RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2024.2268471
Janet M. Powers
{"title":"The greater India experiment: Hindutva and the Northeast <b>The greater India experiment: Hindutva and the Northeast</b> , by Arkotong Longkumer, Redwood City, Stanford University Press, 2021, x + 321 pp., US $90 (hardback), ISBN: 978 150 361346 1","authors":"Janet M. Powers","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2024.2268471","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2024.2268471","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135858578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-10-12DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2267291
Zachariah S. Motts
{"title":"Religion, Secularism, & Political Belonging <b>Religion, Secularism, & Political Belonging</b> , edited by Leerom Medovoi and Elizabeth Bentley, Duke University Press, Durham, 2021, xii + 364 pp., US$29.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-147-801078-4","authors":"Zachariah S. Motts","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2267291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2267291","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136013269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-10-11DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2024.2268417
Adeyemi Balogun
{"title":"Rage and Carnage in the Name of God: Religious Violence in NigeriaRage and Carnage in the Name of God: Religious Violence in Nigeria, by Abiodun Alao, Duke University Press, Durham, 2022, xiii + 298 pp., $27.95 (paperback), ISBN 978 147 801816 2","authors":"Adeyemi Balogun","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2024.2268417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2024.2268417","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136211376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-10-02DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258703
Teya Brooks Pribac, Jay Johnston
{"title":"Animal spirit: other bodies in relation","authors":"Teya Brooks Pribac, Jay Johnston","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258703","url":null,"abstract":"This thematic issue provides provocation to the way in which other-than-human agencies are taken up in the discipline of religious studies and/or in relation to religious themes. It also considers what studies in religion can offer other disciplines grappling with other-than-human agencies. The articles in this issue explore the role of embodiment and a range of knowledge and perception systems as they appear, (de)limit, enable and make knowable relations with other-than-human bodies, especially other animal bodies. Going beyond discussions of nonhuman animals as cyphers, metaphors or symbols for human belief or worldviews, this issue’s focus is the ethics of living and relating in a multi-epistemological world with other (animal) bodies. These questions are particularly relevant at a time of a global environmental crisis that threatens all life.","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135900814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-09-28DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2263266
Md. Nazmul Islam
{"title":"Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology: A Critical Re-Evaluation <b>Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology: A Critical Re-Evaluation</b> , by Joseph J. Kaminski, New York, Routledge, 2021, 212 pp., $136 (hardback), ISBN 978-036-753985-6","authors":"Md. Nazmul Islam","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2263266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2263266","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135386310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-09-26DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258709
Mickias Musiyiwa
{"title":"The pluralistic notion of <i>zvipuka</i> : Shona indigenous knowledge and human and nonhuman animal interaction in Zimbabwe","authors":"Mickias Musiyiwa","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258709","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258709","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTThe article analyses zvipuka (human and nonhuman animals) interaction discourses in order to draw attention to the contribution Shona indigenous knowledge provides towards understanding zvipuka interactions. From largely an Afrocentric perspective, blended with selected tenets of Critical Animal Studies (CAS) theory, the study interrogates Shona cultural beliefs, values and practices to reveal the knowledge that shapes people's attitudes towards animals.This approach diverts from the traditional Eurocentric and often binarised conception of animals and African peoples through discourses of Othering. There is no single conception of the same chipuka (creature/animal) as either good or bad in Shona culture by virtue of the various religious and socioeconomic contexts in which zvipuka discourses are articulated. It is therefore argued that from an African epistemological standpoint, there is a general positive pluralistic notion of nonhuman animals in Zimbabwe, knowledge that can be utilised in formulating sustainable policies for protecting and conserving nonhuman animals.KEYWORDS: Animal embodimentsShona cultureAfrican Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS)AfrocentricityEurocentrismanimal conservation Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 However, it should be noted that nonhuman animals are also complex bio-psycho-social beings not just the instinctual automata that the mainstream Western tradition thought them to be.2 The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs recognises the role IKS can play in the realization of Sustainable Development Goals. It states that ’Indigenous Knowledge Systems are being recognized as inherently encompassing most of the aspects and principles of SDGs’. See https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/integrating-indigenous-knowledge-systems-2030-un-sustainable-development-goals.3 https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Animal-life.4 This is a human spirit of divination seen as a good spirit by its owner who uses it to recover wealth and stolen property but believed to be an evil spirit used to create wealth through harming and killing one’s blood relatives.5 This is a traditional religious dance found in central and southern Zimbabwe, associated with the worship of Mwari.6 ZANLA was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Shona-based and main nationalist party in the struggle for independence in Zimbabwe.7 This is the Acholi name for the African green broadbill.8 For more details, refer to the website, ZimFieldGuide.com. https://zimfieldguide.com/mashonaland-west/operation-noah-memorial.9 The Zambezi River is an important tenet of Tonga religion; the Tonga people believe that in it resides the serpentine river god, Nyami-nyami, which provides fisherman with abundant fish. However, as the legend goes, the construction of the Kariba dam wall separated Nyami-Nyami from his wife. The challenges of relocation still encountered by the Tonga peo","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134886380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-09-21DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258705
Kocku von Stuckrad
{"title":"Undisciplining the study of religion: critical posthumanities and more-than-human ways of knowing","authors":"Kocku von Stuckrad","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258705","url":null,"abstract":"Recent discussions about other-than-human agency and relationality across species and lifeforms are closely tied to theoretical reconsiderations within, and beyond, the humanities. Scholars in the study of religion have only reluctantly picked up these considerations. Theoretical work that includes nonhuman animals in conceptualisations of religion often still operates in binary structures of nature/culture and body/mind. The author reviews recent naturalistic approaches to concepts of religion and combines them with discussions in critical animal studies and biosemiotics, as well as with Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism, which forms the basis of a robust analytical frame of nonhuman agency. The author proposes a critical posthumanities study of religion, transforming and ‘undisciplining’ the humanities into a form of scholarly engagement that creates a transversal field of knowledge, consisting of human and other-than-human intra-actions—a study of religion that intentionally leaves behind the regimes of mastery and exploitation that are still operative today.","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136152623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-09-19DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258708
Delphi Carstens
{"title":"Ecological aesthesis: figurations of the animal spirit in contemporary science, philosophy and literature","authors":"Delphi Carstens","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258708","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258708","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTDeborah Bird Rose uses the Aboriginal Yol’ngu term bir’yun – shimmer – to describe the inherent capacity to experience nature’s ancestral and ongoing power (Citation2022). Using Rose’s concept as a leitmotif, this article investigates contemporary figurations of the animal spirit as it moves through the margins of contemporary science, philosophy, and literature. Using becoming figurations like sympoiesis, Gaia, the holobiont, and the Body without Organs (BwO), my argument is underpinned by Deleuze and Guattari’s (Citation1987) philosophical attempts to subvert the dogmatic anthropocentric image of thought via becoming-animal/becoming-intense concepts. Beginning with an exploration of how science is beginning to overturn its own mechanistic view of the animal via new figurations of the animal assemblage, the article turns to a literary example – Robert Holdstock’s Lavondyss (Citation1988) – to examine how we might go about addressing the nature of the becoming-animal assemblage to recapture the experience of shimmer as an ecologically aesthetic praxis.KEYWORDS: ShimmerGaiaholobiont assemblagessympoiesisbecoming-animalbecoming-intense (or how to build a body without organs)overturning the anthropocentric conceit Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsDelphi CarstensDelphi Carstens is lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Western Cape with an interest in ecological aesthetics, Deleuze-Guattarian theory and Anthropocene studies. He has published widely on new materialist philosophies, environmentally-just pedagogies, uncanny science fictions, and mythopoiesis, as well as gender and animal studies, most recently with Chantelle Gray in SOTL in the South 7(1).","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135014016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-09-15DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258706
Teya Brooks Pribac
{"title":"Flourishing bodies: spiritual entanglements and psychobiological imperatives","authors":"Teya Brooks Pribac","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258706","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258706","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTThe recent affective turn in the sciences and humanities has substantially impacted upon human perception of other animals. This article begins with a brief discussion of the affective turn as it relates to animals’ experiential (vs reflective) consciousness. Then, building on previous work on animal spirituality, it explores the psychobiological significance of spirituality for animals. Spirituality in this context is defined as exchange with agencies in the environment, whereby agency is understood as any phenomenon, event, etc., that has an effect on the animal regardless of whether or not the phenomenon has independent agency. Specifically, the article aims to establishing whether a previously proposed essentiality of such spiritual exchanges, and the comparison of the latter with other organismic necessities (e.g., food), is warranted, and the ensuing ethical implications.KEYWORDS: Animal spiritualityembodied spiritualitysensory normativitypsycho-biological regulationanimal consciousness Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Social attachments are well understood for mammals and birds, but growing evidence shows that meaningful intersubjective relations are not limited to these groups.2 After Harrod (Citation2011, 344; animacy) and Schaefer (Citation2015, 192; dance, affective web). Animacy = that which becomes animated/acquires agency by producing an effect on me.3 After Angelou Citation2009.4 Animals housed together as opposed to in separate cages.5 Humans’ attraction to nature and living systems.6 This is not to deny humans’ deep reverence for some manufactured objects, however a substantial amount of purchased goods, in the present era of consumerism, ends up cluttering homes and heads and is soon discarded (as discussed later in this article).7 Excitation: transmission, integration of information; inhibition: modulation, the shaping of the way information is integrated (Wood, Blackwell, and Geffen Citation2017).8 Moths, for example, are the major but undervalued nocturnal pollinators of flowers.Additional informationNotes on contributorsTeya Brooks PribacTeya Brooks Pribac, PhD, is a scholar and multidisciplinary artist, living in the Australian Blue Mountains with sheep and other animals. She’s a research affiliate at the University of Sydney, and her latest publications include the Nautilus-award-winning monograph Enter the Animal (Sydney UP 2021).","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135397617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RELIGIONPub Date : 2023-09-14DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258710
Donovan Schaefer
{"title":"Voracious secularism: emotional habitus and the desire for knowledge in animal experimentation","authors":"Donovan Schaefer","doi":"10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258710","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2023.2258710","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The conventional formula for dividing religious and secular connects religion to emotion and secularity to rationality. However, recent work in what has been called critical secularism studies has challenged this orientation. This scholarship has proposed that the line between secular and religious is blurry, and that we should expect the secular to be determined by embodied emotion just as much as religion. Postcolonial theorist Saba Mahmood calls these ‘secular affects,’ which include the affects of science. This dovetails with recent research in science and technology studies, which has suggested that science itself is driven by feelings, like excitement in the exploration of concepts and information.","PeriodicalId":46717,"journal":{"name":"RELIGION","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134911511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}