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Bjørg Anja Teigland

Bjørn Ola Tafjord

Professor, the Study of Religions

Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion

E-mailbjorn.tafjord@uib.no
Phone+47 55 58 22 93
Visitor Address
Øysteinsgate 3

5020 Bergen

Room
424
Postal Address
Postboks 7805

5020 Bergen

In my research, I am especially interested in

the interfaces of indigeneities and religiosities
the history, ethnography, and religiography of Talamanca
the politics of religions across Indigenous and Latin America
instantiations of indigenous religions and their participation in governing
bodies, practices, and politics of Christianities in Costa Rica, Norway, and globally
fieldwork, translation, and research history / methods and methodologies in the study of religions, anthropology, and history
Costa Rica/Latin America, Norway/Sápmi/Europe, international networks

I coordinate the collaborative project The Governmateriality of Indigenous Religions (GOVMAT), funded by the Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO), 2020-2025.

Currently I serve as the academic coordinator for the study of religions at our department.

In collaboration with my colleagues, I teach in the following courses:

RELV101 What Is the Study of Religions?
RELV102 Judaism, Christianity, Islam
RELV301 Theoretical Perspectives in the Study of Religions
RELV350 Master Thesis in the Study of Religions

Forthcoming:

Reinterpreting Mother Earth: Translation, governmateriality, and confidence. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.

Selected:

On the (un)doing of anthropology and secularity, and its relevance for religious studies. Religion 51 (2021), 4: 614–622.

Translating indigeneities: Educative encounters in Talamanca, Tromsø, and elsewhere. Indigenous Religion(s): Local Grounds, Global Networks, pp. 21–58. London 2020: Routledge.

Indigenous Religion(s): Local Grounds, Global Networks. Introduction and conclusion co-written by Siv Ellen Kraft, Bjørn Ola Tafjord, Arkotong Longkumer, Gregory D. Alles, and Greg Johnson. London 2020: Routledge.

Modes of indigenizing: Remarks on indigenous religion as a method. Journal for the Study of New Religions 9 (2018), 2 (special issue: Indigenizing movements in Europe, ed. G. Harvey): 303–327.

Performances and mediations of indigenous religion(s). Numen 65 (2018), 5–6 (special section, eds. B. O. Tafjord and G. D. Alles).

Towards a typology of academic uses of ‘indigenous religion(s)’, or eight (or nine) language games that scholars play with this phrase. Handbook of Indigenous Religion(s) (Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion 15), eds. G. Johnson and S. E. Kraft, pp 25–51. Leiden 2017: Brill.

Scales, translations, and siding effects: Uses of indígena and religión in Talamanca and beyond. Religious Categories and the Construction of the Indigenous (Supplements to Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 7), eds. C. Hartney and D. Tower, pp. 138–177. Leiden 2016: Brill.

How talking about indigenous religion may change things: An example from Talamanca. Numen 63 (2016), 5–6: 548–575.

Indigenous religion(s) as an analytical category. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 25 (2013), 3: 221–243.

Academic article

Show author(s) (2021). On the (un)doing of anthropology and secularity, and its relevance for religious studies. Religion. 614-622.

Show author(s) (2019). Modes of indigenizing: remarks on indigenous religion as a method. International Journal for the Study of New Religions. 303-327.

Show author(s) (2018). Venting som metode. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 158-165.

Show author(s) (2017). Mediating indigenous religions: by way of introduction. Religious Studies and Theology. 9-20.

Show author(s) (2016). Scales, translations and siding effects: Uses of indígena and religión in Talamanca and beyond. In Religious Categories and the Construction of the Indigenous, ed. by C. Hartney & D. J. Tower. Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 138-177.
Show author(s) (2016). How talking about indigenous religion may change things: An example from Talamanca. Numen. 548-575.

Show author(s) (2013). Kva kan ein lære om kategorien gud dersom ein freistar å gå baklengs til verks? Eit eksperiment med Rosendo Jackson sin Sibö, min sibö og Inge Lønning sin Gud. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.
Show author(s) (2013). Indigenous religion(s) as an analytical category. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 221-243.

