SPA Biennial Meeting 2009
“Moments Of Crisis: Decision, Transformation, Catharsis, Critique”
Held in partnership with the Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Asilomar, CA
March 27-29, 2009
We always seem to be on the brink of crisis these days. From its early use in Greek drama and Hippocratic medicine, through its role in Christian visions of the Last Judgment, to its invocation by Rousseau, Burke, or Marx to designate major transformations of given social orders, and on to its contemporary metaphorical proliferation in a variety of discourses, in the West the concept of “crisis” has designated moments when perceptions of discontinuity or decisive change become salient for the individual and for society. Yet as globalization disrupts stable social structures and feared disasters grip the social imagination it seems that “crisis” nowadays refers not only to radical turning points but a way of life. “Crisis” might be said to constitute a moment, in the Hegelian sense, of insecurity, undecidedness, and futures beyond clear prognosis. European theorists are beginning to turn to crisis and decision as a lens to understand the human struggle. Anthropologists of religion and psychological anthropologists have a great deal to contribute to that discussion and a great deal to contribute to each other as we seek to understand “crisis” as a mode of intersubjective being, thinking and doing. What constitutes crisis and what follows from the choice to claim a moment as a crisis?
The SAR and the SPA are delighted to announce a joint meeting in Asilomar March 27-9 2009. Asilomar is an idyllic conference retreat, haunt of Mead, Bateson and other anthropologists, just north of Esalen and Big Sur on the beach of the Monterey Peninsula. We hope that the occasion provides us with intellectual vibrancy and social relaxation. The theme of the meeting is meant only to inspire participants, not to constrain them. We hope that members of our organizations will propose panels both within their subfields and panels that reach out to talk across our shared interests. We hope to encourage panels on such topics as:
| Conversion processes and conversion narratives | Skepticism |
| Prophecy and the prophetic condition | What is well-being? |
| Toward an anthropological theory of mind | The crisis of secularism |
| Ritual and belief in the face of radical uncertainty | Trance and spirit possession |
| Prognosis and divination | Turning points in therapy |
| Crises of identity and faith | California dreaming |
| On the road to Damascus: perspectives on Saint Paul. | Cults of affliction |
| Diagnostic regimes and the discernment of crisis | Marked and un-marked time |
| Cognitive anthropology of religion | Extra-ordinary experience |
| Ethnography and theory of catharsis | Crisis and historical consciousness |
| Religious uses of the psychological | Psychological uses of the religious |
Both individual papers (15 minutes) and full panels (1 hour and 45 minutes) on these and related topics are welcome. Please also send suggestions for less formal sessions involving workshops, roundtable discussions, film screenings, or other events. Younger scholars are particularly encouraged to suggest papers. The deadline