Reviewed by Casey Golomski (University of the Witwatersrand). In Mission Station Christianity, Ingie Hovland gives religious studies scholars and anthropologists a concise and useful case study of the Norwegian Missionary Society’s (NMS) colonial encounters with Zulu peoples in nineteenth century Southern Africa.
Book reviews
Mapril, José and Ruy Blanes (eds). 2013. Sites and Politics of Religious Diversity in Southern Europe: The Best of All Gods
Reviewed by Kim Knibbe (University of Groningen). The anthropology of religion in the South of Europe is alive and well. That is the resounding conclusion after reading this volume. Furthermore, it has stepped out well beyond the bounds of the classic ‘anthropology of the Mediterranean’
Park, Julie J. 2013. When Diversity Drops: Race, Religion, and Affirmative Action in Higher Education
Reviewed by Jerry Park (Baylor University). In 1998, the state of California’s Proposition 209 struck down affirmative action as a policy to effect greater inclusion of racial minorities in higher education. At a time when non-white racial minorities were growing, particularly among younger cohorts
Cahn, Peter S. 2011. Direct Sales and Direct Faith in Latin America
Reviewed by Rebecca Bartel (University of Toronto). In the first pages of this ethnography of direct faith and direct sales, the reader becomes intimately acquainted with Luisa and her family, perhaps one of the most remarkable elements of Cahn’s study
Kidula, Jean Ngoya. 2013. Music in Kenyan Christianity: Logooli Religious Song
Reviewed by Katrien Pype (Leuven University, University of Birmingham). Christian music makes up one of the most flourishing music scenes on the African continent, populated by its own celebrities, aesthetics and marketing styles. A whole industry has now emerged around “the Christian musician”, whose presence not only enlivens the public
Nongbri, Brent. 2013. Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept
Reviewed by Jon Bialecki (University of Edinburgh). On its face, Brent Nongbri’s book, Before Religion, is seemingly not about Christianity, but about religion more generally – or more specifically, about the category of religion more generally. Nongbri’s argument is that religion is not a human universal, but rather construction that has both a history and a genealogy
Webster, Joseph. 2013. The Anthropology of Protestantism: Faith and Crisis among Scottish Fishermen
Reviewed by Matt Tomlinson (Australian National University). This book is an innovative attempt to understand the relationship between language and materiality in terms of the Protestant doctrine of consubstantiation, “that view of the Christian Eucharist that attempts
Mayblin, Maya. 2014. Gender, Catholicism, and Morality in Brazil
Reviewed by Astrid Grue (University of Copenhagen). If, following a point recently made by Sara Ahmed, an ideological argument of contemporary Western societies appears to be that “if you are married, then we can predict that you are more likely to be happier than if you are not married”
Howell, Brian (2012) Short-Term Mission: An Ethnography of Christian Travel Narrative and Experience
Reviewed by Joshua Brahinsky (University of California, Santa Cruz). While anthropology and religion have a checkered and ambivalent dynamic, relations between anthropology and missiology – Christian mission theory – are far more enmeshed and, perhaps, grating. This animates a sharp division between the two.
Hackworth, Jason. 2012. Faith Based: Religious Neoliberalism and the Politics of Welfare in the United States
Reviewed by Amy E. Fisher (University of Toronto). Jason Hackworth’s Faith Based: Religious Neoliberalism and the Politics of Welfare in the United States seeks to unravel the “synergies and tensions” (vii) between neoliberals and evangelical conservatives who are ostensibly different and yet mutually engaged in the project of minimizing and opposing the American welfare state.