John Bowen ethnography, Muslims through Discourse, takes a deep look at the Islam Religion in the Gayo highlands located in Indonesia. Although he desires to investigate the social structure and history, through his field work he examines the local forms of Islam. Bowen constructs two categories to define the ideologies of Islam represented, which are traditionalist (stemming from rural communities) and modernist (rooted in urban society). Each have distinctive histories that influence and shape their values. Through analyzing the Gayo people’s debates about religious practices, he highlights the importance of religious discourse and language instead of emphasizing Geertz dramaturgical theory. Bowen uses the theoretical framework of discourse
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This branch of Islam gained power by having control over ideologies shared among the Gayo Mosque and education. Modernist monopolized sermons which kept their stance dominant in public discourse (Bowman 1993: 316). Power over discourse was then shifted to the government when they began to control sermons. They only allowed sermons to be spoken in the government mosque, which served as a political emblem and neutralized disputes between modernist and traditionalist (313). The government’s control exemplifies the ways that discourse is created and controlled by the government. Although the authors of these sermons had some power and creativity their further developed the political ideas and notions that the government stood …show more content…
The disputes between the traditionalist and the modernist provide insight to the people’s ideas of proper society, practice and truth. Language and discourse is the pathway to understanding the ideologies that are embedded within the society as well as the individual. Through Weber’s and Bourdieu’s theoretical frameworks, Bowen is able to expose how religious discourse influences multiple aspects of social life; whether in the social structure of society, or in the intentions of the actors. He shows Islam in the Gayo highlands as a highly discursive combination of religion and
This branch of Islam gained power by having control over ideologies shared among the Gayo Mosque and education. Modernist monopolized sermons which kept their stance dominant in public discourse (Bowman 1993: 316). Power over discourse was then shifted to the government when they began to control sermons. They only allowed sermons to be spoken in the government mosque, which served as a political emblem and neutralized disputes between modernist and traditionalist (313). The government’s control exemplifies the ways that discourse is created and controlled by the government. Although the authors of these sermons had some power and creativity their further developed the political ideas and notions that the government stood …show more content…
The disputes between the traditionalist and the modernist provide insight to the people’s ideas of proper society, practice and truth. Language and discourse is the pathway to understanding the ideologies that are embedded within the society as well as the individual. Through Weber’s and Bourdieu’s theoretical frameworks, Bowen is able to expose how religious discourse influences multiple aspects of social life; whether in the social structure of society, or in the intentions of the actors. He shows Islam in the Gayo highlands as a highly discursive combination of religion and