Lecture and workshop Webb Keane

The Anthropology of Christianity

On Tuesday 30 January, 13.00-17.00, the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Vrije Universiteit) organizes a workshop session with and a lecture by Webb Keane.

  

Workshop

In this workshop, we will discuss the Introduction and first two chapters of Webb Keane’s new book Christian Moderns. Freedom & Fetish in the Mission Encounter (California University Press, 2007).  If  you are interested, please send a message to Anouk Nieuwland (a.nieuwland@fsw.vu.nl), cc to b.meyer@fsw.vu.nl.  The text will be pre-circulated.

Venue: Faculty of Social Science, Metropolitan Building, room Z113.

Time: 13.00-15.00.

Lecture

Global Christian

 Abstract: Today about a third of the world’s population is Christian.  A significant portion of those Christians live in the post-colonial world, and the transformation of everyday life in the colonies and post-colonies has often been deeply involved with religious proselytization and conversion.  One way Christian imaginaries have linked subjective and historical change, and have had an impact beyond the Christian world, emerges from their coupling with certain concepts of modernity and the practices that make them inhabitable.  This talk concerns the relationship between aspects of missionary Christianity and some widespread moral narratives of modernity.  In particular, it considers the ways in which materiality has been taken to pose a pervasive problem for moral progress and human agency.

Chair: Birgit Meyer

Venue: VU Campus, W&N building, room G076.

Time: 15.00-17.00.

Webb Keane is Professor in the Dept. of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where he is also affiliated with the joint PhD program in Anthropology and History and with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.  He is the author of “Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society” (California 1997) and “Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter” (California 2007), and co-editor of the “Handbook of Material Culture” (Sage 2006).  He is currently engaged in research on Indonesian journalism.