please use the template when answeringneed the same writer as task 53955please disregard question 6 and come up with a discussion question based on the reading
ANTH3021 DISCUSSION PREPARATION GUIDE Name________________________________ Date___________________ Reading: Author / Title__________________________________________ __________________________________________ 1. What was the reading about? State in one complete sentence the theme of this work. 2. How did the author get the information? How did they put together and present this information? Was there a particular structure to the work? Was it qualitative, quantitative, and/or comparative? Was it based on textual research, observation, and/or participation? Etc. 3. What did you learn from this reading? Be specific and concrete. a. b. 4. Note words that are unfamiliar or seem to be used in a special manner to create a particular impression. Define the word in the context of the phrase where you found it. a. b. 5. What questions does this selection bring up for you? Write one or two questions that open the space for discussion about key points in the articles, gaps in the knowledge, new research questions raised. Avoid "yes/no" questions, try to open the space for people to share opinions without trying to lead them to particular conclusions. a. b. 6. (To be filled out in class during discussion) What are some of the best ideas that you heard from other people in your discussion group? Untitled http://sex.sagepub.com/ Sexualities http://sex.sagepub.com/content/17/5-6/618 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/1363460714526327 2014 17: 618Sexualities Wim Peumans and lived religion Queer Muslim migrants in Belgium: A research note on same-sex sexualities Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com can be found at:SexualitiesAdditional services and information for http://sex.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts: http://sex.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions: http://sex.sagepub.com/content/17/5-6/618.refs.htmlCitations: What is This? - Aug 15, 2014Version of Record >> by guest on August 15, 2014sex.sagepub.comDownloaded from by guest on August 15, 2014sex.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://sex.sagepub.com/ http://sex.sagepub.com/content/17/5-6/618 http://www.sagepublications.com http://sex.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts http://sex.sagepub.com/subscriptions http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav http://sex.sagepub.com/content/17/5-6/618.refs.html http://sex.sagepub.com/content/17/5-6/618.full.pdf http://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtml http://sex.sagepub.com/ http://sex.sagepub.com/ Sexualities 2014, Vol. 17(5/6) 618–631 ! The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1363460714526327 sex.sagepub.com Article Queer Muslim migrants in Belgium: A research note on same-sex sexualities and lived religion Wim Peumans University of Leuven, Belgium Abstract Based on research on same-sex sexuality, religion and transnational migration in Belgium, this article looks at how the process of transnational migration intersects with the fashioning of the moral selves of queer Muslim migrants. Bringing together the concept of lived religion with an anthropological notion of moral selves, I argue for the importance of taking into account complexity and ambivalence in the understanding of moral subjectivities. Keywords Islam, morality, religion, same-sex sexuality, transnational migration Although issues of class, ethnicity/race and gender have often been taken into account in migration studies, sexuality and especially same-sex sexuality has been somewhat marginalized. Further, much existing literature focuses on the situation in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom (Mai and King, 2009; Manalansan, 2006). Although a transnational turn in sexuality studies has been announced over a decade ago (Povinelli and Chauncey, 1999), this is still very much a turn in progress, with few studies on sexual (or queer) migration to con- tinental Europe (Peumans, 2011). While research on same-sex sexuality and religion is growing (Yip, 2010), my aim is to offer a combined and explicit focus on religion, same-sex sexuality and Corresponding author: Wim Peumans, University of Leuven, Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, Parkstraat 45, Box 3615, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Email:
[email protected] by guest on August 15, 2014sex.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://sex.sagepub.com/ transnational migration. Yip (2010: 47–8) notes how daily-life religious practices and beliefs of LGBTs are conspicuously absent and often based on the experiences of LGBT Christians. This article examines the lives of queer Muslims, engaging with debates on morality and subjectivity. It attempts to bring McGuire’s (2008) concept of lived religion into dialogue with Zigon’s (2008) concept of moral selves, commenting on the importance of ambivalence in the fashioning of moral subjec- tivities (Schielke, 2009b). To do this I question how the process of transnational migration intersects with the fashioning of a moral self of queer Muslim migrants.1 After describing the methodology I used in the first section, I will start from McGuire’s (2008) concept of lived religion to look at the continuities and changes the embodied religious practices of queer Muslims go through in the process of transnational migration, limiting my analysis to prayer and fasting rituals. In the third section, I draw on Zigon’s distinction between ethics and morality and highlight some of the ‘moments of ethics’ (Zigon, 2008: 165) through which queer Muslims fashion a moral self, arguing for the central importance of ambivalence and fragmentation in understanding moral subjectivities. In the last section, I analyse an ethnographic narrative, which weaves together the themes discussed in the previous