Show author(s) (2011). Religionar og urfolk på bibliotek: Om klassifikasjonar i eit religionsvitskapleg landskap. Chaos - Skandinavisk tidsskrift for religionshistoriske studier. 71-90.

Show author(s) (2008). Religión og religiones i Talamanca: ei tileigningshistorie. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 75-96.

Show author(s) (2007). Om heimlege metodologiar. Lærdommar frå forsking med bribriar. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 28 pages.

Report

Show author(s) (2008). En undersøkelse av praktisk implementering av ny læreplan i KRL-faget ved seks skoler. .

Show author(s) (2007). KRL-praksiser: En undersøkelse av praktisk implementering av ny læreplan i KRL-faget ved seks skoler. .

Lecture

Show author(s) (2017). The constitutions of religions in the construction and destruction of Santiago de Talamanca (1605 - 1610).
Show author(s) (2017). Practices of consultation with indigenous peoples in Indigenous/Latin America.

Show author(s) (2012). Norsk misjon i Latin-Amerika.

Popular scientific lecture

Show author(s) (2016). Om ulik bruk av ordet "religion".

Show author(s) (2010). Religiøs fundamentalisme og sanninga, bokstavleg tala.

Show author(s) (2007). Santería: eit rørleg grensetilfelle i det cubanske samfunnet gjennom historien.

Academic lecture

Show author(s) (2023). Land back/language back/religion back? Special panel on global indigeneity with Greg Johnson, Bjørn Ola Tafjord, Liudmila Nikanorova and Arkotong Longkumer.

Show author(s) (2022). What is she doing? Some recent acts of a tiny black rock statue.
Show author(s) (2022). Translating into effect a Talamancan indigenous religion: two historical examples.
Show author(s) (2022). Professor James L. Cox's research questions in A Phenomenology of Indigenous Religions: Theory and Practice (Bloomsbury 2022).

Show author(s) (2021). The governmateriality of Nuestra Senora de los Angeles.
Show author(s) (2021). La Negrita as governmateriality in Costa Rica.

Show author(s) (2020). Indigenous medicine and religion as governmateriality.

Show author(s) (2019). Reflexiones en torno a conceptos bribris y la antropología de las religiones en Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2019). Imagined ethnographies and religiographies of Talamanca, Costa Rica.

Show author(s) (2018). Venting som metode.
Show author(s) (2018). Secularity and indigenous religion as a method.
Show author(s) (2018). Response to the panel Indigenising movements in Europe.
Show author(s) (2018). Indigenous religion as a method in and beyond museums.
Show author(s) (2018). Indigenous religion as a method (also for the repatriation of knowledge).
Show author(s) (2018). Indigenitet(ar) i eintal og fleirtal.
Show author(s) (2018). How can something resembling secularity be found around a genealogy of indigenous religion in Talamanca?
Show author(s) (2018). Connecting indigeneities while doing religious studies in Talamanca, Tromsø, and elsewhere.

Show author(s) (2017). Translating God, converting Sibö, or turning Him into an akeköl.
Show author(s) (2017). La religionización de tradiciones indígenas en Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2017). Indigenous religions and the work of scholars in Sakha, Talamanca, and Tromsø.
Show author(s) (2017). Indigenous methodologies: local/global and religious terminology.
Show author(s) (2017). Indigenous methodologies and religious terminologies.
Show author(s) (2017). Co-production of knowledge, from the local to the global.
Show author(s) (2017). A conversation about indigenous methodologies and translation.
Show author(s) (2017). "Costa Rica, indigenous peoples, really?".

