LEARNING RELIGION Methodology and History in Anthropology General Editor: David Parkin, Director of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford Volume 1 Volume 10 Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute Categories ofSelf: Louis Dumont’s Theory Edited by Wendy James and N.J. Allen ofthe Individual By André Celtel Volume 2 Franz Baerman Steiner: Selected Writings Volume 11 Volume I: Taboo, Truth and Religion. Existential Anthropology: Events, Franz B. Steiner Exigencies and Effects Edited by Jeremy Adler and Richard By Michael Jackson Fardon Volume 12 Volume 3 An Introduction to Two Theories ofSocial Franz Baerman Steiner. Selected Writings Anthropology: Descent Groups and Volume II: Orientalism, Value, and Marriage Alliance.Louis Dumont Civilisation.Franz B. Steiner Edited and Translated by Robert Parkin Edited by Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon Volume 13 Navigating Terrains ofWar: Youth and Volume 4 Soldering in Guinea-Bissau The Problem ofContext By Henrik Vigh Edited by Roy Dilley Volume 14 Volume 5 The Politics ofEgalitarianism: Theory and Religion in English Everyday Life Practice By Timothy Jenkins Edited by Jacqueline Solway Volume 6 Volume 15 Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic A History ofOxford Anthropology Collectors, Agents and Agency in Melanesia, Edited by Peter Rivière 1870s–1930s Edited by Michael O’Hanlon and Robert Volume 16 L. Welsch Holistic Anthropology: Emergence and Convergence Volume 7 Edited by David Parkin and Anthropologists in a Wider World: Essays Stanley Ulijaszek on Field Research Edited by Paul Dresch, Wendy James and Volume 17 David Parkin Learning Religion: Anthropological Approaches Volume 8 Edited by David Berliner and Categories and Classifications: Maussian Ramon Sarró Reflections on the Social By N.J. Allen Volume 18 Ways ofKnowing: Anthropological Volume 9 Approaches to Crafting Experience and Louis Dumont and Hierarchical Opposition Knowledge By Robert Parkin Edited by Mark Harris LEARNING RELIGION Anthropological Approaches Edited by David Berliner and Ramon Sarró Berghahn Books New York • Oxford 00-Prelims_HB_00-Prelims.qxd 10/30/13 1:07 PM Page iv First published in 2007 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2007 David Berliner and Ramon Sarró All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any informa- tion storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Learning religion : anthropological approaches / edited by David Berliner and Ramon Sarró. p. cm. -- (Methodology and history in anthropology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-84545-374-9 (hbk) 1. Ethnology--Religious aspects. 2. Religion. I. Berliner, David C. II. Sarró, Ramon. BL256.L385 2007 207'.5--dc22 2007035361 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed on acid-free paper ISBN: 978-1-84545-374-9 hardback ISBN: 978-1-78238-213-3 institutional ebook CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii 1. On Learning Religion: An Introduction 1 David Berliner and Ramon Sarró 2. Learning to Believe: A Preliminary Approach 21 Carlo Severi 3. Menstrual Slaps and First Blood Celebrations: Inference, Simulation and the Learning ofRitual 31 Michael Houseman 4. The Accidental in Religious Instruction: Ideas and Convictions 49 David Parkin 5. On Catching Up With Oneself: Learning to Know That One Means What One Does 65 Michael Lambek 6. How Do You Learn to Know That it is God Who Speaks? 83 T.M. Luhrmann 7. How to Learn in an Afro-Brazilian Spirit Possession Religion: Ontology and Multiplicity in Candomblé 103 Marcio Goldman 8. Learning to be a Proper Medium: Middle-Class Womanhood and Spirit Mediumship at Christian Rationalist Séances in Cape Verde 121 João Vasconcelos 9. Copyright and Authorship: Ritual Speech and the New Market ofWords in Toraja 141 Aurora Donzelli vi Contents 10. Learning Faith: Young Christians and Catechism 161 Laurence Hérault 11. What is Interesting about Chinese Religion 177 Charles Stafford 12. The Sound ofWitchcraft: Noise as Mediation in Religious Transmission 191 Michael Rowlands Bibliography 209 Notes on Contributors 229 Index 233 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This volume is the product ofa conference held at the Institute ofSocial Sciences, Uni- versity ofLisbon, on 8–11 September 2005. We would like to express our gratitude first and foremost to Christina Toren and to João Pina-Cabral for having encouraged us to organize it and to the Institute of Social Sciences for having offered such a wonderful venue for it, as well as to the many institutions that funded it: The Wennegren Founda- tion for Anthropological Research was our main sponsor, but we would also like to remember here the significant contributions of the Gulbenkian Foundation, the Luso- American Foundation, the British Council, the Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal) and, last but not least, the Institute itself, not only for the financial help but also for the efficiency with which it dealt with the organization ofthe event. Special thanks are, of course, due to the guests to the conference who made it an unforgettable meeting. Our paper givers Rita Astuti, Ruy Blanes, Aurora Donzelli, Carlos Fausto, Anna Fedele, Marcio Goldman, Peter Gow, Arnauld Halloy, Laurence Hérault, Charles Hirschkind, Michael Houseman, Michael Lambek, Tanya Luhrmann, José Mapril, Adeline Masquelier, David Parkin, Michael Rowlands, Carlo Severi, Sónia Silva, Benjamin Soares, Charles Stafford, Marina P. Temudo, Christina Toren, and João Vasconcelos; as well as our chairs/discussants: Catarina A. Costa, Cristiana Bastos, Joan Bestard, Stephen Dix, Antónia P. de Lima, João Pina-Cabral, Nuno Porto, Gonçalo D. dos Santos, Nina C. Tiesler, Wilson Trajano F. and Susana M. Viegas. Finally, we would also like to express here our deepest gratitude to David Parkin who engineered the book with us and invited us to submit it to the collection he edits for Berghahn Books and for his instrumental help in putting it together. Chapter 1 ON LEARNING RELIGION: AN INTRODUCTION David Berliner and Ramon Sarró Religion, Recollection and Learning A Biblical text (Acts of the Apostles, 8: 31–32) tells us that immediately after Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost inspired Jesus’ disciples to spread the good news, Philip, one of the apostles, saw the eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians reading the Book of Isaiah. ‘Do you under- stand what you are reading?’ asked Philip. ‘How can I, unless someone instructs me?’ replied the eunuch. Then Philip carefully read the text with him and explained that what they were reading was in fact the announcement of the coming of Jesus. The eunuch not only under- stood then what he had been reading (andtold), but also asked to be baptized with water. Something somewhat similar happened two thousand years later when a Russian woman we met told us she used to read the Bible a lot, but had not understood it. She only understood it when her boyfriend, a Jehovah’s Witness, explained the meaning of the texts to her. Not only did she then ‘understand’ the Bible, but she also converted from the Orthodox Church to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religion. These relatively simple occurrences could exemplify some of the aspects we wanted to explore when in September 2005, under the aegis of the Wennergen Foundation for Anthropological Research, we organized a symposium, rather intriguingly called ‘learning religion’, at the Institute of Social Sciences, Lisbon. We have here a man and a woman who respectively celebrate a religious action routinely (read- ing a holy text without ‘understanding’ it) and an instructor who fills