Religious Experience and Community

Presentation Location

VSU University Center, Magnolia Room 2

Document Type

Event

Start Date

10-3-2023 10:30 AM

End Date

10-3-2023 12:00 PM

Description

Religious Experience and Community (Antonia Ingram-Basby, Session Chair)

  • Dixie Haggard. (Valdosta State University) Mission Witches and Indian Slavery: A Metaphysical Interpretation of the 1704 Attacks on Spanish Missions in Florida.
    This paper is a preliminary attempt to understand why the Eastern Muscogulges (later known as the Lower Creeks) and the Yamasees chose to attack and annihilate the Apalachee missions of Spanish Florida in the late seventeenth and very early eighteenth centuries. The traditional explanation for these attacks claims that the Muscogulges and the Yamasees acted as agents of the English in South Carolina and were driven by the economic benefits of selling captured Apalachees into the English slave trade. An analysis of these attacks within the context of the Muscogulge and Yamasee spiritual system reveals the cultural issues that provided the primary motivation for these attacks. The fact that these raids created captives used in the English slave trade served only as an economic bonus for the Muscogulges and the Yamasees, not as the prime motivation for hostilities. The context for interpretation is created by using ethnohistoric and interdisciplinary methodologies as generated by anthropologists, archaeologists, folklorists, and historians.
  • Jennifer Scott. (University of West Georgia) Community Identity among the Bruderhof.
    This is a paper evaluating the distinct socialization experiences within certain societal populations. I will be comparing a more closed, intentional community (In this instance, the Bruderhof community. The Bruderhof are an anabaptist movement with 24 communities worldwide.) with a secular, nonreligious, multi-community in terms of their socialization processes. I hypothesize that intentional communities put more emphasis in their childhood social education on community and brotherhood and that this lends itself to a greater sense of empathy, compassion, and understanding throughout the lives of the community members as they grow and age and that this is why we see less interpersonal violence within these communities. I would like to better understand what intentional communities are doing differently in the social education of their children to reach this outcome and how these methods can be utilized in outside communities. This is currently library-based research in preparation for ethnographic interviews with members of the Bruderhof community this summer.
  • Rodney Hughes. (Louisiana State University) THE MOURNER’S BENCH: Afro-Baptist Ritual Performance and Discourse Central to Conversion.
    The research proposed for this presentation investigates the historical practice of conversion within the BIPOC spiritual traditions. It takes a closer look at the role language and performative play in shaping the cultural significance of the conversion ritual referred to as the Mourner’s Bench. Various concepts and theoretical frameworks concerning the ways in which language functions in a cultural context are addressed by leading anthropologists, historians, linguists, and contemplative ethnographies that converge to highlight the value of this practice within a specific community. It broadens the discussion around ritual performance and rites of passage that is particularly important to Afro-Baptist tradition and other movements arising from the liberating spiritual practices of BIPOC. The presentation will focus specifically on a corpus of material that has been published by esteemed scholars making relevant contributions to the subject of BIPOC culture, discourse, and musical analysis. It seeks to expand the conversation being had by scholars who push the conversation forward as to how language, in its poetic form, operates to alter semantic fields by creating and recreating meaning as applied to the rituals of conversion in the Black church and society at large.
  • Antonia Ingram-Basby. (Louisiana State University) Take Me To The Water: The Baptism Ritual Experience of Women in the African American Baptist Church.
    How is the movement into womanhood influenced by participation in the baptism rite of the African American Baptist Church? According to Christian beliefs, baptism is an outward expression identifying with the death and resurrection of Christ. Hence, baptism is a rite of passage that individuals partake in, marking their initiation into the Christian faith and local church congregation. However, historically and culturally, the practice of baptism has been transmitted across generations of women and men, yet its interpretation is disseminated primarily by men. Thus, with an awareness of the impact of women within the Baptist Church, the true meaning of baptism should be interpreted and reimagined for the contemporary Church that suffers from historical and culturally divisive ideologies around gender roles. This study intended to understand how participation in the Christian rite of baptism, leading to initiation in the Baptist church, influences the identity development of African American women.
  • Emily Moon. (University of West Georgia) An Investigation of the Anomalous Experiences of Hospice Workers.
    Very little research has been performed in the American hospice house, and an even smaller amount of that research has been anthropological. I will investigate the anomalous experiences of hospice workers using a survey and interview. The anthropological method blends well with the holistic method of hospice work because of the multidimensional approach. I am performing a survey and an interview portion in this study to glean general perceptions and personal experiences. An anomalous experience is any experience outside the realm of normal that can be interpreted as religious, spiritual, or paranormal. Anomalous experiences are common at times and sites of death by those present during the event. By studying these phenomena I hope to reveal their frequency and their effect on hospice workers. Understanding more about what happens in a hospice house, even just on the workers’ sides, will help reduce stigma around the subject.

