Author: David Kloos File Type: pdf How do ordinary Muslims deal with and influence the increasingly pervasive Islamic norms set by institutions of the state and religion? Becoming Better Muslims offers an innovative account of the dynamic interactions between individual Muslims, religious authorities, and the state in Aceh, Indonesia. Relying on extensive historical and ethnographic research, David Kloos offers a detailed analysis of religious life in Aceh and an investigation into todays personal processes of ethical formation.Aceh is known for its history of rebellion and its recent implementation of Islamic law. Debunking the stereotypical image of the Acehnese as inherently pious or fanatical, Kloos shows how Acehnese Muslims reflect consciously on their faith and often frame their religious lives in terms of gradual ethical improvement. Revealing that most Muslims view their lives through the prism of uncertainty, doubt, and imperfection, he argues that these senses of failure contribute strongly to how individuals try to become better Muslims. He also demonstrates that while religious authorities have encroached on believers and local communities, constraining them in their beliefs and practices, the same process has enabled ordinary Muslims to reflect on moral choices and dilemmas, and to shape the ways religious norms are enforced.Arguing that Islamic norms are carried out through daily negotiations and contestations rather than blind conformity, Becoming Better Muslims examines how ordinary people develop and exercise their religious agency.**From the Back CoverBecoming Better Muslims provides an engaging, sophisticated, and meticulously documented account of the ways ordinary Muslims negotiate the complex entanglements of religious authority, ethical self-fashioning, and moral uncertainty in a precarious world. David Klooss clear, crisp prose and carefully crafted arguments make significant contributions to current debates on subjectivity, ambivalence, everyday religiosity, and lived Islam. Scholars in a number of different disciplines will greatly appreciate this important book.--Michael G. Peletz, Emory UniversityIn this rich ethnography, David Kloos argues for ways of taking inner dimensions of Islam seriously, in which the contingencies of everyday living are set in dynamic relation to, rather than as a foil for, long-term projects of religious engagement. These insights speak well beyond the specific context of Aceh to make important contributions to the academic study of Islam, and to current debates in the anthropology of ethics.--R. Michael Feener, Oxford Centre for Islamic StudiesBecoming Better Muslims is unique in being at once theoretically informed, with its own clear argument to make, and ethnographically superior to many of the anthropological works available on Islam and ethics. Polished and compelling, it will be widely read.--Joel Robbins, University of CambridgeProviding an eminently well-balanced historical introduction to Islam and society in Aceh, this comprehensively researched book examines the question of how ordinary Muslims respond to the pervasive efforts of the state and religious establishment to promote more standardized varieties of Islam. Offering a deeply important and novel perspective, Becoming Better Muslims is a major achievement.--Robert W. Hefner, Boston UniversityAbout the Author David Kloos is a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden.

Author: Susanne Åsman File Type: pdf Susanne Asman provides a compelling ethnographic account of how Tamang women and men in the Sindhupalchowk district, defined by human rights horganizations as severely affected by sex trafficking, understand what they define as Bombay going or migration for sex work. This ground-breaking work focuses on womens agency and the meaning they ascribe to their roles as sex workers in the migratory process in the present and the past. Asman investigates how they carve out a space for themselves and create relatedness in the places between which they movetheir house in the rural area in Nepal and the brothels in Mumbai that temporarily serve as their homes during their absence. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of sex trafficking, gender, agency and womens migration for sex work in the global south. **ReviewThrough rich ethnography Asman brings us into the world of gendered migration in South Asia with all of its nuances and complexities. A book that challenges received notions of home and away, embodiment, victimhood, and agency, Asman pulls no punches in this critical read that is a much needed intervention in our oversimplified conversations about trafficking, labor, and migration.(Pardis Mahdavi, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver) An important and rich account of Tamang womens experience of sex work drawing upon 10 years of extraordinary fieldworkin Maoist-controlled villages in central Nepal and in Mumbais red-light districtAsman focuses on the agency of Tamang women who have gone to work in those brothels and their efforts to remain connected to, to provide support for, and to return to their Nepal homes. Asmans is a much-needed, in-depth, empathetic, and non-judgmental study which challenges and refines the usual contemporary INGO rescue narrative of women universally victimized by sex-trafficking. - Kathryn March, Cornell University (Kathryn March, Cornell University) About the Author Susanne Asman is postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the School of Global Studies at Gothenburg University and guest researcher in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University and affiliated with the Department of International Relations at Tribhuwan University.

Author: Elizabeth Currans File Type: pdf From the Women in Black vigils and Dyke marches to the Million Mom March, women have seized a dynamic role in early twenty-first century protest. The varied demonstrations--whether about gender, sexuality, war, or other issues--share significant characteristics as space-claiming performances in and of themselves beyond their place in any broader movement. Elizabeth Currans blends feminist, queer, and critical race theory with performance studies, political theory, and geography to explore the outcomes and cultural relevance of public protest. Drawing on observation, interviews, and archival and published sources, Currans shows why and how women utilize public protest as a method of participating in contemporary political and cultural dialogues. She also examines how groups treat public space as an important resource and explains the tactics different women protesters use to claim, transform, and hold it. The result is a passionate and pertinent argument that women-organized demonstrations can offer scholars a path to study the relationship of gender and public space in todays political culture. **

Author: Alan Cruse File Type: pdf This easy-to-use guide illuminates key concepts and terms in semantics and pragmatics and the study of meaning as it is conveyed through language.ReviewCruses Glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics, is a most welcome work of reference, not only because there are no competing volumes on the market to date, but also because, like its sister volumes from the same series, the glossary is a useful terminological dictionary, especially, but not exclusively, for the intended readership. Cruses Glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics, is a most welcome work of reference, not only because there are no competing volumes on the market to date, but also because, like its sister volumes from the same series, the glossary is a useful terminological dictionary, especially, but not exclusively, for the intended readership. About the AuthorAlan Cruse was the senior lecturer in linguistics at the University of Manchester.