Daniel Andrew Birchok
Biographic Data
| ID | 124178 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Daniel Andrew Birchok |
| GIVEN NAMES | Daniel Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Birchok |
| SIGNATURE | BIRCHOK D A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan–Flint |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
“To Seunagan Seeking Has Spread”
In this essay, I explore accusations of heterodoxy, as well as rebuttals of these accusations, leveled at Sufi groups in late‐colonial and independent Aceh, the last region of what is today Indonesia to fall under Dutch colonial rule. What has been at stake in debates about the orthodoxy of such groups has not simply, or even primarily, been questions of proper belief or practice but concerns over historical and interpersonal relationships among …
Don't be so serious
Modes of play and playfulness are central to ethics, yet have not been as rigorously considered by anthropologists as have more earnest forms of ethical life. In this article, I argue that attention to play reframes recent anthropological debates about ethical transcendence and immanence. I do so through a consideration of the Islamic discourse of 'calculation' (ḥisāb), an idiom by which Muslims articulate their hoped-for state in the hereafter t…
Ridwan’s conversion
This article brings religious conversion and religious giving under one analytic lens in examining how ‘Ridwan’, a Chinese–Indonesian convert to Islam from the Indonesian province of Aceh, describes the process through which he became a Muslim. Ridwan frames his account of conversion in terms of religious giving, with special reference to Acehnese ritual feasts known as kandoeri. He draws attention to the way kandoeri giving constitutes a mode of…
Teungku Sum's dilemma
This article analyzes a dilemma faced by a young religious teacher in the Indonesian province of Aceh-namely, whether to continue teaching in an Islamic boarding school or to find more lucrative work elsewhere so that he can pursue a spouse. It argues that the way this teacher poses this dilemma as a choice between two mutually exclusive ethical goods makes visible an Islamic everyday constituted by different kinds and degrees of reflective aware…
Becoming Better Muslims
Women, Genealogical Inheritance and Sufi Authority
This article examines the case of two female saints who resided and are buried in the Indonesian region of Seunagan, in the province of Aceh. The entwined genealogy and Sufi lineage that links these women to the broader family of Sufis who constitute the major figures in Seunagan’s Syattariyah Sufi path is patrilineal. Nonetheless, some residents of Seunagan suggest that Seunagan’s two female saints are able to transmit preternatural powers to th…
Putting Habib Abdurrahim in His Place
In this paper I argue that the ways in which a genealogical idiom brings together multiple scales of space and time is as important to its social, political, or religious efficacy as the particular people, places, and events it incorporates. To illustrate this point, I turn to the unusual patrilineal genealogy of Habib Abdurrahim, a nineteenth-century descendant of the Prophet Muhammad buried in the Indonesian region of Seunagan. Since the late 1…
Women, Genealogical Inheritance and Sufi Authority
This article examines the case of two female saints who resided and are buried in the Indonesian region of Seunagan, in the province of Aceh. The entwined genealogy and Sufi lineage that links these women to the broader family of Sufis who constitute the major figures in Seunagan’s Syattariyah Sufi path is patrilineal. Nonetheless, some residents of Seunagan suggest that Seunagan’s two female saints are able to transmit preternatural powers to th…
Teungku Sum's dilemma
This article analyzes a dilemma faced by a young religious teacher in the Indonesian province of Aceh-namely, whether to continue teaching in an Islamic boarding school or to find more lucrative work elsewhere so that he can pursue a spouse. It argues that the way this teacher poses this dilemma as a choice between two mutually exclusive ethical goods makes visible an Islamic everyday constituted by different kinds and degrees of reflective aware…
Ridwan’s conversion
This article brings religious conversion and religious giving under one analytic lens in examining how ‘Ridwan’, a Chinese–Indonesian convert to Islam from the Indonesian province of Aceh, describes the process through which he became a Muslim. Ridwan frames his account of conversion in terms of religious giving, with special reference to Acehnese ritual feasts known as kandoeri. He draws attention to the way kandoeri giving constitutes a mode of…
Putting Habib Abdurrahim in His Place
In this paper I argue that the ways in which a genealogical idiom brings together multiple scales of space and time is as important to its social, political, or religious efficacy as the particular people, places, and events it incorporates. To illustrate this point, I turn to the unusual patrilineal genealogy of Habib Abdurrahim, a nineteenth-century descendant of the Prophet Muhammad buried in the Indonesian region of Seunagan. Since the late 1…
Don't be so serious
Modes of play and playfulness are central to ethics, yet have not been as rigorously considered by anthropologists as have more earnest forms of ethical life. In this article, I argue that attention to play reframes recent anthropological debates about ethical transcendence and immanence. I do so through a consideration of the Islamic discourse of 'calculation' (ḥisāb), an idiom by which Muslims articulate their hoped-for state in the hereafter t…
Putting Habib Abdurrahim in His Place
In this paper I argue that the ways in which a genealogical idiom brings together multiple scales of space and time is as important to its social, political, or religious efficacy as the particular people, places, and events it incorporates. To illustrate this point, I turn to the unusual patrilineal genealogy of Habib Abdurrahim, a nineteenth-century descendant of the Prophet Muhammad buried in the Indonesian region of Seunagan. Since the late 1…
Women, Genealogical Inheritance and Sufi Authority
This article examines the case of two female saints who resided and are buried in the Indonesian region of Seunagan, in the province of Aceh. The entwined genealogy and Sufi lineage that links these women to the broader family of Sufis who constitute the major figures in Seunagan’s Syattariyah Sufi path is patrilineal. Nonetheless, some residents of Seunagan suggest that Seunagan’s two female saints are able to transmit preternatural powers to th…
Becoming Better Muslims
Teungku Sum's dilemma
This article analyzes a dilemma faced by a young religious teacher in the Indonesian province of Aceh-namely, whether to continue teaching in an Islamic boarding school or to find more lucrative work elsewhere so that he can pursue a spouse. It argues that the way this teacher poses this dilemma as a choice between two mutually exclusive ethical goods makes visible an Islamic everyday constituted by different kinds and degrees of reflective aware…
Ridwan’s conversion
This article brings religious conversion and religious giving under one analytic lens in examining how ‘Ridwan’, a Chinese–Indonesian convert to Islam from the Indonesian province of Aceh, describes the process through which he became a Muslim. Ridwan frames his account of conversion in terms of religious giving, with special reference to Acehnese ritual feasts known as kandoeri. He draws attention to the way kandoeri giving constitutes a mode of…
Don't be so serious
Modes of play and playfulness are central to ethics, yet have not been as rigorously considered by anthropologists as have more earnest forms of ethical life. In this article, I argue that attention to play reframes recent anthropological debates about ethical transcendence and immanence. I do so through a consideration of the Islamic discourse of 'calculation' (ḥisāb), an idiom by which Muslims articulate their hoped-for state in the hereafter t…
“To Seunagan Seeking Has Spread”
In this essay, I explore accusations of heterodoxy, as well as rebuttals of these accusations, leveled at Sufi groups in late‐colonial and independent Aceh, the last region of what is today Indonesia to fall under Dutch colonial rule. What has been at stake in debates about the orthodoxy of such groups has not simply, or even primarily, been questions of proper belief or practice but concerns over historical and interpersonal relationships among …
Asian Studies and History (7 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Indonesian (5 works) · Islam (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Theology (3 works)