Library Catalog

Encounters of Body and Soul in Contemporary Religious Practices : Anthropological Reflections /

Encounters of Body and Soul in Contemporary Religious Practices : Anthropological Reflections / ed. by Ruy Llera Blanes, Anna Fedele. - 1 online resource (252 p.) - EASA Series ; 16 .

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I Bodies and Souls in Catholic Settings -- 1 ‘I want to feel the Camino in my legs’ Trajectories of Walking on the Camino de Santiago -- 2 Holding the Saint in One’s Arms: Miracles and Exchange in Apiao, Southern Chile -- 3 Embodying Devotion, Embodying Passion: The Italian Tradition of The Festa dei Gigli in Nola -- Part II Corporeality, Belief and Human Mobility -- 4 The Body and the World: Missionary Performances and the Experience of the World in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands -- 5 ‘How To Deal with the Dutch’ The Local and the Global in the Habitus of the Saved Soul -- 6 Is Witchcraft Embodied? Representations of the Body in Talimbi Witchcraft -- Part III New Spiritualities Challenging the Body/Soul Divide -- 7 When Soma Encounters the Spiritual: Bodily Praxes of Performed Religiosity in Contemporary Greece -- 8 Reenchanted Bodies: The Significance of the Spiritual Dimension in Danish Healing Rituals -- 9 The Struggle for Sovereignty: The Interpretation of Bodily Experiences in Anthropology and among Mediumistic Healers in Germany -- 10 Transforming Musical Soul into Bodily Practice: Tone Eurythmy, Anthroposophy and Underlying Structures -- Notes on Contributors -- Subject Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Social scientists and philosophers confronted with religious phenomena have always been challenged to find a proper way to describe the spiritual experiences of the social group they were studying. The influence of the Cartesian dualism of body and mind (or soul) led to a distinction between non-material, spiritual experiences (i.e., related to the soul) and physical, mechanical experiences (i.e., related to the body). However, recent developments in medical science on the one hand and challenges to universalist conceptions of belief and spirituality on the other have resulted in “body” and “soul” losing the reassuring solid contours they had in the past. Yet, in “Western culture,” the body–soul duality is alive, not least in academic and media discourses. This volume pursues the ongoing debates and discusses the importance of the body and how it is perceived in contemporary religious faith: what happens when “body” and “soul” are un-separated entities? Is it possible, even for anthropologists and ethnographers, to escape from “natural dualism”? The contributors here present research in novel empirical contexts, the benefits and limits of the old dichotomy are discussed, and new theoretical strategies proposed.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9780857452078 9780857452085

10.1515/9780857452085 doi

2011000408


Anthropology of religion--Congresses.
Human body--Religious aspects--Congresses.
Human body--Religious aspects.
Religion and culture--Congresses.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General.

Anthropology of Religion, Anthropology (General).

BL604.B64 / E53 2011 BL604.B64 / E53 2011

202/.2