Religion as a social construct

African, Asian, comparative and theoretical excursions –
a testament in the social science of religion

 

 

 

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to be distributed by Amazon.com (link in preparation) and by Lulu -- click on the button to the left to order a copy from Lulu (follow the instructions on the specific webpage that opens with the button; you may have to create a Lulu account first); commercial distributors, libraries and others seeking a booksellers discount may approach the publishers directly for further information at: shikandapress@gmail.com  or refer to the publisher’s webpage

e-mail to Wim van Binsbergen

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Now published:

 

van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2016, RELIGION AS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT: African, Asian, comparative and theoretical excursions – a testament in the social science of religion, Haarlem: Papers in Intercultural Philosophy / Transcontinental Comparative Studies, 712 pp, dozens of illustrations, dozens of tables, Cumulative Bibliography, Index of Authors, General Index, ISBN 978-90-78382-32-4, EUR95.- / US$105

 

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THE BLURB:

Bringing together 16 chapters written between the 1970s and 2012, and introduced by a penetrating and personal Preface, book is the inspiring testament of a versatile and passionate anthropologist of religion; it is also an exciting and many-facetted introduction to the details and global ramifications of grassroots religion outside the North Atlantic region. In the Preface, the author sums up the formidable lessons to be derived from this huge book (712 pp, dozens of illustrations, dozens of tables, Cumulative Bibliography, Index of Authors, General Index):

 

1.          knowability and translatability of the others’ religion (while retaining, beyond this empiricist credo, the mystery of the other as boundary condition)

2.         interdisciplinarity

3.         historical awareness

4.         a quantitative, statistical / mathematical perspective as auxiliary to the overall qualitative approach

5.         simple, old-fashioned personal, and ideally prolonged qualitative field-work

6.         the underlying transcontinental continuity in space and time of most African and Asian religious expressions

7.         and finally an all-pervading sense of the therapautic dimension of religion.

 

WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (*1947) was a prominent anthropologist / sociologist of religion when in 1998 he acceded to the chair of Foundations of Intercultural Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Trained at Amsterdam University and the Free University Amsterdam, he conducted his first field-work in Tunisia, 1968. He subsequently focused his field research on rural and urban South Central and Southern Africa, Guiné Bissau, Cameroon, and on African-Asian continuities. This has yielded a substantial output of authored books, edited collections, and articles. From 1998 most of this internationally published work has also been made available at the author’s highly popular website. In 2003 a selection was collected under the title Intercultural Encounters (marking the transition from anthropology to intercultural philosophy), to be followed by the author’s philosophical testament: Vicarious Reflections (2015, on North-South knowledge formation); Our Drums Are Always On My Mind (in press, on the Nkoya people of Zambia); and Researching Power and Identity in African State Formation (2016, with M. Doornbos). Sampling all major themes and regions Van Binsbergen has worked on over the decades (including Africa, popular Islam, the Ancient Near East, Japan and Indonesia, ecstatic cults, divination, myth, pilgrimage and magic) , the present book bundles studies specifically in the social science of religion, written between 1975 and 2012, the year of his retirement. He has continued his fieldwork, writing and teaching on, and in, Africa, while increasingly diversifying towards Africa’s transcontinental continuities in pre- and protohistory, Asia, comparative mythology, and the Mediterranean Bronze Age. Married with an Africanist / musician / breathing therapist, and father of five, he is a published poet, a qualified and practising spirit medium / diviner, and a life Honorary Fellow of the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands.

 

Even readers / owners of the printed hard copy are advised to visit the web version by means of the links below: it was financially impossible to print the book’s many illustrations in full colour, but that is how they do appear online, which adds both splendour and conviction to their contribution to the book’s often contentious argument.

 

THE BOOK’s simplified TABLE OF CONTENTS (click the links for free access):

 

Table of contents

 

PART I. PRELIMINARIES.............................................................................. 5

0. PREFACE............................................................................................................... 7

0.1. About this book............................................................................... 7

0.2. Acknowledgments, and provenances........................................... 22

TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................ 31

LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................... 39

LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................... 43

PART II. TUNISIA............................................................................................ 47

CHAPTER 1. THE CULT OF SAINTS IN NORTH-WESTERN TUNISIA: AN ANALYSIS OF MODERN PILGRIMAGE STRUCTURES.................................................................................. 49

1.1. Introduction................................................................................... 50

1.2. Regional and historical background.............................................. 51

1.3. Segmentation in ?umiriyya today........................................ 53

1.4. Shrines in ?umiriyya........................................................ 56

1.5. Saints and the living...................................................................... 60

1.6. Segmentation and types of zyara.................................................. 63

1.7. Local zyara in the valley of Sidi M?ammad........................... 66

1.8. Original and personal zyara in the village of Sidi M?ammad..... 77

1.9. Conclusion..................................................................................... 81

CHAPTER 2. SHRINES, CULTS AND SOCIETY IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA: A TENTATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.................................................................................... 85

