Too often, anthropological accounts of ritual leave readers with the impression that everything goes smoothly, that rituals are ‘meaningful events.’ But what happens when rituals fail, or when they seem ‘meaningless’? Drawing on research in the anthropology of Christianity from around the globe, the authors in this volume suggest that in order to analyze meaning productively, we need to consider its limits. This collection is a welcome new addition to the anthropology of religion, offering fresh debates on a classic topic and drawing attention to meaning in a way that other volumes have for key terms like ‘culture’ and ‘fieldwork.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Meaning, Anthropology, Christianity
Matt Tomlinson and Matthew Engelke
Chapter 2. When Silence isn’t Golden: Charismatic Speech and the Limits of Literalism
Simon Coleman
Chapter 3. Clarity and Charisma: On the Uses of Ambiguity in Ritual Life
Matthew Engelke
Chapter 4. Rituals without Final Acts: Prayer and Success in World Vision Zimbabwe’s Humanitarian Work
Erica Bornstein
Chapter 5. Nationalism and Millenarianism in West Papua: Institutional Power, Interpretive Practice, and the Pursuit of Christian Truth
Danilyn Rutherford
Chapter 6. The Limits of Meaning in Fijian Methodist Sermons
Matt Tomlinson
Chapter 7. Converting Meanings and the Meanings of Conversion in Samoan Moral Economies
Ilana Gershon
Chapter 8. Dusty Signs and Roots of Faith: The Limits of Christian Meaning in Highland Bolivia
Andrew Orta
Chapter 9. Paranomics: On the Semiotics of Sacral Action
James D. Faubion
Afterword: On Limits, Ruptures, Meaning, and Meaninglessness
Joel Robbins
List of Contributors
Index
About the author
Matt Tomlinson is an assistant lecturer in Anthropology at Monash University. He has conducted research in Fiji on Christianity’s role in village and national politics, especially in relation to traditional chiefly systems and coups d’état. He has published in American Anthropologist, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Oceania.
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