Everyday Religious Practices Research Articles

Psychoactive and other ceremonial plants from a 2,000-year-old Maya ritual deposit at Yaxnohcah, Mexico.

For millennia, healing and psychoactive plants have been part of the medicinal and ceremonial fabric of elaborate rituals and everyday religious practices throughout Mesoamerica. Despite the essential nature of these ritual practices to the societal framework of past cultures, a clear understanding of the ceremonial life of the ancient Maya remains stubbornly elusive. Here we record the discovery of a special ritual deposit, likely wrapped in a bundle, located beneath the end field of a Late Preclassic ballcourt in the Helena complex of the Maya city of Yaxnohcah. This discovery was made possible by the application of environmental DNA technology. Plants identified through this analytical process included Ipomoea corymbosa (xtabentun in Mayan), Capsicum sp. (chili pepper or ic in Mayan), Hampea trilobata (jool), and Oxandra lanceolata (chilcahuite). All four plants have recognized medicinal properties. Two of the plants, jool and chilcahuite, are involved in artifact manufacture that have ceremonial connections while chili peppers and xtabentun have been associated with divination rituals. Xtabentun (known to the Aztecs as ololiuhqui) produces highly efficacious hallucinogenic compounds and is reported here from Maya archaeological contexts for the first time.

Lived religion beyond words: A denotative analysis of participant-produced photos of meaningful objects

Can visual data provide insights that words do not reveal? Meanings of objects in visual studies are usually captured through elicitation meetings. In this article, we propose to explore them from a purely visual standpoint and assess the methodological and substantive benefits of such denotative approach. We used a database of 660 photographs produced by 225 participants in a study of everyday religious practices in three Latin American cities. Following a ‘lived religion’ approach, respondents were asked to present an object (or photograph of it) that was ‘meaningful’ for them, in relation to their spiritual practices. Analyzing these pictures without resorting to the verbal content that accompanied them proved useful to operationalize such a large corpus of visual data, facilitate the transmission of the study’s results, and build a representative classification of the types of objects most commonly brought by participants. From a substantive perspective, our analysis contributes to enlarge the spectrum of what is considered religious or spiritual in Latin American cultures, and to question certain assumptions established by conventional theories of religion, such as class stereotypes and the overstated influence of religious institutions. We conclude that a denotative analysis of participant-produced visuals ‘beyond words’ represents an untapped opportunity to challenge existing representations and elicit new research directions, which, in turn, require returning to verbal data to be elucidated.

Religious participation in the local communities of 17th-century Eastern Finland

In recent years, the perspective of lived religion has drawn attention toward the everyday religious practices of the laity. In early-modern Europe, the realm of the sacred could be approached in different ways from within the mundane world, and religious practices were tightly intertwined with social life. In local communities, religious ideas and practices taught by the church in varying ways intermingled with traits from local religious traditions. This article examines the different ways of religious participation available to the rural inhabitants of late 17th century Eastern Finland, a part of the kingdom of Sweden during the early modern era. Applying the concept and approach of lived religion, the article analyses how Eastern Finnish peasants adjusted their religious practices to their individual circumstances. The article also examines different kinds of interaction and influences affecting the choices of the laity in the sphere of religion. The article is based on surviving court and visitation records from the province of Savo, a rural area where distances between households were often large and many people had to travel a long way to reach the nearest church. It is in the article emphasized that while physical distances and other factors such as infirmity could restrict one’s ability to participate in religious activities at the parish church, the laity had different kinds of practices to choose from and they even created ways of religious participation for themselves. Religious practices could include participating in household feasts on holy days or bringing offerings to a devotional site near the household or in the forest. It is argued that while there were many traditional elements in the sphere of religion passed on to following generations, people also adopted and adapted new ideas in their everyday religious lives.

