Welcoming a Torah to Northwood: On the Anthropology of Religion and Performance Studies

Edelman, JA (2019) Welcoming a Torah to Northwood: On the Anthropology of Religion and Performance Studies. In: Heavenly Acts: Aspects of Performance in Fath Settings. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 12-28. ISBN 1-5275-2193-1

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Abstract

What is the role of performance in faith practices? How is performance understood in and across a range of faith settings? How are performance and faith conceptualised through different academic disciplines? This collection of essays addresses these questions, and others, as it explores the complex relationship present in the nexus between faith and performance. A naturally inter-disciplinary work, this book contains contributions from a diverse group of scholars representing a wide range of methodologies and theoretical perspectives. As sociolinguists explore how language performance shapes and is shaped by faith, social anthropologists and psychologists examine how identity performance is crucial in negotiating faith identities, and scholars from theatre and performance studies engage with ways material settings are performatively transfigured to create sacred spaces (to mention but a few approaches covered in this book), the reader is taken on a journey of the world’s faiths and their diverse practices.