Formations of the Secular

Opening with the provocative query "what might an anthropology of the secular look like?" this work explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities in the modern West and Middle East. It pro [...]
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Opening with the provocative query "what might an anthropology of the secular look like?" this work explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities in the modern West and Middle East. It proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. It argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the "strangeness of the non-European world", and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life, the modern and secular have not been examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the irrational. This work should appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity.