It is informed by new ontologies developed in the social sciences and humanities in the past two decades, and especially by theorists who are revising and revisiting animism and materialism in a new key (Donna Haraway; Bruno Latour, Tim Ingold, Karen Barad). These developments have been enriched by the multiple disciplines that have contributed to their emergence: environmental studies, critical animal studies, science studies, philosophy, theology and anthropology, to name some of the most influential. We will explore how these theoretical approaches might deepen our understanding of the meanings of ritual practices and other performative acts that are shaped by and shape environmental change, and their social effectiveness when the social is expanded to include things and beings beyond the human. Such an expanded approach would go beyond the bilateral human-animal or human-plant relationship to multispecies or even rocky assemblages located in landscapes. RQ:
- How are human, other-than-human and the boundaries between them constituted within the ritual frames we explore in our specific case studies?
- How is ritual in turn shaped by assemblies/or assemblages of the human and other-than-human/or non-human?
- What expanded meanings of democracy emerge, are expressed, then circulated and contested in these ritual contexts of multi-species and multi-objects?
- What altered meanings of the concept of religion might be proposed?
- What characteristics of relationships with the other-than-human, if any, might prompt significant action in the context of climate change or affect social and political change?
These and other questions concerning ritual and the other-than-human will set the agenda for the Berkeley workshop. We expect the project to significantly enhance our understanding of how contemporary people are responding to and shaping environmental change through ritualized relationships with each other, other species and the environment. We will work together in the format of panels of pre-circulated short papers to be presented and discussed, but the long-term goal is a joint book publication.
PIs:
- Dr. Jonathan Sheehan, Professor of History, University of California Berkeley
- Dr. Jone Salomonsen, Professor of Theology, University of Oslo
Other participants University of Oslo:
- Dr. Marianne Lien, Professor of Anthropology
- Dr. Kjetil Hafstad, Professor of Theology
- Dr. Rune Flikke, Associate Professor of Anthropology
- Dr. Nina Hoel, Associate Professor of Religion and Society
Other participants University of California, Berkeley:
- Dr. Candace Slater, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
- Samuel Robinson, PhD candidate History
Participants from REDO and invited by REDO:
Sarah Pike, Graham Harvey, Michael Houseman, Marion Grau, Jens Kreinath, Paul-Francois Tremlett, Marisol de la Cadena, Andrew Mathews, Bron Taylor, Devin Zuber, Yohana Junker