The Articulation of Religious Identities and their Boundaries in Ethiopia

Labelling Difference and Processes of Contextualization in Islam

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4789261
AutoresPatrick Desplat (0000-0002-3289-1552, autor correspondente)
Ano2005
Volume35
Fascículo4
Páginas482-505
Data de publicação2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
EditoraWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/157006605774832171
OpenAlexW1964634219
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12
Referências 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