Antropologicheskij forum, 2022, no. 55

FORUM: THE MATERIAL TURN AND THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION

Evgeniia Abroskina

State Hermitage Museum
2 Dvortsovaya Sq., St Petersburg, Russia
evgeniia.abroskina()gmail.com

Yulia Antonyan

Yerevan State University
1 Alex Manoogian Str., Yerevan, Armenia
yuliaantonyan()ysu.am

Dmitry Baranov

Russian Museum of Ethnography
4/1 Inzhenernaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
dmitry.baranov()list.ru

Vladimir Bobrovnikov

Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
12 Rozhdestvenka Str., Moscow, Russia
Saint Petersburg State University
11 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
National Research University Higher School of Economics
21/4 Staraya Basmannaya Str., Moscow, Russia
vladimir_bobrovn()mail.ru

Victoria Fomina

University of St Andrews
KY16 9AJ, St Andrews, Scotland
vf44()st-andrews.ac.uk

Mansur Gasimzianov

University of Amsterdam
48 Kloveniersburgwal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
m.gazimzianov()uva.nl

Elza-Bair Guchinova

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
32A Leninskiy Ave., Moscow, Russia
bairjan()mail.ru

Marina Hakkarainen

European University at St Petersburg
6/1A Gagarinskaya Str., Petersburg, Russia
marina.hakkarainen()gmail.com

Natalia Kryukova

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
32A Leninskiy Ave., Moscow, Russia
nkryu()mail.ru

Art Leete

University of Tartu
16 Ulikooli, Tartu, Estonia
art.leete()ut.ee

Mariе Masagutova

European University at St Petersburg
6/1А Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
mmasagutova()eu.spb.ru

Igor Mikeshin

University of Helsinki
1A Siltavuorenpenger, Helsinki, Finland
igor.mikeshin()helsinki.fi

Alexander A. Panchenko

European University at St Petersburg
6/1A Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
Institute of Russian Literature (The Pushkin House), Russian Academy of Sciences
4 Makarova Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
apanchenko2008()gmail.com

Danila Rygovskiy

University of Tartu
16 Ulikooli, Tartu, Estonia
danielrygovsky()gmail.com

Yulia Senina

European University at St Petersburg
6/1A Gagarinskaya Str., Petersburg, Russia
jsenina()eu.spb.ru

Laur Vallikivi

University of Tartu
18 Ulikooli, Tartu, Estonia
laur.vallikivi()ut.ee

Abstract: “Material religion” as a research program is a relatively new development in the study of religion in the social sciences and humanities. Though this approach has its own forerunners and predecessors, one can argue that it took shape in the wake of an epistemological critique of social and cultural anthropology which treated religion as embedded in the cognitive and psychological experiences of a human being. Accordingly, the material manifestation of religion used to be treated as secondary, optional, and even superfluous. Criticism of this understanding of the nature of religion and of the methods of its studying focuses on the cultural and historical specificity of this approach originating from the use of Protestantism as a model for any religion. The material turn, in contrast, argues that spiritual experience is or at least can be studied as a derivation of bodily practices and experiences caused by the communication of a human with things, substances, images, sounds, fragrances, and flavours. Taken as integral parts of religious infrastructure, they constitute both the mundane and devotional life of an individual believer and of a religious community. This trend in social research remains unnoticed in Russian social science and humanities. The forum aims to assess the state of art in the field of material religion and discuss perspectives of its development. Participants in the discussion highlight the role of the materiality of things and substances, bodies, and mechanisms in their own research and what heuristic perspectives this material turn opens for them. A separate line of discussion concerns the prospects of grafting material religion to the classic models of social research, such as Marxist sociology.

Keywords: material religion, methodology of social sciences, material turn, anthropology of religion, epistemology.

Acknowledgements:

Mansur Gasimzianov’s contribution was prepared with the financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 804083, MIND: The Muslim Individual in Imperial and Soviet Russia (2019–2024)).

Art Leete’s contribution was supported by the Estonian Research Council (grant no. PRG1584).

Alexander A. Panchenko’s contribution was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 21-18-00508) <https://rscf.ru/project/21-18-00508/>.

Yulia Senina’s contribution was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 21-18-00508) <https://rscf.ru/project/21-18-00508/>.

Laur Vallikivi’s contribution was supported by the Estonian Research Council (grant no. PRG1584).

To cite: ‘Forum: Materialnyy povorot i antropologiya religii’ [Forum: The Material Turn and the Anthropology of Religion], Antropologicheskij forum, 2022, no. 55, pp. 31–152.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2022-18-55-31-152

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/055/forum.pdf