Personal Knowledge and Beyond: Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion [Paperback]

Jim Spickard (Editor), Shawn Landres (Editor), Meredith B. McGuire (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0814798039 | ISBN-13: 978-0814798034

Over the last decade the sociology of religion and religious studies have experienced a surge of ethnographic research. Scholars now use ethnography, as anthropologists have long done, as a valued source of knowledge from which they draw their pictures of the religious world.

Yet, many researchers of religion have yet to grapple with the issues that are changing anthropologists' use of the method. Personal Knowledge and Beyond seeks to foster a cross-disciplinary rethinking of ethnography's possibilities and limits for the study of religions. It provides an overview of recent debates while also pushing them in new directions. In addition, it offers critiques of some of anthropology's reigning conceptualizations.

The volume brings together many of the best-known ethnographic researchers of religion, including Karen McCarthy Brown, Lynn Davidman, Armin Geertz, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Mary Jo Neitz, and Thomas Tweed. Together, they share substantively from their fieldwork and consider the consequences for the study of religion of rejecting old ethnographic myths, as well as the risks of replacing them with new ones. The volume will be of interest to students as well as to experienced scholars in the field.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Religion seems to be everywhere and nowhere in contemporary social science theorizing. This collection of essays puts religion back where it has belonged since the beginnings of social theory: at the center of debate and, moreover, a debate grounded in concrete ethnography tempered by cogent reflection on the ethnographic process."

-Thomas J. Csordas,President, Society for the Anthropology of Religion and author of Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self

"This bold and provocative book of essays pushes ethnography to a new frontier as seasoned social scientists of religion describe how their personal biographies intersect with their research. . . . These essays challenge us to rethink the ethnographic study of religion. Both field researchers and those who teach methods will find this book a gem."

-Helen Rose Ebaugh,Former President, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and coeditor of Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations

"I would recommend this book to anyone contemplating the study of religion using interviews and/or participant observations."

-Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,

"This is a rich collection in every sense of the word. It is rich in ideas, in examples, and in approaches. . . . Beautifully written and impeccably edited."

-Journal of Contemporary Religion,

"This is a timely book on the actual doing of ethnography, and how doing ethnography of religion demands specific attentiveness, not least to the transformations undergone by the observer herself."

-Journal of Religion,

About the Author

James V. Spickard is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Redlands.

J. Shawn Landres is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and in social anthropology at Oxford University.

Meredith B. McGuire is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Trinity University. She is the author o

Meredith B. McGuire is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Trinity University. She is the author or coauthor of several books, including Religion: The Social Context and Ritual Healing in Suburban America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814798039
• ISBN-13: 978-0814798034
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,292,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate collection, March 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Personal Knowledge and Beyond (Hardcover)

Spickard, Landres, and McGuire have assembled a first-rate collection of essays. The collection brings together not only some of the best-known ethnographic researchers in the study of religion, but some of the most relective and reflexive as well. Chapters are thoughtfully written, theoretically sophisticated, refreshingly candid, and are notable both for what they reveal of the fieldwork experience and what they reveal of their authors. PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE AND BEYOND constitutes a landmark volume in the ethnographic study of religion. It will be of great interest to students and specialists alike. Stephen D. Glazier, Professor of Anthropology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln in RELIGION: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, volume 33, number 1(2003).