Show author(s) (2016). Translations of the treatment of the dead.
Show author(s) (2016). Some challenges that indigenous methodologies pose for the INREL project.
Show author(s) (2016). Research collaboration in the INREL project.
Show author(s) (2016). Religion in Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2016). Performances and mediatizations of indigenous religion(s).
Show author(s) (2016). Opponent på prøvedisputas i kulturhistorie, Universitetet i Oslo. Avhandling: Åmund Norum Resløkken, Forskningsobjektene i Ord og Sed.
Show author(s) (2016). Norsk misjon i Latin-Amerika.
Show author(s) (2016). Discourses on indigenous religions in Talamanca (Costa Rica) and Tromsø (Norway): some critical comments about the contributions of academics.
Show author(s) (2016). Directionality and domains: translations toward religion and indigeneity.

Show author(s) (2015). Words of continuity and change: "indigenous" and "religion" in Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2015). Tradiciones indígenas, ambientalismos y religiones en las luchas por recursos en Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Show author(s) (2015). Toward a typology of academic uses of "indigenous religion(s)", or, six language games that scholars play with this phrase.
Show author(s) (2015). Toward a typology of academic uses of "indigenous religion(s)".
Show author(s) (2015). To what extent may “the informant” be a master of methods and methodologies?
Show author(s) (2015). Religious studies, religiologies, imagined religiographies, reification, and resistance.
Show author(s) (2015). Relaciones entre religiones y tradiciones indígenas en Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2015). Om religionsvitskap og religionifisering i Talamanca og Tromsø.
Show author(s) (2015). Om "Scales, translations, and siding effects: uses of indígena and religión in Talamanca and beyond".
Show author(s) (2015). Metodologías indígenas contextuales: acercamientos bribris.
Show author(s) (2015). Indigenous rights and the religionification of Talamancan traditions.
Show author(s) (2015). Academics and indigenous methodologies, colonization and decolonization, in/from/between Talamanca and Tromsø.

Show author(s) (2014). Translating Sibö: An example of how Bribris have indigenised the Bahá'í Faith in Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2014). Review of James L. Cox (ed.) Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions (Ashgate 2013).
Show author(s) (2014). Negotiating indigeneity through a new world religion: Bribris and their Bahá'í Faith.
Show author(s) (2014). Litt om religio(ni)fisering.

Show author(s) (2013). On othering and opportunism brought about by religion and poverty and politics thereof: examples from Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Show author(s) (2013). Om korleis snakk om ein religión indígena kan vere med og endre ting: eit døme frå Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Show author(s) (2013). It means a lot: Bribri uses of religión, indígena and religión indígena.
Show author(s) (2013). Indigenous religion(s) as an analytical category.

Show author(s) (2012). What can we learn about "god" from doing it backwards?
Show author(s) (2012). The MA programme in The study of religions at the University of Tromsø.
Show author(s) (2012). Religious change in Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2012). Religions, politics, and rights: A case from Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Show author(s) (2012). Norsk misjon i Latin-Amerika i seinare år: kven, kvar og med kven?

Show author(s) (2011). Religion and politics in Talamanca.
Show author(s) (2011). Kva syner seg om ein freistar å gå baklengs til verks? Inge Lønning sin Gud som sibö.
Show author(s) (2011). From tradición indigena to religión indígena - about changes in political discourse and its consequences among the Bribri.

Show author(s) (2010). Religionsstudiar i Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Show author(s) (2010). Religionar og urfolk på bibliotek.
Show author(s) (2010). Religionar og religionsstudiar i Latin-Amerika.

Show author(s) (2009). Å klassifisere er å verdsetje: religionar og urfolk på bibliotek.
Show author(s) (2009). Urfolk, religionar og klassifikasjon i religionsvitskapen.
Show author(s) (2009). It used to be taboo to say who all of our methodology teachers are.
Show author(s) (2009). Health care practices, offers, and choices among Mayan mothers in Guatemala and Mexico II.
Show author(s) (2009). Health care practices, offers, and choices among Mayan mothers in Guatemala and Mexico.

Show author(s) (2008). Subjectivity and objectivity in the social sciences.
Show author(s) (2008). Om heimlege metodologiar.
Show author(s) (2008). Old and new indigenous religions and the future.
Show author(s) (2008). Etikk her og etikk der - lærdommar frå feltstudiar.
Show author(s) (2008). "Indigenous religions" as an analytical category. Useful for what?

