This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishi... more This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishing a relationship between two or more ‘things’ to thereby bring into view differences and similarities. Such acts of comparison are essential for people to make sense of and orient themselves in the world, while at the same time they will be affected (and constrained) by the comparative work of others. The chapter argues that the cross-cultural study of comparison offers insight into several important analytical topics. It does so, first, by showing how comparison is associated with a range of epistemic techniques (e.g. generalizing, contrasting, juxtaposing, ranking, translating), which are variously employed, with greater and lesser intensity, by those who compare. It then builds on this variation to show how acts of comparison may strengthen hegemonic structures, and how they may destabilize them. By teasing out the kinds of relationships that are brought into being by the act of comparing, the chapter draws attention to how comparison affects the integrity of both the comparer and the compared. This goes some way to explain why comparisons can be a powerful tool of governance as well as why it may be vehemently resisted by those who are compared.
Ethnographically rooted in the everyday life of a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, Frag... more Ethnographically rooted in the everyday life of a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, Fragile Conviction shows how residents have dealt with the existential and epistemic crises that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Residents became enchanted by the truths of Muslim and Christian missionaries, embraced the teachings of neoliberal and nationalist ideologues, and were riveted by the visions of shamanic healers. But no matter how much enthusiasm and hope these various ideas engendered at first, the commitment to any of them rarely lasted very long.
Theoretically, the book explores the inverse relationship between the tenacity and the effervescence of collective ideas, between their strength to persist and their ability to trigger committed action. Introducing the concept of pulsation, Fragile Conviction argues that ideational power must be understood in relation to three aspects: the voicing of the idea, its tension with everyday reality, and its reverberation within groups of listeners. The conclusion that the power of conviction is rooted in the instability of sociocultural contexts is a message that has relevance far beyond urban Central Asia.
Religious and secular convictions have powerful effects, but their foundations are often surprisi... more Religious and secular convictions have powerful effects, but their foundations are often surprisingly fragile. New converts often come across as stringent believers precisely because they need to dispel their own lingering doubts, while revolutionary movements survive only through the denial of ambiguity. This book shows that a focus on uncertainty and doubt is indispensable for grasping the role of ideas in social action. By studying everyday doubt, this book unravels the mechanisms by which convictions gain and lose their force, and analyses the dynamics that propel loosely held ideas into committed action. Drawing on a wide range of cases, from spirit mediums in Taiwan to Maoist revolutionaries in India, and from Old Believers in Romania to ethnic strife in Central Asia, the authors analyse the ways in which doubt is overcome and, conversely, how belief systems collapse. In doing so, Ethnographies of Doubt provides important insights into the cycles of faith, hope, conviction and disillusion that are intrinsic to the human condition.
This collection of studies by social anthropologists describes the complex and often controversia... more This collection of studies by social anthropologists describes the complex and often controversial processes of religious change occurring in the postsocialist world. By critically examining the influx of missionaries, the adoption of ‘new’ faiths, and the reactions to these unanticipated shifts in religious landscape, the authors offer valuable insight into the fate of state supported secularism as well as providing fresh critiques of anthropological studies of conversion.
"This book describes how people construct identity in the rapidly changing Georgian-Turkish borde... more "This book describes how people construct identity in the rapidly changing Georgian-Turkish border region. Based on extensive ethnographic research, it illuminates the myriad ways residents of the Caucasus have rethought who they are since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through an exploration of three towns in the southwest corner of Georgia, all of which are situated close to the Turkish frontier, I show how social and cultural boundaries took on greater importance in the years of transition, when such divisions were expected to vanish. By tracing the fears, longings, and disillusionment that border dwellers projected on the Iron Curtain, I demonstrate how elements of culture formed along and in response to territorial divisions, and how these elements became crucial in attempts to rethink the border after its physical rigidities dissolved in the 1990s. The new boundary-drawing activities had the effect of grounding and reinforcing Soviet constructions of identity, even though they were part of the process of overcoming and dismissing the past. Ultimately, the book argues that the opening of the border paradoxically inspired a newfound appreciation for the previously despised Iron Curtain as something that had provided protection and was still worth defending."
