ABSTRACT
Living Folk Religions presents cutting-edge contributions from a range of disciplines to examine religious folkways across cultures. This collection embraces the non-elite and non-sanctioned, the oral, fluid, accessible, evolving religions of people (volk) on the ground. Split into five sections, this book covers:
- What Is Folk Religion?
- Spirit Beings and Deities
- Performance and Ritual Praxis
- Possession and Exorcism
- Health, Healing, and Lifestyle
Topics include demons and ambivalent gods, tree and nature spirits, revolutionary renunciates, oral lore, possession and exorcism, divination, midwestern American spiritualism, festivals, queer sexuality among ritual specialists, the dead returned, vernacular religions, diaspora adaptations, esoteric influences underlying public cultures, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), music and sound experiences, death rituals, and body and wellness cultures.
Living Folk Religions is a must-read for those studying Comparative Religions, World Religions, and Religious Studies, and it will also interest specialists and general readers, particularly enthusiastic readers of Anthropology, Folklore and Folk Studies, Global Studies, and Sociology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|69 pages
What Is Folk Religion?
chapter 2|14 pages
The Sādhū Who Came for Lunch
chapter 4|22 pages
Why a Folk Religion May Not Exist among Followers of an Abrahamic Faith
part II|56 pages
Spirit Beings and Deities
chapter 5|24 pages
Goddess Trees in the Forest of Bliss
chapter 6|13 pages
Bhairava, Hanumān, and the Deified Dead
chapter 7|17 pages
There Is Something in Me
part III|85 pages
Performance and/or Ritual Praxis
chapter 8|15 pages
Sufi Festivals in Contemporary Morocco
chapter 9|18 pages
Mantras for “Every God and Goddess”
chapter 12|24 pages
Cremating the Body Politic
part IV|61 pages
Possession and Exorcism
part V|49 pages
Health, Healing, and Lifestyle