religion

Heterotopic Assemblages within Religious Structures

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New article by Swapna Gopinath

Gopinath, S.  (2019) ‘Heterotopic Assemblages within Religious Structures: Ganesh Utsav and the Streets of Mumbai’ Open Cultural Studies (3): 96-106

https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2019-0009

PDF available

Abstract

Indian urban public spaces have witnessed massive transformation post liberalization and globalization. In 2017, city spaces offer novel experiences and unravel new political dynamics in tune with the paradigm shifts in socio-political, economic and cultural domains. The city was shaped by the colonial and later modernizing forces, is being foregrounded in the postmodern, postcolonial discourses, and its public spaces therefore emerge as significant components in the social developments as witnessed in the new millennium. Ganesh Utsav in Mumbai is closely linked to India’s history of political struggle against British colonialism. There has been a phenomenal growth in its popularity and visibility, as a festival for ten days, encapsulating the whole city, transforming its identity as a financial capital of the country to a multiple layered carnival ground, with processions and festivities involving the majority of its population. Post globalization and neoliberalisation, the festival has transformed itself, assumed an identity uniquely political along with the rise of the right wing to power. My paper will be an attempt to critically evaluate this festival and the paraphernalia of sacredness that encapsulates the city space for ten days every year. While the spatial identity of religious practices is fascinating to observe, the ten-day festival of Ganesh Utsav builds a fabric of the sacred and profane across the city. The theoretical tool used in this study is Foucault’s heterotopias and Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of assemblage. The de/re-territorialising aspects of these spaces will also be examined.

Keywords: sacred spaces, heterotopia, carnival, assemblage, de/re-territorialisation

Peter

Religion and Heterotopia

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Thanks to Helen Meads for the following list of literature related to heterotopia and religion, including link to her PhD thesis:

Carrette, Jeremy R. 2000. Foucault and Religion: Spiritual Corporality and Political
Spirituality. London, Routledge, 58 & 107.

Meads, Helen Claire. 2011. ‘”Experiment with Light” In Britain: The heterotopian nature of a contemporary Quaker spiritual practice.’ Phh.D. Thesis, University of Birmingham. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/3076/1/Meads11PhD.pdf, accessed 3 March, 2018.

Pilgrim, Gay. 2003a. ‘Contemporary British Quakerism.’ Paper presented at the
Woodbrooke Sunday Lectures, 29 June 2003.

———. 2003b. ‘The Quakers: towards an Alternate Ordering.’ In Predicting Religion:
Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures, edited by Grace Davie, Linda
Woodhead and Paul Heelas, 147-158. Aldershot, Ashgate.

———. 2004. ‘Taming Anarchy: Quaker Alternate Ordering and “Otherness”.’ In The
Creation of Quaker Theory: Insider Perspectives, edited by Pink Dandelion,
206-225. Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing.

———. 2008. ‘British Quakerism as Heterotopic.’ In The Quaker Condition: The
Sociology of a Liberal Religion, edited by Pink Dandelion and Peter Collins,
53-67. Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Shackley, Myra. 2002. ‘Space, Sanctity and Service; the English Cathedral as
Heterotopia.’ International Journal of Tourism Research 4, 345-352.

Smith, Simon Gareth. 1997. ‘Buddhism and the Postmodern: The Nature of Identity
and Tradition in Contemporary Society.’ Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis,
University of Leeds, 24, 106 & 158.

My running bibliography also has:

Bochow, A. and van Dijk, R. (2012) ‘Christian Creations of New Spaces of Sexuality, Reproduction, and Relationships in Africa: Exploring Faith and Religious Heterotopia’ Journal of Religion in Africa. 42 (4): 325-344.

Maier, H. O. (2013) ‘Soja’s Thirdspace, Foucault’s Heterotopia and de Certeau’s Practice: Time-Space and Social Geography in Emergent Christianity’, Historical Social History 38 (4) 76-92.

Taylor, R. (2015) ‘Syariah as Heterotopia: Responses from Muslim Women in Aceh, Indonesia’ Religions 6 (2) open-access.

Peter

5 March 2018

Ultra-Orthodox Heterotopia in Israel

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Thanks for drawing my attention to this article:

Shoshana, A. (2014) ‘Space, Heterogeneity, and Everyday Life: Ultra-Orthodox Heterotopia in Israel, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 43 (5) 527-555.