How do people discern between truth and untruth? What characterizes their engagements with eviden... more How do people discern between truth and untruth? What characterizes their engagements with evidence? Some progress in answering these huge questions can be made by exploring them in conditions of radical epistemic uncertainty, such as were the early months of the pandemic, when the virus's behaviour was largely unknown and the efficacy of interventions unknowable. This article focuses on the workings of suspicion and its relationship with evidence, doing so by analysing conversations collected in a Facebook discussion group devoted to 'Covid truth'. It argues that suspicion produces its own forms of falsification but has a contentious relationship with positive truth. And by outlining the epistemic labour of self-avowed truth seekers, the article elucidates some of the mechanisms by which Covid conspiracy theories proliferated and explains why its partakers were convinced that they had a critical edge over the rest of us.
How People Compare (eds. M. Pelkmans and H. Walker), 2023
This chapter explores how one’s sense of uniqueness can be squared with the need to have this uni... more This chapter explores how one’s sense of uniqueness can be squared with the need to have this uniqueness recognized by others. The conundrum lay at the heart of the World Nomad Games, a six-day event held biannually in Kyrgyzstan between 2014 and 2018, and which featured a range of nomadic sports embedded in an extensive cultural program. Organised with the aim of putting Kyrgyzstan on the world map, by 2018 it attracted large numbers of athletes, spectators, and commentators from dozens of countries, many of whom agreed that the World Nomad Games were indeed unique. Notwithstanding these successes, questions remained. How was the integrity of local culture affected by the need to attract global attention? And what exactly was it that observers saw, and commentators reported, when they called the Nomad Games ‘unique’? While the idea of uniqueness implies that an object or phenomenon is incomparable, claims to uniqueness can only be made through active (even if often implicit) comparison. Instead of treating this as some sort of epistemic contradiction, this chapter argues that claims to uniqueness challenge the terms of comparison, and thereby potentially reconfigure the playing field. The World Nomad Games provides a good example of such attempts at reconfiguration, and the tensions that emerge in the process.
How People Compare (eds. M. Pelkmans and H. Walker), 2023
This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishi... more This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishing a relationship between two or more ‘things’ to thereby bring into view differences and similarities. Such acts of comparison are essential for people to make sense of and orient themselves in the world, while at the same time they will be affected (and constrained) by the comparative work of others. The chapter argues that the cross-cultural study of comparison offers insight into several important analytical topics. It does so, first, by showing how comparison is associated with a range of epistemic techniques (e.g. generalizing, contrasting, juxtaposing, ranking, translating), which are variously employed, with greater and lesser intensity, by those who compare. It then builds on this variation to show how acts of comparison may strengthen hegemonic structures, and how they may destabilize such structures. By teasing out the kinds of relationships that are brought into being by the act of comparing, the chapter draws attention to how comparison affects the integrity of both the comparer and the compared. This goes some way to explain why comparison can be a powerful tool of governance as well as why it may be vehemently resisted by those who are compared.
Missionaries have flocked to the Kyrgyz Republic ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eva... more Missionaries have flocked to the Kyrgyz Republic ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Evangelical-Pentecostal and Tablighi missions have been particularly active on what they conceive of as a fertile post-atheist frontier. But as these missions project their message of truth onto the frontier, the dangers of the frontier may overwhelm them. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork amongst foreign and local Tablighis and evangelical-Pentecostals, this article formulates an analytic of the frontier that highlights the affective and relational characteristics of missionary activities and their effects. This analytic explains why and how missionaries are attracted to the frontier, as well as some of the successes and failures of their expansionist efforts. In doing so the article reveals the potency of instability, a feature that is particularly evident in missionary work, but resonates with other frontier situations.