sections. An ethnographic approach to same-sex sexuality, religion and transnational migration This research note draws from two ethnographic studies I have conducted: the first is a project which examined sexual migration2 to Belgium with sexual migrants from various parts of the world, focusing on two Muslim participants from this group (Peumans, 2011); the second is an ongoing study (October 2010 – September 2015)3 on same-sex sexualities, religion and migration to Belgium, specifically focusing on queer persons with a Muslim background. Here, I use the interview and diary data from 16 participants (nine self-identified gay men, one bisexual man, six lesbian women) taken from across these projects, as well as interviews with gatekeepers of LGBT organizations. With three exceptions (Chechnya-Russia, Uganda and Tanzania) all partici- pants hail from a country where Islam is the religion of the majority of the popu- lation. All were raised as Muslim and grew up in a Muslim family. Islam played considerable personal, family, community and ethnic differences in their lives and the societies they came from. Interlocutors’ ages range from late teens to mid-40s and the countries of origin were Albania, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Senegal, Russia and Uganda. Ten participants (four women, six men) applied for asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation. Four participants (one woman, three men) came to Belgium to pursue studies but also linked this to sexuality. One woman married a Belgian man who she had met in Morocco (later they divorced but she decided to stay in Belgium because of economic reasons and because she realized she was lesbian). One Indonesian participant married a Belgian man and subsequently moved to Belgium. Peumans 619 by guest on August 15, 2014sex.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://sex.sagepub.com/ In conducting the research, I did participant observation in LGBT associations and the LGBT scene in general; I asked participants to maintain a diary and I conducted in-depth face-to-face interviews, both with persons from the target group and gatekeepers from LGBT organizations. The participants were inter- viewed face-to-face between one and four times and the interviews were conducted in English, Dutch or French. Whenever possible I made notes during fieldwork, which would form the basis of the field notes I wrote up after participant obser- vation. With the exception of two participants who requested their real name to be mentioned, I used pseudonyms to safeguard the individuals’ anonymity. Continuity and change in lived religion: The practice of salat and sawm To explore how the process of transnational migration intersects with the fashion- ing of a moral self I turn to a discussion of the continuities and changes embodied ritual practices undergo. I limit myself to two of the Five Pillars of Islam, namely salat (prayer) and sawm (fasting, and more precisely, the most important one, which happens during the month of Ramadan). My aim is not to assess by some list of ‘objective’ indicators of official religiosity to what degree the participants are religious or not. Instead I question how people engage with religious embodied practices on a day-to-day basis in multifarious ways, unstable and changing over time. Although I focus on rituals, religion is not merely a matter of adhering to ritual prescriptions and obligations, but informs a way of being in the world and one’s demeanour toward other people, as was stressed by several participants. For my analysis I draw from Meredith B. McGuire’s (2008) insightful work in which she urges us to turn our focus on individuals themselves. Such a focus decentres normative religious doctrines, institutionally defined practices and beliefs and instead asks what it is actual individuals themselves deem most significant to their religion and how this expresses itself in everyday religious experience. Through focusing on people’s religions-as-lived we get a closer understanding of individual religion in all its complexity and diversity. The participants’ relationship to the act of worship underwent considerable changes as it was observed more diligently when they were in their homeland. Only one participant, who still iden- tified as Muslim, had already stopped practicing Islam when he was in Algeria, his country of origin. Apart from two participants who prayed five times a day, wor- ship was less central to the participants’ religious experience once in Belgium. Whether or not they maintained religious practices was now seen as a personal matter and dependent on individual choice or practicalities. Although for most there was a decline in the number of times they prayed, this did not mean engaging in embodied ritual practices was less of a meaningful and deeply felt spiritual experience when it actually happened: ‘Sometimes I will pray at home on the mat. Or I will pray when I am worried. It keeps Allah in my mind’ (Zuhail, 30s, gay, Pakistan). Here, Zuhail points out how prayer is a technique of the body ‘through which Muslims aim to generate and maintain their commitment to the 620 Sexualities 17(5/6) by guest on August 15, 2014sex.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://sex.sagepub.com/ Islamic tradition’ (Henkel, 2005: 489). In other words, Islamic ritual remained a point of reference in changing life-worlds (Henkel, 2005: 488). Some queer Muslims were also reminded of the importance of prayer through religious gifts sent by their families or when they called or in one case even visited their families in the country of origin. For example, Khalid (30s, gay, Egypt) shared an anecdote about visits to his aunt in Egypt where she would tell him repeatedly to make himself ready for prayer. The example and the joking way it was told are a sign of how for most participants the experience of religion has stretched, and become more individualized throughout the process of transnational