Social Science | Sociology of Religion

Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa
Edited by Felicitas Becker, Joel Cabrita, and Marie Rodet

In recent years, anthropologists, historians, and others have been drawn to study the profuse and creative usages of digital media by religious movements. At the same time, scholars of Christian Africa have long been concerned with the history of textual culture, the politics of Bible translation, and the status of the vernacular in Christianity.

Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement
Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power
By Ingrid Jordt

Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power describes a transformation in Buddhist practice in contemporary Burma. This revitalization movement has had real consequences for how the oppressive military junta, in power since the early 1960s, governs the country.Drawing

Under the Heel of the Dragon
Islam, Racism, Crime, and the Uighur in China
By Blaine Kaltman

The Turkic Muslims known as the Uighur have long faced social and economic disadvantages in China because of their minority status.

Christianity and Public Culture in Africa
Edited by Harri Englund

Christianity and Public Culture in Africa takes readers beyond familiar images of religious politicians and populations steeped in spirituality. It shows how critical reason and Christian convictions have combined in surprising ways as African Christians confront issues such as national constitutions, gender relations, and the continuing struggle with HIV/AIDS.The

Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement
Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power
By Ingrid Jordt

Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power describes a transformation in Buddhist practice in contemporary Burma. This revitalization movement has had real consequences for how the oppressive military junta, in power since the early 1960s, governs the country.Drawing

Under the Heel of the Dragon
Islam, Racism, Crime, and the Uighur in China
By Blaine Kaltman

The Turkic Muslims known as the Uighur have long faced social and economic disadvantages in China because of their minority status.

Ethnic Conflict
Religion, Identity, and Politics
Edited by S. A. Giannakos

The outbreak of numerous and simultaneous violent conflicts around the globe in the past decade resulted in immense human suffering and countless lost lives. In part, both results were aided by inactivity or by belated and often misplaced responses by the international community to the embattled groups.

Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits
War in Northern Uganda, 1985–97
By Heike Behrend

In August 1986, Alice Auma, a young Acholi woman in northern Uganda, proclaiming herself under the orders of a Christian spirit named Lakwena, raised an army called the “Holy Spirit Mobile Forces.” With it she waged a war against perceived evil, not only an external enemy represented by the National Resistance Army of the government, but internal enemies in the form of “impure” soldiers, witches, and sorcerers.