Empirically, the focus is on the use of artefacts, script, readings and remedies in healing rituals in Zanzibar, a Muslim society in the Western Indian Ocean. Healing constitutes one context where religion does not only inform people’s subjectivities, but also allow them to articulate their understanding of Islam as it is lived. Such circumstances rest on a commonly shared recognition of an already existing external order, which by all involved parties is considered to be legitimate, in this case Islam.
What does it take to turn text, in this case the Quran, into an object or also, a receptacle for the ultimate truth and justice? And, in what manner, may the entanglement of text, artefact and bodily practice create space for transmission as well as negotiation of everyday religion and wellbeing?
In terms of performance and reception, the paper discusses how healers’ performative procedures may be challenged and modified. Attention is paid to aesthetics and evocation of the spiritual in situations of affliction and divergent morals.
About the lecturer
Social anthropologist Kjersti Larsen is Professor at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. She conducts research in Zanzibar (1984–present) and the Sudan (1997–2009), focusing on topics such as Islam, sociality and social change; Muslim oral- and ritual practice; knowledge production; spirit possession, (ill-)health, healing and wellbeing; social memory; mobility and belonging.