The Anthropology of Christianity

385 Pages·2006·1.516 MB·English

by  Fenella Cannell (editor)

The Anthropology of Christianity

The Anthropology
of Christianity
......
Edited by
Fenella Cannell
Duke University Press
durham & london 2006
∫ 2006 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $
Designed by Jennifer Hill
Typeset in Fournier by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
appear on the last printed page of this book.
For S. P. J., with love and thanks

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
...Introduction...
The Anthropology of Christianity 1
Fenella Cannell
...One...
The Eternal Return of Conversion
Christianity as Contested Domain in Highland Bolivia 51
Olivia Harris
...Two...
Renewable Icons
Concepts of Religious Power in a Fishing Village in South India 77
Cecilia Busby
...Three...
Possession and Confession
Affliction and Sacred Power in Colonial and Contemporary
Catholic South India 99
David Mosse
...Four...
Reading as Gift and Writing as Theft 134
Fenella Cannell
...Five...
Materializing the Self
Words and Gifts in the Construction of Charismatic Protestant Identity 163
Simon Coleman
...Six...
The Effectiveness of Ritual 185
Christina Toren
...Seven...
Forgetting Conversion
The Summer Institute of Linguistics Mission in the Piro Lived World 211
Peter Gow
...Eight...
The Bible Meets the Idol
Writing and Conversion in Biak, Irian Jaya, Indonesia 240
Danilyn Rutherford
...Nine...
Scripture Study as Normal Science
Seventh-Day Adventist Practice on the East Coast of Madagascar 273
Eva Keller
...Ten...
Appropriated and Monolithic Christianity in Melanesia 295
Harvey Whitehouse
...Epilogue...
Anxious Transcendence 308
Webb Keane
References 325
Contributors 353
Index 355
Acknowledgments
This volume originated with two workshops, held at Manchester Univer-
sity and the London School of Economics, and thanks go first to all the
participants, including Maia Green and our two lse discussants, William
A. Christian Jr. and Patricia Spyer. The ideas presented in the introduc-
tion have been through a long process of evolution that has included
courses I have taught in the anthropology of Christianity, and I would
like to thank all my students at lse who have helped me to think further
about the issues involved. I would also like to thank Maurice Bloch for
originally encouraging me to teach on this subject. Parts of the introduc-
tion and chapter 4 are based on research conducted with the assistance of
grants from the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research
Council (grant no. r000239016), whose support is gratefully acknowl-
edged. I would also like to thank colleagues at Cornell University for
providing, on three occasions, an ideal academic base and for their warm
hospitality. Among the many individuals to whom thanks are due, I
would like to mention in particular Danilyn Rutherford and Simon Jarvis,
who patiently read and helpfully commented on the introduction in sev-
eral drafts, and the two anonymous readers for Duke University Press.