2.1. The ?umiris of Tunisia..................................................... 87

2.3. The Nkoya of Zambia.................................................................... 97

2.4. Comparison of ?umiri and Nkoya data............................... 107

2.5. Conclusion: Towards a theory of shrines and cults in their social context     109

2.6. Appendix to Chapter 2: Systematic comparison of ?umiri and Nkoya society, shrines and cults........................................................................ 112

PART III. ZAMBIA.......................................................................................................................... 117

CHAPTER 3. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONTROL: IN A TOWNSHIP IN LUSAKA, ZAMBIA, EARLY 1970s............................................................................................................ 119

3.1. Introduction.................................................................................. 119

3.2. Continuity and transformation in the sociology of urban Zambia 121

3.3. A glimpse of Lusaka life............................................................... 124

3.4. Mrs. Evelyn Phiri’s monologue.................................................... 126

3.5. Discussion..................................................................................... 133

3.6. Conclusion................................................................................... 143

PART IV. BOTSWANA............................................................................................................ 145

CHAPTER 4. CHURCH, CULT, AND LODGE: IN SEARCH OF THERAPEUTIC MEANING IN FRANCISTOWN, BOTSWANA........................................................................................................... 147

4.1. Introduction................................................................................. 148

4.2. The public aspect of religion and ritual in Francistown.............. 152

4.3. Cults and Christianity.................................................................. 156

4.4. A cultic lodge............................................................................... 166

4.5. An abortive career? The case of Joshua....................................... 174

4.6. Healing between intrafamilial conflict and modern society: The case of Litopo        177

4.7. Conclusion: Cult, history and healing......................................... 183

CHAPTER 5. THE STATE AND AFRICAN INDEPENDENT CHURCHES IN BOTSWANA: A STATISTICAL AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF THE 1972 SOCIETIES’ ACT OF BOTSWANA           187

5.1. Introduction: The Botswana post-colonial state between coercion and consensus    188

5.2. Towards a quantitative profile of Botswana churches (a)........... 197

5.3. Towards a quantitative profile of Botswana churches (b).......... 209

5.4. Pastors and bureaucrats: qualitative aspects of church-state interaction in the context of the Botswana Societies Act.......................................................... 215

5.5. Conclusion: Beyond acquiescence............................................... 232

 

PART V. GUINÉ BISSAU...................................................................................................... 241

CHAPTER 6. SOCIO-RITUAL STRUCTURES AND MODERN MIGRATION AMONG THE MANJACOS OF GUINÉ BISSAU: IDEOLOGICAL REPRODUCTION IN A CONTEXT OF PERIPHERAL CAPITALISM          243

6.1. Theoretical introduction: religion as ideological reproduction and as ideological production...................................................................................... 245

6.2. The Manjacos in their ethnic, political, religious and economic environment          249

6.3. Social and ritual organisation of Manjaco rural society............. 254

6.4. Migrants’ ritual activities and the articulation of modes of production         263

6.6. Conclusion: Migrants’ rituals as ideological reproduction – and beyond      269

CHAPTER 7. THE LAND AS BODY: INTERPRETING RITUAL AMONG THE MANJACOS OF GUINÉ BISSAU................................................................................................................................ 273

7.1. Introduction................................................................................. 273

7.2. Between materialist and idealist anthropology........................... 275

7.3. The research setting.................................................................... 276

7.4. Manjaco rituals and their effectiveness...................................... 278

7.5. The Land as body......................................................................... 282

7.6. Postscript 2016............................................................................. 286

PART VI. ASIA AND TRANSCONTINENTAL CONTINUITIES 291

CHAPTER 8. MAGIC IN HISTORY: A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE, AND ITS APPLICATION TO ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA by Wim Van Binsbergen & Frans Wiggermann....................... 293

8.1. A theoretical approach to magic in history................................. 294

8.2. Application to Mesopotamia......................................................... 311

8.3. Conclusion................................................................................... 326

CHAPTER 9. ISLAM AS A CONSTITUTIVE FACTOR IN AFRICAN ‘TRADITIONAL’ RELIGION: THE EVIDENCE FROM GEOMANTIC DIVINATION...................................................................... 329

9.1. The Francistown four-tablet oracular system and its implications 331

9.2. General characteristics of the geomantic system........................ 335

9.3. The worldwide distribution and diffusion of geomancy........... 348

9.4. Geomancy in Africa..................................................................... 352

9.5. The Islamic connection in the context of the Southern

African four-tablet oracle................................................................... 354

9.6. Discussion and conclusion......................................................... 358

CHAPTER 10. THE RELEVANCE OF TAOISM, BUDDHISM, AND HINDUISM, FOR THE STUDY OF AFRICAN-ASIAN TRANSCONTINENTAL CONTINUITIES................................................... 361

10.1. My Africanist encounter with East, South, and South East Asia 362

10.2. The kingship, the royal orchestra, ceramics and gaming pieces as indicative of Asian-African transcontinental continuities............................................. 375

10.3. Towards heuristic hypotheses and research strategies............. 385

10.4. Conclusion................................................................................. 410

CHAPTER 11. GIVING BIRTH TO FIRE: THE JAPANESE COSMOGONIC MYTH OF IZANAMI AND KAGUTSUCHI IN TRANSCONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE................................... 413

11.1. Introduction................................................................................ 414

11.2. Six registers together informing the ancient texts of the myth of Giving Birth to Kagutsuchi / Fire............................................................................. 415

11.3. The widespread model of the transformative cycle of elements 419

11.4. Return to Izanami’s plight.......................................................... 424

11.5. Conclusion.................................................................................. 436

11.6. Postscript 2016............................................................................ 436

CHAPTER 12. THE DEVOTIONAL SHRINE OF NAGARA PADANG, WEST JAVA, IN COMPARATIVE AND ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE UNPAR (PARAHYANGAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY) DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY’S STUDY DAYS 2010..................................................................... 439

12.1. Introduction: The students’ research training project at Rawabogo village, and the adjacent devotional shrine of Nagara Padang............................... 440

12.2. Nagara Padang as a layered palimpsest of religious forms deriving from the well-known succession of world religions in the Indonesian archipelago, but also with the suggestion of older religious forms, notably megalithic ones....... 442

12.3. ‘The pilgrim’s progress’.............................................................. 454

12.4. A comparative and theoretical perspective on shrine cults....... 458

12.5. Conclusion: Communitas during the students’ research training at Rawabogo       467

PART VII. GENERAL AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES.......... 473

CHAPTER 13. CHALLENGES FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT: PROSPECTS FOR THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS.............................................................................. 475

13.1. No prospect without retrospect.................................................. 475

13.2. The challenges of globalisation in the African religious context 478

13.3. The challenge of disorder, conflict and violence – religion and the civil society in the African context............................................................................... 486

13.4. The spatial and temporal framework as a challenge................. 490

13.5. The challenge of immanentalism: Causation in African thought traditions  493

CHAPTER 14. WITCHCRAFT IN MODERN AFRICA: AS VIRTUALISED BOUNDARY CONDITIONS OF THE KINSHIP ORDER................................................................................................... 495

14.1. Introduction............................................................................... 496

14.2. Virtuality and the virtual village................................................ 498

14.3. Two Dutch discourses on witchcraft and healing in Africa..... 504

14.4. Conclusion................................................................................. 522

CHAPTER 15. RUPTURE AND FUSION IN THE APPROACH TO MYTH: SITUATING MYTH ANALYSIS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY, POETICS, AND LONG-RANGE HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION, WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE ANCIENT AND WORLD-WIDE MYTHICAL COMPLEX OF LEOPARD-SKIN SYMBOLISM.......................................................................................................... 525

15.1. Philosophical approaches to myth.............................................. 525

15.2. A provisional definition of myth................................................ 536

15.3. Discussion of the definition........................................................ 541

15.4. Rupture and fusion.................................................................... 543

15.5. The scholar’s adoption and celebration of myth....................... 546

15.6. The scholar’s critical battle against myth.................................. 549

15.7. A near-universal mytheme: ‘hero fights monster’...................... 551

15.8. Living with the tensions: Towards a specialised scholarship of myth            552

15.9. The leopard’s unchanging spots: Example of an interdisciplinary approach to an African mythical complex............................................................... 554

CHAPTER 16. RELIGION AND DEVELOPMENT: Reflexions on the collection edited BY PHILIP QUARLES VAN UFFORD AND MATTHEW SCHOFFELEERS............................ 565

16.1. Introduction............................................................................... 566

16.2. A unifying theoretical perspective?........................................... 568

16.3. The political context of departmental research.......................... 571

16.4. A note of caution........................................................................ 573

16.5. Development and religion: Beyond intellectual irrelevance and alienation   576

16.6. Awkward questions.................................................................... 577

16.7. Popular culture and endogenous models of development....... 580

16.8. An endogenous development agenda and its consequences: the case of the Zambian Nkoya............................................................................................... 581

16.9. Land, cults, protest and development....................................... 584

16.10. Further permutations of the relation between development and religion   588

16.11. Conclusion................................................................................ 590

PART VIII. REFERENCE MATERIAL.................................................. 591

CUMULATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................... 593

INDEX OF AUTHORS........................................................................................... 665

GENERAL INDEX.................................................................................................. 675

 

 

 

 

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