The new animism and its challenges to the study of religion

In the last decades, the worldview(s) of so-called Indigenous religions have regained academic interest. Scholars of religion, anthropologists, and Indigenous writers engage in a new research field called new animism characterized by a diversity of insider and outsider positions. The field contains...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Method & theory in the study of religion
Main Author: Laack, Isabel (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2020]
In: Method & theory in the study of religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Science of Religion / The Postmodern / Animism / Anthropology of religion
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
BB Indigenous religions
Further subjects:B Indigenous Religions
B Epistemology
B Methodology
B New Materialism
B ontological turn
B outsider debate / insider
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Rights Information:InC 1.0
Description
Summary:In the last decades, the worldview(s) of so-called Indigenous religions have regained academic interest. Scholars of religion, anthropologists, and Indigenous writers engage in a new research field called new animism characterized by a diversity of insider and outsider positions. The field contains immense potential for inspiring general debates in the study of religion because it touches on fundamental questions about hermeneutics, epistemology, epistemic goals, disciplinary identities, and the influence of Western ontology on scientific and academic research.This article aims to draw the attention of scholars of religion to the new animism by contextualizing the field within disciplinary and cultural history, presenting its core theories, analyzing its methodological and epistemological positions, and identifying the central players ands its politically highly charged social contexts with asymmetrical power relations. Finally, it discusses how the new animism challenges general debates within the study of religion and may provocatively stimulate them.
ISSN:1570-0682
Contains:Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341473