носители собственной религии, сохранившей свою самобытность, несмотря на сильное влияние, которое оказали на нее институциональные религии (в большей степени христианство, в меньшей - ислам). Очевидно, стремлением к возрождению этнической традиционности в современных условиях объясняется тот факт, что в последнее время в осетинском обществе возобладала тенденция возрождения этнорелигиозного традиционализма, которому, однако, также дается неодинаковая оценка: часть осетин считает традиционную осетинскую религию язычеством, другая - категорически с этим не согласна. Затянувшийся спор об осетинском язычестве, по мнению многих представителей этноса, не способствует культурной консолидации народа, а лишь разобщает его перед лицом угроз постиндустриальной стадии развития мира. Что именно является предметом обозначенной дискуссии, и какими социальными реалиями она порождена? Какова научная основа, которая подведена под заостренные друг против друга точки зрения? Насколько корректно употребление термина «язычество» при характеристике этнических черт религии осетин с научных позиций? Существуют ли в науке альтернативные категории для обозначения данного явления? Ответом на эти, а также ряд других вопросов является настоящая статья.
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