Oriental Travel, Arabian Kinship, and Ritual Sacrifice: William Robertson Smith and the Fundamental Institutions

Abstract

The report of a ten-day expedition to the Arabian Hijaz by William Robertson Smith forms the fulcrum of an inquiry into the work of this denominated orientalist. A biblical scholar, encyclopedist, cultural anthropologist, and student of comparative religion, whose writings profoundly influenced figures such as Emile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, and Bronislaw Malinowski, Smith's experiences in the Arabian peninsula were crucial in his efforts to understand the nature of early Semitic social life, particularly the role played by ritual sacrifice and kinship rules. In this paper I argue that Smith's tour must be read not as an exercise in the Occidental ‘othering’ of the Orient but as a project in self-understanding and as a set of investigations into the genealogy of the Christian West. As such it is used to engage with contemporary debates about orientalism.

Apuntes Latinoamericanos Para La Construcción De Una Geografía Ambiental

“…En el ámbito de la Geografía es relevante reconocer la existencia de un rico acervo en la temática ambiental puesto que son varias y diversas las contribuciones que hunden raíces en la tradición geográfica 3 (Livingstone, 1990), más precisamente, en la discusión y reflexión acerca de la Tierra como morada de la humanidad, la relación hombre-medio o, de modo reciente, de la sociedad con la naturaleza. En este sentido, mientras Pattison (1967) recupera tales vínculos en lo que llama la tradición "man-land" para la Geografía norteamericana, Livingstone (2004Livingstone ( [1992) lo hace para el universo más amplio que abarcan las conversaciones geográficas. El determinismo ambiental como fundamento de ideologías imperiales y raciales, la capacidad transformadora de las sociedades sobre la naturaleza como insumo práctico para delimitar áreas o regiones o el puente entre lo humano y lo natural y sus derivas en una sensibilidad y preocupación ambiental, son algunos ejemplos de esas problematizaciones.…”

Introduction: Theorizing and Studying Religion

“…It has been considered in cases ranging from the African diaspora in Brazil (Carney and Voeks 2003) to the Indian diaspora in South Africa (Landy, Maharaj, and Mainet-Valleix 2004), from missionary perspectives on climate (Endfield and Nash 2002) to indigenous and scientific perspectives on sacred space (Wainwright and Robertson 2003) to a nineteenth-century religion scholar's perspectives on ritual sacrifice in the Arabian peninsula (Livingstone 2004). It has been considered in cases ranging from the African diaspora in Brazil (Carney and Voeks 2003) to the Indian diaspora in South Africa (Landy, Maharaj, and Mainet-Valleix 2004), from missionary perspectives on climate (Endfield and Nash 2002) to indigenous and scientific perspectives on sacred space (Wainwright and Robertson 2003) to a nineteenth-century religion scholar's perspectives on ritual sacrifice in the Arabian peninsula (Livingstone 2004).…”

“…Since Kong's 2001 review, religion has occasionally surfaced in geographical journals, notably including a themed section in Social and Cultural Geography (Holloway and Valins 2002). It has been considered in cases ranging from the African diaspora in Brazil (Carney and Voeks 2003) to the Indian diaspora in South Africa (Landy, Maharaj, and Mainet-Valleix 2004), from missionary perspectives on climate (Endfield and Nash 2002) to indigenous and scientific perspectives on sacred space (Wainwright and Robertson 2003) to a nineteenth-century religion scholar's perspectives on ritual sacrifice in the Arabian peninsula (Livingstone 2004).…”