What are the politics of ignorance in an age of misinformation? How can the concept of 'willful b... more What are the politics of ignorance in an age of misinformation? How can the concept of 'willful blindness' help us to understand the logics involved? We start the introduction to this special issue by arguing that the intrinsic instability of willful blindness draws valuable attention to the graded nature of intentionality and perception, and the tensions between them. These features are an essential part of the workings of ignorance, as we illustrate with reference to the shifting intentions of drug couriers, the fleeting moments in which the humanity of victims is recognised in the midst of violent acts, and the affects that channel economic behaviour, such as in the subprime mortgage crisis. When approaching perception and intentionality as complexly entangled in institutionalised fields of power, 'willful blindness' emerges as a powerful and critical diagnostic of the epistemic instabilities of our time.
What are ethnic boundaries made of? How do people come to experience such boundaries? Notwithstan... more What are ethnic boundaries made of? How do people come to experience such boundaries? Notwithstanding the formidable analytic attention to the role and effects of boundary drawing in social life, such questions are rarely asked. We look at the apparently stable boundary between Russians and Kyrgyz villagers in the Issyk-Kul region to trace how its dimensions were naturalized through settler colonialism, Soviet modernization, and post-socialist upheaval. But even if naturalized, the boundary behaves as a " presence absence " whose relevance fluctuates and whose momentary features remain unpredictable, as we demonstrate by focusing on transgressive mixed marriages between Russian and Kyrgyz villagers.
This article explores the links between informal moneylending and aspects of sociality and morali... more This article explores the links between informal moneylending and aspects of sociality and morality. It documents the moral reasoning and strategizing of two female moneylenders who operate in the radically destabilized context of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. By analyzing these women's lending practices and the way they talk about their experiences, we are able to document in some detail the constitutive intertwinement of morality, sociality, and formality in the workings of credit and debt, and demonstrate how questionable behavior is transformed into moral practice. This in turn highlights important features of the post-Soviet capitalist frontier.
This chapter emphasizes that doubt, suspicion, and mistrust are vital concepts for understanding ... more This chapter emphasizes that doubt, suspicion, and mistrust are vital concepts for understanding knowledge production in a fractured and unstable world that is constantly changing. Analysing the affective and relational dynamics that the terms invoke, the chapter reflects on how doubt, suspicion, and mistrust are mobilized in political projects.
Comment on Bubandt, Nils. 2014. The Empty Seashell: Witchcraft and Doubt on an Indonesian Island,... more Comment on Bubandt, Nils. 2014. The Empty Seashell: Witchcraft and Doubt on an Indonesian Island, in Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 6 (1): 499-503.
in Atheist Secularism and its Discontents: A Comparative Study of Religion and Communism in Eurasia, eds. T.Ngo and N. Quijada. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 244-255., 2015
Forthcoming in S. Coleman and R. Hackett (eds), The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism. New York University Press.
In this chapter I argue that a focus on miracles is intellectually productive precisely because t... more In this chapter I argue that a focus on miracles is intellectually productive precisely because the mysterious and unstable qualities of miracles (and their truth) resonate with the unstable nature of conviction. The chapter demonstrates that the unstable Pentecostal mission on the ‘post-atheist’ Muslim-Christian frontier offers a stark illustration of the effervescent as well as fragile qualities of Pentecostal conviction.
This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishi... more This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishing a relationship between two or more ‘things’ to thereby bring into view differences and similarities. Such acts of comparison are essential for people to make sense of and orient themselves in the world, while at the same time they will be affected (and constrained) by the comparative work of others. The chapter argues that the cross-cultural study of comparison offers insight into several important analytical topics. It does so, first, by showing how comparison is associated with a range of epistemic techniques (e.g. generalizing, contrasting, juxtaposing, ranking, translating), which are variously employed, with greater and lesser intensity, by those who compare. It then builds on this variation to show how acts of comparison may strengthen hegemonic structures, and how they may destabilize them. By teasing out the kinds of relationships that are brought into being by the act of comparing, the chapter draws attention to how comparison affects the integrity of both the comparer and the compared. This goes some way to explain why comparisons can be a powerful tool of governance as well as why it may be vehemently resisted by those who are compared.
