Muslims through Discourse: Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society

John R. Bowen

Published by Princeton University Press 1993

Muslims through Discourse

Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society

John R. Bowen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691221588

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

John R. Bowen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washington University. He is author of Sumatran Politics and Poetics: Gayo History, 1900-1989 (Yale).

Reviews

"Bowen's observations that anthropologists, historians of religion, and other scholars of Islam have neglected the study of Islamic ritual practice, and that Indonesianists have for too long neglected the study of Islamic textual traditions, point to significant problems in all of these fields. It is hoped that Bowen's work will inspire Islamicists to pay greater attention to the varieties of Muslim ritual practice and inspire Indonesianists to consider more seriously the importance of the Islamic textual tradition in what is, after all, the world's most populous Muslim society."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Note on Transcription Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
PART ONE: A Genealogy of Divergent Understandings
Chapter One Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Chapter Two Religious Disputes in Takèngēn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
Chapter Three Islamic Knowledge in the Highlands, 1900-1990 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
PART TWO: Powerful Speech and Spirit Transactions
Chapter Four Spells, Prayer, and the Power of Words Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter Five The Source of Human Powers in History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
Chapter Six The Healer's Struggle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Chapter Seven Exorcism and Accountability Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Chapter Eight Farming, Ancestors, and the Sacred Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Chapter Nine Adam and Eve's Children Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
PART THREE Negotiating Public Rituals
Chapter Ten Transacting through Food: The Kenduri and Its Critics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Chapter Eleven Speaking for the Dead Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Chapter Twelve Sacrifice, Merit, and Self-Interest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Chapter Thirteen Worship and Public Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Chapter Fourteen The Social Forms of Religious Change Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Glossary of Gayo and Arabic Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353