Shifting Fieldsites
An Alternative Approach to Fieldwork in Transnational Sufism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v6i1.64Keywords:
anthropology of Islam, modern Sufism, Qādirīyah, Sufi Orders, Sufism twentieth century, transnational SufismAbstract
Few of those who have undertaken fieldwork among members of Sufi Orders have openly discussed the challenges involved. The present article examines a number of issues which were encountered whilst carrying out ethnographic research among devotees of the transnational Q?diriyya. It argues that knowledge derived from ethnographical investigation is subjective and partial by nature, and that engaging with its resulting ambiguities and contradictions leads to a more nuanced, real, and less representational, perspective. This article explores certain themes: first, it examines how gender determined the scope of the research and circumscribed the possibilities of data collection. Second, it analyses some of the peculiarities involved in conducting multi-sited fieldwork in a transnational religious organization. Third, it raises specific methodological concerns with regard to the often transitory nature of membership of this ?ar?qa. Finally, it discusses how the present author coped with religious proselytization and its potential effects on the relationship between devotees and researcher.
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References
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Soares, B. F. 2007. “Saint and Sufi in Contemporary Mali,” in Bruinessen and Howell, 2007, 76– 91.
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Zeghal, M. 2008. Islamism in Morocco: Religion, Authoritarianism, and Electoral Politics. Princeton: Markus Wiener.
Ben Driss, Karim. 2002. Sidi Hamza al-Qadiri Boudchich: Le Renouveau du Soufisme au Maroc. Beirut: Albouraq.
Ben Rochd, E. R. 2002. Le Soufisme: Patrimoine Universel Méthode d’Epanouissement et Doctrine d’Harmonie. Casablanca: Dechra.
Beyer, P. 2009. “Glocalization of Religions: Plural Authenticities at the Centres and at the Margins,” in Dressler, Geaves and Klinkhammer, 2009, 13–25.
Bromley, David, and Anson D. Shupe. 1981. Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare. Boston: Beacon Press.
Bruinessen, M., and J. Day Howell, eds. 2007. Sufism and the “Modern” in Islam. London: Tauris.
Carrette, Jeremy, and Richard King. 2005. Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. London/New York: Routledge.
Chih, R. 2007. “What is a Sufi Order? Revisiting the Concept through a Case Study of the Khalwatiyya in Contemporary Egypt,” in Bruinessen and Howell, 2007, 21–38.
Dominguez Diaz, Marta. 2010. “Revisiting Moroccan Sufism and Re-Islamisizing Secular Audiences: Female Religious Narratives in the Tariqa Qadiriyya Budshishiyya in Morocco and Western Europe Today,” unpublished PhD thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Draper, M. 2002. “Towards a Postmodern Sufism: Eclecticism, Appropriation and Adaptation in a Naqshbandiyya and a Qadiriyya Tariqa in the UK,” unpublished PhD thesis, University of Birmingham.
Draper, M., J. Nielsen and G. Yemelianova. 2006. “Transnational Sufism. The Haqqaniyya,” in Malik and Hinnells, 2006, 103–14.
Dressler, M., R. Geaves and G. Klinkhammer, eds. 2009. Sufis in Western Society: Global Networking and Locality. London/New York: Routledge.
Dressler, M., R. Geaves and G. Klinkhammer. 2009. “Introduction,” in Dressler, Geaves and Klinkhammer, 2009, 1–12.
Falzon, M-A., ed. 2009. Multi-sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research. Farnham: Ashgate.
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books.
Gilliat-Ray, S. 1999. “Rediscovering Islam: A Muslim Journey of Faith,” in C. Lamb and M. D. Bryant, eds. Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies. London: Cassell, 315–32.
Gilliat-Ray, S. 2005. “Closed Worlds: (Not) Accessing Deobandi Dar ul-Uloom in Britain.” Fieldwork in Religion, 1, 7–33.
Haenni, P., and R. Voix. 2007. “God by All Means...Eclectic Faith and Sufi Resurgence among the Moroccan Bourgeoisie,” in Bruinessen and Howell, 2007, 241–56.
Hannerz, U. 2007. “Being There…and There…and There! Reflections on Multi-site Ethnography,” in Robben and Sluka, 2007, 359–67.
Hermansen, M. 2006. “Literary Productions of Western Sufi Movements,” in Malik and Hinnells, 2006, 28–48.
Hoffman, V. J. 1995. Sufism, Mystics and Saints in Modern Egypt. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Howell, D. J. 2007. “Modernity and Islamic Spirituality in Indonesia's New Sufi Networks,” in Bruinessen and Howell, 2007, 217–40.
Hume, L., and J. Mulcock, eds. 2004. Anthropologists in the Field: Cases in Participant Observation. New York: Columbia University Press.
Jonker, G. 2006. “The Evolution of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi: Sulaymancis in Germany,” in Malik and Hinnells, 2006, 71–85.
Klinkhammer, G. 2009. “The Emergence of Transethnic Sufism in Germany: From Mysticism to Authenticity,” in Dressler, Geaves and Klinkhammer, 2009, 130–47.
Lamb, C., and M. D. Bryant, eds. Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies. London: Cassell, 1999.
Lewisohn, L. 2006. “Persian Sufism in the Contemporary West: Reflections on the Ni’matu'llahi Diaspora,” in Malik and Hinnells, 2006, 49–70.
Malik, J., and J. Hinnells, eds. 2006. Sufism in the West. London: Routledge Curzon.
Marcus, George. 1995. “Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/ annurev.an.24.100195.000523
Poston, L. 1992. Islamic Da`wah in the West: Muslim Missionary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pratt Ewing, Katherine. 1997. Arguing Sainthood: Modernity, Psychoanalysis, and Islam. Durham: Duke University Press.
Qustas, A. 2007. Nibr?s al-Mud?r. Marrakesh: al-Ahmadi.
Rozehnal, R. T. 2007. Islamic Sufism Unbound: Politics and Piety in Twenty First Century Pakistan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Robben, A., and J. Sluka, eds. 2007. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Sluka, J., and A. Robben. 2007. “Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology: An Introduction,” in Robben and Sluka, 2007, 1–28.
Soares, B. F. 2005. Islam and the Prayer Economy: History and Authority in a Malian Town. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.
Soares, B. F. 2007. “Saint and Sufi in Contemporary Mali,” in Bruinessen and Howell, 2007, 76– 91.
Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Tozy, M. 1999. Monarchie et Islam Politique au Maroc. Paris: Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques.
Warren, C., and J. Hackney. 2000. Gender Issues in Ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Werbner, Pnina. 2005. Pilgrims of Love: The Anthropology of a Global Sufi Cult. Karachi: Oxford University Press.
Whitehead, Harriet. 1987. Renunciation and Reformulation: A Study of Conversion in an American Sect. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Wolf, Diane, ed. 1996. Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Wolf, Eric. 1982. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Zeghal, M. 2005. Les Islamistes Marocains: Le Défi à la Monarchie. Paris: Découverte.
Zeghal, M. 2008. Islamism in Morocco: Religion, Authoritarianism, and Electoral Politics. Princeton: Markus Wiener.
Published
2012-01-20
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Dominguez Diaz, M. (2012). Shifting Fieldsites: An Alternative Approach to Fieldwork in Transnational Sufism. Fieldwork in Religion, 6(1), 64-82. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v6i1.64