Jain Life Reimagined: An Examination of Jain Practice and Discourse during the Covid-19 Pandemic

This article analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the religious practices and the public discourse of Jains in the U.S.A. and India. On the institutional level, I show how Jain organizations made extensive efforts to connect digitally with their community members when collective, in-person celebrations and temple visits were either reduced in number, limited in capacity, or cancelled because of the pandemic. Given the new importance of Jain online platforms, I address their potential role in both blurring sectarian boundaries and creating authentic sacred spaces. On the individual level, I examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the everyday religious practices of Jains. I conducted eight semi-structured interviews over Zoom between November 2020 and January 2021. I argue that while there is a great diversity of individual Jain responses, a common feature appears to be a significant increase of Jains participating in scholarly religious activities. In terms of the ways in which Jains talk, write, and reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic, I theorize that the Jain discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic is characterized by environmental concerns and by the processes of scientization and universalization. Building on the work of Knut Aukland (2016) that examines the role of science in contemporary Jain discussions, I define scientization as the ongoing process where Jains underline the convergence of their religion with modern science. With the term universalization, I refer to the noticeable trend among Jains to argue for the need to teach Jainism beyond the Jain community by showing its contemporary relevance and applicability to overcome global problems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

A quest for sustainable peace in South Sudan: the role of everyday religious practices, ceremonies and rituals in robust peacebuilding

Since 1955, South Sudan has had intermittent civil wars, and sustainable peace has been difficult to attain. There have been numerous attempts that include major international and national political and economic initiatives. Among the social initiatives, The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC), perceived to represent all religious practices and people, was considered an essential tool in uniting all South Sudanese, ending conflicts and achieving sustainable peace both within the communities and nationally. However, the inclusion of the NSCC, which represents mainly Christianity and includes Muslim religious leaders, has not delivered sustainable peace. This article utilises ethnographic data to present a socioreligious perspective. It seeks to argue that other South Sudanese indigenous or cultural religious everyday peace practices of ceremonies and rituals can present a robust peacebuilding initiative in the region. It concludes that the inter-relationships of socioreligious practices, an aspect the NSCC peacebuilding processes ignored, are essential in delivering sustainable peace.

RELIGION IN THE AXIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF KAZAKHSTANI YOUTH

Together with independence, the Republic of Kazakhstan reacquired its lost traditional values; religion, controlled and suppressed by the Soviet atheist ideology, being one of the most important elements along with the growing number of religious communities and associations, as well as places of public worship. Today, religiosity is on the rise, especially among the younger generation: everyday religious practices are observed by individuals or groups of people at workplaces and homes and in the course of communication. The author has analyzed the role of religion in axiological orientation and the level of religious feelings of the young people aged 18-22 on the basis of sociological poll results.

Catholicism in Day-to-Day Life in Argentina During a Pandemic Year: Blurring the Institutional Boundaries

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the policies implemented by states in response to it have created a new global scene. Religious practices, as the majority of social exchanges, are carried out at home. This new context raises again one of the most interesting questions in the analysis of contemporary religiosity in Latin America: the relations between the faithful and the institution, the individual, and the society. This article analyzes the everyday life religious practices of Catholic individuals during pandemic and lockdown times in Argentina, based on field work conducted from March to December 2020 using digital ethnography tools. The article focuses on how religions face the pandemic situation and people’s demands, the renewed importance gained by the home’s intimate spaces which were newly sacralized as they became the center of everyday religious practices, and the rituals which emerge from online communication. The conclusions emphasize the importance accorded by communities to emotional support and the management of emotions and to coping with personal and family problems. Besides, the article states that Catholic communities develop theologically and ideologically contrasting projects through a differentiated use of online media.

Перевод (адаптация) буддийских канонических текстов с тибетского и старомонгольского языков на бурятский

Introduction. The article deals with Tibetan/Mongolian-to-Buryat translation (adaptation, Cyrillic) of Buddhist canonical texts. Goals. The study of causes and essence of the process is relevant enough, since the research problem relates to actual changes in the traditional book culture of Buryats, and issues of preserving the Buryat language in modern conditions. Materials. The work analyzes archaeographic works stored at the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies SB RAS (2006-2015) as well as a set of Buddhist canonical texts published in Buryatia in the pre-revolutionary period and after 1991. Conclusions. Translation (adaptation) of Buddhist canonical texts from Tibetan and Mongolian into Buryat arose from changes in everyday religious practices of ordinary Buryat Buddhists. The three forms of Tibetan/Mongolian-to-Buryat translation make it possible to conclude on the level of works aimed at the preservation of the Buryat language in the structure of religious culture, as well as the level of Buddhist revival in Buryatia. Various forms of translation (adaptation) of Buddhist canonical texts show a competition between two directions of everyday religious reading (spelling) patterns: the Mongolian letter-by-letter one, and that close to literary Buryat. These forms mirror the modern discussion that arose in the 1990s about the correspondence between Mongolian and Buryat languages for further development of Buryat culture.

“Why Don’t You Go to the Mosque?” Epistemic Deference and Everyday Religious Practices in Hui Muslim Communities

AbstractThe study of everyday ethnicity emphasizes the importance of seeking the perspectives of the masses regarding processes of ethnic identity formation and ethnic boundary maintenance. In contrast to elite-centered approaches, everyday ethnicity attempts to understand how ethnicity is constructed from the bottom-up. However, seeking the everyday presents researchers with a number of distinct challenges. Prevalent among these obstacles is a tendency of non-elite respondents to direct scholars to elite authorities when responding to questions about ethnic identity, claiming they lack expertise or qualifications to speak on the subject. This epistemic deference toward elite sources may be particularly acute in ethno-religious communities, where the hierarchies of religious orders may reinforce the gulf of “knowledge” between clergy and lay believers. This article examines the problem of epistemic deference through a case study of everyday ethnicity in urban Hui Muslim communities in China. Drawing on data collected over the course of 152 interviews and numerous ethnographic observations conducted in four cities in China (Beijing, Jinan, Yinchuan, and Xining) between July 2015 and July 2016, the article illustrates the challenges posed by epistemic deference to field researchers in religious communities.

A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experience of Roman Catholic Sisters and Successful Aging.

Purpose: To gain an understanding of how religious and spiritual practices might enable Catholic Sisters to age successfully. Design: A purposive sample of 12 retired Roman Catholic Sisters aged 75 years and older from two convent settings were interviewed. Method: Using a semistructured recorded interview, the Roman Catholic Sisters shared their lived experiences of aging, and practices of religion, spirituality, and meditation. Data analysis utilized thematic analysis of the interview texts. Findings: Thematic analysis identified the following themes: daily engagement in religious and spiritual practice and meditation; self-contentment and positivity regarding the meaning of successful aging; life acceptance; sense of faith and positivity regarding the afterlife; and intersection of meditation, prayer, spirituality, and cognitive engagement. Conclusion: This research contributes to the body of aging research and presents successful aging as understood and more specifically as experientially influenced. The findings of the study provided insight regarding the meaning and experience of successful aging, and the role of everyday religious and spiritual practices in the lives of the Catholic Sisters which influenced their individual life experiences as they age.

Gendered contours of contemporary South Asian religious practices in the context of migration: second-generation Jain women and men in Britain and the US

ABSTRACTViewing religion through the social constructionist lens and adopting the methodological approach of ‘lived religion’, this article draws attention to the gendered contours of contemporary Jain practice. Although Jain dharma is a non-theistic, non-institutionalised religion, gender differences are embedded within lay practice in India. In contrast, analysis of qualitative data (interviews conducted with 50 second-generation, middle- and upper middle-class Jain women and men in Britain and the US) reveals a gender convergence in patterns of everyday religious practice and performance. I argue that the social turn in late modern societies, together with the dominance of a neo-orthodox approach among diasporic Jains, facilitates this convergence. Further, shifting patterns of religious practices suggest that religion is an important site for the negotiation of gender identities in the context of migration. The construction of Jain religious selves enables young Jains—both women and men—to navigate multiple and contradictory femininities and masculinities and to display more affective, relational, and compassionate selves in late modern societies.

