Muslims through Discourse

John R. Bowen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washington University. He is author of Sumatran Politics and Poetics: Gayo History, 1900-1989 (Yale).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsNote on TranscriptionPt. 1A Genealogy of Divergent UnderstandingsCh. 1Introduction3Ch. 2Religious Disputes in Takengen18On Modernists and Traditionalists21Social and Moral Contexts30Ch. 3Islamic Knowledge in the Highlands, 1900-199039Languages of Past Piety and Learning40The Development of Traditionalist Scholarship47Muhammadiyah: Social and Religious Innovation in the Highlands55Radical Reform through Islamic Education61Pt. 2Powerful Speech and Spirit TransactionsCh. 4Spells, Prayer, and the Power of Words77Distinctions among Doa82The Efficacy of Spells87Quranic Knowledge and Power94Acquiring Power and Expecting Results101Ch. 5The Source of Human Powers in History106The Creation of the World106The Human Embodiment of Creation115The Coming of Islam to Aceh124Ch. 6The Healer's Struggle129Healers and Knowledge131Finding the Jin135Restoring the Balance139Asking a Spirit to Depart145Ch. 7Exorcism and Accountability151Casting Out the Spirits152The Social Framework of Exorcism162Ch. 8Farming, Ancestors, and the Sacred Landscape173Speaking with the Ancestor174Protecting the Crops and the Community185Ancestors and Other Sacred Beings194Ch. 9Adam and Eve's Children202The Origins of Rice202Cain, Abel, and the Marriage of Twins209Hunting, Healing, and Spiritual Siblingship216Pt. 3Negotiating Public RitualsCh. 10Transacting through Food: The Kenduri and Its Critics229Prayers, Food, and Sacrifice230Celebrating the Prophet Muhammad's Birthday237The Child's Entry into the World240Ch. 11Speaking for the Dead251Speaking to the Dead at the Grave252Negotiating the Passage of the Dead259Chanting for the Deceased262Ch. 12Sacrifice, Merit, and Self-Interest273Generating Merit in Isak273"Selfless Sacrifice" in Takengen279Ch. 13Worship and Public Life289Form and Feeling in Worship290Worshiping Together296Disputations300Mosque Politics309Ch. 14The Social Forms of Religious Change315Creating Private and Public Spheres315Two Modes of Cultural Rationalization321Public Discourse and the State325Glossary of Gayo and Arabic Terms331Bibliography335Index353

"Bowen's observations that anthropologists, historians of religion, and other scholars of Islam have neglected the study of Islamic ritual practice, and that Indonesianists have for too long neglected the study of Islamic textual traditions, point to significant problems in all of these fields. It is hoped that Bowen's work will inspire Islamicists to pay greater attention to the varieties of Muslim ritual practice and inspire Indonesianists to consider more seriously the importance of the Islamic textual tradition in what is, after all, the world's most populous Muslim society."--History of Religions