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Mar 10th, 10:30 AM Mar 10th, 12:00 PM

Religious Experience and Community

VSU University Center, Magnolia Room 2

Religious Experience and Community (Antonia Ingram-Basby, Session Chair)

  • Dixie Haggard. (Valdosta State University) Mission Witches and Indian Slavery: A Metaphysical Interpretation of the 1704 Attacks on Spanish Missions in Florida.
    This paper is a preliminary attempt to understand why the Eastern Muscogulges (later known as the Lower Creeks) and the Yamasees chose to attack and annihilate the Apalachee missions of Spanish Florida in the late seventeenth and very early eighteenth centuries. The traditional explanation for these attacks claims that the Muscogulges and the Yamasees acted as agents of the English in South Carolina and were driven by the economic benefits of selling captured Apalachees into the English slave trade. An analysis of these attacks within the context of the Muscogulge and Yamasee spiritual system reveals the cultural issues that provided the primary motivation for these attacks. The fact that these raids created captives used in the English slave trade served only as an economic bonus for the Muscogulges and the Yamasees, not as the prime motivation for hostilities. The context for interpretation is created by using ethnohistoric and interdisciplinary methodologies as generated by anthropologists, archaeologists, folklorists, and historians.
  • Jennifer Scott. (University of West Georgia) Community Identity among the Bruderhof.
    This is a paper evaluating the distinct socialization experiences within certain societal populations. I will be comparing a more closed, intentional community (In this instance, the Bruderhof community. The Bruderhof are an anabaptist movement with 24 communities worldwide.) with a secular, nonreligious, multi-community in terms of their socialization processes. I hypothesize that intentional communities put more emphasis in their childhood social education on community and brotherhood and that this lends itself to a greater sense of empathy, compassion, and understanding throughout the lives of the community members as they grow and age and that this is why we see less interpersonal violence within these communities. I would like to better understand what intentional communities are doing differently in the social education of their children to reach this outcome and how these methods can be utilized in outside communities. This is currently library-based research in preparation for ethnographic interviews with members of the Bruderhof community this summer.
  • Rodney Hughes. (Louisiana State University) THE MOURNER’S BENCH: Afro-Baptist Ritual Performance and Discourse Central to Conversion.
    The research proposed for this presentation investigates the historical practice of conversion within the BIPOC spiritual traditions. It takes a closer look at the role language and performative play in shaping the cultural significance of the conversion ritual referred to as the Mourner’s Bench. Various concepts and theoretical frameworks concerning the ways in which language functions in a cultural context are addressed by leading anthropologists, historians, linguists, and contemplative ethnographies that converge to highlight the value of this practice within a specific community. It broadens the discussion around ritual performance and rites of passage that is particularly important to Afro-Baptist tradition and other movements arising from the liberating spiritual practices of BIPOC. The presentation will focus specifically on a corpus of material that has been published by esteemed scholars making relevant contributions to the subject of BIPOC culture, discourse, and musical analysis. It seeks to expand the conversation being had by scholars who push the conversation forward as to how language, in its poetic form, operates to alter semantic fields by creating and recreating meaning as applied to the rituals of conversion in the Black church and society at large.
  • Antonia Ingram-Basby. (Louisiana State University) Take Me To The Water: The Baptism Ritual Experience of Women in the African American Baptist Church.
    How is the movement into womanhood influenced by participation in the baptism rite of the African American Baptist Church? According to Christian beliefs, baptism is an outward expression identifying with the death and resurrection of Christ. Hence, baptism is a rite of passage that individuals partake in, marking their initiation into the Christian faith and local church congregation. However, historically and culturally, the practice of baptism has been transmitted across generations of women and men, yet its interpretation is disseminated primarily by men. Thus, with an awareness of the impact of women within the Baptist Church, the true meaning of baptism should be interpreted and reimagined for the contemporary Church that suffers from historical and culturally divisive ideologies around gender roles. This study intended to understand how participation in the Christian rite of baptism, leading to initiation in the Baptist church, influences the identity development of African American women.
  • Emily Moon. (University of West Georgia) An Investigation of the Anomalous Experiences of Hospice Workers.
    Very little research has been performed in the American hospice house, and an even smaller amount of that research has been anthropological. I will investigate the anomalous experiences of hospice workers using a survey and interview. The anthropological method blends well with the holistic method of hospice work because of the multidimensional approach. I am performing a survey and an interview portion in this study to glean general perceptions and personal experiences. An anomalous experience is any experience outside the realm of normal that can be interpreted as religious, spiritual, or paranormal. Anomalous experiences are common at times and sites of death by those present during the event. By studying these phenomena I hope to reveal their frequency and their effect on hospice workers. Understanding more about what happens in a hospice house, even just on the workers’ sides, will help reduce stigma around the subject.