On the ‘Impossibility’ of Atheism in Secular India

This chapter examines two cinematic representations of atheism in Bollywood cinema and probes the precarious location of atheism as an ‘impossibility’ within the framework of religious nationalism and state secularism as two interrelated aspects of Indian nationalism. The historical genesis of secularism as a political principle in India is conceptually closely entwined with religious nationalism in so far as it tends to take the religious or spiritual nature of the Indian nation for granted. While public and academic debates tend to focus on the relationship between majoritarian Hindu nationalism and various religious minorities, atheists and those who are explicitly irreligious are often ignored or considered to be too few to deserve closer attention. On the basis of popular cinematic representations of atheism and ethnographic observations among atheists in South India, this chapter argues that atheism is not ejected from the imagined community of the Indian nation but marginalized as a discursive position that may be acceptable or even desirable within limits, but ultimately impossible as a viable practical project and social identity

Magic is science: Atheist conjuring and the exposure of superstition in South India

This article examines so-called Miracle Exposure Programs conducted by Atheist activists in South India as a performance of secular difference. It retraces how activists use the sociopsychological properties of conjuring for performing an Atheist epistemology of the production, maintenance, and eradication of “superstition.” In debunking miracles as magic tricks, Atheist conjurers consistently emphasize the importance of immoral social relationships and abuses of differential knowledge rather than questions of ontology. In contrast to the large body of anthropological theorizing on magic, the article’s main focus is the aesthetic production of secularity and secular difference. Pushing beyond the critical discourse on secular disenchantment as itself productive of magic and reenchantment, I propose to understand practices of “exposure” as an aesthetic form that enacts a reflexive distance from both magic and reenchantment insomuch as it makes their sociopsychological nature the object of performative display and sensible perception

The red fluorescent protein eqFP611: application in subcellular localization studies in higher plants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intrinsically fluorescent proteins have revolutionized studies in molecular cell biology. The parallel application of these proteins in dual- or multilabeling experiments such as subcellular localization studies requires non-overlapping emission spectra for unambiguous detection of each label. In the red spectral range, almost exclusively DsRed and derivatives thereof are used today. To test the suitability of the red fluorescent protein eqFP611 as an alternative in higher plants, the behavior of this protein was analyzed in terms of expression, subcellular targeting and compatibility with GFP in tobacco.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When expressed transiently in tobacco protoplasts, eqFP611 accumulated over night to levels easily detectable by fluorescence microscopy. The native protein was found in the nucleus and in the cytosol and no detrimental effects on cell viability were observed. When fused to N-terminal mitochondrial and peroxisomal targeting sequences, the red fluorescence was located exclusively in the corresponding organelles in transfected protoplasts. Upon co-expression with GFP in the same cells, fluorescence of both eqFP611 and GFP could be easily distinguished, demonstrating the potential of eqFP611 in dual-labeling experiments with GFP. A series of plasmids was constructed for expression of eqFP611 in plants and for simultaneous expression of this fluorescent protein together with GFP. Transgenic tobacco plants constitutively expressing mitochondrially targeted eqFP611 were generated. The red fluorescence was stably transmitted to the following generations, making these plants a convenient source for protoplasts containing an internal marker for mitochondria.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In plants, eqFP611 is a suitable fluorescent reporter protein. The unmodified protein can be expressed to levels easily detectable by epifluorescence microscopy without adverse affect on the viability of plant cells. Its subcellular localization can be manipulated by N-terminal signal sequences. eqFP611 and GFP are fully compatible in dual-labeling experiments.</p

Holistic Medicine between Religion and Science

A particular formation can be observed in the discourse of spiritual healing and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Explanations of the effectiveness of spiritual healing by medical doctors and psychologists sometimes include ideological and non-scientific conclusions and concepts, which are similar to but also different from New Age science on healing. With discourse analysis discursive nodes and strategies are identified in international medical and psychological research journals at the boundary of CAM, traditional medicine, and psychosomatics from the last decade. The article develops the category of secularism to describe these propositional formations and contributes to the larger debate of postsecular societies. Postsecularism not only puts public religion but also secularisms back on the agenda. This particular secularism in the field of spiritual healing is based on transfers of knowledge and practices between subareas of a functionally differentiated society: esoteric and scientific cultural models shift into medicine, and continue into the area of health care and healing. The article demonstrates how this secularism gathers around key concepts such as emergence, quantum physics, and physicalism, and is engaged in a permanent boundary work between conventional and alternative medicine, which is governed by the notion of holistic healing

Holistic Medicine between Religion and Science

A particular formation can be observed in the discourse of spiritual healing and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Explanations of the effectiveness of spiritual healing by medical doctors and psychologists sometimes include ideological and non-scientific conclusions and concepts, which are similar to but also different from New Age science on healing. With discourse analysis discursive nodes and strategies are identified in international medical and psychological research journals at the boundary of CAM, traditional medicine, and psychosomatics from the last decade. The article develops the category of secularism to describe these propositional formations and contributes to the larger debate of postsecular societies. Postsecularism not only puts public religion but also secularisms back on the agenda. This particular secularism in the field of spiritual healing is based on transfers of knowledge and practices between subareas of a functionally differentiated society: esoteric and scientific cultural models shift into medicine, and continue into the area of health care and healing. The article demonstrates how this secularism gathers around key concepts such as emergence, quantum physics, and physicalism, and is engaged in a permanent boundary work between conventional and alternative medicine, which is governed by the notion of holistic healing

Introduction

This introduction engages with recent scholarship on what has been dubbed ‘lived’ forms of nonreligion. It aims to profile the anthropology of the secular and nonreligion, no longer treating it as a subdiscipline or ‘emerging trend’ but as a substantial contribution to general debates in anthropology. Drawing on the ethnographic contributions to this special issue, we explore how novel approaches to embodiment, materiality, moral sensibilities, conceptual distinctions, and everyday practices signal new pathways for an anthropology of nonreligion that can lead beyond hitherto dominant concerns with the political governance of religion(s). Critically engaging with the notion of ‘lived’ nonreligion, we highlight the potential of ethnographic approaches to provide a uniquely anthropological perspective on secularism, irreligion, atheism, skepticism, and related phenomena