The pursuit of certainty : religious and cultural formulations / edited by Wendy James.

ISBN:

9780203450840

9780415107907

9780415107914

Title:

The pursuit of certainty : religious and cultural formulations / edited by Wendy James.

Author:

James, Wendy.

Publication Information:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1995.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 316 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Series:

Uses of knowledge.

(4th : Uses of knowledge.

General Note:

Based on papers from the 4th Decennial Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth held in Oxford in 1993.

Contents:

Introduction: whatever happened to the Enlightenment? / Wendy James -- Managing tradition: 'superstition' and the making of national identity among Sudanese women refugees / Janice Boddy -- History and the discourse of underdevelopment among the Alur of Uganda / Aidan Southall -- Race, culture and- what?: pluralist certainties in the United States / Paul Dresch -- Certain knowledge: the encounter of global fundamentalism and local Christianity in urban south India / Lionel Caplan -- Inventing certainties: the dakwah persona in Malaysia / Shamsul A.B. -- Powerful knowledge in a global Sufi cult: reflections on the poetics of travelling theories / Pnina Werbner -- Topophilia, Zionism and 'certainty': making a place out of the space that became Israel again / Robert Paine -- The politics of tolerance: Buddhists and Christians, truth and error in Sri Lanka / Jonathan Spencer -- Changing certainties and the move to a 'global' religion: medical knowledge and Islamization among Anii (Baseda) in the Republic of Bénin / Georg Elwert -- Bourdieu and the diviner: knowledge and symbolic power in Yoruba divination / F. Niyi Akinnaso -- Choking on the Quran: and other consuming parables from the western Indian Ocean front / Michael Lambek -- Cultural certainties and private doubts / Roger Just.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Philosophical anthropology.

Cultural pluralism.

Religion -- Cross-cultural studies.

Toleration -- Cross-cultural studies.

Added Author:

James, Wendy.

Added Corporate Author:

Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth. Conference (4th : 1993 : Oxford, England)

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

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Publication Date:

1995

Publication Information:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1995.

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Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
128 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Although the world population faces movement, mixing and displacement on a larger scale than ever before, the result has not been a collapse of boundaries but an increase in the rise of new forms of ethnic, cultural and religious identity. Those based in the highly developed countries can extend global influence through wealth and sophisticated technology.
The Pursuit of Certainty presents original case studies which explore the effect anthropology's inherited tradition of tolerance and cross-cultural understanding has on the new pursuits of truth. Several chapters focus on the rise of new certainties while others examine notions of diversity providing a critical perspective on the new religious movements and current popular orthodoxies relating to society and culture.

Preface	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Part I Displacement and the Search for Redefinition	p. 15
1 Managing Tradition	p. 17
2 History and the Discourse of Underdevelopment Among the Alur of Uganda	p. 45
Part II Emerging World Forms	p. 59
3 Race, Culture And-What?	p. 61
4 Certain Knowledge	p. 92
5 Inventing Certainties	p. 112
6 Powerful Knowledge in a Global Sufi Cult	p. 134
7 Topophilia, Zionism and 'Certainty'	p. 161
Part III Vernacular Contexts of Public Reason and Critique	p. 193
8 The Politics of Tolerance	p. 195
9 Changing Certainties and the Move to a 'Global' Religion	p. 215
10 Bourdieu and the Diviner	p. 234
11 Choking on the Quran	p. 258
Part IV Epilogue: a Professional Dilemma?	p. 283
12 Cultural Certainties and Private Doubts	p. 285
Name Index	p. 309
Subject Index	p. 313

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