Ethnographically rooted in the everyday life of a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, Frag... more Ethnographically rooted in the everyday life of a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, Fragile Conviction shows how residents have dealt with the existential and epistemic crises that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Residents became enchanted by the truths of Muslim and Christian missionaries, embraced the teachings of neoliberal and nationalist ideologues, and were riveted by the visions of shamanic healers. But no matter how much enthusiasm and hope these various ideas engendered at first, the commitment to any of them rarely lasted very long.
Theoretically, the book explores the inverse relationship between the tenacity and the effervescence of collective ideas, between their strength to persist and their ability to trigger committed action. Introducing the concept of pulsation, Fragile Conviction argues that ideational power must be understood in relation to three aspects: the voicing of the idea, its tension with everyday reality, and its reverberation within groups of listeners. The conclusion that the power of conviction is rooted in the instability of sociocultural contexts is a message that has relevance far beyond urban Central Asia.
Religious and secular convictions have powerful effects, but their foundations are often surprisi... more Religious and secular convictions have powerful effects, but their foundations are often surprisingly fragile. New converts often come across as stringent believers precisely because they need to dispel their own lingering doubts, while revolutionary movements survive only through the denial of ambiguity. This book shows that a focus on uncertainty and doubt is indispensable for grasping the role of ideas in social action. By studying everyday doubt, this book unravels the mechanisms by which convictions gain and lose their force, and analyses the dynamics that propel loosely held ideas into committed action. Drawing on a wide range of cases, from spirit mediums in Taiwan to Maoist revolutionaries in India, and from Old Believers in Romania to ethnic strife in Central Asia, the authors analyse the ways in which doubt is overcome and, conversely, how belief systems collapse. In doing so, Ethnographies of Doubt provides important insights into the cycles of faith, hope, conviction and disillusion that are intrinsic to the human condition.
This collection of studies by social anthropologists describes the complex and often controversia... more This collection of studies by social anthropologists describes the complex and often controversial processes of religious change occurring in the postsocialist world. By critically examining the influx of missionaries, the adoption of ‘new’ faiths, and the reactions to these unanticipated shifts in religious landscape, the authors offer valuable insight into the fate of state supported secularism as well as providing fresh critiques of anthropological studies of conversion.
"This book describes how people construct identity in the rapidly changing Georgian-Turkish borde... more "This book describes how people construct identity in the rapidly changing Georgian-Turkish border region. Based on extensive ethnographic research, it illuminates the myriad ways residents of the Caucasus have rethought who they are since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through an exploration of three towns in the southwest corner of Georgia, all of which are situated close to the Turkish frontier, I show how social and cultural boundaries took on greater importance in the years of transition, when such divisions were expected to vanish. By tracing the fears, longings, and disillusionment that border dwellers projected on the Iron Curtain, I demonstrate how elements of culture formed along and in response to territorial divisions, and how these elements became crucial in attempts to rethink the border after its physical rigidities dissolved in the 1990s. The new boundary-drawing activities had the effect of grounding and reinforcing Soviet constructions of identity, even though they were part of the process of overcoming and dismissing the past. Ultimately, the book argues that the opening of the border paradoxically inspired a newfound appreciation for the previously despised Iron Curtain as something that had provided protection and was still worth defending."
How do people discern between truth and untruth? What characterizes their engagements with eviden... more How do people discern between truth and untruth? What characterizes their engagements with evidence? Some progress in answering these huge questions can be made by exploring them in conditions of radical epistemic uncertainty, such as were the early months of the pandemic, when the virus's behaviour was largely unknown and the efficacy of interventions unknowable. This article focuses on the workings of suspicion and its relationship with evidence, doing so by analysing conversations collected in a Facebook discussion group devoted to 'Covid truth'. It argues that suspicion produces its own forms of falsification but has a contentious relationship with positive truth. And by outlining the epistemic labour of self-avowed truth seekers, the article elucidates some of the mechanisms by which Covid conspiracy theories proliferated and explains why its partakers were convinced that they had a critical edge over the rest of us.
