TY - JOUR
T1 - The rise of the Nacirema and the descent of European man
T2 - A response to manuel A. Vásquez's more than belief
AU - Johnson, Sylvester
PY - 2012/11/5
Y1 - 2012/11/5
N2 - Manuel Vásquez's Beyond Belief richly examines the prospects of rooting the study of religion more seriously within the imperatives of materialist theory. His study also prompts scholars to consider how attention to the body has been shaped by race and empire. In this essay, I reflect on how the linkage of religion, race, and empire has shaped the imperial history of imagining dark bodies and matter more broadly. I conclude that the ethnographic turn within studies of Western religious subjects signals an important, generative shift in scholarship, one that enables a more rigorous, materially-centered interpretation of Western religious subjectivity.
AB - Manuel Vásquez's Beyond Belief richly examines the prospects of rooting the study of religion more seriously within the imperatives of materialist theory. His study also prompts scholars to consider how attention to the body has been shaped by race and empire. In this essay, I reflect on how the linkage of religion, race, and empire has shaped the imperial history of imagining dark bodies and matter more broadly. I conclude that the ethnographic turn within studies of Western religious subjects signals an important, generative shift in scholarship, one that enables a more rigorous, materially-centered interpretation of Western religious subjectivity.
KW - colonialism
KW - embodiment
KW - fetish
KW - materiality
KW - race
KW - religion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84868130115&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84868130115&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/15700682-12341244
DO - 10.1163/15700682-12341244
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84868130115
VL - 24
SP - 464
EP - 481
JO - Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
JF - Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
SN - 0943-3058
IS - 4-5
ER -