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Social scientists and philosophers confronted with religious phenomena have always been challenged to find a proper way to describe the spiritual experiences of the social group they were studying. The influence of the Cartesian dualism of body and mind (or soul) led to a distinction between non-material, spiritual experiences (i.e., related to the soul) and physical, mechanical experiences (i.e., related to the body). However, recent developments in medical science on the one hand and challenges to universalist conceptions of belief and spirituality on the other have resulted in “body” and “soul” losing the reassuring solid contours they had in the past. Yet, in “Western culture,” the body–soul duality is alive, not least in academic and media discourses. This volume pursues the ongoing debates and discusses the importance of the body and how it is perceived in contemporary religious faith: what happens when “body” and “soul” are un-separated entities? Is it possible, even for anthropologists and ethnographers, to escape from “natural dualism”? The contributors here present research in novel empirical contexts, the benefits and limits of the old dichotomy are discussed, and new theoretical strategies proposed.
“The introduction offers a substantial account of recent theory that corrects the ‘dichotomised heritage’ of thinking about body and soul in anthropology...The volume as a whole offers a worthwhile contribution to the growing literature on corporealised religion in the contemporary world. It will be of interest to anthropologists writing on Christianity and the body and on religion and migration, as well as to readers with an interest in the study of religion outside anthropology.” · Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
“[This volume] assembles some fascinating new examples of embodiment of culture, indicating the potential for this paradigm in religion and beyond [that has been lost for centuries]by denigrating and ignoring the body as a serious and intelligent locus of human experience and knowledge.” · Anthropology Review Database
“There is a welcome international feel about the venture—indeed the contributors could hardly represent a broader range of European nationalities. Furthermore, I am impressed with both the relevance and diversity of the papers listed.” · Peter Collins, Durham University
“This is an interesting and timely volume, addressing an important contemporary challenge for the anthropology of religion… The chapters…are ethnographically solid, and are tied nicely into the overall critique of the separation of body and soul.” · Jon Mitchell, University of Sussex
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Anna Fedele and Ruy Llera Blanes
PART I: BODIES AND SOULS IN CATHOLIC SETTINGS
Chapter 1. “I want to feel the Camino in my legs”: trajectories of walking on the Camino de Santiago
Keith Egan
Chapter 2. Holding the saint in one’s arms. Miracles and exchange in Apiao, southern Chile
Giovanna Bacchiddu
Chapter 3. Embodying devotion, embodying passion. The Italian tradition of ‘La Festa dei Gigli’ in Nola
Katia Ballacchino
PART II: CORPOREALITY, BELIEF AND HUMAN MOBILITY
Chapter 4. The Body and the World: Missionary Performances and the Experience of the World in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands
João Rickli
Chapter 5. “How to deal with the Dutch”: the local and the global in the habitus of the saved soul
Kim Knibbe
Chapter 6. Is witchcraft embodied? Representations of the body in talimbi witchcraft
Aleksandra Cimpric
PART III: NEW SPIRITUALITIES CHALLENGING THE BODY/SOUL DIVIDE
Chapter 7. When Soma Encounters the Spiritual: Bodily Praxes of Performed Religiosity in Contemporary Greece
Eugenia Roussou
Chapter 8. Re-enchanted Bodies: The Significance of the Spiritual Dimension in Danish Healing Rituals
Ann Ostenfeld-Rosenthal
Chapter 9. The struggle for sovereignty: the interpretation of bodily experiences in anthropology and among mediumistic healers in Germany
Ehler Voss
Chapter 10. Transforming musical soul into bodily practice: Tone eurythmy, anthroposophy and underlying structures
Andrew Spiegel and Silke Sponheuer
Notes on Contributors
Subject Index