Workshop 11
Within processes of globalisation religion has regained a significant role as observed in new religious movements, the revitalisation of religion in post socialist countries, the global explosion of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianities, the emergence of transnational Islamic networks, the rise of Hindu Nationalisms, and the reinvention of diasporas. Instead of declining and/or becoming a private matter of individuals, religion thrives precisely because globalization provides useful tools for religious actors and organisations, namely, fluid transnational networks, helping them project their messages from a local to a global audience. Migrants can be seen to privilege religion as they re-configure religious ideas, symbolisms, practices and organizations in the service of their transcontinental relations and their local embeddedness.
This workshop seeks to explore two interrelated methodological challenges that come with doing research in transnational settings: the relationship between fieldwork and mobility, and between mobile actors and processes of placemaking. In a broader sense the workshop asks: Can fieldwork in the "classical" Malinowskian sense be replaced by becoming a "travelling anthropologist"? How can one conceptualize fieldwork with people on the move in religious affairs? In a narrower sense the workshop focuses on questions of emplacement and imaginary belonging to various locales within transnational religious networks. It asks how religious placemaking emerges from the ways in which people transport and introduce religious ideas, practices, and sacred objects from one place to another, while simultaneously changing or redefining their ideas about belief, ritual, locality, and sacred space in the process. Often churches, mosques, shrines, temples, and other places of worship function as markers of placemaking, yet their meaning and significance as lynchpins in processes of diasporic religious emplacement may change considerably in the new surroundings. In addition, religious placemaking can be the site of contestation and conflict, turning it into a delicate and complex process.
Organisation
Gertrud Hüwelmeier; Humboldt Universität Berlin, Institut für Europäische Ethnologie
Kristine Krause; Humboldt Universität Berlin, Institut für Europäische Ethnologie
Datum, Uhrzeit
Donnerstag, 04.10.2007, 14:00-18:00 Uhr
Ort
Melanchthonianum, Hörsaal B
Vorträge & Abstracts
Kristine Krause: Transnational religious networks - beyond an ethnic lens?
Recently, buzzwords such as transnational communities and diaspora have been critically discussed in regard to their tendency to reproduce bounded units of analysis such as ethnic groups or countries of origin. In particular, authors such as Glick Schiller, Caglar and Guldbrandsen (2006) have pointed to the prevalent assumptions that migrants live and worship within […]
Barbora Spalová: Church as a global diaspora: glocal research
Between 2000 - 2007, I conducted research among different Christian communities (Roman and Greek Catholics, Baptists, Unitas fratrum, Apostolic Church and others) in Northern Bohemia, former Sudeten. I wanted to understand the process of the Church to get rooted in a region where people have to deal with two difficult pasts - the […]
Thomas Funk: Spiritual Landscapes: Pilgrimage and productions of space in Konnersreuth, Bavaria.
Konnersreuth was the hometown of the stigmatized Therese Neumann (1898 - 1962), whose process of beatification began in February 2005. Together with the priest of the parish, she created the representative “spiritual landscape” of Konnersreuth. The image of Konnersreuth is dominated by the church, the monastery Theresianum and the school for future priest canditates. […]
Gertrud Hüwelmeier: Vietnamese Pentecostalism in Germany and Abroad
After the breakdown of communism in Poland, Czech Republic, and the GDR, and after the reunification of Germany, former Vietnamese contract workers from eastern European countries settled in Germany. Hundreds of them joined Vietnamese Pentecostal churches in the diaspora, simultaneously maintaining close connections to so-called underground churches in Vietnam.
In my paper, I will outline […]
Maren Tomforde: Travelling without moving: Siting culture in Northern Thailand
Based on long-term anthropological field research in various Hmong villages in Northern Thailand (2001-2002, 2003), the paper focuses on the Hmong, a diaspora people who migrated from Southern China (since the 17th century) to Southeast Asian countries as well as to numerous other countries (e.g. USA, Australia, France) around the world. Despite their statelessness […]
Ehler Voss: In search of spirits and their mediums in contemporary Germany: Doing fieldwork among different scenes
<p class=”p15bottom”>Contact to usually invisible entities such as gods, spirits, fairies, angels, and so on, is common for many people all over the world. Also in Germany, many, even well-educated people, are familiar with such practices which often occur in the wide context of healing. In this, particular healers act in different ways as […]
Jan Geisbüsch: Restless bones: moving relics, contested meanings, multiple fields
Globalisation and the flow of people, images, objects or ideas have become a commonplace in social theory over the past fifteen years or so, as has the fact that religion has not only shown resilience within this context, but is in fact thriving.
In my own research, I focus on eBay, the internet auction site […]
Jan Geisbüsch: Restless bones: moving relics, contested meanings, multiple fields
Globalisation and the flow of people, images, objects or ideas have become a commonplace in social theory over the past fifteen years or so, as has the fact that religion has not only shown resilience within this context, but is in fact thriving.
In my own research, I focus on eBay, the internet auction site […]Ehler Voss: In search of spirits and their mediums in contemporary Germany: Doing fieldwork among different scenes
Contact to usually invisible entities such as gods, spirits, fairies, angels, and so on, is common for many people all over the world. Also in Germany, many, even well-educated people, are familiar with such practices which often occur in the wide context of healing. In this, particular healers act in different ways as mediums […]
Maren Tomforde: Travelling without moving: Siting culture in Northern Thailand
Based on long-term anthropological field research in various Hmong villages in Northern Thailand (2001-2002, 2003), the paper focuses on the Hmong, a diaspora people who migrated from Southern China (since the 17th century) to Southeast Asian countries as well as to numerous other countries (e.g. USA, Australia, France) around the world. Despite their statelessness […]
Gertrud Hüwelmeier: Vietnamese Pentecostalism in Germany and Abroad
After the breakdown of communism in Poland, Czech Republic, and the GDR, and after the reunification of Germany, former Vietnamese contract workers from eastern European countries settled in Germany. Hundreds of them joined Vietnamese Pentecostal churches in the diaspora, simultaneously maintaining close connections to so-called underground churches in Vietnam.
In my paper, I will outline […]Thomas Funk: Spiritual Landscapes: Pilgrimage and productions of space in Konnersreuth, Bavaria
Konnersreuth was the hometown of the stigmatized Therese Neumann (1898 - 1962), whose process of beatification began in February 2005. Together with the priest of the parish, she created the representative “spiritual landscape” of Konnersreuth. The image of Konnersreuth is dominated by the church, the monastery Theresianum and the school for future priest canditates. […]
Barbora Spalová: Church as a global diaspora: glocal research
Between 2000 - 2007, I conducted research among different Christian communities (Roman and Greek Catholics, Baptists, Unitas fratrum, Apostolic Church and others) in Northern Bohemia, former Sudeten. I wanted to understand the process of the Church to get rooted in a region where people have to deal with two difficult pasts - the German […]
Kristine Krause: Transnational religious networks - beyond an ethnic lens?
Recently, buzzwords such as transnational communities and diaspora have been critically discussed in regard to their tendency to reproduce bounded units of analysis such as ethnic groups or countries of origin. In particular, authors such as Glick Schiller, Caglar and Guldbrandsen (2006) have pointed to the prevalent assumptions that migrants live and worship within […]