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Religion is, at its very root, a sensual and often tactile affair.
From genuflections, prayer, dance, and eating, to tattooing,
wearing certain garments or objects, lighting candles and
performing other rituals, religions of all descriptions involve
regular bodily commitments which are mediated by acts of touch.
Contributors to this volume have isolated the ‘sense of touch’
from the general sensorium as a particular ‘sense tool’ from
which to creatively innovate and operationalize fresh concepts,
theories, and methods in relation to a diverse range of case
studies in Africa, South America, Polynesia, Europe, and South and
Southeast Asia. Common and overlapping themes include how touch
mediates direct physical (often deliberate) contact between
physical bodies (human and other than human) and the things that
are crafted, blessed, related with, engaged with, or worn.
Understanding touch as the vehicle to alternative forms of
knowledge-making in specific religious contexts is the driving
force behind the contributions to this collection. The volume
argues that touch is not only an intrinsic part of religion but the
principal facilitating medium through which religion, religious
encounters and performances take place. The diverse contexts
presented here signal how investigations that centralise the body
and the senses can produce nuanced, culturally specific knowledges
and allow for the development of new definitions for lived
religion. By placing both ‘body’ and the sense of touch at the
centre of investigations, the volume asserts that material practice
and bodily sensation are lived religion.
Religion is, at its very root, a sensual and often tactile affair.
From genuflections, prayer, dance, and eating, to tattooing,
wearing certain garments or objects, lighting candles and
performing other rituals, religions of all descriptions involve
regular bodily commitments which are mediated by acts of touch.
Contributors to this volume have isolated the ‘sense of touch’
from the general sensorium as a particular ‘sense tool’ from
which to creatively innovate and operationalize fresh concepts,
theories, and methods in relation to a diverse range of case
studies in Africa, South America, Polynesia, Europe, and South and
Southeast Asia. Common and overlapping themes include how touch
mediates direct physical (often deliberate) contact between
physical bodies (human and other than human) and the things that
are crafted, blessed, related with, engaged with, or worn.
Understanding touch as the vehicle to alternative forms of
knowledge-making in specific religious contexts is the driving
force behind the contributions to this collection. The volume
argues that touch is not only an intrinsic part of religion but the
principal facilitating medium through which religion, religious
encounters and performances take place. The diverse contexts
presented here signal how investigations that centralise the body
and the senses can produce nuanced, culturally specific knowledges
and allow for the development of new definitions for lived
religion. By placing both ‘body’ and the sense of touch at the
centre of investigations, the volume asserts that material practice
and bodily sensation are lived religion.
Scholarly attention to Indigenous religions has grown massively in
the last twenty years. Within varied forms of Indigenous Studies
(e.g. Native American Studies, Maori Studies), as a field itself,
and within ethnological disciplines such as Anthropology and
Religious Studies, issues related to Indigenous peoples have become
increasingly important. Indigenous Religions brings together
significant journal articles from the last fifteen years to provoke
further discussion and to underpin improved teaching and up-to-date
research. Some of the selected articles have already played
significant roles in shaping debates in diverse areas, but bringing
them together, combined with lesser known yet equally significant
ones, enhances their significance and gives them a greater value to
researchers and students. This collection is intended to provide an
unrivalled resource for future developments in the disciplines that
touch on Indigenous religions and current issues as they unfold in
the twenty-first century.
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