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Secular, Secularization, and Secularism a Review Article 578 Berichte und Kommentare 2006 The Role of the Extrapersonal Brain Systems in Religious 2001 Alternative and Traditional Medicine Approaches for Activity. Consciousness and Cognition 15: 500–539. Substance Abuse Programs. A Shamanic Approach. In- 2009 The Dopaminergic Mind in Human Evolution and His- ternational Journal of Drug Policy 12/4: 337–351. tory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2002a Shamanism and Cognitive Evolution (with Comments). Cambridge Archaeological Journal 12: 71–101. Rapgay, Lobsang, Ven. Lati Rinpoche, and Rhonda Jessum 2002b Shamanism as Neurotheology and Evolutionary Psychol- 2000 Exploring the Nature and Functions of the Mind. A Ti- ogy. American Behavioral Scientist 45/12: 1873–1885. betan Buddhist Meditative Perspective. Progress in Brain 2004 Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology. Zygon: Jour- Research 122: 507–515. nal of Religion & Science 39: 193–217. Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo 1960 Notas etnográficas sobre los indios del Chocó. Revista Colombiana de Antropología 9: 73–158. Renfrew, Colin, and Iain Morley (eds.) 2009 Becoming Human. Innovation in Prehistoric Material and Spiritual Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge Universi- ty Press. Saah, Tammy Secular, Secularization, and Secularism 2005 The Evolutionary Origins and Significance of Drug Ad- diction. Harm Reduction Journal 2: 8. A Review Article Saniotis, Arthur 2001 Mystical Styles of Expression among North Indian Faqir. Andrzej Bronk Nara as a Manifestation of Hukm. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 12: 355–366. 2002 Sacred Worlds. An Analysis of Mystical Mastery of North Indian Faqirs. Adelaide. [PhD Thesis, University of Ad- Secularism is still a popular topic in social scienc- elaide, Dept. of Anthropology] es and religious studies, discussed at many confer- Solecki, Ralph S. ences and the title of many books. But the word 1971 Shanidar, the First Flower People. New York: Knopf. itself and associated words “secular” and “secular- Stedman, Thomas L. ization” remain ambiguous, having a lot of oppo- 1982 Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Baltimore: Williams and site and excluding meanings. So-called resurgence Wilkins. [24th ed.] of religion in the public sphere has elicited a wide Stiles, Daniel array of reactions and a vehement opposition to the 1991 Early Hominid Behaviour and Culture Tradition. Raw very idea that religious reasons should ever have a Material Studies in Bed II, Olduvai Gorge. The African right to expression in public political debate. The Archaeological Review 9: 1–19. collection of 13 essays, “Rethinking Secularism,” Strassman, Rick J. edited by Craig Calhoun, Mark Juer gens meyer, and 1984 Adverse Reactions to Psychedelic Drugs. A Review of Jonathan VanAntwerpen,1 is a new attempt to re- the Literature. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 172/10: 577–595. think the confusions about these categories, espe- cially of the binary secular/religious, and a scrutiny Tobias, Phillip V. 1971 The Brain in Hominid Evolution. New York: Columbia of the phenomenon of secularism itself in its many University Press. diverse manifestations in the contemporary global- Wasson, R. Gordon, Albert Hofmann, and Carl A. P. Ruck ized and pluralized world. The volume is the effect 1978 The Road to Eleusis. Unveiling the Secret of the Myster- of an interdisciplinary, multiyear project, sponsored ies. NewYork: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Ethno-Myth- by the Social Science Research Council (its presi- ological Studies, 4) dent is Calhoun), where prominent, leading scholars Wink, Michael – coming from sociology, political science, anthro- 1998 A Short History of Alkaloids. In: M. F. Roberts, and pology, international affairs, as well from history, M. Wink (eds.), Alkaloids. Biochemistry, Ecology, and literature, and religious studies – have collaborated Medicinal Applications; pp. 11–44. New York: Plenum Press. in a reconsideration from many perspectives of sec- ularism and secularity in the context of contempo- Winkelman, Michael J. rary global politics and transnational social change. 1996 Psychointegrator Plants. Their Roles in Human Cul- ture, Consciousness, and Health. In: M. Winkelman, and Their aim was to take stock of the ongoing research W. Andritsky (eds.), Sacred Plants, Consciousness, and on multiple forms of secularism, and to reframe dis- Healing. Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Perspec- tives; pp. 9–53. Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bil- dung. (Yearbook of Cross-Cultural Medicine and Psycho- 1 Calhoun, Craig, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAn- therapy, 6) twerpen (eds.), Rethinking Secularism. Oxford: Oxford Uni- 2000 Shamanism. The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and versity Press, 2011. 