The act of converting people to certain beliefs or values is highly controversial in today’s postcolonial, multicultural world. Proselytization has been viewed by some as an aggressive act of political domination. Those controversies call for comparative, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary research. Upon the initiative of Rosalind Hackett, a symposium was organized at the 19th World Congress […]
New book: how to study religions that proselytize?
This new book, Missionary Impositions, which we have not yet read, approaches missionary efforts from an unusual angle. It will obviously be relevant for any scholar interested in issues of fieldwork. In this collection of essays, anthropologists of religion examine the special challenges they face when studying populations that proselytize. Conducting fieldwork among these groups […]