Marching the devotional subject: The bodily-and-material cultures of religion

Abstract

Drawing on the Maussian notion of the technologies of the body, on the Schilderian theory of the Körperschema, on the neurocognitive sciences and the Foucauldian concept of subjectivation, this article shifts the study of religion away from the verbalized creeds, doctrines and texts towards the consideration of the bodily-and-material cultures that are prominent in most, if not all, religious traditions. This shift helps us to understand how the bodily-and-material cultures of religious practice contribute to producing the devotee and obtaining compliance. The potential synergies, tensions and cognitive gaps between the verbalized creeds, on the one hand, and the bodily techniques and material culture, on the other hand, are emphasized for a better understanding of the complexities of the devotional subject.