Forum Fridininum

Nouns which suggest that things are finished and uniform are to be avoided as much as possible. These run the risk of getting the stamp “essentialistic”, which is one of the Deadly Sins in writing anthropological. For the anthropologist everything is complex and in flux from one state to another. Therefore, if applicable, try to rewrite your nouns into gerunds (usu. words ending on -ing).

Examples:
politics = politicizing
religion = religioning

See Tweed’s Crossing and Dwelling. A Theory of Religions for an excellent argument on the use of gerunds.

Whenever you would use “construct” use “construe” instead. The latter gives the impression whatever process your describing is more soft, complex and flexible than the former conveys. Anthropologists like that.

A beautiful music video by Ólafur Arnalds

Gerardo Marti, author of A Mosaic of Believers and Hollywood Faith, and upcoming recognized expert on all things evangelical has started a weblog. Gerardo once confided to me he had been an evangelical pastor (in the church he describes in Mosaic) and had read several European theologians like Karl Barth and Bonhoeffer — that alone would have triggered my interest in his weblog, but he also happens to be an an excellent sociologist of religion. So this is a must follow.

http://praxishabitus.blogspot.com/

Space is the place the
context of my construct’s walk through
landscapes of being

I’m half way the Calvin College seminar program “Congregations and religious diversity in contemporary America” led by Stephen Warner. And because tomorrow will be the fourth of July — we have a few days off! OMG, I feel like a student again. It’s time for some procrastination.

Het lege land
waar keien schuilen
in een grijze waas
en mossig groen.

Het zwarte land
waar een poel de grond
herschept tot aardse
hemelspiegel.

Het moederland
herbergt haar dochter
in witte lakens
en mat beton.

Haar oude land
beklijft in zwart - wit,
in nachten vol van
herinnering.

Haar nieuwe land
tekent zich af in
felle kleuren, een
regenboog
van een kind.

My dad recently won the Frisian chess championship for seniors (60+). In his younger years he unsuccessfully tried his hand before, but now he has won convincingly with six points out of seven. He acts like winning the championship is nothing, but we, his family, are very proud!

Read more about it on the site of the Friese Schaakbond

Elaine Howard Ecklund published an interesting blogpost on the religiosity of scientists on SSRC’s The Immanent Frame weblog. The post is based on research she already has published about in Social Problems (54:2, 2007). She however does not talk about her research findings too much, but instead argues how universities could better facilitate the public discussion on religion and science. A must read for anyone interested in religion, which probably involves all of you who made it here and read this post And of course congratulations to Elaine about being asked to publish on such a prestigious weblog.

For those really interested: I had an interesting discussion two years ago on this subject here: http://religionresearch.org/marten/2005/01/13/anthropologists-are-secularists/ and here http://religionresearch.org/marten/2005/01/14/real-scientists-also-secular-or-not/

Conferencing is mainly: meeting people and getting new ideas. The most important harvest of the SSSR 2007 conference is new people I know, and this must-read list. Succesful conferences last weeks, instead of days…

Bader, V. 2007. Secularism or Democracy? Associational Governance of Religious Diversity. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press.

Byrnes, T. A., en P. J. Katzenstein. 2006. Religion in an Expanding Europe.

Ecklund, EH, en JZ Park. 2007. Religious Diversity and Community Volunteerism Among Asian Americans. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46, no. 2: 233-244.

Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. 2007. Religion And Social Justice for Immigrants.

Jeung, R. 2005. Faithful Generations: Race and New Asian American Churches.

Kniss, F. L., en P. D. Numrich. 2007. Sacred Assemblies and Civic Engagement: How Religion Matters for America’s Newest Immigrants. Rutgers University Press.

Olupona, J. O. K., en R. Gemignani. 2007. African Immigrant Religions in America. New York University Press.

Thomas, William Isaac, en Florian Znaniecki. 1958. The Polish peasant in Europe and America,. New York: Dover Publications.