Seminar with Kjetil Fosshagen

Seminar at the Dept. of Social Anthropology

Dr. Kjetil Fosshagen, Dept. of Social Anthropology, University of Bergenwill present a paper entitled

Towards an understanding of Islamic sacrifice in Turkey: Ritual, secularism and a transforming state

Dr. Kjetil Fosshagen looks at the conflict in Turkey between secularism as an assertive politics of self-shaping and Islam as a counter-project. The first part of his paper describes the conflict over the annual sacrifice at Kurban Bayrami (Eid), where the state attempts to regulate both the performance of it in terms of locality, hygiene and security; and the contested monopoly of a semi-state foundation to collect the animal skins from the sacrifice. He argues that sacrifice is of importance to both believing Muslims and the secular state because of its embodied, practical nature and of its 'intensity'. The other part discusses analytical approaches to the 'meaning of' Muslim sacrifice and other normative rituals. Dr. Fosshagen is a post doc at the Department of Social Anthropology. You can also meet Kjetil informally in an encounter after the seminar in the Corner Room where, as usual, refreshments will be served.