African Religions Unit and Body and Religion Unit

Embodiment in African Religions
African religious cultures, both historically and to date, are intricately connected to embodiment. The body appears as a locus of self, spirit and divinity, and it mediates morality, belief, and experience. The embodied nature of African religions – indigenous religions, Christianity, Islam and other traditions – calls into question longstanding Western dualisms such as of body and mind, spirit and matter, transcendence and immanence, ability and disability. Papers in this panel explore the complex and multifaceted ways in which religion and the body in African religions are intertwined. (For a possible co-sponsorship between the African Religions Unit and the Body and Religion Unit.)