Recent trends in aging studies and popular U.S. discourse reformulate elderhood as a valuable, not necessarily negative, experience, and these new models of aging have extended to a consideration of religious practices that can make old age particularly meaningful. Among evangelical Christians, a shared cosmological (and specifically eschatological) narrative structure provides solace and semiotic coherence in the face of challenges characteristic of the “third” and “fourth age.” What remains less clear is the interplay between transnational religious forces like evangelical ideology and local social contexts in which they are enacted, a process illuminated only through cross-cultural comparison. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Kentucky and in South Africa, I argue that rather than viewing evangelical rhetoric as narrowly determinative, anthropologists ought to broaden common understandings of Christians’ end-times ideology as something that may, contingent on socio-historical context, alternatively help older congregants cope with the physical effects of aging or allow for reconciliation amid rapid societal change. U.S. evangelical churches often address existential concerns faced by a growing population of elders while downplaying the significance of race, yet white South African Christians employ a similar religious cosmology to place their actions during the apartheid era in a symbolically legible narrative. Both settings indicate the malleability of evangelical ideas to foreground certain concerns while erasing others, challenging assumptions about the uniform effects of global evangelicalism.
From the Andean highlands to Appalachia, anthropologists from across the discipline open their eld bags to reveal favorite pens, recording equipment, emergency granola bars, and-of coursescarves. What's in your bag? Tammy Clemons My backpack often serves as a mobile o ce, so it always includes eldwork/travel essentials like basic o ce supplies, consent forms, a notebook with a stitched cover my mamaw made, and some combination of electronic devices. Depending on where I'm going and what I need, I have an iPhone (can you nd it in the picture?), a laptop, and, most recently, a tablet. I've used all as audio recording devices at some point, and the iPhone is indispensable for highresolution photos, recording voice memos, and scanning documents. Other digital accessories include headphones, chargers, ash drives, and an ethernet cable for high-speed internet connections. Survival tools include a multi-purpose knife, water bottle, and Tide-to-Go stick;and small comforts range from Emergen-C, mentholated lip balm, and a tea tree/peppermint oil "headache stick," to a repurposed AAA mint tin for aspirins. Not pictured but equally important when travelling at night/overnight: headlamp (because cell phone ashlights are not handy or clutz- proof), menthol/camphor rub (night-time breathing relief/relaxant), and Calmes Forte (homeopathic sleep aid). Finally, I might not play for months or years at a time, but I almost always carry a hackysack, which can be a great way to meet people, have fun, and share mutual accomplishments.Tammy Clemons is a PhD candidate at the University of Kentucky. Her dissertation research focuses on the cultural productions of young media makers in Appalachia. You can read more on her work here. A.J. FaasThis is my daily bag and contents for eldwork in
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Anthropological study of the intersection of religion and science can be traced back to the late nineteenth century when “armchair” anthropologists were concerned with situating religion and science (along with magic) as developmental phases along a universal evolutionary scheme. Later scholars reacted against these models by placing greater emphasis on the simultaneous operation of religion and science within dynamic cultural systems. Attempts at a “science of religion” by approaching religion as a product of evolutionary influences on cognition characterize part of an emerging interdisciplinary field, while other researchers focus on the religious foundations and elements within scientific communities themselves. Through these studies, ethnographers have documented the creative ways in which people draw from both religious and scientific modes of thought and practice to construct unique cosmologies. Although the absolute separation of religion and science remains unclear, their integration in social life appears around the globe.
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