welcome to this tutorial on tala assad an american anthropologist located in new york we are interested in his theory of religion we have already presented a video on assad on his theory of religion but having just read through the original essay several times i felt that a few key concepts needed a bit more articulation so that's the reason that we are releasing a second version on tala assad so to begin with assad notices that western scholars have often compared christianity and islam and viewed these religions as historical configurations of power and belief although assad has
nothing in principle against making comparisons between religious traditions he does argue that these western anthropological views have been flawed for example he takes an issue with the fact that western anthropological views have confined christianity to europe and islam to the middle east he feels that confining these religions in that way neglects other important traditions so if we confine christianity to europe we seem to neglect eastern christianity that we also know are indigenous to the middle east assad also objects to the connections made between religion and power at least in the comparison that western anthropologists have
drawn between christianity and islam anthropologists have often viewed these connections as being different between christianity and islam which assad claims is a flawed comparison and that negatively impacts conceptualizations of islam he objects to the notion that christian practice and discourse in history have been less concerned with the uses of political power for religious persons than the practice and discourse of muslims they have both been concerned with the use of political power this representation of islam in his view in his view of a fusion of religion with power is an unjustified generalization assad also wants anthropologists
to take into account differences rather than parallels between traditions in order to engage in the systematic exploration of traditions in other words one might ask questions as to how traditions differ and how they might change one might wish to determine what connections they are between traditions and so on this approach assad believes acknowledges that islam is not a predetermined story or the product of an essential social structure moving on one of the major facets of western anthropology of islam that assad criticizes is the notion of a dual typology this is a an anthropology that depicts
islam as according to a classical social structure that consists of tribes tribesmen and city dwellers depicting islam according to this classical social structure has been an attempt for western scholars to account for islam's diversity they do so by reducing islam's diversity to these representatives of two major forms of religion you have on the one hand the tribesmen typically seen as holding to a saint-worshipping and ritualistic religion found in the countryside the religion of the city dwellers on the other hand is viewed as a scriptural scriptural realist and puritanical faith and a religion based on the
holy book this is a representation of an unchanging dualistic structure of islam promoted by some anthropologists and that has been assumed when making comparisons between islam and christianity but this makes representations of islam flawed and it is through this that comparisons are being made so assad is basically arguing that these views are presenting two incompatible constructions of islam islam seems to object to any notion that we can reduce islam to these two constructions because the middle east contains many histories and social structures that overlap in space and time as assad explains in his own words
quote this typology rests on false conceptual oppositions and equivalences which often lead right writers into making ill-founded assertions about motives meanings and effects relating to religion the reality of diversity nonetheless needs to be embraced despite the attractiveness of viewing traditions as homogenous there has been an incredible variety of traditional muslim practices across different times places and populations assad uses the example of doing fieldwork with postoral nomads as an example of diversity he deduces that any assumptions made about the postoral nomads in the muslim middle east having a typical political and economic structure is mistaken assad
argues that there are no so there are no so-called typical tribes or nomads rather there is a diversity in many areas such as across formal constitution socio-economic arrangements politics trade and so on assad is arguing that any anthropology of islam must account for diversity of a religious tradition assad also notices how any anthropological presentation of islam will also depend on how one defines religion he acknowledges that there have been difficulties involved in producing a conception of religion that is adequate for cross-cultural purposes but he maintains that definition remains important because one's conception of religion determines
the kinds of questions one will ask and what questions one believes are worth asking these efforts these efforts have led some scholars to engage with historical sociological theorists like emile durkheim called marx max weber and others and to use their ideas to describe forms of islam but as assad argues the result is not always consistent because some scholars mistakenly ascribe the theories of these thinkers to different actors within the islamic tradition for example some scholars have taken islamic tribal religion and viewed it through a deucamian lens whereas others have taken the islam of the urban
dwellers and viewed it through the perspective of karl marx what this does is is to render islam and mishmash of concepts of religion pulled into one representation assad then moves on to viewing islam as a tradition he argues that finding an adequate concept of tradition will assist anthropologists in studying islam according to assad a tradition consists of discourses that instruct practitioners regarding the correct form and purpose of a given practice that has a history these discourses relate conceptually to a past future and present the past looks at when a practice was instituted and from which
