THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ISLAM

This course centers on the constantly changing ambivalent everyday lived realities, experiences, interpretations as well as the multiple meanings of Islam and focuses less on the study of Islam as a discursive tradition. Furthermore, the course challenges stereotypes of Islam, and of people who one way or another can be called Muslims; most often perceived as a homogenous category through which all Muslim societies are imagined. The course is divided into six parts. The first part introduces the idea of “anthropology of Islam” through different readings in anthropology and various, experiences, practices, dimensions of Islam as a relationship between humans and God. In the second part, the focus is to listen to Islam and connect the different sonic bodies of Islam to power and politics. The third part interrogates preconceived ideas about Islam, gender, feminism, and agency. The fourth part studies Islam, body, sexuality and eroticism. The fifth part is concerned with Islam, youth culture, identity, belonging and rebellion. The last part critically analyzes Islam, modernity, orientalism, post-colonialism and not least today’s fear and notion of imagined enemies.