Second Thoughts About the Anthropology of Islam, or How to Make Sense of Grand Schemes in Everyday Life

Abstract

A growing body of anthropological research has turned to study Islam as a discursive tradition that informs the attempts of Muslims to live pious and moral lives, the affects and emotions they cultivate and the challenges they pose to a liberal secular ideology. While this turn has provided direction for a number of innovative studies, it appears to stop short of some key questions regarding everyday religious and moral practice, notably the ambivalence, the inconsistencies, and the openness of people's lives that never fit into the framework of a single tradition. This chapter argues that we may have to talk a little less about traditions, discourses, and powers and a little more about the existential and pragmatic sensibilities of living a life in a complex and often troubling world. This is essential for finding ways to account for both the ambivalence of people's everyday lives and the often perfectionist ideals of the good life, society, and self they articulate.