the knowledge of its point and proper performance has been transmitted the future looks at how a practice can be secured in the short or long term or why it should be modified or abandoned the present looks at how a practice is linked to other practices institutions and social conditions in assad's own words islamic discursive tradition is a tradition of muslim discourse that addresses itself to conceptions of the islamic past and future with reference reference to a particular islamic practice in the present we can take the example of daily prayers we might look at daily prayers
as being a part of islam's discursive tradition we could ask such questions as to when this practice was instituted and when did the notion of its proper performance begin to be transmitted how strong is this practice in the present what might it look like in the short or long-term future what are the chances that it will be changed or abandoned how does the ritual of daily prayer connect to other practices institutions and social conditions in the islamic tradition we find for instance that muslims come together to say these prayers in the mosque and that they
face in the in the direction of the kaaba the prayers also involve rituals like prostration bowels and the reading from the quran according to assad a practice is islamic because it is authorized by the discursive traditions of islam and is so taught to muslims by members of the tradition we now move to the notion of actors assad believes we need to consider actors in a tradition any anthropology of islam must be all-encompassing in how it considers various actors and protagonists in islam for example protagonists and actors may include tribal groups nomads merchants literate clerics saints
religious reformers pastoral warriors the poor and so on it is important to include all actors in the tradition across areas of age gender and knowledge we are not only interested interested in the views of scholars or imams but also in the views of ordinary muslims peasants and those who are uneducated actors or those who speak think use language and texts important to them are foundational texts like the quran the hadith and heuristic commentaries actors negotiate discuss debates and use reason when accessing these texts taking actors into account is essential to any anthropology of islam another
important component to any anthropology of islam is the notion of power assad believes that power needs to be taken into consideration he writes or argues where there is religious orthodoxy there is power and that orthodoxy is crucial to all forms of islamic tradition orthodoxy is not merely a body of opinion but a distinctive relationship of power to truth a view that assad finds neglected in western anthropologies of islam he believes that wherever muslims have the power to regulate uphold require or just correct practices and to condemn exclude undermine or replace incorrect ones there is the
domain of orthodoxy evaluating power means that the anthropologist must take into consideration what makes power possible socially politically and economically one must consider the resistances to power that muslims and non-muslims might encounter one might ask questions are there internal conflicts between muslim and non-muslim communities how are the dominant figures in the tradition being resisted and so on we must also take into account power relations through which truth is established this leads the anthropologist to engage the dynamics of hierarchy age gender and knowledge in the tradition furthermore arguments and reasoning are also important dimensions to viewing
religious traditions as discursive traditions western anthropologists have often marginalized the place of argument and reasoning surrounding traditional practices reason and argument are necessarily involved in the traditional practice whenever people have to be taught about the proper performance of practice reasons and arguments are used when teachings meet doubt indifference or lack of understanding reason users debate confrontation and polemic as a process to win someone over for the willing performance of a traditional practice it should be the anthropologist's first task to describe and analyze the kinds of reasoning and the reasons for arguing that underlying islamic traditional
practices having noted this we can move into some summaries of how tala assad believes we should study religious traditions first any anthropology of islam must avoid reductionist representations of traditions like we saw in the dual typology rather we must acknowledge the divide the diversity that constitutes a religious tradition further an anthropology of islam nixon needs to look at islam as an instituted practice set in a particular context and that has a particular history into which muslims are inducted as muslims in other words we must take into account the traditions institutions that uphold with islamic practice
we need to also consider the context in which muslims practice their religion we also need to have an awareness of the history of a religious practice third we must understand the historical conditions that enable the production and maintain maintenance of specific discursive traditions or their transformation and the efforts of practitioners to achieve coherence we might want to ask how is the tradition being preserved and by whom is it being preserved how are muslims trying to achieve and sustain a coherent religious worldview fourthly anthropologists must describe and analyze the kinds of reasoning underlying islamic practices fifth
evaluating power means that the anthropologists must take into consideration what makes power possible socially politically and economically sixth and finally the varieties of actors within the islamic tradition must be taken into account when producing an anthropology of islam
