RESEARCH SEMINAR PROGRAMME, SEMESTER 2, 2011

AUGUST 2: Laïcité, Food and Islam: Contemporary France and the Halal Food Market

Andrew Burton-Bradley
Masters Candidate, Cultural Studies, University of Sydney

Contemporary France is experiencing the emergence of an assertive, French-born generation of Muslims or beurgeois. Upwardly mobile, educated and religiously observant, these increasingly middle class French citizens now seek food products aligned with Islamic dietary laws of Halal. In most nations this would not be cause for debate, but in strictly secular France with its cuisine a prized element of national identity Halal food creates tensions and raises questions about the nature of Laïcité and national identity. This presentation will draw together three strands of interpretation around food in France: Halal, National Culture and Laicité or secularism. I will contrast these elements against Mary Douglas’ argument in Purity and Danger, where Douglas argues that a strong system of taboos implies a weak social system. My argument will be that secularism acts as a set of taboos which police French public culture and national identity. I will also explore how the beurgeois use Halal food as a marker of identity and resistance to French Secularism.

AUGUST 16: Faithful Reproductions: ethnographies of and as proselytisation

Malcolm Haddon
Anthropology, Macquarie University/University of Sydney

Talal Asad in a famous essay reveals a sacred dimension to the ethnographic task of 'cultural translation' when he introduces it to Benjamin's philosophy of language. For Benjamin, the 'special mission' of translation calls not for a 'faithful reproduction' but 'a transformation and a renewal' of the original, the language of translation needing to 'let itself go' and be itself 'powerfully affected' and transformed in the process. Translation, like conversion, holds out the promise of revelation and re-birth through submission, the surrender of the self to the other. This paper re-examines the 'special mission' of ethnography as cultural translation by reflecting on the particular theoretical and theological consequences of writing about a religious movement devoted to its own translation mission - the international Hare Krishna movement. Hare Krishna theology is not an 'alien discourse' that needs any 'anthropologist-translator' to communicate its coherence or compulsiveness to Western readers (cf. Asad). It is itself, I will show, a theology of and in translation, a discourse whose compulsiveness is constituted in its intention to translate and to compel and convert others including this anthropologist and his readers. Is the anthropologist who 'gives voice' to this kind of evangelistic intention selfless or susceptible? Is he now writing about, or still participating in, an act of preaching? And does the concept of 'cultural translation' actually imply or demand some form of 'conversion' in the reader?

AUGUST 30: Script and Spirit Being: Magical Images and Esoteric Aesthetics

Jay Johnston
Studies in Religion, University of Sydney

The dominance of Kantian ‘disinterested’ vision has overshadowed other forms of aesthetic engagement in the academic analysis of the visual elements in magical texts. Many ancient texts and instruments of ritual power such as amulets, astrological charts, and tools of exorcism contain drawings and design elements (depictions of spirit-beings, boxed palindromes and voces magicae, ‘ring’-script, etc). However, it seems that most editors are primarily textual experts, and their descriptions of such elements are usually little more than rudimentary observation of the sort: ‘ouroboros with ass-headed demon’. It is difficult to find any serious study of the practical purpose of such elements. This paper proposes a more wholistic understanding of these objects that is not simply focussed on the interpretation of the texts, but which seeks to understand also the art and design elements. Indeed, it argues that consideration of both the text and image are requisite for the interpretation of this material culture. This research discusses a new methodological framework and will also outline its applicability - an esoteric aesthetics in a more general sense - to a wider range of visual material. Central is the consideration of viewer–image/object relations. These disparate examples will evidence esoteric aesthetics as a style of sight. It is simultaneously a vision of the intermediary and the intermediary itself. This is not a passive ‘watching’ -no ‘neutral’ vision - but an active, innovative process.

SEPTEMBER 13: Churchmen as Critics, Co-workers, and Cheerleaders: The Shifting Voice of Religious Leadership in Kenyan Politics

Steve Bevis
PhD candidate, Studies in Religion, University of Sydney

This paper analyses the recent history of religion and politics in Kenya. Church leadership has played an overt political role since Independence and has voiced the hopes and concerns for many among the various peoples of Kenya. Christianity’s ongoing public presence in national debates and its deep local political affiliations reflects the latest iteration of the traditional place of religion in Kenyan life generally, a way of life that has not been displaced by modernity or recent globalisation. Several possible modes of public engagement can be recognised in the shifting claims expressed by Christian leadership as Kenyan history has moved from a de jure single party state, through to multi-party democracy, and from Independence to strife over a new constitution and the rise of fears over the political accommodation of Islam in Kenya. Church leaders have also visibly inserted themselves into recent public debate, praying for the so-called 'Ocampo Six,' who are currently before the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity. Biblical beliefs proffering universal standards continue to jostle with the churches practical divisions on tribal lines; a situation where its own hierarchies can be manipulated into potent means of amplifying tribal themes and affinities. The paper presents a historical portrait of the Late Anglican Bishop of Eldoret, Alexander Muge, as well as contemporary ethnographic evidence of the hagiographic importance of his life. In the light of Muge’s example of religious leadership and his martyr’s death, the shifting modes of religion in Kenyan politics can be plotted and interpreted.