Pentecôtisation du christianisme et butinage religieux au Kenya: entre fondamentalisme et mode populaire d’action politico-religieuse

ABSTRACTThe Pentecostalisation of Christian denominations – religious butinage– is, in Kenya at least, in conflict with everyday religious practices. Such “looting” activities, or their absence, indicate the power of radicalisation among people of faith. This argument is strengthened by the fact that Pentecostalism, conversion to which is considered a personal decision marked by a “born-again” experience, does not constitute a homogeneous movement. We shall see that this religious mobility indicates a kind of Ecumenism-in-action, a grassroots trend towards politico-religious action in opposition to a religious tribalism that is not popular at all in Kenya. This article therefore intends to demonstrate a moral religiosity in religious mobility, whether it occurs on a daily basis or throughout the life history of the authors’ informants. The diversity of religious practices would thus preclude the manipulation of religion that some political elites envisage.

Muslim Everyday Religious Practices in Austria. From Defensive to Open Religiosity

Although Muslim groups in the population comprise an integral component of Austrian society, the public image of Islam tends to be generally negative. In the meantime, there are now significant successor generations of Muslims who, in contrast with their parents’ generation, have other religious orientations and positionings, and have become hybrid, heterogeneous individuals with ‘multiple-home’ attachments living in Austria. Nonetheless, in public discourse, they appear as a homogeneous group. Our study is based on a change in perspective, shifting front and center the religious orientation of these persons as seen from their own perspective and experiences. The findings of our study on Muslim diversity in Austria show just how differentiated, complex, ambivalent, and hybrid the everyday religious practice of individuals directly on the ground is or can be. In the following article, the focus is on a form of open religiosity that is practiced above all by members of the successor generations.

Materiality and the extended geographies of religion: the institutional design and everyday experiences of London's Wesleyan Methodist circuits, 1851–1932

Using and adapting the ideas of material religion, this paper considers Wesleyan Methodist circuits: the organisation of chapels within specific geographical areas into co-dependent communities. Interested in circuits as an example of the extension of religious space beyond institutional contexts – the extended geographies of religion – it highlights the importance of thinking about such spaces as material things. Using two circuits in London (Bow and Highgate) as case studies, this paper focuses on representations of circuits and their visual and material qualities. It then explores how material approaches facilitate insights into the differences between how religious leaders designed these spaces and how individuals experienced them. Taking a material approach to congregational bodies, objects and (sub)urban landscapes, it simultaneously considers how material things gain meaning through their participation in humans' social networks and as a result of their inherent material properties. In particular, it argues that taking this material approach to the extended geographies of religious practice is an effective method of gaining insights into individuals' everyday experiences of religious spaces. Most specifically, it emphasises how the insights that material approaches provide into everyday religious practices are especially useful when studying individuals in the past, as their voices are generally unrepresented in the official archival documents of religious institutions that historical research into religious communities is often dependent on.

Seeing Is Believing: Religious Media Consumption and Public Opinion toward Same-sex Relationships

An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans’ social and political attitudes. This literature, however, has neglected an important measure of everyday religious practice, preference, and socialization: religious media consumption. We take a key social issue where attitudes have been shown to be largely shaped by religion—same-sex relationships—as an example to determine whether religious media consumption predicts social attitudes net of the measures typically included in the literature on religion and attitudes: affiliation, practice, and literalism. We draw on data from three national surveys, each of which contains different measures of religious media consumption and attitudes toward various same-sex relationships: the 1998 General Social Survey, 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, and 2012 Portraits of American Life Study. Both multivariate and propensity score matching analyses demonstrate that religious media consumption independently predicts lower support for same-sex relationships in all three surveys. We propose that religious media consumption is a key measure of religious practice, preference, and socialization that shapes Americans’ views toward social issues through both direct messages and by fortifying subcultural boundaries.

