Thinking Religion Through Things

Abstract

In recent years, the “material turn” has gained prominence in the humanities and social sciences, and it has also stimulated a shift toward a rediscovery of materiality in the scientific study of religion\s. The material turn aims to dissolve conventional dichotomies and, by emphasizing the concept of assemblage, insists that humans and things are fundamentally co-constitutive. This “New Materialism” addresses ontological alterity, and it radically decenters static anthropocentric arrangements and the position of the human subject as such. The insider–outsider distinction, however, as well as the emic–etic categorization, are based on fundamental dichotomies between the researcher and the researched, and between descriptive and analytical understandings of human beings. This article discusses the possibility and significance of a non-anthropocentric approach to religion, and examines to what extent it is analytically helpful to apply the insider–outsider and emic–etic distinctions while pursuing the goal of dissolving hierarchical and binary thinking. It furthermore argues that these issues can be properly answered only with reference to their methodological implications.

Perspectives nouvelles autour de la mondialisation du champ religieux brésilien - New perspectives on the globalization of the Brazilian religious field

“…Dans ce contexte, depuis un certain temps déjà, les études sur la matérialité du religieux (Arweck et Keenan, 2006; Bräunlein, 2016 ; Hazard, 2013 ; Meyer et Houtman, 2012 ; Vásquez, 2010) s’intéressent à la manière dont la religion est rendue tangible non seulement par les corps, mais aussi par les médias, les images, les objets, les vêtements, les sons et les infrastructures. Ces chercheurs avaient pour but de décentrer la croyance en tant que caractéristique centrale et universelle de la religion, en montrant que l’attention placée sur la seule croyance et le manque consécutif d’intérêt pour la dimension matérielle de la religion relevaient d’un préjugé protestant (Meyer et Houtman, 2012 : 2).…”

“…In this context, for some time now, the scholarship of material religion (Arweck and Keenan, 2006; Bräunlein, 2016; Hazard, 2013; Meyer and Houtman, 2012; Vásquez, 2010) has addressed the ways in which religion is made tangible not only through bodies, but also through the media, images, objects, clothes, sounds, and infrastructure. These scholars aimed to decentre belief as a central and universal characteristic of religion by showing that the sole focus on belief and the consequence dismissal of religious materiality were due to a Protestant bias (Meyer and Houtman, 2012: 2).…”

Alltag in der Moschee

“…Diese Arbeit schließt damit an aktuelle Überlegungen zur Materialität von Religion an (vgl. Bräunlein 2016), denn hier steht die materielle Dimension (Handeln, Praktiken, Menschen) vor den kognitiven Sinnstrukturen im Vordergrund.…”

Between Rocks and ‘High Places’: On Religious Architecture in the Iron Age Southern Levant

“…This anxiety, and the stated need for formal classification, has often been expressed in terms of a contrast between the metaphysical referent of religion, manifest in beliefs, values, and worldviews, and the material referent of archaeology, manifest in artifacts, features and buildings (Insoll 2004, p. 154). However, as the so-called "material turn" in the study of religion has emphasized (Bräunlein 2016), religion itself is a material domain that involves immanence as well as transcendence (Reinhardt 2016). The common practice in the archaeology of religion of mapping religion to immaterial belief and ritual to concrete action perpetuates a mind-body dualism that misrepresents both thought and action.…”