How People Compare (eds. M. Pelkmans and H. Walker), 2023
This chapter explores how one’s sense of uniqueness can be squared with the need to have this uni... more This chapter explores how one’s sense of uniqueness can be squared with the need to have this uniqueness recognized by others. The conundrum lay at the heart of the World Nomad Games, a six-day event held biannually in Kyrgyzstan between 2014 and 2018, and which featured a range of nomadic sports embedded in an extensive cultural program. Organised with the aim of putting Kyrgyzstan on the world map, by 2018 it attracted large numbers of athletes, spectators, and commentators from dozens of countries, many of whom agreed that the World Nomad Games were indeed unique. Notwithstanding these successes, questions remained. How was the integrity of local culture affected by the need to attract global attention? And what exactly was it that observers saw, and commentators reported, when they called the Nomad Games ‘unique’? While the idea of uniqueness implies that an object or phenomenon is incomparable, claims to uniqueness can only be made through active (even if often implicit) comparison. Instead of treating this as some sort of epistemic contradiction, this chapter argues that claims to uniqueness challenge the terms of comparison, and thereby potentially reconfigure the playing field. The World Nomad Games provides a good example of such attempts at reconfiguration, and the tensions that emerge in the process.
How People Compare (eds. M. Pelkmans and H. Walker), 2023
This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishi... more This opening chapter starts with the observation that at its core, comparison is about establishing a relationship between two or more ‘things’ to thereby bring into view differences and similarities. Such acts of comparison are essential for people to make sense of and orient themselves in the world, while at the same time they will be affected (and constrained) by the comparative work of others. The chapter argues that the cross-cultural study of comparison offers insight into several important analytical topics. It does so, first, by showing how comparison is associated with a range of epistemic techniques (e.g. generalizing, contrasting, juxtaposing, ranking, translating), which are variously employed, with greater and lesser intensity, by those who compare. It then builds on this variation to show how acts of comparison may strengthen hegemonic structures, and how they may destabilize such structures. By teasing out the kinds of relationships that are brought into being by the act of comparing, the chapter draws attention to how comparison affects the integrity of both the comparer and the compared. This goes some way to explain why comparison can be a powerful tool of governance as well as why it may be vehemently resisted by those who are compared.
Missionaries have flocked to the Kyrgyz Republic ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eva... more Missionaries have flocked to the Kyrgyz Republic ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Evangelical-Pentecostal and Tablighi missions have been particularly active on what they conceive of as a fertile post-atheist frontier. But as these missions project their message of truth onto the frontier, the dangers of the frontier may overwhelm them. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork amongst foreign and local Tablighis and evangelical-Pentecostals, this article formulates an analytic of the frontier that highlights the affective and relational characteristics of missionary activities and their effects. This analytic explains why and how missionaries are attracted to the frontier, as well as some of the successes and failures of their expansionist efforts. In doing so the article reveals the potency of instability, a feature that is particularly evident in missionary work, but resonates with other frontier situations.
What are the politics of ignorance in an age of misinformation? How can the concept of 'willful b... more What are the politics of ignorance in an age of misinformation? How can the concept of 'willful blindness' help us to understand the logics involved? We start the introduction to this special issue by arguing that the intrinsic instability of willful blindness draws valuable attention to the graded nature of intentionality and perception, and the tensions between them. These features are an essential part of the workings of ignorance, as we illustrate with reference to the shifting intentions of drug couriers, the fleeting moments in which the humanity of victims is recognised in the midst of violent acts, and the affects that channel economic behaviour, such as in the subprime mortgage crisis. When approaching perception and intentionality as complexly entangled in institutionalised fields of power, 'willful blindness' emerges as a powerful and critical diagnostic of the epistemic instabilities of our time.
