Magic is science
Atheist conjuring and the exposure of superstition in South India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2227138 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Binder (0000-0002-2897-446X, University of Göttingen, corresponding author), Stefan Binder (0000-0003-0037-2640) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 284-298 |
| Publication date | 2019-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Hau Journal of Ethnographic Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2049-1115 • E-ISSN: 2575-1433 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/705467 |
| OpenAlex | W2987705750 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 30 |
This article examines so-called Miracle Exposure Programs conducted by Atheist activists in South India as a performance of secular difference. It retraces how activists use the sociopsychological properties of conjuring for performing an Atheist epistemology of the production, maintenance, and eradication of "superstition." In debunking miracles as magic tricks, Atheist conjurers consistently emphasize the importance of immoral social relationships and abuses of differential knowledge rather than questions of ontology. In contrast to the large body of anthropological theorizing on magic, the article's main focus is the aesthetic production of secularity and secular difference. Pushing beyond the critical discourse on secular disenchantment as itself productive of magic and reenchantment, I propose to understand practices of "exposure" as an aesthetic form that enacts a reflexive distance from both magic and reenchantment insomuch as it makes their sociopsychological nature the object of performative display and sensible perception
Aesthetics · Disenchantment · Epistemology · MAGIC (telescope · Miracle · Political science · Secularity · Sociology · Superstition · Theology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
Aesthetic Formations
The absence of the divineRejoinder to Willerslev, Rane, and Christian Suhr. 2018. “Is there a place for faith in anthropology? Religion, reason, and the ethnographer’s divine revelation.” Hau
More Than Belief
Godless People, Doubt, and Atheism
The Myth of Disenchantment
Disenchanting IndiaOrganized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India
Aesthetics of Religion
The social world of magicians
Net of Magic. Wonders and Deceptions in India
Being a Nonbeliever in a Time of Islamic Revival
Nehruvian Science and Postcolonial India
The didactic death
Glancing
The coffin question
Sathya Sai Baba's Magic
Technology and Magic
Toward a Social Psychology of Entertainment Magic (Conjuring)
Viscerality, faith, and skepticism
"Radical alterity is just another way of saying "reality
Is conversion a 'colonization of consciousness
Doubtful Illusions
Magic With a Message
Is There a Secular Body
Comedians, Pastors, and the Miraculous Agency of Charisma in Ghana
Speculative Matter
Is there a place for faith in anthropology? Religion, reason, and the ethnographer's divine revelation
Gods, Germs, and Petri Dishes
Skillful Revelation
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |