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Ethnographies of Islam : ritual performances and everyday practices
This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom. Such discourses are countered by the contributors who show the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and promote a reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology.--provided by publisher.
Book
The Politics of Islamic Death Rituals in the COVID-19 Era
Throughout the Islamic world, the era of COVID-19 has witnessed controversial changes to highly ritualised traditional Islamic funeral rites. To combat the pandemic in Egypt, the government and Al-Azhar implemented restrictions surrounding group prayer and burial which many Egyptians viewed as impinging on their religious duties as well as on their ability to mourn. Utilising participant observation, interviews, and deductive research, this article explores the social and anthropological ramifications involved in the modification of traditional Islamic burial rituals in the era of COVID-19 and the negotiations involved amongst different actors, looking specifically at cases in Egypt.
Journal Article
Ethnographies of Islam : ritual performances and everyday practices
This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom. Such discourses are countered by the contributors who show the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and promote a reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology.--Provided by publisher.
Book
A Love That Lasts Beyond the Grave
‘If I have a bird, or an animal, and it were to die, what should I do?’ ‘Is it forbidden to read verses over the deceased animal, especially when some people may consider the animal part of the family?’ These questions, excerpts from posts in online Islamic advice forums, enfold several notions not usually associated with Muslim societies, such as the practice of non-utilitarian petkeeping, the sentimental anthropomorphisation of house pets, and a deep concern for the spiritual well-being of the departed companion. This article examines the convergence of interspecies companionship and death by exploring the possibility of an Islamic animal eschatology; the material attributes of death, funerary rites, and burial architecture; and the history of emotional relationships between humans and nonhuman animals in the Muslim world.
Journal Article
About some religious customs of Shii Muslims in Azerbaijan in the 19th century
As in other Muslim countries, traditions formed on the system of religious beliefs have an important place in the culture of Azerbaijani people. These traditions, which are an integral part of Muslim culture, were formed under the ideological influence of many denominations and doctrines. The purpose of this study is to examine some aspects of the traditions that existed among Shiite Muslims in Azerbaijan in the 19th century. Despite the need to study Islamic culture in post-Soviet Azerbaijan, there is still a lack of comprehensive research on the subject. In this context, the cultural traditions of the Azerbaijani people, mainly Shiite Muslims have been studied on the base of alams, kirkachar cams, prayer rugs and the other samples which belong to the 19th century and are being preserved in the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan. Although the research aims to examine the spiritual culture, the specificity of the materials in the article as an example of art, the meaning of the structure, the technique of preparation, the content of the patterns and calligraphy on it have been also studied. At the same time, in order to show the connection of the mentioned traditions with the historical past of the people, reference has been made to the previous periods and as a result, the ethnographic features belonging to the 19th century have been identified. Diğer Müslüman ülkelerde olduğu gibi Azerbaycan halkının kültüründe de dini inançlar sistemi üzerinde oluşan gelenekler önemli yer tutmaktadır. Müslüman kültürünün ayrılmaz bir parçası olan bu gelenekler birçok mezhep ve tarikatın ideolojik etkisi altında oluşmuştur. Bu çalışmanın amacı XIX. yüzyılda Azerbaycan'da Şiî Müslümanlar arasında var olan geleneklerin bazı yönlerini incelemektir. Sovyetler dönemi sonrası Azerbaycan'da İslam kültürünü inceleme ihtiyacının ortaya çıkmasına rağmen, konuyla ilgili kapsamlı çalışmalara hala rastlanmamaktadır. Bu sebeple, başta Şiî Müslümanlar olmak üzere Azerbaycan halkının kültürel gelenekleri, Milli Azerbaycan Tarih Müzesi’nde korunan XIX. yüzyıla ait dini geleneklerle ilgili elem, keşkül, şerbethor, kırkaçar camı, seccade gibi materyaller üzerinden incelenmiştir. Araştırma, halkın manevi kültürünü incelemeyi amaçlasa da makalede yer alan materyallerin sanat örneği olarak özellikleri, yapılışının anlamı, hazırlanma teknikleri, üzerindeki desen ve hat yazılarının içeriği de araştırılmıştır. Aynı zamanda söz konusu geleneklerin halkın tarihsel geçmişiyle bağlantısını göstermek için önceki dönemlere de değinilmiş ve sonuç olarak XIX. yüzyılın etnografik özellikleri tespit edilmiştir.
Journal Article
Gender Diversity in Indonesia
Indonesia provides particularly interesting examples of gender diversity. Same-sex relations, transvestism and cross-gender behaviour have long been noted amongst a wide range of Indonesian peoples. This book explores the nature of gender diversity in Indonesia, and with the world’s largest Muslim population, it examines Islam in this context. Based on extensive ethnographic research, it discusses in particular calalai – female-born individuals who identify as neither woman nor man; calabai – male-born individuals who also identify as neither man nor woman; and bissu – an order of shamans who embody female and male elements. The book examines the lives and roles of these variously gendered subjectivities in everyday life, including in low-status and high-status ritual such as wedding ceremonies, fashion parades, cultural festivals, Islamic recitations and shamanistic rituals. The book analyses the place of such subjectivities in relation to theories of gender, gender diversity and sexuality.
