39 research outputs found
A Mixed Blessing: Market-Mediated Religious Authority in Neopaganism
This research explores how marketplace dynamics affect religious authority in the context of Neopagan religion. Drawing on an interpretivist study of Wiccan practitioners in Italy, we reveal that engagement with the market may cause considerable, ongoing tensions, based on the inherent contradictions that are perceived to exist between spirituality and commercial gain. As a result, market success is a mixed blessing that can increase religious authority and influence, but is just as likely to decrease authority and credibility. Using an extended case study method, we propose a theoretical framework that depicts the links between our informantsâ situated experiences and the macro-level factors affecting religious authority as it interacts with market-mediated dynamics at the global level. Overall, our study extends previous work in macromarketing that has looked at religious authority in the marketplace) and how the processes of globalization are affecting religion
An Uncertain Dominion: Irish Psychiatry, Methadone, and the Treatment of Opiate Abuse
This paper investigates some productive ambiguities around the medical
administration of methadone in the Republic of Ireland. The tensions surrounding
methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) are outlined, as well as the sociohistorical
context in which a serious heroin addiction problem in Ireland developed. Irish
psychiatry intervened in this situation, during a time of institutional change, debates
concerning the nature of addiction, moral panics concerning heroin addiction in
Irish society and the recent boom in the Irish economy, known popularly as the
Celtic Tiger. A particular history of this sort illuminates how technologies like
MMT become cosmopolitan, settling into, while changing, local contexts
Persuasive Ritual : the Role of the Imagination in occult Witchcraft / Les Rites de persuasion : le rĂŽle de l'imagination dans la magie noire
Luhrmann Tanya M. Persuasive Ritual : the Role of the Imagination in occult Witchcraft / Les Rites de persuasion : le rÎle de l'imagination dans la magie noire. In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°60/1, 1985. pp. 151-170
Kindling God
The article shows that spiritual experiences, whether sensory or supernatural, are not just triggered or learnt, they occur as part of a âkindlingâ pattern: events are habituated for individuals and depend on peopleâs reactivity as well as on social expectations. Supernatural experiences are events that not everyone has, they do not behave as discrete phenomena; instead they tend to occur more in relation to one another, like syndromes. Although constrained, some of these events are habituated for the group as well as for the individual. Cultural learning is not sufficient to explain the patterning of spiritual experience
Allumer le Dieu
Lâarticle montre que les expĂ©riences spirituelles, quâelles soient de type sensoriel ou paranormal, ne sont pas simplement dĂ©clenchĂ©es ou apprises, mais quâelles participent dâun « embrasement » : les Ă©vĂ©nements font lâobjet dâune habituation qui dĂ©pend Ă la fois de la rĂ©activitĂ© de lâindividu et de lâimportance que leur accorde la sociĂ©tĂ©. Tout le monde ne fait pas dâexpĂ©riences paranormales. Les Ă©vĂ©nements en question ne sont pas des phĂ©nomĂšnes discrets : ils ont tendance Ă survenir en lien les uns avec les autres. Certains dâentre eux font lâobjet dâune habituation tant au niveau du groupe que de lâindividu, tout en Ă©tant contraints. Lâapprentissage social ne suffit pas Ă expliquer la configuration de ces expĂ©riences
RenaĂźtre
Il semble dĂ©sormais que naĂźtre ne suffise plus, quâil faille renaĂźtre de maniĂšre rĂ©pĂ©tĂ©e, comme si Ă la vieille quĂȘte de lâimmortalitĂ© avait succĂ©dĂ© celle dâun sentiment perpĂ©tuel de nouveau dĂ©part. Cette obsession se traduit par un marchĂ© du rebirth, des diffĂ©rentes chapelles de la ritualitĂ© New Age, de la thĂ©rapie ou du dĂ©veloppement personnel Ă lâextraordinaire succĂšs des Ă©glises Ă©vangĂ©liques proposant, aux quatre coins du globe, de devenir born again. Ce dossier Ă©claire le dĂ©sir contemporain de renaĂźtre Ă la lumiĂšre de ses avatars passĂ©s et prĂ©sents, de lâinitiation Ă la rĂ©incarnation, en passant par le spiritisme ou la rĂ©surrection