The Articulation of Religious Identities and their Boundaries in Ethiopia

Labelling Difference and Processes of Contextualization in Islam

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4789261
AutoresPatrick Desplat (0000-0002-3289-1552, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen35
Número4
Páginas482-505
Fecha de publicación2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/157006605774832171
OpenAlexW1964634219
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas12
Referencias citadas12

Processes of contextualization in Islam are constantly raising questions about self-perception and the 'other', thus challenging the concept of an 'authentic' identity and its boundaries. Innovations and their appropriation or rejection currently play a significant role in Harar, an urban community in Eastern Ethiopia where local saints constitute a key element of everyday religious life. Islamic reform movements have been able to enter Ethiopia since the downfall of the socialist regime in 1991 and have been provoking disputes concerning the 'true' Islam, focusing on saints and related 'un-Islamic' practices. The majority of the Harar community has rejected this essentializing tendency, partly because of the influence of a Harari scholar who presides over the Lebanese organization Hasbashiyya. However, the contemporary role of religious networks and the quest for authenticity must be embedded in both the historical and contemporary socio-political context

Aesthetics · Appropriation · Articulation (sociology) · Context (archaeology) · Contextualization · Epistemology · Identity (music) · Interpretation (philosophy) · Islam · Muslim community · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · African history and culture analysis · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Religion, Society, and Development