311 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-979668-7. Price: Healing. Westport: Bergin and Garvey. £ 12.79. Anthropos 107.2012 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2012-2-578 Generiert durch IP '170.106.40.139', am 28.09.2021, 14:06:21. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. Berichte und Kommentare 579 cussions of religion in the social sciences by draw- international affairs? It seems obvious for them that ing attention to the central issue of how “the secular” even if people around the world use the same cat- is constituted and understood, and to how new un- egory of religion, they actually mean very different derstandings of both religion and secularism shape things. At the same time, the very fact that this cat- perspectives in the social sciences and various prac- egory is being used globally testifies to the global tical projects in politics and international affairs. expansion of the modern secular/religious system Identifying themselves as social scientists, the of classification of reality that first emerged in the authors start with questioning the validity of the tra- modern Christian West. Therefore, Juer gens meyer ditional (European) category of religion and secular suggests to think of the elusive term “religion” in and, at the same time, try to dismantle the secular- two senses: Enlightenment and non-Enlightenment ization thesis or give to it a more appropriate mean- ways of thinking. The first view is the narrow idea ing. J. Casanova (“Public Religions in the Modern of religious institutions and beliefs contrasted with World,” 1994) suggests for instance, that the three secular social values in the modern West, the other, propositions of the secularization thesis – the decline a broad one, involves moral values, traditional cus- of religious beliefs, the privatization of religion, and toms, and publically articulated spiritual sensibility. the differentiation of secular spheres and their eman- The notion of religion as somehow private, which cipation from religion – should be looked at sepa- has informed the modern era, is misleading as reli- rately to get away from the till now dominant stereo- gion simply was never in every sense private. All the types. In the spirit of Enlightenment, religion is still more because the question is, how, where, and by identified conventionally with the supernatural, the whom the proper boundaries between the religious irrational, and the outdated, and the secular is posit- and the secular ought to be drawn? The same applies ed in relationship to science, reason, and modernity. to the binaries: natural/supernatural, sacred/profane, “Rethinking Secularism” is thought of as a con- transcendent/immanent, private/public, premodern/ tribution to the remapping of secularism and simul- modern, and illiberal/liberal, “City of God” / “City taneously an answer to the practical question of how of Man,” spiritual/temporal, which remain ambig- the politicians could deal with the growing religious uous and flexible. Imposing them on the contem- diversity in secular societies. As Casanova notices, porary social processes in a simplistic way gives a there is a paradox, that at the same time the scholars distorted view of the world politics and misses and of religion are questioning the validity of the cate- misconstrues some of the most significant political gory of religion (and the theory of secularization it- developments of our time. self), the reality of religion is more widespread than To speak of Western modernity as secular can ever and became an undisputable global social fact. among others mean: distinction of church and state, He himself believes that any discussion of secular- separation of church and state, and, finally, side- ization should start with the reflection on the global lining of religion from the state and from public life trends where the globalization of the category of re- (Taylor), the separation of religion from public life, ligion and the binary classification of reality in reli- the decline of religious belief (in God), and prac- gious/secular are seen as a decisive factor. So seen, tice among ordinary people, as what is left after re- the volume is conceived as an introduction to some ligion fades, the neutrality of the state with regard of the most compelling new conceptual and theo- to religious beliefs and especially to the church. In retical understandings of secularism and the secular, the secularist ideology the secular is claimed not while also examining sociopolitical trends, involv- just as one way of organizing life, not just as use- ing the relationship between the religious and the ful in order to ensure peace and harmony among secular from a variety of locations across the globe. different religions, but as a kind of maturation be- The scholars raise fundamental questions about cause of being devoid of religion. Similarly, there secularism
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