On the Margins of Religion

Frances Pine was a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, and a Professor at the Institute of Gender Research at the University of Bergen and is now at Goldsmiths University of London. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Poland over the past 25 years. She is the co-editor of Surviving Post Socialism (Routledge 1998) and Memory, Politics and Religion: the Past Meets the Present in Europe (LIT 2004), and author of numerous articles on kinship, economy and gender, eastern Europe, history, place and memory.

“The result, with an overarching focus on ‘modernity and its ambivalences’ is a well-written and insightful volume, which presents new and exciting ways of dealing with one of anthropology’s more ancient (but still essential) research topics.”  ·  Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale“…an engaging contribution to the anthropology of religion…Overall, this volume is a treasure trove of inspiring ethnographies.”  ·  JRAI“Contributors to this volume stay very close to their data. They do not advance grand theories of religion.Nor do they limit themselves to the usual topics in anthropological studies like doctrine, faith, and ritual. Transcending the Durkheimian perspective (that understood religion in terms of collective rituals and morality), contributors instead focus on religion as a malleable and highly reflexive process. They advocate a ‘lateral’ (Needham), broadly comparative approach to the anthropological study of religion. Highly recommended.”  ·  Anthropos

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsChapter 1. On the Margins: An IntroductionJoão de Pina-Cabral and Frances PineChapter 2. Homeless Spirits: Modern Spiritualism, Psychical Research and the Anthropology of Religion in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth CenturiesJoão VasconcelosChapter 3. The Abominations of Anthropology: Christianity, Ethnographic Taboos and the Meanings of 'Science'Simon ColemanChapter 4. Religious Logistics: African Christians, Spirituality and TransportationThomas KirschChapter 5. Contested Spaces: Temple Building and the Re-creation of Religious Boundaries in Contemporary Urban IndiaUrsula RaoChapter 6. Bosnian Neighbourhoods Revisited: Tolerance, Commitment and Kom¡siluk in SarajevoCornelia SorabjiChapter 7. Revival of Buddhist Royal Family Commemorative Ritual in LaosGrant EvansChapter 8. Centres and Margins: The Organisation of Extravagance as Self-government in ChinaStephan FeuchtwangChapter 9. Allies and Subordinates: Religious Practice on the Margins between Buddhism and Shamanism in Southern SiberiaGalina LindquistChapter 10. On Celibate Marriages: Conversion to the Brahma Kumaris in PolandAgnieszka KoscianskaChapter 11. Elders' Cathedrals and Children's Marbles: Dynamics of Religious Transmission among the Baga of GuineaRamon SarróChapter 12. Geomancy, Politics and Colonial Encounters in Rural Hong KongRubie S. Watson and James L. WatsonChapter 13. The Sacrifices of Modernity in a Soviet-built Steel Town in Central IndiaJonathan P. ParryNotes on ContributorsIndex