Abstract

This article examines the relations between the characteristics of a space and the phenomenology of its residents, as well as the unique influence of the space on the social relations and the actions undertaken by the individuals and groups in it. It is based on ethnographies and in-depth interviews conducted at the Israeli ultra-orthodox town of Immanuel, which made the headlines on account of the ethnic selection carried out there, a scandal known as the “Israeli Brown Affair.” The ethnographic findings point to the dramatic heterogeneity of Immanuel’s population and to the quite overt disregard that the different groups show one another. In the interviews, Immanuel was explicitly defined as an “other place,” and a dialectic was reported between the invisibility of the space (referred to as its being “terra non grata”) and its visibility at times of crisis (terror attacks and ethnic selection). The interviews also highlighted the “paradoxicality” of the space (the simultaneous presence of cultural discrimination alongside expressions of resistance). In order to attain a nuanced understanding of space at Immanuel, Foucault’s (1986) concept of heterotopia is introduced. Moreover, given the different interpretations of the space offered by members of the different groups, the concept of multiple heterotopias is posited. The conclusion points to the complex relations between space, heterogeneity, and everyday life.

Peter

28 July 2015

Muslim Women – Syariah in Aceh, Indonesia

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New open-access article by Reed Taylor, published in Religions (6:2)

Syariah as Heterotopia: Responses from Muslim Women in Aceh, Indonesia

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the implementation of syariah is best understood as a heterotopia by women in Aceh, Indonesia. The current debates over the role of syariah for women in Acehnese society focus on either a secular human rights critique of non-liberal norms that restrict the rights and freedom of women or a religiously prescribed defense of communal norms that protect women and society. Based on interviews, I identify three variants of how women conceive of and inhabit syariah in Aceh. Two of these variants are underrepresented in the current academic literature on syariah in Aceh. Two key distinctions are drawn between blueprint and iconoclastic utopian thought and state-centric and non-state-centric models of political legitimacy. Rethinking syariahas a “socio-spatial dialectic” allows for all three variants of syariah existing simultaneously as a heterotopia in Acehnese society.

Taylor, R. (2015) ‘Syariah as Heterotopia: Responses from Muslim Women in Aceh, Indonesia’ Religions 6 (2) open-access

Peter

12 May 2015

Christian Catacombs

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I gave prior notice of this book some months’ ago but it is published this month.

Eric C. Smith, Foucault’s Heterotopia in Christian Catacombs: Constructing Spaces and Symbols in Ancient Rome. Palgrave Macmillan. Click image for more information.

Ringing the city like pearls on a necklace and plunging beneath the earth into darkness, the Christian catacombs of Rome have inspired and captivated people for centuries. This book takes a new approach to the study of the catacombs, using spatial theory to understand the way the catacombs were constructed, decorated, and used. Relying on the theoretical work of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre, this book moves beyond traditional forms of analysis to turn a new lens to the work of understanding these monuments of early Christianity. The location and form of the Callistus Catacomb, the art found inside, the texts referenced in that art, and the community practices performed and referenced deep underground form the heart of this innovative take on the grand burial sites of the early church.

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Peter

24 October 2014

Heterotopia in Christian Catacombs

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Forthcoming book by Eric Smith, visiting Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity and New Testament Studies at the Iliff School of Theology, USA.

Foucault’s Heterotopia in Christian Catacombs (Religion and Spatial Studies) published 16 Oct 2014.

 

‘Ringing the city like pearls on a necklace and plunging beneath the earth into darkness, the Christian catacombs of Rome have inspired and captivated people for centuries. This book takes a new approach to the study of the catacombs, using spatial theory to understand the way the catacombs were constructed, decorated, and used. Relying on the theoretical work of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre, this book moves beyond traditional forms of analysis to turn a new lens to the work of understanding these monuments of early Christianity. The location and form of the Callistus Catacomb, the art found inside, the texts referenced in that art, and the community practices performed and referenced deep underground form the heart of this innovative take on the grand burial sites of the early church’.

Callistus Catacomb
Callistus Catacomb

Peter

11 August 2014

Emergent Christianity

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Soja’s Thirdspace, Foucault’s Heterotopia and de Certeau’s Practice: Time-Space and Social Geography in Emergent Christianity

AUTHOR: Maier, Harry O.

PUB: December 2013

SOURCE: Historical Social Research. Vol. 38 Issue 4, pp 76-92.

 ABSTRACT

This essay uses analytical tools developed by Edward Soja, Michel Foucault, and Michel de Certeau to investigate time-space configurations in the religious movements inaugurated by Jesus and promoted by Paul. The article begins with an account of the domination of time as a conceptual tool for analyzing both figures and their teachings to establish the context for an alternative space-time reading of the data represented in the New Testament and extra-canonical sources. Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God is placed in the context of the monetization and hence disruption of traditional kinship and social structures. His parables, sayings, and the traditions associated with him represent thirdspace performances of his rural world. His proclamation of the Kingdom of God coheres with Foucault’s notion of heterotopia in that it places listeners in places outside of place. His articulation of behaviours coincides with de Certeau’s notion of tactics inserted within dominant social strategies. Through a reading of Paul’s message against the backdrop of urban poverty Paul’s motif of the church as body is seen as a thirdspace articulation of social groups, heterotopic place outside of place, and communal solidarity within the urban context of the Roman Empire.

Peter

25 March 2014