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The introduction presents the concept of secretism and its relevance for the study of Brazilian Candomblé. Secretism is framed as a key issue brokering relations between indigenous religions and their host nation states. The overall strategy of the book is proffered, along with salient methodological notes and an introduction to the primary research sites.

The abolishment of the indigenous religion in Mexico and the replacing it with the new was uppermost in the minds of Spanish officials. This was socially and politically important. The “Uprooting of Idolatry”, the “extirpación de idolatría”, was undertaken in rural Mexico by the Jesuit, Alonso de Santarén, and by civil authorities.

As an introduction to a history of comparative religion, this chapter identifies the material mediations—imperial, colonial, and indigenous—that produced, authenticated, and circulated knowledge about religion and religions. Highlighting the importance of indigenous African religion, especially Zulu and Thonga religion, in the emergence of imperial comparative religion between the 1870s and the 1920s, this chapter situates the history of the study of religion in the imperial, colonial, and indigenous exchanges within one zone of interaction, South Africa. Reviewing selected literature on the history of the study of religion and religions, the chapter shows how the discourse has moved from discovery, through invention, to intercultural mediations of knowledge about religion and religions.

This chapter examines whether the concept of human rights is compatible with indigenous religion. It begins with an overview of primordialism and its paradoxes, with particular emphasis on the emergence of human rights directed toward the rights of peoples, especially the rights of religious freedom of indigenous peoples. It then considers the emergence of the international movement of indigenous peoples and the assimilationist orientation to the rights of indigenous peoples, along with the objectification of indigenous religious claims and the link between indigenous spirituality and industrial modernity. It also discusses the role played by culturally defining public outreach and collaborative activism in mediating processes or “projects” of collective self-definition that translate to an indigenous worldview.

This chapter traces how Charismatic healing practices long prominent in African Independent Churches/African Instituted Churches and Pentecostal churches have become central in all the traditionally mainline/historic churches in Ghana, focusing on Akan ethnic churches: Roman Catholic Church in Ghana, Presbyterian Church of Ghana, and Methodist Church Ghana. Non-pentecostal Western missionaries established mainline churches in the early nineteenth century. To stem the exodus of members to AICs and Pentecostals, from the 1970s lay-led Charismatic renewal movements within mainline churches departed from missionary heritages influenced by an Enlightenment worldview developed in non-African cultures. For most Akan/African Christians, as for practitioners of African indigenous religions, religion must meet existential needs. The universe seems filled with benevolent and malevolent spirits; the Devil and demons cause sickness or render medicine impotent; and salvation includes healing and deliverance or liberation. When sick, Akans typically try hospitals, traditional healers, Muslim spiritualists, and churches until one finds healing.

This essay describes the active resistance to both Christian and Islamic efforts in sub-Saharan Africa to exclude the indigenous religious traditions of Africa from legal protection. African traditional or indigenous religions are often not acknowledged as “religions” due to a lack of centralized structure and leadership. Hackett explores the legal prejudice African religious practitioners encounter both locally and internationally.

Apartheid was established in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 as a force of exclusion and incorporation, excluding people from citizenship and exploiting people as labor. This chapter suggests that the term apartheid, meaning “separation,” was formative for certain ways of thinking about religion. One of the architects of apartheid, the anthropologist W. M. Eiselen, was a leading expert on indigenous religions in South Africa. Eiselen’s writings on African religion illustrate three overlapping types of comparative religion—a frontier comparative religion based on denial and containment; an imperial comparative religion assuming evolutionary progress from savagery to civilization; and an apartheid comparative religion creating and reinforcing boundaries to keep people apart. Although apartheid was formally established as a racist policy of separation in South Africa, the making and maintaining of boundaries has been a recurring feature of religious formations.