What are ethnic boundaries made of? How do people come to experience such boundaries? Notwithstan... more What are ethnic boundaries made of? How do people come to experience such boundaries? Notwithstanding the formidable analytic attention to the role and effects of boundary drawing in social life, such questions are rarely asked. We look at the apparently stable boundary between Russians and Kyrgyz villagers in the Issyk-Kul region to trace how its dimensions were naturalized through settler colonialism, Soviet modernization, and post-socialist upheaval. But even if naturalized, the boundary behaves as a " presence absence " whose relevance fluctuates and whose momentary features remain unpredictable, as we demonstrate by focusing on transgressive mixed marriages between Russian and Kyrgyz villagers.
This article explores the links between informal moneylending and aspects of sociality and morali... more This article explores the links between informal moneylending and aspects of sociality and morality. It documents the moral reasoning and strategizing of two female moneylenders who operate in the radically destabilized context of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. By analyzing these women's lending practices and the way they talk about their experiences, we are able to document in some detail the constitutive intertwinement of morality, sociality, and formality in the workings of credit and debt, and demonstrate how questionable behavior is transformed into moral practice. This in turn highlights important features of the post-Soviet capitalist frontier.
This chapter emphasizes that doubt, suspicion, and mistrust are vital concepts for understanding ... more This chapter emphasizes that doubt, suspicion, and mistrust are vital concepts for understanding knowledge production in a fractured and unstable world that is constantly changing. Analysing the affective and relational dynamics that the terms invoke, the chapter reflects on how doubt, suspicion, and mistrust are mobilized in political projects.
Comment on Bubandt, Nils. 2014. The Empty Seashell: Witchcraft and Doubt on an Indonesian Island,... more Comment on Bubandt, Nils. 2014. The Empty Seashell: Witchcraft and Doubt on an Indonesian Island, in Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 6 (1): 499-503.
in Atheist Secularism and its Discontents: A Comparative Study of Religion and Communism in Eurasia, eds. T.Ngo and N. Quijada. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 244-255., 2015
Forthcoming in S. Coleman and R. Hackett (eds), The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism. New York University Press.
In this chapter I argue that a focus on miracles is intellectually productive precisely because t... more In this chapter I argue that a focus on miracles is intellectually productive precisely because the mysterious and unstable qualities of miracles (and their truth) resonate with the unstable nature of conviction. The chapter demonstrates that the unstable Pentecostal mission on the ‘post-atheist’ Muslim-Christian frontier offers a stark illustration of the effervescent as well as fragile qualities of Pentecostal conviction.
Journal of Law and Religion 29 (3): 436-46, Oct 2014
The religious revival that followed the collapse of the USSR provides an excellent opportunity to... more The religious revival that followed the collapse of the USSR provides an excellent opportunity to compare the dynamics of projects of religious freedom with those of religious repression. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, this article documents the contradictory effects that both repressive and liberal policies and laws have on religious expression. Thus, while Soviet anti-religious policies undeniably caused much suffering and hardship, religious repression also contributed to an intensification of religious experience among certain Muslim and evangelical groups. And while religious freedom laws expanded the scope for public religious organization and expression, they also produced new inequalities between religious groups, as the cases of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan demonstrate. Ultimately, the article shows that the effects of liberal and repressive laws are far from straightforward and need to be analyzed in relation to the social context in which they are applied.
When people find themselves in dire situations, they use their imagination to transcend space and... more When people find themselves in dire situations, they use their imagination to transcend space and time. Forward-looking hope and backward-pointing nostalgia are usually juxtaposed for their different temporal orientation, and their different roles in social action. This article examines how this plays out in a former mining town in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, whose inhabitants treasure the memories of Soviet modernity and dream of a future of economic abundance. Here, the nostalgic and hopeful sentiments converge in their resonance with the ruins of empire, while their effect depends on concealing the fragility of utopian visions.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2013, vol. 19, pp. 398-404, Jun 2013
Why do we agree that anthropology has unused potential, and why would it be good for anthropology... more Why do we agree that anthropology has unused potential, and why would it be good for anthropology to be more widely heard (apart from this potentially attracting more students and generating more funding)? Answers can be found by looking at how we conceive of anthropology, what kind of public anthropologists we have in mind, but also what kind of audiences we are implicitly thinking of. Such a discussion, I argue, reveals that the desire for a public presence is politically and normatively informed.
