The Anthropology of Religious Conversion

by Buckser, Andrew; Glazier, Stephen D.; Anderson, Robert T.; Austin-Broos, Diane; Brown, Thomas K.; Coleman, Simon; Di Bella, Maria Pia; Farhadian, Charles; Lohmann, Roger Ivar; Mendoza, Marcela; Menon, Kalyani Devaki; Norris, Rebecca Sachs; Priest, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780742517783
• ISBN10: 0742517780
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-18
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

The Anthropology of Religious Conversion paints a picture of conversion far more complex than its customary image in anthropology and religious studies. Conversion is very seldom simply a sudden moment of insight or inspiration; it is a change both of individual consciousness and of social belonging, of mental attitude and of physical experience, whose unfolding depends both on its cultural setting and on the distinct individuals who undergo it. The book explores religious conversion in a variety of cultural settings and considers how anthropological approaches can help us understand the phenomenon. Fourteen case studies span historical and geographical contexts, including the contemporary United States, modern and medieval Europe, and non-western societies in South Asia, Melanesia, and South America. They discuss conversion to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Spiritualism. Combining ethnographic description with theoretical analysis, authors consider the nature and meaning of conversion, its social and political dimensions, and its relationship to individual religious experience.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xix
1 The Anthropology of Conversion: An Introduction	1	(14)
Diane Austin-Broos
Part One: Conversion and Social Processes
2 Continuous Conversion? The Rhetoric, Practice, and Rhetorical Practice of Charismatic Protestant Conversion	15	(14)
Simon Coleman
3 Agency, Bureaucracy, and Religious Conversion: Ethiopian "Felashmura" Immigrants to Israel	29	(14)
Don Seeman
4 Converted Innocents and Their Trickster Heroes: The Politics of Proselytizing in India	43	(12)
Kalyani Devaki Menou
5 Comparing Conversions among the Dani of Irian Jaya	55	(14)
Charles E. Farhadian
6 Social Conversion and Group Definition in Jewish Copenhagen	69	(16)
Andrew Buckser
7 Conversion and Marginality in Southern Italy	85	(10)
Maria Pia Di Bella
Part Two: Conceptualizing Conversion: Alternative Perspectives
8 "I Discovered My Sin!": Aguaruna Evangelical Conversion Narratives	95	(14)
Robert J. Priest
9 Turning the Belly: Insights on Religious Conversion from New Guinea Gut Feelings	109	(14)
Roger Ivar Lohmann
10 Constraint and Freedom in Icelandic Conversions	123	(10)
Robert T. Anderson
11 Mystical Experiences, American Culture, and Conversion to Christian Spiritualism	133	(16)
Thomas Kingsley Brown
Part Three: Conversion and Individual Experience
12 "Limin' wid Jah": Spiritual Baptists Who Become Rastafarians and Then Become Spiritual Baptists Again	149	(22)
Stephen D. Glazier
13 Converting to What? Embodied Culture and the Adoption of New Beliefs	171	(12)
Rebecca Sachs Norris
14 From Jehovah's Witness to Benedictine Nun: The Roles of Experience and Context in a Double Conversion	183	(16)
Mary Ann Reidhead and Van A. Reidhead
15 Converted Christians, Shamans, and the House of God: The Reasons for Conversion Given by the Western Toba of the Argentine Chaco	199	(12)
Marcela Mendoza
Afterword
16 Anthropology and the Study of Conversion	211	(12)
Lewis R. Rambo
Index	223	(10)
About the Contributors	233