This chapter considers shamans in their circulations through colonial situations. As a characteristic feature of shamanism, mobility is evident in the shaman’s capacity to move between worlds—the material and the spiritual—but also in moving between central and marginal positions under the impact of various imperial impositions and colonial situations. The Chinese and Russian empires, for example, dramatically altered shamanic geography, restricting freedom of movement in ways that directly affected spiritual mobility. In competitions over sacred geography and sacred resources, the Chinese and Russian empires altered the mediating roles of Siberian shamans. As the term shaman circulated as a generic term for a religious specialist in other parts of the world, Europeans associated shamans with wild and dangerous spiritual forces. Under colonial conditions, features associated with shamanism, such as spiritual travel, healing, indigenous memory, and secrecy, changed into strategies of opposition to the incursions of alien political and religious forces.

Lambek considers the epistemic dislocation of privileging the individual as against those whose sense of self is embedded within the personhood of ancestors, both dead and alive. Using the example of Madagascar, he argues that certain religious beliefs are more legible to the governing elite than others. Lambek describes a variety of ways of being religious in Madagascar that not only cross borders of faith traditions but exceed the categories of belief and conscience altogether.

The cultural creation developed by practitioners of shamanism in Norway provides insight into processes of religious creation and creativity. These developments and increasing spiritual inventiveness are the focus of this chapter. I am particularly interested in how and what happens when the global culture of shamanism interacts with a specific local culture, in this case, Norwegian society. Drawing on developments within the field of shamanism in Norway, the chapter ventures between the local and global, highlighting how American Indian symbolism might serve as a spark that prompts a spiritual seeker to step onto the path of spirituality, making what is perceived as local traditions the basis for a new global religious movement.

This chapter explores the manifold and conflicting histories of contemporary Paganism and how these varied understandings both reflect and influence Pagans' understandings of their religion, along with the differing ways of approaching and understanding Pagan religion, parenting, childhood, and daily life. Three primary groups of Pagan families are central to this narrative: the families of Silverling Circle in New Hampshire, the families of Dragon Moon/Spiral Winds Coven in Texas, and the First Church of Wicca in Massachusetts. The chapter also presents four perspectives on the issue of Pagan identity in the United States: Paganism as a prehistoric indigenous religion, as an earth-based nature religion, as the heir to the esoteric and Mind Cure movements of the nineteenth century, and as an eclectic integration of beliefs and practices from globally non-Christian traditions.

This section reviews the history of Christianity in Latin America and introduces the main themes of the rest of the book. Four centuries of Catholicism prepared the way for the stunning rise of Protestantism in the twentieth century. After 1950 the region experienced the rise of Pentecostalism, the growth of new movements within the Catholic Church, and an antagonistic but nevertheless fruitful relationship between Catholicism and Protestantism. At the same time, Protestants often provided a valuable service by breaking the religious monopoly held by indigenous religion in rural villages. Once they had done so, it was not just Protestants who benefited but institutional and theological forms of Catholicism as well.

This concluding chapter highlights some of the connections between the traditional styles and genres of the performing arts across Sumatra, paying attention to the impact of indigenous religions and Islam as well as classification of the musical instruments and ensembles. It also considers how the musical arts are linked to myths and legends, and how myths and art forms are related to indigenous religious beliefs. Finally, it discusses Hindu myths and art forms; Muslim-associated myths and legends and art forms; Chinese myths and art forms; dances and music-dance relationships; connections between the performing arts in Sumatra's Malay subgroups and social classes; gender factors; signal items of Sumatran identity and local uniqueness; and major changes in the performing arts since around 1900. The chapter suggests that more research into the whole of greater Sumatra is needed in order to elucidate the extent to which an understanding of these connections can contribute to a concept of Sumatra's performing arts as a unified whole.

This essay discusses the law and politics of religious freedom in the recently created state of South Sudan. Christianity often serves as a proxy for national culture and marginalizes indigenous African traditions and Islam. Categorizing the populace according to faith affiliations forecloses and solidifies religious boundaries in a country where boundaries are fluid and the socio-political order is in transition.