Forwarding only; please see below for contact information.
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Dear SAR colleagues,
Here is the panel abstract that I should have attached to the previous call for papers (message below). My apologies for the mistake. Véronique
Enclosed is the abstract for a panel that we are proposing for the American Society meeting in Montréal that will be held Nov. 16-21, 2011. We are organising a 3.75 hours session entitled "Sight Unseen. Connecting with the Invisible in Secularized Societies". Find enclosed the abstract of the panel. We warmly invite you to join us!
If you are interested in participating, please let us know as soon as possible and send an abstract of 250 words or less to Véronique Béguet ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and Deirdre Meintel ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>).
The final date to submit the panel and the individual abstract that are part of it is April 15th 2011. Nevertheless we plan to finalize the session as soon as possible, given
the travel commitments of the authors in April, not to mention the logistical and technical difficulties that sometimes arise close to the deadline.
Please note that participants can submit only one paper abstract for the AAA meetings.
Sincerely yours,
Véronique Béguet and Deirdre Meintel
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Call for Papers
AAA Annual Meeting 2011
Panel: Sight Unseen: Connecting with the Invisible in Secularized Societies
Organizers: Véronique Béguet (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) and Deirdre Meintel (Université de Montréal)
Discussant: Jean-Guy Goulet, Université Saint-Paul
In this session, panelists will explore the relations with the invisible in Western societies and in societies now becoming more secularized. Though secularization has often been thought to have effaced concerns with spirits and with the unseen in general, we note a resurgence in beliefs and practices related to what is diversely termed as the “world of spirit”, the “paranormal” and so on. The works of scholars such as Tanya Luhrman, Marion Aubrée, Meredith McGuire and others indicate that relations with the invisible are part of daily life for many in North America, Great Britain, France and other societies characterized by institutional secularization.
The broad focus of the panel includes invisible aspects of human beings and the world they inhabit, e.g. invisible entities (spirits, angels, guides, beings of light, auras, energy fields etc. etc.) and the practices associated with them (trance, possession, exorcism, mediumship...) Though well known to anthropologists, these topics are more often studied in other types of societies, and occasionally, among migrants from those societies to North America and Western Europe. This panel is aimed at exploring relations with the invisible as well as the concepts and methods used to study them.
Practices, knowledge and beliefs that appear to be legacies of past are recreated and lived in new ways in the secularized present, affecting fields as diverse as health, politics and the occupation of urban spaces. Beyond serving as a forum for exchange between researchers working in the anthropology of religion, ontological anthropology, « anthropology of the afterlife » (Fiona Bowie), the panel and its constituent papers show that the shifting topography of "the invisible" under the impact of secularization, can be an issue for fields such as medical anthropology, urban anthropology and environmental anthropology.
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