Show author(s) (2007). Olsok i Valldal: religiøst entreprenørskap i regi av kommunen.
Show author(s) (2007). Learning methods, methodologies and ethics as "pupils" in the field.
Show author(s) (2007). Latin American politics of sex, gender and religion.
Show author(s) (2007). Feltarbeid: etikk her og etikk der.

Show author(s) (2005). Turisme, et religionsvitenskaplig forskningsprosjekt. Hybrid Encounters: Religion and Tourism in Global Culture.
Show author(s) (2005). Pueden extranjeros llegar a hacer metodologias indigenas? Can outsiders set about doing indigenous methodologies?
Show author(s) (2005). Defining religion, defying tradition? Concords and conflicts in discourses about the role of religion in a Costa Rican indigenous community.

Editorial

Show author(s) (2018). Openheit / Rabasvuohta. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 5-6.

Show author(s) (2016). Redaksjonelt. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.
Show author(s) (2016). Perspektiveringar. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 2 pages.

Show author(s) (2015). Redaksjonelt. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.
Show author(s) (2015). Redaksjonelt. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.

Show author(s) (2014). Redaksjonelt. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.

Show author(s) (2013). Guder II. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.

Show author(s) (2012). Guder I. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.

Show author(s) (2011). Redaksjonelt. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 5-5.

Show author(s) (2008). Urfolk. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.
Show author(s) (2008). Sentral-Amerika. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 1-2.

Show author(s) (2007). åpent nummer. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur.

Book review

Show author(s) (2018). Review of Alternative Voices ed. by A. Adogame, M. Echtler & O. Freiberger. Numen. 322-325.

Show author(s) (2015). Review of Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions, ed. by James L. Cox, Farnham 2013, Ashgate. Temenos. 284-289.

Show author(s) (2012). Bokmelding av Christine Jacobsen si bok Islamic Traditions and Muslim Youth in Norway (Leiden 2011, Brill). DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 152-156.

Show author(s) (2011). Review of Oliver Grasmück. Eine Marienerscheinung in Zeiten der Diktatur. Der Konflikt um Peñablanca, Chile: Religion und Manipulation unter Pinochet. Berlin 2009: Walter de Gruyter. Numen. 580-583.
Show author(s) (2011). Omtale av Genaro Zalpa & Hans Egil Offerdal (red.). ?El reino de Dios es de este mundo? El papel ambiguo de las religiones en la lucha contra la pobreza. Bogotá 2008: Siglo del Hombre/CLACSO-CROP. Chaos - Skandinavisk tidsskrift for religionshistoriske studier. 179-180.
Show author(s) (2011). Omtale av Aparecida Vilaca & Robin M. Wright (red.). Native Christians: Modes and Effects of Christianity Among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Surrey 2009: Ashgate. Chaos - Skandinavisk tidsskrift for religionshistoriske studier. 142-143.
Show author(s) (2011). Melding av James L. Cox. From Primitive to Indigenous: The Academic Study of Indigenous Religions. Aldershot 2007: Ashgate. Chaos - Skandinavisk tidsskrift for religionshistoriske studier. 165-170.

Show author(s) (2010). Bente Gullveig Alver 2009. Anna Elisabeth Westerlund: En fortelling. Oslo: Spartacus. 299 s. Ill. Tidsskrift for kulturforskning. 62-64.

Show author(s) (2008). Margit Warburg, Citizens of the World: A History and Sociology of the Baha'is from a Globalisation Perspective. Numen. 112-114.
Show author(s) (2008). Anmeldelse Arne Bugge Amundsen (red.), Norges religionshistorie, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2005. DIN - Tidsskrift for religion og kultur. 60-78.

Show author(s) (2004). Truande sanningar. Vagant. 63-67.

Academic anthology/Conference proceedings

Show author(s) (2020). Indigenous Religion(s): Local Grounds, Global Networks. Routledge.