OCTOBER 4: Religions among Sogdian people as revealed in Sogdian texts and other diverse contexts

Sakineh Rasouli
Honorary Associate, Studies in Religion

Sogdian religious texts have been found not from the original land of ancient Sogdiana but mostly from Chinese Turkistan. These texts reveal a great deal of information about religions that have been practiced among Sogdian people. Nevertheless, Sogdian texts, like all the other archaeological evidences, are just a fraction of truth and we cannot merely rely on them in studying religions among Sogdian people. Besides, new discoveries could change our whole view in this field. The main purpose of this paper is; to explore whether the encountered image in Islamic and Chinese resources and also the archaeological evidences is matching with what Sogdian texts suggest about religions among Sogdian people. This paper initially classifies Sogdian texts and their contents. The Buddhist texts as the largest collection come first and the paper attempts to drive ways to reach some conclusion about the schools of Buddhism which probably had been practiced among Sogdian people. Secondly the paper categorises Manichaean Sogdian texts and identifies a set of particular information that are not seen in other Iranian texts but they could be obtained from Manichaean Sogdian texts. Sogdian Christian texts fall in to the last group and Christianity sought to be understood in Sogdiana through Christian Sogdian texts. In the conclusive argument of this article is allocated Zoroastrianism and Judaism in Sogdiana and it compares the results with evidences from Islamic and Chinese resources and archaeological expeditions concerning religions among Sogdian people. Eventually it has been attempted to illustrate the consistency between the Sogdian religion’s representation based on Sogdian texts and the one which is extracted from the other above mentioned resources.

OCTOBER 18: Pseudo-Jews or Authentic Belief? A preliminary investigation of the faith of the Bnai Noach

Simon Theobald
PhD candidate, Studies in Religion

The construction of spiritual identity among Jewish communities has traditionally focused on Judaism as an ethno-religious identity. To practice the Jewish faith, one must be ethnically Jewish, and similarly, an ethnic Jew remains a Jew, even if he or she abandons the practice of the 613 mitzvoth for an alternative religious belief. The god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, most Rabbis assure, gave the covenant at Sinai only to the Jewish nation. Non-Jews are not required to convert to the faith in order to take part in the world to come, and Jews are explicitly enjoined to reject a potential convert three times before they are accepted on their journey into the faith. However, the god of the Torah is also the god of the universe, so what does he require of non-Jews? What is the role of the non-Jew in the divine plan? The tension between particularism and universalism has continued within the faith, largely unresolved. In an attempt to resolve this conundrum, the emerging faith of the Bnai Noach seeks to univeralise Judaism, extrapolating from the Torah an “earlier” religious code which can be applied to all non-Jews. Drawing on the same texts as Orthodox Rabbinical Judaism, its devotees maintain that they are not seeking conversion, but rather an alternative, and equally authentic covenant with the God of Torah. This paper seeks to examine the discursive framing of identity within the movement, analyzing the tension between those who hope to establish the Bnai Noach as their own authentic religion, and those who instead see it as a stepping-stone to full conversion within Orthodox Judaism.

OCTOBER 25: Professor Dawkins goes to Australasia: A big fish splashes into a small media pond

Dina Volaric
MPhil candidate, Studies in Religion, University of Sydney

In 2010 Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist visited Australia and New Zealand. Over the space of a week he gave a number of public lectures about the latest research regarding Darwin’s theory of evolution and how it informs our understanding of the development of life on our planet. He also discussed possible explanations for human religiosity. During the same period Dawkins was subjected to a range of media reports: Feature length articles in newspapers as well as television and radio broadcasts.

This case study examines how different media agendas distorted Dawkins’ message by comparing the content of his lectures with the content of different types of media coverage. It argues that the lectures can be considered as Dawkins’ intended messages by showing that the content of the lectures is stable across different deliveries, while the content of various media reports diverges widely depending on the medium and the reporter. In conclusion the study uses Marshall McLuhan’s Tetrad of media effects (1988) to analyse how various media act as conduits for the transmission of complex arguments. It concludes that, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the oldest and newest mediums – book publishing and the Internet – are less likely to distort complex messages than broadcast media such as newspapers, radio and television.

NOVEMBER 1: Christianity and Culture in Korea: Korean Churches’ Understanding of God, Haneunim

Daniel (Dong-kyu) Kim
PhD candidate, Studies in Religion

This paper examines the relationships between Christianity and culture in Korea, focusing on the use of the traditional Korean term for God, Haneunim (‘the highest god’). My doctoral thesis has three specific objectives. First, it examines Korean churches’ understanding of the traditional concept of Haneunim following cultural, historical, and religious approaches. The study investigates the origin of the ancient Korean term Haneunim and how it relates to Christianity and culture in Korea. Second, it discusses similarities and differences between traditional religions and new religions in the way they conceptualise Haneunim. That is, it investigates whether the concept of Haneunim has differing meanings or usages across such religions as shamanism, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Korean new religions, and Korean Christianity. Finally, my research examines the relation between Christianity and culture in the Korean context, showing how Christianity is accommodated or made sense of in local and indigenous cultural contexts.

For example, a controversy surrounds the relation between Christianity and culture not only in Korea but also in other parts of the world. Some conservative Korean churches argue against traditional cultures or pre-existing religious faiths and practices, such as Josangsungbae (‘ancestor worship’), Gibok-sinang (‘shamanic faith’), and Chukbbok-sinang (‘blessing faith’). Progressive Korean Christians, on the other hand, view traditional cultures and practices, such as ancestor worship and the use of the term Haneunim, positively and argues for including them with Christian practices. Thus, this study will examines how Korean churches have treated elements of faith and practice from the non-Christian traditional religions. This thesis concerns how the Korean church understands Haneunim as the name of God, the origins of the term, and how Korean traditional religions and new religionists conceptualise Haneunim. Differences between the way Korean churches conceptualise God and the way new religions understand Haneunim are investigated. In addition, this study addresses whether Korean Christians need to accept their own pre-Christian religious and cultural traditions in their beliefs and practices of Christianity.