Song Choices of Swiss Sathya Sai Baba Devotees

The charismatic and controversial Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba is the centre of attention and devotion for a great number of adherents from various national, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. Due to its global spread, the Sathya Sai Baba movement is an ideal case for examining displaced religious practices. Singing is a vital part of the religious practice of Sai devotees. In this article I will discuss the contents and usage of the songbook that Swiss devotees compiled. We can observe the extent to which Indian contents are carried over and how they are supplemented with Swiss songs, but also with songs perceived as being part of a universal spiritual treasury of songs (e.g. Native American, Hebrew or International Christian songs). I will suggest that the concept of de- and reterritorialization helps us to analyze the practices of this global religious community. Additionally, I will argue that the devotees’ choice of songs and their singing practices are indeed a manifestation of their claim to universalism as well as their need to be rooted locally. I will further argue that a globalized religious movement is limited in dealing with the encounter of diverse cultural contents by the strategy of reterritorialization, but beyond that creates a new and supraterritorial cultural context.

Religion and Ethnicity in Mongolian Societies. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

This volume about religion and ethnicity in Mongolian societies is the outcome of an international seminar organized in Switzerland in 2009. Ten contributions explore the interplay of religion and ethnicity in the Mongolian and Buryat-Mongolian regions, covering four hundred years of Mongolian and Buryat history. Drawing on methods of diverse scholarly disciplines, including religious studies, Tibetan and Mongolian studies, social anthropology and history, the issues addressed include Mongolian identity formations in the light of the Tibeto-Mongolian interface in the 17th century, Buryat religious survival in the colonial setting of 18th and 19th century Russia, the interplay of religion and politics in Buryatia, a case study of the famous “Imperishable Body” of Khambo Lama Itigelov, an analysis of the religious politics of the Buryat Traditional Sangha in today’s Republic of Buryatia, the role of Shamanism in the identity practices of Modern Buryatia, as well as the revival of “traditional” religions like Buddhism and Shamanism in Mongolia and the emergence of new religions, especially Christianity. Furthermore, two contributions provide in-depth analyses of the dominant theoretical approaches that inform Russian and Anglophone scholarship dealing with these questions.

The legacy of Israel : essays

by Sir George Adam Smith ... ; planned by ... Israel Abrahams and ed. by Edwyn R. Bevan ... With an introduction by the master of Balliol