Book Review: Amitav Ghosh In an Antique Land
“The only people for whom we can even begin to imagine properly human, individual, existences are the literate and the consequential, the wazirs and the sultans, the chroniclers, and the priests—the people who had the power to inscribe themselves physically upon time” (Ghosh 17). History is written by the victorious, influential and powerful; however, history has forgotten the people whose voices were seized, those who were illiterate and ineloquent, and most importantly those who were oppressed by the institution of casted societies. Because history does not document those voices, it is the duty to the anthropologist, the historiographer, the philosopher as well as scholars in other fields of studies to dig for those lost people in the forgotten realm of time. In In An Antique Land, the footnotes of letters reveal critical information for the main character, which thematically expresses that under the surface of history is something more than the world can fathom.
Moreover, the main character of this arguably structural fictional novel, travelogue and biography, which encompasses both historical and biographical events, begins his journey through the truths of studying eleventh century Egypt. Amitav places himself in the story as a doctoral student who is given the opportunity to study social anthropology. As we learned and discussed throughout this course, there are a variety of methods in which to study religion. Social anthropology focuses on“the study of human beings and societies viewed primarily as both the creators and the creations of culture . . . sociology of religion . . . focuses its attention on social behavior and the way in which religion interacts with other dimension...
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...for granted the research that Ghosh conducted, but I realize through this course how important it is to study religion in a method that does not council any predetermined ideas. Sometimes it is beneficial to study a topic for the sake of knowing history, however, it then places a scholar in a category i.e if all muslims scholars studied Islam. It is beneficial to have a different perspective because it can reveal critical sources from a different perspective.
Bibliography
Ghosh, Amitav. In an Antique Land. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.
Livingston, James C. Anatomy of the Sacred: An Introduction to Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1989. Print.
Stankiewicz, Damien. "Anthropology And Fiction: An Interview With Amitav Ghosh." Cultural
Anthropology 27.3 (2012): 535-541. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 18
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Hobbes, Thomas. “Of Religion.” ed.Smith,Lacey Baldwin and Jean Reeder Smith. The Past Speaks. 2nd ed. 1 vol. Lexington: Heath, 1993.
Annemaire de Waal Malefijt, “Religion and Culture An Introduction to Anthropology of Religion” The United States of America 1989
... Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion. New York: Harvest Books, 1968. Print.
Eliade, Mircea. A History of Religious Ideas, 3 vols. Trans. Willard R. Trask. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Peterson, Michael - Hasker, Reichenbach and Basinger. Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.
Hick, John. "The Irenaean Theodicy." Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. N. pag. Print.
Geertz defines religion as ‘(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.’ In this essay, I will focus on the Geertz’s idea, and Asad’s subsequent critique, of symbols. (Geertz, Clifford, and Michael Banton. "Religion as a cultural system." (1966).)
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
Eastman, Roger. The Ways of Religion: An Introduction to the Major Traditions. Third Edition. Oxford University Press. N.Y. 1999
Ludwig, Theodore M. The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World (4th Edition). 4 ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2005.
The book “The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion”, written by Mircea Eliade, investigates four aspects of the sacred universe: space, time, nature, and self. Eliade splits each aspect into two forms of perception, the sacred and profane. Religious men, specifically the ancient, traditional men, view the universe as sacred. In other words, they acknowledge a distinct qualitative difference between a sacred and profane (non-sacred) universe; whereas, nonreligious, specifically modern men, are unable to understand such differences in the world. This claim rests on the on the concept of heirophanies or manifestations of the sacred. A hierophany is the religious man’s source of absolute reality and it illuminates the glory and power of God. This manifestation of divine glory charges a site with special significance, thereby losing a sense of homogeneity throughout the universe. Eliade’s underlying thesis is that due to the human experience of both the sacred and profane in day to day life, the transitional zones between the two are exceptionally illuminated and charged with the divine glory of the sacred.
Barbour, Ian G. Religion in an Age of Science. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990. Print. (BL 240.2 .B368 1990)
It was during the year 1026 that Mahmud of Ghazni raided the Somanatha temple for its wealth, leading to the destruction of its many idols. In Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History, Romila Thapar explores the distinct narratives that were written at the time by placing them into the historical context of the period. Her goal, through this monograph, was not to reestablish how we perceive the history of the raid, but to instead study the diverse perspectives and views represented in the various sources collected on the topic. Historical interpretations range from the Turko-Persian narratives of the period to the Colonial writings long after the raid. Through the investigation of the sources one would hope to point out the variations in the texts, and then analyze why these deviations in the story came to be. Thapar’s findings would assist any historian in determining the nature of these sources and the way they are currently used. One must remember that any and all sources could be of significant importance when looking at the attitudes of the individuals of the time.
Organ, Troy Wilson. Eerdmans' Handbook to The World Religions. Woodbury, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 1974. Print.