Product Description

Opening with the provocative query "what might an anthropology of the secular look like?" this work explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities in the modern West and Middle East. It proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. It argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the "strangeness of the non-European world", and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life, the modern and secular have not been examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the irrational. This work should appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #263430 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Review
""Formations of the Secular" is also a difficult if stunningly eloquent book, a response both elusive and forthright to the many shelves of 'books on terrorism' which this country's trade publishers are rushing into print."--"Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature"