The Anthropology of Islam

Gabriele Marranci’s latest book, The Anthropology of Islam, examines the history and current status of anthropological work focusing on Islam. Despite its title, this work seems less intended as an overview of the anthropology of Islamthan as a critique of the field. Essentialism,Marranci argues, s...

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Autor principal: Rachel Newcomb
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Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2008
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/0f3d1dfb9a4348e4a93601e87179025b
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:0f3d1dfb9a4348e4a93601e87179025b2021-12-02T17:49:40ZThe Anthropology of Islam10.35632/ajis.v25i4.14402690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/0f3d1dfb9a4348e4a93601e87179025b2008-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1440https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Gabriele Marranci’s latest book, The Anthropology of Islam, examines the history and current status of anthropological work focusing on Islam. Despite its title, this work seems less intended as an overview of the anthropology of Islamthan as a critique of the field. Essentialism,Marranci argues, still marks prominent works of anthropology that focus onMuslims. Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism and anthropology’s post-1980s “crisis of representation” notwithstanding, Islam and Muslims are still represented in many anthropological texts as fixed and unchanging, tethered to an imagined, unitary tradition. Anthropological studies have not yet caught up with the impact of migration, the Internet, or other global processes, and thus they represent Muslims abroad as caught between cultures or locked in an inevitable crisis of identity in which a rigidly defined faith is found to be at odds with the pluralism of western life. The approach Marranci advocates involves examining the diverse ways Muslims feel and experience their religion, as well as the complex networks and interactions in which they locate themselves, particularly in the West. “‘Muslim,’” he writes, “has an emotional component attached to it. They feel to be Muslim. Then, and only then, the ‘feeling to be’ is rationalized, rhetoricized, and symbolized, exchanged, discussed, ritualized, orthodoxized or orthopraxized” (p. 8). Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, the author advocates exploring identity practices through this “feeling to be” Muslim ... Rachel NewcombInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 25, Iss 4 (2008)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Rachel Newcomb
The Anthropology of Islam
description Gabriele Marranci’s latest book, The Anthropology of Islam, examines the history and current status of anthropological work focusing on Islam. Despite its title, this work seems less intended as an overview of the anthropology of Islamthan as a critique of the field. Essentialism,Marranci argues, still marks prominent works of anthropology that focus onMuslims. Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism and anthropology’s post-1980s “crisis of representation” notwithstanding, Islam and Muslims are still represented in many anthropological texts as fixed and unchanging, tethered to an imagined, unitary tradition. Anthropological studies have not yet caught up with the impact of migration, the Internet, or other global processes, and thus they represent Muslims abroad as caught between cultures or locked in an inevitable crisis of identity in which a rigidly defined faith is found to be at odds with the pluralism of western life. The approach Marranci advocates involves examining the diverse ways Muslims feel and experience their religion, as well as the complex networks and interactions in which they locate themselves, particularly in the West. “‘Muslim,’” he writes, “has an emotional component attached to it. They feel to be Muslim. Then, and only then, the ‘feeling to be’ is rationalized, rhetoricized, and symbolized, exchanged, discussed, ritualized, orthodoxized or orthopraxized” (p. 8). Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, the author advocates exploring identity practices through this “feeling to be” Muslim ...
format article
author Rachel Newcomb
author_facet Rachel Newcomb
author_sort Rachel Newcomb
title The Anthropology of Islam
title_short The Anthropology of Islam
title_full The Anthropology of Islam
title_fullStr The Anthropology of Islam
title_full_unstemmed The Anthropology of Islam
title_sort anthropology of islam
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2008
url https://doaj.org/article/0f3d1dfb9a4348e4a93601e87179025b
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