A Companion to Border Studies (edited by Wilson and Donnan), 2012
The borders separating socialist and capitalist Eurasia served as ultimate symbols of two competi... more The borders separating socialist and capitalist Eurasia served as ultimate symbols of two competing world systems, surfacing in proclamations of the superiority of either East or West. Socialist borders were notoriously impermeable. This aspect is especially interesting because scholars have stressed the human capacity to defy repeatedly state efforts to halt cross-border movement. The chapter provides an in-depth account of the border regime along the Soviet-Georgian border with Turkey, illuminating how the ideological, social and physical intersected in the creation of an Iron Curtain that was not only successfully defended by state forces, but also sustained by local inhabitants. By analyzing how a despised imposition turned into something that was worth defending, this contribution ultimately aims to provide insight into the complex relation between boundaries and the stuff that they simultaneously divide and connect.
The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of seventy years of antireligious policies—of a ... more The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of seventy years of antireligious policies—of a period in which religious expression was severely curtailed and religious institutions were always controlled, at times coopted, and at other times brutally repressed, with the aim of effecting the demise of religion, an aim which was never fully realized. The post1991 era was radically different, at least in those newly independent countries that adopted and implemented liberal laws regarding religious expression and organization. It might be expected that religious leaders and practitioners would have a straightforwardly positive view of this widening scope for religious activities, but this turned out not always to be the case. Let me introduce this point by providing some examples.
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Under the Rubric, 2021
Why do frontiers attract converts and missionaries? Some produce converts without much missionary... more Why do frontiers attract converts and missionaries? Some produce converts without much missionary effort; others are teeming with missionaries. The concentration of converts and missionaries in a place, or a time, can itself create a sense of marginality and border crossing. But the frontier is always a player in its own right, presenting real constraints and possibilities for religious innovation.
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky and Mathijs Pelkmans recently explored this range of effects, giving special attention to the Caucasus and Central Asia, where Christian and Muslim societies intersect across the long frontiers of post-Soviet and, in earlier times, Russian imperial systems.
Uploads
Books
Theoretically, the book explores the inverse relationship between the tenacity and the effervescence of collective ideas, between their strength to persist and their ability to trigger committed action. Introducing the concept of pulsation, Fragile Conviction argues that ideational power must be understood in relation to three aspects: the voicing of the idea, its tension with everyday reality, and its reverberation within groups of listeners. The conclusion that the power of conviction is rooted in the instability of sociocultural contexts is a message that has relevance far beyond urban Central Asia.
Papers
Theoretically, the book explores the inverse relationship between the tenacity and the effervescence of collective ideas, between their strength to persist and their ability to trigger committed action. Introducing the concept of pulsation, Fragile Conviction argues that ideational power must be understood in relation to three aspects: the voicing of the idea, its tension with everyday reality, and its reverberation within groups of listeners. The conclusion that the power of conviction is rooted in the instability of sociocultural contexts is a message that has relevance far beyond urban Central Asia.
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky and Mathijs Pelkmans recently explored this range of effects, giving special attention to the Caucasus and Central Asia, where Christian and Muslim societies intersect across the long frontiers of post-Soviet and, in earlier times, Russian imperial systems.
Original articles:
Mathijs Pelkmans, "Frontier Dynamics: Reflections on Evangelical and Tablighi Missions in Central Asia," Comparative Studies in Society and History 63, no. 1 (2021): 212–41.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/abs/frontier-dynamics-reflections-on-evangelical-and-tablighi-missions-in-central-asia/AF8C5CF3924BB32FFFE3C9B0EAF9D9C3
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, "Becoming Armenian: Religious Conversions in the Late Imperial South Caucasus," Comparative Studies in Society and History 63, no. 1 (2021): 242–72.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/becoming-armenian-religious-conversions-in-the-late-imperial-south-caucasus/E5CC0608B1D8DA518C1E0B45AE3460CB