Key Text: Colleen McDannell, Material Christianity. Over de materiële dimensie van christelijke religiositeit

Abstract In her book Material Christianity, published in 1995, the American scholar of religion Colleen McDannell calls attention to the importance of material culture in the everyday religious practice of American Christians in the 19th and 20th century. Her book demonstrates a breakthrough in the study of the history of Christianity: the one-sided emphasis on institutions and convictions gave way to an approach that also includes objects, places, practices, rituals, embodiment, and the senses. In this article McDannell’s book is introduced and situated within her own scholarly work, within the shift from Church history to the history of (Christian) religiosity and within the growing awareness of the importance of the material, physical, and sensory dimensions of religion.

“We Teach Our Children to See a Human Being”: Women Transforming Religious Conflict in Indonesia

Abstract Indonesia is the site of recent violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims. Women, largely absent from official peace proceedings, nevertheless play a key role in on-the-ground efforts to transform violent conflict, through their everyday work as both formal and informal educators teaching their communities and the next generation how to regard and interact with those who became enemies in conflict. A practical theological framework of everyday religious practice situates the religious dimensions of these conflicts and also of women’s peacebuilding practices. This paper draws upon ethnographic research with women peacebuilders in the Moluccas, exploring intersections of gender with practices of religious education that contribute to the transformation of violent conflicts.

Transnational Islamic charity as everyday rituals

In this article, through a case study of transnational Islamic charity, we explore the intersection between migrant development engagements and religious practices. While migrant engagement in development is well known, the intersections of these with everyday religious practices are less so. We use the prism of ‘everyday rituals', understood as human actions that connect ideals with practices. Everyday rituals not only express but also reinforce ideals, in this case those of Islamic charity in a context of sustained migrant transnationalism. The article draws on 35 interviews about Islamic charity, transnationalism and development with practising Muslims of Pakistani origin in Oslo, Norway. We argue that everyday rituals are a useful tool for exploring the role of religion in motivating migrant development engagements. This is because they include transcendental perspectives, bridge ideals and practices that connect the contemporary to the hereafter, encompass transnational perspectives, and are attentive to the ‘here’ and ‘there’ spatially in migrants’ lives.

Почитание камней в повседневной культовой практике (по материалам докладов исследовательской группы по изучению бытового православия и религиозного синкретизма под руководством Н. М. Маторина. 1933—1934 гг.)

Почитание камней в повседневной культовой практике (по материалам докладов исследовательской группы по изучению бытового православия и религиозного синкретизма под руководством Н. М. Маторина. 1933—1934 гг.)

Religious Identity in a Christian Context: Types, Markers and Research Problems

The article describes the specifics of Religious Identity in a Christian Context. When analyzing such complex phenomenon as religious identity, it should be noted that it cannot be classified according to only one type of typology. Such classification may narrow an understanding of the subject matter. At least three types of religious identity shall be considered: a religious identity itself in its broadest sense, a confessional identity and an institutional identity. Each of these identities reveals different sides of religious consciousness, starting from a belief in the supernatural and ending with a particular type of world-view which implies everyday religious practices and inclusion in the church community. All these types have their own identification markers and a researcher can choose them in accordance with a particular research context. Both opposing approaches- to consider the respondents as orthodox Christians according to their self-identification or to study everyday religious practices of the respondents in detail- are equally unsuitable. Furthermore, the number of typological criteria can be reduced by using the Western theological grounds for identifying the believers. Unlike the Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholic practices include the believer’s obligation to fulfill certain actions prescribed by the Commandments of the Church. It makes the connection between the religious beliefs of Catholics and practicing of such beliefs in everyday life obvious. If catholic criteria are used for identifying Orthodox Christians, it will help to reveal such identity more precisely and make the connection between a particular world-view and its everyday practice more clear.