Raphael Wälterlin | University of Basel, Switzerland (original) (raw)

Drafts by Raphael Wälterlin

Who did and does claim to know and represent West African Islam? Who claims to have authority of ... more Who did and does claim to know and represent West African Islam? Who claims to have authority of representation and based on what justification? What kind of Islamic reformist movements have emerged in the West African landscape and specifically in Burkina Faso and Mali? And how do they conceive of themselves and their understanding of an orthodox and normative Islam?
Discursive formations provided by Islamic reformist movements, social anthropology and former colonial authorities seem to have influenced each other, because each of these entities – throughout the history of the last two centuries – has claimed to know and/or represent West African Islam to differing degrees.
That Islam has been part of West African societies for many centuries is historically attested. However, as both M. Saul and K. Langewiesche have shown, within colonial discourse and the anthropological study of West African religion in the 20th century, focus has often been laid on indigenous religion, considering everything Islamic rather secondary or syncretistic. Genuine West African religion, the story goes, can only be indigenous. "Islam noir" is at best a "soft" and watered- down version of orthodox Islam. A similar discursive strategy can be observed with regard to certain Islamic reformist movements, noteably those that have been calling for a "purified" Islam and that have been influenced by Wahhabiyya ideals.
With regard to both Burkina Faso and Mali, the articles by Idrissa and Schulz allow for a comparison of the the interplay between a colonial ideology, social anthropology and different Islamic movements and actors.

Positioning himself as devout Muslim, a West African marabout might nonetheless resort to practic... more Positioning himself as devout Muslim, a West African marabout might nonetheless resort to practices that have no evident connection to the religion of Islam. Members of Giriama society in coastal Kenya are mostly adherents of traditional indigenous religion, yet they also sacrifice to Muslim spirits and make use of Islamic codes of ritual.
In social anthropology, such examples have often been labelled "syncretistic". Syncretism as a concept within the social sciences, however, reveals a problematic history due to its essentially normative nature, which is why it has been contested and neglected by many scholars. Anthropologists such as R. Stewart, on the contrary, demand us to rethink the concept as to be able to address different facets of religious mixture and cultural mixture in general.
How does the concept of syncretism speak to the social fact of religious mixture as illustrated by these two examples above? How can the use of this concept be justified if its historical and semantic structure seems to be grounded in a normative agenda? In what form can it be reconceptualized and made useful for contemporary social anthropology? And what might be the advantages of substituting syncretism with alternative concepts such as hybridity, creolization or bricolage?

Paradigm shifts such as the interpretive or the literary turn have emphasized the impact and role... more Paradigm shifts such as the interpretive or the literary turn have emphasized the impact and role of the ethnographic self and the value and need for a reflexive performativity with regard to how this self is negotiated in and beyond the field, namely in ethnographic writing.
At the same time, postmodernism has come to deconstruct myths concerning "objective" or "substantial" truth. Truth is no longer singular and factual, it has become relativized, contextualized and embodied to constitute multiple and competing truths. Likewise, relational identities have come to replace an apparently linear and static self, for example leading to Bourdieu's "illusion of biography".
What relevance does such an apparent area of conflict have for contemporary anthropological research, on the one hand acknowledging and pleading for the importance of self, on the other hand presuming its ongoing de- and reconstruction? What does it mean for the identity and position(ality) of the researcher and her engagement with other selves? And how might a novel approach such as autoethnography contribute to this tension?

Who did and does claim to know and represent West African Islam? Who claims to have authority of ... more Who did and does claim to know and represent West African Islam? Who claims to have authority of representation and based on what justification? What kind of Islamic reformist movements have emerged in the West African landscape and specifically in Burkina Faso and Mali? And how do they conceive of themselves and their understanding of an orthodox and normative Islam?
Discursive formations provided by Islamic reformist movements, social anthropology and former colonial authorities seem to have influenced each other, because each of these entities – throughout the history of the last two centuries – has claimed to know and/or represent West African Islam to differing degrees.
That Islam has been part of West African societies for many centuries is historically attested. However, as both M. Saul and K. Langewiesche have shown, within colonial discourse and the anthropological study of West African religion in the 20th century, focus has often been laid on indigenous religion, considering everything Islamic rather secondary or syncretistic. Genuine West African religion, the story goes, can only be indigenous. "Islam noir" is at best a "soft" and watered- down version of orthodox Islam. A similar discursive strategy can be observed with regard to certain Islamic reformist movements, noteably those that have been calling for a "purified" Islam and that have been influenced by Wahhabiyya ideals.
With regard to both Burkina Faso and Mali, the articles by Idrissa and Schulz allow for a comparison of the the interplay between a colonial ideology, social anthropology and different Islamic movements and actors.

Positioning himself as devout Muslim, a West African marabout might nonetheless resort to practic... more Positioning himself as devout Muslim, a West African marabout might nonetheless resort to practices that have no evident connection to the religion of Islam. Members of Giriama society in coastal Kenya are mostly adherents of traditional indigenous religion, yet they also sacrifice to Muslim spirits and make use of Islamic codes of ritual.
In social anthropology, such examples have often been labelled "syncretistic". Syncretism as a concept within the social sciences, however, reveals a problematic history due to its essentially normative nature, which is why it has been contested and neglected by many scholars. Anthropologists such as R. Stewart, on the contrary, demand us to rethink the concept as to be able to address different facets of religious mixture and cultural mixture in general.
How does the concept of syncretism speak to the social fact of religious mixture as illustrated by these two examples above? How can the use of this concept be justified if its historical and semantic structure seems to be grounded in a normative agenda? In what form can it be reconceptualized and made useful for contemporary social anthropology? And what might be the advantages of substituting syncretism with alternative concepts such as hybridity, creolization or bricolage?

Paradigm shifts such as the interpretive or the literary turn have emphasized the impact and role... more Paradigm shifts such as the interpretive or the literary turn have emphasized the impact and role of the ethnographic self and the value and need for a reflexive performativity with regard to how this self is negotiated in and beyond the field, namely in ethnographic writing.
At the same time, postmodernism has come to deconstruct myths concerning "objective" or "substantial" truth. Truth is no longer singular and factual, it has become relativized, contextualized and embodied to constitute multiple and competing truths. Likewise, relational identities have come to replace an apparently linear and static self, for example leading to Bourdieu's "illusion of biography".
What relevance does such an apparent area of conflict have for contemporary anthropological research, on the one hand acknowledging and pleading for the importance of self, on the other hand presuming its ongoing de- and reconstruction? What does it mean for the identity and position(ality) of the researcher and her engagement with other selves? And how might a novel approach such as autoethnography contribute to this tension?