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7. Cultural Transformations

Afro-Asian cultural traditions: persistence, change

African religious ideas and practices accompanied slaves to Americas

common African forms of religion revelation found place in Africanized versions of Christianity emerging in New World

divination

dream interpretation

visions

spirit possession

Europeans frequently suppressed them

perceived as sorcery, witchcraft, devil worship

syncretic (blended) religions persisted

examples

Vodou in Haiti

Santeria in Cuba

Candomblé and Macumba in Brazil

derived from various West African traditions

drumming

ritual dancing

animal sacrifice

spirit possession

over time: incorporated Christian beliefs and practices

church attendance

search for salvation

use of candles and crucifixes

often identified various spirits/deities with Catholic saints

Islamic world: expansion and renewal

continuation of “long march of Islam” across Afro-Asian World

expansion of Islamic frontier extended farther still

sub-Saharan Africa

eastern and western India

Central and Southeast Asia

conversion did not generally mean sudden abandonment of old religious practices

“assimilating Islamic rituals, cosmologies, and literatures into...local religious systems”

Expansion

not product of conquering armies, expanding empires

depended on wandering Muslim holy men or Sufis, Islamic scholars, itinerant traders

did not pose threats to local rulers

often useful to rulers and village communities

offered literacy in Arabic

established informal schools

provided protective charms with passages from the Quran

served as advisors to local authorities

were healers to the sick

often intermarried with local people

did not insist that new converts give up older practices

offered connection to wider, prestigious, prosperous world of Islam

extended modestly even to Americas

particularly Brazil: Muslims led number of slave revolts in early 19th

Southeast Asia

islands illustrate diversity of belief and practice that accompanied spread of Islam in early modern era

17th, Aceh (Muslim sultanate on northern tip of Sumatra)

authorities sought to enforce dietary codes and almsgiving practices of Islamic law

after four successive women ruled area in late 17th, women forbidden from having political power

Muslim Java: more power to women

numerous women served in royal courts

women throughout Indonesia continued longtime role as buyers and sellers in local markets

among ordinary Javanese: traditional animistic practices of spirit worship coexisted easily with a tolerant and accommodating Islam

merchants often embraced more orthodox version in line with Middle Eastern traditions

Religious tensions

religious syncretism became increasingly offensive, even heretical to orthodox Muslims

view was important role in movements of religious renewal and reform

sharply criticized practices that departed from earlier patterns established by Muhammad and authority of Quran

India (Muslim Mughal Empire): religious resistance to official policies that accommodated Hindus found concrete expressing during Aurangzeb’s reign (r. 1658-1707)

West Africa: series of religious wars in 18th and early 19th took aim at corrupt Islamic practices and rulers (both Muslim and non-Muslim) who permitted them

Southeast and Central Asia: tensions grew between practitioners of localized and blended Islam and those who sought to purify such practices for more authentic and universal faith