John,

Not an off-list response.  It think that the time is well nigh for an
all-out approach to the archaeological study of popular religion and
for a thorough-going critique of the almost universally posited
dichotomy between so-called ritual and religion.  If one begins from
the perspective of practice, the "primitivsim" inherent in the
labeling of religious activities as "ritualistic" in the context of,
say, African-American sites can be shown for what it is.  Popular
religion includes local, regional, and even personal observances both
within and outside of the context of organized religions.  Historians
of religion and others influenced by post-colonial theory prefer to
focus on practices rather than orthodoxy, on the way people "play"
with or reinterpret doxa within specific cultural and historical
contexts.  Archaeologists, it seems to me, are especially well placed
to adapt this approach, for our efforts to interpret small finds such
the artifacts of religion has the necessary starting point of
developing contexts for understanding meaningful practices and the
ways in which material culture were mobilized in such practices.

I have two students working on this topic so I will pass on the word
about your symposium and encourage them to participate.

Cheers,
Mary B.
--

Mary C Beaudry
Associate Professor
Department of Archaeology
Boston University
675 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215 USA

tel. 617-358-1650
fax 617-353-6800