Muslims through Discourse Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society / John R. Bowen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bowen, John R. (John Richard), 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islam--Indonesia--Sumatra.

Gayo (Indonesian people)--Religious life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Islam.

Islam--Indonesie--Sumatra.

Gayo (Indonesian people).

Sumatra (Indonesia)--Social life and customs.

Indonesia--Sumatra.

Sumatra (Indonesia).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1993.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In this rich account of a Muslim society in highland Sumatra, Indonesia, John Bowen describes how men and women debate among themselves ideas of what Islam is and should be--as it pertains to all areas of their lives, from work to worship. Whereas many previous anthropological studies have concentrated on the purely local aspects of culture, this book captures and analyzes the tension between the local and universal in everyday life. Current religious differences among the Gayo stem from debates between "traditionalist" and "modernist" scholars that began in the 1930s, and reveal themselves in the ways Gayo discuss and perform worship, sacrifice, healing, and rites of birth and death, all within an Islamic framework. Bowen considers the power these debates accord to language, especially in arguments over spells, rites of farming, hunting, and healing. Moreover, he traces in these debates a general conception of transacting with spirits that has shaped Gayo practices of sacrifice, worship, and aiding the dead. Bowen concludes by examining the development of competing religious ideas in the highlands, the alternative ritual forms and ideas they have pro-mulgated, and the implications of this phenomenon for the emergence of an Islamic public sphere.

Contents:

PART 1. A GENEALOGY OF DIVERGENT UNDERSTANDINGS: 1. Introduction ; 2. Religious disputes in Takengen ; 3. Islamic knowledge in the Highlands, 1900-1990

PART 2. POWERFUL SPEECH AND SPIRIT TRANSACTIONS: 4. Spells, prayer, and the power of words ; 5. The source of human powers in history ; 6. The healer's struggle ; 7. Exorcism and accountability ; 8. Farming, ancestors, and the sacred landscape ; 9. Adam and Eve's children

PART 3. NEGOTIATING PUBLIC RITUALS: 10. Transacting through food: The Kenduri and its critics ; 11. Speaking for the dead ; 12. Sacrifice, merit, and self-interest ; 13. Worship and public life ; 14. The social forms of religious change.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [335]-351) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691028705

0691028702

OCLC:

1226679877