Religion in second life

Second Life is one of a growing number of virtual worlds in which you can log on, create a personality, and engage in all kinds of activities from working at an office, to shopping, to having sex and so on. Contrary to many people I have not joined Second Life yet. It would be interesting for anthropoligists to join Second Life and do some virtual research there. Some major questions are for example: Do virtual worlds offer a space of liberation in which people can be ‘authentic,’ then they were before? Is is deep involvement with these virtual worlds an unhealthy addiction that ruins your offline social network? What are the similarities and differences between online and offline social networks? How do the structure and design of virtual worlds affect the societies and cultural mores that emerge in them? What role do identity politics play in the creation and building up of online societies and cultural communities? How is a (cultural) sense of the Self shaped online? How do you learn ‘to be or not to be’ in this virtual world?
One of the main themes that would interest me of course is the creation and expansion of religion and the identity politics of the people concerned. AnarchoAkbar has some very interesting entries on this one and I believe he is preparing a Ph.D research application in order to make Second Life a theme of his research.

In his snapshots he provides several examples of religion in Second life such as a mosque under construction, a Buddhist site (Buddhism seems to have a very prominent presence over there at SL), a synagogue and several churches (Christianity seems dominant). Although not strictly related to religion (mind that it is in many debates) is the question of Darfur and AnarchoAkbar shows that there is room for that too in SL.

Since I’m not at SL, for more questions I should probably refer you to Tom Bukowski (SL avatar):

In this virtual world, my avatar (Tom Bukowski) has an office, “Ethnographia,” which you can visit within Second Life (it is located in Dowden). As Tom Bukowski, I study cybersociality in Second Life using participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and the analysis of texts ranging from newsletters to blogs. A key element of my approach is thus to pair the study of virtual worlds with “traditional” ethnographic methods, paying attention to moments of breakdown when the social relations of the virtual world in question resist ethnographic interpretation as generally understood.

Have fun and interesting times over there!