1. Framing Place and Process 2. Contextualizing Gender 3. Queer(y)ing Transgender 4. Gendering the Present Past 5. Gendering Life 6. Calalai Subject Positions 7. Calabai Subject Positions 8. Bissu Subject Positions
\"[A] comprehensive study of gender diversity in Indonesia... the book is an excellent, ethnographically thick and deep description of structures, discourses, negotiations and experiences of gender in Bugis South Sulawesi. The author's careful consideration of a whole range of aspects, frames and spaces relating to gender shows the complexity of the subject positions and the creativity of the people who live those positions... Graham Davies sets out to 'contribute to knowledge about gender' and she certainly succeeds.\" - Dr. Karin Klenke, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Georg-August University, Germany
\"In this rich exploration of sexuality, gender, and queer subject positioning among the Bugis of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sharyn Graham Davies...offers a fascinating discussion of the intersections of Islamic thought and practice with Bugis gender diversity... [the book] would be an excellent addition to upper-level undergraduate and graduate classrooms in gender and sexuality studies.\" - Leslie Dwyer, American Anthropologist
Sharyn Graham Davies is Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. She has spent a number of years living in Indonesia and has written extensively on gender and sexuality, including most recently Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders among Bugis in Indonesia, Thompson Wadsworth, 2007.
eBook
Splashed by the Saint
Sanctity is a concept recognized by Muslims throughout the Islamic world, and often motivates observances with highly localized characteristics. Julian Millie spent a year attending a supplication ritual in which Muslims of West Java directed their prayers to Allah through 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaelani (d. 1166). This man, whose tomb even today is a popular pilgrimage site in Baghdad, is widely considered the most powerful intercessor of all the saints of Islam. The supplication takes the form of reading or singing the narrative proofs of 'Abd al-Qadir's saintliness in a ritual context. The ritual has deep roots in the Sundanese culture of West Java. The book captures the variety of understandings that participants bring to the ritual when it is held in various contexts, including Java's largest Sufi order, religious schools and private homes.
eBook
Healing with spirits and the formation of Muslim selfhood in post-Soviet Uzbekistan
Since Uzbekistan gained its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam has re-entered the public sphere and people there have joined the rest of the Muslim world in contemplating reflexively what it means to be Muslim. This article explores this process in the context of healing practices involving spirit agency. It argues that this form of healing, as an imaginal encounter with spirit agents, constitutes a particular mode of access to divine knowledge and power through which people validate their own particular concepts of Muslim selfhood. It explores how the content of these encounters and the cosmology invoked by healers are changing in response to the increasing influence of scripturalist interpretations of Islam, and how healing practice is interpreted through social interaction within the healers' communities. / Depuis l'indépendance de l'Ouzbékistan, consécutive à l'effondrement de l'Union Soviétique, l'islam a fait son retour dans la sphère publique et les Ouzbeks se sont joints au débat réfléxif qui anime le monde musulman sur ce qu'implique le fait d'être musulman. L'auteur explore ce processus dans le cadre des pratiques de guérison faisant appel à l'intervention des esprits. Il affirme que ce mode de guérison, rencontre imaginaire avec des agents venus du monde des esprits, constitue un mode particulier d'accès au savoir et à la puissance divins, grâce auquel les gens peuvent valider leurs conceptions spécifiques de l'identité musulmane. Il étudie la manière dont la teneur de ces rencontres et la cosmologie invoquée par les guérisseurs évoluent en réponse à l'influence de plus en plus prononcée des interprétations scripturalistes de l'islam, et dont la pratique de guérison est interprétée à travers les interactions sociales dans les communautés des guérisseurs.
Journal Article
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: China's Middle Eastern Inroads
In 2011, when Algeria's Religious Affairs Minister Bouabdallah Ghlamallah awarded the contract to build the Grand Mosque of Algiers, the third-largest such structure in the world, it did not go to a homegrown Algerian bidder nor to one based in a fellow Muslim-majority Arab nation like Lebanon, nor even to one in a nearby non-Muslim nation like Spain, with long connections to the Islamic world. The February 2011 contract-signing ceremony officially granted the $1.3 billion mega-project to a farther away and far less likely competitor -- a state-owned Chinese enterprise. The Chinese designed their mission in Algeria to be low profile, avoiding the pitfalls of Ugly Americanism. But many of the country's domestic problems have followed its workers there. In 2009, when there were thirty-five thousand Chinese nationals already living in Algeria, al-Qaeda-linked groups threatened to target them because of Beijing's brutal crackdown on its Uighur Muslims during riots back home.
Journal Article