Muslims Through Discourse

by Bowen, John Richard

• ISBN13: 9780691028705
• ISBN10: 0691028702
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-04-19
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

In this rich account of a Muslim society in highland Sumatra, Indonesia, John Bowen describes how men and women debate among themselves ideas of what Islam is and should be--as it pertains to all areas of their lives, from work to worship. Whereas many previous anthropological studies have concentrated on the purely local aspects of culture, this book captures and analyzes the tension between the local and universal in everyday life. Current religious differences among the Gayo stem from debates between "traditionalist" and "modernist" scholars that began in the 1930s, and reveal themselves in the ways Gayo discuss and perform worship, sacrifice, healing, and rites of birth and death, all within an Islamic framework. Bowen considers the power these debates accord to language, especially in arguments over spells, rites of farming, hunting, and healing. Moreover, he traces in these debates a general conception of transacting with spirits that has shaped Gayo practices of sacrifice, worship, and aiding the dead. Bowen concludes by examining the development of competing religious ideas in the highlands, the alternative ritual forms and ideas they have pro-mulgated, and the implications of this phenomenon for the emergence of an Islamic public sphere.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Transcription
A Genealogy of Divergent Understandings
Introduction	p. 3
Religious Disputes in Takengen	p. 18
On Modernists and Traditionalists	p. 21
Social and Moral Contexts	p. 30
Islamic Knowledge in the Highlands, 1900-1990	p. 39
Languages of Past Piety and Learning	p. 40
The Development of Traditionalist Scholarship	p. 47
Muhammadiyah: Social and Religious Innovation in the Highlands	p. 55
Radical Reform through Islamic Education	p. 61
Powerful Speech and Spirit Transactions
Spells, Prayer, and the Power of Words	p. 77
Distinctions among Doa	p. 82
The Efficacy of Spells	p. 87
Quranic Knowledge and Power	p. 94
Acquiring Power and Expecting Results	p. 101
The Source of Human Powers in History	p. 106
The Creation of the World	p. 106
The Human Embodiment of Creation	p. 115
The Coming of Islam to Aceh	p. 124
The Healer's Struggle	p. 129
Healers and Knowledge	p. 131
Finding the Jin	p. 135
Restoring the Balance	p. 139
Asking a Spirit to Depart	p. 145
Exorcism and Accountability	p. 151
Casting Out the Spirits	p. 152
The Social Framework of Exorcism	p. 162
Farming, Ancestors, and the Sacred Landscape	p. 173
Speaking with the Ancestor	p. 174
Protecting the Crops and the Community	p. 185
Ancestors and Other Sacred Beings	p. 194
Adam and Eve's Children	p. 202
The Origins of Rice	p. 202
Cain, Abel, and the Marriage of Twins	p. 209
Hunting, Healing, and Spiritual Siblingship	p. 216
Negotiating Public Rituals
Transacting through Food: The Kenduri and Its Critics	p. 229
Prayers, Food, and Sacrifice	p. 230
Celebrating the Prophet Muhammad's Birthday	p. 237
The Child's Entry into the World	p. 240
Speaking for the Dead	p. 251
Speaking to the Dead at the Grave	p. 252
Negotiating the Passage of the Dead	p. 259
Chanting for the Deceased	p. 262
Sacrifice, Merit, and Self-Interest	p. 273
Generating Merit in Isak	p. 273
"Selfless Sacrifice" in Takengen	p. 279
Worship and Public Life	p. 289
Form and Feeling in Worship	p. 290
Worshiping Together	p. 296
Disputations	p. 300
Mosque Politics	p. 309
The Social Forms of Religious Change	p. 315
Creating Private and Public Spheres	p. 315
Two Modes of Cultural Rationalization	p. 321
Public Discourse and the State	p. 325
Glossary of Gayo and Arabic Terms	p. 331
Bibliography	p. 335
Index	p. 353
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