In the last decades, the worldview(s) of so-called Indigenous religions have regained academic interest. Scholars of religion, anthropologists, and Indigenous writers engage in a new research field called new animism characterized by a diversity of insider and outsider positions. The field contains immense potential for inspiring general debates in the study of religion because it touches on fundamental questions about hermeneutics, epistemology, epistemic goals, disciplinary identities, and the influence of Western ontology on scientific and academic research.
This article aims to draw the attention of scholars of religion to the new animism by contextualizing the field within disciplinary and cultural history, presenting its core theories, analyzing its methodological and epistemological positions, and identifying the central players ands its politically highly charged social contexts with asymmetrical power relations. Finally, it discusses how the new animism challenges general debates within the study of religion and may provocatively stimulate them.
Sound and music play a vital role in many religious and spiritual practices around the world. However, they have not been studied considerably in the field of religion or in related disciplines thus far. This article begins to bridge this gap by drawing a preliminary cartography of the research field and proposing a transdisciplinary methodological basis for further studies. It includes a survey of the state of research and firmly locates the field within the secular study of religion rather than within phenomenological, theological or religious approaches. The key concepts “sound,” “music” and “religion” are introduced; and the manner in which common perceptions of these concepts have prevented us from noting some of the most interesting phenomena, especially in contemporary religiosity, is discussed. Finally, a spectrum of potential research perspectives that could be covered by future studies is proposed.
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